Biography of Arleen Augér

Augér performed in the fields of opera and art song, but as her career evolved she began to focus her musical energies on the latter, preferring the intimacy of recitals to the bustle involved in staged operatic performances. Her voice was sweet-toned and pure, but also capable of a good deal of warmth and expressiveness. She was much loved as a teacher. Renee Fleming, who was one of her students, said that had she lived longer, would undoubtedly have become one of the great lieder teachers. Her early death cut her career short, but she left a wide recorded legacy.Born near Los Angeles, she graduated from the University in California in 1963, having studied not only voice but piano and violin. After graduating, she moved to Chicago, where she studied with Ralph Errole. Returning to Los Angeles, she won the I. Victor Fuchs Competition, and with it, an audition for the Vienna State Opera, where Josef Krips, the director, offered her a contract despite her lack of stage experience. She made her operatic debut in 1967 there, as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and made her Salzburg Festival debut in 1969. In 1970, Erik Werba invited her to perform the soprano part of Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch in a series of performances which he was producing at Wolf's own summer house. She began to focus more and more of her attention on song, oratorio, and church music, and she left the Vienna State Opera in 1974. By that point her 1975 La Scala and 1978 Met debuts were almost afterthoughts, for she was clearly turning away from the operatic world. She came to worldwide fame when she sang Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of York in 1986, which was seen by an estimated television audience of 300 million. (The couple left the selection of music and performers up to Simon Preston, director of music at Westminster Abbey.) In 1993, she died of cancer.Fortunately, she made a number of recordings during her career, of art song, sacred music, and opera. She made an excellent Constanze in the Böhm Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and also recorded a very fine sampling of Handel and Bach arias (Delos 3026). Her collection of Schumann lieder on Berlin Classics (0021862BC) shows her sensitvity to nuance and emotional expressiveness.

Biography of Dalton Baldwin

Accompanist Dalton Baldwin began his musical training at the Juilliard School of Music and then went to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he earned his B.Mus. He continued his studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Madeleine Lipatti and in 1954 he began his long and successful partnership with Gérard Souzay. While maintaining his partnership with Souzay, Baldwin began to perform and record on a regular basis with Elly Ameling in 1970. In the mid-'70s, he began an association with Jessye Norman both on stage and in the recording studio. He accompanied Arleen Augér's first New York recital in 1984 and recorded an award winning disc of Love Songs with her. Concentrating primarily on the song repertoire, Baldwin was coached by composers Poulenc, Sibelius, Martin, and Barber. He has played in many world premieres, notably of Rorem's War Scenes in 1969 with Souzay. Baldwin has accompanied many singers including Mady Mesple, Edda Moser, Jennie Tourel, Marilyn Horne, Frederica von Stade, Nicolai Gedda, José van Dam, William Parker, and Steven Kimbrough. Touring with these artists has brought Baldwin to all of the major music capitals of the world. Baldwin gives lectures on the art of the accompanist and has served as artistic director for art song festivals at Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Cleveland Institute of Music, and University of Colorado (Boulder). Before Souzay's death, he and Baldwin gave master classes in Geneva every summer for young professional singers and accompanists from around the world. Baldwin also teaches at the Manhattan School of Music and in Princeton.Dalton Baldwin has made over one hundred recordings of song recitals and has won numerous prizes for his work with Elly Ameling and Gérard Souzay. In 1987, he was awarded the Croix de Commandant de l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French government. He is best known for his playing of the French repertoire and he has recorded the complete songs of Debussy, Fauré, Poulenc, Ravel, and Roussel with various artists. His recordings of Schubert and of Schumann with Ameling and Souzay are highly regarded also. Although best known in partnership with singers, Baldwin has worked with violinist Henryk Szering and cellist Pierre Fournier.Dalton Baldwin's playing is characterized by subtle changes of tonal color and sensitivity to the needs of the performer. He has a wonderful control of dynamics and never allows the piano to overshadow the singer. Whenever possible, Baldwin returns to the Himalayas and the wildlife preserves of Africa to replenish his need for natural beauty.