Forget about stereotypes. As opera singers go, Dawn Upshaw is about as un-stereotypical as one can get. She does not project the diva-like, power-hungry, scenery chewing image that is the curse of sopranos the world over. She is graceful, lark-like and completely invigorating to hear. Dawn Upshaw is a dynamo who glows in performance, and is completely refreshing to listen to. In a treat for Oberlin audiences, Upshaw is the eagerly anticipated opening recitalist of the 1999-2000 Artist Recital Series, the much-lauded professional concert season.
Upshaw's repertoire is exceptionally diverse. Glancing through her extensive discography is like viewing a veritable road-map of who's who in modern classical music: Kent Nagano and the Opera de Ly�n, Essa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philarmonic, James Levine and the Metropolitan Opera, Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony, David Zinman and the London Sinfonietta.
Upshaw has partnered with the Kronos Quartet and released a series of highly respected song collections as well. Her most well-known release was also of a contemporary work; Gorecki's Symphony No.3, which, after selling a million-copies worldwide, went on to win the 1993 Grammy Award for Classical Recording of the Year.
A case can certainly be made that Upshaw is most committed to disseminating contemporary American music to her loyal audience. A large portion of her discography attests to this fact. Last year, Upshaw released a disc specifically of American opera arias entitled The World So Wide. The disc featured a crisp set of arias by Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland, as well as Leonard Bernstein and John Adams.
One of her favorite styles of music to champion is American theater music. In interviews, Upshaw has concluded that the reason she holds musicals so close to her heart is that she grew up listening to them as a child. She also wants to bring the music of America to a wider audience and to give American stage music - and American popular music - the respect that it deserves. Her newest CD, Dawn Upshaw Sings Vernon Duke, spotlights the composer responsible for such standards as "Autumn in New York" and "April in Paris." Upshaw, featured in concert during the 1996 London BBC Proms season, sang an evening of Broadway music. The event was televised on the BBC, as well as on PBS later that year. Her passion is also spotlighted in 1995's I Wish it So, with Upshaw performing Mark Blitzstein, Steven Sondheim, Kurt Weill, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. She also displays her appreciation for the genre of American music - and American theater music in particular - on Leonard Bernstein's New York, featuring Mandy Patinkin and Audra McDonald, and Dawn Upshaw Sings Rodgers & Hart.
This deep devotion to American music will be well-served at Oberlin's Tuesday recital, with Upshaw performing pieces from the new Vernon Duke recording, as well as Leonard Bernstein's works. Her Oberlin recital will also include works by Schumann, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Michael Torke and Laura Elise Schwendinger, with text by e.e. cummings.
The Los Angeles Times best summed up the reasons for attending a performance by Dawn Upshaw: "there is simply no reason not to succumb to her versatility, her ingenuity, her questing mind, her exquisite tone, her dazzling technique or - best of all - her emotional directness."
Dawn Upshaw opens the 1999-2000 Artist Recital Series at Finney Chapel, Tuesday, Oct. 5 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $7 with OCID; $18 general public. Tickets can be purchased through CTS.
The picture of grace: Soprano Dawn Upshaw will fill Finney Chapel with her melodic voice, which has won acclaim around the world. (photo courtesy of Nonesuch Records)
Copyright © 1999, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 128, Number 5, October 1, 1999
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