United States SongStudio 2026: Young Artists Recital – ‘Songs from the Edge of Reality’: Singers, pianists. Zankel Hall, New York, 18.1.2026. (RP)
For those worried about the future of the art song, time spent at Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio will buoy your hopes. The breadth of young talent – singers and pianists – impresses, as does their passion for the art form. Their expansive taste in songs is likewise astonishing. The latter is to be expected when you cast a global net for talent, but the eclecticism and adventuresomeness still impress.
Eight teams of singers and pianists, selected from hundreds of applications, were chosen to participate. The real work is done behind the scenes, but masterclasses with some of opera’s biggest stars are open to the public and live-streamed. Lisette Oropesa, Lawrence Brownlee, Bryan Wagorn and Anthony Roth Costanzo presided over this year’s master classes, in which four pairs of singers and pianists were under the lens for 20 minutes.
The three singers need no introduction, but Wagorn may. He is an Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, known for his extensive work as an accompanist performing with internationally renowned artists, including Angel Blue, Costanzo, Lise Davidsen, Joyce DiDonato, Midori, Nadine Sierra and Pinchas Zukerman. Wagorn’s communicative abilities and zeal are tangible. So is his desire to maximize every element of a piano’s toolkit and mine every opportunity for musical dialogue between singer and pianist. His session was particularly valuable for the artists and the audience alike.
With a twinkle in his eye, Constanzo, SongStudio’s Artistic Director, told the audience that he was going to let them in on a secret: these masterclasses are a fraud. His point was that 20 minutes in the spotlight really does not allow for much more than an exchange of ideas and a few suggestions, which the participants are free to ignore. The real work is done over many years with voice teachers and coaches. Lawrence Brownlee, in his session, drove that home with repeated references to work with his current teacher.
Costanzo’s remark was tongue-in-cheek, knowing full well the value of participating in a program such as SongStudio. The enormous ego boost of being selected is undeniable after years of pursuing a dream against all odds. Working with the caliber of artists affiliated with SongStudio is of untold value, as is gaining international exposure and performing on one of the world’s great stages in the concluding Young Artists Recital.
Just a few years ago, the recital was a humbler affair, performed in the Resnick Education Wing where the master classes are held. With the transfer to Zankel Hall, the recital took on a new dimension, becoming a staged event where singers and pianists are called upon to be part of a story. Entitled ‘Songs from the Edge of Reality’, this year’s recital was relatively light on concept (except for particularly evocative lighting) but long on musical and emotional rewards.
‘Songs from the Edge of Reality’ began with Henri Dutilleux’s ‘I’ from Figures de résonances in which pianists Anna Giorgi and Anna Gebhardt explored the sonic connection of two pianos through unconventional pedal techniques, depressed chords and clusters. There were other pieces where the pianists were solely in focus, including Daniel Prinz and Muse Ye’s ‘Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks’ from Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition, and Filipe Gaio and Wan-Yen Li trading punches in Bolcom’s ‘Knockout: A Rag’.
All eight played a game of musical chairs in Satie’s ‘Morceau 3’ from Trois Morceaux en forme de poire which only heightened the humor and satire inherent in the piece. Satie purportedly composed the suite in response to Debussy’s comment that there should be more form in his music.
Soprano Nisha Patel Caiozzi has a penchant for introspective, complex songs, but in Gershwin’s ‘Die Lorelie’, she displayed her finely colored voice and proved she could purr, scat and growl with the best of them. In Oropesa’s masterclass, Madison Marie Fitzpatrick showed her lustrous soprano and sensitivity in Saint-Saëns’s ‘Aimons-nous’ but went for broke in Tom Cipullo’s comic gem, ‘The Pocketbook’. Her effusive lust for a handbag advertised as ‘fluent Italian suede in garnet’ might bankrupt the family and send her to jail, but the mere thought of owning it brought her to orgasmic spasms of delight.
Mezzo-soprano Madelin Morales enchanted with her spirited ‘The Leather-Winged Bat’, Jake Heggie’s setting of a traditional English folk song, as birds encircled her. Bernstein’s ‘Civet à Toute Vitesse’ found her in comic mode, whacking a rabbit with a meat cleaver.
Naomi Steele imbued Dilys Elwyn-Edwards’s ‘The Cloths of Heaven’ with lovely tone, sincerity and impeccable diction. Wearing a grand hat, Steele’s mezzo-soprano enlivened Satie’s ‘La diva de l’Empire’ with sophistication and wit. A glimpse of what the future may hold for Steele came in Oropesa’s masterclass when she sang Brahms’s dark and dramatic ‘Von ewige Liebe’.
Lauren Torey’s mezzo-soprano enticed in her languid rendition of Poulenc’s ‘Hôtel’. She brought a fresh innocence that transformed ‘La Vie en rose’ into an anthem of young love, which floated above Prinz’s soaring arpeggios on the piano.
