Ilana Davidson

Ilana Davidson is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international singing career in operas and concerts since the early 1990s. She has sung on several recordings, including as a soloist on a recording of William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience with Leonard Slatkin and the University of Michigan chorus and orchestra which won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 2006. She is the co-artistic director of the Chamber music series ClassicalCafe. She runs an active voice studio in New York City as well.

Early life and education

Raised in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania region, Davidson attended the Oak Lane Day School in her youth. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance in 1989. She then pursued graduate studies at the Curtis Institute of Music where she earned a M.M. in Opera Performance and Voice in 1991. She appeared in several opera productions at Curtis, portraying such roles as Bubikopf in Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis (1989), Despina in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Così fan tutte (1990), Lady with a Hand Mirror in Dominick Argento's Postcard from Morocco (1990), and Atalanta in George Frideric Handel's Serse (1991).

Davidson was a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center where she was a pupil of Phyllis Curtin. In 1997 she was the recipient of a William Matheus Sullivan Music Foundation Grant. She is also a participant in the Aston Magna Early Music Academy.

Career

In 1991 Davidson made her professional opera debut as the First Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute with the now defunct Pennsylvania Opera Theater. In 1994 she portrayed Papagena in the same opera for her debut with the Opera Company of Philadelphia and performed in the world premiere of Peter Westergaard's The Tempest with the Opera Festival of New Jersey.[1] She soon after sang Papagena again for her European debut at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.[2]

In 1995 Davidson made her debut at Carnegie Hall as a soloist in William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience under the baton of the composer with the St. Louis Symphony. In 1999 she made her debut at the Jugendstiltheater in Vienna as Die Königen in Krenek's Das Geheime Königreich.[2] In 1999 she sang the role of Gepopo in Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre with conductor Jonathan Sheffer and his Eos Orchestra at the New York Society for Ethical Culture.[3] In 2000 she performed the role of Amor in the first modern revival of Giovanni Legrenzi's La divisione del mondo at the Schwetzingen Festival.[4]

In 2001 Davidson was the soprano soloist in Johann Sebastian Bach's Es erhub sich ein Streit, BWV 19 with the Orchestra of Saint Luke's and the New York Baroque Soloists under conductor Mary Greer.[5] She later performed with both groups again as the soprano soloist in Handel's Messiah in 2004[6] and Bach's Christmas Oratorio in 2007.[7]

In 2004 Davidson was a soloist in William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and of Experience under the baton of the composer with the University of Michigan orchestra and chorus; a performance that was recorded by Naxos Records.[8] In 2006 she performed in the world premiere of Libby Larson’s Everyman Jack at the Sonoma Opera. In 2007 she portrayed The Wife in the New York premiere of Philip Glass and Robert Moran's The Juniper Tree at Avery Fisher Hall.[9]

In 2014 Davidson performed in a concert of Ernst Krenek’s compositions at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York City.[10] In 2015 she performed the world premiere of Juantio Becenti's The Obsidian Morning at the New York Festival of Song.[11] She also appeared at the Bard Music Festival with the American Symphony Orchestra as Mona Ginevra in Max von Schillings’s opera Mona Lisa.[12]

Davidson has made several appearance with the Dutch National Opera during her career, including Amor in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Chef der Gepopo in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, the first Flowermaiden in Parsifal, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. She has also made appearances at the Florida Grand Opera (Flora in The Turn of the Screw and Amore in L'incoronazione di Poppea) and the Glimmerglass Opera.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Bernard Holland (July 18, 1994). "Opera Review: New Musical 'Tempest,' Servant of Shakespeare". The New York Times.
  2. 1 2 3 "Ilana Davidson". Operissimo concertissimo. Retrieved June 14, 2015.
  3. ↑ Allan Kozinn (March 6, 1999). "Music Review: Whistles, Rude Noises: It's the Muse of Spike Jones". The New York Times.
  4. ↑ Review: La divisione del mondo. Early Music Review. 2000. p. 10-11.
  5. ↑ Anne Midgette (September 21, 2001). "Classical Music Review: Ominous Strains of Bach, In Tune With the Times". The New York Times.
  6. ↑ "'Messiahs' Here, 'Glorias' There, Holiday Music Is Everywhere". The New York Times. December 10, 2004.
  7. ↑ "Classical Music/Opera Listings". The New York Times. December 21, 2007.
  8. ↑ John Rockwell (April 12, 2004). "Music Review: No Rap but Just About Everything Else for Blake Cycle". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ David Shengold (June 2007). New York City — The Juniper Tree, Alice Tully Hall. Opera News 71.
  10. ↑ Zachary Woolf (April 1, 2014). "Chamber Works of a Chameleon, Sonorous to Surreal: Delving Into Ernst Krenek’s Intimate Compositions". The New York Times.
  11. ↑ David Allen (February 4, 2015). "That Versatile Instrument, the Voice: NYFOS Next Features a New Work by Juantio Becenti". The New York Times.
  12. ↑ Vivien Schweitzer (February 22, 2015). "Review: American Symphony Orchestra Revives ‘Mona Lisa,’ Inspired by Leonardo’s Muse". The New York Times.

External links

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