A Left Coast Tyler Duncan & Erika Switzer

• Iman Habibi (b. 1985): False Morning:
• 1 Habibi: False Morning 02:52
• The River Lip:
• 2 Habibi: The River Lip 02:22
• Jean Coulthard (1908 - 2000): Three Love Songs:
• 3 Coulthard: Three Love Songs: Stand, Swaying Slightly 02:16
• 4 Coulthard: Three Love Songs: I Often Wonder 01:45
• 5 Coulthard: Three Love Songs: There is No Darkness 03:19
• Jocelyn Morlock (1969 - 2023): Involuntary Love Songs:
• 6 Morlock: Involuntary Love Songs: Thaw 04:06
• 7 Morlock: Involuntary Love Songs: Matches 02:57
• 8 Morlock: Involuntary Love Songs: Script 06:03
• Stephen Chatman (b. 1950): Love Songs:
• 9 Chatman: Love Songs: Something like that 02:52
• Leslie Uyeda (b. 1953): Plato's Angel:
• 10 Uyeda: Plato's Angel 02:17
• 11 Uyeda: Plato's Angel: Angel of Roses 01:57
• 12 Uyeda: Plato's Angel: Twilight’s Angel 01:51
• 13 Uyeda: Plato's Angel: Angel of the Moon 03:43
• Melissa Hui (b. 1966): Snowflakes:
• 14 Hui: Snowflakes 04:06
• Jeffrey Ryan (b. 1962): Everything Already Lost:
• 15 Ryan: Everything Already Lost: Bill Evans: Alone 04:09
• 16 Ryan: Everything Already Lost: Autumn Again 04:42
• 17 Ryan: Everything Already Lost: Night Music 03:30
• 18 Ryan: Everything Already Lost: Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17 09:52
• Total Runtime 01:04:39

Info for A Left Coast

"A Left Coast" is baritone Tyler Duncan and pianist Erika Switzer’s tribute to British Columbia and its music. Seven composers with birthdates ranging from 1908 to 1985 are featured on the disk. BC is a young country as far as western classical music is concerned though, of course, it has rich artistic traditions stretching far back into the mists of the north west.

It’s quite varied and, inevitably, I like some sets more than others. My top pick is Leslie Uyeda’s Plato’s Angel songs which set poems by Lorna Crozier. There’s a deep melancholy in the text that’s reflected in a dark, somewhat atonal musical idiom. I also really liked Jeffrey Ryan’s Everything Already Lost; the longest set on the record, setting quite sonically/musically evocative texts by Jan Zwicky with quite varied sonorities mixing elements of minimalism and onomatopoeia, especially in the piano part.

Third pick would be the late Jocelyn Morlock’s Involuntary Love Songs setting texts by Alan Ashton. These are quite challenging texts about love with really dense piano parts and are very effective. But having picked three faves I have to say all the music on the record is excellent and it’s worth the time to acquaint oneself with it. Canadian art song is such a rich vein from sea to shining sea!

The performances are excellent. Switzer is a fine musician and interpreter and Duncan’s lyric baritone is lovely to listen too. Excellent diction makes the supplied texts entirely superfluous even if the odd “t” o “d” shift does slightly bother my Anglo-Torontonian sensibility!

Tyler Duncan, baritone
Erika Switzer, piano

Tyler Duncan
With a voice described as “honey-coloured and warm, yet robust and commanding” (The Globe and Mail), baritone Tyler Duncan has performed worldwide to great acclaim in both opera and concert repertoire. Throughout his varied career, he has performed with several of the world’s leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Kansas City Symphony.

Mr. Duncan recently performed C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat with the Handel and Haydn Society, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions with the Oregon Bach Festival and Haydn’s Creation with Music of the Baroque. Upcoming engagements include Handel’s Messiah with Houston Symphony, New Jersey Symphony and Orchestra Nova Scotia; Apollo e Dafne and Bach’s Ich habe genug with Arizona Early Music’s Tucson Baroque Music Festival; Brahms’ Requiem with Johnstown Symphony; and concerts with Bard Music Festival, Brooklyn Art Song Society and Aspect Chamber Concerts. He will also return to the roster of The Metropolitan Opera for their new production of Terence Blanchard’s Champion.

