BACH 2 BACH February 5, 2008
OPERAPALOOZA! June 2007



MARGY BREDEMANN

Margy Bredemann is a versatile performer in a variety of musical media. Her rich soprano voice has been heard in musical theater, as a madrigal singer at Walt Disney World in Florida, in the recording studio, on tour throughout Europe and the United States, and as a soloist with regional concert choruses and symphonic groups.

Known for her work as an oratorio artist, she has been the soprano soloist in 17 major works with orchestra, including the Requiems of Mozart, Verdi, and Brahms, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, and with the Memphis Symphony, Haydn’s Creation. Of her performance in the Bernstein Jeremiah Symphony #1 with the Nashville Symphony at TPAC, it was written, “Bredemann’s brilliant voice filled Jackson Hall to the rafters, soaring over the orchestra’s massive sounds with ease” (Nashville Banner).

Ms. Bredemann has also performed Tchaikovsky and Verdi opera arias with the Nashville Symphony in their Cheekwood Concert Series and at the Italian Street Fair, and Vaughn Williams’ Serenade to Music with the NSO in their Stained Glass Concert series. In Indiana, she sang Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Indianapolis Symphony and Symphony Chorus.

As part of a classical recording group, Ms. Bredemann has performed on released recordings for Sparrow, Word, Lifeway, and Atlantic Records. She also has performed on numerous “new sacred music” recordings for the United Methodist Publishing House, and most recently, she was the contractor and one of the singers on a new release of classical music composed for movie and television use.

A scholarship winner to the Indiana University School of Music, she was an opera major and studied with Roger Havranek and Margaret Harshaw. There, she performed as a tour soloist with the Singing Hoosiers, and with the Indiana University Opera Theater.

Bach 2 Bach February 5, 2008

SHELBY STRICKLAND

Shelby B. Strickland arrived in Nashville in 1999, having received her bachelor's degree in music from Florida International University in Miami, FL and her master's degree in music from The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL. Her warm, rich voice has kept her busy since her arrival to Nashville. In addition to her solo performances with the Nashville Symphony, Paducah Symphony and various community groups, Shelby has also been an active vocal instructor, church musician and studio session singer. In addition to her performing engagements, Shelby is able to share her passion arts education through her position as the Director of Education and Community Engagement with the Nashville Symphony.

Bach 2 Bach February 5, 2008

GREG THOMAS

Gregory Thomas, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, has appeared on stage in over 20 operatic roles. An oratorio specialist, Greg has been soloist in broadcast productions of Bach's B minor Mass, Handel's Solomon, and Mozart's Requiem Mass. Mr. Thomas has sung leading roles with Opera Birmingham, Tennessee Opera Theatre, South Georgia Opera, Birmingham Summerfest and Auburn Opera Theatre. He has also appeared as soloist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Columbus (Georgia) Civic Choral, and the Orlando Messiah Choral Society.

Bach 2 Bach February 5, 2008
OPERAPALOOZA! June 2007

MILTON WILLIAMS

Milton Williams has performed internationally as a vocalist. He has appeared in solo and orchestral performances in Western, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Canada, Bermuda, and throughout the United States. He has narrated over a dozen works, including Aaron Copland’s "Lincoln Portrait," Virgil Thompson’s “The River,” and Joseph Schwantner’s "New Morning for the World." Mr. Williams’ private instructors and coaches included Denis de Coteau, Harold Farberman, Donald Stenberg, Julius Huehn, Arthur Kraft, Loren Rush, Robert Erickson, Darius Milhaud, Adolf Baller, and William L. Dawson. His combined repertoire also includes thirty-five operas, operettas and musicals.

Milton Williams has served as music director and conductor for orchestral, choral, and operatic ensembles. He was the associate conductor for the production of Leonard Bernstein’s theater piece "Mass," at the Vatican in Rome, Italy, for Pope John Paul II’s Jubilee 2000 celebrations. His list of prior conducting assignments includes the Banff Festival of Fine Arts Professional Orchestra, the University of California at Berkeley (Director and Principal Conductor of the Student Division of Vocal Music), the UC Berkeley Faculty Men’s Chorus (the Monks) the Solisti Singers, and the Solisti Theater Arts Orchestra. In Canada, he served as Head of the Banff Centre’s School of Fine Arts Choral Division. He was a guest conductor for other orchestral ensembles including the San Francisco Pops Orchestra. Williams has also been an independent producer in the San Francisco Bay Area.

