An American in Paris is one of Gershwin’s most vivacious works, an orchestral ballet saturated in homesickness and the blues. This recording, however, uses the new 2019 critical edition and offers Gershwin’s original orchestration, unheard for 75 years – leaner, more angular and transparent, it also employs the correct use of the iconic taxi horns, for a new sonic experience. The breezy vitality of Copland’s An Outdoor Overture is balanced by Bernstein’s Songfest – written to celebrate the Bicentennial Year in America, setting the verses of 13 of the country’s poets.
Bernstein’s Songfest: III. Julia de Burgos
Kerriann Otaño was a Filene Young Artist at Wolf Trap Opera in 2015 and 2016, returning in 2018 as a guest artist for her debut performance of Bernstein’s Songfest. She has regularly appeared at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where she was a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist and has since returned in Candide, Dead Man Walking and Don Giovanni. Otaño has additionally performed at the Glimmerglass Festival and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Taylor Raven is a member of the LA Opera Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program and a 2019 Filene Artist with Wolf Trap Opera. Appearances in spring 2020 include her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Die Walküre. She was awarded First Prize at the 2018 Loren L. Zachary Competition and is a recipient of a 2017 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. Raven holds degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The 2019–20 season sees multi-award-winning mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams appear as Maddalena in Rigoletto at both the Houston Grand Opera and Opera San Antonio, and in Everest and Freedom Ride with Chicago Opera Theater. In the 2018–19 season Reams made her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in La traviata, sang the title role in Carmen (Opera Louisiane), and appeared in Wozzeck (Des Moines Metro Opera) and Madama Butterfly (Opera Columbus).
Tenor Alexander McKissick is a graduate of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera. He has appeared in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night and Bernstein’s Candide, and in 2018 performed the title role in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with Wolf Trap Opera. McKissick is the recipient of a 2018 Sullivan Foundation career grant, a 2017 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, and is a Toulmin Scholar.
Originally from the Bronx, New York, baritone Joshua Conyers returns to Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program for the 2019–20 season to appear in Die Zauberflöte and Porgy and Bess. During the 2018–19 season he performed in La traviata, Silent Night and Eugene Onegin. He joined Wolf Trap Opera in 2018 and has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Carnegie Hall.
During the 2019–20 season bass Patrick Guetti made his debut with both the Metropolitan Opera and Oper Stuttgart, and joined Deutsche Oper Berlin. Guetti returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the 2018–19 season in David Pountney’s production of Siegfried conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, and to Opera Philadelphia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream conducted by Corrado Rovaris. Guetti represented the US in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in Wales.
Since its inception in 1971, Wolf Trap Opera has contributed to the career development of nearly 700 emerging professional singers from across the US. Through its summer residency program, WTO is dedicated to discovering and developing talent in the opera field and serving emerging professional artists through carefully curated training and performance opportunities, which lie at the core of WTO’s mission. Distinguished alumni include Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, Michelle DeYoung, Christine Goerke, Denyce Graves, Nathan Gunn, Alan Held, Dawn Upshaw, and Eric Owens.
– Fanfare
with three diverse compositions…
in top notch performances.’
– Pizzicato ★★★★★
The NOIP plays magnificently’
– Audiophile Audition ★★★★★