EIGHTH SEASON - SOURCE SONG FESTIVAL

Globally-AcessedGlobally-AcessedMinnesota-Based August 2–6, 2021

EIGHTH SEASON

8

Supporters

Anonymous (3)Jane AndersenCarol Barnett

James & Lea Ann BarnettLynne BeckPearl BergadGail Beske

Cheryl BrownTimothy Campbell

Craig Carnahan

Patrick ColemanWallys & Roger Conhaim

Will HaugenSimin Hickman

Julie & Anders HimmelstrupAaron James

Kathryn KeeferBarry & Cheryl Kempton

Kelly KrebsSam KreidenweisDavid Lawrence

Samuel Barber ($100 - $499)

C I R C L E

SONGTHANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!

We are grateful to the following members of the SongCircle. Your support empowers and inspires a new generation of musicians, supports continued

artistic excellence, and sustains Source Song Festival.

For information on giving, please visit www.sourcesongfestival.org/song-circle (2021 SongCircle reflects giving from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021)

Jane & Gordon MooreJohn Nuechterlein

Paul RiedeselJudy Rogosheske

Michael ScottLynn SliferPaul Sperry

Robert StrusinskiAllie Wigley

Lori & Jay Zwart

Anonymous (5)Bergen BakerCharles BaxterStacy Bilyeu

Pam BjorakerSimon Chalifoux

Krista CostinEdward Coughlin

Maureen DunawayElisabeth DrostJohn GilmourSamuel Grace

Martha GuthJuliana Hall

Linda HaugenLydia HaugenCathy Johnson

Athena KildegaardCatherine Kirkpatrick

Victoria KirschBrian Long

Beatrice MageeSamuel Martin

Harriet McCleary

Anna MeekLiam Moore

Monica MurrayRuth Palmer

Pete & Carol ParshallRobert Peavler

Sandra & Rick PenningJonathan PosthumaAlessandro QuartaShayla Rasmussen

Carol ReedGinger Reynolds

Emily Riley Rosemary Ritter

Erik SchmalzMartha Schmidt

Leslie ShankBridget Skaggs

Pat & Paul SolstadLaura StricklingTeresa TierneyRoger Towler

Arlo & Pam Vande VegteJanika Vandervelde

Amanda Weber

Franz Schubert ($1,000+)

Francis Poulenc ($500 - $999)

John MichelRodney & Debra Presser

Scott RehovskyRon Rydell

William & Marcelyn SmaleArturo Steely

Barbara BrownMartha & Jeff Brown

Rosemary & David GoodDorothy J. Horns & James P. Richardson

Lebowski Urban Achiever FundJon & Lisa Lewis

Anonymous (1)Rob Brittain

Dawn JohnsonPatricia King

Timothy LovelaceJustin MiedemaClara Osowski

Nell Slater

Hello and welcome to Source Song Festival for our eighth season!

When we reflect on Year Seven and consider how lucky we were to stay connected to our community through screens as we expanded Source’s scope of performance and scholarship across the globe, our eighth season returns the focus to Minnesota. In 2021 we germinate and cultivate a new crop of performers and composers through intensive study of the process of song. Start to finish, we see songs emerge from environments worldwide into something Minnesota-made and -grown.

For years we’ve asked you to invest in the performance and scholarship of song. Source’s festivals created some of the most intimate and exciting recitals of Tamara Wilson, David Portillo, and Anton Belov, where the intermissions seemed to stretch on so long, and yet not long enough, to chat with everyone. Our masterclasses followed these evenings, completely energized by wide-eyed MNDuo performers, eager to make similar sounds out of the piano from recitals of Warren Jones, Julius Drake, and Arlene Shrut. The creation of new song has always been our audience’s biggest investment; we’ve welcomed the premieres of original pieces from MNSong composers, mentored by David Evan Thomas and Libby Larsen--the greatest of song composers from any state or border.

This year, when for the first time our education programs intersect, we ask you to invest in the education of song. Source is bringing you the best of creation and performance simultaneously, beginning with the premier of poems from Minnesota Poet Laureate and our inaugural Poet-in-Residence, Joyce Sutphen. You’re invited to meet this distinguished poet and discover her love of music over two evenings. Poems from her newest anthology, Carrying Water to the Field, feature creations from the intersection of MNSong and MNDuo, curated and produced by the composers and performers themselves.

And for a sense of familiarity prompting fond reminiscences of past festivals, the MNSong Composer Showcase--our most highly anticipated event from year to year--returns with new songs performed by Source alumni and our Minnesota-based performer favorites, thanks to the collaborative and generous spirit of Wild Sound Recording Studios.

From seed to harvest, we’ve fostered song creation and performance since 2014. In 2021, we not only dedicated our full attention to the process but we also championed a commitment to accessibility by waiving application fees and lowering tuition costs; we’re carrying water to the field. Source will continue to provide excellence in song education and we know we’re in the right community to further that mission. Thank you, more than ever, for your investment in song.

Source Song Festival

SOURCE: noun [s urs]: someone or something that provides what is wanted or needed: the cause of something: a person, book, etc., that gives information

: A GENERATIVE FORCE

Schedule of Online Events

Monday, August 2 7:00p Joyce On Joyce: Part 1

A conversation with Source Song Festival Poet-in-Residence Joyce Sutphen and poet Anna George Meek, featuring the world

premieres of songs by composers in the MNSong program, performed by the artists in the MNDuo program.

Wednesday, August 4 7:00p Joyce On Joyce: Part 2

The second installment of a conversation with Source Song Festival Poet-in-Residence Joyce Sutphen and poet Anna George

Meek, featuring the world premieres of songs by composers in the MNSong program, performed by the artists

in the MNDuo program.

Friday, August 6 7:00p MNSong Composer Showcase

The annual closing concert featuring the works by composers in the MNSong program, performed by Minnesota-based artists.

All events are streamed online, and FREE on our website, YouTube, and on our Facebook page.

please visit www.sourcesongfestival.org

Source Song festival StaffClara Osowski, Founding Artistic Director

Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, who sings “from inside the music with unaffected purity and sincerity” (UK Telegraph), is an active soloist and chamber musician hailed

for her “rich and radiant voice” (UrbanDial Milwaukee). While based in Minnesota, Clara has made an impact on the international stage.

In March 2017, Clara became the first-ever American prizewinner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff’s International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg,

Germany, where she was accompanied by Tyler Wottrich. The duo was one of four to reach the finals at the renowned Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Song Competition

in London, where Clara was also awarded the Richard Tauber Prize for best interpretation of Schubert Lieder and the Vaughan Williams prize for the best interpretation of English song. In addition, Clara won the Radio-Canada

People’s Choice Award—along with third place in the song division—at the 2018 Concours Musical International de Montréal. A generous and enthusiastic educator, Clara has served on the faculty at the Aspen Music Festival’s

Professional Choral Institute in partnership with Seraphic Fire, and the Unversity of Minnesota-Morris. For more information, visit www.claraosowski.com.

Mark Bilyeu, Founding Artistic DirectorRecognized for his investment in Minnesota, the Star Tribune wrote “…Bilyeu… [is] to the Minnesota classical music scene what craft brewers are to the beer industry —

purveyor of a distinctive local product, at a period when corporate brands and entities seem increasingly distant and distrusted.”

He holds degrees from the Chicago College of Performing Arts and the University of Minnesota, studying with Timothy Lovelace and Chicago Symphony Orchestra

pianist Mary Sauer. He has studied at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, Britten-Pears, Vancouver International Song Institute and l’Academie Françis Poulenc. Additional

studies with Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles and Susan Manoff.

