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Biography • Performances
• Discography •
Press • Awards
Misc.
• Photos
• Kafka Fragments
• Residencies
screecher reviews
Art Voice • 23 November 2010
Buffalo Classical Music CDs for holiday gift giving
“UB-based soprano Tony Arnold is one of the most accomplished interpreters
of contemporary classical vocal music now performing in America. Her performance
of Hungarian composer György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments (Bridge),
which uses texts drawn from Franz Kafka’s letters, diary entries, and notebooks,
beautifully captures the spare intensity of the feted composer’s most personally
autobiographical work. Violinist Movses Pogossian, a visiting professor at UB
for several years, is Arnold’s equally talented collaborator in the performance.
In addition to a studio recording of the work, the two disc set includes a DVD
with both a live performance and a master class featuring Kurtág and the
two performers.” – Jan Jezioro
Los Angeles
Times • 17 November 2010
George Crumb: The River of Life • Ancient Voices of Children
“Tony Arnold was the convincing, mesmerizing soprano in both song cycles… The
performance was stunning. Arnold remained restrained. Her voice
flowed ethereally in and out of the jingle-jangle percussion jungle. The sounds
were always changing and always alluring. Footing for the ear, so to speak,
was impossible. Each listener has the opportunity to find his or her own allusions
to the music of our roots displaced…
“Ancient Voices is more adamant and dramatic.
It is, in some ways, earth music, as opposed to the water music
in the first half of the program… Avery
Roberts, a 12 year-old from the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, made an
assured star turn. Guido Lamell’s musical saw was pure acoustic honey.
Joanne Pearce Martin commandeered the piano, gloriously playing inside and out
of it. Arnold was magnificent.” – Mark Swed
New York Times • 24 October 2010
Matthias Pintscher: a twilight’s song • Miller Theatre
Composer Portrait
“Mr. Pintscher drew a vivid performance from the expert musicians
of the International
Contemporary Ensemble. He also led the group, with the flexible soprano Tony
Arnold, in “a twilight’s song” (1997), a fluid E. E. Cummings
setting. Mr. Pintscher’s vocal writing is wedded to the poetry’s
spirit, if not its surface. In a twilight’s song, that meant
plenty of octave leaping to capture the stark emotionality that
underlies Cummings’s
meditative verses.” – Allan Kozinn
Boston Musical
Intelligencer • 19 August 2010
Milton Babbitt: Philomel • Arnold Schoenberg:
Pierrot Lunaire
“Tony Arnold’s performance of these two classics was all
that one could have hoped for, and then some. Here again, she amply demonstrates
through her obvious intelligence, rich, supple and elastic voice, and dramatic
delivery that she is at the service of contemporary music, on stage not to
charm or entertain, but rather to warm us to this difficult music and present
it in a manner that could only deeply satisfy the composer. Uniquely in Arnold’s
favor are her earlier studies in piano, woodwinds, and orchestral
conducting; in her hands, the voice becomes a part of the instrumental
ensemble, while at the same time remaining distinct in order to project
the texts. And project she does indeed…
“Babbitt’s Philomel, written together with
the poet John Hollander for Bethany Beardslee, is an excellent
match for Arnold’s capabilities… Arnold
conveys the poetry with impassioned zeal, “thrashing through the woods
of Thrace” (the poem’s frequent refrain). She is sometimes at one
with the voice on the tape, and sometimes soaring above it, a dramatic, lone
voice, rising above the voice of suffering.
“Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire has had many
notable interpreters, to which Arnold’s interpretation is a welcome addition… The soprano
sings, speaks, and combines both modes with the composer’s indicated
relative pitches (sprechtstimme); Arnold smoothly negotiates
all three. The texts are dark, moody, slightly sardonic; and she
projects them with resonant, full-blown vowels and consonants and
clear musical and literary understanding.” – Mary
Wallace Davidson
Kansas City Star • 11 July 2010
Luciano Berio: Folk Songs • Kansas City Summerfest
“Saturday night, soprano Tony Arnold's voice was true, expressive
and even sassy at times. It wasn't operatic at all, but rather
like hearing the eighth instrument in the score.”
Fanfare Magazine • May-June 2010
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 14 • Bridge Records 9312
DVD
“Because of the physicality of so many of Crumb’s performance techniques,
one learns a lot about the music just watching. Tony Arnold’s
quiet intensity is perfect for Apparition.” – Robert Carl
The
Classical Review • 4 May 2010
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 14 • Bridge Records 9312
DVD
“But Crumb’s mystical inclinations make the biggest
impact in the two most substantial pieces, both of them performances
that are worth the price of admission: Eine Kleine Mitternacht Musik… and
the magnificent Apparition,
a visionary Whitman song cycle reflecting on death. Starobin’s film work
here makes for involving counterpoint with the excellent interpretations by
Robert Shannon at the keyboard and soprano Tony Arnold. Watching their performances
reinforces the sense of a theatrical dimension behind Crumb’s
sound world.” – Thomas
May
Buffalo News • 14 April 2010
Marcel Tyberg: Lyrisches Intermezzo • University at Buffalo
“The song cycle made a very positive first impression,
on the wings of committed and sensitive
performances by baritone Alexander Hurd, soprano Tony Arnold and
pianist Alison d’Amato… Both Hurd and Arnold threw
themselves wholeheartedly into the spirit of Heine’s texts,
singing with spontaneous response to turns in the text, plus nicely
centered projection and control that responded instantly to the
need for quick dramatic flair or sudden retreat into hushed confidentiality.
Pianist d’Amato provided model partnership for the voices,
fully aware of the importance of expression and nuance in the instrumental
line but never becoming aggressively competitive. There was a palpable
sense that the three artists felt they were involved in an important
premiere and were reveling in the experience.” – Herman
Trotter
Fanfare Magazine • March-April 2010
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 14 • Bridge Records 9312
DVD
“All the performances are beyond criticism… This
is a superlative production on every count.”
