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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, September 3, 2007

KHPR's art song winners to perform

Advertiser Staff

HAWAII PUBLIC RADIO PRESENTS

The 10th annual Art Song Contest winners' recital

7:30 p.m. Saturday

Atherton Performing Arts Studio, 738 Kaheka St., Honolulu, HI 96814

Tickets: $10 general; $5 seniors, military and students with ID

Reservations: 955-8821

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Hawaii Public Radio's Atherton Studio will be filled with talented voices on Saturday when the winners of the station's 10th annual Art Song Contest give a recital.

Taking the microphone will be Sarah Oppenheim-Beggs, Leigh-anna Edwards, Jason Healey, Stephanie Shade and Margaret Simpson, announced Gary Hickling, founder of HPR's Art Song Contest and host of KHPR's "Great Songs."

Sarah Oppenheim-Beggs, of Maui, is a singer and a voice teacher who recently moved from the San Francisco Bay Area. She's taught voice for more than 25 years and has a particular interest in contemporary art song. Her winning tune, "The Filling Station," is part of a three-song cycle by Lee Hoivy called "The Three Ages of Woman," set to the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop.

Leighanna Edwards, also of Maui, sang "Over the Fence" by Lori Laitman. Leighanna, an actress and lyric soprano, comes from Point Reyes Station, Calif. She received a bachelor's degree in fine arts and musical theatre from Notre Dame de Namur University.

Jason Healey's winning audition was Paul Bowle's "Heavenly Grass." Originally from Crystal Lake, Ill., he followed his wife, Amy (a former winner of the Art Song Contest, and co-host of "Great Songs") to Hawai'i in 2004. He has a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Illinois, where he studied with Ronald Hedlund, and a master's degree in voice from the Peabody Conservatory, where he studied with John Shirley-Quirk. He continued with Shirley-Quirk at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh, earning an artist diploma.

Healey has performed with numerous distinguished ensembles and festivals both in the U.S. and abroad. He also holds a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh and works with the state Department of Taxation in the rules office. He sings with the choir of St. Clement's Episcopal Church.

Stephanie Shade, a native of Maryland, performed Schubert's "Nacht und Traume," accompanied by Beebe Freitas. She studies with Cheryl Bartlett. Shade grew up playing piano, double bass and alto saxophone, sang in school choirs, and participated in the Maryland All-State Choir in 1999.

She moved to Hawai'i in 2005, joined the Honolulu Chorale, and was a featured soloist in their 2006 Holiday Concert. That year, she sang with the Hawaii Vocal Arts Ensemble as a soloist for Haydn's "Harmoniemesse" in the 2007 Masterworks Festival. She made her stage debut as Mabel in Chaminade's 2007 production of "The Pirates of Penzance."

Margaret Simpson performed Renaldo Hahn's "Paysage," accompanied by Freitas. She began her operatic career while completing her master's at Boise State. She sang in Opera Idaho's outreach program, making her debut as Yum Yum in "The Mikado." She's a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions for Florida, and was also a finalist and an award winner in the Colorado/Wyoming Region. She's sung "The Queen of the Night" among other roles. She was named best female performer of the 2003-04 season for her portrayal of Marie in Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment."

Simpson was one of six young artists picked for the San Diego Opera Resident Artist Program for the 2005 season, singing both outreach and tour performances of many operas.

The five winners will be featured in a live recital in HPR's Atherton Performing Arts Studio on Saturday. That recital will be recorded and broadcast on KHPR's "Great Songs" in late December.