John Matthew Myers: Desiderium – Barber • Griffes • Previn • Kander • Weill John Matthew Myers & Myra Huang

• Samuel Barber (1910 - 1981): Knoxville: Summer 1915, Op. 24:
• 1 Barber: Knoxville: Summer 1915, Op. 24 17:57
• Charles Griffes (1884 - 1920): 3 Poems of Fiona Macleod:
• 2 Griffes: 3 Poems of Fiona Macleod: I. The Lament of Ian the Proud 03:49
• 3 Griffes: 3 Poems of Fiona Macleod: II. Thy Dark Eyes to Mine 02:38
• 4 Griffes: 3 Poems of Fiona Macleod: III. The Rose of the Night 04:02
• André Previn (1929 - 2019): 4 Songs for Tenor and Piano:
• 5 Previn: 4 Songs for Tenor and Piano: I. Is It For Now 02:12
• 6 Previn: 4 Songs for Tenor and Piano: II. To Write One Song 03:00
• 7 Previn: 4 Songs for Tenor and Piano: III. Ad Infinitum 01:52
• 8 Previn: 4 Songs for Tenor and Piano: IV. The Revelation 02:00
• John Kander (b. 1927): A Letter from Sullivan Ballou:
• 9 Kander: A Letter from Sullivan Ballou 08:12
• Kurt Weill (1900 - 1950): 4 Walt Whitman Songs:
• 10 Weill: 4 Walt Whitman Songs: I. Beat! Beat! Drums! 03:34
• 11 Weill: 4 Walt Whitman Songs: II. Oh Captain! My Captain! 04:54
• 12 Weill: 4 Walt Whitman Songs: III. Come Up From the Fields, Father 05:34
• 13 Weill: 4 Walt Whitman Songs: IV. Dirge for Two Veterans 05:04
• Total Runtime 01:04:48

Info for John Matthew Myers: Desiderium – Barber • Griffes • Previn • Kander • Weill

Tenor John Matthew Myers makes an auspicious recording debut with Desiderium, an album that conveys yearning, separation, loneliness, distance, intimacy and longing for connection, through music by American and American émigré composers. An album for our times.

The star of tenor John Matthew Myers is rapidly in the ascendent. His debut album, Desiderium, coincides with his Metropolitan Opera debut in Brett Dean's Hamlet. Desiderium – "an ardent desire or longing, a feeling of loss or grief for something lost" – beautifully showcases Myers' mellifluous voice. His thoughtful programme of works by American and American émigré composers opens with Samuel Barber's yearning Knoxville: Summer of 1915 – rarely heard sung by a tenor – and transitions to Charles Griffes' similarly searching settings of 3 Poems of Fiona Macleod, and Andre Previn's 4 Songs for Tenor and Piano. What follows is A Letter from Sullivan Ballou, set to the words of a poignant letter by an American Civil War officer, by John Kander (of Kander and Ebb musical theatre fame). Rounding out the recital are 4 Walt Whitman Songs by German-born composer Kurt Weill, including the classic O Captain! My Captain! John Matthew Myers says, "Call me a big-hearted Romantic. Each song on this album conveys yearning, separation, loneliness or distance but also a sense of intimacy and longing for connection." It certainly does. Desiderium is an auspicious debut album, and one especially attuned to our times.

John Matthew Myers, tenor
Myra Huang, piano

John Matthew Myers
declared an “artist to watch” by Opera News, has rapidly established himself as one of today's exceptional young voices. He has collaborated with companies such as the New York Philharmonic, Verbier Festival, Santa Fe Opera and LA Opera, and he made his surprise Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in 2017 as Mao in John Adams’s Nixon in China conducted by the composer. Myers’s breakout performance was hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “brightly lighted to match his declaiming voice.” He has garnered acclaim for his “lovely, warm tenor of considerable promise” (Opera News), “possesses a voice of vocal grandeur” (The Morning Call) “insightful and beautifully nuanced performances” (Fort Worth Star-Telegram).

In recent seasons Myers has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera covering roles in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Additionally, he has been presented in recital by the Harvard Musical Association and featured in performances of Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with the Jacksonville Symphony.

In the 2021-2022 season, Myers returns to the Metropolitan Opera, covering productions of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. Myers also sings the role of Flavio in Bellini’s Norma with Teatro Regio di Parma in Parma, Italy. Additionally, he makes orchestral debuts with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia singing Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings.

Myers made his New York Philharmonic debut in the 2018-2019 season in the world premiere of David Lang’s fully staged opera, prisoner of the state. Directed by Elkhanah Pulitzer, prisoner of the state was released as an album on the Decca Gold label in June 2020. That same season, Myers returned to the LA Phil to participate in a new production of John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2 in collaboration with The Industry and under the direction of Yuval Sharon. Myers’s additional recent performances include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at Carnegie Hall with the Canterbury Choral Society, and a recital at the Kennedy Center after winning Vocal Arts DC’s 2017 Art Song Competition.

