“An astutely curated recital in which lyrical poise and nuanced but natural interpretations are not only a winning combination, but promise of a great future.”
Gramophone
“Again Matheson…Made the piano an equally expressive voice.”
Opera Today
Vocal Arts DC presents
Huw Montague Rendall, Baritone
Carrie-Ann Matheson, Piano
The Gerald & Ann K. Perman Memorial Recital
Saturday, May 22, 2027
Live! At 10th & G
945 G St NW Washington, DC 20001
7:00 PM
Single Tickets on sale July 15th, 2026.
RECITAL DURATION TBD
Baritone Huw Montague Rendall and pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson present an evening of searching song, opening with Ralph Vaughan Williams’s beloved Songs of Travel — settings of Robert Louis Stevenson’s poetry that follow a wanderer’s journey through the English countryside and beyond.
The program continues with Jonathan Dove’s Three Love Songs, works of lyricism and harmonic freshness from one of Britain’s most gifted and approachable contemporary composers, before turning to Arnold Schoenberg’s Vier Lieder — intimate and harmonically adventurous songs that find the composer at a pivotal moment of transition, one foot still in the lush world of late Romanticism, the other reaching boldly toward a new musical language.
The evening culminates in one of the great song cycles of the orchestral repertoire: Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen — Songs of a Wayfarer — here performed in the rarely heard but deeply rewarding version for voice and piano. This aching set, written in the shadow of a lost love, follows its wanderer through grief and fleeting consolation, ultimately finding a kind of bittersweet peace beneath a linden tree.
Rendall, whose voice combines natural warmth with keen interpretive intelligence, is ideally suited to this music of restless longing, and Matheson’s pianism ensures that every nuance and poetic image finds its full expression.
Selections Include:
Songs of Travel – Vaughan Williams
Three Love Songs – Dove
Vier Lieder – Schoenberg
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen – Mahler
*Selections subject to change*
THE SOUND WORLD OF HUW & CARRIE-ANN
Listen to Huw!
Listen to Carrie-Ann!
MEET THE ARTISTS
HUW MONTAGUE RENDALL, BARITONE
One of the most exciting talents to have emerged in recent years, British baritone Huw Montague Rendall has already made hugely acclaimed debuts on some of the world’s most important stages such as the Royal Ballet & Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, Festival d’Aix en Provence, and the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals, earning rapturous acclaim for his compelling artistry, stage craft and musicianship.
MORE ABOUT HUW!
One of the most exciting talents to have emerged in recent years, British baritone Huw Montague Rendall has already made hugely acclaimed debuts on some of the world’s most important stages such as the Royal Ballet & Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opéra National de Paris, Festival d’Aix en Provence, and the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals, earning rapturous acclaim for his compelling artistry, stage craft and musicianship. Montague Rendall’s debut album Contemplation (2024) received 5-star reviews saying it ‘lives up to the hype’ and most recently won the Voice and Ensemble category at the Gramophone Classic Music Awards 2025.
Montague Rendall’s 2025/26 season begins with his return to the Royal Ballet & Opera for David McVicar’s loved production of Die Zauberflöte before making his debut at Gran Teatre del Liceu as Belcore L’elisir d’amore and then later as Dandini La Cenerentola at Opéra national de Paris. He also appears as Il Conte Le nozze di Figaro at Wiener Staatsoper and Pelléas Pelléas et Mélisande at Opéra de Monte-Carlo. On the concert platform, Montague Rendall performs Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Raphaël Pichon; Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with Joseph Middleton and then later in the year they are joined by Louise Alder for a recital at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds; concert performances of Pelléas et Mélisande with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony with the Hallé Orchestra; and three recitals with pianist Hélio Vida at Opéra national du Rhin, Teatro de Zarzuela and Athénée Théâtre Louis-Jouvet, Paris.
Winner of the 2024 Oper! Awards for Best Newcomer, last season saw Montague Rendall perform as Il Conte in Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Ballet & Opera and then he made his house and role debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in the title role in Billy Budd. Other engagements included a new production of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at the Opéra national de Paris; Eisenstein Die Fledermaus with Les Musiciens du Louvre and Marc Minkowski; Count Le nozze di Figaro in a new production at Glyndebourne Festival and at the BBC Proms; a European tour with Pygmalion Ensemble and Raphaël Pichon of Bach’s Johannespassion; his Wigmore Hall recital debut; Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch with Erin Morley and Malcolm Martineau; and solo recitals with Joseph Middleton.
Other recent highlights include Eisenstein Die Fledermaus with Staatsoper Hamburg and Les Musiciens du Louvre on tour at the Teatro Real and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées; his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro; his first Don Giovanni in concert at Opéra de Rouen; and a huge triumph in the title role of Pelléas Pelléas et Mélisande at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. On the concert platform, he performed a solo recital at the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg and made his debut with the Musikkollegium Winterthur, singing Mahler’s heartbreaking Kindertotenlieder.
