Top harpsichordist, noted tenor grace CU stages this week

Harpsichordist Louis Bagger will give a free recital tonight at 8 in Barnes Hall. Courtesy of the Music Department

Featured concerts from the Cornell Department of Music this week highlight the work of a noted harpsichordist and a performance by an artist who is much more than just one "mo'" tenor.

Ithaca audiences will have the chance to hear the artistry of harpsichordist Louis Bagger tonight, March 6, when he presents a recital in Barnes Hall at 8. It is free and open to the public

The New York Times has written that Bagger "has the technique to do anything he wants," and the Boston Globe noted that "this is about the biggest harpsichord playing I've ever heard -- bounding rhythms, vigorous articulation and daring conceptions." The first half of the program features a set of works by Spanish composer and organist Antonio de Cabezón (1510-1566), as well as François Couperin, French composer, organist and harpsichordist (1668-1733). J.S. Bach's 15 Sinfonie, BWV 787-801, opens the second half of the program, and the concert closes with Haydn's Sonata in F Major, Hob. XVI/29.

Currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, Bagger has been a member of the faculties of Brandeis and Harvard universities, artist-in-residence at the University of California-Davis and on the summer staff of the Eastman School of Music. He has recorded, both as a soloist and with other solo artist, for Vox, Monitor, Musical Heritage and Titanic Records.

Noted tenor Thomas Young will take to the Barnes Hall stage Tuesday, March 11, at 8 p.m., and he will join soprano and Cornell faculty member Judith Kellock for a unique program, combining French and German art songs with spirituals and jazz standards. This concert also is free and open to the public.

Young's most recent success is the Great Performances telecast of "Three Mo' Tenors," which features him with colleagues Roderick Dixon and Victor Trent Cook. The telecast, with video and CD sales, as well as tours of the show, have made Young a household name.

His Cornell appearance is made possible by a grant from the Cornell Council on the Arts. Young and Kellock are assisted by pianists Xak Bjerken and Blaise Bryski. Selections will include "Simple Song" from Bernstein's Mass, Nathaniel Dett's spiritual In that Morning, Ballad of the Bombardier by Broadway composer Marc Blitzstein and Sondheim's Send in the Clowns. Interspersed with these are duets and songs by Strauss, Schumann, Handel, Fauré and Barber, closing with the "Domine Deus" from Bach's Mass in B Minor.

Young has sung oratorio engagements with orchestras around the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, St. Luke's Chamber Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, among others.

Kellock has been described by critics as "a singer of rare intelligence and vocal splendor, with a voice of indescribable beauty." She has been featured with such orchestras as the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Honolulu Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Aspen Festival Orchestra in standard as well as contemporary repertory.