Emily Riley, Festival AdministratorConsidered a "vocal standout" by The Washington Post, soprano Emily Riley finds

herself at home on the concert and operatic stage. She was a 2018 Fellow in the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar as well as a past participant at the Baldwin Wallace Art Song Festival and Songfest. She was an Encouragement Award recipient from the

Metropolitan Opera Council DC District Auditions in 2014 and holds a Bachelor of Music from Towson University and Master of Solo Voice from the University of

Maryland. She is currently based out of Washington, D.C. and studies with Jennifer Casey Cabot. Emily joined Source Song Festival in 2015.

Seng Lor, Festival InternSeng Lor is studying vocal music education at St. Olaf College, studying voice with

Emery Stephens. He has sung in the Viking Chorus, Chapel Choir, and will be singing in the St. Olaf Choir in the 2021-2022 school year. He was born in Thailand in one of the last refugee camps, Wat Tham Krabok in 2001, and came to the U.S.in

2004. Seng is a first generation student. His aspirations include starting a Hmong Choir in the Twin Cities and encouraging the Hmong community to participate in choral music, hoping choral music will pass on the Hmong language to future

generations.

Samuel Ivory, Festival InternSam Ivory is currently a student at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, where he is

pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Composition, studying with Justin Merritt.

Sam co-founded the St. Olaf Chamber Orchestra Club, which is a student organization on campus committed to student composers and conductors. In the

future, Sam envisions continuing to work collaboratively with new composers and performers. He hopes to reach larger audiences with music and to help support current

artists.

Source Song festival FacultyLibby Larsen, Composer MentorLibby Larsen (b. 24 December 1950, Wilmington, Delaware) is one of America’s most prolific and most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 500 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over twelve operas. Her music has been praised for its dynamic, deeply inspired, and vigorous contemporary American spirit. Constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles and orchestras around the world, Larsen has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory.

Larsen has been hailed as “the only English-speaking composer since Benjamin Britten who matches great verse with fine music so intelligently and expressively” (USA Today). The first woman to serve as a resident composer with a major orchestra, she has held residencies with the California Institute of the Arts, the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, the Philadelphia School of the Arts, the Cincinnati Conservatory, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony. Libby Larsen has received numerous awards and accolades, including a 1994 Grammy as producer of the CD: The Art of Arlene Augér, an acclaimed recording that features Larsen’s Sonnets from the Portuguese.

As a past holder of the 2003-2004 Harissios Papamarkou Chair in Education at the Library of Congress and recipient of the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Libby Larsen is a vigorous, articulate champion of the music and musicians of our time. In 1973, she co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum. Larsen’s 2017 biography, Libby Larsen: Composing an American Life, Denise Von Glahn, author, is available from the University Illinois Press. Please see www.libbylarsen.com for more.

David Evan Thomas, Composer MentorThe music of David Evan Thomas has been praised for its eloquence, power and craft. The recipient of a 2013 McKnight Foundation Fellowship and an Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Thomas has received commissions from the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, The Schubert Club and the American Composers Forum. His music has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, London’s Westminster Cathedral Choir and the trio of Gil Shaham, Truls Mørk and Yefim Bronfman.

Vocal music is particularly prominent in Thomas’s catalogue, which also includes orchestral music, 40 chamber works, keyboard pieces large and small, and an opera. A dozen song cycles explore such diverse topics as the medieval women troubadours and the baseball prose of Donald Hall, and there are 50 choral works, including the 2012 oratorio The First Apostle. Thomas’s vocal music is published by ECS/MorningStar, Classical Vocal Reprints and Yelton-Rhodes, and is available through www.davidevanthomas.com.Born in Rochester, New York, in 1958, David Evan Thomas began his training as a trumpeter, graduating with Honors from Eastman “Prep.” He received degrees from Northwestern University, Eastman School of Music and the University of Minnesota. His teachers have included Dominick Argento, Samuel Adler and Alan Stout, with further study at the Aspen Festival and with David Diamond at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

Thomas lives in Minneapolis, where he is also active as a program annotator, choral singer and pianist.

Joyce Sutphen, Poet-in-Residence

Joyce Sutphen grew up on a farm in Stearns County, Minnesota. She is a professor emeritus of English at Gustavus Adolphus College and is Minnesota’s poet laureate.

She is the author of seven poetry collections, including Straight Out of View, Coming Back to the Body, and Naming the Stars, and is a coeditor of To Sing Along the Way: Minnesota Women Poets from Pre-Territorial Days to the Present.

In 2021, Joyce Sutphen serves as the first Poet-in-Residence at Source Song Festival.

SOURCE SONG FESTIVAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Jon Lewis Justin MiedemaDawn Johnson

Alexandra WigleyWill Haugen

Nisha HollingsworthSam Kreidenweis David Lawrence

Anna George MeekScott Rehovsky

Jane Turpin Moore

President Vice PresidentTreasurerSecretaryAt-LargeAt-LargeAt-LargeAt-LargeAt-LargeAt-LargeAt-Large

Anna George Meek, Writer & PoetBy day, Anna George Meek is a professor in Hamline University’s Creative Writing Programs and in Normandale Community College’s English department. Anna is

also the author of two full-length books of poems, Acts of Contortion, which won the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, and The Genome Rhapsodies, which won the Richard

Snyder Prize; her chapbook Engraved won the Snowbound Chapbook Competition. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and two

Minnesota State Arts Board grants.

Anna’s work has been commissioned and set to music by Abbie Betinis, Jack Stamp, Curtis Kettler, Eric Banks, Craig Sandford, and Isaac Lovdahl (whose piece “How Close I’d Love to Be,” sung by

Kristina Rodel Sorum, won first place in the 2020 SongSLAM-Minneapolis).

Trained as a violinist at Yale University and the Peabody Conservatory, Anna played for ten years with the Good Fortune String Trio. Currently, she sings in the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers. Anna has also sung and performed

as a soloist with the Dale Warland Singers and Magpies & Ravens and served as section leader for the Saint Paul Cathedral Choir for many years. Anna is thrilled to serve on the board of Source and be part of the magic that

occurs when song and poetry come together in boundless ways.

Are you interested in helping to shape the future of Source Song Festival?

Source is seeking individuals with diverse perspectives and skill sets to join our Board of Directors.

.

Please contact Board President Jon Lewis for more information:[email protected]

Please visit www.sourcesongfestival.org/board-of-directors to learn more about the Source Song Festival board.

Source Song Festival presents

OpenSource: Joyce On Joyce

Two Evenings with Poet-in-Residence Joyce Sutphen & Poet Anna George Meek

August 2, 20217:00p | Accessed Online

PROGRAM 1

A conversation with Minnesota's Poet Laureate and Source Song Festival Poet-in-Residence Joyce Sutphen, featuring the world premieres of the following songs by composers in the MNSong program,

with texts by Joyce Sutphen, performed by the artists in the MNDuo program.

From Out the Cave Helena MichelsonSabreena Cherrington, soprano

Maggie Hinchliffe, pianist

Living in the Body Nicholas SlaughterSamantha Martin, soprano

Yihao Zhou, pianist

In the Wake Brian StarkMaggie Ramirez, sopranoRobert Cushing, pianist

The Cup Molly HennigLindsey Meekhof, mezzo-soprano

Aubrie Jacobson, pianist


OpenSource: Joyce On Joyce

Two Evenings with Poet-in-Residence Joyce Sutphen & Poet Anna George Meek

August 4, 20217:00p | Accessed Online

PROGRAM 2

A conversation with Minnesota's Poet Laureate and Source Song Festival Poet-in-Residence Joyce Sutphen, featuring the world premieres of the following songs by composers in the MNSong program,

with texts by Joyce Sutphen, performed by the artists in the MNDuo program.

