At Bolton Free Library, 7:30

Monday, June 21st:  “Moonstruck” (1984)

This enchanting comedy by Patrick Shanley  features  Cher, Puccini’s “La Boheme” and a passing glimpse of Marcella Sembrich’s portrait  in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera.

Monday, July 5th: “La Boheme” (2009)

If “Moonstruck” left you yearning for more of Puccini’s masterpiece, then come to this sumptuous recent screen version, starring the reigning “Golden Couple” of today’s opera world, soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Rolando Villazon.

Monday, July 19th: “Mad Hot Ballroom” (2007)

Follow urban 5th graders through the steps of the foxtrot, tango and rumba en route to the NYC all-city ballroom dancing competition and revel in observing their progress as they mature into young ladies and gentlemen along the way.

Monday, August 2nd: “Pride and Prejudice” (2005)

Kiera Knightly portrays heroine Elizabeth Bennett in this glorious screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel. Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet is featured on the film’s memorable soundtrack.

Monday, August 16th:  “Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?” (2002)

Long-haul truck driver Teri Horton takes on the art establishment in her quest to authenticate what may be a Jackson Pollock painting worth over 50-million dollars. Produced by Don Hewitt of “60 Minutes” fame.

Monday, August 30th: “The Chorus” (2006)

In tribute to the late summer visit to Bolton by the Polish boys’ choir, we conclude our series with this uplifting French film, a tale of the redemptive power of music set in a post-WWII reform school.

American composer Samuel Barber (1910-1981) spent formative summers of his youth at the Lake George estate Homeland under the guidance and influence of his aunt, contralto Louise Homer, and his uncle, composer Sidney Homer.  In 2010, the Sembrich plans to bring the music of this American master back to the shores of the lake that so influenced him all those decades ago.  Join us for a season-long commemoration of the centennial of his birth

Barber’s initials are used to indicate A SUMMER OF BARBER special event

2010 Sembrich Season Schedule

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MADAME SEMBRICH’S TRAVELLING TEA SET

Wednesday, June 16 at 1:30 pm, $10

A Talk, Tea-tasting and Book-signing with Michael Harney of Harney & Sons Fine Teas

Come to the Sembrich to see Madame Sembrich’s travelling tea set on special display and to hear Michael Harney of Harney and Sons Fine Teas, one of the country’s leading authorities on the subject, talk about different teas (white, green, oolong & black), how they taste and why, with a little history, science and lots of fun thrown in.  Followed by a lakeside tea-tasting and book signing.

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YOUNG PERFORMERS SHOWCASE

Saturday, June 19 at 2 pm, FREE

The annual spotlight shines again on up-and-coming performers of the North Country in this popular yearly showcase concert featuring some of the region’s most promising young musicians.

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SEAGLE COLONY SEASON PREVIEW

Wednesday, June 23 at 1:30 pm, $10

Seagle Music Colony is the oldest summer vocal training program in the United States and the premier opera and musical theatre producing organization in the Adirondacks.  Sample selections from the Seagle’s 2010 exciting summer season, which includes performances of “The Marriage of Figaro,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hello Dolly!” and “Carousel.”

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LAKE GEORGE OPERA APPRENTICES

Saturday, June 26 at 7:30 pm, $25

Barber’s “A Hand of Bridge” and other selections from American Opera

Lake George Opera has a rich and proud history celebrating the potential of opera as an American art form.    Join Young Artists program director John Douglas and the Lake George Opera Apprentice singers for a performance of Barber’s opera-in-miniature, “A Hand of Bridge” and for a tribute to former festival director, David Lloyd, featuring memorable moments from American Opera, including scenes from “Susannah,” “The Ballad of Baby Doe” and “Vanessa.

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BARBER: SUMMER OF 1927

Thursday, July 1 at 7:30 pm, $10

Barbara Heyman, author of the award-winning “Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music” brings us back to the summer of 1927, through a recently transcribed diary detailing the young composer’s 17^th year on Rogers Rock, where Barber and other students from the Curtis Institute of Music worked at a club on the north end of the lake. Come for this entertaining, informative portrait of the artist as a young man, retracing the influential summers that set young Barber on course for a career on the international music scene.

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SILVER BAY ENSEMBLE

Wednesday, July 7 at 1:30 pm, $10

Each summer since 1998, the Silver Bay Ensemble, under the leadership of violinist Martin Meade, has been a part of the Sembrich summer music series. This season, the fine Ensemble returns to the studio in a program of selected chamber works, including a Trio by Jean Baptiste Loiellet.

