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AUGUST 4 · 7:30PM
ALISA JORDHEIM, SOPRANO
RAÚL PRIETO RAMÍREZ, ORGAN
Where the Expressivity of the Human Voice meets the Grandeur of the pipe Organ
PROGRAM
This concert is kindly sponsored by: Gayle and Dwight Gordon, Kathleen Stoughton and Jeffrey Hillman
Organ Prelude (Organ solo)
-MUSICAL THEATER-
When I Fall in Love (1952), Victor Young (music) and Edward Heyman (lyrics)
from Howard Hughes’ last film One Minute to Zero
If I Loved You (1945), Richard Charles Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (lyrics)
from the musical Carousel
I Could Have Danced All Night (1956), Frederick Loewe (music) and Alan Jay Lerner (lyrics)
from the musical My Fair Lady
-LIEDER-
Amy Marcy Beach (1867 - 1944)
Three Browning Songs Op.44
The Year's at the Spring
Ah, Love, but a Day!
I Send My Heart up to Thee!
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805 – 1847)
Die Mainacht Op.9, No.6
‘When the silver moon twinkles through the bushes’
Nachtwanderer Op.7 No.1
‘I walk on a silent night’ (text by Joseph von Eichendorff)
Clara Josephine Schumann 1819 - 1896)
Lorelei
‘I'm looking in vain for the reason’ (text by Heinrich Heine)
Organ Interlude (Organ solo)
-OPERA ARIAS-
Giacomo Puccini (1858 - 1924)
O mio babbino caro, from Gianni Schicchi (1918)
Quando m’en vo, from La bohème (1896)
Signore, ascolta, from Turandot (1926)
Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912)
Ah! douce enfant, from Cendrillon (1899)
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 - 1901)
Ah! Forse lui… Sempre libera, from La Traviata (1853)
-MUSICAL THEATER-
Somewhere Over the Rainbow (1939), Harold Arlen (music) and E.Y. Harburg (lyrics)
from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz
Begin the Beguine (1935) Cole Porter (music and lyrics)
from the 1935 Broadway musical Jubilee
I Got Rhythm (1930) George Gershwin with lyrics by Ira Gershwin
from the 1930 musical Girl Crazy
*all organ parts arranged/transcribed by Raúl Prieto Ramírez
BIOGRAPHY ALISA JODHEIM
Described as “vocally resplendent,” “powerful,” and possessing “impeccable coloratura” (San Francisco Chronicle), soprano Alisa Jordheim is praised for her compelling and vocally assured performances in opera, concert, musical theatre, new music, early music, and recital. Ms. Jordheim’s recent portrayal of Soeur Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites at the Caramoor International Music Festival was met with great acclaim: Sister Constance was “beautifully taken here by the sweet-voiced, endearing soprano Alisa Jordheim” (The New York Times) and “winningly performed by Alisa Jordheim in a soprano of surprising depth and color” (Musical America). Of her recent triumph as Gilda in Rigoletto with San Diego Opera, the San Diego Union-Tribune writes: "Soprano Alisa Jordheim makes an astonishing role and company debut as Gilda. Despite her petite size, she has a huge crystalline voice that she effortlessly pirouettes through perfect coloratura acrobatic and piercing high notes." Ms. Jordheim was recently named an outstanding young singer to watch in "40 under 40: A New Generation of Superb Opera Singers," an article curated by Operavor and WQXR New York Public Radio.
In the 2024-2025 season, Ms. Jordheim makes several exciting role debuts, including Violetta in La Traviata with Opera Western Reserve, Adina in L'elisir d'amore with the New Philharmonic, La Fée in Cendrillon with Opera Orlando, Daria/Prima Donna in Donizetti's Viva la Mamma with Florentine Opera, and the Young Girl in Cipullo's After Life with Music of Remembrance in Seattle and San Francisco, in addition to joining San Francisco Opera to cover Oscar in Un ballo in maschera and Janine/Ofwarren in The Handmaid's Tale. On the concert stage, she performs Carmina Burana with both the Pacific Symphony and Evansville Philharmonic, holiday concerts with San Diego Opera and the Spreckels Organ Society, and an "Iconic Broadway" concert with the Northwest Indiana Symphony.
