Santa Clara University

All Creatures Great and Small

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL, the third in a five-year series of entertaining vocal recitals on themes of nature, will be offered by soprano Nancy Wait Kromm of the Santa Clara University Music Department faculty, Friday April 7^th at 8 pm in the Santa Clara University Recital Hall.  Santa Clara University staff accompanist Melissa Lin will accompany.  Appearances by faculty flutist Mimi Carlson, guitarist Robert Bozina, mezzo-soprano Liliane Cromer, and soprano Kathleen Ludowise will complete the program, which features a wide variety of songs and duets about the animal kingdom.

The concert on April 7^th will feature a performance by Kromm with guest artist and SCU faculty member Mimi Carlson, of Andre Previn’s The Giraffes go to Hamburg.  This recent work for voice, alto flute, and piano invokes the feeling of the African savannah and presents the innocent plight of animals being shipped off to a zoo.  The haunting sound of the melancholy flute and the text from Out of Africa make an important statement that underscores our need to protect our wildlife.  Flutist Mimi Carlson is one of the foremost flutists and teachers in the bay area, a frequent soloist in orchestral and chamber music.

Professor Robert Bozina, guitarist, will join Kromm in performances of lovely folk songs about animals, including The Lark in the Clear Air, Bird Courtships, and the vintage Peter, Paul and Mary tune, Autumn to May.  Professor Bozina is an integral voice in the Santa Clara University World Music studies, and is the founder of and faculty advisor to a Study Abroad program based in Cuba.

Also on the program will be a performance of Prokofiev’s fairytale set to music, The Ugly Duckling, presented by SCU faculty member Kathleen Duck Ludowise.   Professors Kromm and Ludowise met in their college days and have been colleagues at SCU for over 10 years.  Ms. Ludowise has updated the translation from the Russian and will be singing this version of the work. 

On a light note, Professor Kromm will also share with her audience an appealing array of songs and fables about dogs, cats, insects, birds, hippopotami, alligators, snakes, and frogs, written for voice in Italian, French, German, and English.  For the finale, she will join with her colleagues in duets and trios, including Rossini’s hilarious Cat Duet.

Kromm began her five-year song project, Nature’s Way, in 2004 with the program, Waters of the Earth.  Last year she presented, Nature’s Garden.  After this year’s recital about the animal kingdom, next Spring Kromm will present He said, She said a concert about how men and women talk about and to each other.  She will complete the series in 2008 with the final recital in the series, Heaven and Hell, Life and Death.  A recording of these works is being planned for the near future.

Many people don’t know about the vast realm of concert song, or Art Song, as it is called.  An art song is a short classical work for voice and piano that is set to great poetry.  In most cases, the composer found a poem that he/she really loved and was inspired to set the text to music.  Art songs number in the thousands; the most famous art song composer is probably Franz Schubert.  The program on April 7^th will include works by him, and by Purcell, Mahler, Fine, Barber, Rorem, Canteloube, Prokofiev, Rossini, Previn, Copland, and others.  Come and hear what the poets and composers have had to say about our fellow creatures, great and small.

Tickets: $12 General, $10 Seniors 60+ and SCU Faculty/Staff, $5 Students
For tickets or more information, contact the Center of Performing Arts Box Office at 408-554-4015, or stop by (located in the Mayer Theatre building) during business hours Tuesday-Friday, 2pm-6pm. Tickets will be on sale at the door beginning one hour prior to performances.