Highlights of Myers’s extensive opera repertoire include Pollione in Norma (LA Opera), Don Jose in Carmen (Music Academy of the West), Cassio in Otello (Portland Summer Fest), Trin in La Fanciulla del West (Santa Fe Opera), Valerio in Mercadante's Virginia (Wexford Festival Opera), Aufide in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon (Collegiate Chorale/Carnegie Hall), Steve Wozniak in the workshop of Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Santa Fe Opera), and Junior/Charlie in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain (Santa Fe Opera). As a Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts, Myers performed the roles of Duca di Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Prince Sinodal in Rubinstein’s The Demon, Bacchus in Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos, and the Prince in Dvorak’s Rusalka. He has collaborated with Long Beach Opera to perform Michael Gordon’s Van Gogh, Gabriela Ortiz’s Camelia la Tejana: Unicamente La Verdad, Stewart Copeland’s Tell-Tale Heart, and a co-production of Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin with Chicago Opera Theater.

Additional concert appearances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Marcelo Lehninger and Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with Nir Kabaretti and Southwest Florida Symphony, opera arias and duets with Allentown Symphony Orchestra alongside soprano Angela Meade, Britten’s War Requiem at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York and in The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music with the Wexford Festival Orchestra, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Fairfield Chorale, and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes and other quartets with Performance Santa Fe. Myers has had the pleasure of performing in concert with composer Ricky Ian Gordon on three occasions: at the Chautauqua Institute Music Festival, Opera America's Salon Series: Exploring American Voices, and “Cliburn at the Modern,” the Van Cliburn Foundation's contemporary music series in Fort Worth, TX. He was a soloist with the Mark Morris Dance Group in their performances of The Muir, and with the American Musical Theatre Ensemble in September Songs: The Legacy of Kurt Weill.

Originally from southern California, Myers received his graduate and undergraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, was a Gerdine Young Artist with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Apprentice Artists with the Santa Fe Opera, an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy, and a fellow with the Music Academy of the West.

Myra Huang
Acclaimed by Opera News as being “among the top accompanists of her generation,” and “…a colouristic tour de force” by The New York Times, Grammy® Award-nominated pianist Myra Huang performs in recitals and chamber music concerts around the world. Highly sought after for her interpretation of lieder and art song as well as her depth of musicianship and impeccable technique, she regularly performs with acclaimed opera singers around the world. Last season Huang performed in recitals throughout the U.S., including The Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, The Kennedy Center, The Aspen Music Festival, Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan, Shriver Hall at Johns Hopkins University, and The Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. Her recital with tenor Lawrence Brownlee at Carnegie Hall was chosen by WQXR as one of 2018’s best classical recitals of the year, and Huang was chosen as the recipient of The Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artist Award for 2019 by The Classical Recording Foundation for her consummate artistry. Her participation with the “Emerging Voices” project under Nicholas Phan’s curation at The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in January 2020 included 6 concerts, exploring the themes of social connection through art song. Huang made her 92nd St Y debut in March, 2020 with mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, one of the first concerts that was streamed online during the covid-19 pandemic, which was viewed by over 77,000 people around the world from over 125 countries. She joins Lawrence Brownlee in September to record “Cycles of My Being” by Tyshawn Sorey, as well as “Larry Brownlee and Friends” for subscription broadcast.

Huang has served on the music staffs of the Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, and The Palau De Les Arts in Valencia, Spain. She worked closely with directors Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta as an assistant conductor at the Palau De Les Arts. From 2011-2013, she served as the Head of Music Staff at New York City Opera. She was a staff pianist for the Operalia competition, directed by Placido Domingo, performing at opera houses around the world such as Teatro alla Scala (Milan), The Royal Opera House (U.K.), The National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), and Teatro Real (Madrid). She has taught at young artist programs throughout the U.S. and abroad to train young opera singers and pianists, including Music Academy of the West and the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and is on the music staff of The Atkins Program in The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, as well as The Steans Institute at Ravinia. She is a part of the coaching staff in The Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, as well as The Atkins Program at The Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Huang is an avid recitalist and recording artist. Her recordings have received critical acclaim from the New York Times, Gramophone UK, Opera News, and The Boston Globe. Her recent album Gods and Monsters with tenor Nicholas Phan was nominated for the “Best Classical Vocal Solo Album” category at the 2018 Grammy® Awards. Of this album, Opera News stated that “Huang matches the tenor with pianistic arsenal of colors and attacks, controlled by her astonishing technique.” Her most recent album, Clairieres, on the Avie label with tenor Nicholas Phan, features the music of Lili and Nadia Boulanger, and has been released to critical acclaim anew. Other albums include Illuminations, Winter Words, and Still Falls the Rain on the Avie label with Nicholas Phan, and Paysages on the Bridge label with soprano Susanna Phillips, all released to critical acclaim. Huang is a Steinway Artist.

Booklet for John Matthew Myers: Desiderium – Barber • Griffes • Previn • Kander • Weill