Wednesday, January 23rd

Grammy-winning opera superstar Nathan Gunn has made a reputation as one of the most exciting and in-demand baritones of our day. He has appeared in internationally renowned opera houses, is a distinguished concert performer and frequent recitalist.

In his debut Armstrong recital and joined by his wife, the superb pianist Julie Gordon Gunn, the pair open with a selection of songs by Franz Schubert that show the composer’s exuberance and his playfulness (his naughty side?) along with his remarkable dramatic accomplishments in vocal settings.  Also on the first half:  Nathan and Julie offer one of the great and most enigmatic song cycles of the romantic European tradition,  Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe. 

After intermission the audience journey with the Gunns to America via a sampling of songs by Samuel Barber, whose romantic sensibility is realized in textures at once lyrical, rhythmically complex and harmonically rich, the maverick and visionary Charles Ives, who incorporates an extraordinary breadth of American musical influences from the street, the parlour,and hymnody; and from the music hall and vaudeville tradition, cabaret settings by William Bolcom.  Nathan and Julie Gunn in conversation and in concert!  Coming soon to Performance Oklahoma.