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KNOXVILLE: SUMMER OF 1915

Saturday, July 10 at 7:30 pm, $20

An Evening of American Lyric Songs and Arias

with soprano Megan Weston

and pianist Michael Fennelly

Lyric soprano, Megan Weston, heard in previous seasons in traditional bel canto arias of singers Jenny Lind and Marcella Sembrich, turns her attention to American repertoire in this concert featuring “Knoxville: Summer of 1915”, Barber’s rhapsodic setting of James Agee’s nostalgic prologue to his novel “A Death in the Family”.  Also included on the program are Barber’s Opus 13 songs, “Sure on this shining night” (James Agee), “A Nun Takes the Veil” (Gerard Manley Hopkins), “Nocturne” (Frederic Prokosch) and “The Secrets of the Old” (W.B. Yeats), as well as a set of arias from American opera.  Pianist Michael Fennelly takes a solo turn with a performance of Barber’s dynamic, exciting suite, “Excursions” for piano.

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THE PRIMA DONNA AND THE PAINTER

Wednesday, July 14 at 1:30 pm, $5

A Lecture by Professor Neil A. Chassman

The Intersection of the Art of Peter Schwarzburg

and the Estate of Marcella Sembrich

The 20^th century American artist Peter Schwarzburg found on Lake George, in Bolton Landing and at the estate of Marcella Sembrich inspiration for his profound thinking and for his painting. He executed nearly one hundred works from scenic Sembrich point facing the Lake and the Sagamore Hotel.  Professor Chassman will guide us through an unforgettable visual journey through the works of Mr. Schwarzburg, who combined distinctly American and European traditions with a striking freshness and a powerful, sensitive individuality

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JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, Seagle Colony’s Children’s Opera

Friday, July 16 at 10 am, Bolton Central School, FREE

This operatic re-telling of the classic fairy-tale story combines music from Gounod’s opera Faust with the story’s larger-than-life characters and the message that love and friendship are more important than materials goods.  This 30-minute show will be sure to please audiences of all ages.

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Davydov/Fanning Cello and Piano Duo: “Influence and Inspiration”

Saturday, July 17 at 7:30 pm, $20

Barber was deeply inspired by his studies of the works of Bach, Chopin and Fauré.  This concert by the Davydov/Fanning Duo will illuminate these important influences in Barber’s music in a program that includes Nocturnes for solo piano by Chopin, Faure and Barber and sonatas for cello and piano by Debussy and Barber. Of special interest is a performance of Ernest Stires’ “Pieces of Eight” for cello and piano.  Stires, who was Barber’s cousin (and who himself mentored Trey Anastasio, lead guitartist for the rock band PHISH) always acknowledged the profound inspiration he derived from Barber’s music.

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BARBARIAN PRINCESS:

Martha Graham, Barber & “Cave of the Heart”

Wednesday, July 21 at 1:30 pm, $5
A Video Lecture with Aaron Sherber, Music Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company

Martha Graham’s 1946 dance “Cave of the Heart”, set to a commissioned
score by Samuel Barber, portrays the story of the sorceress Medea, who Graham described as a “barbarian princess.”

Join  Aaron Sherber, music director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, for a
discussion of the relationship between music and dance in this powerful
work.   A video screening of the complete ballet performed by
the Martha Graham Dance Company follows.

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A WEEKEND WITH EVELYN LEAR

In the tradition of Madame Sembrich, internationally celebrated soprano Evelyn Lear comes to the studio in the role of master teacher to the young vocalists of RESONANZ, an intensive training program for singers out of Albany, founded by Metropolitan Opera mezzo soprano, Heidi Skok and featured recently in Classical Singer magazine. Weekend events include:

Saturday, July 24 at 1 pm: MASTER CLASS, $10

Saturday, July 24 at 7:30 pm: CONCERT featuring the SINGERS of RESONANZ, $20

Sunday, July 25 at 1 pm:  Video presentation & MASTER CLASS, $10

SEATING IS LIMITED FOR ALL EVENTS.

Make reservations early.

