home | events | bio | instruments | albums | ensembles | programs | gallery | contactTenor Peter W. Shea and pianist Monica Jakuc Leverett have been collaborating for the last 15 years using both early and modern pianos. They first performed in 1997 in a Florentine Camerata Schubertiad concert in Florence, MA, and offered Heine settings as part of Shea’s ongoing Heine project later that year.
Both are members of the board of Arcadia Players, and have appeared many times in Arcadia Players concerts and elsewhere with Monica playing her copies of Graf and Walter fortepianos. Notable highlights of this collaboration have been their Schubert "Winterreise" cycle in 2004, and Beethoven's "An die ferne Geliebte," as part of an all-Beethoven concert in 2008. Arcadia Players has often featured Shea singing Haydn, Beethoven or Weber folksong arrangements with piano trio. At Smith College, Shea was the featured singer in Jakuc Leverett’s series of fortepiano recitals of late Schubert sonatas paired with related Schubert songs.
Shea and Jakuc Leverett often collaborate using modern piano in repertoire leading up to the present. They have premiered Heine settings (commissioned by Shea) by David Kidwell, Zeke Hecker and Will Bridegam in 2005-6. In Poulenc's “Tel Jour, Telle Nuit” as well as Kaeza Fearn’s 2009 “Kitty Song Cycle” set to Heine texts, they have enthralled audiences from Wistariahurst Museum to Hartt School of Music.
For a video clip of a recent collaboration between Shea and Jakuc Leverett, visit the Gallery page.
For more about Peter, visit his website.