– James H. North
Fanfare Magazine • January-February
2010
Anton Webern: Lieder Opp. 8, 13, 14 & 15 • Naxos 8.557531
“Soprano Tony Arnold, a professor of voice at SUNY Buffalo, is a renowned
new-music specialist; she sings Webern with glorious panache.” – James
H. North
Classical Music Sentinel • January 2010
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 14 • Bridge Records 9312
DVD
“The vocal pieces, performed with character and given a deep emotional
range by soprano Tony Arnold, demonstrate the composer's ability to blend both
words and music to create a powerful emotional image.” – Jean-Yves
Duperron
Sequenza21 • 25 January 2010
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 14 • Bridge Records 9312
DVD
“A special treat on this program is vocalist Tony Arnold. …Apparition (1979),
originally written for the unique voice of Jan DeGaetani [is] here
rendered with the greatest vividness and luminosity by Arnold and
Shannon. …Tony
Arnold’s pure tones, her cleanly rendered melismas, and her unfailing
sensitivity to the meaning of the text, all serve to convey Whitman’s
paean to Death as the central point between life and a return to the universal
life force.” – Phil Muse
Sequenza 21 • 8 January 2010
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 14 • Bridge Records 9312
DVD
“Although Arnold is too young to have been the voice Crumb
had in mind when creating his earlier vocal music, she seems born
to perform his challenging yet sensuous works. On both his Neoimpressionist Three Early Songs (1947)
and the Whitman settings Apparition (1979), she is an
eloquent and indeed superlative interpreter.” – Christian Carey
Birmingham News • 20 December 2009
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 14 • Bridge Records 9312
DVD
“In Apparition, a set of six songs and three
vocalises composed in 1979, soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Robert
Shannon pick up where the brilliant duo of Jan DeGaetani and Gilbert
Kalish left off. The poetry is Walt Whitman's, the music a journey
through the poet's soul.” – Michael
Huebner
Musical Pointers Online • December 2009
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 14 • Bridge Records 9312
DVD
“A small selection of his songs and chamber music is beautifully
filmed. There are early songs with piano, and later Whitman songs
welcoming soothing, delicate death (a world away from Dylan Thomas' Do not go gentle -
- rage against the dying of the light). Those are presented
compellingly by Tony Arnold with Robert Shannon – playing inside the instrument as
well as on the keyboard; both partners ideally filmed. Recommended warmly.” – Peter
Grahame Woolf
Fanfare Magazine • November-December 2009
Music of Ursula Mamlok, Vol. 1 • Bridge Records 9291
“Though Mamlok is a composer whose music is not commonly encountered
in recital, this disc boasts performers from the highest rank. Oboist Heinz
Holliger and pianist Garrick Ohlsson are as commanding as ever, while soprano
Tony Arnold and flutist Claire Chase comprise a vibrant and compelling duo.” – Michael
Cameron
American Record Guide • November 2009
Music of Ursula Mamlok, Vol. 1 • Bridge Records 9291
“Typical 60s aphorisms emerge in [Mamlok’s] Haiku Settings (1967)
for soprano and flute(s). Soprano Tony Arnold is superb, though
the piece, lovely as it is, seems hopelessly dated today.”
American Record Guide • November
2009
Anton Webern: Lieder Opp. 8, 13, 14 & 15 • Naxos 8.557531
“This is a remarkably full disc containing a great deal of music, all
recorded with sonic realism and played in a relaxed manner that leaves the
listener free to absorb this complex music without shoving it down his throat
with no dressing, as Craft’s old LPs used to do. The performers
are more polished, too. Arnold has a sweet, clear sound, and everyone
seems highly competent.”
New York Times • 19 October 2009
Iannis Xenakis: Akanthos • International Contemporary Ensemble
“In Akanthos (1977), Xenakis puts an assertive microtonal
vocal line into a frame of rough-hewn string figures and sharp-edged
woodwind and piano writing. The soprano Tony Arnold’s deft reading highlighted the
ritualistic quality of Xenakis’s vocal style.” – Allan
Kozinn
Chicago Classical Review • 6 October 2009
György Kurtág: Messages of the Late R.V. Troussova • MusicNOW
“Much larger in scope was Kurtag’s Messages of the Late R.V.
Troussova, where soprano Tony Arnold sang 21 heavy-hearted poems of the
Russian poet Rimma Dalos. Arnold brought a feverishly engaged and almost sinister
flair to her performance, moving defiantly through sneering songs like Why
Should I Not Squeal Like a Pig and You Took My Heart… Those
who had opted for MusicNOW instead of the Lyric Opera’s opening
night of Faust got their fine vocal fix after all.”
New
Zealand Herald • 4 October 2009
Anton Webern: Lieder Opp. 8, 13, 14 & 15 • Naxos 8.557531
“From her first arching phrase, Tony Arnold sings Webern's
1910 Rilke settings as if they are part of a Straussian twilight.”
All Music
Guide • October 2009
Anton Webern: Lieder Opp. 8, 13, 14 & 15 • Naxos 8.557531
“The angular vocal and choral pieces are still somewhat more challenging,
but hearing the clear and accurate performances of sopranos Tony Arnold and
Claire Booth, bass David Wilson-Johnson, and the Simon Joly Chorale is really
a pleasure.” – Blair Sanderson
Gramophone
Magazine • October 2009
Anton Webern: Lieder Opp. 8, 13, 14 & 15 • Naxos 8.557531
“Soprano Tony Arnold is admirably mellifluous in the song sets, the wide-spanning
lines given their full lyrical weight.” – Arnold Whittall
Strings
Magazine • September 2009
György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments • Bridge 9270
A/B
“This new two-disc set pairs the Armenian violinist Movses Pogossian
with the formidable soprano Tony Arnold… The chance to go behind the
scenes and to glimpse Kurtág in action as he addresses everything
from the role of harmony to the use of the Alexander Technique
to help Pogossian relax is priceless. Highly recommended.” – Greg Cahill
Opera
News • August 2009
György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments • Bridge 9270
A/B
“The studio recording that ensued two months later reveals the degree
to which Arnold and Pogossian, both astonishing performers, reaped benefits
from their study with Kurtág. This recording is an interpretation
of the highest caliber, worthy of the high standard set by its
few predecessors. In many ways, it represents an ideal performance.
“The live performance on the DVD occurred in Armenia, two
years after the studio recording. Arnold's and Pogossian's interpretation
here is a bit less immediately intense, yet it is even deeper in
expression. Despite a minor technical glitch (white noise slightly
interfering with songs 38 and 40), the performance is a wonderful
document. Dawn Upshaw and Geoff Nuttall have performed Kafka
Fragments in a fine staging by Peter Sellars. However, as Arnold and Pogossian
demonstrate, this music has even more power when left unstaged. It allows the
listeners/viewers to relate it more closely to their own experience, rather
than to the specific character presented in the staged version.
“While some may not wish to explore the connections of Kafka's words
and Kurtág's music so personally, this DVD affords a valuable
opportunity to experience Kafka Fragments as its composer
originally envisioned it.” – Arlo McKinnon
Guitar Review • August
2009
Kaija Saariaho: Adjö • New Focus Records
“Standouts on the disc include… Saariaho's Adjö,
a timbral tour de force featuring the exquisite soprano Tony Arnold.
While this release is by no means ‘easy listening,’ those
willing to give this CD multiple listens will surely reap the benefits.”
MusicWeb
International • 9 August 2009
Elliott Carter: Voyage; Warble for Lilac Time • Bridge
9271 A/D
“The orchestra accompanies well and the soprano line is beautifully
performed by Tony Arnold.”
International Record Review • July/August
2009
György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments • Bridge 9270
A/B
“It is first-class, in every way, including sound quality. Arnold’s
emotional intensity and grace under extreme pressure cannot be denied, and
Pogossian matches her note for note and nuance for nuance… Both
gesturally and facially, Arnold is an expressive performer, and
watching her here assists one in getting under the surface of the Kafka Fragments.”
