World Premiere • Gregory Feldmann & Nathaniel LaNasa • Rodríguez’ Alabaster Thread
As part of The Juilliard School’s Composition Concert, Iván Enrique Rodríguez’ art song for baritone and piano Alabaster Thread will be performed by the outstanding baritone Gregory Feldmann, accompanied by the skillfully and musical Nathaniel LaNasa on the Piano. The concert will also include works by Marco-Adrián Ramos, Hannah Ishizaki, Jack Frerer, and Jaehyuck Choi. The concert will take place in the acoustically remarkable Paul Recital Hall, one of the five main performance spaces in The Juilliard School in Lincoln Center, New York City.
With the rise, or rather furtherance of the racial disparities in the United States of America, many questions ascend concerning the position of the culturally and/or historically privileged class in relation to its counterpart. History, having made an indelible mark in society, urges the privileged class to a fundamental introspection. Alabaster Thread, an art song for Baritone and Piano, aims to describe the turbulent journey of a sincere alliance between a member of the privileged class with the historically underprivileged. The song depicts an unsettled self-examining expedition of awareness and acknowledgment concluding with the acceptance of duty and pact to equality.
Alabaster Thread is dedicated to the baritone Gregory Feldmann, an edified and aware human being, an ally, and moving and passionate musician, but most importantly, a friend.
Gregory Feldmann
Baritone
Driven by a desire to explore and express the human experience through song, New York-based baritone Gregory Feldmann is a rising young artist on opera and recital stages alike. He is currently a Master of Music degree candidate at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of baritone Sanford Sylvan.
A passionate recitalist, Feldmann enjoys a partnership with pianist Steven Blier and the New York Festival of Song. In January 2018, Feldmann and Blier gave two world premieres of John Corigliano's song literature, performing the cycle Rhymes of the Irreverent and song no comet ever scratched the sky with NYFOS at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre.
On the concert stage, Feldmann will make his Carnegie Hall debut in November 2018 with MasterVoices, singing the Bass I solo in Handel's Israel in Egypt under Ted Sperling.
Nathaniel LaNasa
Piano
Pianist Nathaniel LaNasa has performed at Carnegie Hall, Benaroya Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Aspen Music Festival, Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance, Bowdoin Music Festival, Miller Theater and the Museum of Modern Art. He has presented many premieres, including three concerti and several works dedicated to him. He has appeared as soloist with the New Juilliard Ensemble, Tactus New Music Ensemble, MSM's Composers' Orchestra, and other ensembles. For his performance of Berg's Kammerkonzert, the New York Times praised "the stormy lyricism conjured by pianist Nathaniel LaNasa" and the Portland Press-Herald lauded his "definitive interpretation" of George Crumb's Vox Balanae at the Gamper Festival. For his performances of the works of Tobias Picker as soloist and as a member of the Tobias Picker Ensemble, Nathaniel was recognized for his "poise and elegance" and his "deft sense of precision."
Nathaniel completed his undergraduate degree at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with André-Michel Schub. He completed his masters degree at the Juilliard School as a Teaching Fellow, where he studied with Julian Martin. He has also studied with Deirdre O'Donohue and has coached with Jeffrey Kahane, Yoheved Kaplinsky and John O'Conor. He currently studies with Robert Durso.