Journeys: A Song Recital

PROGRAM
Mozart: Mentre ti lascio, K. 513
Beethoven: An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98
Ibert: Chansons de Don Quichotte
Schmidt: Three Sonnets
Charles: Green Eyed Dragon

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Hailed for his “fine bass-baritone voice…as well as some equally fine acting chops” (Buffalo Rising), Nicholas Kilkenny has developed a career as a versatile performer of operatic, concert, and recital repertoire. Recent opera performances include Colline in La bohème and Renato in Un ballo in maschera with Buffalo Opera Unlimited, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Hudson Opera Theater, and Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro with Geneva Light Opera. Recent concert performances include Handel’s Messiah with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Faure’s Requiem with the Genesee Valley Orchestra, and Dvorák’s Te Deum with Houghton University. Highlights from 2024 include performing as the baritone soloist in Fauré’s Requiem with St. Peter’s Arts Academy, traveling to New York City to perform as the bass soloist for Mozart’s Vesperae solennes at Carnegie Hall with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, performing the role of Baron Zeta in Die lustige Witwe with Geneva Light Opera, and making his role debut as the title character in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Buffalo Opera Unlimited. In addition to performing, Dr. Kilkenny is a passionate educator. He has a private studio of voice students and teaches studio voice lessons and vocal literature courses at Nazareth University.

Praised for her impeccable technique and creative, communicative ideas, pianist Yi-Wen Chang received her bachelor and doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music and her master’s degree from the Juilliard School. An active concert pianist, Chang has appeared as a soloist and collaborative pianist internationally. She regularly performs music of our time by composers including David Liptak, Jennifer Higdon, Milton Babbitt, and Zhi Yuan Guo. Chang recently gave the U.S. premiere on Spanish composer, Benet Casablancas’ Dos Páginas para Granados. She also collaborated with violinist Pia Liptak and recorded a CD album, Reflections, which is expected to be released by Centaur Records in fall, 2024. Chang launched the “Then and Now” concert series in 2015, combining traditional and contemporary repertoire and presenting their transformation over time. In particular, she is fascinated by new compositions and re-creative repertoire including piano transcriptions from songs, operas, symphonies, and other musical genres. In 2016, she published the Chinese translation of R.O.Morris’ Figured Harmony At The Keyboard (Oxford University Press), which has become widely used in colleges in Chinese-speaking countries. A native of Taiwan, Yi Wen Chang currently serves on the piano faculty of Nazareth University and Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

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