Death, Inc. Ben MorrisSarah Rogers, soprano Regan Russell, pianist

Rodin on Film Lingbo MaDevon Russo, bass-baritone

Pierre-Nicolas Columbat, pianist

Now, Finally, a Love Song Tamika Sterrs-HowardAndré Chiang, baritone

Megan Barth Argo, pianist

Your Name Ryan HomseyValeria Bibliowicz, mezzo-soprano

Felipe Calle, pianist

Sabreena Cherrington, soprano, is currently pursuing her master's degree in voice performance at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, studying with Andrew Wentzel. At UTK she is a graduate teaching assistant in the voice and musicology departments, and a member of Knoxville Opera's Young Artist Opera Studio. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2018, where she majored in choral music education. Recently, Sabreena performed the role of Eva Delvingné in Dan Shore's An Embarrassing Position and Kate Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. She was recently named a semi-finalist in the young artist division of the Orpheus Vocal Competition in Tennessee. She is looking forward to her upcoming role of Annina in Verdi's La Traviata with the Bay View Music Festival in the summer of 2021.

Maggie Hinchliffe is a pianist and educator based in Boulder, Colorado. Specializing in the collaborative arts, she performs with Boulder Opera Company in productions including Puccini’s La Bohème, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Maggie has spent summers as a vocal pianist at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Songfest, Source Song Festival, and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. She also enjoys working with composers as a writer and several of her original poems have been set to music. As an educator, Maggie teaches piano privately as well as with the Harmony Music House of Boulder. She has also taught with the Vanderbilt Pedagogy Department and the W.O. Smith Community Music School of Nashville. Maggie was recently awarded the Virginia Allison Collaborative Piano Award from the National Federation of Music Clubs.

Maggie received her Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from the Eastman School of Music with Jean Barr where she received the Jean Barr Scholarship Award and was a Graduate Assistant in Opera Accompanying and Studio Accompanying. She received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University with Amy Dorfman, where she was given the Michaelson Award in Collaborative Arts and the Achievement in Teaching Recognition Award.

MNDuo teams

Sabreena Cherrington soprano | Maggie Hinchliffe pianist

Colombian-born Valeria Bibliowicz received her Master of Music (M.M.) in Vocal Performance in 2018 at the Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College in Mark Schnaible's studio. She is particularly passionate about art song and contemporary music. During her M.M. studies, Valeria was selected as a young artist and granted a scholarship for SongFest. She also collaborated with Swedish pianist Jonathan Söderlund in a concert of Nordic art songs, which was performed in New York and later in Colombia, sponsored by the Danish Embassy. In her final year, Valeria sang the role of Lena in the New York premiere of the contemporary Serbian opera Svabda, directed by Matthew Morris.

Additional recent opera roles include Second Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Witch in Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, and Dorinthia in Händel’s Acis and Galatea. In 2019, Valeria and Felipe Calle collaborated in a series of concerts, Mujeres en el canto, which premiered several American songs by composers Libby Larsen and William Bolcom in Colombia, performed in El Teatro Colón, Bogotá. In 2020, Valeria received 3rd place in the Philharmonic's National Singing Competition in Colombia. She was also a soloist in the mass Lamentaciones ¡Ay Padre! composed by Juan Pablo Carreño, curated by María Belén Sáez de Ibarra, and produced by the National University of Colombia in collaboration with the Philharmonic Choir. The mass commemorates the first four years since the signing of the Colombian peace treaty in 2016. In April of 2021, Lamentaciones ¡Ay Padre! was streamed in Teatro Colón.

As a collaborative pianist, Felipe Calle has a versatile career in his native country, Colombia, collaborating with singers and instrumentalists. He currently works at Universidad Nacional and Universidad Javeriana as a staff pianist and collaborates regularly with members of local orchestras in chamber music projects. As a very sought-after pianist for lieder and art song, Mr. Calle has played recitals focusing on Latin American art song and women composers. He has been part of the Schubert Institute, the Vancouver International Art Song Institute, the Collaborative Piano Institute, CollabFest, Forum de piano et flute in Luxembourg, Piano Wellness Seminar, and the Encontro de Pianistas de Piracicaba. He has recorded art songs from Colombian composers for the Colombian Federal Reserve Bank music section in 2017. He holds degrees from Cleveland Institute of Music in collaborative piano where he studied under Anita Pontremoli. He recently finished a degree in musicology from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Valeria Bibliowicz mezzo-soprano | Felipe Calle pianist

Baritone André Chiang was described as “vocally commanding” (Oregonian), “handsome of voice” (Opera News), and lauded with “let’s hear more from this singer” (Washington Post). Mr.

Chiang’s recent engagements include Dandini (La Cenerentola ) with Dayton Opera, The Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance) with Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre, Older Thompson (Glory

Denied) with Painted Sky Opera, and Schaunard (La bohème ) with Mississippi Opera. Previous credits include Young Galileo/Salviati (Galileo Galilei) and Ford (Falstaff) with Portland Opera; Anthony Hope (Sweeney Todd) with Virginia Opera; and Lancelot in the Young Artist Matinee of Camelot at the Glimmerglass Festival. Competition honors include Regional Finalist for the

MONC Auditions, Winner of the 59th NFMC 2017 Biennial Young Artist Award, and Winner of the 45th NATS Artist Awards Competition. In concert, Chiang has been the Baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with the Huntsville Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, and Canterbury

Voices. His Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall debut came as the Baritone soloist in the World Premiere of Martin Palmeri’s Gran Misa. Upcoming engagements include Escamillo (Carmen)

with Mobile Opera and Silvio (Pagliacci) with Painted Sky Opera. Chiang received a Bachelor of Music from the University of South Alabama, Master of Music from the Manhattan School of

Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts from Louisiana State University. As an educator, Chiang was a 2018 NATS Intern, designated a “National Center for Voice and Speech trained Vocologist” in 2019, was featured at the 2020 NATS National Conference. He is an Assistant Professor of

Voice at Oklahoma State University. www.andrechiangbaritone.com.

Megan Barth Argo is Opera Répétiteur and Vocal Coach for the Michael and Anne Greenwood School of Music at Oklahoma State University. She is a rising collaborative artist

who has performed and studied throughout the United States and Barcelona, Spain. She has participated in numerous festivals including Brevard Music Festival, Songfest, Baldwin

Wallace Art Song Festival, and Atlantic Music Festival where she was both a pianist and apprentice coach under Song Faculty Artist Arlene Shrut . In the summer of 2016, Ms. Argo

served as a Collaborative Piano Fellow and Faculty for the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival. She has had the pleasure of working with renowned artists Roger Vignoles, Warren Jones,

Graham Johnson, Rudolph Piernay, Susanne Mentzer, Libby Larsen, William Bolcom, Jake Heggie, and many others. Ms. Argo has been musical director for over 30 opera and musical

theater productions and has collaborated in multiple recitals. Some of her most renowned performances include a complete performance of Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with

tenor Jeffrey Picòn in March 2014, as well as the Oklahoma premiere of Kurt Erickson’s Here, Bullet with baritone André Chiang in September 2020. Upcoming recital appearances include a program of the music of Jake Heggie with mezzo soprano April Golliver-Mohiuddin, which

will promote the importance of social justice in correspondence with Sister Helen Prejean . Ms. Argo will also perform in a collaborative project between central Oklahoma universities

featuring Ned Rorem’s Evidence of Things Not Seen.

