Downtown Music Presents: Delightful or Degenerate? You Decide. Cabaret Music from 1920s Berlin

Songs of Kurt Weill and Friedrich Hollaender are included in this survey of music made popular by twentieth century icons including Marlene Dietrich and Yvette Guilbert (said to be Sigmund Freud’s favorite singer). 

Mezzo soprano Clara Osowski, who sings “from inside the music with unaffected purity and sincerity” (UK Telegraph), is an active soloist and chamber musician hailed for her “rich and radiant voice” (Urban Milwaukee Dial). On international stages, Clara became the first-ever American prizewinner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff’s International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg, Germany. Recent performance highlights include Clara’s Minnesota Opera debut as Mrs. Herring in Britten’s Albert Herring, her debut recital at London’s Wigmore Hall, and debuts with Kansas City Symphony and Handel and Haydn Society.

Sought-after baritone Tyler Duncan appears regularly on major concert stages around the world. Recent critics have called his performances “eloquent,” “charismatic,” and “stunning,” and praised his “refined, burnished voice” and “impeccable phrasing.” Duncan has appeared in concerts with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and at the Wigmore Hall. 

Pianist Erika Switzer performs regularly in major concert settings around the world, including at New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Renaud Machart of Le Monde described her as “one of the best collaborative pianists I have ever heard; her sound is deep, her interpretation intelligent, refined and captivating.”

This concert is made possible by a generous grant from the Rudyard and Emanuella Reimss Fund of the New York Community Trust-Westchester and by a gift made in memory of Adrianne Reilly.