ANN ARBOR FESTIVAL OF SONG PRESENTS THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNUAL WEEK AFTER ART FAIR SONG FEST WEDNESDAY-FRIDAY, JULY 25-27, 2018 KERRYTOWN CONCERT HOUSE, ANN ARBOR
WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 8:00PM IN A FOREIGN LAND: SONGS OF HOME, HOMELAND, & HOMESICKNESS
THURSDAY, JULY 26, 8:00PM GALA 25TH YEAR CELEBRATION CONCERT
FRIDAY, JULY 27 8:00PM MAKE AMERICA SING AGAIN, PART DEUX: OUR ANNUAL CABARET NIGHT
2018 ARTISTS Key to abbreviations: BGSU = Bowling Green State Univ; EMU = Eastern Michigan Univ; MOT= Michigan Opera Theatre; UM = Univ of Michigan
Pianist KEVIN BYLSMA ‘s work has taken him in recent years to Venice, Paris, Romania, Eastern Europe, New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, and Thailand. Recent collaborations include recitals with Irina Mishura, Michelle DeYoung, and Kathryn Lewek, and accompanying masterclasses of Samuel Ramey, Dianne Soviero, and Marilyn Horne. His music directing and coaching credits include Ann Baltz' OperaWorks in Los Angeles, Toledo Opera, MOT, OPERA!Lenawee, Papagena Opera Company, and the UM. Currently serving as Head of Music Preparation at Toledo Opera, and Lecturer of Opera at the College of Musical Arts at BGSU, Kevin has also served the Toledo, Adrian, and Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestras as keyboardist, and since 1993 has been associate organist at Mariners' Church of Detroit.
EMILY BENNER, soprano, has performed roles with MOT and Toledo Opera, and in concert with the Detroit and Toledo Symphonies. A former resident artist with the Toledo Opera, Ms. Benner has also performed extensively in Northwest Ohio. Most recently, Ms. Benner appeared as a soloist with the Toledo Symphony and Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra. She is the recipient of numerous awards, and was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. A graduate of the UM, she maintains connections with the Phoenix Ensemble, Brave New Works, The Ann Arbor Festival of Song, Michigan Opera Works and Vox Early Music Ensemble. She is currently on the faculty of EMU, and is a longtime member of the professional choir at the historic Mariners’ Church of Detroit.
ADELLE BLAUSER, soprano, recently completed her BM in Vocal Performance at BGSU, where she studied with Dr. Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers. She has performed in several operas on the BGSU stage in addition to many Toledo-area productions; notable roles include Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof and Stella in Bonnie & Clyde. She is continuing her studies this fall at New York University, working toward an MM in Musical Theatre Performance and Vocal Pedagogy.
CLAIRE CHARDON, soprano, a Michigan native, has established herself as a versatile artist on the operatic, musical theater, and concert stage. Some recent highlights include appearances with Michigan Opera Theater, performing the role of Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the Bay View Music Festival, and singing as the soprano soloist in Fauré’s Requiem. In addition, Claire has sung the roles of Clara in Light in the Piazza, Adele in Die Fledermaus, and Valencienne in The Merry Widow. Claire earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Grand Valley State University and her Master’s degree from BGSU.
PATRICK CONKLIN, tenor, earned his BM from BGSU, where he studied with Christopher Scholl, Dr. Sean Cooper, and Kevin Bylsma. Patrick has also studied with David Adams of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He worked extensively with the Toledo Opera during his time at Bowling Green, as well as in many mainstage productions at the University in leading roles. Patrick appeared as a guest artist in Toledo as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi. He is now pursuing his MM at The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he has performed as Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Gonzalve in L’heure Espagnole.
STEPHANIE CONKLIN, soprano, holds a a BM from Indiana University, and an MM from BGSU. She is currently working towards a Performance Diploma back at Indiana University, where she studies with Carol Vaness. In recent years Stephanie has enjoyed working with the IU Opera, Toledo Opera, and Saskatoon Opera Choruses, and looks forward to her IU Opera debut as Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites this fall.
