Every year, the Rencontres Musicales Internationales Georges Enesco Paris creates new partnerships. This year, for the Rencontres Musicales Enesco Paris 10th anniversary, the program’s focuses on Georges Enesco’s connection with the United States during the interbellum period and after WWII. This theme naturally lends itself to a partnership with the FEU in the form of a concert featuring artists from the Rencontres and the FEU (residents and alumni). A photo exhibition about Enesco and the American Continent, produced by the George Enescu National Museum in Bucharest, will also be shown in the space during the event.
Four Romanian, French and American artists will come together to share their passion and talent with an eclectic program of works by 20th-century Romanian, American and French composers, alternating vocal and instrumental performance: Diana Higbee, soprano, Tony Boldan, tenor, Edgar Jaber, FEU pianist in residence, Andrew Briggs, cellist and FEU and Fontainebleau Schools alumnus. Two FEU alumni composers have been invited: Carol Robinson and Barney Johnson.
Practical Information
Date Tuesday, October 15 | Time 8pm | Facebook Event
Program
Georges Enesco (1881-1955)
Sonate TORSO pour violoncelle et piano
Charles Ives (1874-1954)
Sonate no.2 Thoreau”, p.IV
Aaron Copeland (1900-1990)
The Tender Land “Laurie’s song”
Pascal Bentoiu (1927-2016)
Hamlet : Le monologue de Hamlet
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Violon : extrait des Fiançailles pour rire
Montparnasse : extrait des 2 mélodies de Guillaume Appolinaire
Georges Enesco (1881-1955)
Sept chansons de Clément Marot
Barney Johnson (1988-)
Le serpent qui danse
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
Candide: Make our garden grow – duo soprano-tenor
Aaron Copeland (1900-1990)
Old american songs : 2 mélodies
Carol Robinson (1956-)
Air de l’épouse
About the Rencontres Musicales Enesco Paris
Each edition of the Rencontres Musicales Enesco Paris consists of a series of concerts in prestigious concert halls, featuring wonderful guest artists who have embraced the project and committed themselves to bringing to the forefront of Parisian – and international musical life – the works of the composer Enesco (Nicolas Dautricourt, Aurélien Pascal, Dana Ciocarlie, the Varèse and Capriccio quartets, Clara Cernat, David Lively, Thierry Huillet, François-Frédéric Guy, Leontina Vaduva, Eleonore Pancrazzi, Jérôme Boutiller). One of the highlights of the Rencontres Musicales Enesco is the Georges Enesco International Singing Competition, which has brought young prizewinning singers to the international opera stage. The final is accompanied by the Orchestre de Colonne orchestra that premiered Enesco’s first symphonic work: Poème Roumaine, in Paris under the baton of Edouard Colonne, when Enesco was just 17.
About the Artists
After university studies in psychology and psychodrama, Franco-Romanian tenor Tony Boldan obtained his prize in singing and lyric art with the role of Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), which he performed at the National Opera of Cluj Napoca in Romania. In 2017, he won the Armel Opera Competition in Budapest. He made his stage debut in Romania with the Brasov Opera Company, in the roles of Arlecchino (I Pagliacci), Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Lord Eduard Zedlau (Wiener Blut), and Alfredo (La Traviata). In France, he performs the roles of Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) in Lille and Marseille, Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amore) in Paris, Don José (Carmen) in Toulouse and Lyon, Roméo (Roméo et Juliette) at the Montmorillon Festival and Alfredo (La Traviata) at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris, under the patronage of the Mairie de Paris and the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication.
Praised as «an artist with an already expanding reputation and a great future» (The Well-Tempered Ear); cellist Andrew Briggs recently performed solo and in chamber music at the Festival Radio France Montpellier, Bridging Arts Music Festival (Nuremberg, DL); and at the Opus 16 Concerten (NL). Some notable moments from recent seasons include his performance of Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 at the Radio France Festival (Montpellier, FR); his solo and chamber music concerts at the Fontainebleau Festival (France); chamber music concerts with the Ensemble Calliopée (France); his performances of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with several orchestras; principal cello of the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne and the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra; concerts at Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra Seminar, chamber music concerts with the principal cello of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gregor Horsch. After studying at Juilliard, Andrew moved to Paris as a recipient of the Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship of the Fondation des États-Unis where he studied and performed works by Duport, Debussy and Poulenc. He then joined the Cité Internationale des Arts where he spent two years working on projects focusing on Beethoven’s cello works and world music with the Kimya Ensemble. He performs regularly as a soloist and in the sections of the Orchestre Philharmonique de la Radio France and the Orchestre National d’Île de France.
Diana Higbee is recognized as one of the leading specialists in the Mozartean repertoire, and has sung Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Contessa (Nozze di Figaro), Fiordiligi (Così fan Tutte) and Arminda (La Finta Giardiniera). She also sings Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Musetta (La Bohème), Euridice (Orphée et Euridice), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) and in the Baroque repertoire Zélide (Rameau’s La Guirlande), Galatée (Acis et Galatée), Josabeth (Athalia), Atalanta (Serse), Arethusa (Actéon), the first witch and second lady (Didon et Enée). Her keen sense of comedy has placed her in Offenbach’s operettas, and she performs Euridice in Orphée aux Enfers, Isoline de Hainant in Geneviève de Brabant, Boulotte in Barbe Bleue, Gabrielle and currently Metella in La Vie Parisienne on tour with Opera Eclaté. She also excels in the French repertoire in Massenet’s Thaïs, Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande and Micaela in Carmen, which she will sing in Estonia at the Vanemuine Theater and in the USA at Salt Marsh Opera Connecticut.
Born in Boston and raised in Bucharest, Edgar Jaber is currently pursuing a PhD degree in Applied Mathematics at ENS Paris-Saclay. He is a pupil of the Romanian pianists Toma Popovici and Viorica Rădoi as well as of American pianist Jay Gottlieb. Also a conductor, Jaber is the current musical director of the Orchestre du Collège Néerlendais at Cité Universitaire. His repertoire focuses mainly on classical and romantic German composers as well as early twentieth century modernism.
About the invited composers
Barney Johnson is an American classical music composer from New Jersey. He studied tuba and composition at Walnut Hill School in Massachusetts (2007); followed by a bachelor’s degree in music composition at SUNY Purchase (2011), then a master’s at UC Santa Barbara (2014). He moved to Paris in 2017 to study harmony with Narcis Bonet, a pupil of Nadia Boulanger.
To say that Carol Robinson is a Franco-American composer and clarinetist is perhaps too restrictive to describe the eclecticism of her experience and passion. Whether playing repertoire or experimental material, she performs in major venues and festivals the world over (Festival d’Automne, MaerzMuzik, Archipel, RomaEuropa, Wien Modern, CTM Berlin, Angelica, Geometry of Now, Crossing the Line, Huddersfield…). She collaborates regularly with musicians from diverse backgrounds, as well as with choreographers, sculptors, and photographers. Author of some one-hundred works, she has received commissions from institutions, such as Radio France and the French Ministry of Culture, as well as numerous international ensembles and festivals. Her works often mix electronics and acoustic instruments. MODE RECORDS released three of these pieces in 2023: Nacarat for electric guitar, Black on Green for double bass, and Les si doux redoux for basset horn. Her recent discography reflects the breadth of her work. In addition to her own compositions, there are monographs of major contemporary composers (Scelsi, Nono, Feldman, Berio, Radigue, or Niblock), as well as classical music, jazz, and alternative rock. She was named Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2014.
