The Gustavus Adolphus College Department of Music welcomes guest vocalist Kurt R. Hansen and guest pianist Karina Kontorovitch to join with Assistant Professor of Music and pianist Ruth Lin on Saturday, February 19 and present the music of Franz Schubert in a Schubertiade in Jussi Björling Recital Hall. The evening performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Saturday’s performance begins with Schubert’s Fantasia for Piano, Four Hands in F minor, D. 940 (op. 103) performed by pianists Karina Kontorovitch and Ruth Lin. Kontorovitch immigrated from Russia in 1991 and Lin from China at the age of 10. They attended Northwestern University and earned Masters in Piano Performance and Orchestral Conducting respectively. While at Northwestern, they formed the Lin-Kontorovitch Piano Duo and were featured on the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series at the Chicago Cultural Center in March of 2007. Kontorovitch continues to work in the Chicago area, primarily at Northwestern University in the voice studio of Kurt R. Hansen. Lin is in her first year as Conductor of the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Professor of Music.
Guest tenor Kurt R. Hansen comes to the Jussi Björling stage to present, with pianist Karina Kontorovitch, Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795 (op. 25), set to the poetry of Wilhelm Müller. Composed in 1823, is believed to be the first extended song cycle to be widely performed. Die schöne Müllerin is the story of a wandering miller who follows a brook to a mill, meets and falls in love with the miller’s beautiful daughter and works to win her love. The brook, which wends its way throughout the story, is the setting for the final song of the cycle, Des Baches Wiegenlied, (The Brook’s Lullaby).
Kurt R. Hansen’s long and distinguished career spans over 30 years, on four continents. His repertoire ranges from the Early Baroque to the Twenty-First Century, in concert, opera, and recital venues. He has sung with renowned conductors Sir George Solti, Claudio Abbado, Margaret Hillis, Robert Shaw, Thomas Wikman, and Edo de Waart to name just a few. He has soloed with such prestigious ensembles as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Florida Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, Chicago Master Singers, Tampa Masterworks Chorale, the Colorado Mahlerfest, the Hong Kong Early Music Fortnight Festival, and Orquestra Nacional de Colombia in Bogota. He is on the faculty at the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University where he is Coordinator for the Voice and Opera Program. He has recently formed a new ensemble, The Chicago Piano Vocal Score which includes himself, pianists Karina Kontorovitch and Ruth Lin; with Michelle Areyzaga, soprano; Tracy Watson, mezzo-soprano; and Douglas Anderson, baritone.
Saturday’s Schubertiade at Jussi Björling Recital Hall featuring Kurt R. Hansen, tenor, Karina Kontorovitch, piano and Ruth Lin, piano, is free and open to the public. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m.
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