ANN CORRIGAN, soprano, holds degrees from Indiana University, BGSU, and a doctorate from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Corrigan specializes in contemporary vocal music with world premieres and recordings to her credit, including a CD of songs by Georges Auric. Currently she is the choir director at St. Tim’s Episcopal Church in Perrysburg, Ohio, and sings regularly in the St. Tim’s Discovers concerts. She also plans, directs, and performs programs at the Carranor Club in Perrysburg. Other current work includes the Temple Shomer Emunim in Toledo, and the Canterbury Singers, USA.
JENNIFER CRESSWELL, soprano, frequently performs with Toledo Opera, including as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Liu in Turandot. Other roles are Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana, Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene, and Pasatieri’s Lady Macbeth. Concert work has included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Bach’s Mass in bminor. Ms. Cresswell is also an opera librettist, having rewritten/condensed six operas for young audiences, and one original work, Respectable Woman, with composer Kristi Fullerton. She has served as artistic administrator for Toledo Opera, hosted a classical music radio show for two years on 91.3 WGTE, and currently serves as director of music at St. Ursula Academy in Toledo, Ohio.
JASON DUIKA, baritone, hails from Dexter, Michigan and graduated from Indiana University. Last year he was one of eight finalists in the New York Lyric Opera Competition at Carnegie Hall. He has worked with Utah Festival Opera, Wichita Grand Opera, and Palm Beach Opera, including roles such as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, and Dancairo and Escamillo in Carmen, and an alumni turn at Indiana as Enrico in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. This fall he will relocate to NYC, where he is under Randsman Artists Management and studies with Andrea DelGiudice.
JOHN GLANN, baritone, has performed over forty leading roles in opera and musical theatre. He recently gave the world premiere of composer Patrick Michael Wickham's Songs of Death and Taxes with the Lecoq Ensemble in Paris, which should be released on recording this fall. John studied at BGSU and Indiana University, and maintains a private teaching studio in New York City. Congratulations to Jane and Kevin for twenty-five great years of song!
AARON HILL, tenor, will soon graduate BGSU with a BM in Vocal Performance. He has appeared in several of their opera productions including Così fan tutte and Street Scene, as well as title roles in The Drunkard Reformed and The Gondoliers. Aaron has performed in multiple recitals and placed second in the Undergraduate Division of the BGSU Conrad Art Song Competition.
KO KAIDEN, baritone: A native of Kamakura, Japan, Ko began his professional music career as an oboist, playing with symphony orchestras in Japan. Upon moving to New York in 1990 he expanded his excellent woodwind skills by becoming a woodwind doubler in Broadway productions. Inspired by a recording of acclaimed tenor José Carreras and pianist Martin Katz, an experience he describes as life-changing, he began his vocal training with a goal of professional singing. He soon became a sought-after performer and has been praised for his “musical sensitivity” and his “intelligence in the delivery of text” by Francisco Casanova, Metropolitan Opera.
JOHN MINK, baritone, earned his MM in Voice Performance from BGSU, and a bachelor’s in music business from Mansfield State University. Opera credits include roles of Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Uncle Billy (Outcasts of Poker Flats), Grandpa Moss (Tender Land), Sergeant of Police (Pirates of Penzance), the title role in Pasatieri’s Signor Deluso, and section leader of the Toledo Opera chorus. Musical theater credits include Joe Hardy (Damn Yankees), Adam (The Apple Tree), Rod (Avenue Q), Bobby (Company) and the title role in Sweeney Todd. He is a founding member of the Black Swamp Opera Ensemble, and a member of the professional choir at Mariners’ Church of Detroit.
BRIAN PFALTZGRAFF, tenor, is an associate professor of voice, and chair of the Wartburg College Music Department in Waverly, Iowa. He received his Doctorate from the UM, the Master of Arts in German Literature and Master of Music from BGSU, and his Bachelor of Music Education and German from Simpson College. Brian enjoys quiet evenings with his wife, Carita, and children Ethan and Elise. He loosens the traces during the immersion experience that he organizes for Wartburg College each year in Eisenach, the birthplace of JS Bach, and the location of the Wartburg Castle, where Martin Luther translated the New Testament.
