FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, New York, New York - Boston-based tenor Rafael Helbig-Kostka will premiere a new commission from New York City-based classical composer Stephanie Ann Boyd at a recital at 7:00 pm on April 17th at the Horticultural Hall in Boston, Massachusetts, accompanied by Josh Quinn at the piano.
[Helbig-Kostka](http://www.rafaelhelbigkostka.com/), a Gradutate Diploma student in Voice at the New England Conservatory (NEC), will perform Songs of Slumber; a new set of lullabies featuring texts by Camilla Wurfel and acclaimed poet/playwright Ken Gaertner. Songs of Slumber will be performed alongside pieces by Berlioz, and Browne. Helbig-Kostka recently performed as Ferrando in a production of Cosi fan tutte with the Atlanta based opera company "small opera," as well as in Weimar, Germany with the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar. This summer he will be a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theater of St Louis. He also appeared last summer as a Featured Young Artist with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh's Summerfest, where he sang Basilio in a production of The Marriage of Figaro in addition to the Italian Tenor in Richard Strauss' Capriccio.
Boyd and Helbig-Kostka met while graduate students together at NEC. Helbig-Kostka remarked on choosing Boyd for the commission: I attended a performance of a piece saxophonist Stephanie Anne Muoz had commissioned from Stephanie Ann Boyd in memory of her mother - the piece was so heartfelt and I'd been wanting to work with her for some time, so asking her to write this set of pieces so close to my heart, which utilizes a text by my mother, seemed the perfect pairing." Songs of Slumber is a set of three lullabies: one in French, one in German, and one in English. This set of lullabies will eventually grow to include lullabies in many languages.
Lauded by conductor Cliff Colnot as "a composer set to become one of the most distinctive and important voices of her generation", 25 year old American composer Stephanie Ann Boyd's largest project to date is this year's 50 State Sonata Project, in which a new violin sonata Amerigo has been commissioned by one violinist in each of the 50 states. Last season's highlights involved co-directing the Tuesday Night New Music concert series, winning New England Conservatory's Donald Martino Prize for Excellence in Composition, being chosen as the NEC/[Boston Modern Orchestra Project](http://www.bmop.org/) Competition winner, and having her violin concerto premiered in Jordan Hall by recent Michael Hill International Competition prize-winner Eunae Koh under the baton of Australian conductor Nathan Aspinall.
For more information on this project, visit http://www.stephanieannboyd.com/songs-of-slumber/