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A HOMER FAMILY REUNION

Featuring the Hyperion String Quartet, Baritone Christopher Herbert

With guest artist, Sarah Liebowitz, piano

Saturday, July 31 at 7:30 pm, $25

Barber biographer Barbara Heyman writes:

“Aiding and abetting Barber’s mission were his maternal aunt, the famous opera singer, Louise Homer and her husband, the composer Sidney Homer.  Homer is one of the heroes in Barber’s story: the wisdom and optimism that he transmitted to his nephew for more than twenty-five years fostered Sam Barber’s mission, supported his inclination to adhere unwaveringly to the Romantic style, and inspired the direction of his intellectual development.  It is rare that a mentor can sustain his influence for as long as Homer did.”

We pay tribute to this profound influence of the Homers in this special concert featuring the Hyperion Quartet and baritone Christopher Herbert in performances of Barber’s String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11 (the centerpiece of this quartet is the famous “Adagio for Strings”), “Dover Beach” and a movement from Sidney Homer’s Piano Trio, performed by Homer grand-daughter, pianist Sarah Liebowitz.

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OLD GLORY, NEW GLORY: THE FORGING OF AMERICAN OPERA

A Lecture by Barrymore Laurence Scherer

Wednesday, August 4 at 1:30 pm, $5

Starting in the early days of the Spanish Conquistadores, opera has made a persistent effort to set down roots in the New World.  This presentation, including many recordings, both rare and surprising, will trace American Opera’s long, hard, but ultimately successful road from the 17th to the 21st centuries.  Along the way we will hear selections from both familiar and unfamiliar operas by American composers, revealing the many streams of inspiration that have blended to create a distinctive American School.

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CHRISTOPHER JOHNSON PIANO RECITAL:

“From Beethoven to Barber”

Saturday, August 7 at 7:30 pm, $25

After enthralling Sembrich audiences with his “Chopin and the Bel Canto tradition” and “Franz Liszt: A Spiritual Journey,” American concert pianist Christopher Johnson returns to explore his most epic musical journey yet — “From Beethoven to Barber.” The program begins Beethoven’s brilliant and heroic “Waldstein” piano sonata — a work that represents the height of the Classical tradition.  Departing from this Classical tradition, Debussy’s “Clair de lune” emanates a complete change of color and prepares Ravel’s “La Valse” — a complex work representing the mysterious birth, glamorous apex, and tragic decay of the “Viennese Waltz” through the eyes of a French composer just following the First World War.
Sitting alone in the second half like a monumental symphony, Samuel Barber’s Sonata for Piano is without doubt, the most celebrated piano sonata ever written by an American composer.  The sonata alone represents an epic musical journey, as this Neo-Romantic blockbuster gleans inspiration from traditions not only Germanic and French, but Russian and South American as well.  From the tragic and poignant first movement to the mysteriously haunting third movement, the music points to the inevitable direction of Barber’s great climatic showdown and pianistic legacy — the fourth movement, a virtuoso, four-voice fugue.

Visit Christopher Johnson’s Website

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BEL CANTO SINGERS

Wednesday, August 11 at 7:30 pm, $20

Each summer the Sembrich is proud to welcome the young artists of the Bel Canto Institute to present a concert of songs and arias at the studio museum following their four weeks of vocal study abroad in Florence, Italy, under the expert guidance of Institute founder, Jane Klaviter.  The Bel Canto Institute offers to today’s generation of young singers the same type of intensive instruction that Madame Sembrich championed decades ago, here in her teaching studio on Lake George.

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SUMMER MUSIC: Melodic Masterworks for Winds

Sunday, August 15 at 7:30 pm, $25

Featuring Wind Players from the Philadelphia Orchestra:

David Cramer, flute, Richard Woodhams, oboe, Samuel Caviezel, clarinet,

Jeffrey Lang, horn and Mark Gigliotti, bassoon

With David Pasbrig, piano & Philip Kates, violin

Two melodic masterworks of twentieth-century wind repertoire, Barber’s “Summer Music” and Poulenc’s “Sextet for winds and piano” along with Barber’s “Canzona” for flute and piano and Mozart’s exquisite “Quintet in E-flat Major” are featured works on this program, showcasing the brilliant winds of the “Fabulous Philadelphians.”

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VIDEO: “Copland and the American Sound”

Part of the “Keeping Score” Series

With Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25 at 1:30 pm, FREE

This operatic re-telling of the classic fairy-tale story combines music from Gounod’s opera Faust with the story’s larger-than-life characters and the message that love and friendship are more important than materials goods.  This 30-minute show will be sure to please audiences of all ages.

