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Main Menu Home About Us Contact Us MHS eNewsletter Composers Conductors Instrumentalists Vocalists Featured Artists & Groups Reviews Performance Reviews Record Reviews Book Reviews Donors Search Site for... Links Newsflash Fun Stuff Hot Topic! Bibliography Events Myrtle on the Web Guestbook Finding the truth is not enough. What we also have to find is justice.                                ~Rigoberta Menchu Vocal Recital, soprano Sibongile Boyd Wednesday, 25 June 2008 Review of Sibongile Boyd's Vocal Recital by Amy Hondo  soprano Sibongile Boyd and pianist Arlene Shrut On Saturday, May 31, soprano Sibongile Boyd and pianist Arlene Shrut presented an evening of vocal music at the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul (NYC). While the warm spring air hinted of blossoms and thunderstorms, the audience gathered beneath the vaulted ceiling and stained-glass windows of the small sanctuary. Both the weather outside and the church within seemed a perfect complement to the performance that ensued.     Ms. Boyd began with the songs of Bellini ("Il fervido desiderio", "La farfaletta", and "Vaga luna, che inargenti") with melodic lines that were especially clear and sweet.  This triad was nicely echoed in the concert's final three pieces, a set of spirituals ("Spiritual", "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", and "His Name so Sweet"). Both sets demonstrated the emotional power of a clear melodic line.  They also anchored the recital's other pieces through the shared themes of the love's pain and life's joy.  Ms. Boyd's vocal versatility was evident throughout, moving easily from the styles of Mozart to Strauss.   She is particularly adept at translating the music to the audience in her physical and emotional presence.    I was especially moved by Ms. Boyd's interpretation of Schubert's "Gretchen am Spinnrade" and T. Bishop's "Low! Hear the Gentle Lark."  "Gretchen am Spinnrade" is a heady piece, the piano creating the steady dramatic whirr of a spinning wheel while the spinstress sings about the emptiness of lost love.  In great contrast, Ms. Boyd later sang "Low! Hear the Gentle Lark" in which the she painted the tumble and rise of a happy lark greeting the dawn. This song requires great vocal agility as well as ease and a sense of humor. I was impressed by Ms. Boyd's ability-through music, word, and gesture--to convince the audience of both life's sorrows and delightfulness.    Finally, I was reminded of how the relationship between artist and audience can change the experience of a performance.  This audience was clearly well acquainted with Ms. Boyd, personally and professionally.  It is a special opportunity to share one's music with the people who appreciate the content but also the personal context in which it was created.  As a result, the role of the audience member changes, because they are no longer merely listeners, but also contributors to the work that culminates in song.   We are in an era that emphasizes music as an object to be compartmentalized, recorded, distributed, and purchased by an audience that is likewise packaged in assumptions about demographic preferences.  Artist, art, and consumer are separated into distinct pieces.  Concerts such as this one demonstrate that when the audience and the performer are part of a meaningfully connected community, a new element of the performance emerges.  We move beyond the transmission of individual sound to individual ear, to a place where music is the way to enter together into the hum of collective understanding.   It is very difficult to feel this elusive element when listening to recordings at home, or recording alone in the studio.  This experience is reserved for special, community-rich performances, which, as it turns out, sometimes happen at church.   Ms. Boyd is a graduate of Harvard University and is currently completing a Master of Music Degree at Binghamton University.  Dr. Arlene Shrut, pianist and faculty member at the Julliard School, performed alongside Ms. Boyd. Look for Ms. Boyd in her upcoming role this summer as Zerlina in the Delaware Valley Opera's Production of Don Giovanni. Amy Hondo is a writer, educator, and advocate interested in the intersections of the arts, education, and social justice.  She lives in NYC and works on various projects that strengthen the learning environments and opportunities available to public school students.   < Prev   Next > [ Back ]       © 2012 myrtlehart.org Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.

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