MNDuo teams

Samantha Martin soprano | Yihao Zhou pianist

André Chiang baritone | Megan Barth Argo pianist

Samantha Martin is a first-year soprano at Bard Conservatory Vocal Arts Program studying with Edith Bers. Samantha is an avid supporter of new music and has appeared as a soloist in concert with the Crane Wind Ensemble performing a work by James Mobberly. She has also performed works by Julianna Hall, John Musto, Michael Csányi-Wills, Libby Larsen, Daron

Hagen, Clarice Assad, as well as workshopping and performing the world premiere of Tom Cipullo’s Mayo as Miss Goodrich and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Additional opera credits

include Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Buoso’s Ghost by Michael Ching and Laurie in Copland’s The Tender Land. Recently she was named the winner of Bard Conservatory’s 2020 Concerto Competition and will appear in the Bard Vocal Arts Program’s production of Gian

Carlo Menotti’s The Medium as Monica. Samantha received her Bachelor of Music majoring in Voice Performance and Music Business

from the State University of New York at Potsdam. As a part of her double major, Samantha had the opportunity to work as an intern for a variety of companies. Early on she worked

as an intern for the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar which taught her a lot about living American composers. Samantha completed her Music Business major with an internship at the Metropolitan Opera National Council for the Grand Finals concert of 2019. The close

proximity of such phenomenal artistry inspired Samantha to go back to school for her Masters degree in order to return back to her roots of performing and inspire others as she has been

inspired.Driven by his belief in sincerity and companionship in music-making, New York based pianist

Yihao Zhou is a frequent collaborator with other musicians. A Lila Bell Acheson Wallace Endowed Prize winner, Yihao graduated with highest honors from Macalester College where he earned degrees in both music and mathematics, a combination that has helped him play

with great care and sensitivity. He earned a Master of Music in Piano on an Artistic Excellence Fellowship from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. As a soloist and chamber musician, Yihao has appeared at various summer festivals such as the Round Top Festival Institute and the Castleman Quartet Program. His performance of Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals with the Texas Festival Orchestra at Round Top was broadcast on public radio station KAMU-FM .

In addition to his performance accomplishments, Yihao served as a staff accompanist at CUNY Hunter College. Currently, Yihao is pursuing a graduate diploma in Collaborative Piano at The

Juilliard School where he studies with Jonathan Feldman and Lydia Brown. His other teachers include Edward Auer, Claudia Chen, Allison Gagnon, Margo Garrett, Noby Ishida, Polina

Khatsko, Mark Mazullo, and Lauri Sager-Wright.

Mezzo-soprano Lindsey Meekhof enjoys performing a variety of repertoire in the Midwest. A native of Indiana, Lindsey currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin. Recent performances in the 2020-2021 season include, I Wish It So: Marc Blitzstein-The Man and His Music and What’s Past is Prologue: The Unfinished American Conversation with UW Opera. In the 2019 season, Lindsey performed Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with UW Opera and Maddalena in Rigoletto with the South Bend Lyric Opera. Other recent operatic roles include Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, and Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with the South Bend Lyric Opera. Recent concert repertoire has included appearances with the Madison Bach Musicians, Just Bach, and the choral group Kosmologia, with an interdisciplinary premiere of Greg Spear’s The Tower and the Garden Jorge Muñiz’s The Beatitudes. Lindsey earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music from Texas Tech. In addition to performing, Lindsey has taught as an adjunct professor of voice at Saint Mary’s College and Indiana University South Bend. She is studying for her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Wisconsin. In 2021, Lindsey was awarded the Campus-Wide Teaching Assistant Award for Continuity of Instruction. In the upcoming season, Lindsey will perform the role of Edka in Two Remain (Out of Darkness), and Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with UW Opera.

A native of Marquette, Michigan, pianist Aubrie Jacobson earned a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Viterbo University in 2019. Aubrie completed a Master of Music in collaborative piano performance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Mead Witter School of Music under the instruction of Martha Fischer in May 2021. She plans to begin doctoral studies in collaborative piano at UW-Madison in the fall of 2021. Now a teaching assistant for an undergraduate accompanying course at UW-Madison, Aubrie previously worked as a teaching and program assistant with UW-Madison’s opera department and opera scenes program. Aubrie has been an active church musician since 2011 and has enjoyed collaborating with choirs at Viterbo and playing keyboard instruments in orchestral groups for opera productions at Viterbo and UW-Madison. She also served as a student coach/accompanist for the Viterbo Music Theatre Department until 2019. Aubrie conducted research on Finnish music and literature in Finland and presented this research at the 2018 Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Conference in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and various academic research conferences in La Crosse, Wisconsin, after receiving a Viterbo Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. She also received the award for Outstanding Humanities Oral Presentation at the 2018 Seven Rivers Undergraduate Research Symposium for her presentation on this topic. Aubrie recently collaborated on a recording of Love Drunk (Folk Songs, Set No. 16b) for Violin and Piano by composer Reza Vali. Aubrie is thrilled to participate in the 2021 MNDuo Program through Source Song Festival with duo partner and mezzo-soprano, Lindsey Meekhof.

Maggie Ramirez, soprano, is a native of Greenville, SC. She graduated from Furman University with a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance in 2020. There she studied with Professor Lisa Barksdale. She is currently pursuing her Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from University of North Carolina - Greensboro where she studies with Dr. Robert Wells. During her time at Furman, she participated in both the Furman University Singers and Chamber Choir. She served as a Herring Choral Scholar at First Baptist Church Greenville, Manager and Secretary for Furman Singers, and President of the Theta Lambda chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota. Her recent roles include Dorothée in Massenet’s Cendrillon , the Mother in Hansel and Gretel, the ensemble of She Loves Me with Furman Lyric Theatre, and the title role in Bastien und Bastienne. She has also been featured as a soloist with Furman Symphony Orchestra. In the Summer of 2017, Maggie was a studio artist at SongFest in LA. Maggie also participated in Furman’s Music in Italy program in 2018, where she studied at the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy, with acclaimed soprano and baroque specialist, Jill Feldman. In 2019, she participated as a Young Artist at the Festival Lyrique-en-mer in Belle-Île, France. She is excited to be a part of Source Song Festival this summer!

Robert Cushing is pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Georgia in piano performance. At Georgia, Robert studies piano with Dr. David Fung. Robert received his Bachelor of Music in Composition at Furman University where he studied under Dr. Amanda Montgomery and Dr. Mark Kilstofte. An advocate for music by historically underrepresented composers, Robert has devoted the past several semesters extensively researching and performing music by Mélanie “Mel” Bonis. While at Furman, Robert was the accompanist for the Furman Singers, and he was the winner of the 2019 South Carolina Music Teachers Association Young Artists Competition in piano. Additionally, Robert is an active composer, having most recently had his musical In the Silence performed at Furman University. When not playing piano and composing, Robert is a professional genetic genealogist.

Maggie Ramirez soprano | Robert Cushing pianist

MNDuo teamsLindsey Meekhof mezzo-soprano | Aubrie Jacobson pianist

Sarah Rogers is a Boston-based soprano, originally from South Florida. She received her Master of Music in Voice Performance at Boston University this spring and will continue her

studies at the BU Opera Institute, studying with Penelope Bitzas. Recently, she was one of eight winners of the Boston University at Carnegie Hall competition, and one of four winners

of the Boston University Soloist Competition (performing Alban Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder). She was also named a semi-finalist in the Orpheus Vocal Competition student category, and an encouragement award winner in the Florida district of the Metropolitan Opera National

Council Auditions. This summer, she travels to Utah Vocal Arts Academy to perform the role of the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Music from Palm Beach

Atlantic University, where she studied with Marilyn Mims. During her time at PBAU, she was featured as the soprano soloist for multiple oratorio performances, won the 2018 Concerto Competition, in which she performed Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate with the PBA Symphony

Orchestra, and sang as a chorister for Palm Beach Opera. Sarah has been an avid educator of voice and theatre for over six years, and recently stepped into an administrative position with White Snake Projects, an activist opera company, where she combines her passions for opera

and social justice.

