About the Concert

Curtis on Tour
The Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music

Sarah Fleiss, soprano
Lucy Baker, mezzo-soprano
Joseph Tancredi, tenor
Eric Owens, bass-baritone
Miloš Repický, piano
Ting Ting Wong, piano

Five emerging professional artists join celebrated bass-baritone Eric Owens to share the stage with their mentor, himself a 1995 Curtis Institute of Music alumnus and now their alma mater’s director of vocal studies and Curtis Opera Theatre.

Equally at home in orchestral, recital, and operatic repertoire, Mr. Owens has deployed his commanding poise, expansive voice, and instinctive acting faculties to triumph in performances around the world. “Owens has an opera singer’s ability to conceive of each song as an expression from an individual person. Within the compass of his deep, rich tone lies a reserve of gentleness as well as power” (Opera News).

“Mr. Owens quickly established his ability to wrap his deep voice around a text and create a distinct sense of character” (The New York Times). 

Pre-concert Talk

Pre-concert Talk one hour before performance at 2pm.

Clayton State music professor Dr. Francisca Maxwell gives engaging, insightful talks about the music, and often plays recorded excerpts of pieces in the program. These talks begin one hour prior to concert time for selected Strings and Vocal series concerts and are free for all ticket-holders.

Concert Program

Franz SCHUBERT  Der Tanz, D. 826 

Franz SCHUBERT  Licht und Liebe, D. 352

Johannes BRAHMS Liebe und Frühling I Op.3, No.2 
                                        Liebe und Frühling II Op.3, No 3 (1833-1897)
                                        Meine Liebe ist grün Op. 63, No. 5
                                        Von ewiger Liebe Op 43, No. 1

Johannes BRAHMS  Neue Liebeslieder, Op. 65 
1. Verzicht
2. Finstere Schatten der Nacht
3. An jeder Hand die Finger
4. Ihr schwarzen Augen
5. Wahre, wahre deinen Sohn
6. Rosen steckt mir an die Mutter
7. Vom Gebirge Well auf Well. Lebhaft
8. Weiche Gräser im Revier. Ruhig
9. Nagen am Herzen fühl ich
10. Ich Kose süss, mit der und der
11. Alles, alles in den Wind
12. Schwarzer Wald, dein Schatten
13. Nein, Geliebter, setze dich
14. Flammenauge, dunkles Haar.
15. Zum Schluss: Nun, ihr Musen, genug!

Leonard BERNSTEIN What a Movie! from Trouble in Tahiti 

Benjamin BRITTEN  Tell Me the Truth About Love from Cabaret Songs

RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN  If I Loved You from Carousel 

LERNER & LOEWE  If Ever I Would Leave You from Camelot 

Georges BIZET  “Au fond du temple saint” from Les pêcheurs de perles 

Richard STRAUSS  “Mir ist die Ehre widerfahren” from Der Rosenkavalier 

Giuseppe VERDI  Quartet: “Un dì, se ben rammentami…Bella figlia dell’amore” from Rigoletto 

Sarah Fleiss, soprano

Sarah Fleiss, originally from North Bergen, New Jersey, is a soprano currently studying with Julia Faulkner at the Curtis Institute of Music. This year at Curtis, she sang Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Monica in Menotti’s The Medium. This summer, Ms. Fleiss attended the Music Academy of the West, and looks forward to premiering a song cycle of Tania León, singing in the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, and performing as Dalinda in Ariodante this upcoming year. Prior to Curtis, she was a student at Columbia University and participated in the Juilliard Exchange program. Other roles include Pamina (The Magic Flute), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Annio (La Clemenza di Tito).

Lucy Baker, mezzo-soprano

Lucy Baker, from Wilmington, N.C., entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2021 and studies with Julia Faulkner. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Baker is a Curtis Institute of Music Fellow.

A mezzo-soprano, Ms. Baker’s previous roles include Dorabella (Così fan tutte) and The Hostess (Triple-Sec) with Curtis Opera Theatre, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), and Hansel (Hansel and Gretel) for DePaul Opera Theatre, Serse (Serse) with the Chautauqua Institution Online Voice Program, and the cover for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Scalia/Ginsburg) for Chautauqua Opera Company. Additionally, she appeared as a soloist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra in 2021 and performed the national anthem for the Chicago Bulls in 2019.

Ms. Baker received a top prize from the National Association of Teachers of Singing Chicago Chapter and the Edith Newfield Award from the Musicians Club of Women. She has been a fellow with Ravinia Steans Music Institute and has attended the Chautauqua Institution and Music Academy International.

Ms. Baker holds a Bachelor of Music from DePaul University. Her previous teachers include Amanda Majeski, Nicole Cabell, and Marlena Kleinman Malas.

Joseph Tancredi, tenor

Tenor Joseph Tancredi from Bayville, New York, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2019 and studies in the Opera Program with Jack LiVigni, adjunct faculty. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and Mr. Tancredi is the Alfred Greenberg Memorial Fellow.