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CANTORES MINORES
Friday, August 20 at 7:30 pm, Location To Be Announced,  Donation

The Warsaw Archdiocesan Cathedral Men’s and Boys’ Choir

David Troiano, tenor soloist

Michael Oczko, accompanist

Joseph A. Herter, conductor

Following their celebrated appearance in Bolton Landing in the summer of 2001, the voices of Cantores Minores return to the region for a program of Polish and American music, including works by Chopin, Moniuszko, Gorecki, Paderewski, Mikuli and Giannini.

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MARY ANN McCORMICK, Mezzo-soprano:

A Tribute to Louise Homer

Saturday, August 28 at 7:30, $20

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Mary Ann McCormick returns to the Sembrich to pay tribute to famed contralto Louise Homer in a recital that will focus on the composers and repertoire in which Homer was well known, including German lieder, American art song and operatic arias.  Also featured will be “Hermit Songs” by Homer’s nephew, Samuel Barber, a cycle of songs based on a collection of verse by medieval Irish monks.

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TO BE SUNG ON THE WATER

An Evening of American Choral Music with the Lyric Consort

Saturday, September 4 at 7:30, $25

Join us lakeside to conclude this summer of music with Barber’s “To Be Sung On the Water,” “Sure on this Shining Night” and selections from “Reincarnations” along with a survey of other notable American choral works, rendered by the superb a cappella voices of this highly-praised vocal ensemble.

Step back in time to the turn-of-the-last century and an era known as the “Golden Age of Song” when Marcella Sembrich’s star shone brightly in the world of arts and letters.

The extensive and varied collection of the Sembrich Museum is on view in her former studio where she rehearsed and taught young vocalists. The collection includes fine and decorative arts, as well as personal mementos from a time when a prima donna of the opera stage was regarded as royalty in her day. Silver and gold tribute wreaths and colorful floral banners chronicle Madame Sembrich’s travels from opera house and concert hall to cities and towns ranging from St. Petersburg, Russia to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Facsimile autographs and letters (including a witty exchange with Mark Twain) recount the high esteem in which her colleagues, everyone from Giuseppe Verdi to Thomas Edison, held this “supreme artist.” Historic photographs relate the “rags to riches” story of a child prodigy from rural Poland and the career, which blossomed following her American debut at age twenty five in the newly-opened Metropolitan Opera. A stunning collection of silver loving cups from the likes of Enrico Caruso and Antonio Scotti recall a gala farewell to that career and the countless ovations that echoed through that grand opera house exactly a century ago.

Marcella Sembrich’s discerning eye for artwork and her Slavic sensibility is evidenced in the brooding landscapes of Polish artists Jan Chelminski and Joseph Brandt. Her delight in works by painters from her adopted country can be seen in American impressionist works, including a mystical watercolor by Arthur B. Davies. The great singer’s own likeness is captured in numerous paintings and pastels displayed throughout the collection, from a grand 1890 Paul Meyerheim portrait to exquisite, miniature paintings on ivory by I. C. Mackeown depicting the soprano in various operatic roles. Fine collectibles from a lifetime of travel, from Czechoslovak porcelain to silks from Japan, are on display; as are delicate fans, sparkling stage jewelry, medals bestowed on the singer by heads of state, even a tiny notebook once owned by “Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind.

To accompany visitors on their journey into the past is the singing voice of Marcella Sembrich herself, captured on historic cylinders and early Victor discs, newly re-mastered onto CD. Or if, your visit coincides with a rehearsal for an upcoming concert, thrill to the strains of Chopin or Rachmaninoff performed on Sembrich’s own 1905 grand piano, recently restored to the exacting standards of Steinway & Sons.

Marcella Sembrich (1858-1935), internationally known Polish soprano, first sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera in its initial season in 1883. She retired in 1909 and sang concert tours until 1917. She gained preeminence as a vocal teacher at Curtis Institute and Juilliard School, and summered in the Adirondack Mountains at Lake Placid from 1915 to 1921 and here on Lake George from 1922 to 1934.

Her teaching studio, built in 1924, was the focal point of her summers at her lakeside mansion, Bay View. Here, Juilliard and Curtis Institute vocal students sought instruction by the acclaimed Sembrich.

Nearby Hilltop Cottage was built by Mme. Sembrich in 1924 as a Caretaker’s Cottage, with a dorm for her vocal students on the 2nd floor.

After Mme. Sembrich’s death in 1935, The studio museum was opened in 1937 by her daughter-in-law, Julliette deCoppet Stengel, whose musical family founded the Flonzaley Quartet (1903-1929). The Museum has been in continuous operation every summer. Initially called a Memorial Studio, the building is now referred to as an Opera Museum and is located on a four acre parcel from her original fourteen-acre lakeside estate.

