Resources

In his decades-long career as a musician, Doug Adams has remained in-demand as a performer, a composer/arranger, an author, and a lecturer. He was selected by Howard Shore to observe and document his work on The Lord of the Rings films – a score performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, eventually exceeding 13 hours, and consistently cited as one of the best film scores ever written. Adams subsequently spent just under ten years writing the book, The Music of the Lord of the Rings Films. He joins the Wagner Society to analyze and compare the use of motives as a structural component in Wagner and in Shore.

A special U.S. Book Release: Wagner and the Creation of the Ring’, with its author, Michael Downes, in conversation with WSNY President F. Peter Phillips.

Part cultural history, part biography, this is the fascinating story of Richard Wagner’s life, influences, gift for storytelling, and artistic revolution, culminating in his dramatic journey to write The Ring Cycle. Downes states that “the Ring is a story not only from the nineteenth century, but also about it.”

Met Cast Roundtable: Tannhäuser soloists in conversation at the Tannhäuser Seminar, Wagner Society of New York, Dec. 10, 2023: Elza van den Heever (Elisabeth), Ekaterina Gubanova (Venus), Georg Zeppenfeld (Landgraf Hermann), Christian Gerhaher (Wolfram von Eschenbach), David Shengold (moderator).

Met Orchestra Musicians in conversation at the Tannhäuser Seminar, Wagner Society of New York, Dec. 10, 2023: Wen Qian (violin), Hannah Cope Johnson (principal harp), Anton Rist (principal clarinet), Anne Scharer (French horn), David Shengold (moderator).

This talk by Marian Burleigh-Motley, PhD and Metropolitan Museum of Art lecturer (retired), featured extensive illustrations, plus songs by Debussy and Wagner performed by Amy Shoremount-Obra (WSNY awardee and recitalist), was streamed via YouTube on Friday June 25, 2021.

Ms. Brown was WSNY’s 2018 Robert Lauch Memorial Fund Awardee, and was an ensemble soloist in the Met’s recent production of Porgy and Bess. She has performed throughout the US. Ms. Brown was accompanied by Bradley Moore, a renowned piano soloist and recital partner.

Maestro Queler, founder and director of Opera Orchestra of New York, conducted Rienzi in New York and Washington, DC from 1980 to 2012. With photos and clips, including Jeremy Brauner (tenor soloist from Stephen Gould’s Masterclass) performing “Allmächt’ger Vater” and Mary Ann Stewart (soprano, and 2012 cover for Adriano) performing “Gerechter Gott.” Produced and hosted by Scott Carlton, WSNY’s Artistic Director of Singers’ Programs.

Rimsky-Korsakov and The Invisible City of Kitezh, a lecture presented by Professor Harlow Robinson, premiered by WSNY of February 28, 2021, is now available on WSNY’s YouTube Channel.

Victoria Bond, composer, conductor/music director, “Der fliegende Holländer: New Perspectives and Productions”

Jeffrey Swann, Ph.D., Concert Pianist and Professor, NYU, “Wagner Discovers Beethoven: A new understanding, revolutionized in Der fliegende Holländer”.