Sunday, Feb 6, 2011
Friday, February 11 at noon
by Anne Sears
The Westminster Conservatory Gallery Concerts series will present a recital by Westminster Conservatory faculty members Nancy Froysland Hoerl, soprano; Timothy Urban, baritone and recorder; and James Day, guitar on Friday, February 11at 12 noon in the Rider University Art Gallery. The recital is open to the public without charge.
The program will include Seymour Barab’s Bagatelles for soprano, recorder and guitar; Benjamin Britten's folksongs for soprano and guitar and songs by Elliot Carter for baritone and guitar.
Soprano Nancy Froysland Hoerl has performed in Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. While studying at the Conservatory of Music in Vienna, she premiered numerous works for soprano and chamber orchestra. In Scotland she presented an all-American recital in St. Cecilia Hall at the University of Edinburgh. In 2000 Ms. Hoerl presented a recital in Paris as a part of the Atelier Concert Series and was the featured soloist at the Meramus Mozart Festival in Barbados. As a chamber musician, Ms. Hoerl has appeared as guest artist with the Allegro Society of New Jersey, the Philadelphia Virtuoso Orchestra, and the Wilmington Musical Festival. She was a founding member of the Grand Chamber Players of Wilmington. She has performed leading opera and operetta roles in Austria, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware. A native of Minnesota, Ms. Hoerl received a bachelor's degree in voice performance and pedagogy from Moorhead State University, Minnesota, and earned a master's degree in voice performance and pedagogy from Westminster Choir College.
In addition to a PhD in musicology Timothy Urban holds graduate degrees in early music performance practice, recorder and voice performance, and music theory. While a Fulbright scholar in Hungary he performed throughout Hungary and Austria with the Kesckemeti Renaiszance Conzort and Ars Nova. He was invited as a guest director to Conjunto de Music Antiga in Niteroi, Brazil for a series of concerts exploring the Renaissance music of Hungary and Poland. Mr. Urban was a performer and clinician at the first Baroque Music Festival held at National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaoshiung, Taiwan. He has been heard in concerts and recitals in Taipei, Taiwan and Hong Kong and has recorded programs for Hong Kong Radio. Mr. Urban regularly performs throughout the greater New York City area as both singer and instrumentalist. In addition to teaching voice and recorder at Westminster Conservatory he teaches at Rutgers University and Westminster Choir College.
Classical guitarist James Day has performed in venues in England, Italy, and across North America, including New York’s Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, SolarFest Performing Arts Festival in Vermont, St. James (Piccadilly) in London and The International Guitar and Lute Exposition in Vicenza, Italy. His concerts have been broadcast on public television and radio in several U.S. locations, and he has received numerous awards for his performances. An avid promoter of new music by emerging composers, he is artist teacher of guitar at The College of New Jersey as well as a member of the artist faculty at Westminster Conservatory. He recently was appointed to a three-month residency as guest artist teacher at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst and Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt, Germany. Dr. Day received his Bachelor of Music from the North Carolina School of the Arts and Master of Music and Doctor of Music in performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music.
The Rider University Art Gallery, Professor Harry I. Naar, director, is located on the second floor of the Bart Luedeke Center of Rider University, 2083 Lawrenceville Road in Lawrenceville, N.J. The current gallery exhibit, which runs from January 27 to February 27, is Michael Graves: Landscapes and Still Lifes.
To learn more about this performance call the Westminster box office at 609- 921-2663 between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For updates, visit Westminster’s Web site at http://www.rider.edu/arts.