Boston-based pianist Regan Russell is driven by a passion for musical collaboration, storytelling and scholarship, and joyful creativity. In 2018, she joined the artistic team of VOICES Boston

children’s choir as staff pianist, and spent summer 2019 on faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute as a vocal coach and pianist for the Young Artists Vocal Program. While

there, Regan joined the Young Artists’ Chorus as Piano I in Carl Orff’s piano and percussion arrangement of Carmina Burana, which was performed at Seiji Ozawa Hall under the baton of Dr. Katie Woolf. Regan has collaborated with Boston University choirs, vocal and instrumental

degree students at BU, and Suzuki string students at the Cambridge Music Consortium, where she also maintains her own private piano studio. She has enjoyed consistent musical

relationships with the BU Opera Institute, MassOpera, and Opera on Tap, and she made her opera coaching debut in 2019 with t.b.d.opera.projects as pianist and musical coach for Jake

Heggie’s Three Decembers. The Boston Musical Intelligencer described her performance as “spectacular, full of subtlety and fire.” Regan holds degrees from Washington State

University, and Boston University, where she continues her studies as a doctoral candidate in collaborative piano.

MNDuo teamsSarah Rogers soprano | Regan Russsell pianist

Devon Russo performs as a soloist and ensemble member in Opera, Contemporary Music, and Early Music. He performed the roles of Sam (Trouble in Tahiti ), Oloferne (La Giuditta),

Papageno (Die Zauberflӧte), the Drunken Poet/Hymen (The Fairy-Queen), and Arbas (Cadmus et Hermione ), the title roles in Gianni Schicchi and Dido and Aeneas. In concert, he has sung

solos in Carmina Burana, Vaughan William’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols, Five Mystical Songs, Requiems of both Faure and Durufle Haydn’s Paukenmesse, Finzi’s In Terra Pax, Bach’s

Weihnachts-Oratorium and Markus-Passion, the title role in Elijah, and the bass solo in Messiah. Devon took part in the Boston Early Music Festival Young Artist Program, the Voces8 Choral

Scholar Programme, Académie Orford Musique, the Seraphic Fire Professional Choral Institute and many others. In 2018 Devon began reading for the Doctorate of Musical Arts at Boston

University. Devon earned a master’s degree in Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music and bachelor's degree from the University of Rhode Island.

Pianist Pierre-Nicolas Colombat has performed in France, Italy, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Based in Boston since 2015, local audiences have heard him in Jordan Hall, the Isabella

Stewart Gardner museum, the Boston Athenaeum, the Lilypad, and the Orpheum Theatre. His playing has been heard on WQED Pittsburgh as well as WBJC Baltimore. In September

2020, Colombat released his first commercial recording, Arpeggione Sonata, with violist Daniel Orsen. While his repertoire is largely centered on Western Art Music, Colombat performs a variety of styles from Ragtime, cabaret, and silent film music, to the avant-garde repertoire

of today. At the invitation of Stephen Drury, Colombat has performed in the Boston Symphony’s Prelude Series concerts. His work with Drury lead Colombat to work directly

with composers such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Timo Andres, and Julian Anderson. Colombat’s performance of Mooring can be found on Andres's website. He is an artist with the Boston Art

Song Society and has worked as staff pianist at Boston University and Boston Conservatory. Outside of performing, Colombat’s main interests lie in finding ways to develop local musical

communities. These efforts include producing a concert review podcast, Eulogy Podcast, writing reviews and essays, teaching piano lessons, work as a vocal coach, and founding the Boston

Community Studio Class. He holds degrees from New England Conservatory and a doctoral degree from Boston University. His dissertation, Music and Modern Power: A Performer’s Tracing of Virtuosity and Systems of Musical Value, was published in 2021. He currently studies art-song

accompaniment with Jan Schultsz in Basel, Switzerland. PierreNicolasColombat.com

Devon Russo bass-baritone | Pierre-Nicolas Colombat pianist

MNsong participantsMolly Hennig, composerMolly Beth Hennig is a recent graduate of vocal performance and music industry at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. During her time at UWO, she studied composition with Dr. Ed Martin and Dr. John Mayrose and participated in a songwriting masterclass with professional solo artist Alarke/Mary Alouette hosted by the New York Singing Teachers Association at the National Opera Center in New York. Her past works include Lucille (2017), a musical theater solo for piano, strings and voice, First Sting (2019) for solo clarinet, Mr. Eel (2020) for intermediate piano, and Abandonment (2020) for SSAATTBB choir and piano. Current projects are a self-produced album and a piece for Pierrot ensemble. Molly participated in UW Oshkosh theater productions The Fantastics (2017), Sweeney Todd (2018), and the UW Music Department Opera The Tender Land. (2018). Her awards include the Provost's Award for the Oshkosh Celebration of Scholarship & Creative Activity (2019, 2020) and the UWO Music Department Concerto Competition (2019) and Honors Recital (2018, 2020). She was awarded the Office of Student Research & Creative Activity Undergraduate Research grant both for her scholarship of Schumann's Frauenliebe und Leben (2019) and Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre (2020). Molly's academic writing on the performance of Frauenliebe und Leben is featured in the 2021 issue of the Oshkosh Scholar. A recipient of the Leland Coon Fellowship for Musicology, she will continue her education at UW Madison in the fall of 2021.

Ryan Homsey, composerRyan Homsey is a versatile American composer, equally at home writing for chamber and choral ensembles, theater, and dance. His music has been performed in the US, Italy, Portugal, France, and the Philippines across a wide range of new music venues from concert halls, churches, and theaters to warehouses, clubs, and galleries. Ryan’s compositions juxtapose tradition and innovation. His training in classical and popular music draws additional inspiration from his past experience as a professional ballet dancer.His works have been performed by JACK Quartet, PUBLIQuartet, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra’s Music to You String Quartet, Quiet City, Ensemble Mise-en, Boston New Music Initiative, violinist Adrianna Mateo, and baritone Kelvin Chan, among others. Commissions and awards have come from the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, NY Children’s Aid Chorus, New Haven Oratorio Choir, and Skidmore College’s Dance Department. Recent performance venues include the Taipei Cultural Center in New York City, the Museum of Natural History, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.As a recipient of American Composers Forum’s Live Music for Dance grant, Ryan composed a multi-movement work entitled Recurrent Stages for The Minnesota Ballet. The short film documenting this critically acclaimed collaboration was nominated for an Upper Midwest Emmy® Award. Ryan is Lecturer in the Conservatory of Music at the State University of New York (SUNY) Purchase. Ryan has studied with Justin Dello Joio, Julia Wolfe, Alice Parker, and Allyson Bellink. His music is published by Water Willow Music and GIA Publications.

Lingbo Ma, composerChinese-born, US-based composer and pianist Lingbo Ma’s compositions have been performed in the US, China, and Europe. In 2018, she was commissioned by the Metropolis Ensemble. Her recent projects included one-act opera In Loving Memory with libretto by Hannah McDermott, Two Gu Cheng Songs which was staged and performed at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam as part of their season opening project FAUST [WORKING TITLE] in September 2020, and music film “What’s next?”, which was composed, directed and shot by the composer herself, played by the award-winning Attacca Quartet and premiered at Juilliard’s Creative Associate Series in November 2020. Her song cycle Cantos of a Narcissistic Roommate was premiered at the Juilliard Liederabend concert in April 2021. As a pianist, aside from traditional piano repertoire, Lingbo regularly performs and records her own works and works by peer composers. She is particularly interested in collaborating with singers. She proposed and promoted the “Vocal Music by Woman Composers” concert and lecture series during her undergraduate years with soprano Julia Cohen. The piano and voice duo has performed in various venues around Boston. Lingbo attained a Bachelor of Music degree with honors from New England Conservatory. She currently pursues her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where she is a Morse Teaching Fellow, an Undergraduate Music Theory Teaching Assistant, and a Gluck Community Performance Fellow. Lingbo also serves as the composition mentor of the New York-based Opportunity Music Project.