Paul
Griffiths Online • July 2009
György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments • Bridge 9270
A/B
“One of the benefits of the new recording, quite apart from the exceptional
studio recording made by these artists, is that it shows us the context of
failure by offering an ancillary DVD that includes excerpts from what was evidently
a lengthy and exhausting rehearsal directed by the composer. This is invaluable
as a record of Kurtág in action, but perhaps the most important words
are Arnold’s, referring to a different rehearsal, at which he was coaching
a string quartet in Beethoven: ‘It seems that for Kurtág harmony
doesn’t simply affect rhythm, rubato and timbre in music, it actually
creates them.’ And she seems to use this important insight in her performance
with Pogossian – in, for example, the sixteenth fragment,
where the degree of consonance or dissonance between voice and
violin gives the music at once expressive force and dynamism.
“Arnold’s drama is touching, with a sense, from the freshness of
her singing and from her thoughtful involvement, that the experiences reflected,
refracted or directly conveyed in these miniature scenes are happening to her,
right now, as she utters.”
Musical Pointers Online • July
2009
Anton Webern: Lieder Opp. 8, 13, 14 & 15 • Naxos 8.557531
“…a particular pleasure in this collection is the singing of Tony
Arnold.” – Peter Grahame Woolf
Audiophile Audition • 19
June 2009
György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments • Bridge 9270
A/B
“The third available recording of Kurtag’s masterpiece is a worthy
one… Soprano Tony Arnold throws herself into these performances,
and certainly seems moved by this music. Violinist Pogossian plays the devil
out of what has to be an enormously bearish piece, though obviously written
in an idiomatic manner.” – Steven Ritter
Gapers
Block • 11 June 2009
Iannis Xenakis: Akanthos • International Contemporary Ensemble
“Much must be said of the soloists on many of the pieces.
Soprano vocalist Arnold wound her supple, passionate vocals around
the keening wail of the strings, bending her notes to intertwine
with woodwind instruments, essentially using her voice as an instrument,
while still firmly establishing her position as soloist, never losing
her instrumental voice amidst the melee.”
Time
Out Chicago • 8 June 2009
Iannis Xenakis: Akanthos • International Contemporary Ensemble
“By far, one of the most harmonically beautiful moments of
the night was unveiled toward the end of Akanthos, with
the retreat of the instruments into an atmospheric haze as vocalist
Tony Arnold lofted a very pure tone toward us. She spent the majority
of the piece wrangling with Xenakis’s vocal
acrobatics, and it was a much-needed moment of serenity. If you see Tony Arnold’s
name listed for a concert, buy a ticket immediately.” – Doyle
Armbrust
Boston Globe • 21 April 2009
Iannis Xenakis: Akanthos • International Contemporary Ensemble
“In the aptly named Akanthos (Thorns), Xenakis pushes the idea
of treating the voice as an instrument to its limit. A soprano sings, speaks,
and vocalizes wordless syllables against a noisy instrumental backdrop that
includes glissandi, quarter tones, and strings played on the bridge. Despite
the constant shifts in color and texture, the music seemed to emanate from
and return to a single note, giving it an oddly unified feel.
“The ICE played with astonishing polish and intensity, and all the soloists – soprano
Tony Arnold in Akanthos, pianist Cory Smythe in Palimpsest and
clarinetist Joshua Rubin in Échange– were excellent.
Schick guided those three works with a deep understanding of this composer's
demanding, esoteric voice.” – Jeremy Eichler
The New Yorker • 9 March 2009
Gabriela Lena Frank: New Andean Songs • Ricardo Zohn Muldoon:
Comala • Sequitur
“Lyricism is the calling card of the latest concert by this elegantly
adventurous new-music ensemble: works by Gabriela Lena Frank, Donald Crockett,
and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. They have performers any composer would envy—the
singers Tony Arnold and Mary Nessinger and the conductor Bradley Lubman.” – Russell
Platt
Boston Globe • 28 January 2009
György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments • Concord Free
Library
“…Thanks to a performance of enormous skill and conviction by
these two young musicians, the piece still hit its mark. Indeed, the piece’s
original title, taken from one of the fragments, captures the essence of Kurtag’s
plight as a composer for whom the painful isolation of life behind the Iron
Curtain also encouraged a kind of radical self-reliance. Or as the soprano
sings: ‘My prison cell - my fortress.’
“On Saturday, Arnold rendered this fragment with the laser-like
intensity and complete dramatic conviction that she brought to
the entire cycle. Both players have clearly lived with this music
for years and have not only mastered the extreme technical challenges
of its rugged, stripped-down language, but have also internalized
its deeper mysteries, its jagged theatricality, and its searing
emotional honesty.
“…But of course it was the performance itself that
mounted the strongest case for this music. Arnold made the soprano
line's giant leaps and wild pivots feel like a natural expression
of the texts at hand. Her halting delivery of the 38th fragment,
about an artist's struggle for authentic self-expression, was particularly
riveting. Pogossian, moving between two violins with different
tunings, deftly conjured the music's surreal post-Bartokian nightscape:
by turns dreamy, frenetic, and ultimately in the final fragment,
sublime.” – Jeremy
Eichler
Washington Post • 3 November 2008
Recital with Jacob Greenberg • Library of Congress
“The celebration continued Saturday night with the fine soprano
(and new-music specialist) Tony Arnold performing Messiaen's heady,
turbulent and wildly colorful song cycle Harawi. It takes
a singer of considerable imagination to bring off this extravagant
music. It's a huge work, rife with exotic textures and emotional
complexities, and Arnold – accompanied skillfully by Jacob
Greenberg at the piano – gave a superb and genuinely insightful account – whether
chanting ritualistically in Doundou Tchil, evoking a state of quiet
grandeur in Adieu or summoning near-breathtaking power in the magnificent Repetition
Planetaire.”
Classical Voice of North Carolina • 2 November 2008
Recital with Jacob Greenberg • Duke University
“With penetrating beauty, Arnold's singular interpretation
was deliciously rich in color and Greenberg's piano collaboration,
perfect.”
Sequenza 21 • 3 July 2008
Tania León: Singin’ Sepia • Bridge 9231
“There is virtually complete expressive identification between
music and poetry (by Rita Dove) in Singin’ Sepia,
a cycle of songs on slavery and its diasporic effect. The music,
for soprano, clarinet, violin, and piano/four-hands, is, by turns,
joyous and reflective. Tony Arnold’s
performance is rich and intimate.”
The New Yorker • 21 April 2008
Stravinsky: Complete Songs • Miller Theater Stravinsky Festival
“As a prelude, the fearless new-music soprano Tony Arnold (among other
singers), backed up by the International Contemporary Ensemble, performs Stravinsky’s
songs, complete.” – Russell Platt
Los Angeles
Times • 27 March 2008
Gabriela Lena Frank: New Andean Songs (world premiere) • LA
Phil New Music Group
“The performance was beautiful. Soprano (Tony Arnold) and
mezzo-soprano (Rachel Calloway) were like a single voice entwined
in the text.”
