ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Erica Johnson, soprano
Erica Johnson received her undergraduate degree in Voice Performance from Temple University in 2012 after transferring from Boston Conservatory. While continuing to perform, Erica pursued a masters plus certification from Temple University in Music in Education. After completing this degree in 2015, Erica began teaching general music and chorus while seeking out performance opportunities that she believes were integral to her own passion and teaching. Some of Erica’s most memorable and influential performance opportunities include remaining a soprano section leader at Christ Church Philadelphia from 2014 until 2025 as well as becoming a soprano member of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir for a variety of years. Though performing and teaching are extremely prominent in Erica’s life, Erica views her purpose as a loving wife to her husband, Dylan, and mother of two children, Nolan, (4) and Juliet (2), to be the most important and inspiring aspects of her life.
By day, Becky is in-house compliance counsel for a registered investment adviser in the private equity space. She enjoys taking advantage of opportunities to exercise her musical chops, primarily at Church of the Holy Spirit Harleysville (Episcopal) where she is a member of the choir and bell choir, an instrumentalist, and performer in various smaller vocal and instrumental ensembles. Becky previously studied with Dr. Christopher DiSanto.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
“Schafe können sicher weiden” (“Sheep may safely graze) is arguably the most familiar aria from this secular cantata known as the Hunting Cantata. J.S. Bach composed the cantata for the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxe-Weissenfels on February 7th, 1713. As Bach’s earliest surviving secular cantata, it was composed while he was employed as a court organist in Weimar. Weimar’s poet, Salomon Franck, provided the lyrics that draw on Greek mythology. The cantata associated the good government with the hunt. The text praises the Duke Christian as a great ruler and hunter. The aria “Schafe können sicher weiden” features a pastoral, serene text performed by the character Pales, the Roman Goddess of shepherds and flocks. This deity is not bound to a particular gender and is performed between both male and female performers. The piece became much more popular during the nineteenth century and remains a popular standard used for many wedding ceremonies.
SCHAFE KÖNNEN SICHER WEIDEN
Schafe können sicher weiden, wo ein guter Hirte wacht.
SHEEP MAY SAFELY GRAZE
Sheep can safely graze, where a good shepherd watches over them. Wo Regenten wohl regieren, Where rulers are ruling well, kann man Ruh und Friede spüren we may feel peace and rest und was Länder glücklich macht. and what makes countries happy.
English translation by Francis Browne
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
“Der Hirt auf dem Felsen” (The Shepherd on the Rock) is a Lied composed by Schubert in 1828 during the final months of his life. The song includes seven versus of poetry written by Wilhelm Müller and Karl August Varnhagen. Schubert composed this piece per the request of operatic soprano, Pauline Anna Milder-Hauptmann, a friend of Schubert. She requested an impressive piece used to showcase a wide range of feelings. The piece is broken into three sections with equally as challenging clarinet passages as voice. The first section invokes a warmth quality as the lonely shepherd listens to echoes of the song from the valley far below. The second section grows dark through grief and loneliness followed by an uplifting ending section anticipating the coming of spring (rebirth).
DER HIRT AUF DEM FELSEN
Wenn auf dem höchsten Fels ich steh, in's tiefe Thal hernieder seh' und singe.
Fern aus dem tiefen dunkeln Thal schwingt sich empor der Wiederhall der Klüfte.
Je weiter meine Stimme dringt, je heller sie mir wiederklingt von unten.
Mein Liebchen wohnt so weit von mir, drum sehn' ich mich so heiß nach ihr hinüber!
THE SHEPHERD ON THE ROCK
When I stand on the highest cliff, I look down into the deep valley and sing.
Far away out of the deep dark valley there soars up an echo from the ravines.
The further my voice reaches, the brighter it resounds to me from below.
My beloved lives so far from me, therefore I long to be with them over there!
In tiefem Gram verzehr' ich mich, mir ist die Freude hin!
Auf Erden mir die Hoffnung wich, ich hier so einsam bin!
So sehnend klang im Wald das Lied, so sehnend klang es durch die Nacht; Die Herzen es zum Himmel zieht mit wunderbarer Macht.
Der Frühling will kommen, der Frühling, meine Freud', nun mach' ich mich fertig zum Wandern bereit.
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Deep grief consumes me, joy has abandoned me! There is no hope left for me on Earth, I am so lonely here!
The song rang so longingly through the wood, such longing through the night; It draws hearts towards heaven with wondrous power.
The Springtime is coming, the Springtime, my joy, now must I make ready on wanderings to fare.
English translation by Malcolm Wren and Walter Meyer
Quatre chansons de jeunesse (four songs of youth) originated from a manuscript collection dated between 1882-1884. At this time, Debussy was working with the Vasnier family. Debussy dedicated these, and many of his early works, to the family in his slight obsession with Madame Vasnier with whom he worked closely as an accompanist. The songs feature a variety of poets including Paul Verlaine, Théodore Faullin de Banville, and Stéphane Mellarmé. The songs feature a mixture of dark and light tones, frequent chromaticism, poetry featuring the Commedia dell’arte, imagery and text painting, and the back and forth of humorous, romantic, mysterious, or dream-like qualities.
