Artist Bios
Baroque for the Mass
Ursuline Composers of the 17th Century
Motets and anthem
Andrea Folan is rapidly gaining a reputation as a versatile and exciting young soprano, in demand not only as a solo recitalist and chamber musician, but also in oratorio and opera performances and with original instrument orchestras and contemporary ensembles.She is emerging as a leading specialist in the German Lied repertoire, and has appeared regularly both in the United States and abroad with acclaimed fortepianists such as Malcolm Bilson. With extensive training and experience in performance practice, Andrea has impressive early music credentials. In addition to her work with fortepiano, she has interpreted works from Hildegard von Bingen's chants to English lute songs and Landini to Handel. She performs with many Bach Festivals and with period ensembles and orchestras such as The Publick Musick, the Folger Consort, Apollo's Fire, and the Genesee Baroque Players, and has appeared in concert at colleges throughout the northeastern United States.
Recent performances include the Festival Flanders in Brugge, Belgium, broadcast live on Belgian radio; the Bard Music Festival; her Lincoln Center debut in New York City's Tully Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra in Haydn's oratorio, Il Ritorno di Tobias; and a performance at Jordan Hall in Boston. Andrea teaches voice at Cornell University. Her solo discography includes "The Medieval Lady" (LE 340), also on the Leonarda label, where she appears performing with various instrumental accompaniments; a recording of Haydn songs for Bridge Records; and Mendelssohn and Zelter songs for the Belgian label Eufoda.A resident of the Rochester, New York area, Ms. Folan is a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and spent her childhood in Germany. She is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and College and did graduate work in performance practice at the Mannes College of Music. She has had fellowships to Aston Magna and the Bach Aria Institute, and attended Oberlin's Baroque Performance Institute. [Pronunciation: "Andrea Folan" has accents on first syllables.]
Roya Bauman, alto, has sung with and been a soloist with groups such as The Publick Musick, Rochester Bach Festival Chorus, Washington Bach Consort, Woodley Ensemble, and the Choral Arts Society of Washington, DC. She participated in the 1990 Carnegie Hall Centennial Chorus under the direction of Robert Shaw, and was a soloist at the 1992 Baha'i World Congress, held in New York City. An alto soloist and section leader at the Downtown United Presbyterian Church in Rochester, she studies voice at the Eastman School of Music. Roya has a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from George Washington University in Washington, and works for a management consulting firm. She is nearing completion of a CD of songs featuring prayers and writings from the Baha'i Faith.
Kirk Dougherty, tenor, is a graduate student at the Eastman School of Music pursuing the Master's degree. Originally from Tarrytown, New York, Kirk received his Bachelor of Music in Performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a soloist, he has performed with groups such as the UNC Symphony Orchestra, UNC's baroque orchestra Ensemble Courant, The Publick Musick, and the Eastman School's Collegium Musicum. Kirk has performed roles for Eastman Opera Theatre and North Carolina's Triangle Opera Theatre based in the Raleigh-Durham area.
The St. Ursula Ensemble is the name chosen for the group that recorded the motets and anthem. All the musicians have worked together in the Rochester-based group, The Publick Musick, except the violinist from Toronto.
Rob Haskins, continuo, an instructor in Music History at the Eastman School of Music, is finishing his Ph.D. in Musicology. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in harpsichord from Eastman, where he studied with Arthur Haas. Other teachers include Lillian Freundlich and George Imbragulio (piano) and Shirley Mathews and Christopher Kite (harpsichord). Rob has taught at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Rochester, and is also a composer and a critic for The American Record Guide.
British violinist Brian Brooks, equally accomplished as performer and teacher of both modern and baroque violins, holds an impressive record of concerts and recordings as soloist and with leading ensembles and orchestras. He has worked with such prestigious British period-instrument orchestras as the English Baroque Soloists, London Classical Players, and the English Concert. A former student at London's Royal Academy of Music, he later studied with the legendary Polish violinist Szymon Goldberg. Brian has a bachelor's degree with honors from Cambridge University, where he held a scholarship in mathematics, and is writing his doctoral dissertation in musicology at Cornell. He is principal violinist of the The Publick Musick, whose orchestral concerts he directs and with whom he is often a featured soloist.
Violinist Deborah Howell, baroque and classical music specialist, is a member of some of the leading North American Early Music ensembles, notably the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra of San Francisco; the Apollo Ensemble of Ithaca, New York; and Toronto's Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. She has recorded for Sony, CBC, Harmonia Mundi, and Dorian, and has frequently toured Europe and the Americas. She also teaches violin in Toronto where she has pursued studies of the Suzuki philosophy of education and pedagogy.
Baroque Mass
Some bios have been updated since 1982 performance.
Schola Cantorum, the 32-member choir of the University of Arkansas was founded in 1957. Competing against 28 choirs from thirteen countries in the early 1960's, the Schola Cantorum became the first American choir ever to win first prize in the International Polyphonic Competition, "Guido d'Arezzo" in Arezzo, Italy. Upon their return to the U.S., the choir was invited by President Kennedy to appear at the White House.In addition to many appearances throughout the United States, the Schola Cantorum has presented concerts in France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, Yugoslavia, Italy, and Spain. Throughout its history the organization has appeared before national, regional, and statewide music conventions and on national and statewide television while maintaining an extensive performance schedule at home. The choir sang the American premiere of Messa Prima by Isabella Leonarda in 1982 and recorded the work that year.