Chicago
Tribune • 20 March 2008
Louis Andriessen: Racconto dall’Inferno • Fulcrum Point
New Music Project
“With a text from Dante's Inferno as inspiration,
the work is a brilliantly evocative mono-drama, sung on this occasion
by soprano Tony Arnold with complete technical command and deeply
felt artistry.” – Michael
Cameron
Buffalo News • 14 November 2007
Hugo Wolf: Songs from Mörike and Goethe Lieder • A Musical
Feast
“The first musical notes in the concert’s second half came from
the blessedly talented soprano, Tony Arnold, who, with [Claudia] Hoca accompanying
her performed songs from 19th century Austrian composer Hugo Wolf’s Goethe
Lieder and Mörike Lieder. Arnold’s take
on Im
Frühling and Auf ein altes Bild, two songs
from the latter folio, were a wonderful blend of vocal skill
and the composer’s own emotion
packed score.”
New York Observer • 30 October 2007
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Floof • Miller Theatre Composer Portrait
“Soprano Tony Arnold, also onstage for the Sequitur performance, was
the star of another concert three days earlier: the Miller Theatre’s “Composer
Portrait” tribute to Esa-Pekka Salonen… If Mary Nessinger is the
Jan DeGaetani of Generation X, then Tony Arnold is its Lucy Shelton. In Mr.
Salonen’s Floof, a setting of a text by the Polish
science-fiction writer Stanislaw Lem about an android that teaches
itself to write love poetry using the jargon of higher math instead
of the language of hearts and bodies, Ms. Arnold effortlessly alternated
between lucid coloratura vocalism and the roughest, most guttural
sounds; conductor Jeffrey Milarsky and the Miller musicians drove
home Mr. Salonen’s punchy, rugged brand of postminimalism
with assurance and aplomb.” – Russell Platt
Newsday.com • 9
October 2007
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Floof • Miller Theatre Composer Portrait
“Floof, a setting of cyberpoetry by Stanislaw Lem,
showcased the mind-bending virtuosity of soprano Tony Arnold. While
exploring the permeable boundaries between human and machine, meaning
and randomness, Arnold coughed, whispered, trilled, and slithered
(in duo with the splendid cellist Caroline Stinson), pounding out
high staccato notes that made Mozart’s high-flying
arias for the Queen of the Night sound like Row, row, row your boat by
comparison.”
New York Times • 9 October 2007
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Floof • Miller Theatre Composer Portrait
“The madcap Floof, a depiction of a computer learning
to generate poetry, drawn from a story by Stanislaw Lem, is endearing.
Tony Arnold, the soprano, made her difficult part seem easy as well
as funny.” – Anne
Midgette
MusicWeb International • 7 October 2007
Stefan Wolpe: Ten Early Songs • Bridge Records 9209
“They are given fine performances by Tony Arnold (soprano)
and Jacob Greenberg (piano). Arnold has a lovely focused lyric
voice, quite bright in tone and she sings Wolpe's expressionist
vocal lines with a fine line. There were moments when, not surprisingly,
the pieces recall early Berg songs.”
Chicago
Tribune • 25 September 2007
Philippe Manoury: Cruel Spirals • International Contemporary
Ensemble
“As usual, soprano Tony Arnold was a marvel, unintimidated by the thorny
score’s brutal leaps and stratospheric range. More to the point, she
imbued an uneven text with varied color and rhetorical depth.” – Michael
Cameron
Deceptively Simple • 24 September 2007
Philippe Manoury: Cruel Spirals • International Contemporary
Ensemble
“The eleven-concerts-in-seven-days ICEFest
2007 is underway, and featured an astonishing performance of Philippe Manoury's
cyclical Cruel Spirals last evening at the Museum of Contemporary
Photography. The devastating work is in the mold of Boulez's Marteau and
Kurtág's Scenes from a Novel, with poetry by Jerome
Rothenberg reflecting on the will of the majority and the legacy
of the concentration camps. I greatly doubt that another soprano
could be more compelling singing it than Tony Arnold.”
New York Times • 6 September 2007
Philippe Manoury: En Echo; Cruel Spirals • International
Contemporary Ensemble
“The voice in question was Tony Arnold’s. A soprano,
Ms. Arnold sustained the languid pace of four sections of En Echo and
managed the emotional ups and downs of the nine-part Cruel Spirals,
both with distinction.” – Bernard Holland
All Music
Guide • August 2007
Stefan Wolpe: Ten Early Songs • Bridge Records 9209
“Soprano Tony
Arnold is another standout in the Early Songs.”
American Record Guide • July 2007
Stefan Wolpe: Ten Early Songs • Bridge Records 9209
“Ten Early Songs (1920) range in style from agonized
atonality to folk-like references (there’s a setting from Knaben Wunderhorn),
and even some Roaring 20s ragtime rhythm. Texts are from all over
the map, but the concerns, musical and otherwise, offer a neat
snapshot of the period. They are all sung beautifully by soprano
Tony Arnold.”
New York
Times • 12 June 2007
Tania León: Singin’ Sepia • Orchestra of St.
Luke’s
“Ms. León’s Singin’ Sepia, a
song cycle on texts by the poet Rita Dove, intertwined angular,
leaping vocal lines with bristling counterpoint on clarinet and
violin. Two pianists provided spiky accompaniment, with occasional
undercurrents of wry swing. Tony Arnold, a bold, powerful soprano,
gave a riveting account of the demanding work.” – Steve
Smith
New York Times • 24 May 2007
Luigi Nono: A Floresta é Jovem e Cheja de Vida • International
Contemporary Ensemble
“The soprano Tony Arnold and the clarinetist Joshua Rubin performed with
intensity and fierce concentration. At times their sounds blended together to
intentionally uncomfortable effect: You literally felt bones in your ears resonating
in protest.” – Steve Smith
Chicago Sun Times • 25 April 2007
György Ligeti: Nouvelles Aventures • MusicNOW
“Tony Arnold, Julia Bentley and Alexander Hurd were the superb chanters,
shriekers and shouters of nonsense syllables.” – Andrew
Patner
Chicago Tribune • 25 April 2007
György Ligeti: Nouvelles Aventures • MusicNOW
“The assorted yelps, whispers, buzzes and screams were dispatched with
calculated abandon by Tony Arnold, Julia Bentley and Alexander Hurd.” – John
von Rhein
Deceptively Simple • 9 April 2007
Salvatore Sciarrino: Infinito Nero • Ensemble Dal Niente
“Tony Arnold then stepped out for Sciarrino's Infinito Nero,
a depiction of a nun experiencing ecstasy and rapture. The Italian
texts whoosh by quietly from a shocked singer. The mental dislocation
she's undergoing locks everyone inside the madhouse, a space Arnold
vividly created.”
International Record Review • February 2007
Augusta Read Thomas: Prairie Sketches • ART 19912005 CD
“It is hard to imagine other performers presenting this music
so compellingly. Soprano Tony Arnold deserves a special mention,
though, for her transfixing voice in Prairie Sketches I and Bubble: Rainbow–(spirit
level).”
