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| Stuart Leitch, piano |
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He specialized early in modern music as a member of ONCE, a seminal avant-garde performing group in Ann Arbor, led by Robert Ashley and Gordon Mumma. ONCE produced concerts and an annual festival that featured new-music leaders from all over the world. In New York City he participated in early forms of performance art with artists from ONCE and the Judson Dance Theater. He also worked with blues and rock musicians, writing arrangements and contributing to the score of “Hi, Mom”, an early Brian De Palma film.
After a summer at Tanglewood he moved to Chicago, where he has performed in the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts and at Pianoforte Chicago, broadcast over WFMT. He continued playing new music with Chicago Soundings and New Music DePaul, giving first performances of several works by George Flynn. He served as staff accompanist at Northern Illinois University School of Music (DeKalb) and at the American Institute of Musical Studies (Graz, Austria). He founded and directed Chamber Opera Chicago. He served as vocal coach or accompanist with Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, Chicago Opera Theater, and Texas Opera Theater. He continues to perform, and teaches, records and copies music at Overtones, his studio in Oak Park. |
Stuart Leitch, a pianist from Michigan, studied with John Richardson of Michigan State University and Arthur Dann at the Oberlin College Conservatory, and later in Chicago with Gui Mombaerts and Dmitry Paperno.
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"The pupil must read the words of the piece again and again till each finest shadow of meaning has been mastered. He must next recite them with perfect simplicity and self-abandonment. The accent of truth apparent in the voice when speaking naturally is the basis of expression in singing. Light and shade, accent, sentiment, all become eloquent and persuasive. The imitation of instinctive impulse must, therefore, be the object of this special preparation." -Manuel Garcia, Hints on Singing |
