Soprano Dawn Upshaw is one of the most revered and versatile American singers, a favorite conveyor of their works by renowned composers. The winner of four Grammy Awards, she is recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship and numerous other prizes and awards and is a fervent champion of musical risk takers. This week she joins the National Symphony Orchestra to sing Osvaldo Golijov’s “She Was Here,” the composer’s arrangement for her of four lieder by Franz Schubert infused with the sounds and styles of music from his native Argentina.
| ONSTAGE |
| Christoph Eschenbach conducts the National Symphony Orchestra |
| » Where: Kennedy Center Concert Hall |
| » When: 7 p.m. Thursday, 1:30 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday |
| » Tickets: $20 to $85; 202-467-4600, 800-444-1324; kennedy-center.org |
| Free discussion with Eschenbach, Dawn Upshaw and NSO Director of Artistic Planning Nigel Boon following April 7 performance |
“Osvaldo and I met through the Kronos Quartet in 1999,” she said. “I was taken with his ‘The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind,’ which they recorded, and asked him to write a song for me. He wrote the song cycle ‘Ayre’ for me in 2004 and he continued to send me things. One of them was the Schubert work, so I sent him a list of the lieder from it that I liked. We ended up doing three of my choices and one of his.
“The songs in ‘She Was Here’ are still very much Schubert’s, but the orchestration is entirely Osvaldo’s with his coloring, instrumentation and the way he establishes the very reflective, thoughtful mood. The text is what matters in the end. Initially, he chose songs I knew and felt strong about. Performing them is an interesting journey in which the singer remains in a meditative state. We were performing it at a festival of his music in Madrid shortly after he received word of winning his own MacArthur Fellowship.”
Upshaw is as comfortable on opera and concert stages worldwide as she is recording songs for the musical theater or undertaking the responsibilities of music director of the venerable Ojai Music Festival in California.
Among the highlights she has planned are George Crumb’s “The Winds of Destiny,” a work for soprano and percussion quartet. Backed by the Australian Chamber Orchestra, she also will perform the world premiere of a commissioned work by composer/conductor Maria Schneider.
“It’s important to keep opening new doors,” she added. “The recording of a chamber piece written for me by Donnacha Dennehy and the Crash Ensemble in Dublin is one of five new world premiers I’ve sung this season. I’ve never been bored. I love repeating things that I adore, but I’m always discovering new ideas and new musical voices that must be heard.”