OLIVIA WARD

Mezzo Soprano, Olivia Ward, is increasingly attracting the attention of the American regional opera and orchestra circuit.  Early in 2007, she appeared as Gertrude in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette with the Nashville Opera where this December she sang in Amal and the Night Visitors as the Mother.  In the fall of 2006, Ms. Ward appeared as Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro at Chattanooga Opera & Symphony.
 
Recent engagements include Martha in Faust with Nashville Opera and made she her debut with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra as alto soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  She also performed Orlofsky in Der Fledermaus with Nevada Opera Theater,  the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Virginia Symphony, Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Nashville Opera, and the roles of Mother, Sandman and Witch in Hansel und Gretel with the Mobile Opera.
               
She was invited to the Ashlawn Highlands Summer Festival to perform the role of Second Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, after joining the Nashville Opera's Mary Ragland Young Artist Program where she performed Flora in Verdi’s La Traviata.  As a member of the Opera Theater program she performed the role of Florence Pike in Britten's Albert Herring and the Witch in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel.  Ms. Ward was  a Young Artist at Chautauqua Opera Festival where she covered the role of Aunt March in Mark Adamo’s Little Women. In December 2005 she will perform a Holiday concert at the Donnell Public Library in NYC.
 
Mezzo Soprano Olivia Ward is a native of Houston, Texas.  She has a Masters in Voice Performance and a Masters in Opera Performance from New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, and  received her BM in Voice Performance from the University of Alabama.

OPERAPALOOZA! June 2007

H . STEPHEN SMITH

After completing a B.A. in Political Science from Davidson College, in his home state of North Carolina, Stephen Smith studied voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, completing a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance and Literature before continuing on at Eastman to receive a Master of Music Degree and a Performer’s Certificate in Opera.

Smith has performed leading roles on numerous opera stages with artists such as Renée Fleming, June Anderson, Elisabeth Söderstrom, Hillevi Martinpelto, Katarina Dalayman, and Tom Krause, to name a few, and while residing in Stockholm, Sweden from 1989-98, studied privately with Nicolai Gedda.

Smith made his tenor debut with the Pittsburgh Opera Theater, singing the role of Pinkerton in Puccini’s MADAMA BUTTERFLY.  Over the past several years he has performed numerous leading tenor roles with opera houses in Scandinavia, as well as in Switzerland, Poland, Britain, and Portugal.  His operatic work in America includes his performing with opera companies in New Orleans, San Francisco, Houston, Mobile, Tulsa, Sacramento, Austin, Augusta, Jacksonville, Sarasota, Chattanooga, Norfolk, Shreveport, Columbus, Boston, Nashville, and New York.

Smith has recorded with Musica Sveciae and Caprice Records, including the roles of Salvatorre in Franz Berwald’s ESTRELLA DE SORIA, Atis in Joseph Martin Kraus’ PROSERPIN, and Cardinal Rohan in Daniel Börtz’s MARIE ANTOINETTE. He also appeared as the male lead, Mats, in a full-length, feature film adaptation of Ture Rangström’s opera, KRONBRUDEN, which has been viewed by television audiences throughout Scandinavia, Australia, and Germany.

Smith joined the music faculty at Middle Tennessee State University in August of 1998, where he serves as Associate Professor of Voice.

VIVALDI & BEETHOVEN January 2007

JULIE COX

Julie Cox, a native of Nashville, has been a teaching artist since 2001. Julie made her Off-Broadway debut in Romberg’s New Moon as part of the City Center’s Encores and was thrilled to be part of the acclaimed cast recording released in  2004. She has performed with regional companies such as Nashville Symphony, Nashville Opera, Tennessee Repertory Theater, Nashville Chamber Orchestra, Cumberland County Playhouse, Natchez Opera Festival, Ash Lawn-Highland Summer Festival, and Opera Colorado. Locally, she will be performing in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortileges with Nashville Opera at the new symphony hall in December 2006 and will also be featured in a new recording of the opera with the Nashville Symphony on the Naxos label.

Julie received her Bachelor of Music from Belmont University, where she graduated cum laude with a degree in Vocal Performance. She has won much acclaim regionally and nationally as a NATS competition winner, Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition Finalist, Orpheus Competition semi-finalist, and recipient of the Helen Nepp Socolofsky Memorial and Frances Westbrook Shafter Vocal Awards.  

In addition to her stage credits, Ms. Cox is a songwriter, has over seventeen years of singing experience in the recording studio, and has had the opportunity to work with artists such as Marie Osmond, Sandi Patti, and Vince Gill. As a product of two parents who were both Metro teachers, Julie feels like she is giving back to her roots. She enjoys this work and looks forward to exploring it with you!