The ‘Golden Age of Opera’ unfolds through the memorabilia of a distinguished international operatic career spanning over 50 years, including paintings, sculptures, costumes, accolades, personal effects, music, and autographed photographs of Sembrich’s contemporaries such as Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Caruso, Liszt, Brahms and Puccini.

Situated on a wooded peninsula, the studio is a unique “time capsule oasis” set among commercial resort properties. Visitors can walk along 1,000 feet of Lake George shoreline paths, experiencing the pristine, natural beauty of the “Queen of American Lakes” among towering 200 year old white pines. The Sembrich Museum property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Throughout the summer months, there are many events, such as concerts by renowned singers, composers, and musicians, and symposiums by opera historians.

Ticket sales for our events cover less than one third of our expenses. Memberships and gifts are critical to funding the concerts, films, and lectures each season, as well as supporting the staff providing artistic direction at The Sembrich.

You, too, can play a role in preserving the memory and artistic traditions of Marcella Sembrich while bringing the transforming beauty of classical music to the area. By investing in The Sembrich you become a member of The Sembrich musical ensemble that enhances the cultural landscape of our community at large.

Memberships and gifts of any amount are welcome. Membership benefits include receipt of our newsletter Notes, your name and level of support listed in our newsletter, and advance notification of performances. The Sembrich is a 501(c)(3) organization. Gifts and memberships are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Use the guide below to help determine your membership or gift level.

Support The Sembrich

Volunteers provide support for day-to-day activities as well as performances and are essential to the success of The Sembrich. Opportunities for our volunteers are wide-ranging and include docent services, a gardening club, gift shop sales, and administrative support. In support of our seasonal performances volunteers provide baked goods and flower arrangements, host receptions, attend to parking, take tickets and usher.

If you would like to volunteer at The Sembrich or if you have additional skills that you would like to offer to The Sembrich, please contact us at 518 644-2431. We will gladly send you a Volunteer application. You will be most welcome as a member of the growing Sembrich Volunteer organization!

Michael Harney has been the tea buyer and blender of Harney & Sons for twenty years. He travels to Asia and meets with tea producers from all the major tea countries looking for the season’s best teas. He graduated from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration. 

Seagle Music Colony, celebrating its 95^th anniversary in 2010, is the oldest summer vocal training program in the United States and the premier opera and musical theatre producing organization in the Adirondack region of upstate New York.

John Douglas (director, LGO Young Artists) is currently in his 19th season as the Music Director/Conductor of Opera Theater at Temple University, where he has conducted over 50 different operas of wide-ranging styles including Prokofiev’s The Love of Three Oranges, Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, Cavalli’s L’Egisto, Britten’s Owen Wingrave, Don Giovanni, Die Fledermaus, La Cenerentola, Les Conted d’Hoffmann and Falstaff. He made his professional conducting debut with La Traviata in 1987. He has been the Director of the Apprentice Program for the Lake George Opera since 2003, for which he also serves as Chorus Master and Head of the Music Staff.

Musicologist and editor Barbara B. Heyman is the author of the award-winning Samuel Barber: The Composer and His Music (Oxford University Press, 1992, 1994). Her Comprehensive Thematic Catalog of the Complete Works of Samuel Barber is forthcoming next year, and she is working on a revised, expanded edition of the biography as well as the Collected Letters of Samuel Barber. A pianist, Heyman earned a B.A. from Barnard College, an M.S. from Columbia University, and after a twenty-year hiatus—during which she raised four children and had the audacity to pursue violin studies—she earned a master’s degree at Queens College and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, both in musicology. (She had the distinction of going directly from eligibility for student rush tickets to senior discounts non-stop.)

Each summer since 1998, the Silver Bay Ensemble has been a part of the Sembrich summer music series. Under the leadership of violinist Martin Meade, the Silver Bay Ensemble serves in residence for the summer at nearby Silver Bay Association, a YMCA Conference center.  The string quartet performs there regularly, at weekly recitals, daily evening vespers and at Sunday morning worship services.

Megan Weston (soprano): Hailed as “a delightful surprise, displaying a gorgeous, light lyric soprano” (Eric Meyers, Opera), and “remarkable virtuosity and charm” (Martin Bernheimer, Financial Times), Megan Weston first gained international attention for her portrayal of Lisa in La sonnambula with Sumi Jo and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s conducted by Will Crutchfield at the Caramoor International Music Festival.  She recently sang Messiah solos with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jung-Ho Pak, which was taped for UCSD-TV.  In 2009, she appeared as Jenny Lind in the US premiere of Chopin and the Nightingale at the Sembrich Museum. 

