Vocal Recital: Songs on a Theme of Nature

Curtis vocal students present a lush bounty of works depicting man’s profound, joyful, and sometimes adversarial relationship to the natural world. The recital opens with passionate and jazzy selections from Jake Heggie’s Natural Selection, a reflection on a young woman’s coming of age. Songs from Franz Schubert’s genre-defining song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin illustrate a young journeyman’s first encounter with unrequited love. On the second half of the recital, you will hear folk songs by Chinese populist composer Huang Zi, delicately crafted melodies by prolific American tunesmith John Duke, and Michael Tilson Thomas’s “Grace,” a tender song of thanks composed for the 70th birthday of Leonard Bernstein (Conducting ’41). 

Staff pianist Ting Ting Wong, who curated this program, writes, “The energy that surrounds us in spring fills the air with a sense of rebirth. This recital is to help awaken and reinforce those feelings of hope and newness. Being born and raised in Hong Kong, I can’t be more excited to share some songs in my own language. These poems seek to convey the inherent truth and fundamental essence of beauty and nature.”

Program (subject to change)

Meet Our Faculty

Ting Ting Wong is a vocal coach and accompanist for such organizations as the Academy of Vocal Arts and the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia and works with student singers at Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges. She has served as a pianist with Opera Philadelphia and the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and Castleton festivals. She joined the adjunct faculty at Curtis in 2019.