MusicWeb International • February 2007
Luciano Berio: Sequenzas I–XIV • Naxos 8.557661-6
“Tony Arnold is a soprano, and has to my ears the advantage of being
able to reach down from easy highs, rather than push upward from a lower basic
range… smiling and flighty, showing some restriction in the lowest notes,
but with a schizophrenic inhalation ‘gasp’ which would
have you running for your life.”
Los Angeles Times • 9 January 2007
György Kurtág: Kafka Fragments • Dilijan Concert
Series with Movses Pogossian, violin
“Kafka Fragments is a journey, and that is how Arnold
and Pogossian approached it. Arnold is an impressive singer, with
operatic projection and tremendous flexibility. She has recently
made a very good recording of George Crumb's Ancient Voices for Children, which
has been nominated for a Grammy. In the first half of the program
she was commanding.” – Mark
Swed
New York Times • 10 December 2006
Augusta Read Thomas: Prairie Sketches • ART 19912005 CD
“Bubble: Rainbow – (spirit level), composed for Elliott
Carter's 95th birthday, is a bristling, eruptive setting of passages by Elizabeth
Bishop and Emily Dickinson. In Prairie Sketches I, which
includes harp and a chorus of three female voices, Ms. Thomas revels
in the poet Suzann Zimmerman's paean to a sweeping Kansas landscape
with music by turns radiant and ethereal. Tony Arnold, a soprano
who specializes in contemporary music, handles Ms. Thomas's leaping
vocal lines with intensity and assurance.” – Steve
Smith
MusicWeb International • 6 December 2006
Luciano Berio: Sequenzas I–XIV • Naxos 8.557661-6
“Some of the performances here need fear little comparison with any others… To
say that in Sequenza III Tony Arnold balances passion
and control, the histrionically excessive and the intimately breathy,
with a sureness of touch that Cathy Berberian would have been proud
of is, of course, to praise her very highly.”
Sequenza 21 • 15 November 2006
Luciano Berio: Sequenzas I–XIV • Naxos 8.557661-6
“Tony Arnold’s breathtaking Sequenza III for
solo voice is the best performance of this most popular Sequenza that
I have ever heard, decisively answering any critiques of this babbling
and histrionic piece as a collection of vapid theatrical effects.
In her hands it is no such thing. Instead, it is a touching and
emotionally fraught monodrama, with intersecting layers of structural
and textual significance that I have never heard brought forth and
controlled so brilliantly.”
Chicago Tribune • October 24, 2006
Jonathan Harvey: Song Offerings
Hans Werner Henze: Whispers from Heavenly Death
“…anything
sung by soprano Tony Arnold is worth hearing. Arnold was radiantly
inside the delicate atonal lyricism in both Jonathan Harvey's "Song
Offerings" (1985)
and Hans Werner Henze's "Whispers from Heavenly Death" (1948;
revised 1999).” — John von Rhein
Chicago Sun-Times • October 24, 2006
Jonathan Harvey: Song Offerings
Hans Werner Henze: Whispers from Heavenly Death
“Harvey's 18-minute song-cycle for soprano and chamber ensemble was
another showcase for the remarkable American soprano Tony Arnold.
Combining the British composer's softened version of atonality
with his interest in proto-New Age poetry and philosophy (the lyrics
here are by Rabindranath Tagore), this is a work at once lush in
feeling and austere in instrumentation. Arnold made the listener
feel as if he were seated atop an idyllic Bengali mountain.” — Andrew
Patner
Time Out Chicago • 6 July 2006
Luciano Berio: Sequenzas I–XIV (Naxos 8.557661-6)
“Soprano Tony Arnold (a frequent presence in Chicago)
gives a bracing account of Sequenza III on Naxos with awesomely
precise diction.”
www.classical.net • June 2006
Luciano Berio: Sequenzas I–XIV (Naxos 8.557661-6)
“The most interesting comparisons, I think, should
not be among the three collections, but between today's performers and the
original dedicatees, whenever possible. For example, it's gratifying to
hear how close Tony Arnold comes to Cathy Berberian in Sequenza III,
a fantasia of whoops, yips, and mutterings based on a brief text by Markus
Kutter. (I always half-suspected that Cathy was just making it up as she
went along, but now I know better!)”
Ionarts • 16 June 2006
Luciano Berio: Sequenzas I–XIV (Naxos 8.557661-6)
“Sequenza III for female voice, “a
zoo of vocal and acting exhibitions,” is given to Tony Arnold, who
hiccups and musico-stutters her way through this amusing, shifty work.”
Buffalo News • 7 June 2006
Augusta Read Thomas: Bubble Rainbow • Bernard Rands:
Wolcott Songs
“Pairing the brilliant soprano Tony Arnold with cellist
Jonathan Golove (Walcott Songs) and with an instrumental sextet (Bubble
Rainbow) showcased how combining intense, otherworldly tunesmithing
with conventional instruments can be experimental and accessible at the
same time.”
Music Web International • 6 June 2006
Luciano Berio: Sequenzas I–XIV (Naxos 8.557661-6)
“Tony Arnold’s aplomb is simply stunning.”
Chicago Tribune • 1 June 2006
Osvaldo Golijov: How Slow the Wind • Fulcrum Point
“Soprano Tony Arnold was in lovely voice in this beguiling work,
with quasi-minimalist accompaniment provided by string quartet and clarinet.”
Deceptively Simple • 16 May 2006
Anton Webern: Three Songs, Op. 18 • International Contemporary
Ensemble
“Arnold gave a riveting performance and made the angular
lines sound as non-angular as could be.”
Sequenza 21 • 1 March 2006
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 9 (Bridge 9170)
“The Bridge recording is vivid and exciting. Soprano
Tony Arnold gives a warm and compelling reading of both Ancient Voices and
the Madrigals, and boy soprano Justin Murray is excellent in Ancient
Voices, too.”
The Stranger • 2 February 2006
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 9 (Bridge 9170)
“One highlight is George Crumb's 1970 classic, Ancient Voices
of Children; though I love the early 1970s recording with Jan DeGaetani,
the serpentine melismas of soprano Tony Arnold sound equally stunning
on Complete Crumb Edition Vol. 9.”
Seen and Heard International • June 2005
Brian Ferneyhough: Etudes Transcendantales • Ensemble
21
“Perhaps the finest of all was the Etudes Transcendantales/Intermedio
II, which is sort of like a baroque concerto being subjected to experiments
in metre, timbre and texture – sort of like Schnittke, but with
more emphasis on microtones and a vocalist using texts by Ernst Meister
and Alrun Moll. With the lighting now a deep blue, the clear-voiced and
intrepid soprano Tony Arnold opened this disturbingly difficult music…”
International Record Review • November 2005
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 9 (Bridge 9170)
"It is impossible to hear the Madrigals and especially Ancient
Voices of Children without the voice of the late mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani
in the back of one's mind. Her recording of the latter work – she
was its dedicatee – remains a classic of its kind… [in Bridge
Records' new recording]
Tony Arnold acquits herself well here. While more restrained than
DeGaetani, she also
sounds more natural, letting the music speak for
itself."
