Guest soprano to give concert of French melodies, German Lieder

The Department of Music premieres its spring offerings with a concert featuring guest soprano Jennifer Davison. This event, as the majority of the over 100 events presented by the department each year, is free and open to the public.

Sponsored in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts, pianist Xak Bjerken, Cornell assistant professor of music, has invited Davison to Ithaca to present an evening of French melodies and German Lieder in Barnes Hall on Thursday, Jan. 23, at 8 p.m. The first half of the program is devoted to French works with Bjerken playing the Erard piano; they open with six songs of Gabriel Fauré, followed by six of Claude Debussy. After intermission, the duo performs German Lieder with the Bechstein piano -- five of Hugo Wolf and ending with a set by Richard Strauss.

A native of Akron, Ohio, Davison earned her high school diploma from the Interlochen Arts Academy as a piano major and then began her vocal studies at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore. Since 1992 she has appeared as a professional soloist on the concert stage and in 1994 made her operatic debut to critical acclaim with the Wolf Trap Opera Company. She earned her bachelor of music degree at Peabody in 1995 and continued her studies at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, where she finished her master's degree in 1998.

In 1999 she became a member of the Luzern Theater, where she has received both critical and public acclaim for her work, most recently as Theodora in Olga Neuwirth's Bählamm's Fest in co-production with the Lucerne Festival. She makes her home in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Pianist Bjerken has given solo and chamber music recitals in Europe and throughout the United States and has appeared as soloist with, among others, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. He earned his bachelor's degree cum laude at UCLA, studying with Aube Tzerko, and his master's and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Institute as a student and teaching assistant to Leon Fleisher.