VIVALDI & BEETHOVEN January 2007

THOMAS STUDEBAKER

Thomas Studebaker is an Adjunct Instructor of Music (voice) at Belmont University School of Music. He began teaching in the School of Music in Fall 2004. Mr. Studebaker earned a Master of Music in Opera from Curtis Institute of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Voice from Illinois State University. He also completed further studies at the Chautauqua Vocal School and the Blossom Festival School.

Mr. Studebaker had his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1996 and since then he has had sixty-five performances beginning with Wozzeck in 1996 to his most recent The Great Gatsby in 2002. He has also held countless other roles at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Teatro Municipal in Chili, L'Opera de Montreal, Sarasota Opera Association, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Lake George Opera Festival, and the Peoria Civic Opera. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Westdeutscher Rundfunks Orchester, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Breckenridge Music Institute Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and the Nagoya Philharmonic.

VIVALDI & BEETHOVEN January 2007

Keith Moore

Dr. Keith Moore is a Professor of Music and the Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Belmont. In his 22 years at Belmont he has taught undergraduate and/or graduate level courses in voice, German, Italian, French and English diction, opera, musical theater, music appreciation, oratorio chorus, chapel choir, men's chorus, choral conducting and opera literature.

Dr. Moore earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music from the University of Louisville, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Jacksonville State University. Additional study at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, Indiana University and Oberlin College augment a performing career that has included solo work at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and opera performances with the Kentucky Opera. Prior to Belmont, Dr. Moore was on the faculty at Tennessee Tech University and University of Cincinnati. A Metropolitan Opera Regional Finalist in 1981 and 1982, he has been active in Nashville as a soloist with Belmont Camerata Musicale, Nashville Opera Association and Tennessee Opera Theater. Dr. Moore's four European stays have included opera performances in Austrian towns, auditioning for a German agent, solo performances at the Notre Dame Cathedral, and teaching a masterclass to German singers learning American vocal music. As a lyric baritone, he was recently featured in the title role of Mendelssohn's oratorio ELIJAH and as Schicchi in Puccini's GIANNI SCHICCHI. His credits include numerous other opera performances and solo appearances, and he is an active recording session artist, having sung back-up on recordings with Amy Grant, Larnell Harris, Steve Green, Michael Crawford, and Sandy Patti.

As an active church musician, Dr. Moore currently conducts the Sanctuary Chorale at First Presbyterian Church. In the past, he has served in many capacities at Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.

OPERAPALOOZA! June 2007

WILMA JENSEN

Wilma Jensen has been heralded as one of the most outstanding recitalists, church musicians and teachers of our age.   As Professor of Organ at Indiana University, Oklahoma City University,  Scarritt Graduate School and the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt, she has shaped a generation of outstanding organists, teachers and church musicians.  Her own extensive concert career has taken her throughout the U.S. and around the world, including tours of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, West Germany, France, Poland and England. 

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, she was a pupil of Catharine Crozier and Harold Gleason. Jensen is the choirmaster/organist    Emerita at St. George's Episcopal Church in Nashville, Tenn., where she served as Choirmaster/Organist for nineteen years. She has made critically acclaimed recordings, both as an organ soloist and in the role of conductor with the St. George’s Choir. Wilma Jensen worked on building the choir to a musical level which included an invitation to sing for the National Convention of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and an extended tour in Europe.

As Dean-Elect of the Nashville Chapter of the American Guild of Organists for the 2005-2006 year Wilma Jensen and her committee planned the programs for 2006-2007. She is now Dean of the AGO for 2006-2007.

“A huge talent in a modest and petite package, Wilma Jensen consistently impresses with the thoroughness of her preparation, the depth of her understanding, and the passion of her delivery. Whether as teacher, organist or conductor, she is the embodiment of music.”

-Michael Barone
Wilma Jensen “an interpretation extremely musical and brilliant…a visionary organist.”

- Dijon, France
“Wilma Jensen is one of the finest choral clinicians one can hire for a church choir workshop…Her work with diction, particularly the English and Latin languages, is objective and specific and gives the choristers tools to improve intonation and resonant, unified vowel formation. Being a superb music educator, her approach is reasoned, thoughtful and non-threatening. Ms. Jensen’s rehearsal style is energetic and her enthusiasm for the music is infectious…Her knowledge of serious sacred repertoire is vast and her ability to discuss and mold music of all periods is remarkable…I highly recommend Ms. Jensen to work with professional, semi-professional and amateur choirs!”
-Dr. Brady Knapp