 Michael Fennelly (pianist): Following his sold-out recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Hall, pianist Michael Fennelly has toured the world with an array of dynamic programs.  A United States winner of the Horowitz Competition, Michael Fennelly has received top prizes from the Young Artist Peninsula Music Festival, the Young Keyboard Artist Association, and the Artist International Competition.  He has performed in Moscow Conservatory’s International Chopin Symposium, New York’s Schoenberg Music Festival, and Italy’s Wilhelm Kempff Beethoven Seminar, and in master classes under John O’Connor, Richard Goode, and Abbey Simon.

Neil Chassman (lecturer), author of “Pure Genius: The Art and Mind of Peter Schwarzburg” was chairman of art at Southern Methodist University and Western Illinois University and a visiting senior professor at Brisbane College in Queensland, Australia.  He has written numerous catalogues, conducts poetry readings and continues to critique exhibitions throughout the Hudson Valley region.

Davydov/Fanning Duo (cello and piano): Since founding the duo, Davydov and Fanning have undertaken extensive concert tours of Europe—some of which were recorded for Radio Netherlands. Radio audiences throughout the northeastern U.S. and Canada have heard them on Morning Pro Musica’s Live Performers Series on WGBH-FM, Boston; in a live concert performance on WNYC, New York; and frequently on Vermont Public Radio.

Aaron Sherber (lecturer) has been the music director of the Martha Graham Dance Company since 1998 and has led them in acclaimed performances at venues throughout the United States, England, and China, including City Center and the Joyce Theater in New York, the Kennedy Center and the Library of Congress in Washington DC, Sadler’s Wells in London, and the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing.

The internationally celebrated soprano, Evelyn Lear, has sung more than thirty-five operatic roles in the great opera houses of the world. She has appeared as a star with virtually every major opera company in the USA, from the Metropolitan Opera to San Francisco Opera.  In Europe, Ms. Lear has appeared at La Scala, Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, Vienna State Opera, and the Berlin, Hamburg and Munich Operas.

RESONANZ, founded in 2009 by Metropolitan Opera mezzo Heidi Skok, offers intensive training for young singers, combining classes in meditation and yoga with advanced vocal studies, master classes and performance opportunities. 

Hyperion String Quartet: Described as “vivacious” by New York City’s WQXR public radio and “a single breathing organism…bringing grand and glorious life to the music” by Classical Voice of North Carolina, the Hyperion String Quartet has won first prizes at the Coleman, Music Teachers National Association and Green Lake chamber competitions and was the bronze medal prizewinner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.  Since their formation in 1999 at the Eastman School of Music, they have performed from California to New York’s famed Lincoln Center and have had live radio and television appearances in California, Connecticut, New York, Wisconsin and Canada.  Members of the quartet have performed with such artists as Toby Appel, Melvin Chen, Jennifer Frautschi, Benny Kim, Anne Marie McDermott, Lorna McGee, Sophie Shao, Eugenia Zukerman and the Miro and Rossetti String Quartets. The Quartet currently is based in Saratoga Springs, New York, where they are directors and coaches for the Chamber Music Program of the Saratoga Springs Youth Orchestra.  They were recently the inaugural Joseph Fisch/Joyce Axelrod Resident String Quartet at San Diego State University in association with the La Jolla Music Society.

Christopher Dylan Herbert has received acclaim for his “smooth baritone voice”, his “consistently warm sound” and his “versatile dramatic abilities”. He recently won an encouragement award from the Sullivan Foundation, garnered the French Consulate Award in the Gérard Souzay Competition, received third prize in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition, and was a finalist in the Liederkranz Foundation Competition. During 2009, Mr. Herbert performed the role of Sid in Britten’s Albert Herring with Opera Vivente, the role of Connie in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and the role of Il prigioniero in Mascagni’s Il piccolo Marat with Teatro Grattacielo in Avery Fisher Hall. Mr. Herbert holds a B.A. in Music and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Yale University and an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University.  He also serves as the Director of Advancement for the charitable institution Sing for Hope.

Sarah F. Liebowitz (pianist) is Research Associate Professor of the Laboratory of Behavioral Neurobiology at the Rockefeller University, NY.  She is the daughter of Katherine H. Fryer, artist, teacher and writer, and grand-daughter of Sidney and Louise Homer.

