January 2008
For Immediate Release:

Tenor Robert White Opens Graduate Center’s Music in Midtown Winter/Spring Series
 
“Music of the Gilded Age” Salutes Neighboring Morgan Library

For the first concert in its Winter/Spring series, Music in Midtown welcomes back tenor Robert White on Thursday, February 7, 1-2 pm for “Music of the Gilded Age.” With a nod to the Graduate Center’s neighbor, the Morgan Library, White will perform classical and popular music from the time of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1837–1913, leading up to the opening era of the landmark B. Altman department store building at 365 Fifth Avenue, where the Graduate Center is now located.  Accompanied by Norman Carey on piano, the program will include compositions by Mendelssohn, Fauré, Stephen Foster, and others.  The concert will be followed by a master class with select doctoral students, which is open to the public to observe.

Robert White’s artistic versatility continues to be expressed in a vast range of song.  He studied with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau, and was soloist in Renaissance repertoire with Noah Greenberg’s New York Pro Musica.  He went on to sing with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, as well as with the Monte Carlo Opera and many other major orchestras.  He has recorded for RCA, Sony Classical, Angel-EMI, Virgin Classics, Hyperion, and Arabesque, with colleagues Yo-Yo Ma, Samuel Sanders, Placido Domingo, William Bolcom, and Graham Johnson in music ranging from Beethoven to Richard Rodgers; premiered works by John Corigliano, Gian Carlo Menotti, Sheldon Harnik, Paul Hindemith (under that composer’s direction), and Milton Babbitt; appeared in England with flutist James Galway and hosted his own BBC series with orchestra.  He has sung for six U.S. presidents --- Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and, most recently, President Clinton at the March 17, 2000 White House Salute to Ireland.  He also sang for Britain’s Queen Mother and Prince Charles, Monaco’s Royal Family, and Pope John Paul II.  Many honors have come his way, most notably the September 2007 Award for Artistic Excellence given him by the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. He was recently named William Schuman Scholars Chair in Literature and Materials of Music, 2008.

Other upcoming Music in Midtown concerts include:

February 21                 A Program of Chamber Music:  Turina, Ravel, Poulenc

March 6                       Peter Vinograde, piano; The Goldberg Variations

March 20                     Dariusz Terefenko: The Art of Improvisaion

April 10                        The Prometheus Piano Quartet plays Brahms

May 8                          Sendebar-Medieval Mediterranean Music

All concerts take place on Thursdays, 1-2 pm.  For more information, please contact the Concert Office at 212-817-8607, or visit www.gc.cuny.edu/MusicInMidtown.htm.

New York music lovers can escape the din of midtown Manhattan with this series of free lunchtime concerts. The concerts feature classical and contemporary works presented in the Elebash Recital Hall, a warm, intimate space with state-of-the-art acoustics.  Performances feature renowned faculty from the Graduate Center’s doctoral program in music, outstanding professional musicians selected from among the program's doctoral students, and special guest artists. Some concerts are followed by master classes.  Music in Midtown is directed by Norman Carey, professor of music and director of the D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts) Performance Program at the Graduate Center. 

The Graduate Center is the doctorate-granting institution of the City University of New York (CUNY). An internationally recognized center for advanced studies and a national model for public doctoral education, the school offers more than thirty doctoral programs, as well as a number of master’s programs. Many of its faculty members are among the world’s leading scholars in their respective fields, and its alumni hold major positions in industry and government, as well as in academia. The Graduate Center is also home to twenty-nine interdisciplinary research centers and institutes focused on areas of compelling social, civic, cultural, and scientific concerns.  Located in a landmark Fifth Avenue building, the Graduate Center has become a vital part of New York City’s intellectual and cultural life with its extensive array of public lectures, exhibitions, concerts, and theatrical events.  Further information on the Graduate Center and its programs can be found at www.gc.cuny.edu.