Tamika Sterrs-Howard, composerDr. Tamika Sterrs-Howard has been a teacher of music and general education for over sixteen years. She has a bachelor’s degree from Spelman College, a master’s degree from Georgia State University, and a doctorate degree from the University of Georgia. She is a state certified music teacher for grades K-12. She plays the flute, the piano, woodwind instruments, sings, writes music, and writes music research papers. She currently is an adjunct professor in Music Appreciation at Lanier Technical College.

Helena Michelson, composerHelena Michelson is a composer based in the San Francisco-Bay Area. She completed her

undergraduate studies in Music at the University of California, Berkeley and holds a doctorate in composition and theory from the University of California, Davis. Helena studied piano with

Mack McCray at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and, in masterlasses with Richard Goode and Awadagin Pratt. She has studied composition with Olly Wilson, Cindy Cox, Jeffrey

Miller, Pablo Ortiz, and, in masterclasses, with Louis Andriessen, Martin Bresnick, Mario Davidovsky, Eric Chasalow, Philippe Leroux, Bernard Rands, Judith Shatin, and Joel Hoffman.

She has been a fellow at numerous festivals including Composers Conference at Wellesley College, MusicX, June in Buffalo, and Domaine Forget in Québec. In addition, she has been a participating composer in Antico Moderno Ensemble's and the 2017 International Trombone

Festival's (University of Redlands) Composers Workshops, the 2018 Opera From Scratch program (Halifax, Canada), a participating composer at the Bayou 2019 in Monroe, LA, the 2020 and

‘21 Music by Women Festival in Columbus, Mississippi, the 2020 and ‘21 N.E.O. Voice Festival in Los Angeles, and the Really Spicy Opera Arial Institute, Mezzo Soprano edition (2020) and Libretto Workshop (2021). Named one of the finalists in the 2017 HGOco Song of Houston

Composer Call, her recent awards include grants from the American Composers Forum and Composer Assistance Program from New Music USA.

Ben Morris, composerBen Morris is a Colorado-based composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional

stories. He recently studied in Oslo, Norway on a Fulbright Grant, composing a work for big band and video inspired by his Norwegian heritage. His compositions have been performed by

the American Composers Orchestra, NOW Ensemble, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, trombonist Vincent Gardner, unassisted fold, Boulder Altitude Directive (BAD), Imani Winds,

Living Earth Show, and the NDR Big Band, among others.

Ben’s accolades include performing with his quintet at the Newport Jazz Festival, attending the Aspen Music Festival, studying traditional Korean music at the National Gugak Center in Seoul, and receiving the ASCAP Morton Gould and Herb Alpert Awards, two Downbeat Awards, and

commissions from the Washington National Opera, the American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute, Playground Ensemble, and New York Youth Symphony First Music. Ben is also a versatile film and theatre composer, having recently scored two award-winning public

television documentaries, American River and Saving the Great Swamp.

Ben completed his studies at Rice University, University of Miami, and the Norwegian Academy of Music and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the University of Colorado Boulder as an ATLAS

fellow.

Nicholas Slaughter, composerNicholas Slaughter, 21, has been playing the piano for eleven years and writing music for

five. In 2022, he will graduate from University of Redlands (CA) with a Bachelor of Music in Composition and Piano Performance. He has written works for a variety of settings, including solo

piano, piano and voice, string quartet, Pierrot ensemble, and wind ensemble. He is also an avid performer, having performed in the premieres of several of his own works. He is a member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity, and currently the Vice President of the Delta Pi chapter.

MNsong participants

Brian Stark, composerBrian Stark is a composer and saxophonist earning his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University

of Illinois. He was admitted as the inaugural recipient of the Helgesen Fellowship for Excellence in Jazz Studies and teaches woodwind lessons for the Unit One division. He has studied composition

with Paris Rutherford, Steve Wiest, Alan Baylock, Chip McNeill, and Dr. Edwin Childs. His compositions have been recognized by organizations including the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers (ISJAC) Symposium and the Ithaca College Jazz Ensemble

Composition Contest. Brian has had compositions and arrangements commissioned by ensembles around the world and released on recordings by the Shout Section Big Band and the UNT One

and Two O'Clock Lab Bands. In addition to jazz, Brian has been active as a singer-songwriter, releasing art-rock albums

containing text settings of Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound and Edna St. Vincent Millay along with his original lyrics. In 2014 Brian premiered an original cantata for strings commissioned by Covenant Presbyterian Church in Chicago for their Maundy Thursday service. He eagerly

pursues opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and has contributed to multiple musical theater productions and worked with professional flamenco musicians in a series of grant-funded

flamenco-jazz projects. Brian is also an in-demand performer, having performed in professional ensembles led by jazz luminaries including Brad Leali, Adonis Rose, Larry Gray, Dr. Davey Moony,

Bob Ojeda, and Chip McNeill. In his spare time, Brian enjoys performing in the Champaign-Urbana area with his wife in their ensemble, the Fiddle-Sax Fusion Band.

Lydia Brown, pianist Pianist Lydia Brown, who was named collaborative piano chair at The Juilliard School in 2018, has achieved a wide-ranging career in opera, recital, and chamber music. She holds a DMA from Juilliard and earned piano degrees from Eastman School of Music and Yale University. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, she has served regularly as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera since 2005 and at San Francisco Opera since 2011. Her recital appearances include the Salle Cortot, Grace Rainey Rogers auditorium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the Phillips Gallery, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. 2021 marks Lydia Brown's first appearance with Source Song Festival.

Julia Bullock, soprano One of Musical America’s 2021 “Artists of the Year,” American classical singer Julia Bullock is “a musician who delights in making her own rules” (New Yorker). Combining versatile artistry with a probing intellect and commanding stage presence, she has, in her early 30s, already headlined productions and concerts at preeminent arts institutions around the world. Also an innovative curator in high demand, she holds notable positions including opera programming host of the new broadcast channel All Arts, founding core member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), and 2018-19 Artist-in-Residence at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2021 marks Julia Bullock's first appearance with Source Song Festival.

Gala Flagello, composer The music of composer Gala Flagello (b. 1994) “is both flesh and spirit, intensely psychological without sacrificing concrete musical enjoyment” (Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen). She is also the Festival Director and co-founder of the nonprofit contemporary music festival Connecticut Summerfest. Gala currently serves as the Composer in Residence at Promenade Opera Project (Boston, MA) and was recently commissioned by the Albany Symphony. Gala strives to use music as a vehicle for social change, frequently engaging with topics such as environmental advocacy, gender equity, and mental health in her work, and is also co-host the podcast Music & Mindset, a bi-weekly series addressing mental health for musicians in the categories of mind, body, and spirit. Gala Flagello was a MNSong Composer in 2017.

Warren Jones, pianist Warren Jones enjoys a notably eclectic career that has taken him to virtually every corner of the musical world. He performs with some of today’s best-known artists: Stephanie Blythe, Anthony Dean Griffey, Bo Skovhus, Eric Owens, John Relyea, and Richard “Yongjae” O’Neill—and is the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Principal Pianist for the exciting Santa Barbara-based chamber music group Camerata Pacifica. He is a long-time member of the faculty of Manhattan School of Music as well as the Music Academy of the West, and received the “Achievement Award” for 2011 from the Music Teachers National Association of America, their highest honor. In 2010 he was selected as “Collaborative Pianist of the Year” by the publication Musical America. Warren Jones first joined Source Song Festival in 2019.

