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Also check out Danielle's
myspace page:
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DANIELLE WOERNER:
Singer, Teacher, Writer... Throwback?
(Still working on "Renaissance Woman" in a specialized century)
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Photo by Michael Gold
"Major kudos to Danielle Woerner, whose towering performance glows
musically and dramatically. "
-- Poughkeepsie Journal [as Sharon Graham/Lady MacBeth in Terrence
McNally's play "Master Class"]
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"She is a singer, and therefore capable of anything," wrote
the 19th-century opera composer
composer
Vincenzo Bellini to a friend during rehearsals for his latest production.
It was a cry of exasperation. The rehearsal process was going poorly,
and the prima donna was driving him mad with her tantrums.
But 21st-century singers who enjoy this double-edged remark
prefer
to emphasize the positive side of the possibilities. In soprano Danielle
Woerner's case, "capable of anything" is particularly apt.
Photo by Michael Gold
"considerable technique along with perfect diction. All of the
singing is quite lovely." - FanFare
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Not only is she an unusually versatile
performer,
with a classical repertoire that runs from the Renaissance through
present-day pieces written just for her, she also branches out into
folk, jazz, performance art and world music. In Manhattan, where
The New York Post called her
"one of the shining lights of New York's musical life,"
and The New York Times praised her
"fresh, agile voice [and] intelligent singing,"
she’s
performed at venues from La MaMa to Lincoln
Center to Carnegie (Weill) Hall. She’s been heard onstage from Maine to
Florida
and on National Public Radio broadcasts throughout the country.
In the mid-Hudson region of New York State, her primary home
since 1990, she's been called "one of the Seven Wonders of the Hudson
Valley" by one of the admiring critics familiar with her performances
with orchestra, on concert and recital series, in opera and musical
theater, and at cabaret, jazz and folk venues.
Voices of the
Valley |
She Walks in
Beauty |
As a recording artist,
Danielle's two commercial CD’s
feature music and performances by some of the
20th and 21st centuries’
foremost American composers, including Otto Luening, Robert Starer and
Peter Schickele. Danielle also executive-produced those recordings:
She Walks in Beauty (Parnassus 96012), which has garnered
international kudos, and Voices of the Valley, featuring music
by Hudson Valley composers (Troy 877—Release date Nov. 1, 2006).
Her new label,
Woodlark Rising Records will soon be issuing other
projects, with a mission of integrating music with healing work.
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Photo by Michael
Gold |
A master teacher
in vocal technique, repertoire, and many areas of performance
practice, Danielle is sought after by the private students who come to
her studio
in Shokan, NY; by the colleges in
the mid-Hudson region; and also by other voice teachers seeking to
hone their skills and broaden their creativity.
She leads workshops
for amateurs and professionals on a variety
of
musical subjects. A strong believer in the healing capacity of music,
she’s been a nationally-featured presenter at conferences for the arts
and mental health, and has served as a music-and-arts activity
therapist.
Photo by Michael
Gold |
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Danielle uses the power of the pen, too.
Her feature articles have appeared on the glossy pages of national
magazines like
Newsweek
and Classical Singer, and the regional monthly
Hudson Valley, and on the newsprint of the
local Woodstock (NY) Times.
New songs take shape on
music manuscript paper at her piano. Her computer screen might reveal
a glimpse of her novel in progress, her latest slam poem, or a letter
to the editor.
She's created vocal-music arrangements for theatrical productions,
including a staging of Aristophanes' Lysistrata that she produced as part
of the worldwide "Lysistrata Project" anti-war statement of May 2003,
which involved 1039 public readings of the play in 59 countries.
She is deeply involved in her
community,
serving as a director of—and singing in uncounted benefits for—arts,
education and progressive political organizations in the mid-Hudson
region. She founded an Artist in Residence program at a Kingston, NY,
church that revitalized musical performances in the neighborhood and
gave rise to a celebrated young people’s choral ensemble, the Hudson
Valley Youth Chorale.
She directs the choral group
Voices for Peace,
made up of
singers and
singer-songwriters who perform music of peace and reconciliation.
To keep track of all these activities, Danielle recently founded, and
is executive director of, Woodlark Arts, Inc., an “umbrella” for
a whole range of services in the arts. Visit Woodlark Arts’ web page
for more information on voice lessons and workshops at Woodlark
Studio, music for weddings and special occasions, and Woodlark Rising
Records.
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When all these indoor pursuits start to bring on a case of "cabin
fever," Danielle goes out to the garden that she and her husband,
Claude Johnson, have created together--a retreat not only for them but
for the plants, which are fenced away from the appetites of the
neighborhood deer. "No veggies," she says of her hobby. "That would
be ‘way too practical. Just flowering things."
She confesses, though, that when the Japanese beetles begin chowing down on
the weeping cherry tree, they may see the Bellini side of
"capable of anything."
Click for More Garden Photos:
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