Longing, Hope and Fulfillment: Ich habe genug

The Colorado Chamber Players, now in its 16^th season, embarks on an ongoing celebration in 2010, of J.S. Bach’s 325^th birthday.  One of Bach’s most profoundly moving cantatas, Ich habe genug, BWV82, will feature Robert Gardner, Baritone in his debut with the Chamber Players; Lisa Martin, Oboe; and Stephen Tappe, Continuo Organ. Cantata #82 is a serene contemplation of death, and features one of the composer’s most beautiful arias, “Schlummert ein.”  Bach's Cantata #158 Der Friede sei mit dir  and Schubert’s A minor string quartet will complete the program.  St. John's own Schola Cantorum will sing the chorale movements.

Baritone Robert Gardner has appeared on opera and concert stages throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. He is the 2007 winner of the Lili Boulanger Memorial Award, and is thus considered a “musician of exceptional talent and integrity” by the internationally renowned Nadia and Lili Boulanger Foundation. Typically reserved for composers, conductors and instrumentalists, he is only the third singer to win the coveted award since 1939. A roster artist of the American Modern Ensemble in New York, Robert Gardner has performed new works by renowned composers John Harbison and Aaron Jay Kernis Rob Paterson and David Heuser, and appeared as the central character in a new symphony by Kernis written for him with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony in June 2009. Other modern music projects include an evening-length cycle of songs by Gabriela Lena Frank entitled Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea, premiered at Carnegie Hall, and also under the auspices of David Finckel and Wu Han at Music@Menlo, where he also served as faculty. He has appeared with New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Bavarian National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Colorado, Central City Opera, Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, Palm Beach Opera, Edmonton Opera, the Munich Philharmonic, and has sung concerts with major symphonies in the U.S., including Pittsburgh, Seattle, Dallas, Denver, San Diego, Santa Rosa, New Haven and Kansas City. He will appear again with Colorado Symphony in 2010 in Jeffrey Kahane’s penultimate concert there, singing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. While maintaining a busy singing schedule, he has taught master classes as a guest clinician at the university level, and is now principal conductor of the Colorado Choral Arts Society at the magnificent St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Denver.