Splendid
E-Zine • 9 November 2005
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 9 (Bridge
9170)
"Tony Arnold is the soprano soloist for both Ancient
Voices and Madrigals; her supple voice and enthusiastic performance of the scores' numerous
vocal effects make her a compelling interpreter of Crumb's music."
Chicago Sun-Times • 2 November
2005
John Harbison: North and South
"American soprano Tony Arnold has a beautiful and precise voice."
Chicago Tribune • 1
November 2005
John Harbison: North and South
"In setting poems of Elizabeth Bishop, [Harbison] elegantly shapes
the music to the natural contours of the text, always beautifully
rendered by the superb soprano Tony Arnold."
Shepherd Express • 29
September 2005
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Floof • Qu Xiaosong:
Mist "Featured soprano Tony Arnold gave a superhuman show of musicianship."
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel • 25
September 2005
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Floof • Qu Xiaosong: Mist
"The ensemble [Present Music], with the remarkable Tony Arnold at
the forefront, played both with unshakable conviction."
Classics
Today • 13
August 2005
Complete Crumb Edition, Vol. 9 (Bridge 9170)
"Soprano Tony Arnold has appeared on several other Bridge recordings
containing difficult contemporary music by composers such as Carter
and Babbitt.
Her performances of Ancient Voices of Children and Madrigals are
the first that
challenge the classic recordings by Jan DeGaetani on Nonesuch and
New World. Aside from her totally fearless delivery, she presents
the music with a
naturalness and ease that allows us to forget all about its technical
difficulty, focusing instead on pure expression."
Buffalo News • 14 June 2005
Philippe Manoury: En Echo
"If Manoury conceived of and captured his creation, it was soprano Tony
Arnold who brought it to life. She stole the show. Arnold's intensity
and passion drew everyone into the mood."
Buffalo News • 9 June 2005
Simon Bainbridge: Four Primo Levi Settings
"Tony Arnold, a June in Buffalo regular, was the soprano soloist. Uncompromising
and intense, superbly controlled, she is a wonder all on her own.
She filled the music, which resembled Schoenberg, with boundless
sadness and, at times,
an eerie quietude."
New York Times • 25 April 2005
Brian Ferneyhough: Etudes Transcendantales
"One of the best pieces was the song cycle, Etudes
Transcendantales/Intermedio II, in which the thinner textures of
duets and trios made the complexity of what was going on more
effective. It wouldn't have sounded half
as good without Tony Arnold, the soprano soloist, who used her
light, delicate voice like an instrument and kept a steady line
of beauty in music that was veritably asking to be barked. "
The Plain Dealer • 25
February 2005
James Primosch: Holy the Firm
“Soprano Tony Arnold drew the listeners into the score’s rapturous
atmosphere with singing of tonal beauty and dramatic truth. Pianist
Jacob Greenberg played his collaborative role with clarity.”
Chicago
Tribune • 11 January 2005
Augusta Read Thomas: Prairie Sketches
I–Diamonds on Orchid Velvet
"The radiant soprano Tony Arnold was the soloist… Remarkably flexible and
assured of pitch, Arnold gathered Thomas' ecstatic music in the
pure, shining arc of her singing, showing no traces of discomfort
even when sustaining long, difficult phrases in the vocal stratosphere."
Boston Globe • 17
December 2004
Harrison Birtwistle: Nenia–The Death of Orpheus
"This piece is a tour de force for the solo soprano, who narrates
the grisly end of Orpheus's story in pitched speech, while singing
'offstage' parts
of both Orpheus and of Eurydice. The instrumentalists were expert,
the soprano, Tony Arnold, quite compelling in all three of her
quick-changing, interpenetrating roles."
Boston Phoenix • 16
December 2004
Harrison Birtwistle: Nenia–The Death
of Orpheus
"The concert ended with another marvel, Nenia:
The Death of Orpheus (1970),
a kind of dramatic cantata (nenia is Latin for
'funeral song') in which a soprano — the impressive Tony Arnold — sings
all three roles: the narrator telling the story and the lamenting
voices of the two lovers, Orpheus and Eurydice, who interrupt the
narrator after almost every word by calling out each other’s name
in despair. It was a vocal and dramatic tour de force."
Il Tempo (Italy) • 22
November 2004
Luciano Berio: Circles • O King • Sequenza III • Folk Songs
"…the astonishing power of [Sequenza III] never
ceased to amaze in the marvelous performance by Tony Arnold, soprano,
as she smilingly
passed through Berio's vocal jungle. She too was the perfect soloist
for Circles and O King."
San Francisco Classical Voice • 9 November 2004
George Crumb: Apparition • Three Early Songs "Lithe and dramatic (in the literal sense) soprano Tony Arnold was heard
to marvelous and mysterious effects in the very early Three
Early Songs. Arnold and Shannon's other collaboration, Apparition of
1979, just at the end of Crumb's
most masterful decade, has never sounded better."
Washington Post • 1 November 2004
George Crumb: Apparition • Three Early Songs
"From the first notes of Three Early Songs, written
when Crumb was a teenager in 1947, soprano Tony Arnold's phenomenal
talent was apparent.
Arnold delivered Crumb's setting of sentimental texts by Robert
Southey and Sara Teasdale with a clear tone, clean diction and
an understated earthy quality.
"Arnold proved her effective dynamic range with a deft decrescendo, ending
with her lips moving in silence in the 1979 work Apparition.
Her dramatic flair fit Crumb's compositional style well, her facial
expressions reflecting the nuances of Walt Whitman's somber text."
Houston
Chronicle • 28
October 2004
George Crumb: Apparition • Three
Early Songs
"Soprano Tony Arnold was the commanding soloist in the songs. Her work
in Apparition was particularly impressive for bringing Crumb's
intricate interpretation
of texts to life."
Charleston Gazette • 18
October 2004
George Crumb: Apparition • Three Early Songs
"Tony Arnold's pure, clear soprano delivered Night,
Let it be forgotten, and Wind Elegy with
unerring pitch through difficult intervals, and appropriate emotional
expressiveness. She sings with complete
self-assurance, obvious insight and excellent diction.
"[In Apparition]
Arnold revealed the intensely personal musings, sad memories
and spiritual redemption with artistry and grace. Her vocalise
technique revealed great voice range and mastery, as required
for glissandi, sudden fortissimo shouting, and conversely for
bird sounds and
forest murmurs."
Musical Pointers Online • 20 September 2004
Jonathan Harvey: Song Offerings • Lucerne
Festival Academy
"Tony Arnold
(a she from USA) with Cliff Colnot in charge of his Academy Ensemble, made
a palpable hit with Jonathan Harvey’s Song
Offerings, a performer and listener friendly setting of Tagore.
Hers is a name to memorize and I hope we will soon have opportunities
to hear those
two Americans in London."
Buffalo News • 11 September 2004
Solo Recital with Jacob Greenberg, piano
"Tony Arnold is an amazing
singer, and pianist Jacob Greenberg is an outstanding accompanist.