Previously Montague Rendall made a series of extraordinary debuts: the title role in Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet in a new production created at Komische Oper Berlin; his company debut at Opéra national de Paris with a double appearance: Papageno Die Zauberflöte and Mercutio in the premiere of Thomas Jolly’s Roméo et Juliette; Papageno in a new production of Die Zauberflöte at Opéra National du Rhin which was also a vehicle for his hugely acclaimed debut at Royal Ballet & Opera and at Lyric Opera of Chicago; Guglielmo Così fan tutte at Staatsoper Hamburg and Glyndebourne; Pelléas Pelléas et Mélisande at Santa Fe Opera and at Opéra de Rouen Normandie; Malatesta in a critically acclaimed production of Don Pasquale at Glyndebourne Festival; Le nozze di Figaro at Opéra National de Lorraine; and Harlequin Ariadne auf Naxos at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
Equally at home in concert and recital, he was heard as Christus in a European tour of the Bach Trilogy: The Life of Christ with Raphaël Pichon and Ensemble Pygmalion, which comprised three oratorios: The Christmas Oratorio, St John Passion and The Easter Oratorio; Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem together with the Dutch National Opera at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Ned Keene Peter Grimes at the Enescu Festival; a “Mozart Matinee” series with Pichon at the Salzburg Festival; Richard Blackford’s Pietà at the Cadogan Hall with the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus & Orchestra; Mendelssohn Die Erste Walpurgisnacht with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra; Duruflé Requiem with the RTE National Symphony Orchestra; and many concerts in the UK ranging from solo song recitals to sacred works by Brahms, Handel, Stainer, Fauré, Finzi and Vaughan Williams. A dedicated recitalist, his most recent appearances include a recital at the Opéra de Lille, a recital with Hélio Vida in Nancy and Die Schöne Müllerin with pianist Gary Matthewman for Lancaster Arts.
An alumnus of the Royal College of Music, Montague Rendall trained under the tutorage of Russell Smythe, having previously studied under David Rendall and Philip Doghan. In summer 2016 Montague Rendall was a Jerwood Young Artist with Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where he sang the role of Fiorello Il barbiere di Siviglia, for which he was awarded the much-coveted John Christie Award 2016. The following summer he joined the prestigious Young Artist Programme at the Salzburg Festspiele and was a member of the International Opera Studio in Zürich from 2016 to 2018.
CARRIE-ANN MATHESON, PIANO
Carrie-Ann Matheson has a multi-faceted international career as pianist, conductor and educator, and since January 2021, is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program. A native of Canada, Ms.Matheson began her career at the Metropolitan Opera, where she was a tenured member of the music staff, serving as assistant conductor, prompter, pianist and vocal coach. The expansion of her European performing career began in 2014 when she was invited by Maestro Fabio Luisi to join the coaching and conducting staff at Opernhaus Zürich.
MORE ABOUT CARRIE-ANN!
Carrie-Ann Matheson has a multi-faceted international career as pianist, conductor and educator, and since January 2021, is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Opera Center and the Merola Opera Program. A native of Canada, Ms.Matheson began her career at the Metropolitan Opera, where she was a tenured member of the music staff, serving as assistant conductor, prompter, pianist and vocal coach. The expansion of her European performing career began in 2014 when she was invited by Maestro Fabio Luisi to join the coaching and conducting staff at Opernhaus Zürich.
Especially in demand as a recital pianist, she has performed with many of the world’s most celebrated opera singers, including Rolando Villazón, Benjamin Bernheim, Jonas Kaufmann, Piotr Beczała, Diana Damrau, Thomas Hampson and Joyce DiDonato.
Ms. Matheson made her conducting debut at Opernhaus Zürich, where she has since conducted works such as La Finta Giardiniera, Don Pasquale and Iphigénie en Tauride. As assistant conductor, she has worked with luminaries including James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, and Gianandrea Noseda, and has been engaged in that capacity by such renowned festivals as the Salzburger Festspiele and the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival.
Passionate about nurturing the next generation of opera singers and pianists, Ms. Matheson has worked with the world’s leading young artist programs, including the International Opera Studio (Opernhaus Zürich), Atkins Young Artist Program (The Mariinsky Theatre), Lindemann Young Artist Development Program (The Metropolitan Opera), Ryan Opera Center (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival and the International Vocal Arts Institute.
Ms. Matheson holds degrees from the University of Prince Edward Island (B.Mus.Ed), the Cleveland Institute of Music (M.Mus in Collaborative Piano), the Manhattan School of Music (Professional Studies Diploma in Vocal Accompanying) and is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.