Tenor Dominic Armstrong will perform an intimate Liederabend for the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, in Graham Chapel.
Literally translated as “evening of song,” Liederabend is a German term referring to a recital given by a singer and pianist, particularly of works by 19th-century Austrian or German composers.
The program, free and open to the public, will feature “Romanzen aus Tieck’s Magelone, Op. 33” by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). Accompanying Armstrong will be pianist Sandra Geary, teacher of applied music.
Brahms’ only song cycle, “Romanzen aus Tieck’s Magelone” consists of 15 loosely knit romances — originally published in five volumes between 1865-69 — following the melancholic courtship of a noble knight-errant and a beautiful princess.
Brahms based the cycle, which he dedicated to a friend, the baritone Julius Stockhausen, on the 1797 novella “Liebesgeschichte der schonen Magelone und des Grafen Peter von Provence (Wondrous Love Story of the Beautiful Magelone and Peter, the Count of Provence)” by German poet and novelist Johann Ludwig Tieck.
Armstrong, a native of Kirksville, Mo., earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Truman State University and a master’s in music from The Juilliard School in New York.
He is pursuing a master’s degree in opera at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where his credits include “Die Zauberflote,” “La Rondine,” “Postcard from Morocco,” “Iolanta” and “Lelisir d’amore.”
Armstrong also has performed with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Kansas City Symphony and the University of Missouri Symphony as well as with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Chautauqua Youth Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Next spring, Armstong will star in Chicago Opera Theatre’s production of Mozart’s “La Clemenza di Tito,” conducted by Jane Glover. Last spring, he portrayed Macheath in Benjamin Britten’s version of “The Beggar’s Opera,” conducted by Lorin Maazel, while in residence at The Chateauville Foundation in Amissville, Va.
He also recently served as a Filene Young Artist at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Va., performing the title role of “Candide” under the baton of Stephen Lord.
Armstrong was a grand finalist in the 2008 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions.
Other honors include prizes at the 2008 George London Foundation Awards competition; the 2000-01 National Association of Teachers of Singing Midwest District and Regional competitions; and the 1998 and 2001 Truman State University’s Gold Medal Aria Competition.
The program is sponsored in association with the Department of Germanic Languages & Literatures in Arts & Sciences. For more information, call 935-5566 or e-mail kschultz@artsci.wustl.edu.