PANTOMIME
Pierrot qui n'a rien d'un Clitandre vide un flacon sans plus attendre, et, pratique, entame un pâté.
Cassandre, au fond de l'avenue, verse une larme méconnue sur son neveu déshérité.
Ce faquin d'Arlequin combine l'enlèvement de Colombine et pirouette quatre fois.
Colombine rêve, surprise de sentir un cœur dans la brise et d'entendre en son cœur des voix.
CLAIR DE LUNE
Votre âme est un paysage choisi que vont charmant masques et bergamasques jouant du luth et dansant et quasi
PANTOMIME
Pierrot, who is nothing like Clitandre empties a bottle without ado, and, ever practical, cuts into a pâté
Cassandre, at the end of the avenue, sheds a concealed tear for his disinherited nephew.
That impertinent Harlequin schemes the abduction of Columbine and whirls around four times.
Columbine dreams, surprised at feeling a heart in the breeze and at hearing voices in her heart.
English translation by Laura Claycomb and Peter Grunberg
MOONLIGHT
Your soul is a chosen landscape charmed by masquers and revellers playing the lute and dancing and almost
tristes sous leurs déguisements fantasques. Tout en chantant sur le mode mineur l'amour vainqueur et la vie opportune, ils n'ont pas l'air de croire à leur bonheur et leur chanson se mêle au clair de lune,
Au calme clair de lune triste et beau, qui fait rêver les oiseaux [dans]1 les arbres et sangloter d'extase les jets d'eau, les grands jets d'eau sveltes parmi les marbres.
PIERROT
Le bon Pierrot, que la foule contemple, ayant fini les noces d'Arlequin, suit en songeant le boulevard du Temple. Une fillette au souple casaquin en vain l'agace de son oeil coquin; et cependant mystérieuse et lisse faisant de lui sa plus chère délice, la blanche lune aux cornes de taureau jette un regard de son oeil en coulisse À son ami Jean Gaspard Deburau.
APPARITION
La lune s'attristait. Des séraphins en pleurs rêvant, l'archet aux doigts, dans le calme des fleurs vaporeuses, tiraient de mourantes violes ee blancs sanglots glissant sur l'azur des corolles. C'était le jour béni de ton premier baiser. Ma songerie aimant à me martyriser s'enivrait savamment du parfum de tristesse que même sans regret et sans déboire laisse La cueillaison d'un Rêve au cœur qui l'a cueilli. J'errais donc, l'œil rivé sur le pavé vieilli quand avec du soleil aux cheveux, dans la rue et dans le soir, tu m'es en riant apparue et j'ai cru voir la fée au chapeau de claret qui jadis sur mes beaux sommeils d'enfant gâté passait, laissant toujours de ses mains mal fermées neiger de blancs bouquets d'étoiles parfumées.
sad beneath their fanciful disguises. Even while singing, in a minor mode, of victorious love and fortunate living, they do not seem to believe in their happiness and their song mingles with the moonlight.
The calm moonlight, sad and beautiful, which sets the birds in the trees dreaming and makes the mountains sob with ecstasy, the tall slender fountains among the marble statues.
English translation by Peter Low
PIERROT
Good old Pierrot, at whom the crowd gapes, having concluded Harlequin's wedding, walks along the Boulevard du Temple, lost in thought. A girl in a supple garment vainly teases him with a mischievous look; and meanwhile, mysterious and smooth taking her sweetest delight in him, the white moon, bull-horned throws a furtive glance at her friend Jean Gaspard Deburau.
English translation by Bertram Kottmann
APPARITION
The moon was saddened. Seraphims in tears dreaming, bow in hand, in the calm of filmy flowers threw dying violas of white sobs sliding over the blue of corollas. It was the blessed day of your first kiss. My reverie, loving to torture me wisely imbibed its perfume of sadness that even without regret and without setback leaves the gathering of a dream within its heart. I wandered then, my eye set on the aged cobblestones when, with light in your hair, in the street and in the evening, you appeared to me smiling and I thought I had seen the fairy with a hat of light who passed in my sweet dreams as a spoiled child always dropping from her carelessly closed hand a snow of white bouquets of perfumed stars.
English translation by Laura Claycomb and Peter Grunberg
Ned Rorem (1923-2022)
“In a Gondola” is one of Rorem’s Six Songs for High Voice. This set is praised for it’s lyrical qualities and mastery of text setting. The work is a musical interpretation of the poem by Robert Browning, a piece of poetry that is itself a dramatic monologue telling a story of passion, danger, and suspense. “The Silver Swan” incorporates text by Orlando Gibbons. The piece focuses on the silent nature of swans during life and only sings when death approaches. Upon death, joy will cease and all goodness will come to an end. Rorem captures the dying nature of the swan’s cry through the lilting, melismatic motive that aches with pain.
