Kristin Pankonin American Art Song Award Showcase

Departmental Recitals showcase performance departments through its students. Featuring various students and repertoire, and curated by the faculty, performances in this recital highlight SFCM programs and the wide range of study. 

Program

Jake Heggie: Good Morning Beauty (2025)
Lyrics by Taylor Mac 
     I. Good Morning, Beauty 
     IV. Dearly, Queerly 
Rhoslyn Jones, soprano
Jake Heggie, piano

David Conte: Three Poems of Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)
     I. Rest (2008)

D. Conte: Three Setting of Ogden Nash (1902-1971)
     III. A Lady Who Think She Is Thirty (2005)
Ellen Leslie, soprano
Kevin Korth, piano 

David Garner: Cinco Poemas de Jaime Manrique 
     III. Ēlegía al cisne "Swan's Elegy"  
     II. Mambo
Christine Abraham, mezzo-soprano
Dale Tsang, piano 

Samuel Mason: Silently she's coming  
*Pankonin Art Song Award; runner-up 
Lyrics by James Joyce 
Vicente Álvarez, tenor
Max Tafoya, piano

Julian Ossa: Elfin Land 
*Pankonin Art Song Award; winner 
Poems by Josephine Pollard (1834-1892)
     I. Greeting 
     II. The Man in the Moon 
     III. The Peacock's Train 
     IV. The Bee's Mistake 
     V. The Moon Has a Host of Children 
Jordan Riek, mezzo-soprano
Max Tafoya, piano 

About the Kristin Pankonin Art Song Award

The Kristin Pankonin Art-Song Award was endowed at SFCM by Kristin’s friends and fans to honor her legacy of collaborative music-making, and her passion for new vocal work. Each fall student consortiums composed of a composer, vocalist, and collaborative pianist submit proposals for new English-language art-song cycles. The proposals–which include samples of previous works, the selected poem or text, and vision for the cycle–are vetted by SFCM faculty, with the assistance of outside judges.  The winning consortium receives a cash prize, and then creates and rehearses the new piece, which is premiered the following spring at the annual Kristin Pankonin Art-Song Showcase Concert.

About Kristin Pankonin

A long-time staff accompanist at SFCM, Kristin Pankonin drew students, faculty members, and guest artists into her orbit by force of her compelling artistry, skill, commitment, and humor. She moved audiences around the world through countless recitals. Those fortunate enough to share the stage with her would say that she had “it,” a hard-to-define quality that made for particularly rich and satisfying music-making. A champion of new music, Kristin became a first-choice pianist for composers who appreciated her uninhibited and insightful approach. Her discography for Pentatone includes world premiere recordings of pieces by John Corigliano, David Garner, Gordon Getty, Jake Heggie, and Luna Pearl Woolf, many written for her and her collaborative partners. A master of many genres, she was particularly inspiring with vocal music.