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AMHERST, Mass.—Just before his New York recital debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall on March 2, Canadian baritone Joseph Kaiser will perform in Buckley Recital Hall at Amherst College on Sunday, Feb. 24, at 3 p.m. Kaiser will sing a diverse program, including the world premiere of Light Verse, a setting by Richard Beaudoin (Amherst College Class of 1998) of selections from John Updike’s Collected Poems: 1953-1993. Michael McMahon will accompany Kaiser on piano. The recital at Amherst is free and open to the public.
Kaiser’s program also will include Kurt Weill’s Four Walt Whitman Songs; Schubert’s “Sehnsucht," “Schwanengesang,” “An die Laute,” “Nachtstück,” “Sei mir gegrüßt” and “Auf der Bruck;” Francesco Santoliquido’s “I Canti della sera” and Pierre Mercure’s “Dissidence,” with texts by Gabriel Charpentier.
The recipient of the first Autrey Award of the Julian Autrey Song Foundation, Kaiser will follow his Carnegie Hall appearance with his New York City Opera debut singing Morales in Carmen and the roles of Lefty McCarty and Jerry Smith in John Philip Sousa’s The Glassblowers. In the Young American Artists Program at Glimmerglass Opera in 1999 and 2000, Kaiser performed in The Glassblowers and Central Park. He also has worked with the Canadian Opera Company. Last fall Kaiser performed in the world premiere of a staged version of Die Winterreise at Amherst College, where he had appeared in Cosi fan tutte in 2000. Kaiser is noted also for his solo work on the international concert stage.
Canadian pianist Michael McMahon performs regularly throughout Canada, Europe and the United States and has made many recordings.
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