An Evening of Songs from the Heart
Liederabend
Dr. Bruce Earnest, baritone, and Dr. Tyler Smith, tenor, will present an intimate evening of German Art-Song (Lieder) and Moravian music celebrating life, love and the journey of faith. They will be accompanied by Jonathan Williams and joined by Carolyn Orr, soprano.
Friday, Sept. 15, 2023
7:00pm
Calvary Moravian Church
600 Holly Ave., Winston-Salem, NC
Special VIP reception for season subscribers, following the concert.
NOTE:
There will be a Thursday Talk by Tyler Smith
Listening to Lieder
Sept. 14 at 12:30pm, Archie K Davis Center. Free.
Dr. Earnest has stage directed, music directed, or produced over 120 musical theatre and opera productions at universities and professionally. As an artist, Bruce appeared as a soloist in concert, opera and musical theatre in the United States, Germany, and Austria. Bruce has worked with Barbara Daniels, Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Helen Donath, Barbara Bonney, Jason Robert Brown, Scott Allen, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Maltby, David Shire, Sherril Milnes, Robert Westenberg, Thomas Hampson, Robert Evans, Russel Young, Franklin Summers, Richard Owens, Kenneth Manzer, Oresta Cybriwsky, Michael Vale, Robin Jensen, Michael Strauss, and many other others.
Bruce is an early pioneer in the development of vocal technique designed to provide safe pedagogical approaches for singing musical theatre styles called Belting. He has presented master classes and workshops on the voice, opera, German, casting, career development, auditioning, song interpretation, entrepreneurship, arts administration, educational leadership, global engagement, strategic planning, and program development at universities, theaters, conferences, and professional programs throughout the United States, Thailand, and Europe. He is Producing Artistic Director of the International Performing Arts Institute in Germany and founded the organization in 2007.
From 2001 to 2005 Dr. Earnest was Guest Associate Professor of Voice at the Hochschule for Music in Munich, Germany and a production consultant for Stage Entertainment in Hamburg and Essen, Germany. He also served as founder and Director of Musical Theatre and Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida from 1995 to 2000, and as Director of Musical Theatre and Associate Professor at The University of South Dakota from 2006 to 2009. Since 2010, Dr. Earnest has been a professor, department chair, graduate dean, and vice president for advancement.
Bruce has a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Southern Mississippi, a Master of Music from the University of Miami, and a Bachelor of Arts from Westfield State University.
Dr. Earnest is the new Executive Director of the Moravian Music Foundation in Winston Salem, North Carolina and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Dramatic tenor, Tyler Smith, has appeared in numerous operatic and concert performances throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. Most recently he was seen as Canio in the Mobile Opera production of I Pagliacci and Tamino In Louisiana Opera’s production of Die Zauberflöte. He also performed the role of Howard Boucher in New Orleans Opera’s critically acclaimed production of Dead Man Walking. Other appearances with Louisiana Opera include Rodolfo in La Bohéme and Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. For Opéra Louisiane he has performed the roles of Siegmund and Siegfried in a production of The Ring: a two-hour reduction created by Michael Borowitz. For his performance as Eléazar in a highlights concert of La Juive, he won The Big Easy Award in New Orleans for Best Community Opera in 2013.
Other recent roles include Canio for New Orleans Opera and The Southern Opera & Musical Theatre’s productions of I Pagliacci as well as Maxwell in Pensacola Opera’s world premiere of The Widow’s Lantern. For his debut as Canio with New Orleans Opera, Mr. Smith stepped in with six hours notice for an ailing colleague. Opera News deemed his performance a “heroic job…[a] powerful voice and was remarkably in touch with the drama.” For Des Moines Metro Opera, he has covered the roles of Max in Der Freischütz, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Otello in Otello and Riccardo in The Masked Ball. Other roles performed include Don Jose in Carmen, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Max in Der Freischütz, Boris in Katya Kabanova, the title role in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann, Florestan in Fidelio, and Belfiore in Argento’s Casanovas Homecoming (released on the Newport Classics label). In 2001 he made his Houston Grand Opera Debut as Carlson in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men (released on the Albany label). Future engagements include leading roles in Verdi’s Macbeth, Susannah, and Die Fledermaus.
Mr. Smith is currently Extraordinary Professor of Voice and Coordinator of Voice Studies at Loyola University of New Orleans. He received his doctorate in Vocal Performance from the University Houston’s Moores School of Music. He holds a Masters of Music from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Bachelor of Music from Southeastern Louisiana University. His teachers have included Scharmal Schrock, David Holley, Joseph Evans, and Bill Shuman.
Jonathan D. Williams serves as Organist at Home Moravian Church.
Previously he has served as Director of Music/Organist at Kernersville Moravian Church and Organist/Accompanist at Ardmore Baptist Church – Winston-Salem, NC where he chaired Arts at Ardmore, a visual and performing arts series, and organized and performed in the biennial Keyboards at Christmas. Prior to his position at Ardmore Baptist Church, Jonathan served for seven years as organist/choirmaster at Thomasville United Methodist Church – Thomasville, AL.
Jonathan studied organ performance with Faythe Freese at the University of Alabama where he won the AFMC – Sarah Caldwell Lee Organ Competition at Samford University and the Clarence Dickinson Organ Festival Competition at William Carey University. Additional musical study includes: organ studies with Thomas Hazleton and Robert MacLeod, violin with Thomas Wood at the College of Wooster, and piano with Margaret Baxtresser and Antoinette (Toni) Glauser. His undergraduate studies were conducted at The College of Wooster where he played in the Wooster Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra in addition to accompanying Theater and Ballet/Dance courses.
An active member of the American Guild of Organists, Jonathan has served as the Sub-dean of the Piedmont NC Chapter, regularly performs in the Sounds of the Summer Organ Series, and helped to plan the 2022 AGO Pipe Organ Encounter hosted at UNC School of the Arts. He is a featured artist in the Robin MacDonald & Valerie Pope Burnes book Visions of the Black Belt: A cultural survey of the Black Belt. Never one to shun the opportunity to serve his community, he is Treasurer and member of the Board of Trustees for the Moravian Music Foundation. Jonathan is married to Catherine (Cady) née King and has one son, Archibald James.
with Carolyn Orr, soprano – more about >
this CONCERT is #3 in the Series of Serenades
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