The program will center on the composers and their differing reactions to World War I. Though Jean Sibelius and Kurt Weill were European contemporaries during the Great War, their cultural and musical reactions to this international tragedy differed greatly.
Irish-American Soprano Ariana Strahl has been called ‘the discovery of the night’ and has been celebrated as a singer with ‘fearless, accurate vocalism’ who sings with ‘devastating brilliance and incredible ease.
Accompanist Miles Graber received his musical training at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Anne Hull, Phyllis Kreuter, Hugh Aitken, and Louise Behrend. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1971, where he has developed a wide reputation as an accompanist and collaborative pianist for instrumentalists and singers.
Reception to follow the performance.
Ariana Strahl & Miles Graber at the Maybeck
Saturday April 29, 2017 at 3:00pm
This concert is $20 General Admission
Seating is limited. Get your required online reservation here.
Irish-American Soprano Ariana Strahl has been called ‘the discovery of the night’ and has been celebrated as a singer with ‘fearless, accurate vocalism’ who sings with ‘devastating brilliance and incredible ease.
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Ms. Strahl has most recently made her American debut as Blanche Dubois in Andre Previn’s ‘Streetcar named Desire’ with Opera San Jose. Previously Mrs. Strahl was a resident at the Komische Oper Berlin, where she appeared in such roles as Micaela/Carmen, Ännchen/Der Freischütz, and Damigella, Drusilla, and Fortuna in Barrie Kosky's famed Monteverdi Trilogy.
Ms. Strahl is an active art song singer, having developed this very art song series at the Maybeck house! Together she and Miles have performed Schumann’s ‘Frauenliebe und Leben’, Barber’s ‘Hermit Songs’, Manuel de Falla’s ‘Siete Canciones Populares Espanolas’, and Canteloube’s ‘Songs of the Auvergne.’ In 2016 she also explored the works of Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann with pianist and musicologist Nicholas Mathew, in conjunction with The Mendelssohn Project at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, as well as a 'Good Girls of Art Song' program with Kathleen Kelly in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while remaining active in the Bay Area.
Accompanist Miles Graber received his musical training at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Anne Hull, Phyllis Kreuter, Hugh Aitken, and Louise Behrend. He has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1971, where he has developed a wide reputation as an accompanist and collaborative pianist for instrumentalists and singers. He has performed with numerous solo artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Sarah Chang, Cho-Liang Lin, Camilla Wicks, Axel Strauss, and Mimi Stillman. Mr. Graber currently performs frequently with violinists Christina Mok and Mariya Borozina, flutists Gary Woodward and Amy Likar, and clarinettist Tom Rose. He is a member of the chamber groups Trio Concertino, MusicAEterna, and the Sor Ensemble. Miles and Arkadi Serper comprise the two-piano team Scorpio Duo.
Mr. Graber has been associated with such ensembles as the San Francisco Chamber Soloists, Midsummer Mozart, the Oakland-East Bay Symphony, the California Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony, Oakland Lyric Opera, Berkeley Opera, Opera San Jose, and the San Francisco Camerata. He has accompanied master classes by such artists as Midori, Joseph Silverstein, Nadia Salerno-Sonnenberg, Pamela Frank, Alexander Barantchik, James Galway, and Lynn Harrell. He has been a frequent performance accompanist and chamber player with members of the San Francisco Symphony, the San Jose Symphony, The Berkeley Symphony, the California Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Oakland-East Bay Youth Orchestra, and the UC Berkeley Symphony. He is principal pianist for the Bay Area chapter of the National Association of Composers USA, an organization that sponsors and promotes performances of new works by contemporary composers. He is active as a teacher and chamber music coach, and he is on the faculties of the Crowden School in Berkeley and the San Domenico Conservatory in San Anselmo. In addition, he regularly coaches and accompanies students of the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley. He is currently a staff accompanist and chamber music coach in the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and he is a regular staff accompanist at the Northern California Flute Camp in Carmel Valley.