by Mark Tiarks | Link to Article
Once every summer, several Desert Chorale choristers are magically transformed into soloists for a song recital program. This year’s featured performers on the Artist Spotlight Recital are soprano Chelsea Helm, mezzo-soprano Dianna Grabowski, and baritone John Buffett.
Helm appears regularly with vocal groups Seraphic Fire, True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Washington D.C.’s The Thirteen, Kansas City’s Spire Chamber Ensemble, and Austin, Texas’ Conspirare. She’ll be performing “Nature, the Gentlest Mother” from Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson by Aaron Copland, 21st-century composer Julia J. Evans’ Three Songs at the End of Summer, and Andrew Maxfield’s intriguingly titled “Any Fool Can Get into an Ocean.”
Grabowski was a founding member of Armonia Celeste, an ensemble specializing in music of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque. She recently made her debut with the American Baroque Opera Company singing Holofernes in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans. Her program includes songs by Ernest Chausson, Claude Debussy, Ned Rorem, and Dominick Argento, as well as an excursion into show business, with “On the Steps of the Palace” from Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.
Buffett has performed with early music ensembles Apollo’s Fire, Bach Collegium San Diego, Boston Early Music Festival, and Oregon Bach Festival, as well as choral ensembles Seraphic Fire and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. His program has an aqueous focus, starting with Copland’s “Boatmen’s Dance” and Clara Schumann’s “Lorelei,” continuing with Franz Schubert’s “Auf dem Flusse” (“On the River”) and “Der Müller und Der Bach” (“The Miller and the Brook”), and wrapping up with Charles Ives’ “At the River” and Celius Dougherty’s “Shenandoah.”