In the 2023-2024 season, Ms. Jordheim returned to the Pacific Symphony for her role debut as Musetta in La bohème and Florentine Opera for her role debut as Berginella in Offenbach's Songbird, made her London debut in concert with the Voces8 Foundation, returned to Amarillo Opera in recital, and performed Carmina Burana with the Northwest Indiana Symphony and Ein deutsches Requiem with NEWVoices. In the 2022-2023 season, Ms. Jordheim returned to the role of Gilda in Rigoletto with both the Pacific Symphony and Amarillo Opera, made her role debut as Adele in Die Fledermaus in a return to Central City Opera, premiered Lori Laitman's Wertheim Park with Music of Remembrance in Seattle, sang Carmina Burana with the Green Lake Festival of Music, and made her Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra debut singing Mahler's Symphony No. 4 and Prangcharoen's Endless Tears. Ms. Jordheim recently sang her first performances of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Virginia Opera, joined the George Enescu Festival as Erste Zofe in Der Zwerg, returned to San Diego Opera as Despina in Così fan tutte, returned to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra for Messiah, and returned to Central City Opera for Gilda in Rigoletto. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, she made her role and company debut as Clotilde in Pacini's Maria, regina d'Inghilterra with Odyssey Opera, debuted Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow with the New Philharmonic, and appeared in concert with the Bochumer Symphoniker, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, and the New York Opera Society. Additional engagements in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons were to include her first performances of Norina in Don Pasquale with Boston Midsummer Opera and Rossini's Stabat Mater with the La Jolla Symphony, and Gilda in Rigoletto with Virginia Opera, but all were canceled due to COVID-19. Other recent operatic engagements include: Gilda in Rigoletto with San Diego Opera, Ninetta in La gazza ladra with Teatro Nuovo at Lincoln Center, Cunégonde in Candide with Palm Beach Opera, Erster Knappe in Parsifal with Opéra national de Paris, Venus in Venus & Adonis and Belinda in Dido & Aeneas with Florentine Opera, The Girl/Luna in The Rose Elf with The Crypt Sessions/The Angel's Share in NYC, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Boston Midsummer Opera, Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro in a return to the Milwaukee Symphony under the baton of Edo de Waart, Serpetta in La finta giardiniera with On Site Opera and Atlanta Opera, Yum-Yum in The Mikado with the New Philharmonic, Lola in the world premiere and commercial recording of Sister Carrie (available on the Naxos label), Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites at Caramoor, Satirino in La Calisto with Cincinnati Opera, Marzelline in Fidelio with Madison Opera, Nannetta in Falstaff with Emerald City
Opera, and Micaëla in Carmen with the Columbus Symphony/Opera Columbus. Ms. Jordheim is the voice of Bel in the animated short film Over the Horizon, written and directed by David Pierson, which is currently in post-production.
On the concert stage, Ms. Jordheim has sung Torke’s Book of Proverbs at the Grant Park Music Festival, the title role in Gisle Kverndokk and Aksel-Otto Bull’s Letters from Ruth with the New York Opera Society at the National Gallery of Art, Mozart’s Requiem and Haydn’s Insanae et vanae curae with Ensemble Pygmalion at the Chapelle Royale du Château de Versailles, further performances of Mozart’s Requiem with Baltimore Symphony, Mozart's Mass in C Minor with the Bel Canto Chorus, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Bach’s St. John Passion with Madison Bach Musicians, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with Madison Bach Musicians, Bestienne in Bastien und Bestienne with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and Greeley Philharmonic, Orff’s Carmina burana with the Fox Valley Symphony, Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate with the Milwaukee Symphony and Fox Valley Symphony, Bach’s Cantata No. 29 with the Dayton Philharmonic, and has appeared in a variety of programs with the New Philharmonic, Mainly Mozart Festival in Miami, Northwest Indiana Symphony, and the New York Opera Society.
As a former participant in San Francisco Opera's prestigious Merola Opera Program, Ms. Jordheim sang Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia, Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, and “Dal tuo gentil sembiante” from Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba in the Merola Grand Finale. As a Central City Opera Apprentice Artist and Studio Artist, Ms. Jordheim sang Flora in The Turn of the Screw, Ellen in Oklahoma!, Fredrika in A Little Night Music, Sirena in Rinaldo for one of the company's family performances, and was a featured dancer in Orpheus in the Underworld. As a member of the Florentine Opera Studio, she sang the roles of Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, Frasquita in Carmen, and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro.
Ms. Jordheim is a Grand Prize Winner of the Rose Bampton Award and a Career Development Grant from The Sullivan Foundation Competition, two-time winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions, winner of the Kaleidoscope International Vocal Competition, 2nd place winner of the Classical Singer Competition, winner of the Bel Canto Regional Artists Competition, winner of the Irwin Scherzer Encouragement Award from the George London Foundation, and winner of the Edith Newfield Scholarship in the Musicians Club of Women Music Scholarship Competition. She was the recipient of the Central City Opera Young Artist Award, Central City Opera Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program Award, and a finalist in the Kurt Weill Foundation's Lotte Lenya International Competition.