Together, they have the ability to
plunge a receptive listener into the depths of their programs through a combination
of stunning power and beguiling subtlety.
"To say that their take
on Les Nuits d’Été was revelatory
would be to damn with faint praise. Greenberg’s pianism was sensitive
without being cloying, flowing behind Arnold’s special artistry
and melding with it to create a superlative whole. It was one
of the finest performances of this work that this listener has
ever heard."
New Music Box • June
2004
The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 5 (Bridge
9128)
The Music of Milton Babbitt (Bridge 9135)
"…[this] should forever dispel the myth that the angularities of serial
atonality are antithetical to good musical prosody. Just as the
young American soprano Tony Arnold proved in her remarkable recent
recorded performances of Elliott Carter's Of Challenge
and of Love and Milton Babbitt's Quatrains, both
settings of the extremely demanding texts of John Hollander in
which every syllable is clearly
comprehensible, it's all in the performance."
La Folia Online Music Review
• May 2004
The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 5 (Bridge 9128) "The grandest offfering, Of Challenge and of
Love, receives a carefully
thought-out interpretation from soprano Tony Arnold and pianist
Jacob Greenberg. This song cycle demands repeated listening to
savor Carter's sensitive word painting."
Classical CD
Review • May
2004
The Music of Milton Babbitt (Bridge 9135) "Quatrains happens to enchant me… The performances are all first rate.
I should also especially cite soprano Tony Arnold and clarinetists
Charles Neidich and Ayako Oshima for their singing accounts. Arnold
manages the trick of not performing new music, but music. We get
simply extraordinary music-making from all parties."
Chicago Sun-Times • 28
April 2004
Bernard Rands: Canti Lunatici
"In poetry with texts by Whitman, Joyce, Lorca, Plath and others,
Arnold's supple soprano often hovered in the stratosphere like
a fragile, icy crystal wire. Drawing us in with rapt humming in
Quasimodo's Ed è subito sera, conspirational
whispers in Welcome to the Moon by
an anonymous Gaelic poet and gigling outbursts in Arp's Ein
in sich gekehrter Mond, she was our guide through an ever-changing,
enchanted moonscape."
Chicago Tribune • 28 April 2004
Bernard Rands: Canti Lunatici
"Soprano Tony Arnold sang, spoke, whispered and cried over the exquisitely
quivering sonorities of winds, brass, piano, percussion and strings.
This is music spun of moonbeams–luminous and delicately colored,
but quickly dissolving into darker emotional states."
Buffalo News • 26
March 2004
Ravel: Chansons Madécasses "Arnold's voice projected a lovely, liquid sound in Nahandove and the concluding
Il est doux, and she equally well captured the tension and anger
of the central Mefiez-vous des blancs which wails about the treachery
of the white man."
BBC Music Magazine • March
2004
The Music of Milton Babbitt (Bridge 9135)
"Quatrains is a delight on the ear, with
Tony Arnold's pure and accurate soprano delicately making music with two
clarinets. "
Buffalo
News • 12
February 2004
Kurtág: Kafka Fragments • Movses
Pogossian, violin
"Tuesday night's concert at Slee Hall showcased a superb violinist,
a stunning vocalist, and a challenging set of compositions… Tony Arnold,
a tremendously talented soprano, joined Movses Pogossian onstage
after the intermission…
The skilled interplay between Pogossian's impressive violin artistry
and Arnold's superbly honed vocal talents met Kurtág's challenges
head on… Their listeners were appreciative as the performers wove
their way through a score that was, by turns, fierce, delicate,
stentorian, and, above all, intense."
New York Times • 11
January 2004
The Music of Milton Babbitt (Bridge 9135)
"Quatrains has two clarinets bending close
to a soprano singing a poem by John Hollander. The soprano here,
Tony Arnold, beautifully gauges
the fine cool of Mr. Babbitt's lyricism in this counterpoint of lines."
-- Paul Griffiths
Splendid
E-zine • 3
December 2003
The Music of Milton Babbitt (Bridge 9135)
"Like earlier vocal works, such as Phonemena and
Philomel, Quatrains' soprano part is one of
considerable virtuosity, with angular leaps and a wide range required
of the soloist. In spite of these challenges,
Babbitt's
setting is both sensitive to prosody and aware of tessitura; the
writing never sounds overly taxing. This is a testament to supple-voiced
soprano
Tony Arnold as well."
Buffalo News • 3
December 2003
Dmitri Shostakovich: Seven Romances •
Baird Trio
"The Baird Trio was joined onstage by Tony Arnold, a most wondrous soprano,
for a drop-dead gorgeous rendition of Shostakovich's song cycle
Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok...
'Ophelia's Song' featured Arnold's superb singing and Jonathan
Golove's warm, sensuous cello artistry..."
Pitchfork Media • 7
November 2003
The Music of Milton Babbitt (Bridge 9135)
"Soprano Tony Arnold (it's a girl) is pretty famous for performances of
modern classical works, and she's typically impressive here, singing
what must have been extremely challenging lines with impressive
delicacy and accuracy."
Chicago Maroon • 3 November 2003
Sofia Gubaidulina: Perceptions • Contemporary
Chamber Players
"The instruments provide an atmospheric background to the poetry set so
exquisitely by Gubaidulina, and delivered so effectively by baritone
Stephen Swanson and soprano Tony Arnold as to make an English monolingual
believe she could understand German."
Buffalo News • 31
October 2003
Solo Recital • works of Schoenberg, Messiaen, and Sharafyan
"Soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Jacob Greenberg are adventurous, fearless
and very adept... the presence of violinist Movses Pogossian added
to the evening's electricity. Really, the room was alive.
"Arnold sang the Schoenberg songs with an alluring combination
of grace and hard-knock strength. She is no shrinking violet.
She filled the 15 songs with more drama than other singers have, giving
them an almost operatic intensity. "Blessed with an impressive range and a voice as smooth as cognac, Arnold
can handle leaps and challenging harmonic progressions with ease.
When the music calls for it, though, she's not afraid to be a little
daring... Arnold seems to embrace whatever she sings – she can
make a listener love a work, just because she does."
Chicago Sun-Times • 27
October 2003
Sofia Gubaidulina: Perceptions •
Contemporary Chamber Players
"Tony Arnold was spellbinding, whether reciting Tanzer's text in an urgent,
ghostly whisper or sending forth Gubaidulina's deliberate, wide-ranging
vocal line with laserlike clarity."
American Record Guide • Sep/Oct
2003
Lukas Foss: Time Cycle • Slee Sinfonietta
"Tony Arnold was the soloist, technically sensational. Her intonation and
emotional commitment to this extremely wide-stepping music were
stunning, creating in the huge leaping or falling intervals a sense
of spontaneity not often captured in such lurching atonal scores. "
Classical Music Web • 3
August 2003
The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 5 (Bridge 9128)
"Soprano Tony Arnold and pianist Jacob Greenberg are vital and powerful
interpreters."
