Photo: Cathie Ferguson
World-class vocalists Anne Grimm and Benjamin Butterfield collaborate with pianist Sarah Hagen to bring an extraordinary program to Oak Bay.
Programme:
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), Songs from the cycle “I Hate Music”:
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), Folks songs
Ivor Gurney (1890-1937), Five Elizabethan Songs
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) , op 46: Adelaide
Richard Wagner (1813-1883), “Träume” from the Wesendonck Lieder WWV 91
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), Metamorphoses
Kurt Weil (1900-1950): Youkali
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), from West Side Story: Tonight Tonight
About Anne:
Dutch Soprano Anne Grimm has been recognized internationally for her “captivating voice” (Globe and Mail) and “expressive technique” (ClassicsToday).
On the concert stage she has toured Europe and recorded regularly with Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ambronay, Salzburg) as well as with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging , the Amsterdamse Bachsolisten under Roy Goodman (Concertgebouw), the Rotterdams Philharmonic under Rozhdestvensky and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra under Christian Zacharias. She has performed Mozart’s “Exultate Jubilate” for the Royal Household of the Netherlands and Belgium under Massimo Zanetti and toured with Frans Bruggen and the Orchestra of the 18th Century in Rameau’s “Les Indes Galante”.
She has been a soloist with multiple orchestra’s and groups in North America such as Tanglewood, the National Arts Center under Pinchas Zuckerman, Toronto’s Tafelmusik and Continuum, Victoria Symphony, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Cleveland Baroque, CBC Music from Montreal and the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival. Recently she toured to Calgary and New York with Aventa and presented a recital at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Leupold Trio.
In Opera she has performed with the Netherlands Opera (Orfeo), European Baroque Orchestra (Samson & Dalila), National Reisopera (Die Zauberflote), at the Holland Festival and Toronto Masque Theater (King Arthur) and Pacific Opera Victoria (Semele). She also appeared with Christophe Rousset in France and at the Halle Handel Festspiele as well as Potsdam Festival Sanssouci.
Anne Grimm has recorded for Erato, Harmonia Mundi, NM Classics, Vanguard Classics, Troubadisc and Sony.
About Benjamin:
Regarded by the Washington Post as a tenor who sings “…with taste, authority and agility…” and having “… a creamily sweet timbre…” (Opera News) Benjamin Butterfield is equally at home in the opera and concert repertoire having performed with companies from New York to San Francisco, Toronto to Vancouver; London, Paris and Rome to Israel and Taiwan.
On the concert stage Mr. Butterfield has performed with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in Carmina Burana with Bramwell Tovey and in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Vancouver Symphony under Andrew Grams where he was “…the star amongst the soloists…” (Globe and Mail). In Europe he sang the arias in Bach’s St. John Passion for Jan Willem de Vriend with the Residentie Orkest of the Netherlands and the St. John Passion Evangelist for Choeur Ardito in Switzerland under Nicolas Reymond. Other engagements included Chicago’s Music of the Baroque with Jane Glover and the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony under James Conlon. Mr. Butterfield returned for Messiah with the San Francisco Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic with Jean-Marie Zeitouni as well as Beethoven’s Ninth with the Colorado Symphony under Jeffrey Kahane. He also presented the neglected American art song of Randy Newman for Toronto Masque Theater.
Film and TV credits include Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Morris Dance Company and Tafelmusik, Burnt Toast with the Esprit Orchestra, L'enfant et les sortileges with the Montreal Symphony and Charles Dutoit, Handel’s Messiah for ZDF in Halle with the English Concert under Trevor Pinnock and Bach's B minor Mass with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem for PBS. He is also heard regularly on CBC Radio.
Prof. Butterfield teaches voice for the School of Music at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and he also teaches and performs at summer vocal training programs, including Opera Nuova (Edmonton), Opera on the Avalon (St. John’s), Yellow Barn (Vermont) the Amalfi Coast Music Festival (Italy) and VISI (Vancouver).