2021 Guest Artists

Will Liverman, baritone Called “a voice for this historic moment” (The Washington Post), baritone

Will Liverman continues to bring his compelling performances to audiences nationwide. He will star in the Metropolitan Opera’s re-opening production of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones in fall 2021, in addition to reprising his roles in Akhnaten (Horemhab) and The Magic Flute (Papageno)

during the Met’s 21-22 season. In February 2021, Cedille Records released Liverman’s Dreams of a New Day: Songs by Black Composers with pianist

Paul Sanchez. The album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical chart and NPR claimed “velvet-voiced baritone Will Liverman is out to make the classical music canon more inclusive.” 2021 marks Will

Liverman's first appearance with Source Song Festival.

2021 Guest artists

Susanne Mentzer, mezzo-soprano American mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer has established herself not only as an international singer but also as a writer, teacher and arts advocate. She enjoys a significant opera, concert, chamber music and recital career of over thirty-five years appearing on four continents with nearly every great opera house and orchestra. She has been a guest artist at the Metropolitan Opera

in leading roles since 1989. As a recitalist Susanne has appeared on the Great Performers series at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel halls, NY

Festival of Song, and many others, and as a proponent of women composers and new works, she has premiered many works, including two song cycles

by Libby Larsen: Love after 1950 and Sifting Through the Ruins. 2021 marks Susanne Mentzer's first appearance with Source Song Festival.

Arlene Shrut, pianist Collaborative pianist and coach Arlene Shrut is heralded as both a steward

for the artistic traditions of classical music as well as a visionary for its future. Hailed by The New York Times as a “strong and sensitive pianist,” she performs with the elite performers of today while training the musicians of tomorrow. After 27 years as Senior Vocal Coaching Faculty at The Juilliard School, in January 2018 Arlene was appointed to the University of North

Carolina at Greensboro School of Music. She is Master Teacher and Artist-in-Residence of Opera San Miguel and was awarded the inaugural Sorel

Legacy Medallion. As a musical visionary, Arlene has been at the forefront of music's changing landscape to advance training, generate opportunities,

and create innovative solutions to promote classical music. Arlene Shrut has been a member of the artist faculty with Source Song Festival since 2015.

Paul Sperry, tenorHe worked extensively with such masters of art-song interpretation as Pierre Bernac, Jennie Tourel, and Paul Ulanowsky and studied acting

with Stella Adler. This combination of liberal arts education, supreme musicianship and dramatic flair contribute to what The New York Times

called "one of today's leading song recitalists." Sperry's extraordinarily wide repertory includes songs, chamber works and oratorios in fifteen languages, and includes more than fifty works that have been written for him by many

of today's leading composers. Paul Sperry first joined Source Song Festival in 2019.


MNSong Composer Showcase August 6, 2021

7:00p | Accessed Online

A Concert of Music by Composers of the MNSong Program

Libby Larsen & David Evan Thomas, Composer Mentors

PROGRAM

Dear, O (Lily Mitchell) Nicholas SlaughterVictoria Vargas, mezzo-soprano

Lara Bolton, pianist

from Routine Surprise (Maggie Hinchliffe) Ben Morris Morning

Maria Jette, sopranoMary Jo Gothman, pianist

The Snow Man (Wallace Stevens) Brian StarkAlberto de la Paz, tenor

Kathryn Ananda-Owens, pianist

from Three Sonnets from E. E. Cummings (e.e. cummings) Helena Michelsonlet's live suddenly without thinkingand this day it was Spring

KrisAnne Weiss, mezzo-sopranoJames Barnett, pianist

The Gift of Hands (@crow--teeth) Molly HennigTracey Engleman, sopranoMindy Eschedor, pianist

from Cantos of a Narcissistic Roommate (Hannah McDermott) Lingbo MaDinner PartyThe Problem with You

Jacob Christopher, tenorCasey Rafn, pianist

from Five Russian Poems (Anna Akhmatova) Ryan HomseyThe Last Toast (trans: Judith Hemschemeyer) We Do Not Know How to Say Goodbye (trans: Daniel Weisshort)

Jeremy Wong, baritoneAnn DuHamel, pianist

Like what you hear this festival? Want to program these songs yourself? Visit re:Source for perusal scores, recordings, and information on how to

purchase these scores from the composers! www.sourcesongfestival.org/resource

Jacob Christopher, tenor A native of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, Jacob Christopher has delighted audiences with his unique combination of vocal and dramatic skills in performance styles ranging from art song to country western to opera. Jacob began his professional career in Chicago and has since been a featured soloist at renowned halls around the country and overseas, and has premiered numerous art songs through Singers on New Ground in Chicago and Source Song Festival. In 2013, Jacob was a founding member of the Manhattan Chorale under the direction of Dr. Craig Arnold. While in New York he appeared in many musical productions, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York City Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Richard Bjella. Jacob is currently in his sixth season as tenor and Artistic Director with Cantus, an eight-member low-voice ensemble based in Minneapolis that performs extensively around the United States and abroad.

Alberto de la Paz, tenor Born and raised in Guadalajara, Mexico, Alberto de la Paz began exploring his love for singing at a young age. A great part of his early choral experience before coming to the United States consisted of choral arrangements from a diverse variety and styles of Latin American music. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he graduated with high honors with a Degree in Music Education. Upon his audition he was one of the few music students selected to receive the “Talented Student Scholarship.” Upon graduation, he was selected to participate at the Young Artist Program at the Illinois Bach Academy where he presented a concert along other young artists, and appeared as Servus for a performance of Bach’s “St. John’s Passion.” The year after graduation he started working at Leyden High School, where he co-directed five curricular choirs as well as three extracurricular vocal ensembles. He also worked as co-director with two extracurricular Jazz Vocal Ensembles at Oak Park and River Forest High School. When he isn’t busy singing, he enjoys reading a good novel or dancing salsa.

Tracey Engleman, soprano A recipient of the prestigious McKnight Artist Fellowship for Musicians, Ms. Engleman has performed operatic roles with the Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Concert Opera, Skylark Opera, Arbeit Opera, Music by the Lake, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A particularly gifted performer of 20th century and contemporary music, Ms. Engleman has performed chamber music with Zeitgeist, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Tanglewood Music Center and the Boston Symphony and frequently premieres works by living composers. Her CD Lift me into Heaven Slowly featuring song cycles by Libby Larsen was released by Innova Records in 2017. As a proponent of art song and as a frequent recitalist, she has performed in recital at Orchestra Hall, Hope College, at the National Association of Teachers of Singing National Convention, Source Song Festival, and as part of the Schubert Club Courtroom Concert Series. An alumni of the Tanglewood Music Center and the Art Song Festival of Cleveland. Equally passionate about teaching voice, Ms. Engleman is an Associate Professor of Music at St. Olaf College where she teaches voice and vocal pedagogy.

2021 MNSONG Vocalists

Please visit www.sourcesongfestival.org for complete biographies of these Minnesota-based artists

Source Song Festival Artist debut

Source Song Festival Artist since 2014


Victoria Vargas, mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano Victoria Vargas has sung over twenty five roles for the

Minnesota Opera and has performed with Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Chautauqua Opera, Sarasota Opera, Ash Lawn Highland Festival and others.

Her concert credits include performing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (NY), Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (MN), Chautauqua

Symphony, the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, La Jolla Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra. Other awards/honors include placing in the Schubert Club competition, being

chosen as a finalist in the Irene Dallas Competition hosted by Opera San Jose, and recently she was chosen as a grant recipient for the Music in Action grant with the Wagner Society of the Upper Midwest. Mrs. Vargas has served

on faculty at the MacPhail Center for Music and Carleton College. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Minnesota.

