The Cascade Song Festival, devoted to the study and performance of song, is presented in partnership between scholars from the University of Oregon (UO) and the University of Washington (UW). The inaugural 2025 festival will be held at the UO January 23–26, 2025. The annual festival will alternate between the two campuses. In addition to presentations by 23 scholars from around the country, the festival features a keynote talk by a noted musicologist and a recital by internationally acclaimed musicians. All events will be held in Berwick Hall.
The festival kicks off on Thursday, January 23rd at 6 p.m. with a recital featuring students from the UO and UW. Friday’s 7:30 p.m. keynote, “Words Fail Me: Reflections on the Legacy of Pauline Viardot,” will be given by Natasha Loges, Professor of Musicology at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. Loges’s research interests include voice and keyboard repertoire, concert culture, gender, global classical culture, and performance studies. She is the author of Brahms and His Poets (2017), and co-editor of the collections Brahms in the Home and the Concert Hall (2014), Brahms in Context (2019), Musical Salon Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century (2019) and German Song Onstage (2020). Loges is currently writing a biography of the 19th-century singer-composer Pauline Viardot.
Pauline García Viardot (1821–1910), a French born singer and composer of Spanish descent, was a leading figure in late 19th-century musical life throughout Europe. Viardot quickly became a sensation after her 1839 operatic debut in London and enjoyed an international career of stardom that she maintained for most of her adult life. She made significant contributions to the operatic stage, music composition, and in the world of music salons, which she often held in her home. She also had a tremendous influence on the careers of many of France’s most well-known composers including Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Gounod, Berlioz, and Fauré.
Tenor Nicholas Phan and pianist Myra Huang will present a recital on Saturday evening at 8 p.m. Nicholas Phan is an American lyric tenor who has performed with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. In 2010 he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago to promote art song and vocal chamber music. Phan’s Clairières: Songs by Lili & Nadia Boulanger, recorded with Huang, was nominated for a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album.
Pianist Myra Huang is highly sought after for her interpretation of lieder and art song as well as her depth of musicianship and technique. Huang holds positions at the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera and The Aspen Music Festival, and a faculty member in the Collaborative Piano Department at The Manhattan School of Music.
The Cascade Song Festival is cosponsored by the OHC’s Endowment for Public Outreach in the Arts, Sciences, and Humanities. For a complete schedule go to cascadesongfestival.org/festival-artists/