Mr. Duncan has performed at The Metropolitan Opera as Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Huntsman in Rusalka, the Journalist in Lulu, and both Moralès and Le Dancaïre in Carmen. At the Spoleto Festival USA, he debuted as Mr. Friendly in the 18th-century ballad opera Flora, returning the next season as Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte. In the realm of new opera, he recently performed the role of Raymond in Nic Gotham’s Nigredo Hotel with City Opera Vancouver and sang the world premiere of Jonathan Berger’s Leonardo at the 92stY in NYC.

Concert credits include Stravinsky’s Canticum Sacrum with San Francisco Symphony; Messiah with New York Philharmonic and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa; Mahler’s 8th Symphony and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium with the Minnesota Orchestra; Beethoven’s Mass in C with Kansas City Symphony; Schubert Lieder at the Wigmore Hall with pianist Graham Johnson; Bach’s Ich habe genug with Les Violins du Roy; Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Lviv Philharmonic; a selection of Bach Cantatas and Jeffery Ryan’s Afghanistan Requiem with Calgary Philharmonic; Orff’s Carmina Burana with Quebec Symphony and San Diego Symphony; Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte with Vancouver Symphony; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; and Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti with The Orchestra Now at the Met Museum. He has also performed at the Händel Festival in Halle, Verbier Festival, Bard Festival, Vancouver Early Music Festival, Montreal Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Grant Park Festival, Lanaudière Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival, and New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival.

Frequently paired with pianist Erika Switzer, Mr. Duncan has given acclaimed recitals in New York, Boston, Chicago, Paris, and throughout Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, and South Africa. Together they have premiered many new works written for them by composers and have just released their debut album English Songs à la française for Bridge Records, soon to be followed by A Left Coast on the same label featuring songs from British Columbia.

Notable recordings include the Juno Award winning Vaughan-Williams Serenade to Music with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Earthquakes and Islands: an album of songs by Andrew Staniland with texts by Robin Richardson, the title role in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis with Boston Early Music Festival, J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion with the Portland Baroque Orchestra, Purcell works and Carissimi’s Jephte with Les Voix Baroque, and a DVD of Handel’s Messiah with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Duncan has received prizes from the Naumburg, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Munich’s ARD competitions, and won the 2010 Joy in Singing competition, 2008 New York Oratorio Society’s Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition, 2007 Prix International Pro Musicis Award, and Bernard Diamant Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. Mr. Duncan earned music degrees from the University of British Columbia, Hochschule für Musik (Augsburg), and Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Munich). As a current faculty member at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, he finds joy in helping the next generation of singers find their true voice. Originally from British Columbia, Canada, Mr. Duncan now resides in the scenic Hudson Valley of New York. You may find him frequenting many a roadside farmstand seeking the perfect, freshly picked Macintosh apple.

Erika Switzer
is an accomplished pianist who collaborates regularly in major concert settings around the world, including at New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC). Her performances have been called “precise and lucid” by the New York Times, and Renaud Machart of Le Monde described her as “one of the best collaborative pianists I have ever heard; her sound is deep, her interpretation intelligent, refined, and captivating.”

From 2000-2007, Switzer performed and studied in Germany, an experience that profoundly inspired and shaped her work. During that time, she appeared at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and in the Munich Winners & Masters series and won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions.

Switzer has long been a leader in envisioning and promoting the future of art song performance. In 2009, in collaboration with soprano Martha Guth, she founded the organization Sparks & Wiry Cries, which curates opportunities for song creators and performers, commissions new works, presents the songSLAM festival in New York City, and publishes The Art Song Magazine. She is also devoted to new music, and has recently premiered new compositions in the 5 Boroughs Music Festival Songbook II; at the Brooklyn Art Song Society; and at Vancouver’s Music on Main.

Switzer collaborates with a range of top singers and instrumentalists. A frequent collaborator is baritone Tyler Duncan, and as a duo, Switzer and Duncan have performed in major concert halls and music festivals around the world. She is also an active teacher, serving on the music faculty at Bard College and the Vocal Arts Program of the Bard Conservatory of Music. Switzer holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School, and lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.

Booklet for A Left Coast