Sidney Outlaw and Carol Wong present Liederabend Oct. 9

Baritone Sidney Outlaw and pianist Carol Wong will present a Liederabend at Washington University Oct. 9 as part of the American Arts Experience-St. Louis festival.

Sidney Outlaw, a rising young American baritone lauded as a “terrific singer” by The New York Times, will join pianist Carol Wong for an intimate Liederabend at 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 9, at Washington University in St. Louis.

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.

This performance is dedicated to the memory of James E. McLeod (1944-2011), vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, who initiated the university’s first Liederabend nearly 30 years ago. It also is presented in conjunction with the American Arts Experience-St. Louis, an annual citywide festival celebrating all mediums of American arts.

The Liederabend will open with a pair of songs, or Lied, by Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756-1791):
 the melancholy Abendempfindung (Evening Reflections), K. 523, and the pastoral An Chloë (To Chloë), K. 524. Though written and first published together, the two songs are in many ways polar opposites. Where An Chloë relates the love of a shepherd for a shepherdess, Abendempfindung finds its narrator wistfully contemplating the passing of both time and life.

The program will continue with two works by Franz Schubert (1797-1828): An den Mond (To the Moon), Op. 18, a setting of the Goethe poem; and An mein Herz (To My Heart), D860, based on a poem by Ernst Schulze. Next will be four Lied by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), followed — after intermission — by four Lied from Robert Schumann (1810-1856).

Concluding the program will be four Lied by Hugo Wolf (1860-1903), drawn from a larger series based on texts by Eduard Mörike.

The performance is free and open to the public and is organized by the departments of Music and Germanic Languages & Literatures, both in Arts & Sciences. Location is Holmes Lounge, Ridgley Hall, on the west side of Brookings Quadrangle.

For more information, call (314) 935-5566 or email daniels@wustl.edu.

Sidney Outlaw

A native of Brevard, N.C., Outlaw earned a master’s in vocal performance from The Juilliard School in New York, where he performed the world premiere of Wayne Oquin’s A Time to Break Silence: Songs Inspired by the Words and Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. (2007).

Outlaw also is a 2009 graduate of the Florida Grand Opera’s Young Artists Studio — one of the nation’s leading operatic training programs — where he appeared as Prince Yamadori (Madame Butterfly), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Marquis D’Obigney (La Traviata) and Achilla (Giulio Cesare). More recently, he completed the prestigious Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, appearing as Dr. Dulcamara in Gaetano Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore.

Other roles include Malcolm in Malcolm X; Xerxes in Ariodante; Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, as well as his international debut, in Germany and Israel, as Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. As a recitalist, Outlaw has appeared at prestigious venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall; and as part of the New York Festival of Song, with pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barrett.

In 2010, Outlaw won Grand Prize at the Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserratt Caballe in Zaragoza, Spain. Recent engagements include his Schwabacher Debut Recital in San Francisco and a performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Carnegie Hall.

Last spring, he appeared at Washington University in Sing for Siteman, a benefit concert for the Siteman Cancer Center organized by Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Carol Wong

Wong grew up in Vancouver and made her concerto debut at age 11 with the Vancouver Philharmonic. She earned a master of music degree from Indiana University and a doctor of music arts degree at Rutgers University, and also completed the prestigious Artist Diploma Program at The Juilliard School.

Wong recently has appeared at Carnegie’s Zankel and Weill halls, at the “Wednesday at One Series” at Alice Tully Hall, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as in live broadcasts on WXQR in New York, K-Mozart in Los Angeles and NPR’s Performance Today. Highlights from previous seasons include a special performance for members of the U.S. Congress, under the auspices of Sony Music, and an international tour with Marilyn Horne, celebrating the famed mezzo-soprano’s 75th birthday.

In 2008, Wong was one of 50 people invited to the Arctic Expedition for Climate Action, sponsored by National Geographic, which produced a documentary about the event. Other honors include a 2008 Sing for Hope Grant, which allows artists to donate time and talent to humanitarian causes; the 2005 Canadian Aldeburgh Foundation Award; and the 2004 Irene Diamond Award.

She is currently a senior examiner at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She previously taught at Rutgers.

American Arts Experience-St. Louis

For 17 days and nights, beginning Sept. 30, the American Arts Experience-St. Louis will fill concert halls, museums, theaters, universities and outdoor spaces throughout the St. Louis area with dozens of performances and shows by renowned American artists and companies in disciplines ranging from symphonic music to jazz and singer-songwriters, theater by American playwrights and dance by American companies to major American visual artists.