The Edward Cone Composers' Concert

Meet the Artists

Soprano Sharla Nafziger has become“a real talent to follow” (Kitchener-Waterloo Record).  She made an impressive debut at Tanglewood as Nannetta in Falstaff under the baton of Seiji Ozawa. Ms. Nafziger made her New York recital debut at Merkin Hall in 2001 as the winner of the Joy in Singing Competition, and was a prizewinner in the Connecticut Opera Guild Vocal Competition, the Liederkranz Foundation Competition and the Oratorio Society of New York's annual solo competition.  Recent seasons include Messiah at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, the National Philharmonic Orchestra (MD) and the Pensacola Symphony, and . she appeared at Carnegie opposite contralto Eva Podles in a concert performance of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. She lives in Westchester County, NY with her husband, Anthony Meloni and their daughter, Lia. 

A native of Dallas, Texas, baritone Michael Anthony McGee has trained at some of the most prestigious young artist programs in the nation.  including the Merola Opera Program, Santa Fe Opera's Apprentice Singer Program  and Seattle Opera's Young Artist Program, and was a 2009 Tanglewood Music Festival Fellow. Recently, Mr. McGee performed the role of “Jesus” in Bach’s St. John Passion with members of the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra as a charity benefit for Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS, In 2008 he was the first American to ever win First Place at the Maria Kraja International Competition for Operatic Singers held in Tiranna, Albania and has an impressive list of awards including those from Opera Index, the Sullivan Foundation, the Liederkranz Foundation, the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, the Mario Lanza Institute and the George London Foundation. 

Winner of the 2008 Joy in Singing Competition, and the 2007 Lotte Lenya Competition, James Benjamin Rodgers completed the Professional Studies Program at the Manhattan School of Music in May of 2008. While at that school he was the Orvis Foundation Scholar and was awarded the Janet D. Schenck Award for his distinguished contribution to the life of the school. James was a member of the school’s Opera Studio with which he performed Sam Kaplan in Kurt Weill’s, “Street Scene”. He was also a member of the American Musical Theatre Ensemble, singing the role of the Baker in Stephen Sondheim’s, “Into the Woods”. James is a graduate of the Victoria University School of Music where he studied with Emily Mair. At the 2008 Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. he sang the title role in Benjamin Britten’s, “Albert Herring”. His 2009 calendar included a recital in San Francisco on the Schwabacher Recital Series, an appearance at the Ravinia Festival as Billy in Kurt Weill’s "Mahagonny Songspiel", the role of Marco Polo in Christopher Cerrone’s new opera “Forbidden Cities” with New Music New Haven at Yale University. and Tamino in the Southern Opera production of Die Zauberflöte in New Zealand.
James currently resides in New York City.

Pianist Liza Stepanova enjoys a versatile career as a solo performer and frequent collaborator to singers and instrumentalists. She has performed extensively in Europe, recently embarking on a fifteen performance tour of Germany and Austria. In the US, she has appeared in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully, Merkin and Steinway Halls as well as live on WQXR and WFMT Chicago.

Ms. Stepanova has twice been
a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra under the batons of James DePreist and Nicholas McGegan, most recently upon winning Juilliard's 2008 Mozart Concerto Competition, and was invited to Davos (Switzerland), SongFest, Music at Menlo, La Jolla SummerFest, and
Salzburg Schlosskonzerte festivals. Liza Stepanova studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin, Germany, and at The Juilliard School,
where she is currently a DMA candidate working with Seymour Lipkin and
Joseph Kalichstein. She studied art song collaboration with Wolfram Rieger in Berlin, and with Margo Garrett and Brian Zeger in New York,
and was invited by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau to his Hugo-Wolf Festival in Wolf's birthplace in Austria, as well as to two of his month-long
workshops in Berlin. Most recently the winner of the Despy Karlas Prize and best performance of an American work award at the 2009
Liszt-Garrison Competition, she was also the first prize winner at the 2008 Five Towns Music Foundation Competition, winner of the 2009 Susan Tajra Piano Scholarship (Paris), a finalist for the 2009 Pro Musicis
Award and received prizes at the Steinway, Ettlingen, Renate Schorler and "Jugend Musiziert" Competitions.

This year we feature the works of William Flanagan and Robert Beaser.

William Flanagan (August 14, 1923 – September 1, 1969) was an American composer of the mid-twentieth century and also a music critic for the New York Herald Tribune. Flanagan was a great admirer of Ravel and Aaron Copland, who became something of a mentor, although he was largely self-taught. Flanagan was undervalued and rather unsuccessful during his lifetime. He was the long-time lover of playwright Edward Albee, and composed the music for Albee's adaptation of Carson McCullers' novel, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, as well as Albee's adaptation of James Purdy's Malcolm. Though he remains little known today, a number of his approximately thirty songs, which include Horror Movie and the Upside-Down Man, have been recorded. His songs were published by C.F. Peters and Peer-Southern Music.  

Flanagan was found dead in his apartmentin 1969. There is speculation that his death was a suicide. Aaron Copland honored him by eulogizing him with a memorial concert.

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Born in 1954 in Boston, Massachusetts, Robert Beaser studied literature, political philosophy and music at Yale College, graduating summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in 1976. He went on to earn his Master of Music, M.M.A. and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Yale School of Music. His principal composition teachers have included Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Toru
Takemitsu, Arnold Franchetti, Yehudi Wyner and Goffredo Petrassi.

Beaser's principal recorded works include The Seven Deadly Sins, Chorale Variations, and Piano Concerto , The Heavenly Feast , Song of the Bells , Notes on a Southern Sky, Mountain Songs, and Landscape With Bells. His recent opera The Food of Love, with a libretto by Terrence McNally, is part of the Central Park Trilogy, which opened to worldwide critical accolades at Glimmerglass and New York City Opera. Televised nationally on PBS Great Performances, it received an Emmy nomination in 2000.

Songs to be performed are:

William Flanagan

Valentine for Sherwood Anderson (Gertrude Stein)  

Heaven Haven (Gerard Manley Hopkins)   

Plants Cannot Travel (Howard Moss)   

If You Can (Howard Moss)    

The Dugout (Siegfried Sassoon)    

Song for a Winter Child  (Edward Albee)   

Go and Catch a Falling Star (John Donne)     

Send Home My Long Strayed Eyes (John Donne)

The Upside Down Man (Howard Moss)

See How They Love Me (Howard Moss)  

Horror Movie (Howard Moss)

Robert Beaser

Four Dickinson Songs    
     A Word Is Dead
     It Was Not Death
     I Dwell in Possibility
     We Never Know How   

Follower (Seamus Heaney)       

A Martial Law Carol (Joseph Brodsky)    

Quicksilver (Daniel Epstein)

I’m so Much More Me (Frank O’Hara)

The Seven Deadly Sins (Anthony Hecht) 
    Pride
    Envy
    Wrath
    Sloth
    Avarice
    Gluttony
    Lust