2021 MNSONG Vocalists

KrisAnne Weiss, mezzo-soprano KrisAnne Weiss (she/her) is a Minneapolis-based mezzo-soprano and voice

teacher. She enjoys an eclectic performing career of music-theater and concert work, and is an accomplished recitalist, chamber musician, and narrator. She has performed with opera and concert organizations throughout the

midwest, has premiered and workshopped countless new compositions, has been a performer in Nautilus Music-Theater's Composer-Librettist Studio,

and has frequently been a featured artist at Source Song Festival. KrisAnne is currently on the voice faculty at Carleton College. She has also been a private

voice teacher for nearly 20 years, working with students of all ages, genders, abilities, and musical aspirations. Besides performing and teaching, KrisAnne

is the host and facilitator of An Opera Theatre’s Voice Labs, a free artistic development and community building resource for singers working in any genre

and at any point in their career.

Jeremy Wong, baritone Baritone Jeremy M. Wong is steadily building a name for himself as a

versatile singer on both the international and U.S. stages with focuses in early music, oratorio, art song, and ensemble singing. Having recently joined

the roster of the professional tenor/bass ensemble Cantus, he is thrilled to find his new home in Minneapolis, relocating from Honolulu, Hawaii,

where he was born and raised. Recent seasons have seen him originating solo quartets in the premiere of Michael-Thomas Foumai’s Raise Hawaiki with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra and O’ahu Choral Society, singing

baritone solos in the full premiere of Herb Mahelona’s Kinohi, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under the baton of JoAnn Falletta. He is an

active recitalist with interests in Lieder, as well as Japanese and American Art Song. He holds degrees from UH Mānoa, and DePauw University.

Maria Jette, soprano Soprano Maria Jette’s wide-ranging career has encompassed everything from

early Baroque opera to world premieres, in the United States and abroad. Her orchestral resumé includes The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston, Kansas City, San Luis

Obispo, and operatic engagements include Berkshires Opera, Roanoke Opera, Sacramento Opera, and the sadly defunct Ex Machina Antique Music

Theatre in her home base of Minneapolis-St. Paul. There, she’s often heard withVocalEssence (led by conductor Philip Brunelle), Chamber Music Society

of Minnesota, Minnesota Sinfonia The Schubert Club and Lyra Baroque Orchestra. An ecumenical recitalist, her programs range from songs of Grieg

or Fauré through Edwardian parlor music and Latin American chamber music, liberally interspersed with Tin Pan Alley and the Great American Songbook.





2021 MNSONG Pianists

Kathryn Ananda-Owens, pianist Winner of first prize in the 1993 Neale-Silva Young Artists Competition, pianist Kathryn Ananda-Owens enjoys an active career as performer, teacher, and scholar. A laureate of the American Pianists Association Biennial Fellowship Competition, she made her Asian debut in 1997 under the auspices of the government of Macao and her European debut the same year in Vienna. She has performed as a soloist with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, toured internationally as piano soloist with the St. Olaf Orchestra and has appeared at Lincoln Center. A founding member of the New Horizons Chamber Ensemble, Ms. Ananda-Owens also performed for several years as pianist of the Melius Trio. She received degrees from Oberlin College, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with Julian Martin. Her concerts have been broadcast on radio and television on three continents and recorded on the MSR, Centaur, Limestone, St. Olaf Records, and Westmark labels. Dr. Ananda-Owens serves on the board of directors of the Performing Arts Medicine Association.

Lara Bolton, pianist Lara Bolton is a pianist, vocal coach, conductor, and arranger. Her work spans many different genres, including classical, rock, jazz, and musical theater. In addition to maintaining an active concert and recording career, she serves on the faculty at the University of Minnesota as a vocal coach. She has created an innovative aria/soul/jazz synthesis project called Voxspex, which has been produced in Minneapolis and New York and will be remounted in 2021. Ms. Bolton has worked for many opera companies including San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, San Diego Opera, Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, the Jungle and Guthrie theaters, and Theater Latté Da. She was Head of Music for Mill City Summer Opera and will conduct An Opera Theatre’s upcoming production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. She also helped develop a Young Artist Program for Opera Santa Barbara. In addition to having been a pianist for the Merola Opera Program, she has also worked at the Music Academy of the West, Brevard Music Festival, and Interlochen Arts Camp. As an alumna of Interlochen Arts Academy, she received degrees in Music Theory from the University of Michigan and Collaborative Piano from the University of Maryland-College Park.

Ann DuHamel, pianist Pianist Ann DuHamel’s performances have been praised as poetic and “… a delight for the ears and the soul” (Encuentro Universitario Internacional de Saxofón, Mexico City). Hailed as a “forward thinking classical pianist” (Midwest Record) for her debut album Rückblick: New Piano Music Inspired by Brahms (Furious Artisans, 2020). Ann has performed and presented in 16 countries, and has performed chamber music with members of the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. For Fall 2021, Ann has received an Institute for Advanced Studies residential fellowship at the University of Minnesota for her project “Prayers for a Feverish Planet,” which will feature new piano works about climate change. Ann serves as Associate Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota–Morris. More at: www.annduhamel.com.

Please visit www.sourcesongfestival.org for complete biographies of these Minnesota-based artists




2021 MNSONG Pianists

Mindy Eschedor, pianist Mindy Eschedor is a versatile Twin Cities collaborative pianist whose

engagements include vocal coaching/accompanying, chamber music, and theater work. She has served as Music Director and rehearsal/orchestra

pianist for such companies as the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Nautilus Music-Theater, Guthrie Theater, Jungle Theater, and Ordway Center for the

Performing Arts. As part of Nautilus’ Rough Cuts series, Mindy has music directed many readings of new works and works-in-progress over the past 20 years. Mindy is Staff Accompanist at Macalester College and Choral/Staff Accompanist at the University of St. Thomas, and was Principal Staff

Accompanist at MacPhail Center for Music from 1999-2010. Mindy holds a Master of Music degree in Accompanying and Coaching from the University

of Minnesota, where she studied with Margo Garrett and Karl Paulnack. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Piano Performance from Central Michigan

University, in her home state of Michigan.

Mary Jo Gothman, pianistPianist Mary Jo Gothmann enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician,

soloist, opera coach and organist. Her recent chamber music engagements have included performances with the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Bakken Trio, Hill House Chamber Players, Music at Trinity, Colonial Chamber Music

Series, Lakes Area Music Festival, and Joya! Mary Jo performs frequently with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra; has

appeared with EOS Orchestra in New York City and as piano soloist with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the St. Paul Civic Orchestra. She has worked for some of the most prestigious opera companies in the United

States including the Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Minnesota Opera and has performed recitals with singers from the Metropolitan Opera as well as with instrumentalists from major orchestras. Mary Jo is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program, University of

Minnesota, New England Conservatory and St. Olaf College.

Casey Rafn, pianistCasey Rafn is active as a freelance pianist and musical director in the country

and abroad. As a collaborative pianist, in the past year, he has performed at venues in Montreal, Mexico, New York, Florida, Arizona, and across the

Midwest, and can often be found in concert with members of the Minnesota Orchestra or the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a solo pianist, he

has taken top prizes at the International Liszt-Garrison competition in Baltimore, as well as state competitions in Minnesota and Iowa. He is also a

member of the saxophone-piano trio {Tres}. Based in Minneapolis, he enjoys coffee, cinema, and cats.


James Barnett, pianistA leading producer of Twin Cities recital programming, James Barnett is dedicated to bringing new and forgotten music to the next generation of

audiences. He has been a featured pianist with many companies and academic institutions across the country, including the Des Moines Metro Opera ,

Minnesota Opera, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Lakes Area Music Festival, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, The University of Minnesota, Grand Valley State

University, Up North Vocal Institute, and OperaNEO. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Minnesota.




EIGHTH SEASON - SOURCE SONG FESTIVAL

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