|
The American soprano and music pedagogue, Gwendolyn Lytle, began her musical studies with her father, who was a church organist for 30 years. She began performing with her sisters in a singing group when she was 9 years old and at the age of 14, began solo performances in music of Black American composers, mostly sacred. She graduated from the Hunter College, and went on to receive a Master of Music at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
Gwendolyn Lytle has continued her interest in American music, sub-specialty Black American composers to the present day. Her performances include recitals at: the Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts; University of California campuses at Berkeley, Irvine, San Diego and Riverside; and the Goethe Institute in San Francisco. She has performed also in Bermuda and Hawaii. She has been soloist with the Long Beach Symphony, Oakland Symphony, William Hall Chorale and Classical Music Seminar Orchestra in Eisenstadt, Austria. Since 1993, she has participated as a soloist with the Classical Music Seminar Orchestra in performances of L.v. Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9, Haydn's Harmoniemesse, Theresienmesse, and Paukenmesse, and Mozart's Requiem in Eisenstadt and Vienna, Austria and Kösweg, Hungary under the direction of Dr. Don V. Moses.
Gwendolyn Lytle and her brother Cecil recently collaborated in a series of concerts devoted to the music of George Gershwin, which produced a PBS broadcast of the concert which has been shown on many public stations across the USA. Her most recent recitals have been devoted to settings of Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes poems by American composers. Her future repertoire plans include further exploration of vocal chamber music for voice and various instruments by American composers.
Her operatic experience includes performances in the following roles and operas: Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, by George Frideric Handel; Countess in The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart; the Little Cook in The Nightingale by Igor Stravinsky; Ernestina in The Luggage Mix-Up by Rossini; Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte by Mozart; Second Lady in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell; and Lucy in Treemonisha by Joplin.
Gwendolyn Lytle is presently on the faculty at Pomona College as Associate Professor of Music and Resident Artist. |