Barrymore Scherer (lecturer) is a music critic for The Wall Street Journal and a contributing editor of The Magazine Antiques, and Art & Auction magazine. He is author of the critically acclaimed book Bravo! A Guide to Opera for the Perplexed (Dutton-Plume), The History of American Classical Music (Naxos/Sourcebooks, 2007), and contributor to the book Giacomo Meyerbeer: A Reader (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008). As a lecturer he has given numerous presentations for institutions including the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the New York Philharmonic, and the National Gallery. On radio, he has been a regular commentator for NPR’s “Performance Today,” and on the nationally syndicated program, “First Hearing.”

Christopher Johnson (pianist) currently performs over 30 engagements each year as critics extol his work.  Since his critically acclaimed sold-out New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 1996 and performance at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in 1997, Mr. Johnson has appeared extensively in recital, on radio and television, as soloist with orchestras and in chamber ensembles throughout the United States, Canada, Central and South America, and Europe.

Bel Canto Institute, founded in 1987 by Metropolitan Opera Prompter and Assistant Conductor Jane Bakken Klaviter, is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization whose purpose is to perpetuate, teach and keep alive style and tradition in 19th and 20th Century Italian Opera. These goals are achieved through Summer Programs and Youth Division Summer Programs for singers, coaches and instrumentalists.

David Cramer (flute) is a native of Cleveland, Ohio.  He joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as assistant principal flute in 1981 and became associate principal flute in 1984.  Mr. Cramer has participated in the Tanglewood Festival and the Central City Colorado Opera Festival. Before joining The Philadelphia Orchestra, he was a member of the Montreal and Pittsburgh symphonies.

Since his appointment by Eugene Ormandy as principal oboe of The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1977, Richard Woodhams has earned a reputation as being among the world’s foremost oboists.  He studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with the late John de Lancie, Mr. Woodhams’s distinguished predecessor in the Orchestra and former director of that school. Mr. Woodhams has appeared as soloist on numerous occasions throughout the United States in a variety of repertoire. He has performed and recorded Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto with Wolfgang Sawallisch, and has also recorded two concertos by the 18th-century astronomer, composer, and oboist William Herschel with Philadelphia’s Mozart Orchestra.

Samuel Caviezel (clarinet), a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in the fall of 1998, under the baton of Wolfgang Sawallisch, after having served as principal clarinet of the Grand Rapids Symphony for two years. Mr. Caviezel has performed extensively both in and outside of The Philadelphia Orchestra, performs chamber music, and teaches privately and at Temple University.

Mark Gigliotti (bassoon) joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as assistant principal bassoon in 1982.  He became associate principal in 1984 and has been co-principal since 1999.  He began his professional career with the Hague Philharmonic Orchestra in the Netherlands and has also been principal bassoon of the Pittsburgh Symphony.  He has performed under some of the world’s greatest conductors, including Eugene Ormandy, Leonard Bernstein, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Raphael Frühbeck de Burgos, Klaus Tennstedt, Eugen Jochum, Loren Maazel, Simon Rattle, and James Levine. 

Jeffrey Lang (horn) keeps a busy schedule performing and teaching in the greater New York-Philadelphia area. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he holds the positions of associate principal horn of The Philadelphia Orchestra and principal horn of the American Symphony Orchestra. Formerly principal horn of the Israel Philharmonic, he has performed as guest principal horn of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the New York City Opera Orchestra, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He has also performed with the New York Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera.

Philip Kates (violin) has been a member of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 1980 and concurrently a frequent Guest Concertmaster with Peter Nero and the Philly Pops and of the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, with which he has made nearly annual solo appearances since 1981. Recital and chamber music performances have been many and varied, including the Philadelphia premiere of the Delius Violin Concerto in 2002. Mr. Kates is also a composer of several dozen works for voice, solo violin and various chamber groupings. He leads an active life in community service, raising funds for numerous humanitarian charities and other organizations.  As an educator, Mr. Kates has presented programs to children in schools throughout the United States and in conjunction with tours of the Philadelphia Orchestra to Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, England, Wales, Poland, Japan, Malaysia, Viet Nam and China..Mr. Kates was recently honored by a very generous gift from Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan to endow his chair in the Philadelphia Orchestra.

