Hugo Wolf: Letters and Lieder: A Collaborative Concert

UA professor of voice Moon-Sook Park will give a collaborative concert on the Lieder of Hugo Wolf. Park is joined by guest artist Skirmante Kezyte, piano professor at the Puebla Music Conservatory, Puebla, Mexico, to perform Wolf's extensive song collection. They are joined by Jennifer M. Hoyer, professor of German at the University of Arkansas, as reader of some of Wolf's letters from various times in his infamous life.

The performance will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 28, in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall in the Fine Arts Center. It is free and open to the public.

Hugo Wolf (1860-1903) is regarded as the most forward-thinking Lied (song) composer of the 19th century. With thematic-motivational lines, rhythmic subtlety and psychologically enhancing harmonies, he created his own distinctive style. Wolf's mature creativity of the Lied setting began with his 1888 collection of fifty-three Lieder—Lieder nach Gedichte von Eduard Mörike. Continuously or sometimes simultaneously Wolf strove to set the works of a particular poet, which in the collections of Eichendorff-Lieder, Goethe-Lieder, Spanisches Liederbuch, and the Italienisches Liederbuch II in 1896. He completed these works in spite of some sporadic periods when he was disabled by his manic suffering. 

The program will be included:

From Lieder nach Gedicht von Eduard Mörike

• Das verlassene Mägdelein
• Zitronenfalter im April
• Nixe Binsefuss
• Verborgenheit

From Lieder nach Gedichten von Joseph von Eichendorff

• Die Nacht
• Verschwiegene Liebe        
• Die Zigeunerin

From Lieder nach Gedicthen von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Mignon I
• Mignon II
• Mignon (Kennst Du das Land…)

From Spanisches Liederbuch

• Klinge, klinge, mein Pandero
• In dem Schatten meiner Locken
• Mögen alle bösen Zungen

From Italienisches Liederbuch

• Auch kleine Dinge
• Du denkst mit einem Fädchen mich zu fangen
• Mein Liebster singt
• Schweig einmal still
• Ich hab in Pennan einen Liebsten wohnen

Park, a native of Korea, began her professional career in Europe with countless performances as a soloist to her credit. She has presented numerous solo concerts, chamber music, and operatic works in the U.S., Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, and Korea, in addition to various performances of the avant-garde music. She also was a stipend recipient of K.A.A.D. in Germany and won the coveted Bayreuth Stipend Award for extraordinary young artists.

Park joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas in fall 2012, having previously taught at Palm Beach Atlantic University and Seoul National University in Seoul. Park holds a D.M.A in Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and graduate degrees from Freiburg, Saarbrücken, and Stuttgart music conservatories in Germany, a private diploma from the Academia di Canto F. Cavalli of Milan, and a B.M. from Seoul National University.

Her former students are singing professionally in Europe, Korea, and the U.S. and hold professorships in voice at various institutions around the world. They have won numerous vocal competitions, such as the Concours Chimay Chant Barouq in Belgium, the International Singing Competition in Cologne, the Corbett Opera Scholarship Award competition in Cincinnati, and the Metropolitan Opera National council audition.

Since Park's U.S. debut solo recital at Carnegie Hall in 2001, she has found her second home in the U.S. and her reputation as performer and scholar has been acknowledged nationally and internationally in lecture recitals, solo concerts, chamber music, operatic works, avant-garde music, and master classes.