Graham & Robin Bier present English Song Recital at Glencairn

Graham Bier, bass-baritone, and Robin Bier, contralto, present Fairest Isle: Music and Poetry from Britain in Glencairn Museum’s Great Hall on Saturday, May 11, at 7:30pm.

Though the Biers have been heard frequently at Glencairn Museum as co-directors of renowned early-music vocal ensemble Les Canards Chantants, this performance features them as soloists in a recital of the best of English poetry exquisitely set to music by British song composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. Pairings of poet and composer include Robert Louis Stevenson and Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Shakespeare and Gerald Finzi, John Keats and Charles Villiers Stanford, A.E. Housman and George Butterworth, Robert Browning and Arthur Somervell, and W.H. Auden and Elisabeth Lutyens.

Graham and Robin Bier are accompanied by acclaimed Philadelphia pianist Mark Livshits.

Doors open at 7:00pm. $20 General Admission, $15 Basic Members/Seniors/Students, Free for Gold and Patron Members. Advance tickets and Patron members-only reserved seats available until 5pm Thursday, May 9, at the Museum or call 267.502.2990; after May 11, only at the door.

For more information: 267.502.2990 or www.GlencairnMuseum.org. Glencairn Museum: 1001 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn 19009.

Robin Bier has been praised for her inimitable, resonant contralto (Phindie), “particularly moving singing” (Cleveland Classical) and “mysterious, dark hue and sauntering presence” (San Francisco Classical Voice). As a soloist she has appeared with American Bach Soloists, the Sarasota Orchestra and the English Symphony Orchestra, among others. Locally, she can regularly be heard singing with Choral Arts Philadelphia and Opera Philadelphia, and joins the Bryn Athyn Orchestra in June as the contralto soloist for Sir Edward Elgar’s beloved song cycle Sea Pictures.

Graham Bier, bass-baritone, studied English art song with acclaimed British baritones Stephen Varco and Richard Jackson, and has specialized in this genre on both sides of the pond. He has performed and recorded with Stile Antico, I Fagiolini, Les Canards Chantants and the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists among others; he enjoys an active career as a choral conductor, conducting British Chamber Choir The 24 in England, Scotland, Serbia and China before taking up posts as Director of Music at Bryn Athyn Church and Artistic Director of the Reading Choral Society.

GRAMMY-nominated pianist Mark Livshits is one of the most highly sought-after soloists and chamber musicians in Philadelphia. As a soloist, he has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and internationally in concert at the Salzburg Festival and Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. Dr. Livshits enjoys a close working relationship with the Philadelphia Orchestra and can be heard regularly on their subscription concert series as well as in recital with members of the orchestra. Glencairn concert-goers may remember hearing him in recital at the Museum some years past, when the concert series was still curated by the late Lachlan Pitcairn.