A Silent Night Album Resonates
“These artists address the listener with the urgency of a prophet or an obsessive. World War I ended almost a century ago, but they make it seem present and pressing, like many of the songs it inspired. Artsong recitals rarely feel so grounded in reality.” The debut album from baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan is reviewed in Opera News and aired on radio stations across the U.S.
October 15, 2017
““These artists address the listener with the urgency of a prophet or an obsessive. World War I ended almost a century ago, but they make it seem present and pressing, like many of the songs it inspired. Art song recitals rarely feel so grounded in reality.””
A Silent Night, the first disc from baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan, has earned praise from Opera News and airtime on radio stations across the U.S. Hailed by The Washington Post as “refreshingly, marvelously different,” their WWI tribute album features the music of British, German, French, and American composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War.
Read the full review in Opera News.
Juilliard Duo Pay Tribute to WWI In Song
“The general reaction we have gotten from audiences is that it not only educates them, but it delivers them to a place and time that is really hard to feel without the music. People can actually feel these moments deeply within their souls and spirits.” Baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan release A Silent Night: A WWI Memorial in Song this month.
April 6, 2017
““This recital was so different – so refreshingly, marvelously different... The goal of a recital is not originality as much as making a statement as an artist. And at this, Brancy and Dugan succeeded superbly.””
Since their 2014 professional recital debut at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, baritone John Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan have crisscrossed the continent performing music inspired by and written during World War I. Hailed by The Washington Post as “refreshingly, marvelously different,” their WWI tribute program features the music of British, German, French, and American composers who lived through, fought in, and died in the Great War.
Performed for rapt audiences at Carnegie Hall, Joye in Aiken Festival, St. John’s College, University of Chicago, and the Société d’art vocal de Montréal, this acclaimed program has now been captured in the duo’s debut album, A Silent Night: A WWI Memorial in Song.
As official commemorative partners of the United States World War I Centennial Commission and its French counterpart, Mission du Centenaire, Brancy and Dugan perform at an April 6 event for foreign and American dignitaries. Commemorating the centennial of the U.S. entry into WWI, In Sacrifice for Liberty and Peace takes place at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, MO.
Ahead of the album’s wide release, event attendees are able to purchase advance copies of A Silent Night, with all proceeds benefiting Arts in the Armed Forces, a non-profit organization founded by Brancy and Dugan's fellow Juilliard alumnus, actor Adam Driver. In hopes of bridging the gap between artist and soldier, AITAF performs contemporary American theater free of charge at military installations around the world, for active duty military servicemembers, veterans, military caretakers, and their families.
The album’s official launch will take place at the Yamaha Piano Salon in New York City on April 28.
New Website Launched for Baritone Weston Hurt
"Faultless — stylistically on the money, dramatically committed, and displaying a vocalism that was perfectly even from the top to the bottom of his range." Weston Hurt's signature roles are the complex, menacing, cajoling heroes and villains immortalized by Verdi, Puccini, and Donizetti.
October 9, 2015
Verismo Communications is pleased to announce the launch of a new website for baritone Weston Hurt, whose signature roles are the complex, menacing, cajoling heroes and villains immortalized by Verdi, Puccini, and Donizetti.
This season Hurt makes role debuts as two of the operatic repertoire's most formidable villains – Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca and Iago in Verdi's Otello. He returns to Seattle Opera for major role debuts as Talbot in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and the title character in Verdi's Nabucco, inaugurates the Berkshire Opera Festival as Sharpless in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and makes his New Orleans Opera debut in his signature role of Germont in Verdi's La traviata. During a brief hiatus from his onstage manipulations and pleading, Weston will mentor students at the University of Texas at Austin's Sarah and Ernest Butler Opera Center.