DEANNA RELYEA, mezzo-soprano, has performed the major oratorio repertoire with choral societies and symphony orchestras in the Great Lakes Region and Canada. She has appeared with the Ann Arbor Symphony in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (with her brother, Gary), Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, and the Verdi Requiem. Performances on concert series’ and festivals include Ann Arbor SpringFest chamber music festival, and Kerrytown Concert House’s WolfFest, where she partnered with pianist Martin Katz. She appears also as a cabaret artist on concert series, with symphony orchestras, and in theatre and musical theatre productions. Ms. Relyea is Founder/Director of Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Concert House, and a member of the professional choir at the historic Mariners’ Church of Detroit.
JANE SCHOONMAKER RODGERS, nominally a soprano, teaches voice and graduate courses at BGSU. Her performing, recording, and directing credits include organizations on both sides of the Atlantic. Recent stage-directing includes BGSU’s productions of Così fan tutte, The Pirates of Penzance, Pasatieri’s Signor Deluso, and her own adaptation of Offenbach’s The Lantern Wedding. She frequently appears at the KCH, including performances with the Wine, Women, and Song ensemble, as well as the annual Parisian Soirée, and she continues weekly in the professional choir at the historic Mariners’ Church of Detroit, as she has since 1994.
CHRISTOPHER SCHOLL, tenor, sang for 20 years in Europe, in opera, oratorio and recitals, in cities such as Munich, Mannheim, Kiel, Leipzig, Paris, Marseilles and Trieste. He joined the faculty of the College of Musical Arts at BGSU in 1997. Recent credits include recitals at BGSU, in Toledo, Ithaca, NY, DeKalb, IL, Saint Peter, MN, Baltimore, MD, and Bangkok, Thailand; Messiah with Toledo Symphony; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Detroit Civic Orchestra; Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin in Amarillo, TX; Greenbriar Chamber Music Series (Britten’s Serenade with Katharine Caliendo, horn, and members of the Houston Symphony); Elder Hayes in Susannah at Toledo Opera.
ELLEN STRBA SCHOLL, mezzo-soprano, holds degrees from Northern Illinois University and De Paul University. She sang for 15 years in Europe, including Bavarian State Opera (Munich), TV and radio. Roles include Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and Conception in L’Heure Espagnol; oratorio roles include Attalia, Messiah, Samson, and Elijah. She as sung under conductors Klaus Peter Seibel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Colin Davis, Michael Tilson thomas, Zubin Metha, Josef Leitner, Michael Halasz, Martin Fischer-Dieskau, and Don Neuen of the Crystal Cathedral; formerly on faculty at the Christian Albrecht Universitaet in Kiel, Germany; two-time winner of the Metropolitan Opera district competition.
KYLE SCHREIBER, soprano, recently graduated from BGSU, where she earned her MM in Vocal Performance. She holds a BM degree in Vocal Performance with a minor in Theatre from Ball State University. Schreiber recently helped found the Black Swamp Opera Ensemble. Opera credits include Jennie Hildebrand (Street Scene), Lola (Cavalleria Rusticana), The Youngest Daughter of Jerusalem (The Songs of Solomon: A New Work), Micaëla (La Tragédie de Carmen), Kätchen (Werther), and work with the Michigan Opera Theatre and Toledo Opera choruses.
DALE SCHRIEMER, baritone, made his debut with the Minnesota Opera as Maximillian in Candide. Other roles include Judas in The St. Matthew Passion, Armchair in L’Enfant et les sortileges, and Gendarme in Les Mamelles de Tiresias, and with Opera Grand Rapids, Mercutio in Romeo et Juliet, Schaunard in La Bohème, Padre in Man of LaMancha, Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviliglia, Tiger Brown in Die Dreigroschenoper, and Spalanzani in Les Contes D’Hoffmann. Schriemer has been baritone soloist in Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast under the baton of Sir David Willcocks, Adam in The Creation, baritone soloist and Jesus in St. John’s Passion, and in Duruflé and Faure Requiems. For the last 21 seasons Mr. Schriemer has been Artistic Director of Opera Theatre and Professor of Music at Grand Valley State University.
THOMAS SPAFFORD, tenor, is an Ann Arbor based choral musician. He has sung with the Ann Arbor Cantata Singers, Vocal Arts Ensemble, Vox Early Music Ensemble, Detroit Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and UMS Choral Union; and is a long-standing member of the Choir of Mariners’ Church of Detroit. Major works performed include Bach’s b-minor Mass, St. John Passion, and St. Matthew Passion; Beethoven's 9th Symphony; Mahler’s 2nd and 8th Symphonies; and the Requiems of Brahms, Verdi, Fauré, and Durufle.
