Friday, 19.09.2025, 19:30h ZWINGLIHAUS BASEL
Saturday, 20.09.2025, 19:30h KLOSTER DORNACH
ENTRANCE FREE – DONATIONS WELCOME
Rahel Pailer, Soprano
Julia Pleninger, Piano
PROGRAM:
Amy Beach, 1867-1944
The summer wind, Op.14.1 (Walter Learned)
The Thrush, Op.14.4 (Edward Rowland Sill)
Silent love, Op.51.1 (Eduard Wissmann / Mme Isora Martinez)
Ecstasy, Op.19.2 (Amy Beach)
Wouldn`t that be queer? Op.26.4 (Elsie J. Cooley)
O mistress mine, Op.37.1 (William Shakespeare)
Florence Price, 1887-1953
An April Day (Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.)
Sunset (Odessa P. Elder)
The Glory of the Day was in Her Face (James Weldon Johnson)
The Moon Bridge (Mary Rolofson Gamble)
Out of the South Blew a Wind (Fannie Carter Woods)
My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord (Traditional)
Samuel Barber, 1910-1981
A Nun Takes the Veil (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
The Secrets of the Old (William Butler Yeats)
Sure on this shining night (James Agee)
Nocturne (Frederic Prokosch)
George Gershwin, 1898-1937
Drei Preludes
George Gershwin, 1898-1937
Bidin’ my time (Girl Crazy)
They all laughed (Shall We Dance)
Let’s call the whole thing off (Shall We Dance)
He loves and she loves (Funny Face)
By Strauss (The Show Is On)
Who doesn’t know the name George Gershwin, who brought jazz to the concert stage?
But what about composers such as Florence Price, the first African American woman to achieve national recognition, or Amy Beach, a pioneer of American music whose late-Romantic songs are being rediscovered today? Alongside Samuel Barber, whose unmistakably lyrical voice has long been a staple of the concert repertoire, this program weaves together the familiar and the unfamiliar, revealing the full richness of America’s musical landscape.
The REVISION Project, with Rahel Pailer (soprano) and Julia Pleninger (piano), presents American Voices: a rediscovery and re-evaluation of this vibrant tradition.
The Winterthur-born soprano Rahel Pailer and the Waldshut-based pianist Julia Pleninger first met during their studies at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). As a Lied duo, they have appeared twice at the “Surprise Concerts” in Zurich’s Tonhalle, participated in premieres at the Liedrezital Zürich as part of the competition Junges Lied, and gave a song recital at the Junge Klassik festival in Laufenburg.
The two musicians perform regularly together at public concerts as well as at private and festive occasions. Their repertoire includes songs by Franz Schubert, Gaetano Donizetti, Hugo Wolf, Othmar Schoeck, Amy Beach, Florence Price, Fernando Obradors, and George Gershwin.
In the summer of 2023, Rahel Pailer completed her Master’s degree in Vocal Pedagogy with distinction under Prof. Lina Maria Akerlund at the ZHdK. Julia Pleninger finished her second Master’s degree in piano, also with distinction, under Prof. Hans-Jürg Strub at the ZHdK in 2025.
The duo has also received important artistic inspiration in the Lied class of Prof. Christoph Berner and Hans Adolfsen.