Britten's 'Winter Words' 
& his writing for the tenor voice 

Graham Johnson with tenor Daniel McGrew

Duration: 1 hour and 40 minutes

About:
A conversation between expert and apprentice on Benjamin Britten, on the tenor experience with his works, and an in depth look at a few of his songs from his great cycle Winter Words. 

Resources:

Britten Pears Arts on Winter Words

Graham Johnson’s Britten, Voice and Piano: Lectures on the Vocal Music of Benjamin Britten

Text of Winter Words on Oxford Lieder

About Our Participants

Daniel McGrew

Praised for his “lovely, nuanced tenor” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Daniel McGrew is an active performer of a broad range of repertoires spanning opera, musical theatre, early, and new musics. He has recently appeared in recital with Brooklyn Art Song Society, Five Boroughs Music Festival, Mirror Visions Ensemble, New York Festival of Song, and the University Musical Society, where he joined Martin Katz and three other singers for performances comprising the complete Mörike Songs of Hugo Wolf.

In 2019, Daniel spent his inaugural summer at the Marlboro Music Festival. Before that, at Tanglewood he performed the role of François in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place and participated in the annual Festival of Contemporary Music with a performance of Kurtág’s Three Ancient Inscriptions the Boston Globe called “viciously beautiful.” 

An early music specialist, Daniel has performed Bach with conductors including Matthew Halls, John Harbison, David Hill, and Masaaki Suzuki, and toured India and the Baltic region with Juilliard415 and Yale University’s Schola Cantorum. He participated in the symphonic premier of James Lapine’s Sondheim on Sondheim with the Boston Pops Orchestra and appeared in David Loud’s Sondheim review, A Good Thing Going. 

Daniel holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Yale University; he will soon complete his doctoral work at the University of Michigan.

Daniel was to be one of SongFest’s 2020 Eva & Marc Stern Fellows.