Paul Sperry, Music Director
Joy In Singing would like to thank the estate of Irving Brilliant, the Fadlou Shehadi family,
the Friends of Francis Poulenc foundation,
Violet Chang and our anonymous donors
for their generous gifts to the prize award fund for this event.
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) was the pre-eminent member of "Les Six", a group of composers dedicated to turning French music away from the impressionist movement. He is one of he most important Twentieth-century classical music composers, and is regarded as a major voice of his time in the realm of French art song.
Prizes awarded on May 16, 2013
$5.000 Pierre Bernac prize:
Michael Kelly
$4,000 Fondation des Amis de Francis Poulenc Prize:
Split: Andréanne Paquin & Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure
$1,500 Simone Girard Prize: Laura Strickling
$1.000 Elly Ameling Prize: Stéfan Sénéchal
$1,000 Jennie Tourel Prize: Hyo Na Kim
$1,000 Gérard Souzay Prize: Andrew Paulson
$1,000 Denise Duval Prize: Maria Zapata Cobos
$1,000 Peace Prize (anonymous donor):
Split Stephen Eddy and Jamez McCorkle
$1,000 Suzie Chéreau Prize for best pianist:
Liza Stepanova
$1,000 Best Duo Prize:
Andréanne Pacquin, soprano and Francis Perron, piano
Violet Chang Encouragement Awards ($250 each):
Sylvie Jensen, Sarah Lemesh,
Abigail Levis and Michael Anthony McGee
Non finalist promising young artist awards were received by Malorie Casimir, Kameryn Leung,
James Onstad, So Young Park, Anne Marine Suire, and Ilana Zarankin.
----------------------------------------
We are pleased to announce
the 2013 Debut Award WINNER
(click below for more artist information)
Hyo Na Kim, mezzo-soprano
Lauded by The New York Times as “a dark toned, agile Mezzo soprano,” HYO NA KIM appeared at the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is also a first prize winner of the Gerda Lissner Competition, a multiple grant winner at the Licia Albanese-Puccini and Giulio Gari Competitions. She has won the Schubert Lied Competition in her native Korea, where she received her bachelor’s degree at Ewha Woman’s University. She earned her master’s degree and Professional Studies Diploma from Mannes College of Music.
Ms. Kim's winning performance featured selections by Schumann, Rorem, Ravel, Medtner and Poulenc. She was sensitively, and vividly, partnered by the dynamic playing of Bretton Brown.
Raised in Murray, KY, pianist Bretton Brown holds prizes for music and poetry from Yale, where he received his bachelor’s degree with distinction. Past performance credits include Pierrot lunaire in Jordan Hall (Boston) and collaborations with trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth at the Apple Store SoHo and o Sirius XM. Among Brown’s upcoming performances are recitals in Carmel, California (with Clarissa Lyons, under the auspices of the Carmel Music Society Vocal Competition) and Paris. He has also accepted an invitation to Stephanie Blythe’s Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar and will be returning to the Tanglewood Music Center as a Vocal Piano Fellow. Brown is currently a C. V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at the Juilliard School, where he studies with Jonathan Feldman and Margo Garrett.
The adjudicators for this year's finals included: Lorraine Nubar, Lucy Shelton, Aram Tchobanian, Mark Moorman, and Thomas Bagwell. Joy In Singing would like to thank the judges for their service.
FADLOU SHEHADI
For thirteen years, Joy In Singing was the recipient of the great leadership and creativity of its Board President, Fadlou Shehadi. Sadly, Mr. Shehadi died on February 29, 2012 at the age of 86. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Fadlou planned and executed an astounding double route to his personal fulfillment. Driven by his dual love of philosophy and music he succeeded brilliantly in both areas.
As a Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, he taught, and wrote several books and innovative tracts particularly focused on the subject of Islam and the philosophy of Medieval Islamic music. As a deeply talented and skilled baritone, he pursued the study of classical singing in Europe, Canada and the United States working with Pierre Bernac and Jennie Tourel. He performed as a soloist with leading symphonies and chamber orchestras and also sang roles in 'Boris Godunov' and Mozart's 'Idomeneo'. It was, however, his ardent pursuit of art song that brought him at the age of 80 to perform Schubert's 'Winterreise' with Dalton Baldwin at the piano.
His deep commitment to the Mission of Joy in Singing enabled the organization to grow and prosper. He was not only a masterful fund raiser, but his vision of a deeper and more resonant quality of art song performance helped Joy In Singing consistently raise our standards, and encourage educational outreach to the community at large. Fondly, we remember our Board meetings where a roomful of temperamental singers were held to the subject by Fadlou's low and measured voice (and pleading). He was a lovely, elegant man of grace and tact.
We miss him - very much.
