Lotte Lehmann Foundation
Encyclopedia
The Lotte Lehmann
Foundation, named for the great German
soprano
active in the first half of the 20th century, serves to preserve and perpetuate her legacy, and to honor her dream of bringing art song
into the lives of as many people as possible.
Gary Hickling, the founder of the Lehmann Foundation, met Lehmann in the early sixties, observing first the private lessons she gave at Orplid, her home in Santa Barbara
, and later, her master classes at the Music Academy of the West
http://www.musicacademy.org, which she helped found in 1947. Hickling became a noted expert on Lehmann’s career and work, compiling an official Lehmann discography in 1987. He continued to compile and collect material and memorabilia relating to Lehmann’s career, which now forms a significant part of the Lotte Lehmann Archive in Santa Barbara. The Foundation’s precursor, the Lotte Lehmann League, published a newsletter
from 1989-1994. The League has since 2011 been re-established, with only a website: http://www.lottelehmannleague.org. The Lotte Lehmann League website provides an in-depth look at Lehmann's career and includes extensive material on art song.
In the early years of its existence, Hickling was solely responsible for maintaining the Foundation, operations of which were transferred from Hawaii
to New York City
in 2003. The composer Daron Hagen
http://www.daronhagen.com was chosen as the newly-configured Foundation’s president, and an entirely new Board of Directors
was chosen at that time. Mezzo soprano Linn Maxwell was elected president in 2007. Since 2010 Larry Smith has been president. Hickling retired from the Foundation in 2005 and remains an emeritus member of the Board of Directors.
The Lehmann Foundation is now one of the most highly-respected non-profit musical foundations in the United States. Its activities include two competitions, the first of which, the internet-based CyberSing vocal competition http://www.lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/cybersing/about.html occurs every two years and solicits recordings from singers the world over. Entrants submit recordings of appropriate literature, including a song written expressly for the competition by a distinguished composer. Such songs have been contributed in past years by Ned Rorem
http://www.nedrorem.com, Libby Larsen
http://www.libbylarsen.com and Dan Welcher
http://www.danwelcher.com. Winners are chosen solely on the basis of their recorded submissions. Laureates of the 2006 competition include sopranos Debra Stanley and Danielle Talamanteshttp://www.danielletalamantes.com and baritone Andrew Garlandhttp://www.andrewgarland.com.
The ASCAPhttp://www.ascap.com/index.html/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition http://www.lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/ascapllf, which occurs in alternating years with CyberSing, solicits compositions by young composers resident in or native of the United States; winners receive commissions to compose individual songs or, in the case of the First Prize recipient, a song cycle. Winners of the 2005 competition include Scott Gendel and Mark Buntag. Gendel’s prize-winning commission, the song cycle
The Space Between was published by E.C. Schirmerhttp://www.ecspublishing.com and premiered by soprano Martha Guthhttp://www.gossageartists.com/martha.html and pianist Bradley Moore on 24 February 2007 at the Bruno Walter
auditorium in New York under the auspices of the Joy in Singing Foundation.
VoxNova Media http://www.voxnovamedia.com comprises another important aspect of the Foundation’s activities. The mission of this division is to produce media in a variety of forms, including audio recordings, video recordings, printed materials. VNM will reissue historical audio recordings by Lehmann and her colleagues, present new recordings of contemporary vocal repertoire and of the vocal art of contemporary interpreters, and develop and distribute scholarly resources and educational materials relevant to cultivating the vocal art in which Lotte Lehmann’s legacy lives on.
In addition to these programs and activities, the Foundation presents an annual World of Song Award http://www.lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/worldofsong which alternates among composers, singers, and collaborative pianists and serves to recognize those who have devoted their creative lives to this enriching form of music. Its most recent recipient is John Wustman, the distinguished American collaborative pianist and educator; previous recipients include composers Dominick Argento
http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2691 and Ned Rorem
http://www.nedrorem.com, pianist
s Dalton Baldwin
and Graham Johnsonhttp://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=johnson, tenor
Hugues Cuénod
and baritone
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
http://www.andante.com/profiles/DFD/biography.cfm. The Foundation also publishes SongScape, a biannual newsletter, edited by Board Member Craig Urquharthttp://www.craigurquhart.com and featuring news of the Foundation’s activities. The Foundation continues to expand its programs and in future will sponsor master class
es and art song
recital
s.
A full description of the Foundation, its Board Members and its various programs, as well as archival material on Lotte Lehmann
herself, is available on the Foundation’s website.
Lotte Lehmann
Charlotte "Lotte" Lehmann was a German soprano who was especially associated with German repertory. She gave memorable performances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier was considered her greatest...
Foundation, named for the great German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
active in the first half of the 20th century, serves to preserve and perpetuate her legacy, and to honor her dream of bringing art song
Art song
An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
into the lives of as many people as possible.
Gary Hickling, the founder of the Lehmann Foundation, met Lehmann in the early sixties, observing first the private lessons she gave at Orplid, her home in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, and later, her master classes at the Music Academy of the West
Music Academy of the West
The Music Academy of the West is a music conservatory located in Montecito, California near Santa Barbara, California. Every year, it hosts a summer music festival for the community highlighted by concerts and workshops directed by famous composers, conductors, and artists.A yearly maximum of 135...
http://www.musicacademy.org, which she helped found in 1947. Hickling became a noted expert on Lehmann’s career and work, compiling an official Lehmann discography in 1987. He continued to compile and collect material and memorabilia relating to Lehmann’s career, which now forms a significant part of the Lotte Lehmann Archive in Santa Barbara. The Foundation’s precursor, the Lotte Lehmann League, published a newsletter
Newsletter
A newsletter is a regularly distributed publication generally about one main topic that is of interest to its subscribers. Newspapers and leaflets are types of newsletters. Additionally, newsletters delivered electronically via email have gained rapid acceptance for the same reasons email in...
from 1989-1994. The League has since 2011 been re-established, with only a website: http://www.lottelehmannleague.org. The Lotte Lehmann League website provides an in-depth look at Lehmann's career and includes extensive material on art song.
