.jpg)
Nine emerging artists took the stage at the Desautels Concert Hall over the weekend for the Desautels Faculty of Music’s Zita Bernstein Lieder Competition. The annual event is one of very few competitions of its kind in North America, and a three-judge panel heard pieces by composers ranging from Robert and Clara Schumann to Gustav and Alma Mahler.
Ultimately, the judges chose baritone Jayden Fraser as the second-place winner, and mezzo soprano Oliver Flexer as the first-place winner.
The win came as something of a shock to Flexer, who only just began studies at the University of Manitoba back in the fall. “I went into this with zero expectations, and I think it’s still kind of setting in a bit, honestly,” he said in a conversation on Classic 107’s Morning Light. “I’m incredibly grateful and thrilled, but it’s a lot.”
“Us undergrads put a lot of work into preparing for this competition, pick up repertoire months ahead of time,” added Fraser, who’s going into his final months of study at the university. “It really felt like a huge win to get recognized in that way.”
Despite the Zita Bernstein competitive nature, collaborative pianist Anica Warkentine noted that the festivities contained a spirit of camaraderie, from the extra coaching that are offered by the faculty ahead of the performances to the unique relationships between the collaborators. For her, this helped elevate the overall music-making of the competition. “I think yesterday you saw that there was a lot of heart that went into performances.”
For Fraser, it’s easy enough to find the heart in German lieder because of the beauty of the language. “A lot of the words sound and feel the way that they are. There’s that really beautiful, actual physical storytelling. And then, of course, all of the rich poetry and music-writing that came from these composers. The way that lieder is a culmination of many different, great forms is really special.”
"Lieder is becoming my favourite kind of music,” echoes Flexer. “To me, there’s a real earnestness and sort of rawness even to a lot of 19th century German music that really appeals to me. Intensity is something that really matters to me in a performance, and I find that in German music specifically, that’s something that I am really able to bring.”
Winnipeg lieder fans can get a chance to enjoy more of the earnestness and rawness of the genre in masterclasses with Steven Philcox, associate professor at the University of Toronto and one of the judges of the Zita Bernstein Lieder Competition. Those masterclasses take place on January 20 and 21 at 7 p.m. in the Desautels Faculty of Music’s Vocal Arts Room.