Guardian Unlimited • 18
July 2003
The Music of Elliott Carter, Vol. 5 (Bridge 9128)
"In the song cycle Of Challenge and of Love,
on the poetry of John Hollander, the soprano Tony Arnold and pianist
Jacob Greenberg relish the detail that Carter
lavishes on his settings, each one absorbingly articulate and bracingly
affirmative."
Buffalo News • 11
April 2003
Lukas Foss: Time Cycle • Slee Sinfonietta
"Soprano Tony Arnold, who has made her mark in the most uncompromising
pieces in the modern repertory, has quickly become a favorite of
'new music' devotees in Western New York. Her deep emotional involvement
in the performance generated a level of excitement that brought
Time Cycle back to life.
"Arnold used her huge range of tone color to great effect, whether she
was filling the room with her surprisingly large voice or dropping
down to the level of a whisper. She fully brought out the slightly
crazed anguish in the selection from Kafka's Diaries, while
conveying a tone of overwhelming world weariness in the Nietzsche
poem."
Chico News & Review • 5
December 2002
George Crumb: Madrigals • Bridge Ensemble
". . .Crumb's totally engaging collection of sound-images
[included] syllables bounced about by Ms. Arnold's exquisitely
accurate soprano voice. . ."
New York Times • 15 October
2002
Milton Babbitt: Quatrains • Fred Sherry
& Friends
"Babbitt's own Quatrains – music for
two clarinets darting around a vocal line like physicians examining
a healthy patient – was delectably done by Mr. Neidich, Ms.
Oshima and the soprano Tony Arnold."
Buffalo News • 11 September
2002
Luciano Berio: Folk Songs • Slee Sinfonietta
"Tony Arnold radiated grace and good humor. She has a lovely,
light-timbred soprano, and her diction is beautiful. Most importantly
for the songs at hand, her voice sounds natural. Even when singing
something that must be terribly difficult, she tosses it off as
if it's not much trouble at all.
"She faced more than a few challenges. One song required
her to sing 'Lalalalalalalalalala,' so fast that it was almost a
vibration, for what seemed like 10 or 15 seconds on end. (I was
too amazed to count.) You can't tell me everyone didn't try that
in the car on the way home. The Azerbaijan Love Song, which
ended the cycle, was a lilting piece full of trills. It was dazzling.
"That song brings me to what struck me most about the Folk
Songs which is the sheer joy of them. This is music that has
to be seen to be believed. By Azerbaijan Love Song, the
orchestra members were smiling at each other, catching each other's
eye, moving to the rhythm. Arnold's eyes were sparkling, too. She
swayed, arched her eyebrows, threw herself into the tune. Happiness
was all around, joy in the music and also in the world's diversity."
Buffalo News • 6 June 2002
Concert with Slee Sinfonietta at the
June in Buffalo Festival
Something to Talk About
"In Song Offerings by Jonathan Harvey, Arnold demonstrated
an ability to rapidly change character as demanded by the music.
The pure, seductive sound quality of her voice was immediately apparent
in these songs of a woman giving voice to her most intimate feelings.
"Following a performance of John Harbison's Mirabai Songs
last year by Dawn Upshaw, one critic remarked that she 'virtually
owned' the work. After hearing Tony Arnold's vivid realization of
the piece, one might want to argue that its ownership is very much
up for grabs. With her focused vocal projection and her ability
to shade a phrase, Arnold breathed genuine life into these poems
of religious ecstasy.
"In Canti Lunatici by Bernard Rands, Arnold returned
in a tour de force that had her humming, singing, whispering and
declaiming the words of fifteen poems in four different languages.
Arnold's dramatic ability was very much to the fore, as she used
her agile voice to hold the piece together."
Chicago Sun-Times • 29 April
2002
Mario Davidovsky: Romancero • MusicNOW
"Moving with impeccable precision through the angular leaps
and unpredictable melodic turns of Davidovsky's song cycle Romancero,
soprano Tony Arnold brought witty seductiveness to the opening song.
But accompanied by a small ensemble, her austere Sad was King
David was moving, each carefully shaped note glowing like a
teardrop in the slow, widely spaced melody."
Chicago Tribune • 8 April
2002
Songs of Weill, Eisler, and C.
Berg • Jacob Greenberg, piano
"Tony Arnold sang with a nice combination of fire and ice."
Chicago Sun-Times • 8 April
2002
Songs of Weill, Eisler, and C. Berg • Jacob
Greenberg, piano
"Arnold
mixed just the right amount of cynicism and innocence in settings
of three Frank O'Hara poems by Christopher
Berg. . .
She was equally fine in Hans Eissler's settings of several bitter
Bertold Brecht poems. In Weill's well-known Suyrabaya
Johnny, her sweet soprano created an image of youthful
vulnerability rather than world-weary disillusionment."
Pioneer Press • 7 March
2002
Songs of Robert Kritz and Rachmaninov
• Highland Park Strings
"Arnold's gleaming voice wrapped around the composer's long
lines, her diction was superb and she clearly relished performing.
. . Arnold then easily navigated Rachmaninov's Vocalise,
and the strings accompanied her with distinction."
De Telegraaf (Rotterdam) • 6
March 2001
Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition •Jacob
Greenberg, piano
"Arnold has a very strong theatrical presence, a beautiful
and big voice, and knows how to get the intention of the text across.
She accomplished all with great sense of drama. Her sublime breathing
technique gave a feeling of brilliant spaciousness in beautiful,
perfectly in tune, sustained and intensifying notes, using it all
to build long suspended phrases."
Rotterdams Dagblad • 5 March 2001
Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition • Jacob
Greenberg, piano
"Beautiful voice, very gutsy and fantastic technique."
NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands) • 5
March 2001
Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition • Jacob
Greenberg, piano
"Tony Arnold offered a beautifully smooth and even sound...remarkably
relaxed and accurate."
Hyde Park Herald • 29 March
2000
Lita Grier: Three Song Portraits • Ars
Viva String Quartet
"Three Song Portraits were sung with verve and
beautiful lyricism by soprano Tony Arnold. . . Arnold was spot-on
with her spoken word conclusion. Throughout, Arnold's fresh, clear
voice with subtle shadings was the perfect vehicle for this small
collection of songs."
Chicago Tribune • 21 January
1997
Lita Grier: Three Song Portraits • Ars
Viva String Quartet
"Tony Arnold's crisp and characterful performance brought out
all the atmosphere and piquant wit."
screecher features
Oberlin Conservatory Magazine • May 2003
feature
article about Bridge Records' George Crumb Edition
Buffalo News • 2
June 2002
feature article about June in Buffalo new music festival
Oberlin Conservatory Magazine • January 2002
feature
article and alumna spotlight
Oberlin Online • April 2001
feature
article about Gaudeamus Interpreters Competition
Oberlin Online • February 2000
preview
of World Premiere Performance of Pauline Oliveros:Elemental
Gallop
Oberlin Online • November 1999
preview
of the Richard Hoffman Tribute Concert
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