A Fulbright Scholar and Fellow of the American Scandinavian Foundation, Ms. Jordheim studied and conducted research on singing diction in the Scandinavian languages at the University of Oslo in 2013-2014. She frequently performs recitals of songs by Scandinavian composers, has published an article on Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish singing diction in the NATS Journal of Singing, and has completed English and IPA translations of numerous songs by Scandinavian composers. She is also an advocate of new music for voice, having premiered works composed for her by Lori Laitman, Douglas Pew, Joanne Metcalf, Josh Deutsch, and Rodney Rogers. An acclaimed interpreter of Lori Laitman's music, Ms. Jordheim recorded Laitman's song cycle, Five Lovers, on the composer's Living in the Body album, which was released on the Naxos label. Laitman's newest album release from Acis Productions, The Ocean of Eternity, includes Ms. Jordheim singing Fresh Patterns, a song cycle written for her, along with soprano Patrice Michaels and pianist Andrew Rosenblum. Also from Acis Productions, Ms. Jordheim "gives resplendent voice" (Textura) to Três Canções and Four English Songs on the album, Wings: Chamber Music by Rami Levin, about which Fanfare Magazine writes: "The revelation is the soprano herself, Alisa Jordheim, who has a simply glorious voice: so firm of pitch, so pure of tone, with not a touch of unnecessary vibrato…Jordheim’s voice positively flies (like a bird, one might suggest) in the melismas…And if Alisa Jordheim’s faultless way with phrasing (I haven’t heard a legato as smooth as this since Jessye Norman) doesn’t pull you in, I don’t know what will…This is a most appealing disc, notable for the discovery of Alisa Jordheim as much as for Levin’s music.”
Ms. Jordheim is a native of Appleton, Wisconsin, and she completed her first two years of undergraduate study at Lawrence University where she studied with Patrice Michaels. She earned her Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Voice Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) as a student of William McGraw, and her DMA cognate field is Scandinavian song and diction. At CCM, she performed the roles of Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia, Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Une Pâstourelle in L'enfant et les sortilèges, and the partial role of Mademoiselle Silberklang in Der Schauspieldirektor. Ms. Jordheim currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with her husband, David Cohen, who plays Associate Principal Trumpet in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
BIOGRAPHY RAÚL PRIETO RAMÍREZ
With words such as “sizzling”, iconoclastic”, “impeccable”, and “transcendent” used to describe his performances, Raúl Prieto Ramírez is the first Spanish organist in recent times to establish himself among the elite of the international pipe organ scene. "The powerful personality, passionate expressiveness, gift for communication, and outstanding technique of Spanish organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez make him shine in a wide range of repertoire and styles". (Los Angeles Philharmonic) He is San Diego Civic Organist and Artistic Director of the Spreckels Organ Society, where he presides over the famed Austin organ at the city’s Balboa Park Pavilion – the largest open-air musical instrument in the world. Mr. Ramírez is the eighth Civic Organist to serve San Diego on the Spreckels organ bench. At age 27, as the first Organist of Spain’s National Concert Hall in Madrid, Mr. Ramírez increased attendance by a multiple of 30 and critics hailed him as one of the most exciting talents in the music scene. He later founded the International Organ Festival/Academy in Barcelona, the Sursa American Organ Competition in partnership with Moscow and served as organ consultant for both religious and civil institutions.
His global schedule takes him to major festivals and concert halls (from the Mariinsky Theater and Moscow House of Music in Russia to organ churches and cathedrals through Europe and the US), performances and lectures for universities and institutions (such as Indiana University, Baylor, Moscow Conservatory, Graz University, and Chapters of the American Guild of Organists), collaborations in summer academies, and as jury member at international competitions. After studies in Spain where he received the highest distinctions and awards, Mr. Ramírez moved to Stuttgart on a scholarship from the German government to study organ performance with Ludger Lohmann. At the same time, he was developing his technique with pianist Leonid Sintsev at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. He also worked on interpretation of the different schools of organ literature with Marie-Claire Alain, Guy Bovet, Eric Lebrun, Lionel Rogg, Zsigmond Szathmáry, and Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, and he also intensively studied composition, orchestral conducting, improvisation, and continuo playing. The premieres of his works have been recorded and broadcast in Spain, including chamber music, organ music, many pieces for solo instruments and a concerto for organ and orchestra that was premiered in Barcelona. As a result of his varied studies, Mr. Prieto Ramírez possesses a wide and deep knowledge of organ repertoire, styles, and schools, from the 14th century Robertsbridge Codex to the new compositions he commissions.
He is respected as a specialist in such disparate subjects as Spanish music, historic keyboard techniques, and modern symphonic transcriptions for the organ. His transcriptions of Liszt’s piano études and Mephisto Waltz have been praised by audience and critics alike in Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Critics have also highly praised his interpretations of the music of Buxtehude, Bach, Franck, and Reger. His first two compact discs, on the Brilliant Classics label, were recorded at Milan Cathedral in Italy (music of Franck, Liszt, Reger, and Saint-Saëns) and at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona (music for piano and organ duet). In June 2016, Mr. Ramirez and his wife, Spanish pianist Maria Teresa Sierra, were featured duo artists at the American Guild of Organists’ national convention in Houston.
Raúl Prieto Ramírez is represented exclusively in North America by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.
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