Mr. Tancredi’s recent credits include Roderick Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher) and the cover of Steuermann (Der fliegende Holländer) with Opera Maine, Ferrando (Così fan tutte) and Conte Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) with Curtis Opera Theatre, Albert (Albert Herring) with both Curtis Opera Theatre and Manhattan School of Music, and Raimondo (I due timidi) with Manhattan School of Music. Joseph has participated in the Apprentice Singer Program at the Santa Fe Opera for two summers, where he sang the Peasant (Eugene Onegin) and covered Benjamin (The Thirteenth Child) and Jon Harker (The Lord of Cries). He has also participated in the Chautauqua Voice Institute where he sang Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Detlef (The Student Prince). Mr. Tancredi has garnered a lot of recognition in the competition circuit—he won the Rohatyn Great Promise 2nd Place Award in the Eastern Region Final of the MONC, an Encouragement Award in Memory of Alfred Hubay from the George London Foundation, and the Dr. David DiChiera Encouragement Award from the Premiere Opera Foundation. This season, Joseph looks forward to performing Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Lurcanio (Ariodante) with Curtis Opera Theatre.

Mr. Tancredi holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and a master’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music.

Eric Owens, bass-baritone

Bass-baritone Eric Owens has a unique reputation as an esteemed interpreter of classic works and a champion of new music. Equally at home in orchestral, recital, and operatic repertoire, Mr. Owens has brought his powerful poise, expansive voice, and instinctive acting faculties to stages around the world in the 25 years since his graduation from the Curtis Institute of Music.

At the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Owens has appeared in leading roles in Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin, Dvorák’s Rusalka, Mozart’s Idomeneo, Strauss’s Elektra, and John Adams’s Doctor Atomic; and as Alberich and Hagen in Wagner’s Ring cycle. He is in the midst of a Ring cycle as Wotan/Wanderer for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he has also appeared in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and Dvorák’s Rusalka and serves as a Community Ambassador. He appears regularly in leading roles at LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival, where he is artistic advisor.

Mr. Owens has also appeared in concert with most of the leading U.S. orchestras. His international credits include the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and English National Opera; the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; the Toronto Symphony and the Canadian Opera Company; the Swedish Radio and New Zealand symphony orchestras; and the Verbier Festival.

A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Owens began his musical training as a pianist at the age of six, followed by formal oboe study at age eleven. He holds a bachelor’s degree in voice from Temple University and a master’s degree in opera from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he currently serves on the board of trustees. He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2019.

Miloš Repický, piano

Born in Bratislava, Slovakia and raised in France and Canada, pianist and conductor Miloš Repický is on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera. At the Met he has played harpsichord continuo for Le nozze di Figaro and has led the musical preparation of Jenufa, Anna Bolena, The Death of Klinghoffer, and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, among many other operas. He has collaborated with the Cleveland Orchestra on productions of Pelléas et Mélisande and The Cunning Little Vixen, with the Lincoln Center Festival on Daphne, and with the Joffrey Ballet on Bluebeard’s Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin. He has also worked with the Canadian Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, Orquesta Nacional de Galicia, Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman, San Francisco Opera, the Spoleto Festival, and the Kennedy Center’s World Stages Festival; and is co-artistic director of Music for Montauk.

As a pianist, Mr. Repický has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, the Chicago Cultural Center, Montreal’s Jeunesses-Musicales de Canada, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. His performances have been heard on NPR, American Public Media’s Performance Today, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, New York’s WQXR Radio, and CUNY TV. He is the pianist on the Sundialtech Pictures multimedia DVD of Pierrot Lunaire, and conducted the score for the feature film The Bohemians, an adaptation of Puccini’s La bohème.

Mr. Repický studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Warren Jones, and at the Music Academy of the West, the Merola Program at San Francisco Opera, and the Banff Centre. He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2016.

Ting Ting Wong, piano

Collaborative Pianist, Ting Ting Wong is a sought-after recitalist, coach, and assistant conductor. Ms. Wong made her debut at the Kennedy Center in 2016 and has performed in France, Hong Kong, and with Opera Philadelphia, Princeton Festival, ConcertOPERA Philadelphia, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, IlluminArts Miami, and the Castleton Festival. Currently, Ms. Wong is a collaborative pianist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Curtis Institute of Music, Mendelssohn Chorus of Philadelphia. Ms. Wong joined Ravinia Steans Music Institute as collaborative pianist this summer and Opera Philadelphia for their O22 Festival as an associate pianist. She has collaborated with James Valenti, Othalie Graham, John Matthew Myers, Anne Marie Stanley, and Burak Bilgili.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Ms. Wong holds a master’s degree in Piano Performance from Carnegie Mellon University, where she also earned a certificate in piano pedagogy; and a master’s degree in Piano Accompanying and Coaching from Temple University, where she studied with Lambert Orkis and Charles Abramovic.