Guarneri Hall celebrates underrepresented voices in Art Song with 'Reflections'

The nonprofit Guarneri Hall, a custom-built classical music venue in the heart of downtown Chicago at 11 E. Adams St.), continues its 5^th Anniversary Season Tuesday, October 3 at 6:30 p.m. with Reflections: Voices of the Underrepresented featuring internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Chrystal E. Williams and pianist Natalia Kazaryan. This uniquely curated program celebrates art songs created by artists of color and female artists underrepresented in music history.

The evening will feature a progressive integration of thematic content and musical texture, including American composer and baritone H.T. Burleigh's Five Songs of Laurence Hope; Trois Mélodies by 19^th-century French mezzo-soprano, composer and pedagogue Pauline Viardot; a pairing of Troubled Water and The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Chicago’s own Margaret Bonds with original text by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes; as well as spirituals by Margaret Bonds, Chicago based music educator and composer Rev. Dr. Lena J. McLin, and Undine Smith Moore known as “the Dean of Black Women Composers.”

A Q&A with the artists will follow the performance and allow audience members to interact directly with the musicians. The evening concludes with a reception featuring high quality libations and hors d’oeuvres and the opportunity for audience members and the performers to continue the conversation begun in the concert hall. Building on its first five years, Guarneri Hall’s 2023-2024 season concentrates on “Chamber Music Made Personal”—creating intimate, interactive music events that center chamber music in deeply personal experiences, with programs designed as uniquely powerful communicative encounters that make the most of the intimacy and superb acoustics of the venue.

“At Guarneri Hall, we are thrilled to able to bring top-tier international talent to Chicago,” said Guarneri Hall Founder and Artistic Director Stefan Hersh, “Furthermore, we are thrilled to give our audiences the opportunity to not only hear, but to also engage with Chrystal E. Williams and Natalia Kazaryan in our intimate venue. The audience-artists exchange will achieve the sort of dialogue that is uniquely possible in Guarneri Hall. Chrystal’s’ background as a ‘voice for the voiceless’ combined with Natalia’s passion for all-women-composer programs make them the perfect team to bring this forward and we truly can’t wait for the evening.”

Tickets

Performance tickets are $40 for General Admission, $10 for students. All tickets include access to the concert and post-concert reception. Tickets are available for purchase at guarnerilhall.org

About The Artists

Lauded as a ‘mezzo-soprano of conscious,’ Chrystal E. Williams uses her vocal platform to unabashedly break stereotypes and be a voice for the voiceless. She continues to foster unity, peace and understanding through music via her duo Forrópera, created in 2016 with Brazilian composer and accordionist, Felipe Hostins. Her ingenuity and gifts have been acknowledged by numerous organizations; including the Classical Post (Classical Post Awards Most Innovative Singer 2019), the Musical Fund Society (Career Grant Award 2020), International Opera Awards 2020 (Young Singer Nominee), and The First Prize and Audience Choice Award winner at the 2014 Wilhelm Stenhammar International Music Competition in Sweden. Williams made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the fall of 2019 as Maketaten in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten. She has also sung the role of Charlotte in Werther with both Opera Delaware and Baltimore Concert Opera. For the Birmingham Opera Company, she has performed as Katerina in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Dido in Dido and Aeneas and Hannah in Michael Tippett’s The Ice Break under the direction of Graham Vick. She debuted with the Washington National Opera as Elizabeth Keckley/Coretta Scott King in Philip Glass’ Appomattox, created the role of Yvette in the world premiere of Eric Sawyer’s The Garden of Martyrs with Live in Concert, Inc., debuted as Linda in Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars with the Glimmerglass Festival, and portrayed Mary/Pearl in Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star with On Site Opera. She has also sung Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Sarasota Opera and the Northern Lights Music Festival, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with Knoxville Opera, and Olga in Eugene Onegin with the Northern Lights Music Festival. March 2024 will mark Williams’ Carnegie Hall debut in a world premiere written for the duo and American Composers Orchestra by John Glover and Kelley Rourke.

From Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, pianist Natalia Kazaryan has been hailed by The New York Sun for her “prodigious ability,” remarking that she “immediately established an atmosphere of strength and confidence.” Dedicated to giving equal platform to female composers in her public appearances, she notably curated and performed a recital of all women composers at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. As a soloist, she has performed both major and lesser-known concertos — including those of Florence Price, Clara Schumann, Rachmaninov, Grieg, Prokofiev, and Mozart — with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, the Harrisburg Symphony, and other ensembles across the country. Kazaryan’s acclaimed performance of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement, conducted by James Ross, was featured on Front Row Washington (WETA), DC’s classical music radio station. She is co-founder of Washington Arts Ensemble, a nonprofit dedicated to delivering an unforgettable chamber music experience. Recent standout performances include Kazaryan opening Portland Piano International’s return to in-person concerts, which was guest curated by Angela Hewitt; a George Walker Musical Portrait at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC; and appearing in a solo recital on the prestigious Chicago series, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts. She has appeared in the U.S. and Europe at key venues such as New York’s Merkin Concert Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Cultural Campus, Salzburg’s Schloss Mirabell, Monaco’s Théâtre des Variétés, Madrid’s Auditorio Sony, and Paris’ Salle Cortot and Musée Carnavalet. She performs regularly at the Palazzo Tornabuoni in Florence, and has participated in the IMS Prussia Cove Master Classes in Cornwall, England. 

About Guarneri Hall

Guarneri Hall NFP delivers extraordinary classical music to a broad and diverse audience through a curated mix of live performances and original music videos. The state-of-the-art hall is a uniquely intimate, custom-built, 60-seat venue in the heart of downtown Chicago with optimal acoustics designed by Threshold Acoustics. In addition to presenting live performances that connect audiences to the dynamism of live performance with unparalleled intimacy, Guarneri Hall also produces high-quality video content designed to advance classical music in the digital age. 

Named after the famous Italian family of luthiers whose prominence in violin making is equaled only by that of Stradivari, Guarneri Hall (pronounced gwar-NAIR-ee) was founded in 2018 by esteemed violinist and violin dealer Stefan Hersh. For more information on Guarneri Hall visit guarnerihall.org