Former Kansan Performs at ESU
Regina Murphy
Friday, September 28, 2007
Mezzo soprano Juli Borst will give a free recital at Heath Recital Hall, Beach Music Hall, ESU at 7:30 Saturday evening. Borst has been living and performing in New York City for the past 10 years and is a former student of Shirley Moore.
Borst is the daughter and stepdaughter of Emporians Bill and Jan Borst. She is a past member of the New York City Opera Company and and alumna of Kansas State University, where she performed last Wednesday. Her accompanist is William Wingfield, who has been the staff accompanist at K-State since 1989.
After completing her studies in Manhattan. where she was a student of Jennifer Edwards, Borst went to Arizona State and studied with Darlene Britton while earning a master’s degree.
She has performed with numerous regional companies in the northeast, including Chautauqua Opera, Lake George Opera, and did three national tours with New York City Opera (performing La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and The Daughter of the Regiment).
Borst’s recital will include two songs from “Peter Pan” by Leonard Bernstein, parts of “The Sylvan Deities” by Otto Respighi, and three arias from G.F. Handel’s Ariodante.
“The arias from Handel are pieces I have prepared for upcoming auditions,” Borst said.
She will also perform selections from “North and South,” with texts from American poet Elizabeth Bishop, and music by John Harbison, the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize among many other prestigious awards and commissions.
He has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Santa Fe Chamber Festival, the American Academy in Rome, Tanglewood and the California Institute for the Arts and Chamber Music West.