Mostly Milton: Complete Works of Milton Babbitt for High Voice & Piano Album Release Concert

• Nina Berman, soprano
• Steven Beck, piano

Milton Babbitt — The Widow's Lament in Springtime (1951)
Milton Babbitt — Pantun (2000)
Jeff Nichols — Chelsea Square (1999)
Johannes Brahms — Fünf Lieder, Op. 107
Milton Babbitt — Du (1957)
Milton Babbitt — Tutte le Corde (1994)
Marion Bauer — Two Songs (1921)
Bruce Adolphe — A Thousand Years of Love (1998; selections)
Milton Babbitt — Phonemena (1975; for soprano & synthesized tape)

Soprano Nina Berman and pianist Steve Beck release a recording of Milton Babbitt's complete works for treble voice and piano, including his epic A Solo Requiem for soprano and two pianos with Eric Huebner. Babbitt was deeply engaged with poetry throughout his life, and his text settings demonstrate his sensitivity to the intricate nuances of the musicality embedded in the poems. Berman and Beck’s performances are beautifully expressive, illuminating the longer lined lyricism that is revealed through precise renderings of Babbitt's often thorny, virtuosic scores.

Beck and Berman's album release concert will feature works by Babbit, as well as well as Brahms, Marion Bauer, and Babbitt students Jeff Nichols and Bruce Adolphe. The concert program illustrates not only the diversity of music that influenced Babbitt, but also Babbitt's broad and continued reach: as a composer, he was deeply influenced by music as different as the Bauer and the Brahms on this evening's program, but also by theatre music and American jazz; in turn, as a teacher, Babbitt turned out students whose music sounds as dissimilar as, for example, the Nichols and the Adolphe.

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About Nina Berman, soprano

Soprano Nina Berman has performed in a variety of settings, from vocal improvisation to opera, with a particular focus on chamber music and art song. She has given numerous premieres, and has done live radio performances on WQXR, WNBC, and WHTZ. Additionally, Dr. Berman has focused on both early music and standard concert repertoire, singing in concert and on the opera stage throughout the US and Canada, and as a chorister with The Bard Festival Chorale, the St. Bartholomew's Choir, and Bard SummerScape. She is active in New York, having performed as soloist and chamber musician at the city's major venues, including Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Alice Tully Hall, B.B. King’s Blues Club, The Iridium, New York City’s Town Hall, Brooklyn’s Roulette, The Cutting Room, and SubCulture, as well as in numerous tristate area concert series, most often in collaboration with pianist Steve Beck. Dr. Berman also sings as a member of Andrew McKenna Lee's neo-psychedelic ensemble The Knells, whose recordings have been lauded by the New York Times, Washington Post, and The New Yorker. She holds a Bachelors and Masters of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the CUNY Graduate Center.

https://ninabermansoprano.com

About Steven Beck, piano

A New York concert by pianist Steven Beck was described as "exemplary" and "deeply satisfying" by Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where his teachers were Seymour Lipkin, Peter Serkin, and Bruce Brubaker.

Mr. Beck made his concerto debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, and has toured Japan as soloist with the New York Symphonic Ensemble. His annual Christmas Eve performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations at Bargemusic has become a New York institution. He has also performed as soloist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and Miller Theater, as well as on WNYC, and summer appearances have been at the Aspen Music Festival and Lincoln Center Out of Doors. He has performed as a musician with the New York City Ballet and the Mark Morris Dance Group, and as an orchestral musician he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, and Orpheus.

Mr. Beck is an experienced performer of new music, having worked with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, Henri Dutilleux, Charles Wuorinen, George Crumb, George Perle, and Fred Lerdahl. He is a member of the Knights, the Talea Ensemble, Quattro Mani, and the Da Capo Chamber Players. His discography includes George Walker’s piano sonatas on Bridge Records, and Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto on Albany Records. He is a Steinway Artist, and is on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as the Colorado College Summer Music Festival and the Sewanee Music Center.

https://nyphil.org/about-us/artists/steven-beck