Blue Fever - Back at the Club
May 14 & 15, 2022 in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Blue Fever is an a Capella group based in Abu Dhabi. Made up of members of the city's community with different backgrounds, the group meets weekly to practice its repertoire ranging from jazz standards to rearranged popular songs. The concerts in May 2022 were the group's first after a long break, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
I hadn't sung publicly since the beginning of the pandemic and our group's rehearsal time was limited due to physical distancing. Performing in this concert reminded me of how much I love sharing music with others and encouraged me to recommit to working out my voice regularly.
Andrea Bocelli in Winter at Tantora
January 31, 2020 in Al Ula, Saudi Arabia
Winter at Tantora is an annual festival held in the UNESCO World Heritage site Al Ula, Saudi Arabia. World-famous singer Andrea Bocelli performed at the festival multiple times.
Traveling to Saudi Arabia through the NSO Symphony Orchestra was a true pleasure. Supporting the concert through my participation in the choir was an honor. I was able to sing with other professionals from across the UAE and Kiev. This experience was invigorating to see how vibrant the music community can be in the UAE.
Lieder des 19. Jahrhundert
June 3, 2018 in the Dreieinigkeitskirche, Zeulenroda-Triebes, Germany
The concert took place in light of the Ferdinand Schröder exhibition in the city museum of Zeulenroda-Triebes. The repertoire was centered around the time the politician and caricaturist Schröder was alive. Primarily focusing on works by Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Carl Loewe, the songs revolved around the themes of love, longing, war, and death.
I always feel humbled and excited to return to my hometown and share my work with that have partially accompanied me through the majority of my childhood. This concert was especially great because I had the pleasure of working with Eva Wetzel who grew up in the same area I did. Eva studied violin and piano at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.
InterNational Styles Recital
German, Ukrainian, French & Russian Songs from the 19th & early 20th century
May 8, 2018 in the Blue Hall, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE
InterNational Styles Recital is my first full-length recital, marking the culmination of my four years at NYU Abu Dhabi. The Directed Study with Clare Lesser explores 19th & early 20th-century repertoire from Germany, Ukraine, France & Russia, and the shifting trends of nationalism and internationalism within vocal practice and composition.
The amount of repertoire I went through in preparation of this concert is still baffling. I am incredibly grateful to my teacher Clare Lesser and David Lesser for all of their time and dedication. I took a huge step with this full-length recital and have increased my stamina and concentration. This recital was the first one I fully enjoyed and I didn't worry about my technique. Instead, I was able to fully immerse myself in the songs and the stories they were telling.
Concert Program
The Good People Songs were composed for the theater piece A Woman's Prize. The music is composed for characters called "the Good People". The Good People speak in song. Therefore, I created pieces that provide the basis for improvisation in the style of chanting. The piece consists of harmonically dense chords and is inspired by Penderecki's Song of Cherubim. The piece is for 5 female singers and while it is choral in its first glance, the lines of each part were written with individuality in mind. In other words, while the Good People are a chorus of women, each one is their own person who is individual in their expression.
Good People Songs
Original Composition for A Woman's Prize
Full Score
Holiday Concert
Chamber Music Concert Series at NYU Abu Dhabi
December 13, 2017 in the Blue Hall, New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE
I was invited by Maestro Rony Rogoff to open the Concert with five holiday-themed songs. I decided to sing Tchaikovsky's Nur Wer die Sehnsucht kennt (1869), Schumann's Du Bist Wie eine Blume (1840), Schubert's An die Musik (1817), Poulenc's Priez Pour Paix (1938) and Vaughan Williams' Silent Noon (1903). This concert was challenging because I had four weeks to prepare these five songs that I have never worked on before. This short time for preparation pushed me to find a particularly strong focus when working on the songs. Performing at the concert was a great pleasure, especially because I was able to share these wonderful compositions with the audience.
Romantische Liedergeschichten
An Evening of Songs
Romantische Liedergeschichten (Romantic Songstories) was a concert curated by myself in which I told the audience stories of love, longing, and despair through song. The concert featured pieces from Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828), Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856), Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827), Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) and Hugo Wolf (1860 - 1903). There were approximately 180 audience members, who in total raised 620€ for the "Lebenshilfe, Zeulenroda e.V.", an organization that helps people of different abilities live the fullest lives possible.
It was a pleasure having my first public concert of this sort in my hometown, in the church where I always wanted to sing. It was a little dream come true.
May 27, 2017 in the Dreieinigkeitskirche, Zeulenroda-Triebes, Germany
For a review of the concert (in German) click here.
For an interview prior to the concert click here.
The program of the concert can be found here.
Fancy Bread
Piece for Four Voices (SATB)
I wrote, "Fancy Bread" for The Merchant of Venice, the Fall Rehearsal Project of NYU Tisch's Classical Studio. The piece was sung at the moment when Bassanio picks out the casket in front of Portia. The lyrics are from the playtext by William Shakespeare.
Full Score
Die Winterreise by Franz Schubert
Ever since I have started working on "Frühlingstraum" from Die Winterreise by Franz Schubert, I fell in love with the song cycle. In the context of a directed study with my voice teacher Clare Lesser, I worked on performing the cycle in two parts. The directed study was a combination of academic research and performance of the songs. The goal of the course was to perform the cycle in two parts in front of a small audience. For the first part, I was accompanied by Matthew Quayle and for the second, by David Lesser. It was a great pleasure and amazing learning experience to work with these two great pianists who both have their own unique styles and interpretation.
I had many valuable lessons with Clare, learning about the interconnectedness of different fields of study and the multitude of performance styles and interpretational choices. Working on the cycle was incredibly challenging and yet one of the best experiences in my college career so far. I look forward to working on this masterpiece in the future!
April 22 & 29, 2016 at New York University Abu Dhabi, UAE
A Graphic Score for Voice & Playback
Citywalk is a composition that explores the place of the human voice in the soundscape of a city.
The playback is created through sounds of various places and spaces in Abu Dhabi and on Saadiyat Island.
Citywalk
Full Score