Performers
Every summer world-renowned musicians perform in The Sembrich’s historic and intimate setting
The young American pianist Thomas Pandolfi, who will made his Sembrich debut the summer of 2011, is an exciting virtuoso who, with each passing season, is becoming more and more sought after by audiences worldwide, and showered with superlatives by critics for his passionate artistry and amazing technique. Mr. Pandolfi offered a salute to Franz Liszt in this, the bicentennial year of his birth. He performed works by Chopin and Scriabin and concluded with a rendering of the perennial American favorite, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.
Mezzo-soprano Lucille Beer has received critical acclaim for her performances in opera houses and in concerts internationally and in the U.S., including the Metropolitan Opera, The New York City Opera and the New York Philharmonic. Her recital in the Summer of 2011 featured Gustav Mahler’s Five Rückert Lieder as well as song selections of Schubert, Brahms, Fauré and Debussy. Pianist Michael Clement is an experienced accompanist and vocal coach who has frequently collaborated with Ms. Beer in numerous recitals in the Capital Region.
Jake Shulman-Ment Quintet presented an evening of traditional gypsy and klezmer music with an ensemble comprised of violin, trumpet, accordion, string bass and cimbalom (or tsimbl in Yiddish), a beautiful East European hammered dulcimer. Following in Bartók’s footsteps, Jake recently was in Romania collecting folk music. He performed at The Sembrich during the summer in 2011′s Weekends with the Masters series.
Kofi and Sankofa African Drum and Dance Troupe brought the thrilling sounds, customs and culture of Africa to The Sembrich lakeside the summer of 2011. This program was made possible, in part, with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program and Warren County
Jon Marans A highlight of our Weekends with the Masters 2011 summer series was a pair of readings of the play “Old Wicked Songs” by Jon Marans. Mr. Marans, who directed his play which portrays the relationship of a young American concert pianist with his Viennese professor.
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 95th 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.