Tenor Philippe Durrant gave a vivid yet restrained account of Poulenc’s fast-paced ‘Hyde Park’ with its description of the preachers, nannies and lovers encased there in fog. Far removed from the elegance he brought to Schubert’s ‘Ganymed’ in Wagorn’s masterclass was his expressiveness in Schoenberg’s ‘Galathea’. His shining tenor and interpretive depth, however, united them.
In the masterclasses, Edward Ferran lent his lyric tenor to songs by Donizetti and Tosti, and the Italian repertoire seemed to be his heart’s desire. The singer’s absolute mastery of Finzi’s ‘Let me enjoy the Earth’ dispelled any such notion. Ferran’s diction was immaculate, and he expressed the sentiments of Thomas Hardy’s poem to perfection in tones that captured delight and regret with equal ease.
Baritone June Young ‘Will’ Kim waded into deep waters. He sang ‘Bitte’ from Heinz Holliger’s Drei Lieder in Wagorn’s masterclass. It is a dark, intense song laden with angst and despair. Wagorn said he couldn’t imagine the song being sung any better. Kim’s understated, reflective interpretation of Vaughan Williams’s ‘Whither must I Wander?’ therefore came as a surprise, but perhaps it shouldn’t have. There were tears in his voice as he sang ‘Göttingen’ by Monique Andrée Serf, better known as Barbara. Its creator had survived the horrors of World War II. Kim sang her profound expression of ‘love thy neighbor as thyself’ with matter-of-fact eloquence.
Ensembles involving all the singers and, at times, all eight pianists, were also performed. The first half of the program concluded with Dan Schlosberg’s arrangement of Richard Rodgers’s ‘Where or When’ from Babes in Arms – a performance so beautiful that it drew sighs from the audience.
Two other Schlosberg arrangements ended the concert. First came ‘Bein’ Green’, which Kermit the Frog sang on Sesame Street. Then came the blowout finale of Freddie Mercury’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. The singers were more at ease with Kermit’s uplifting, heartfelt celebration of diversity and self-acceptance. But perhaps Schlosberg set the wrong Freddie Mercury song: ‘We Are The Champions’ might have been more apt.
SongStudio is the current iteration of The Song Continues, founded by Marilyn Horne in 1994 and absorbed by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute in 2010. The legendary mezzo-soprano turned 92 on 16 January, the day of Brownlee’s masterclass. She received a perfect birthday gift.
Rick Perdian
Featured Image: Edward Ferran (tenor) with Anthony Roth Costanzo © Fadi Kheir
Production:
Artistic Director – Anthony Roth Costanzo
Artistic Advisor – Javier Arrebola,
Stage Director – Doug Fitch
Arranger – Dan Schlosberg
Lighting – Nicholas Houfek
Performers:
Nisha Patel Caiozzi (soprano) / Anna Gebhardt (piano)
Madison Marie Fitzpatrick (soprano) / Felix Otto (piano)
Madelin Morales (mezzo-soprano) / Filipe Gaio (piano)
Naomi Steele (mezzo-soprano) / Marite Männi, (piano)
Lauren Torey (mezzo-soprano) / Daniel Prinz (piano)
Philippe Durrant (tenor) / Anna Giorgi (piano)
Edward Ferran (tenor) / Muse Ye (piano)
June Young ‘Will’ Kim (baritone) / Wan-Yen Li (piano)
Recital Program:
Henri Dutilleux – ‘I’ from Figures de résonances
Reena Esmail – ‘Ek Shabd’ from Chuti Hui Jagah
Poulenc – ‘Hyde Park’, ‘Hôtel’ from Banalités
Vaughan Williams – ‘Whither must I Wander?’ from Songs of Travel
Heggie – ‘The Leather-Winged Bat’
Thomas Pasatieri – ‘Ophelia’s Lament’
Dilys Elwyn-Edwards – ‘The Cloths of Heaven’
Finzi – ‘Let me enjoy the Earth’
Mussorgsky – ‘Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks’ from Pictures at an Exhibition
Rodgers – ‘Where or When’ from Babes in Arms
Satie – ‘Morceau 3’ from Trois Morceaux en forme de poire; ‘La diva de l’Empire’
Bernstein – ‘I Hate Music’ from I Hate Music; ‘Civet à Toute Vitesse’ from La Bonne Cuisine
Gershwin – ‘The Lorelei’
Schoenberg – ‘Galathea’ from Brettl-Lieder
Monique Andrée Serf (‘Barbara’) – ‘Göttingen’
William Bolcom – ‘Knockout: A Rag’
Tom Cipullo – ‘The Pocketbook’
Louis Guglelmi (‘Louiguy’) – ‘La Vie en rose’
Joe Raposo – ‘Bein’ Green’ (arr. Dan Schlosberg)
Freddie Mercury – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (arr. Dan Schlosberg)