Trio to present Hugo Wolf’s ‘Italian Songbook’ March 3 at Idaho State University Stephens Center

A trio comprised of Idaho State University music faculty soprano Diana Livingston-Friedley and tenor Geoffrey Friedley, and pianist and guest artist Jeffrey Price from the University of Utah will perform Hugo Wolf's "Italian Songbook" on Saturday, March 3.

The concert will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Joseph C. and Cheryl H. Jensen Grand Concert Hall of ISU's L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center.

The 46 songs of Wolf's collection are settings of poems by late-nineteenth-century German poet and linguist, Paul Heyse. Heyse's poems are themselves free translations of popular Italian poems that deal sometimes seriously, often humorously, with different aspects of love, relationships, and the human condition.

Onstage seating will be limited. Tickets can be purchased at the door or at the ISU Stephens Center Box Office or by calling 208-282-3595. Ticket prices are adults, $10; ISU faculty and staff, $7; precollege students, $5; and ISU students, free.

Soprano Diana Livingston-Friedley has appeared as a guest soloist with numerous organizations including: Idaho State Civic Symphony; Idaho Falls Symphony; Fresno Philharmonic; Nebraska Choral Arts Society; St. Cecilia Chorus and Chamber Orchestra of New York; Central Jersey Symphony Orchestra; and the Bremen Camerata Instrumentale in Germany. As a guest artist she has performed at Merkin Hall in N. Y.; at the Fifth Contemporary Clarinet Festival at Michigan State University; on the Orpheus Concert Series in Fresno, California; and at the Taiwanese American 9/11 Benefit Concert in Chicago. With ISU’s Trio Lyrique Diana performed for the McCall Concert Series and at the 2005 Inaugural Concert for the Jensen Grand Concert Hall.

Livingston-Friedley has also performed numerous operatic roles and worked with opera companies in New York including: Opera Orchestra of New York, Bronx Opera Company, American Chamber Opera Company, and The Liederkranz Foundation. She completed degrees at Westminster Choir College, Indiana University and Rutgers University. Dr. Livingston Friedley is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Idaho State University.

Tenor Geoffrey Friedley performs regularly throughout Idaho and beyond as a soloist in recital, oratorio, and opera. Spring 2012 projects include the tenor solo in Herbert Howell's Hymnus Paradisi with Barlow Bradford and the University of Utah Choirs and Orchestra, Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch with soprano Diana Livingston Friedley and pianist Jeffrey Price at Idaho State University, Pocatello and the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Mozart's Requiem with Thomas Heuser and the Idaho Falls Symphony, and the role of Little Bat in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with the University of Utah's Lyric Opera Ensemble.

Friedley is founder and coordinator of the ISU Baroque Festival. He is currently a candidate for the DMA degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Utah and an adjunct instructor in Voice at Idaho State University. Previously, he served as lecturer in Voice at California State University, Fresno. He earned Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees at Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin, a Master of Arts degree in Musicology at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, and a Master of Music degree in Voice at Rutgers University.

Jeffrey Price is a professor of piano and opera at the University of Utah, a position he has held for 12 years. In addition to teaching piano and coaching singers, he serves as the musical director for the University's Lyric Opera Ensemble. During a versatile and multifaceted career, he has been extremely active as a pianist, coach, accompanist, soloist, chamber musician, conductor and musical director (for opera, musical theater and dance), as well as composing.

For more than years, he was a co-director of the Contemporary Music Consortium, which presented concerts of new music in Salt Lake. He has composed chamber and orchestral music, piano pieces and songs, including several works for stage in a variety of idioms. For the last nine summers, he has been a member of the faculty at La Musica Lirica, a program in Italy for young American singers, where he has musically directed productions of several full operas in Italian as well as scenes and recitals. During the 2010-2011 season, he appeared as a soloist with the Salt Lake Symphony, as well as conducting the University's Lyric Opera Ensemble production of Monteverdi's "L'incoronazione di Poppea," which he will also conduct in Italy this summer.

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