Jenny Ribeiro - soprano

American soprano Jenny Ribeiro uses her “bright instrument and engaging personality” (Voce di meche) to delight audiences throughout the world. Trained as a classical pianist and clarinetist as well as a singer, she spent several seasons in musical theater before switching her focus to opera. Jenny has performed with Bard Summerscape Theater, Dicapo Opera, Opera Noire of New York, Amore Opera, Regina Opera, Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, The Collegiate Chorale, New York Virtuoso Singers, Hudson Valley Singers, and Altoona Symphony Orchestra, among others. She has sung the roles of Third Norn (Götterdämmerung), Giulietta (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Elvira (The Song of Norway, her Carnegie Hall solo debut) and Nella (Gianni Schicchi). Jenny’s opera repertoire also includes Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Mimi (La Boheme), Michaela (Carmen), and Elsa (Lohengrin). An enthusiastic interpreter of new music, Jenny appeared as Martha in the premier of God Bless Everyone by Thomas Pasatieri and recorded Matt Frey’s chamber opera One-Eleven Heavy, released by Navona Records.

Find more at https://www.jennyribeiro.com/

Concert Dates

  • September 19th - 7:00 PM Lansing, Michigan

15 one-minute selections for Jenny Ribeiro

  • THE APPARITION

    Erik Branch

    I have long been attracted to Phillips’ devastatingly bleak and moving poem — its short lines and almost totally monosyllabic vocabulary seem to cry out for the intensifying effects of music — and I hope to have caught something of its poignancy in my setting with the voice’s sustained, Mahlerian, wide-ranging lines.

    ERIK BRANCH is a native of New York City, and received a BA and MA in Music (Composition) from Hunter College. He lives near Orlando, Florida, where he is active as a pianist, musical director, composer/arranger, operatic tenor, and actor on stage and screen.

  • Light has gone

    Sarah Clevely

    This poem about the rich colours of the sea, sky and land is set to a haunting melody written in the phrygian mode. The repeated motif in the middle of the piece mimics the building of the waves reaching a dramatic climax where light goes out and we see nothing.

    Sarah is a composer of choral and instrumental music of many styles and she enjoys experimenting with unusual instrumental combinations. Her music has been published in the UK, and performed in the UK and the US. Sarah also teaches music theory, and she sings, and plays the piano and trumpet.

  • The World Feels Dusty

    R. Michael Daugherty

    Death is a dry and dusty end. The poet seeks to offer comfort with Hybla Balms (honey) and drink.

    R. Michael Daugherty has composed about 400 pieces in many different genres, often songs and song cycles. He lives in Vero Beach, Florida, with his wife of 45 years, Lorraine. Dr. Daugherty has earned degrees in composition from Denison University and The Ohio State University.

  • Desperation

    Clifton Davis

    The original text of “Desperation” (from “Four Short Songs of Love” for unaccompanied soprano) takes us on a journey of love. Using “movie” chord progressions (chromatic mediants), the opening theme’s relentless eighth-note pattern communicates desperation while a calmer middle section quickly returns to the angsty opening material

    Dr. Clifton Davis enjoys solving musical puzzles and composing for specific people like the Muncie, IN Masterworks Chorale. His doctorate from Ball State University included research on creativity. Find his music at sheetmusicplus.com and other retailers. When not teaching or composing, he enjoys gardening and travel with loved ones.

  • There Was a Young Lady

    Carlotta Ferrari

    There Was a Young Lady is a one-minute arietta for soprano solo on a nonsense poem by Edward Lear. The pointed chin is evoked by high notes while the harp is interpreted by the voice in an onomatopoeic way.

    Carlotta Ferrari (1975) is an award-winning Italian composer who has developed a personal language concerned with the blend of past and present. Her compositions have been performed around the world and appear on several CDs. Her research interest lies in contemporary compositional techniques with a modal inspiration.

  • We Wear The Mask

    Boyd Gibson

    I learned to appreciate Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poetry as our mother would often recite his poetry to us as we were growing up. This poem illustrates the timelessness of Dunbar’s poetry. The sentiment that we still hide behind a mask is conveyed by the wide and dissonant leaps in this song.

    Boyd Gibson is a composer, violist and conductor. He has composed throughout his career for his string orchestras and choirs. He has taught in Kenya, and the states. He now chairs the music department at The University of the Southern Caribbean, in Trinidad, teaching music theory, composition and strings.

  • The Dream Keeper

    Stanley Grill

    This song is a brief first dive into my volume of Langston Hughes' Collected Poems. It's been sitting in my library waiting for me.

    Stanley Grill is a classical composer whose passion for medieval and Renaissance music has greatly influenced his writing. Two main themes permeate many of his works – music composed in an attempt to translate something about the nature of the physical world, and music composed to inspire and promote world peace.

  • Say To the Young Man

    Stanley M. Hoffman

    This song is a setting of the poem "The Testimony of Beauty" by the 11th-century poet Solomon Ibn Gabriol translated and adapted from the original Hebrew. In it, the colors of the mid-day and dawn skies are compared to those of the cheeks of a young man. Then comes a verbatim quote from Proverbs 30 (Agur): "Charm is false, and beauty is futile," followed by an admonishment not to hold that against the youth. Instead, the poem ends by stating that, his cheeks are so beautiful, they "bear honest witness that the deeds of God are beyond all understanding."

