Join for “Songs from the Lands of Fire and Ice: An Evening of Nordic Art Song”! Baritone and ASF Fellow Colin Levin and composer-pianist Evan Fein present a diverse program of contemporary and classical song, featuring works by Halldór Smárason, Jórunn Viðar, Frederik Österling, Jean Sibelius, and others.

This event will take place at Scandinavia House in Victor Borge Hall.

Advance purchase is strongly encouraged; purchases tickets at the link above.

Baritone Colin Levin specializes in both the performance and research of Nordic vocal literature, with a focus on the repertoire and lyric diction of Icelandic art song. Recent Nordic art song performances include those given at the Centre for Scandinavian Studies Copenhagen-Lund-Hankuk (CSS) in Lund, Sweden, the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study (SASS) in both Puerto Rico and Austin, TX, the Sam Houston State University Art Song Festival, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Faculty Recital Series. He additionally frequently lectures on this subject matter, including guest appearances with Listaháskóli Íslands/Iceland University of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland, the Longy School of Music of Bard College, at Alma Mater University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign and the University of Wisconsin: Oshkosh. In summer 2023 he will be a featured clinician at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Workshop in San Diego presenting on Nordic vocal literature, and will appear as a soloist with the Nordisk Sångfestival in Trollhättan, Sweden. He additionally was selected as an American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) Fellow for 2023-24; he will be collaborating with contemporary Icelandic composers in building a historical record of the vocal literature, in addition to preparing and performing a new edition of Jórunn Viðar’s final song Gátur fyrir konunga.

Recent seasons have witnessed him performing the Operatic roles of Mozart, Rossini, Puccini, and Britten while also participating in the creation of new American works. Highlights of the 2022-2023 performance season includes a return to Carnegie Hall as the Baritone soloist in the Faure Requiem with Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY), the lead role of Pierre Birabeau/Red Shadow in Sigmund Romberg’s The Desert Song with Winter Opera St. Louis, and several world premier Operas in New York City including the cover of the lead role Charles Darwin in the Premier of the Opera Southern Crossings by Zaid Jabri/Yvette Christiansen at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater. Career highlights include his Carnegie Hall debut as Baritone soloist in Mark Hayes’ Gloria with DCINY, Manfred Lewin in Heggie’s For a Look or a Touch at Jordan Hall with the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, Baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with the Boston University Tanglewood Chorus, Papageno in The Magic Flute with Opera on the James, Schaunard in La Boheme with both Opera Roanoke and Opera Connecticut, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri with Opera Company of Middlebury, and the lead role of Thomas Brown in Sullivan’s The Zoo with Odyssey Opera, in addition to covering the title role in Hindemith’s Cardillac with Opera Boston. He appears as Merriman under Maestro Gil Rose in the 2020 world premiere recording of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s The Importance of Being Earnest on the BMOP Label.

Colin holds Degrees in both Vocal Performance and Musicology from the Oberlin Conservatory, University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign, and Rutgers University where his doctoral document “The Value of Icelandic Art Song within the Context of Higher Education” earned him the Irene Alm Memorial Prize for Excellence in Performance and Scholarly Research. He additionally studied the Icelandic language at Háskólasetur Vestfjarða/University Centre of the Westfjords in Ísafjörður, Iceland. He serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Long Island University: Brooklyn – Roc Nation School of Music as the Music Performance Department Director, and previously served on Music History and Voice Faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute from 2013-2022.

American composer Evan Fein was born in Cleveland, Ohio and currently resides in New York City, where he serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School Pre-College and Extension Divisions. His music has been widely performed at home and abroad — including in France, Germany, China, Iceland, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands — and has been performed by organizations including Musica Sacra, Opéra de Poche, The Albany Symphony, Marble City of Opera, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and The New York Choreographic Institute. Fein was named winner of the American  Prize for Composition in 2022, was awarded the 2014 Palmer Dixon Prize for Outstanding Composition, and is the recipient of honors from the ASCAP Foundation, Boston Metro Opera, and the American Scandinavian Society.  He additionally serves as Trustee for Artistic Initiatives for the Oratorio Society of New York.  He is the author of Inner Hearing, a sight singing method book published by Theodore Presser Company in 2020.

Career highlights include serving as Composer-in-Residence (Artiste Associé) for the Paris-based chamber opera troupe Opéra de Poche, a post he held from 2012-2020, and the premiere of his oratorio Deborah by Musica Sacra at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in 2016 under the direction of Kent Tritle.  Also an accomplished collaborative pianist, Fein’s debut album Over/Under created with cellist Luke Severn will be released on the Move Records label in summer 2023.

Evan Fein holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts and a Master of Music from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. In addition, he pursued auxiliary studies at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUBiS) and L’École Normale de Musique de Paris (EAMA).