Presser Award Winner Peter Tantsits Presents Music of Benjamin Britten April 28 By Charity Johnson ‘99
			Conservatory student Peter Tantsits, a senior voice performance major from Allentown, Pennsylvania, and recipient of the 2001 Presser Music Award, will present a concert, Music of Benjamin Britten, in Warner Concert Hall on Sunday, April 28, at 8 p.m. Accompanying him will be pianist Phyllis Chen ’99 of Chicago. Tantsits, who studies with Associate Professor of Singing Marlene Ralis Rosen, used his Presser grant to support a research and performance project focused on the song literature of Benjamin Britten. The Oberlin program is part of a recital tour that Tantsits and Chen began earlier this year in which they performed Britten’s music at venues in England, Russia, and the United States. The concert features works by Britten that Tantsits describes as "rarely heard but rather extraordinary." The pieces were selected from Britten's Quatre chansons françaises; Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo, Op. 22; The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, Op. 35; and The Poet's Echo, Op. 76. The program also includes some Baroque realizations from Harmonia Sacra and settings of W.H. Auden. To round out the program on the tour, Tantsits and Chen chose works by Schubert, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff, as well as a new work by Erik Spangler ’98, which will receive its premiere when the duo perform in Chicago this summer. "Britten's music," says Tantsits, "affords the perfect link between past and present while providing a conjunction of Italian, French, Russian, and -- of course -- British styles. Through this project Phyllis and I hope to illuminate a composer steeped in virtuosity, a composer whose timeless works never lost a sense of profound reality." Each year, the Theodore Presser Foundation awards $5,000 to an Oberlin student for a research project in the field of music. Faculty members sponsor interested students, who submit project proposals to a committee that selects a project for funding. Besides funding from the Presser Foundation, Tantsits’ recital tour received support from the Britten-Pears Foundation, the Gustav Holst Foundation, the Moscow Conservatory, and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE). ICE, founded by Huang Ruo ‘00 in 2000, is a flexible, rotating ensemble of 35 emerging musicians dedicated to seeking out and performing innovative chamber music. Claire Chase ’00 – a former Presser recipient herself – is the ensemble’s executive director. PHOTO CREDIT: BRIAN MCCONKEY
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