Description: Wagner Society grantees Clay Hilley and Issachah Savage recently recorded a thrilling interview with Society Singers Program Director Scott Carlton, and was videocast to WSNY members. For many years, the Society has been honored to support careers of young Wagnerians who have subsequently built major careers. Hilley and Savage are among the most recent and […]
In partnership with the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a vocal showcase featuring excerpts from Wagner's Lohengrin. Lohengrin is the third opera of Wagner’s middle period, and it continues a style of tonality that the composer had developed earlier in Tannhäuser. Lohengrin's musical style also anticipates Wagner’s future leitmotif technique and, as with all of his operas […]
Description: Scholarship met fun in this delightful evening. Prof. Goldmark opened our eyes to the pervasive presence of Richard Wagner in the popular American culture of the mid 20th Century. Profusely illustrated by clips of hilarious cartoons such as the classic What’s Opera, Doc? which is the source of the immortal lines, “Kill the wabbit” […]
Our Annual Recital featured mezzo-soprano Shanley Horvitz accompanied by pianist Craig Ketter in a selection of pieces by Wagner (including the Wesendonck Lieder), Ravel, Dvořák, and Janáček. Ms. Horvitz was the WSNY's 2022 Lauch awardee and has been reviewed "to spin lovely, warm legato phrases, replete with ease of emission, dynamic variety, elegance, yet holding […]
Maestro Thomas Guggeis shared his insights into the challenges of conducting the Ring in Berlin and Der fliegende Holländer at the Metropolitan Opera, with particular emphasis on the influence of bel canto tradition in Wagner’s vocal writing. Thomas Guggeis created an international stir in March 2018 when he was tapped to take over a highly […]
The purpose of the Annual Meeting is to elect the 2023-24 Board of Directors and to hear reports of the 2022-23 Officers and Committees, and to conduct any other business that may be properly raised.
Description: Our guest speaker, Maestro David Chan, in his 24th season as concertmaster of New York's Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, which performs almost daily under a constantly changing series of conductors. Mr. Chan discussed those challenges, as well as his experiences as an orchestral conductor in the United States and in Europe. Mr. Chan is a […]
Documentary screening Global Wagner – From Bayreuth to the World is not a biography of Richard Wagner, nor is it a musicological analysis of his work. This is a documentary dedicated solely to the world’s fascination with the man, and an exploration of the question as to how such massive hype and world-wide cult following […]
Tannhäuser Seminar "I still owe the world a Tannhäuser" - Richard Wagner A half-day exploration of Wagner's opera, our annual seminar offers a deep-dive into the work and coincides with the Met Opera production this winter. Program: 12:00 noon: Introduction by David Shengold, music critic and lecturer 12:05 - 12:55 pm: John J. H. Muller […]
Barry Millington will join us from England to discuss his recent research on the relationship among Wagner, painter Edward Burne-Jones, and author George Eliot.
Scholar Hans Vaget returns to offer thoughts on Wagner's relationship with America.
Professor Larry Wolff joins us to discuss Wagner's convictions of "Art and Social Transformation."