Amy Leverenz

Last updated

Amy Leverenz (born 1951 in Riverside, California) is an American dramatic soprano living in Germany.

Contents

Life

After studying medicine in the US, Leverenz studied singing with Karl Tuttner at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna from 1972. Her repertoire focuses on contemporary music, jazz and rock. From 1973 to 1978, she was a member of the Ensemble Contraste for contemporary music, and from 1976 to 1978 she was a guest soloist with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir. After and alongside concert tours in the early 1980s with musicians and bands such as Udo Jürgens, Eloy, Drahdiwaberl, Hansi Lang and Milva, Leverenz increasingly turned to her own projects. [1]

With the pianist Olaf Joksch she gave cabaret evenings in Frankfurt and Offenbach in the 1980s (among others (K)ein Liederabend - Liederbissen von Bach bis Zappa at the Theater am Turm  [ de ] 1985-1986 and 500 Jahre Filmmusik at the Alte Oper 1986–1988). In 1980-1981 she gave 120 performances of Sie singen unser Lied at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm  [ de ], in 1981 she appeared 50 times in Großstadtkinder at the Berliner Kammerspiele and with the touring company of the Kleine Oper Bad Homburg she performed the children's opera revue Max und Moritz more than one hundred times in the role of Max. [2]

As her own projects, she realised among others Staffellauf im Wespennest (1987), a performance with singing and pantomime with Olaf Joksch, the operetta talk show Lieber reich aber glücklich (1995) with the actor Peter Bauer and the pianist Elisabeth Süsser and the multimedia Concerti Piccoli for the 100th birthday of Marie Luise Kaschnitz. (2001) with Peter Bauer and Heike Michaelis and compositions by Alberto Mompellio, Piero Milesi and Erik Freitag.

Leverenz has performed in several programmes with jazz guitarist Markus Fleischer, such as Dreamers and Jokers - Jazz Standards from Musical and Film (2005-2007), Brecht: Happy End? (2006) and Stilwechsel - Kammerrock (since 2009). For the composer René Staar, she wrote the libretti for Fortunes Of War (1997, about Al Capone) and The Gypsy Boy (1998, about Federico García Lorca). [3]

Since 1986, Leverenz has been giving singing lessons. From 1994 to 2002, she taught at the Scream Factory in Frankfurt, which she co-founded, and since 2002 she has been a lecturer in singing at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts. Private singing lessons with her took among others Xavier Naidoo, Sabrina Setlur, Sebastian Hämer, Christine Kaufmann, Bela B., Nadja Benaissa, Kevin Russell, Stefan Weidner, Lisa Da Costa and Beukes Willemsen. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Vaughan</span> American jazz and classical singer (1924–1990)

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Humes</span> American singer

Helen Humes was an American singer. Humes was a teenage blues singer, a vocalist with Count Basie's band, a saucy R&B diva, and a mature interpreter of the classic popular song.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Mangelsdorff</span> German jazz trombonist

Albert Mangelsdorff was a German jazz trombonist. Working mainly in free jazz, he was an innovator in multiphonics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carmen McRae</span> American jazz singer (1920–1994)

Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer. She is considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century and is remembered for her behind-the-beat phrasing and ironic interpretation of lyrics.

Deborah Cook was an American operatic soprano who had a prolific international opera career during the 1970s and 1980s. Her career was primarily focused in Germany where she lived from 1972 through 1985. However, she did travel extensively throughout Europe and in the United States, performing in operas, concerts, recitals, and recording for radio productions. A gifted coloratura soprano, Cook sang a wide repertoire that encompassed English, German, French, and Italian opera from a variety of musical periods. She notably sang in a number of world premieres including Hans Werner Henze's We Come to the River at the Royal Opera, London in 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karen Briggs (musician)</span> Musical artist

Karen Briggs, also known as the "Lady in Red", is an American violinist. Born in Manhattan to a family of musicians, Briggs took up the violin at age 12 and committed to playing professionally at age 15. Briggs joined the Virginia Symphony Orchestra while still in college, but grew discontented with performing classical music and left the orchestra after four years. Since then, she has performed predominantly in the jazz and contemporary instrumental genres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amina Claudine Myers</span> American jazz musician

Amina Claudine Myers is an American jazz pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, and arranger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jimmy Owens (musician)</span> American jazz trumpeter, composer, lecturer, and educator

Jimmy Owens is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, lecturer, and educator. He has played with Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Hank Crawford, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Herbie Mann, among many others. Since 1969, he has led his own group, Jimmy Owens Plus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greetje Kauffeld</span> Dutch jazz singer and Schlager musician (born 1939)

Greetje Kauffeld is a Dutch jazz singer and Schlager musician.

Clamma Churita Dale is an American operatic soprano. She portrayed "Bess" in the highly successful 1976 Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess. The show was transferred from Houston to Broadway and Dale was awarded a 1977 Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a musical and received a Tony Award nomination. She won a Grammy award in 1978 for Best Opera Recording of the Porgy & Bess soundtrack.

Thomas Pernes was an Austrian avant-garde composer and performance artist who lived and worked in Vienna. He studied piano with Bruno Seidlhofer and composition with Roman Haubenstock-Ramati.

Adriana Hölszky is a Romanian-born German music educator, composer and pianist who has been living in Germany since 1976.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Fuhr</span> Musical artist

Susanne Fuhr is a Norwegian jazz vocalist, cabaret artist and actor, known from her own S.F. Band in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asmik Grigorian</span> Armenian-Lithuanian operatic soprano (born 1981)

Asmik Grigorian is a Lithuanian operatic soprano.

Ingrid Haubold is a German operatic soprano. After beginning her career in Munich and continuing with German companies, she moved on to major international opera houses, appearing as Isolde in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 1986, as Senta in Der fliegende Holländer at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, and in the title role of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Kathinka Rebling was a German violinist and musicologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephan König</span> German composer and jazz pianist

Stephan König is a German composer, pianist and conductor. He is the musical director of the "LeipJAZZig-Orkester" and the chamber orchestra "artentfaltung" and is considered one of the most authoritative Jazz musicians in Leipzig.

Annon Lee Silver was a Canadian lyric soprano singer. She made her opera debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1963 and had leading operatic roles throughout her career. Silver was a member of the Oper Frankfurt and performed with the Phoenix Opera and the Welsh National Opera. She gave master classes on BBC Television and performed at The Proms.

Anja Petersen is a German operatic soprano and university lecturer. She works as a soloist in opera and concert, and as a member of the RIAS Kammerchor. She has appeared in world premieres in both opera and concert, including the leading female role in Arnulf Herrmann's Der Mieter at the Oper Frankfurt in 2017.

René Staar is an Austrian composer, violinist and conductor.

References

  1. Amy Leverenz on Melodiva
  2. Amy Leverenz on AllMusic
  3. Amy Leverenz on Tidal.com
  4. Amy Leverenz on Hfmdk-frankfurt