Grant Knox, tenor and David Gross, 1815 Walter & Sons grand piano
Doors open at 7:00 PM | Concert begins at 7:30 PM
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Winterreise (Winter Journey), Op. 89
Franz Schubert | Poems by Wilhelm Müller
Winterreise is a song cycle written by Franz Schubert in 1827, just a year before his death. It’s made up of 24 songs for voice and piano, all based on poems by Wilhelm Müller. Together, they tell the story of a heartbroken wanderer who sets out alone through a cold, wintry landscape after being rejected by the one he loved.
Winterreise is considered one of the greatest works ever written for voice and piano. Even though it was composed nearly 200 years ago, it still speaks to anyone who’s ever felt grief, longing, or the need to keep moving forward when the path is uncertain.
David Gross has performed extensive solo concerts both in the United States and Europe, including performances with the Berliner Symphoniker, Staatsorchester Frankfurt/Oder, Ensemble Oriol (Berlin), Rockford Symphony, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Macon Symphony, Idaho Civic Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Anderson Symphony, Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, Hendersonville Symphony, and Brevard Philharmonic, as well as several university orchestras throughout the United States. He has been a featured soloist at the American Liszt Society National Conference and has performed several recitals for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. Gross has numerous recorded solos that were broadcast for German NPR, and he was featured in the German National Public Television film “Singing Hands” (ARTE). His recording of the Lalo Piano Concerto with the Staatsorchester Frankfurt/Oder was an “engaging and honed performance” (Fono Forum), and his 2010 release of Voříšek piano works is available on Centaur Records.
Among his many collaborative alliances, David Gross is a founding member of the Poinsett Piano Trio, with whom he has appeared several times at Piccolo Spoleto, as well as toured the Southeastern US, Germany, and New Zealand. He has been enjoying a long-standing and fruitful collaboration with tenor and faculty colleague Grant Knox.
David Gross grew up and studied piano in Berlin/ Germany from a young age, and holds degrees from the universities at München, Yale, Hannover, and Illinois, where his principal teachers include Ludwig Hoffmann, Arie Vardi, Daniel Pollack, Claude Frank, and John Wustman. Having held visiting positions in Germany, South Africa, and the US, he joined the faculty of Furman University in 2001. His pedagogical enthusiasm finds additional outlets through service for the South Carolina Music Teachers Association (SCMTA) and at masterclasses and workshops.
Grant Knox (tenor) is Associate Professor of Music, Director of the Furman Lyric Theatre and Coordinator of Vocal Activities at Furman University in Greenville, SC. In the 2016/2017 academic year, he was the recipient of Furman’s Meritorious Teaching Award. During the summer months, Knox serves as a member of the voice faculty and co-director of the Studio Artist Program for SongFest, a sanctuary for singers and pianists to gather together and learn, experience and discover what makes song such a powerful art in today’s world.
In the fall of 2023, Dr. Knox was an invited guest teaching-artist at the renowned Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. As a performer, Dr. Knox is a nationally recognized tenor having soloed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, Chautauqua Opera, Atlanta Opera, Rochester Philharmonic/Oratorio Society, Williamsport Symphony, Greenville Symphony/Chorale, Peninsula Music Festival, Ohio Light Opera, and the Tri-Cities Opera. An active recitalist, he has appeared at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Constella Festival, the Pritzker Pavilion at Chicago’s Millennium Park, the Kerrytown Concert House and at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Recent projects include a recital tour of Janáček’s rarely heard song cycle, The Diary of One Who Vanished with celebrated pianist Martin Katz, the U.S. premiere of Pavel Haas’ Fata Morgana in Los Angeles, and the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s The Unknown Room for tenor, violin and drone.
Knox is a proponent of new music and has collaborated with many living composers including Libby Larsen, John Musto, William Bolcom, Jake Heggie and Nico Muhly. He has been featured on several commercial recordings of rarely heard operettas for the Albany Records Label including several works of Gilbert and Sullivan, Emmerich Kálmán, and Jacques Offenbach. His students have won prestigious positions in the young artist programs of the Paris Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Central City Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Ohio Light Opera, and Michigan Opera Theatre as well as regularly attending the top graduate programs for voice in the country. In addition, his students have been winners in the George London Foundation Competition, the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition (district and regional), the George Shirley Competition, the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition (national level), and the Classical Singer Competition.
