Art Song Workshop to Feature Soprano Liesel Fedkenheuer

The workshop consists of a question and answer session during which audience members will be able to ask Fedkenheuer any questions they would like. In addition, Fedkenheuer will perform a few songs, accompanied by her pianist, Miah Im. For more information, contact the Music Department at 518-564-2180.

If those pieces leave you wanting more, Fedkenheuer will perform an art song recital with Im on Sunday, Feb. 29 at 3 p.m. at the Church in the Hollow on Route 3 in Saranac, N.Y. Masterpieces from the classical voice repertoire will be performed, such as The Blessed Virgin's Expostulation of Henry Purcell; Three Poems by Dame Edith Sitwell of William Walton; Zigeunerlieder of Johannes Brahms; a group of the Morike Lieder of Hugo Wolf; and songs of Sergei Rachmaninov. All works will be performed in their original languages: English, German and Russian. Admission is $5 at the door for open seating. For more information, please call 518-293-7613.

Hailed by the Cape Cod Times as "compelling" and described by Opera News as offering her audience "lovely, tender vocalism," Fedkenheuer is a soprano with extensive stage experience. As a former member of the Canadian Opera Company (COC) Ensemble, she has appeared in such roles as Lucretia in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia and the title role in Cavalli's Giasone. She also covered various roles, include Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni, the title role in Handel's Xerzes and Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma.

As part of her apprenticeship, Fedkenheuer also sang the role of Donna Elvira with Dmitry Hvorostovsky in a recording of Don Giovanni made for the television movie, Leporello's Revenge, which aired nationwide on PBS. She is currently engaged to sing Gerhilde in Wagner's Die Walkure with the COC Ensemble.

Recent projects include concerts at the Bowdoin Festival, a residency at the Steans Institute of the Ravinia Festival, the role of Lola in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Memphis, and the soprano solo in Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Memphis Symphony.

In October 2000, Fedkenheuer made her Edmonton Opera debut as Flora in Verdi's La Traviata. Other engagements included recitals at Calgary Mountainview International Festival of Song and Cape Cod's Cape and Islands Festival, as well as Valencienne in Lehár's Die Lustige Witwe in Hamilton, Ontario, and a return engagement with the Edmonton Opera.

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