HANNAH STROTH, soprano, is a recent graduate from BGSU with her BM in vocal performance. Roles with the university include Paquerette in The Lantern Wedding, Gianetta in The Gondoliers, and Marie in How to Reform a Drunk. Hannah has been a member of the Toledo Opera Chorus for the past three seasons and looks forward to a fourth!
O U R C O - DIRECTORS Kevin Bylsma and Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers have been collaborators since 1990. In 1994 they founded the annual Art Fair Song Fest, which eventually gave birth to its own parent organization, The Ann Arbor Festival of Song, presenting offerings of art song and vocal chamber music. Among their credits as a performing duo are the American Composers’ Alliance Festival of American Music (NYC), Society for New Music, Pro Musica of Detroit, Camphill Village of Copake, NY, Civic Morning Musicals (Syracuse, NY), the Cleveland Art Song Festival, and the Song Collaborators’ Consortia Art Song Festival.
THE ANN ARBOR FESTIVAL OF SONG Co-Directors: Kevin Bylsma, Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers Email: [email protected] On the web: https://sites.google.com/site/annarborfestivalofsong US Mail: PO Box 3181; Ann Arbor, MI 48106 THE ANN ARBOR FESTIVAL OF SONG IS A MICHIGAN NON-PROFIT CORPORATION MANY THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS SUPPO RTERS! The following list reflects total gifts to The Ann Arbor Festival of Song from 1994 to the present:
DIVINE BEINGS Tricia DeBoer/Deboer Gallery Dr. Donald Hartmann ($800 OR MORE) John Glenn HS Vocal Music Dept. Hollander's “A grateful parishioner at Jim King/King’s Keyboard House Carol E. Johnson Mariners’ Church” Vintage to Vogue Kav's Kafé David & Peggy Pennock William & Sally Benner CHERUBIM Family of Kenneth J. Bylsma, Sr. Drs. Daniel & Jennifer Schuetz Irene Fritz ($100 OR MORE): Eric & Dina Winter John and Janet Knapp Adrian Symphony/ Opera!Lenawee PATRONS Deanna Relyea Peter & Liza Dale/Encore Recordings David. C. Rodgers & family Kenneth & Norma Freeman ($25 OR MORE): Kenneth J. Sweetman Tim & Lily Kittle/Lily’s Garden Denise Boumaroun Dr. Christopher Layne/Layne Psychological Naomi Donaldson ARCHANGELS Services Dragon's Lair Futons ($300 OR MORE): Richard LeSueur Barbara & Jeffrey Duncan Eleni & Vassos Avgoustis/Cyprus Mike Potter/Hill O'Beans Marcia Hall Taverna Marlene Rodgers/Of Gothic Proportions Nano & J.R. Roberts Ellen & Bob Frick: “In Memory of Robert & Mary Ellen Schoonmaker Miriam Samson Margaret Steinfeldt and Alice Rodgers” Helen Stamos/Stamos Travel Kate Soper Thomas & Barbara Smith Hilbish Julie Young/Encore Studio That Coffee Place at Kerrytown Bishop Richard Ingalls Zingerman’s Bakehouse FRIENDS Jim Leonard/SKR Classical SPONSORS Anita Tanner/Animalia Gallery ($10 OR MORE): ($50 OR MORE): Julie & Patrick O’Donovan SERAPHIM Bank of Ann Arbor Stephen C. & Kay L. Oldstrom ($200 OR MORE): Dr. James M. Bumford, D.D.S. Allen Schrott "Anonymous" Ellwood Derr Lisa Van Houten Walhout Lawrence Berlin Aaron & Sherry Gara
BECOME A SUPPORTER: We need and welcome financial support! Our presentations are funded by generous individual donors and local merchants, as well as by ticket sales for our special events. Gifts over $10 will be acknowledged in every program we present from now until the end of time (see above), as well as on our Website (currently being updated!). We are very happy to add links to our sponsors' professional web pages. The Ann Arbor Festival of Song; PO Box 3181; Ann Arbor, MI 48106