TGIF, Sep 12, 5:30pm
Join us this Friday as James Harder and Kristin Ditlow grace us with a rich and diverse music selection in their piano duo. Sanctuary doors open at 5:15 pm and the concert begins at 5:30. The concert is free with donations accepted.
Program
Six Valses-Caprices by Mel Bonis
Four Pieces for Four Hands by Stravinsky
Libertango for piano for four hands by Piazzola
Variations on a Shaker Theme by Copland
C. S. Theme and Variations by John Thompson
The Artists
James Harder
After a dual career as a collaborative pianist and licensed clinical social worker in New York City, James Harder relocated to Albuquerque in 2021. He joined the UNM Department of Music Faculty as a part-time vocal coach and collaborative pianist in fall 2022.
Throughout his career, he partnered with both Metropolitan and New York City Opera artists and accompanied instrumentalists and singers in multi-state tours. As a collaborative pianist, he performed at Carnegie Recital Hall, Greenwich House Music School, Merkin Concert Hall, and Westminster Choir College.
Mr. Harder was Vocal Coach for the inaugural season of the Pittsburgh Opera Young Artist Program, a position he also held at Glimmerglass Opera. He served as Musical Assistant to Christopher Keene, performing in a production of Frank Martin’s Le vin herbe at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York City.
He accompanied master classes for Elly Ameling, Arlene Auger, Tito Capobianco, Nico Castel, Anton Coppolla, Jörg Demus, Joan Dornemann, Jean Kraft, Vincent La Selva, Sherrill Milnes, Edoardo Müller, Judith Raskin, Nathaniel Rosen, Samuel Sanders, and Joan Sutherland. He was a sought-after accompanist in the voice studios of Clarice Carson, Winifred Cecil, Maria Farnsworth, Daniel Ferro, Margaret Hoswell, Emmy Joseph, Anna Moffo, and Ellen Repp.
An alumnus of California State University Fresno, he was a pupil of Ena Bronstein-Barton and Philip Lorenz; he furthered his piano study with Germán Diez in New York City. He had voice instruction from Dorothy Renzi and Emmy Joseph, and was mentored in coaching and diction by Edward N. Beck, Nico Castel, Joan Dornemann and James Shomate. Mr. Harder maintains a private vocal coaching and piano studio, and regularly performs as a cabaret duo throughout the country with his husband, Tim Cahill.
Kristin Ditlow
Pianist, conductor and coach Kristin Ditlow is enjoying a performance and teaching career throughout the United States and abroad. She has appeared in concert throughout North America, mainland China, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Ditlow has a deep passion for contemporary opera, having fostered or conducted world premiere or workshop world premiere performances of UnShakeable, This Little Light of Mine and Hometown to the World (Santa Fe Opera); Bless Me, Ultima (Opera Southwest); Mabel’s Call (University of New Mexico Opera Theatre) and Los Poblanos (Teatro Paraguas), and Glory Denied (Permian Basin Opera). She also served as the music director for the Mountain Time Zone premieres of 27 (Intermountain Opera Bozeman) and The Three Feathers (Opera Steamboat). She is equally at home with historical performance, and made her Italian conducting debut in 2024 under the auspices of the Pergolesi Spontini Foundation (Jesi, Italy) and Festival of International Opera (Urbania, Italy) conducting a new version of Baldassare Galuppi’s Il filosofo di campagna in 2024. To the end of historical performance, she has appeared as a fortepianist and harpsichordist with the Carmel Bach Festival, the Finchocks Collection (United Kingdom), the Univerità di Bologna (Italy), St. Paul’s Chamber Orchestra, and Westminster Kantorei.
Her solo debut piano CD, Passages, has received national accolades. Harry Musselwhite of the Rome News-Tribune wrote that “the recording … is sonically breathtaking and her playing ranges from intimate pianistic thoughts to thundering room-shaking outbursts. She is a consummate interpreter.” In a review by musicologist Ralph Locke, Boston’s The Arts Fuse remarks, “I have played this album repeatedly for weeks … [the performances] are deeply affectionate: I sometimes felt I could hear Ditlow thinking about the (silent) words, noticing a surprising modulation, or responding to the tension-and-release within a musical phrase.” Recent appearances as a soloist include her solo debuts in Paris (marking the release and debut of Passages) and the Ehrbarsaal in Vienna, Austria.
Ditlow’s past and current recital partners include sopranos Lydia Grindatto, Julia Radosz, Amy Pfrimmer, Paula Swalin and Emily Richter; mezzo-sopranos Tara Venditti and Olga Perez Flora, tenors James Flora and Stephen Ng, baritones Benjamin Czarnota, Michael Hix, Jonathan Patton and Tychiko Cox, bass-baritones Justin Hopkins and Federico Sacchi, saxophonist Eric Lau, and violinist Guillaume Combet. She can be heard on recording labels of Naxos, Affetto, FluteWorld, GIA, and Blue Griffin.
As a faculty member, master class clinician, or music staff member, Dr. Ditlow has worked at such festivals and institutions as The Curtis Institute of Music, Westminster Choir College, Eastman School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Princeton Festival, the Spoleto Festival (USA), the Baldwin-Wallace Art Song Festival, Opera Philadelphia, Syracuse Opera, Bronx Opera, University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, Florida State University, West Texas A&M University, University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign, Baldwin Wallace Conservatory, Rutgers University, the Zempleni Festival (Hungary) and Shanghai and Beijing Conservatories (China).
Ditlow holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Westminster Choir College, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music, with further training at the Tanglewood Music Center, San Francisco Opera Center (Merola), and the Franz Schubert Institut. She holds the titles of Associate Professor of Vocal Coaching at the University of New Mexico and Music Director of the University of New Mexico Opera Theatre.