Serenata season opens with songs of Schubert
Serenata of Santa Fe’s season opener places the songs of Franz Schubert within SITE Santa Fe’s “Bel Canto: Contemporary Artists Explore Opera.”
Tenor Karim Sulayman and pianist Yi-heng Yang will perform Schubert’s art songs within SITE’s operatic-themed exhibition on Friday, Aug. 30.
Past concerts have been located at Santa Fe’s First Presbyterian Church.
“We wanted to reach out and expand a little bit with what music means in connection with other arts and people,” Serenata artistic director Pamela Epple said.
Schubert’s songs are rooted in German folk songs, Epple said. The text hails from a bevy of poets, including Goethe.
“Schubert really epitomizes Bel Canto (Italian for beautiful voice),” Epple said. “His songs are all about beauty and pleasure and pain and they are a mirror to real life. This concert is kind of the idea of a wanderer expressing his thoughts and contemplating his existence on our beautiful earth.”
A Chicago native, Sulayman is a Lebanese-American singer who has garnered international attention. A 2019 Grammy Award-winner, he performs in both orchestral concerts and opera. He and Yang — a Serenata regular — have recently recorded together.
“He’s really a musical poet,” Epple said. “He’s dynamic. He’s very active in opera and New Music.”
The singer also recorded the video “I Trust You” in front of New York’s Trump Tower shortly after the 2016 election.
“He’s blindfolded in Central Park with a sign saying, ‘I am an Arab-American and I am afraid. If you can find the trust, please feel free to give me a hug’.”
Attendees can view it in the SITE lobby both before and after the concert.
“It’s a beautiful moment,” Epple said.