GenZ Voice Recitals: Water, hoop en vergankelijkheid

Splendor and Stichting VoorUit are happy to present "GenZ Voice Recitals”. This series of four double recitals offers the audience a fresh look at classical music through the lens of Generation Z. Eight talented voice students from the Conservatory of Amsterdam and their duo partners take you on a musical journey around the world, with each performance focusing on unique songs or arias from the country of origin of the performing singer.

The fourth and final stage: “Reimagining Water” & “Between hope and impermanence”

“Reimagining Water”

Soprano Wei-Wei Li and pianist Isaac Lam present a program in which the element of water is the connecting factor. For Wei-Wei, water is (fascinatingly enough) an anchor point in her multifaceted life. It connects her present with her past, her ‘here’ with her ‘there’. “I was born in Taiwan and have been on a journey of (self)discovery since I left my hometown as a teenager. My path has taken me through Singapore, where I lived for four years, and now Amsterdam, where I have spent another four. As a classical singer, I sometimes find myself inhabiting characters far from my own identity, to the point where I sometimes lose sight of who I am. However, when I gaze at the shimmering water, the dancing lights seem to take me back to the seas, lakes, and rivers of my past. In those moments, I gradually reconnect the different versions of myself from various time zones, reminding me that I am still me, time continues to flow, and the journey of exploration is far
from over.
“Reimagining Water” reflects this connection through the theme of water, which serves as a metaphor for the fluidity of identity and the sense of home across different cultures. “Water, in its various forms—whether in rivers, seas, or lakes—remains intrinsicallythe same. It flows and transforms, but its essence does not change.”

Hsiao Ty-Zen:
- “永遠的故鄉” (YǒngYuǎn De GùXiāng - Eternal Homeland)
Liú Qīng:
- “越人歌” (YuèRén Gē - The Song from Yue)
Qīng Zhǔ:
- “我住長江頭” ( Wǒ Zhù ChángJiāngTóu - Dwelling Upstream)

Nicholas Ho:
- “Singapore River”

Robert Schumann:
- “Waldesgespräch” (uit “Liederkreis” op. 39)

Henri Duparc:
- “L’invitation au voyage”
Giacomo Puccini:
- “Donde lieta usci” (uit “La bohème”)

George Frideric Handel:
- “Da tempeste il legno infranto” (uit “Giulio Cesare in Egitto”)

“Between hope and impermanence”

In our lives we all have to deal with mourning: mourning a loved one, a family member or a friend, but also smaller forms of mourning such as leaving an old version of yourself behind, mourning for a future that is no longer possible or mourning for the passing of summer. This theme, the impermanence of things, is the common thread in this recital. Soprano Sara Corbey and pianist Matthijs Jongen investigate different forms of transience and what is opposite to it: hope. Hope for redemption from mourning, for a better world or for freedom. The song cycle ‘Love Songs’, by the Dutch composer Bertha Frensel Wegener Koopman based on poems by the Indian Rabindranath Tagore, is central to this. The theme is further expressed by composers Clara Schumann, Lili Boulanger and Kurt Weill, who each tried to express these universal emotions in their own way.

Clara Schumann-Wieck:
- “Sechs lieder” op. 13
1. Ich stand in dunklen Träumen
2. Sie liebten sich beide
3. Liebeszauber
4. Der Mond kommt still gegangen
5. Ich hab in deinen Auge
6. Die stille Lotusblume

Bertha Frensel Wegener Koopman:
- “Love Songs”
1. Day after day
2. Do not go my love
3. Love my heart longs day and night

Lili Boulanger:
- “Clairières dans le ciel”
I. Elle était descendue au bas de la prairie
II. Elle est gravement gaie
VII. Nous nous aimerons

Kurt Weill:
- “Youkali”

On January 12, February 9 and March 9 there are “GenZ Voice Recitals” as well. Buy a discounted passe-partout for the entire series before January 12!

LineupG:
Wei-Wei Li (soprano) & Isaac Lam (piano)
Sara Corbey (soprano) & Matthijs Jongen (piano)