 David Pasbrig (piano) is known for his “Impressive…range of tonal qualities and technical finesse” (Schenectady Gazette) and “a rare ability to reach across into the audience” (Rena Fruchter). Pasbrig is equally in demand as soloist, chamber musician and pedagogue. He has been heard in Carnegie Hall, The Kimmel Center, The Kennedy Center, The Seoul Performing Arts Center (Korea) and The Academy of Music.  Recent engagements include master classes and concerts in Shenyang, Dalian, Panju and Beijing, China; concerts with Ann Fontinella at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra at Verizon Hall; at the Scotia Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and with the Luzerne Chamber Music Festival.  As a chamber musician he has collaborated with artists including Sergiu Schwartz, David Arnold, Laurie Heimes, members of The Philadelphia Orchestra, and is a founding member of the TRIPOD trio.  He can be heard on Centaur and New World Records.

 Cantores Minores is the Warsaw Boychoir of St. John the Baptist Cathedral and was founded ten years ago by its present American-born-and-trained conductor Joseph A. Herter. For the past nine years it has been affiliated with the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Warsaw’s Old Town. During the past decade, the choir has concertized in fourteen countries, taken part in sixteen festivals both in Poland and abroad, performed with such prestigious orchestras as the National Philharmonic in Warsaw and Sinfonia Varsovia, and taken top prizes in choral competitions in Moscow and Lecco, Italy. The choir received international attention when it was one of two European choirs to perform in a concert in the Vatican’s Sala Nervi in January, 2000.

Conductor Joseph Herter was born of Polish descent in 1945 in Detroit, Michigan. He is a graduate of the School of Music at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he studied conducting with Elizabeth Green, Thomas Hilbish, Maynard Klein and Gustav Meier. He continued his studies in choral conducting at Westminster Choir College with Robert Shaw in 1981, and in orchestral conducting at the Berkshire Music Institute in Tanglewood, with conductors Seiji Ozawa and Kurt Masur in 1984. He has twice been the recipient of fellowships from the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York.  Since 1974, Herter has lived in Poland, where he first worked as music director at the American School of Warsaw. During the past thirteen years, he has been guest conductor at the National Opera, Polish Radio Theater, numerous festivals and with many orchestras throughout Poland, including the Warsaw National Philharmonic, with whom he recorded the sound track of the Polish feature film and TV serial “Alchemik.”

David Troiano, Tenor Soloist, Organist and Choral Director, continues to appear in diverse in both diverse and fascinating musical endeavors. His lyric tenor has been heard in a substantial amount of roles in Opera and Oratorio including Zarzuelas with the Opera Factory of Chicago; numerous Orchestral Concerts; and over 80 recitals of American Art Song recitals with great acclaim throughout the United States, Canada, Bahamas, Poland, Portugal and in Mexico with pianist Joseph Gurt. In 2007 he participated in the Festival of Spanish and Latin American Art Song held in Barcelona. With the Comic Opera Guild he has made many premiere recordings of the operettas by Victor Herbert and musicals by Jerome Kern. Mr. Troiano can also be heard as the Narrator on the World Premiere recording of the Christmas Oratorio by Paul Paray sung entirely in French. He completed the M.M. Degree in Voice at Wayne State University in Detroit and received several awards including the Frederich Schorr International Voice Competition.

Mary Ann McCormick (mezzo-soprano) has been hailed in the press as “charismatic”, “spell-binding”, and “elegant”. Her international credits include “Isabella” in L’italiana in Algeri at La Scala, “Azucena” in Il trovatore at the Teatro Regio Torino, and “First Maid” in Elektra with Christoph von Dohnanyi at the Opéra National de Paris.  She has also performed “Maddalena” in Rigoletto under Daniele Gatti at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and with Seattle Opera and Gluck’s Alceste under Bruno Bartoletti at the Teatro Regio di Parma.

The Lyric Consort: Formed in 1993 to explore the myriad riches of the a cappella tradition, The Lyric Consort’s performances and wide-ranging repertoire have garnered consistent critical acclaim. The Consort has performed throughout eastern and central Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York.

Thomas Larson is the author of  The Memoir and the Memoirist: Reading and Writing Personal Narrative,  Swallow Press / Ohio University Press, 2007. His book, now in its third printing, is the first of its kind to evaluate the dramatic rise of the memoir in the last twenty years and to explore the craft and purpose of contemporary memoir writing. For twelve years, Larson has been a contributing writer for the weekly San Diego Reader where he specializes in investigative journalism, narrative nonfiction, and profiles. For the Reader Larson has written more than forty cover stories.