Singers in this recording of the Mass: Soprano: Cathy Kilgore (soloist), Bonnie Kesner, Julie Hendrix, Amanda Harrison, Julie Gable, Laura Gaston, Lori Mauldin. Alto: Marquetta McChristian, (soloist), Karen Blair, Laura Hankins, Amy Marr, Diana Culbreth, Marcey Schaller, Chelcy Daniel. Tenor: Rager Moore (soloist), Jeff Thomas, Bryan Thomas, Mike Simpson, Maurice Cluck, Martin Walters, Wayne Glass. Bass: Sam Pitts (soloist), Jeff Gaddy, Edward Campbell, Thomas Ellis, Ronald Dooms, Robert Maracle, Brad Jackson, Mark Tolleson.
Conductor Jack Groh taught voice, conducting, and Choral History and Literature, and was Director of Choral Services and Coordinator of Vocal Studies at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville until his retirement in 1995. For 20 years he conducted the distinguished choral ensemble, the Schola Cantorum. In addition to its many appearances throughout the U.S., the group appeared in France, Germany, Switzerland, England, and Italy under his direction. Dr. Groh holds degrees from Wichita State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Catherine Kilgore, soprano soloist, earned the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in vocal performance from the University of Arkansas. She lives in northwest Arkansas where she works and manages her rental houses. She is choir director and pianist for a Methodist church and continues to study singing occasionally. She is also taking classes again at the university, studying computer information systems.
Marquetta McChristian, alto soloist: No bio is available.
Rager H. Moore, tenor soloist, is now at Fort Hays State College in Hays, Kansas, where he teaches voice and is Assistant Professor of Choral Activities and director of the opera, musicals, and the Hays Community Choir. Dr. Moore does clinics, festivals, and Master Classes throughout the Midwest. He is on the executive board of ACDA (American Choral Directors Association), is Choral Chairman of the Northwest District of KMEA (Kansas Music Educators Association), and is an active member of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing). He holds degrees from the University of Arkansas and Conservatory of Music, University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Samuel Pitts, bass soloist, has sung professionally with the Los Angeles Opera, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has recorded at Capitol Records, and was a soloist with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and the Burbank Chorale. Sam graduated in 1982 from the University of Arkansas, and is currently a tennis addict in Los Angeles.
Barbara Garvey Jackson, second violin, music editor and publisher, prepared the score and parts of Leonarda's Messa Prima from individual parts. After Leonarda Record's 1982 LP release of the Mass, she began to receive requests for performance parts, suggesting that there would be a demand for the publication not only of this work, but also other music by women composers of the past. She went on to establish ClarNan Editions, and has been publishing historic music by women composers since 1984. The company is named for Clara Schumann, Nannerl Mozart, and Nannette Stein Streicher (who built Beethoven's favorite pianos), since among them they pursued most of the principal musical occupations performance, composition, instrument-building, editing, and teaching. They seemed to be appropriate patron saints for this publishing venture.
Dr. Jackson studied at the University of Illinois (B.M.), Eastman School of Music (M.M.), and Stanford University (Ph.D.). She taught music in the Los Angeles public schools, at Arkansas Technological University in Russellville, and for 32 years at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where she is now Professor Emerita. Her research on women composers has led to journal articles on Florence Price and Camilla de Rossi; entries for anthologies of music by women; the chapter on 17th and 18th century women in music for Women in Music: A History; and entries on women composers in The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Notable American Women, New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, and the upcoming new edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (c. 1998). She co-authored a music theory text, two books on the minnesingers, and a string bowing dictionary. Her major reference work on the locations of sources of music by historic women composers, Say Can You Deny Me; A guide to Surviving Music by Women from the 16th through the 18th Centuries, was published by the University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville, 1994.
Richard Fuchs, first violin, currently Professor of Music at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, is a member of the Fuchs Duo, which has performed in Japan, Taiwan, and the USA. He performs in recitals on major university campuses and is frequently invited to perform at conventions such as the International Contemporary Music Festival in Buenos Aires. A member of UNC's Colorado Arts resident quartet, he received his Masters of Music degree from the University of Illinois. Mr. Fuchs has served as president of the Colorado Chapter of the American String Teachers Association and is a frequent conductor of all-state orchestras.
Stephen Gates, cello, is Professor of Music and Department Chairman at the University of Arkansas. A graduate of Harvard College with a major in psychology, he played with the Boston Opera, Boston Philharmonia, and the Boston Pops. Dr. Gates received the Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music and the Doctorate from the University of Texas. He performs as a guest artist with the Music Festival of Arkansas and is a member of the Ozark Chamber Players.
Jane Heinrichs, organ, studied with Bela Siki, a noted Hungarian recording artist, and received the Masters in Piano Performance from the University of Cincinnati - Conservatory of Music. She married a Taiwanese businessman, Woolas Hsieh, and lived in San Francisco for several years where she taught privately and worked in the arts administration field. She was the Development Coordinator for the San Francisco Summer Festival of Music in Golden Gate Park. The Hsiehs and their two daughters moved to Hong Kong where Jane teaches privately and performs recitals. She has been a soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and has taught on the faculty of the Hong Kong International Institute of Music. was founded in 1982 as a lute duet specializing in the music of Shakespeare's time. The ensemble now performs various repertoires.
