Concert Premiere of new song cycle by John Sichel in Summit



(SUMMIT, NJ) — On Saturday, November 11, 2023 at the United Methodist Church of Summit (17 Kent Place Boulevard), bass Hans Tashjian and pianist Anna Keiserman will premiere Paradoxides, a new song cycle by John Sichel.  The concert is free to the public and begins at 7:00pm.

Bass Hans Tashjian has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Teatro Nuovo and Opera Baltimore, in roles ranging from Mephistopheles (in Gounod’s Faust) to Figaro (in Rossini’s Barber of Seville) and has appeared in new operas by Joel Thompson and Brett Dean.  Hans is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Music, where he appeared in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Rachmaninoff’s Aleko.

Anna Keiserman’s performance credits in New York City include performing at Le Poisson Rouge, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the Fête de La Musique at the invitation of the French American Piano Society. Other notable venues include the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts (Toms River, NJ) and the Strand Theater (Hudson Falls, NY), Ateneu Barcelonès (Barcelona, Spain).  Her recordings include 2019’s Russian Mosaic, on the Sheva Collection label and recent recordings of works by Catalan composers on the Parma label.  Her recording of John Sichel’s Piano Saxophone Quintet, with Paul Cohen et al., is scheduled for a 2024 release on the Parma label.  Anna has served as faculty at the NYU Steinhardt School of the Arts, at the Rutgers University Extension Division, and at William Paterson University. Having earned degrees from the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow and the University of Minnesota, Dr. Keiserman completed her Doctorate in Piano Performance at Rutgers University, has taught at Rutgers, NYU, William Paterson College and Raritan Valley Community College.

Composer John Sichel has written widely in a variety of media, including songs, chamber music, choral works and music for orchestra.  He was artist in residence at Capulin Volcano National Monument, NM, in November 2022. His Paradoxides, also dating from 2022 is a cycle of 9 songs on texts by Canadian poet Don McKay, concerning our relationship with the natural world.  John received his doctorate from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman and Nicholas Maw, in 1990. His works, including orchestrations, have been recorded on the Parma, Newport Classic, Musicians Showcase and Naxos labels.  He is on the faculty of Raritan Valley Community College.