In the early years of its existence, Hickling was solely responsible for maintaining the Foundation, operations of which were transferred from Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 2003. The composer Daron Hagen
Daron Hagen
Daron Aric Hagen , is an American composer, conductor, pianist, educator, librettist, and stage director of contemporary classical music and opera.- Early life and education :...
http://www.daronhagen.com was chosen as the newly-configured Foundation’s president, and an entirely new Board of Directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
was chosen at that time. Mezzo soprano Linn Maxwell was elected president in 2007. Since 2010 Larry Smith has been president. Hickling retired from the Foundation in 2005 and remains an emeritus member of the Board of Directors.
The Lehmann Foundation is now one of the most highly-respected non-profit musical foundations in the United States. Its activities include two competitions, the first of which, the internet-based CyberSing vocal competition http://www.lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/cybersing/about.html occurs every two years and solicits recordings from singers the world over. Entrants submit recordings of appropriate literature, including a song written expressly for the competition by a distinguished composer. Such songs have been contributed in past years by Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
http://www.nedrorem.com, Libby Larsen
Libby Larsen
Libby Larsen is one of America’s most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over fifteen operas...
http://www.libbylarsen.com and Dan Welcher
Dan Welcher
Dan Welcher is an American composer, conductor, and music educator.- Biography :Welcher was born in Rochester, New York and earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music, studying bassoon, piano, and composition...
http://www.danwelcher.com. Winners are chosen solely on the basis of their recorded submissions. Laureates of the 2006 competition include sopranos Debra Stanley and Danielle Talamanteshttp://www.danielletalamantes.com and baritone Andrew Garlandhttp://www.andrewgarland.com.
The ASCAPhttp://www.ascap.com/index.html/Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition http://www.lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/ascapllf, which occurs in alternating years with CyberSing, solicits compositions by young composers resident in or native of the United States; winners receive commissions to compose individual songs or, in the case of the First Prize recipient, a song cycle. Winners of the 2005 competition include Scott Gendel and Mark Buntag. Gendel’s prize-winning commission, the song cycle
Song cycle
A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet or lyricist. Unification can be achieved by a narrative or a persona common to the songs, or even, as in Schumann's...
The Space Between was published by E.C. Schirmerhttp://www.ecspublishing.com and premiered by soprano Martha Guthhttp://www.gossageartists.com/martha.html and pianist Bradley Moore on 24 February 2007 at the Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...
auditorium in New York under the auspices of the Joy in Singing Foundation.
VoxNova Media http://www.voxnovamedia.com comprises another important aspect of the Foundation’s activities. The mission of this division is to produce media in a variety of forms, including audio recordings, video recordings, printed materials. VNM will reissue historical audio recordings by Lehmann and her colleagues, present new recordings of contemporary vocal repertoire and of the vocal art of contemporary interpreters, and develop and distribute scholarly resources and educational materials relevant to cultivating the vocal art in which Lotte Lehmann’s legacy lives on.
In addition to these programs and activities, the Foundation presents an annual World of Song Award http://www.lottelehmann.org/llf/programs/worldofsong which alternates among composers, singers, and collaborative pianists and serves to recognize those who have devoted their creative lives to this enriching form of music. Its most recent recipient is John Wustman, the distinguished American collaborative pianist and educator; previous recipients include composers Dominick Argento
Dominick Argento
Dominick Argento is an American composer, best known as a leading composer of lyric opera and choral music...
http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2691 and Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
http://www.nedrorem.com, pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
s Dalton Baldwin
Dalton Baldwin
Dalton Baldwin is an American collaborative pianist. He has made over 100 recordings and has won numerous prizes working with Elly Ameling and Gérard Souzay.-External links:*...
and Graham Johnsonhttp://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=johnson, tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Hugues Cuénod
Hugues Cuénod
Hugues-Adhémar Cuénod was a Swiss tenor known for his performances in opera, operetta, both traditional and musical theatre, and on the concert stage, where he was particularly known for his light, romantic and expressive interpretation of mélodie...
and baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"...
http://www.andante.com/profiles/DFD/biography.cfm. The Foundation also publishes SongScape, a biannual newsletter, edited by Board Member Craig Urquharthttp://www.craigurquhart.com and featuring news of the Foundation’s activities. The Foundation continues to expand its programs and in future will sponsor master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
es and art song
Art song
An art song is a vocal music composition, usually written for one voice with piano or orchestral accompaniment. By extension, the term "art song" is used to refer to the genre of such songs....
recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
s.
A full description of the Foundation, its Board Members and its various programs, as well as archival material on Lotte Lehmann
Lotte Lehmann
Charlotte "Lotte" Lehmann was a German soprano who was especially associated with German repertory. She gave memorable performances in the operas of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, Puccini, Mozart and Massenet. The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier was considered her greatest...
herself, is available on the Foundation’s website.