Philharmonie Austin & Ensemble VIII

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem

Jennifer Paulino, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto
Kyle Stegall, tenor
Edward Vogel, bass

Ensemble VIII; Donald Meineke, artistic director
Philharmonie Austin; Mark Dupere, conductor

{$30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}

Ensemble VIII comprises some of the nation’s most accomplished and outstanding early musicians. Under the direction of artistic director Donald Meineke, these artists bring to the extremely challenging music of the Baroque and Renaissance superior technical abilities and experience in performing stunning and exacting repertoire.

Ensemble VIII’s ambition is to make the vast canon of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music accessible and fresh to Austin and Central Texas audiences. The ensemble offers a rare opportunity to hear superb specialists in early music perform at the highest degree of technical precision and dramatic intensity.

Philharmonie Austin is Austin's premier period instrument orchestra.

In 2002, Redeemer Presbyterian Church began a ten-year collaboration with First Presbyterian Church in its annual St. Cecilia Music Festival. Each year, the two churches contracted period instrument players for three separate concert programs. In 2010, Redeemer moved its part in the festival to the church’s current East Austin location on Alexander Avenue. At that time, the orchestra not only began to accompany the Redeemer Choir but also began its own orchestral concerts under the direction of conductor Mark Dupere. The name Musica Redemptor Orchestra was first adopted and has recently been changed to Philharmonie Austin, and has since played annual orchestra concerts featuring repertoire of the baroque and classical periods. The development of the orchestra more recently expanded in size for the performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, a work requiring an orchestra of 45 players.

Donald Meineke, Artistic Director

Hailed as a “fresh voice on New York’s musical scene” (The New Yorker), Donald Meineke is an organist, conductor, tenor, and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble VIII. He maintains an active career as a recitalist, lecturer, conductor, and singer performing with local, national, and international ensembles.

Meineke serves as the Director of Music and organist for the historic Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal) on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, known fondly as the birthplace of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” composed as a collaboration between the priest and organist in 1868. He has served as Cantor of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City where he led the twice Grammy®-nominated Bach Choir and Players in the internationally renowned Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity series. His Bach Choir’s recording of Samuel Capricornus’ Jubilus Bernhardi, in collaboration with string ensemble ACRONYM, received critical acclaim and was on Colorado Public Radio’s December 2017 “Top 5 Must Have New Recordings” list. His recordings of Capricornus and Bach Vespers have been featured on classical music stations nationally and internationally, including KMFA’s Ancient Voices and WXXI’s With Heart and Voice, and he has appeared as a guest artist on Columbia University-WKCR’s Bachfest. 

He was the Co-Founder and Director of the 2014 Early Music Festival: NYC which featured over thirty concerts by dozens of local and national ensembles to critical acclaim. Meineke served as a choirmaster for Maestro Helmuth Rilling for many years, preparing choirs across Europe and South America for performances of the major choral and orchestral works by Bach, Mozart, and others.

Mark Dupere, conductor

Mark Dupere is Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University, where he is the Director of Orchestral Studies. He currently conducts the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonie Austin, as well as making guest appearances with Regional and National Honor Youth Orchestras. As a cellist, Mark performed throughout Europe with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Haagsche Hofmuzieck, Anima Eterna Brugge and as an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. Mark was an “Emerging Artist” at the Victoria Bach Festival, performed in the Leipzig Bach Competition, and was recently named a national finalist in the American Prize in Conducting. Mark holds degrees in Cello from the University of Texas at Austin, Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, The Netherlands and a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University.

Jennifer Paulino, soprano

San Francisco Bay Area soprano Jennifer Paulino’s voice has been praised as “graceful yet powerful” and “sensitive and clear” by San Francisco Classical Voice.  Her performance in Handel’s Messiah with Seraphic Fire was praised in South Florida Classical Voice:  “The sheer beauty and sincerity that soprano Jennifer Paulino brought to I know that my Redeemer liveth would be hard to equal.”

Jennifer specializes in 17th and 18th century repertoire, and appears with period ensembles and orchestras nationally.  Recent performances include a concert of cantatas by Conti, Bernier, and J.S. Bach with Grammy nominated Agave baroque ensemble, and Buxtehude’s Jesu Membra Nostri, J.S Bach’s Magnificat, and Johann Kunau’s Magnificat with renowned Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis at the 2022 Berkeley Festival and Exhibition.  She regularly appears with Philharmonie Austin and the Redeemer Choir, as well as Cantata Collective (CA), Bach Collegium San Diego, California Bach Society, Santa Cruz Chorale, San Francisco Choral Society, and at the Carmel Bach Festival.  Jennifer has also made solo appearances at Festival Mozaic (San Luis Obispo), the Festival of Contemporary Music in San Francisco, and the Tropical Baroque Festival in Miami, FL.  Internationally, Jennifer has performed at the Organs of Ballarat Festival in Australia, the International Chamber Music Festival in Olsztyn, Poland, and in Odense, Denmark for David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion.

