UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State Professor Emerita Susan Boardman, joined by collaborative pianist Michael Scherperel, will present a recital at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 9, in Esber Recital Hall. Her program features art songs by Haydn, Schubert, and Barber. Highlighting the program is "Shiv'eem," written specifically for Boardman by Michael Scherperel. They are joined in this performance by Penn State faculty violinist Max Zorin. Free Admission.
Program
Selected English Songs – Franz Josef Haydn
Selected Songs – Franz Peter Schubert
Shiv'eem, Op. 54 – Michael Scherperel (with Max Zorin, violin)
Hermit Songs, Op. 29 – Samuel Barber
Susan Boardman was associate professor of music at The Pennsylvania State University through Spring 2008, where she taught voice and directed the Penn State Opera Theatre. Before joining the Penn State music faculty in 1993, she spent seventeen years teaching voice, vocal pedagogy, and opera at the University of Miami in Florida.
Boardman, a lyric soprano, has appeared with the Florida Family Opera of the Greater Miami Opera Association, the Gold Coast Theater, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, Gusman Hall Chamber Players, Festival Miami, the Dranoff Double Piano Symposium, the Miami Bach Society, the Nittany Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Centre Chamber Orchestra, the State College Choral Society, and Penn State's Centre Stage, among other musical organizations. She has presented solo recitals in Europe and Australia as well as the United States, achieved renown as a singer of new music, and premiered a number of vocal works.
She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a doctor of musical arts in vocal performance from the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Her research on art song settings of folksongs and vocal training for a career in musical theatre has been published in the Music Educators Journal, the Journal of Singing, and Australian Voice. She sits on the board of directors of the National Opera Association.
Michael Scherperel studied composition and conducting at the Eastman School of Music and later undertook graduate studies in piano, composition, and conducting at Boston University. He holds an M.Mus. degree in collaborative piano from the University of Miami. Scherperel has been at various times a vocal coach at the American Institute of Musical Studies (Graz, Austria), chorusmaster and assistant conductor with the Greater Miami Opera, music director of the Broward Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the Fort Lauderdale Symphony Chorus. His mentors have included Walter Hendl, Gardner Read and Leonard Shure. Scherperel has written numerous compositions for Susan Boardman, including the song cycle "Shiv'eem" to be heard on this program. More information about Michael Scherperel can be found on his personal website.