Our 2024/25 Ryan Opera Center Recital Series opens with a musical journey featuring second-year Ensemble members Japanese-American mezzo-soprano Sophia Maekawa and pianist Michael Banwarth. Highlights include music by Franz Schubert, Charles Ives, and Francis Poulenc. We will also hear Ms. Maekawa sing and speak to us about the Japanese song “Who turns the light off” by Hikaru Hayashi, and Mr. Banwarth will share insights about Nikolai Medtner’s “Winter evening“.
Mezzo-Soprano Sophia Maekawa and Pianist Michael Banwarth

Playlist
“Ganymed, D 544”
“Der Musensohn, D 764”
“An die Entfernte, D 765” , by Franz Schubert
“La fraîcheur et le feu, FP 147″, by Francis Poulenc
I. “Rayon des yeux”
II. “Le matin les branches attisent”
III. “Tout disparut”
IV. “Dans les ténèbres du jardin”
V. “Unis la fraîcheur et le feu”
VI. “Homme au sourire tendre”
VII. “La grande rivière qui va”
“Who turns the light off” from 4 Songs of Dusk, by Hikaru Hayashi
“The See’r”
“Remembrance”
“Tom Sails Away”, by Charles Ives
“Pourquoi? (Trois Mélodies)”, by Olivier Messiaen
“Chanson triste”, by Henri Duparc
“Il n’y avait que des troncs déchirés” from Deux Sonnets de Jean Cassou, by Henri Dutilleux
“Mad Bess, Z 370”, by Henry Purcell
“King David”, by Herbert Howells
“Winter evening, Op. 13, No. 1”, by Nikolai Medtner