
Steven
Serpa |
Countertenor
Steven Serpa is a graduate of Longy School of Music, receving his
Master's degree in Hisotrically Informed Performance. He also holds
a Bachelors degrees in vocal performance and in musicology from
the University of Rhode Island. Steven has been heard as alto soloist
in Bach’s St. John Passion with The Vox Consort, il Pastore
in Boston Academy of Music’s Tosca, countertenor soloist in
Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and The Lark under Lorna Cooke
de Varon at Longy, and a featured soloist in the Ordo Virtutum of
Hildegard von Bingen with Longy and Monteverdi’s Orfeo with
Harvard University. In the Boston and Charleston, South Carolina,
areas he has been featured as a recitalist and participant in productions
of Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, Handel’s Messiah and
a number of Bach’s cantatas. Steven is also a huge supporter
of new music for voice and has premiered or resurrected numerous
works written specifically for countertenor, including artsongs
by Lee Hoiby and Daron Hagen. In addition, he has brought about
local premieres of works by Arvo Pärt, Henryk Górecki
and others. Future premieres include the presentation of Donna McKevitt's
amazing song cycle Translucence on text by seminal film artists
and poet Derek Jarman.
As a composer,
Steven Serpa has focused on vocal and chamber music. His songs have
been performed in the New England and Mid-Atlantic areas. His choral
works have been taken up by churches and ensembles in the Boston
and Providence areas. His music drama, Le Laüstic, based on
Medieval French poetry, has been performed twice in Boston. His
sonata for solo flute, Pan Episodes, has been performed by flutists
in Boston, Tennessee and recently in Alabama as part of the Mid-south
Flute Association’s annual conference. Other recent works
include a one-act opera based on a fable by Jean de la Fontaine,
Thyrsis & Amaranth, and a work commissioned for performance
at Boston University for viola and piano, Alto-fantasie …
il n'y avait rien d'aussi rouge … He has recently completed
a commission for a chamber quartet from the Boston based early-music
ensemble Seven Times Salt. Steven’s song cycle A Lunar Cycle
for soprano and piano won first place in the first annual Composition
Competition when he was an undergraduate. He has worked under Geoffrey
Gibbs and Eliane Aberdam at the University of Rhode Island, Paul
Brust at Longy School of Music and is currently studying under Tom
Cipullo in New York City.
To learn more
about Steven Serpa, link
to his website
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