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originally published: 10/26/2023 

(LEFT) Anna Keiserman (RIGHT) Hans Tashjian

(BRANCHBURG, NJ) -- Raritan Valley Community College's Arts & Design department will present Paradoxides, a concert of vocal music, November 19, 2023 at 2:00pm. The event, which will feature bass-baritone Hans Tashjian and pianist Anna Keiserman, is part of the MOZAIKA Concert Series' current season. It will be held in the Welpe Theatre at the College’s Branchburg campus.

The performance will feature the world premiere of the song cycle Paradoxides by composer John Sichel and Three Tennyson Songs by Jonathan Dove.

Bass-baritone Hans Tashjian most recently sang the title role in Handel's Imeneo with Opera Essentia. Other highlights include his debut at the Metropolitan Opera singing Count Ceprano in Rigoletto and appearances with Opera Baltimore as Méphistophélès in Faust; performances at Teatro Nuovo as Callistene in Poliuto and the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia; and at Houston Grand Opera as Billy in the world premiere of The Snowy Day. This season he is performing with the American Opera Project’s Composers & the Voice program. He is an alumnus of the Yale School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Russian-born pianist Anna Keiserman is known for her creative programming, expressive freedom, and singular vision. Performance credits include the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Le Poisson Rouge (New York City), the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts (Toms River), the Strand Theater (Hudson Falls, NY), and Ateneu BarceloneÌs (Barcelona, Spain). Highlights of the 2022 season included concert tours and masterclasses in Minnesota, Virginia, and Kansas. She also was featured in the trio for saxophone, bassoon and piano, Bercesue-Lament, by Marc Migoì Cortes, which was released in fall 2022 by the PARMA Record label. In September 2020, she joined the RVCC faculty as an Assistant Professor of Piano.

Composer John Sichel is Professor of Music at RVCC. His recent works include Capulin Variations, written after his artist's residency at Capulin Volcano National Monument; a Piano-Saxophone Quintet, recorded for PARMA Records featuring Anna Keiserman and Paul Cohen; and The Earth Laments Her Butterflies, written as part of a "Sustainability Across the Curriculum" initiative from RVCC's Environmental Studies program. Dr. Sichel’s song cycle, Paradoxides (2022), focuses on poems by Canadian poet Don McKay. The works deal with birds, bugs and geology, and he uses those topics to contemplate, often humorously, questions of deep time, mortality, and the frustration of trying to express the inexpressible.

 

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The MOZAIKA Concert Series is designed to promote multicultural dialogue through the performance of music from the classical canon through the 21st Century. Concert proceeds will benefit the Applied Music Fund for purchases of musical instruments and scholarships for RVCC music students. 

A post-performance discussion with the artists will follow the concert. General admission tickets cost $15 each; admission is free for seniors and students. For advance ticket reservations, contact the RVCC Theatre Box Office at 908-725-3420. For additional information, visit www.rvccmusicprogram.org.

The MOZAIKA Concert Series is made possible by funds from the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission, a partner of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, New Jersey.