Ishmael Wallace performs and records extensively with his sister, Vita Wallace, as pianist of the Orfeo Duo, and enjoys working with a variety of other wonderful artists, especially singers. He is also a composer whose six operas, three cantatas, numerous songs, and chamber works have been performed across the Americas.  He is codirector of What a Neighborhood!, a series of concerts and workshops celebrating the creative spirit among his neighbors in greater West Harlem, Manhattan. He is delighted to be performing with Hayden DeWitt, for whom he has written leading roles in two operas and many song cycles, including the cycle we are offering on this occasion. Ishmael was a double major in piano and composition at the Curtis Institute and Mannes College; his teachers included Richard Goode, piano, Robert Cuckson and David Loeb, composition, and Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter, piano and analysis.

This is Ishmael’s sixth appearance on our concert series.

Mezzo-soprano Hayden DeWitt is best-known to audiences for her portrayal of operatic trouser roles. She has performed most of the favorites in this genre, including Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Niklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, among others.

Recent, more unusual, forays onto the stage include the role of The Drummer in Viktor Ullmann’s World War II masterpiece Der Kaiser von Atlantis with New York’s Opera Gaya, the alto solos in Beethoven’s Mass in C at Carnegie Hall and mezzo soloist with Anima, a Baroque ensemble specializing in seventeenth century music.

She is always pleased to perform with Ishmael Wallace and has delighted in being “the mouthpiece” for many of his songs and operas!

We welcome Ms. DeWitt to her first Historical Piano Concerts appearance.