    Stanley M. Hoffman was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1959. He has lived in the greater Boston area since 1977. He received degrees in Composition from Brandeis University (PhD 1993), the New England Conservatory of Music (MM 1984), and the Boston Conservatory (BM Cum Laud 1981). Senior Editor at ECS Publishing Group from 1998–2021, Dr. Hoffman was laid-off by the company because of the economic toll caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He works as a freelance music engraver and editor, arranger, conductor, vocalist, and lecturer.

  • See the Spring in all her glory

    Maria E Ljungdahl

    Aria for soprano composed in June 2024 by Maria Ljungdahl for the upcoming Vox Novus "Fifteen Minutes of Fame" events with four different sopranos. The short song is planned to be recycled later as an aria or scene in a work-in-progress opera called "Helissa, Queen of California". The lyrics to "See the Spring in all her glory" are lines taken from the prologue in Nahum Tates libretto for Purcells opera "Dido and Aeneas".

    Maria E Ljungdahl (b. 1959) is a Swedish composer and writer. She studied (B.A. in Musicology) music theory, music history, ethnomusicology, philosophy, music technology and composition at the universities in Gothenburg, Lund, Uppsala and Stockholm, and also has a background from science, IT and engineering studies. She publishes sheet music and digital music recording under the artist and publisher name Maritune Art & Music.

  • The Last Poem of Hannah Szenes (1921-1944)

    Serban Nichifor

    Serban Nichifor: The Last Poem Of Hannah Szenes (1921-1944) [‘One-Two-Three’] Hannah Szenes is regarded as a national hero in Israel, her poetry is widely known and several streets are named after her. She was tortured and executed by Hungarian fascist gendarmes.

    Serban Nichifor OCB (born 25 August 1954) is a Romanian composer and cellist, member of Vox Novus - USA, of the Union Belgian Composers, of SABAM and Professor PhD Habilitatus at the National University of Music Bucharest. http://www.voxnovus.com/composer/Serban_Nichifor.htm

  • Landscape

    Juan Luis de Pablo Enríquez Rohen

    This miniature was composed specifically for the soprano Jenny Riveiro as part of the “Fifteen minutes of Fame” contest. It is an expressive and articulate song which uses microtonal glissandos and makes use of dynamic contrast. The poetry is by the artist Brian St. John. The music/text becomes insistent.

    Rohen lives in Mexico, as an active teacher, speaker, guitarist and composer at Tecnológico de Monterrey. His extensive 'JLPER Theory' which connects music with archaeoastronomy is his most important research on multidiscipline and the ‘music of the spheres’. He also composes using tonal/central methods.

  • An ARMGART Moment

    Greg A Steinke

    From ARMGART by George Eliot For herself, She often wonders what her life had been Without that voice for channel to her soul. She says, it must have leaped through all her limbs -- Made her a Maenad -- made her snatch a brand And fire some forest, that her rage might mount In crashing roaring flames through half a land, Leav- ing her still and patient for awhile 'Poor wretch!' she says, of any murderess -- ‘The world was

    Dr. Greg A Steinke is retired, former Joseph Naumes Endowed Chair of Music/Art and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon; Associate Director, Ernest Bloch Music Festival (‘93–97) and Director, Composers Symposium (‘90–97) (Newport, OR); served as the National Chairman of the Society of Composers, Inc. (1988–97). Composer of chamber and symphonic music and author with published/recorded works and performances across the U. S. and internationally; speaker on interdisciplinary arts, and oboist specializing in contemporary music. Dr. Steinke is a past national president of NACUSA (2012-19) and also currently serves on the NACUSA Cascadia Chapter Board.

  • God's World - Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Melissa Tosh

    Program Notes – One Minute Arias God’s World – Edna St. Vincent Millay – In awe of beauty.

    Melissa Tosh – Composer, Singer, Professor 2018 “O Blissful Loss of Self”, She/We Can Beyond Women’s Suffrage Centennial. 2011 “Song of Light”, Emerging Woman Composer, Twin-Cities-Women’s-Chorus. 2008 “Autumn Within” , Longfellow-Chorus-competition. 2005-08 Daniel Pearl Foundation for Peace broadcasts. 1982 –1991 European operatic engagements. 1999-present Chair Vocal department, University of Redlands, California.

  • Oscar

    Anna Vriend

    Oscar is a dog who is going out with his owner for a walk. Oscar has a great time running around, and regularly returns to his owner, when called. Sometimes it takes longer for Oscar to return…

    Anna Vriend won third prize in the VIII International Composition Competition Opus Ignotum. Her works for bass clarinet solo and reed quintet respectively have been published by Alea Publishing. Several of her pieces for various instruments have been performed on Fifteen Minutes of Fame recently.

  • for: Each

    Frank E. Warren

    for: Each - poem by Emily Dickinson. Her use of language, often deceptive, defying interpretation. For me, the poem sets human cycles of life in cooperating rhythm with those of Nature and earth. In keeping with that idea, the music flows in patterns and cycles that seem not to rest.

    Frank E. Warren, award-winning composer and publisher whose works stem from classical tradition and jazz. He collaborates with poets, visual artists, in modern dance, and has been guest composer at colleges and universities across U.S. and Canada. His music has been performed in concert and on radio across six continents.