Barbara Hardgrave Went to a Marvelous Party

NEW PALTZ — For the past 38 years at SUNY New Paltz, mezzo soprano Barbara Hardgrave has entertained and charmed audiences with concerts that are an evocative blend of art songs and urbane works from musical theatre. Her concert on April 5 at 8pm in McKenna Theatre at SUNY New Paltz, titled (Some of) My Favorite Things, will be her last as a faculty member in the Music Department. Hardgrave retires from teaching in May. The concert is free of charge and open to all.

Barbara Hardgrave performs often in the Hudson Valley in song recitals, oratorio, opera and musical theater. As a member of the Gilbert and Sullivan Musical Theater Company, she has won raves for her performances as Katisha (The Mikado) Mad Margaret (Ruddigore) Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd) Golde (Fiddler on the Roof) and Baba (The Medium).

She recently sang in the GSMTC production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, and with the Bardavon Opera / Hudson Valley Philharmonic. Eminent composers Robert Starer and Meyer Kupferman have written chamber operas for her. She is Professor of Voice at SUNY New Paltz and has served as vocal diction coach at the San Francisco Opera and Central City Opera.

Barbara Hardgrave’s concert on April 5 includes art songs from the 19th- and early 20th-centuries that convey the singer’s considerable technical skill. These intimate works for voice and piano evoke moments of love, nature, and the transience of youth. They include works composed by Johannes Brahms, Robert Shumann, and Richard Strauss, as well as Eric Satie, Benjamin Britten and Francis Poulenc.

Hargrave’s concert also includes a collection of songs from musical theatre by three of the most important composers in the genre – Noel Coward, Kurt Weill, and Stephen Sondheim. Collaborators include pianist Ruthanne Schempf and baritone James Klosty.

(Some of) My Favorite Things begins at 8pm in McKenna Theatre. Theatre doors open at 7:30. The event is free and open to all and reservations are unnecessary. McKenna Theatre is wheelchair accessible and equipped with an infrared listening system for the hearing impaired. For information call 845-257-3872.