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 PAUL SPERRY is recognized as one of today's outstanding interpreters of American music. Although he is equally at home in a repertoire that extends from Monteverdi opera and the Bach Passions to Britten's "Nocturne" and hundreds of songs in more than a dozen languages, he brings to American music a conviction and an enthusiasm that has brought it to life for countless listeners.
Many of today's leading composers have written works specially for him; Sperry has world premieres of works by more than thirty Americans to his credit. He premiered Leonard Bernstein's "Dybbuk Suite" with the composer conducting the New York Philharmonic, Jacob Druckman's "Animus IV" for the opening of the Centre Georges Pompidou at Beaubourg in Paris in 1977, and Because he is a passionate advocate for American music, Sperry has tried to insure that many of the wonderful works he has unearthed will be easily available to others. To that end, he has compiled and edited several volumes of American songs, both anthologies and single composer collections for G. Schirmer, Peer-Southern, Boosey & Hawkes, Carl Fischer and Dover Publications. His collection "American Encores" was released by Oxford University Press in October, 2002. In 1989 he became the first non-composer to be elected president of the American Music Center, a national organization which provides information all over the world about American composers and their music. He held that position for three years and served as Chairman of the Board of the American Composers Orchestra, the only orchestra in the world devoted to the performance of American Music for seven years. |
Paul Sperry's recordings of American music include five CDs of American song available on Albany Records, numerous songs and chamber works available on DG, CRI, Crystal,
He also teaches courses in American song at the Manhattan School of Music in New York and in 19th and 20th century song at Brooklyn College and Conservatory. He was on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival from 1978 - 2002, and founded the Vocal Program at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, and served as its director from 1991 to 1997. In 2004 he joined the faculty of the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Isreal. In 1987 he became the Director of Joy In Singing, an organization dedicated to helping young singers. He lives in New York City with his wife, sculptor Ann Sperry; they have three children. |
Bernard Rands' Pulitzer Prize winning "Canti del Sole" with the New York Philharmonic in l983 under Zubin Mehta. Other composers whose works he has premiered include Robert Beaser, William Bolcom, Daniel Brewbaker, Tom Cipullo, Nathan Currier, Daron Hagen, Richard Hundley, William Kraft, Harold Meltzer, John Musto, Stephen Paulus, Russell Platt, Robert Rodriguez, Larry Alan Smith, Louise Talma, Francis Thorne, Nicholas Thorne, Dan Welcher, Richard Wilson and Charles Wuorinen.
Musical Heritage, Summit and Nonesuch Records, and he is one of four singers to have recorded the complete songs of Charles Ives for Albany records. Zephyr Records has issued: "Les Chemins de l'amour," Songs of Poulenc; "Great Composers Love Folksongs Too;" Schubert's "Winterreise;" and a 2 CD box, "Byways of French Song" all with pianist Ian Hobson.
Born in Chicago, Mr. Sperry graduated from Harvard College and continued his studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. He worked extensively with such masters of art-song interpretation as Jennie Tourel, Paul Ulanowsky and Pierre Bernac. Today Mr. Sperry is widely appreciated for his own master classes at the Eastman School of Music, the Peabody Institute, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Southern California, the Manhattan School of Music, Harvard and Yale to name a few. Since 1984 he has taught 19th- and 20th-century song repertory and performance at the Juilliard School, and he created there what may have been the country's only full-year course in American song.
May be reprinted in concert programs.