Naumburg Vocal Award Winner Makes Weill Hall Debut

NEW YORK, NY--The Walter W. Naumburg presents ERIN WAGNER, mezzo-soprano, the winner of the 2021 Naumburg Vocal Award,  on Tuesday, April 19 at 7:30pm in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.  Ms. Wagner will be collaborating with pianist Shawn Chang in a program titled “But How Things Change,” featuring works by Edie Hill, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Shawn Chang, Errollyn Wallen and Gustav Mahler.

As the winner of the 2021 Naumburg Vocal Competition held this past May, Ms. Wagner received a $25,000 cash award and two New York City recitals, as well as a commissioned work to be written by Earrollyn Wallen that will be performed on her second Naumburg concert, the date TBA.

The program “But How Things Change”

Edie Hill (b. 1962)           The Giver of Stars: Six Poems of Amy Lowell

Gabriel Fauré                  Rêve d’amour from 3 Songs, Op. 5

                                           Green from Cinq mélodies de Venise, Op. 58

                                           Nell from 3 Songs, Op. 18

                                           L’hiver a cessé from La bonne chanson, Op. 61

Maurice Ravel                 Deux mélodies Hébraïques

                                        Kaddish and L’énigme éternelle

Errollyn Wallen (b.1958)  Daedalus

                                                          Prelude (improvised by Shawn Chang)

                                                          Daedalus

                                                          Postlude (improvised by Shawn Chang)

Shawn Chang (b. 1989)  Marty’s Letter

Gustav Mahler                Rückert Lieder

Erin Wagner says about her program “But How Things Change,” “ the title of my program is derived from Errollyn Wallen’s Daedalus.  Daedalus opens the program’s second half and explores the mutual experiences and emotions brought on by the COVID pandemic and how we might move forward.  Edie Hill’s The Giver of Stars unearths the intimacy we craved during isolation.  Fauré’s four songs immerse us into the euphoria when our lives begin to resemble normalcy as we reunited with our loved ones.  Ravel’s Deux mélodies Hébraïques blesses and mourns those who have passed, and simultaneously questions the purpose of existence.”

Marty’s Letter is dedicated to Erin’s father, Marty, who faced deep hardship as a child living with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, but never lost hope that he would overcome all challenges.  At age six, Marty wrote this letter to his grandmother, set to music by Shawn Chang.

The program ends with Mahler’s Rückert Lieder bridging the phases of life: joy in memory, desire for love, keenness for life, emptiness and relinquishment and finally peace.

About the Artists

Erin Wagner, mezzo-soprano, was named winner of the 2021 Naumburg Vocal Award this past May.  She was recently named to the roster of this summer’s acclaimed Merola Opera Program (San Francisco), where she will perform Zweite Dame in Die Zauberflöte.  In addition, she has been named to the roster of this year’s Houston Grand Opera Studio.  Ms. Wagner was featured in Soundbites  in the August 2021 Opera New.  In 2021, she was an Aspen Renée Fleming Artist where she, among other appearances, premiered David Clay Mettens’ The Sustaining Air and participated in masterclasses with Julia Bullock, Nico Muhly, Renée Fleming and Patrick Summers. 

In 2021, Erin was named second place winner in the Saengerbund German Vocal Competition, participated in Renée Fleming’s 2021 SongStudio for Carnegie Hall, and took part in the New York Festival of Song’s (NYFOS) “Next 9 Under 34”, a recital celebrating composers of the current generation.  She has performed in recital with Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois at Caramoor as a Schwab Vocal Rising Star in collaboration with the NYFOS in their Tour de France.

Originally from El Paso, Texas, Ms. Wagner is a recipient of a Master’s degree in Vocal Arts from Juilliard where she studied with Daniel Babidge.  She received her Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell and performed in Warren Jones’ Vocal Accompanying Seminar.  She previously studied at the Chautauqua Institution, at Matthew Rose’s Scuola di Bel Canto, and at SongFest as a Colburn Fellow.

Shawn Chang, pianist and composer, has given piano recitals throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in his native home of Taipei, Taiwan. He was recently named a pianist/coach to attend this summer’s prestigious Merola Opera Program.  In 2020, he was named one of the Schwab Rising Stars of the Caramoor Music Festival.  Shawn Chang has appeared with pianist Steven Blier in a concert of Argentinian music presented by the New York Festival of Song and was the soloist with The Orchestra of The Bronx playing Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano  Concerto No. 5.  Chang has served as music director and arranger for Aya Aziz’s show Eh Dah? Questions For My Father, which was a New York Musical Festival award winner.

As a composer, Chang’s compositions have been premiered by Chromatic Voice Exchange, Schola Sine Nomine as well as mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner.  His most recent song cycle, Portraits of Unrelated Colors – six songs that use the seven colors of the spectrum and American landscapes as symbols for various emotional journeys – was featured on New York Festival of Song.  One of the songs from the cycle won the commission prize of the 2022 Sparks & Wiry Cries SongSlam, which led to a commission for their 2023 festival.

Shawn Chang holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Institute and a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano at Juilliard.  He is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Kenneth Merrill.

Tickets, $20 and $10 for students and seniors, are on sale at the Carnegie Hall Box Office or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800.  Proof of vaccination is required for audience members; no booster shot is needed, and masks are also required for all in the house.

The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation was founded in 1926 by Walter W.  Naumburg and continues today in the pursuit of ideals set out by Mr. Naumburg.  His desire to assist gifted young musicians in America has made possible a long-standing program of competitions and awards in solo and chamber music performance, composer recordings, and conducting.  It was Mr. Naumburg’s firm belief that such competitions were not only for the benefit of new stars, but would also be for those talented young musicians who would become prime movers in the development of the highest standards of musical excellence throughout America.  Among past winners of the Naumburg Vocal competitions include Julia Bullock (2014), Faith Esham (1980), Irene Gubrud (1980), Jan Opalach (1980), Steven Salters (1999), Lucy Shelton (1980), and Dawn Upshaw (1985).

Contact: Debra Kinzler, debra.kinzler@naumburg.org, 347-574-2155