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Faculty Artist Series: Kristin Dauphinais, mezzo-soprano

Faculty Artists, Vocal

Venue: Holsclaw Hall

Free and open to the public. This recital is co-sponsored by the Tucson Desert Song Festival, with a special thank you to Jeannette Segel.

Love and Loss: the Song Settings of Sara Teasdale

Mezzo-Soprano Kristin Dauphinais and pianist Nigel Foster will present a recital of song exploring themes of love, loss, the ephemeral nature of life, and the constancy of nature as contemplated through the poetry of award-winning American poetess, Sara Teasdale. The recital will feature compositions by Lori Laitman, John Duke, Amy Beach, Simon Sargon, Richard Pearson-Thomas, Michael Ching, Robert Baksa, Wintter Watts, George Crumb, and a world premiere by Zachary Bramble as well as poetic readings. Woven together, this tapestry of text will provide insight into Teasdale’s tragic life and magnificent body of her work.

Sara Teasdale

Kristin Dauphinais 

Biography

A voice praised as being  “passionate,” “strong and agile” and  imbuing her roles with “power and excitement” mezzo-soprano Kristin Dauphinais is highly regarded for her artistry and versatility.  She has worked in a variety of genres including musical theatre, opera, concert, oratorio, chamber music and solo recitals. Her performing career has taken her throughout the United States as well as internationally with tours in Italy, China, Australia and additional concert performances in Germany, Spain, Austria, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil and Luxembourg.   Recent concerts include featured programs on the London Song Festival (UK),  Carneggie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), the Tucson Desert Song Festival, Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, Opera Festival San Luis Potosì (Mexico) and the Saarburger Serenaden, International Chamber Music Festival in Saarburg, Germany and with Opera Roanoke.
As an orchestral soloist, Ms. Dauphinais is known for her  performances of works by Manuel de Falla including Siete canciones populares Españolas, El amor brujo and El sombrero de tres picos with orchestras such as the Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Symphony the Southern Arizona Symphony, and the Catalina Chamber orchestra. Additional performances as a featured soloist with orchestra include semi—staged productions of operatic arias and duets with Symphony Orchestra of Rio Grande do Norte (Natal, Brazil) and Opera Roanoke, as well as Alban Berg’s Sieben Frühe Lieder and  Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Rückert Lieder with the Arizona Symphony, Mozart’s Exultate, jubilate with the Apperson Strings and again with the Cadillac Symphony Orchestra, and Easy to Love – a review of Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern with the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra as well as Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Mendelssohn’s St. Paul, Haydn’s The Creation, and Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Bruckner Te Deum, narrations with chamber orchestra in William Walton’s Façade, and Stravinsky’s A Soldiers Tale.
On the operatic stage, her roles include Maddalena in Rigoletto, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, Mrs. McLean in Susanna, Zweite Dame and Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Farnace in Mitridate Re di Ponto, the title role in Handel’s Xerxes, and the role of Ottone in the American professional première of Vivaldi’s Ottone in Villa for the 2007 Arizona Vivaldi Festival.
A strong advocate for art song with an emphasis on under-represented composers, Kristin Dauphinais has premiered numerous art songs and song cycles. Notable research includes Female Composers of the Americas with collaborators from Brazil and Costa Rica, and the international promotion of American artsong compositions with recitals in the US, Mexico, England, and Costa Rica.
Dr. Dauphinais is the chair of vocal studies on the faculty of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona and an active pedagogue and presenter teaching and serving as an adjudicator at international festivals in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Germany and Costa Rica.

Nigel Foster

Biography

Nigel Foster was born in London and studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Graham Johnson, and also privately with Roger Vignoles. At both the Academy and the Guildhall he won every prize and award available for piano accompaniment, and has been appointed an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. 

Nigel enjoys a busy schedule performing on the concert platform. He has played for artists including the late Philip Langridge, Sarah Walker, Ian Partridge, Roderick Williams, Neil Jenkins, Yvonne Kenny, Jeremy Huw Williams, Maire Flavin, Anna Devin, Ruby Hughes, Gillian Keith, Nicky Spence, Jane Manning, Marcus Farnsworth, Benedict Nelson and violinist Madeleine Mitchell, as well as many of Britain’s leading young singers. He performs at major venues including the Wigmore Hall, South Bank Centre, St John Smith Square and Royal Opera House (Crush Room) in London, and St David’s Hall in Cardiff. 

In his formative years Nigel played for Graham Johnson’s Songmakers Almanac, the Park Lane Group and several opera companies including Glyndebourne. Nigel has worked with John Eliot Gardiner CBE, and he has happy memories of his time as a rehearsal pianist for the late Georg Solti, playing for singers including Renee Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna. Nigel worked closely with Sarah Walker in the Vocal Department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. 

Nigel’s CD recordings include several discs of contemporary music and anthologies of songs of Alun Hoddinott and Mansel Thomas with baritone Jeremy Huw Williams for the Sain label. He features on the soundtrack of the French film L’Homme est une Femme Comme les Autres. 

Nigel performs extensively abroad. He has played all over Europe, Asia (Japan, Malaysia), New Zealand and the Americas (USA, Canada, Colombia) and has broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and on French, Welsh and Greek television.