June 26 & 28 in New York: A Libero Canto Project: The Cozy Side of Beethoven

In 2020, the world will celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday.

Libero Canto presents two intimate concerts in tribute to Beethoven

In anticipation of his sestercentennial, this coming June 26 & 28, 2019, singers Deborah Carmichael, Kinga Cserjési, Berry Jones, and Peter Ludwig, joined by instrumentalists Nikita Morozov (violin), Valeriya Sholokhova (cello), and Douglas Martin (piano), will perform some of Beethoven’s little-known vocal works, as well as familiar favorites.

 

Program will include various ensemble and solo works by Beethoven including:
-concert aria Ah, perfido!
Mir ist so wunderbar from the opera Fidelio
-Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op.70, No.2: IV. Finale. Allegro
-Selections from Scottish Songs, Welsh Songs, and other Lieder

On June 26th, at 7:30pm, the Beethoven concert will be held at the Hungarian House, 213 East 82nd Street, New York, NY. Tickets available at https://beethoven2019.eventbrite.com.

The concert on June 28th, 5pm is the 2nd annual benefit concert for the Amagansett Life-Saving Station (160 Atlantic Ave. Amagansett, Long Island, NY 11930). Held in the boat room, tickets are $20 per person in advance (amagansettlss.org); $25 at the door.  Seating is limited and all seats are general admission.

“The Amagansett Life-Saving Station has been a unique centerpiece of Long Island history since it was built in 1902. Over a period of 44 years, the dedicated men who worked at the Station saved hundreds of lives. In 1942, four Nazi saboteurs were found by Coast Guardsman John Cullen close to the Station during a nightly beach patrol. And in 1966, the building was rescued from demolition and purchased for a dollar by Joel Carmichael whose family lived there for the rest of the 20th century. After Carmichael’s death in 2006, the house was donated to East Hampton Town for historical preservation.”
(partially cited with
 from OceanKeeperTheMovie.com)

On May 17, 2007, the East Hampton Town Board designated the Amagansett Life-Saving Station a historic landmark by resolution 2007-43. The board appointed an advisory committee of residents, which then became the nonprofit U.S. Amagansett Life-Saving and Coast Guard Station Society, overseeing the six-year restoration of the Station to its original 1902 design, an undertaking guided by the comprehensive Historic Structure Report commissioned from Historic Services Director Robert Hefner.


The four singers of “The Cozy Side of Beethoven” are students and teachers of the Libero Canto approach.  Libero Canto is a way of teaching and learning singing that liberates the vocal and musical potential of singers who wish to develop singing as an art form, and makes the joy of singing accessible to anyone who seeks it.

The name Libero Canto comes from the phrase, “la via al libero canto,” the path to free singing. This approach was first developed by Lajos Szamosi in Budapest before the Second World War. Libero Canto is a path, a process, and an attitude toward singing and music making. It is a humanistic, holistic approach that values authentic expression and the unfolding of individual potential, and trusts that if we imagine music clearly and allow our true, vital impulses to come through, the wisdom of the body will carry us toward increasing freedom in singing.


DEBORAH CARMICHAEL studied singing with Edvin Szamosi and piano at the Mannes College of Music Extension Division.  She has sung in Europe and the United States, with Lea Bracher as the Duo Delizioso, and since 2013 with Kinga Cserjési as La Compagnia Amarilli.  Deborah has taught singing in New York and Vienna since 1992, including workshops in Austria, Budapest and New York. In 2012, she initiated the Il Cuore Canta workshop series for young opera singers.  She produced the documentary film, “Libero Canto, Voice is Breath,” by Andrea Simon.

KINGA CSERJÉSI has a master’s degree in choir conducting and in the Kodaly method from the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Budapest, and a postgraduate degree in Early Vocal Music from the Fontys University in the Netherlands.  She studied singing with Heent Prins and Edvin Szamosi.  Kinga has sung internationally as a soloist and with various vocal ensembles and is a founding member of the Hungarian group, Bartok’s Roses.
 She has taught singing in Budapest and New York since 1994, and is currently living, teaching, and performing in New York City. 

BERRY JONES attended the Eastman School School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music in Vocal Performance. He was a choir director and organist for nine years with various churches in the New York area, and a music educator for the Archdiocese of New York for fifteen years.  He was also a teaching artist for the St. Luke’s Educational Outreach program and the Harlem School of the Arts. He has sung recitals and concerts in the U.S. as well as in Florence, Italy. Berry is currently studying singing with Sandy Goodman while transitioning from baritone to tenor.

PETER LUDWIG is a graduate of Juilliard and NYU.  He has sung principal roles with Vineyard and Encompass Theaters, Pensacola Opera, Stonington Opera Arts, et al. He was a soloist at Carnegie and Weill Halls and other venues in the U.S. and Europe, and has been featured in ten world or U.S. premieres.  Peter has taught singing at the 92nd Street Y and LaGuardia High School of the Arts, where he directed the Opera Workshop, as well as workshops and master classes for singers and actors in Greece.  Peter now teaches singing privately in New York City.


For more information, please visit liberocanto.org