IN A GONDOLA
The moth's kiss, first! Kiss me as if you made me believe you were not sure, this eve how my face, your flower, had pursed its petals up; so, here and there you brush it, till I grow aware who wants me, and wide ope I burst
The bee's kiss, now! Kiss me as if you enter'd gay my heart at some noonday A bud that dares not disallow the claim, so all is render'd up and passively its shatter'd cup over your head to sleep I bow.
THE SILVER SWAN
The silver swan who, living, had no note, when death approached, unlocked her silent throat.
Leaning her breast against the reedy shore, thus sung her first and last, and sung no more:
"Farewell all joys, O death come close mine eyes. More geese than swans now live, more fools than wise.
Fernando Obradors (1897-1945)
Fernando Obradors is best known for his virtuosic arrangement of “El Vito” as well as the Canciones clásicas españolas song cycle which include the final three pieces. “El Vito”, though not an original melody, displays a virtuosic piano and vocal setting of a traditional Andalusian folk song. It is a whirlwind of rhythmic energy, mimicking the percussive footwork and flirtatious character of the flamenco dance it's named after The three final pieces from Volume 1 of the Canciones clásicas españolas song cycle showcase poetry by the Spanish poet Juan de Anchieta, Lope de Vega, and Curro Dulce “Con amores la mi madre”, a lullaby written from mother to daughter, combines fifteenth century text with a twentieth century Spanish art song style. Obradors further showcases lusciously longlined melodic lines against an arpeggiated, harp-like accompaniment in “Del cabello más sutil”. Finally, “Chiquitita la novia” provides an extravagant and driving ending with lyrics subtly hinting of excitement and lust for marriage and becoming a bride.
Una vieja vale un real y una muchacha dos cuartos, pero como soy tan pobre me voy a lo más barato.
Con el vito, vito, vito, con el vito, vito, va. No me haga 'usté' cosquillas, que me pongo colorá
CON AMORES, LA MI MADRE
Con amores, la mi madre, con amores me dormí; Así dormida soñaba lo que el corazón velaba, que el amor me consolaba con más bien que merecí. Adormecióme el favor que amor me dió con amor; Dió descanso a mi dolor la fe con que le serví con amores, la mi madre, con amores me dormí!
DEL CABELLO MÁS SUTIL
Del cabello más sutil que tienes en tu trenzado he de hacer una cadena para traerte a mi lado. Una alcarraza en tu casa, chiquilla, quisiera ser, para besarte en la boca, cuando fueras a beber.
CHIQUITITA LA NOVIA
Chiquitita la novia, chiquitito el novio, chiquitita la sala, y el dormitorio. Por eso yo quiero chiquitita la cama y el mosquitero.
An old woman is worth a real and a young girl two cuartos, but since I’m so poor I’m going for the cheapest.
With life, life, life, With life it goes. Don’t you tickle me, I’ll turn red.
English translation by Laura Prichard.
WITH LOVE, MY MOTHER
Due to your love mother with loving I fell asleep; While sleeping, I dreamed what was in my waking heart, that love consoled me more than I deserved. I was lulled to sleep through the favor of your love given to me lovingly; I was allowed to relax from my pain through faith which supports me due to your love, mother with loving I fell asleep!
English translation by Laura Prichard.
FROM THE FINEST HAIR
Of the softest hair which you have in your braid I would make a chain so that I may bring you to my side. A jug in your home little one, I would like to be, so that I may kiss you each time you take a drink.
English translation by Alice Rogers-Mendoza
TINY IS THE BRIDE
Tiny is the bride, tiny is the groom, tiny is the living room, tiny is the bedroom. That is why I want a tiny bed with a mosquito net.
English translation by Alice Rogers-Mendoza
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Erica would like to acknowledge her loving family, especially her husband Dylan, for consistently supporting her through pursuing her second masters degree at West Chester. Her commitment to excellence required a great deal of time away from home. Erica would also like to acknowledge the support of her parents, Joseph and Paulette Hess, and in-laws, Jim and Jacquee Johnson, for their continued support of her passion and help with family care. It does not go unnoticed. Erica acknowledges her musician team, Becky and Sinae, for their incredibly professional commitment to musical excellence in preparation for this performance. As a close friend, Becky has been nothing short of selfless in devoting her time and skills to truly making this performance sparkle through her lyrical clarinet achievement. Finally, acknowledgement of Erica’s voice teacher, Dr. Lee, is of utmost importance at West Chester University. Dr. Lee has been accommodating, motivational, inspiring, and extremely encouraging. Thank you for all of your support, understanding, and kindness throughout this entire experience.