Sunday, January 20, 2013, at 4 pm
Program
Handel: Cantata for Soprano and Basso Continuo
Scarlatti: Cantata for Soprano and Basso Continuo
Purcell: Songs
Handel: Arias
Bach: Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue
As a solo harpsichordist, Bradley Brookshire has distinguished himself with an ongoing series of recitals encompassing all of J.S. Bach’s works for solo harpsichord. A pioneer in the union of early music and current technology, Brookshire (in conjunction with Purchase faculty members James McElwaine and Satoshi Arai) has initiated a new tradition of live, multimedia presentations of Bach’s works. This approach to the contrapuntal intricacies of Bach’s music projects a streaming video in open-score format. Contrapuntal devices are made clear by a running analysis, complemented by a rendering of the themes in contrasting colors. Mr. Brookshire tours widely with this presentation, bringing Bach’s music to audiences outside the mainstream of concert life; a recent performance (and a good example of his target audience) was held at the international headquarters of IBM, where the concert was presented to a live audience and via the Internet to the entire IBM community worldwide.
Mr. Brookshire is also a noted conductor of Baroque opera. His controversial 1995 Vox Classics recording of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas has become a standard alternative reading of the classic. He has served as Assistant Conductor at Glimmerglass Opera, Cover Conductor at Virginia Opera, and has twice conducted concertante performances at the New York City Opera.
Bradley Brookshire has taught at Yale University, where he led the Collegium Musicum; at Mannes College, where he led the Mannes Madrigal Singers; and at the Escuela Nacional de Musica in Mexico City, where he has mounted several concertante performances of Baroque operas. A member of the Purchase College Conservatory of Music faculty since 1998, Brookshire holds the position of Director of Graduate Studies and leads the Purchase College Camerata.
Anthony Roth Costanzo began performing professionally at the age of 11 and has since appeared in opera, concert, recital, film, and on Broadway.
2011/12 marked Mr. Costanzo’s debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Unulfo in Rodelinda with Renee Fleming. He subsequently created the role of Ferdinand in the Met’s new Baroque pastiche, The Enchanted Island, and later stepped into the lead role of Prospero. He also made his debut with Canadian Opera Company in Semele. In 2011 he appeared with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Boston Lyric Opera, and the Palm Beach Opera. In 2010 he made his debuts with the New York Philharmonic and the New York City Opera.
Mr. Costanzo was named a Grand Finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2009, won a George London Award and a career grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. He became the first countertenor to win first place in the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCullon Competition.
Mr. Costanzo graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University and was awarded the Lewis Sudler Prize for extraordinary achievement in the arts. He received his Master of Music at Manhattan School of Music, where he received the Hugh Ross Award for a singer of unusual promise.