Guest Artist Bonnie Draina Sings of Love and Loss

With a program that ranges from Mozart and Schubert to Japanese lullabies and poems by Emily Dickinson set to the music of contemporary composers, soprano Bonnie Draina visits HSU from Boulder, Colorado, for a Guest Artist concert on Monday, November 17 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

Draina describes the program as featuring “Classical and Romantic pieces about abandoned and lovelorn women.”

Also highlighted are settings of Emily Dickinson poems by 20th century American composers William Roy, Ricky Ian Gordon, Richard Pearson Thomas and Lee Hoiby.

“Hoiby's ‘The Shining Place’ is comprised of five songs of vastly differing mood, from mournful to celebratory, in which both poet and composer draw parallels between forces of nature and human emotion, “ Draina said.

Draina will sing selections from "Hushaby Songs" by Sayaka Ishiguro, adapted from traditional lullabies from various regions of Japan. She will also perform “Perpetuelle” by 19th century French romantic composer Ernest Chausson. “This is more often heard with a piano quintet or orchestra,” she said, “but the piano and vocal version is gorgeous, too.”

As a special treat for the Humboldt audience, she will sing the Susanna-Countess duet from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with HSU soprano Elisabeth Harrington.

Bonnie Draina currently teaches studio voice and vocal pedagogy at University of Colorado-Boulder. She specializes in Body Mapping and somatic education of singers. Her most recent performances include an all-Mozart program with the Boulder Philharmonic, and as soprano soloist for Stravinsky's Les Noces, with choir and percussion/piano ensemble at Colorado University.

Bonnie Draina performs on Monday, November 17 at 8 pm in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus. Tickets are $8 general, $3 students/seniors from the HSU Box Office (826-3928) or at the door. This is a Guest Artist concert, produced by the HSU Department of Music.

Media: Arcata Eye, Humboldt State Now.