 In addition to baroque and classical period repertoire, Jennifer is also at home performing contemporary works.  She is passionate about collaborating with living composers and has premiered works by Stacy Garrop, Lansing McLoskey, Jocelyn Hagen, and Preben Antonsen, among others. 

Jennifer studied baroque styles with Julianne Baird, Jill Feldman, and Michael Chance, and holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands and Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ.  In 2010, Jennifer won second prize in the Gerhard Herz Young Artists Competition for her interpretation of works by Bach, Mozart, and Handel, and in 2012 she was the Cal-West regional winner and a national finalist for the Artist Awards Competition for the National Association Teachers of Singing

When Jennifer’s not performing, she’s teaching voice, caring for her young son, and composing and arranging with her husband, an indie singer-songwriter. https://jenniferpaulino.com/

Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto

Recognized for her “velvety legato and embracing warmth of sound” (Washington Classical Review) and “lyric-mezzo of uncommon beauty” (The Washington Post,)  mezzo soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith enjoys an active performing career in oratorio and sacred vocal chamber music, specializing in music of the medieval, renaissance and baroque eras.

As a concert soloist, Kristen has earned recognition for her performances of the works of the high baroque, especially Bach and Handel.  Her “ lyric-Mezzo of uncommon beauty” (The Washington Post) was praised following her December 2019 performance as Alto Soloist in Bach's Christmas Oratorio with The Washington Bach Consort. Highlights from recent seasons include Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Bach’s St. John Passion with The Dryden Ensemble, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with The Washington Bach Consort. In previous seasons, she has appeared as Alto Soloist in works such as Handel’s Messiah, Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Praetorius' Christmas Vespers and Mozart's Requiem among others, with ensembles including Apollo's Fire, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Opera Lafayette, The New Dominion Chorale, The Folger Consort, and Chatham Baroque. In the summer of 2019, Ms. Dubenion-Smith attended the American Bach Soloists Academy where she was featured in Bach’s Trauerode and Mass in B Minor. She was also a 2020 (transferred to 2022 due to the pandemic) Virginia Best Adams Fellow with the Carmel Bach Festival.

Starting in the fall of 2016, Ms. Dubenion-Smith joined the Choir of Men and Boys/Girls at the Washington National Cathedral as the first woman to be offered a position in this choir. She had previously served as cantor since 2011.  In her time with the Cathedral Choir, she has sung for liturgies, commemorations, and events of national importance- most recently, the State Funerals of President George H. W. Bush and Senator John McCain, the internment of Matthew Shepard, the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony and Prayer Service, and the 9/11 services at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 

As a professional choral singer, Ms. Dubenion-Smith performs regularly with Cathedra, Chantry, The Washington Bach Consort and the Grammy Nominated, NYC based, Clarion Choir. She also sings on the 2021 Grammy winning recording of The Prison by Ethel Smyth with The Experiential Choir and Orchestra. She can also be heard on commercial recordings with The Folger Consort, Apollo’s Fire, Cathedra, and Via Veritate.

 In 2010, Ms. Dubenion-Smith co-founded the award winning, Washington D.C. based Eya: Ensemble for Medieval Music.  Eya has been presented at a number of distinguished venues and series including the Academy of Early Music, National Gallery of Art, The Music Center at Strathmore, Washington National Cathedral, Columbus Early Music, and Dumbarton Oaks, in addition to numerous colleges, universities, and concert series across the east coast. The ensemble has been featured on Voice of America Radio, Millennium of Music on NPR, and is the recipient of the 2013 Greater DC Choral Excellence Award for Best Specialty Group: Early Music as well as a 2015 nominee for Most Creative Programming and 2018 nominee for Best New Recording.

To keep busy during the pandemic, Ms. Dubenion-Smith started a weekly series on her YouTube channel entitled Social DistanSING. Despite specializing in early music, she spans many genres of music on her channel, featuring music by Dolly Parton, Claudio Monteverdi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Enya, Henry Purcell, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Benjamin Britten, Extreme, Hildegard von Bingen, Toto, Richard Einhorn, Elise Witt, and Frideric Handel as well as commissioned arrangements of hymns and popular music, specifically for her series, by dear friend and colleague, Carter Sligh.

2022-2023 season highlights are BWV 170 with Chatham Baroque, Venus and Adonis with San Diego Bach Collegium (debut,) the Monteverdi Vespers with both Apollo’s Fire and the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with The Washington Bach Consort, Handel’s Messiah with Ensemble Altera (debut,) BWV 3 with Bach in Baltimore, and an international tour with The Clarion Choir and The English Concert.

Originally from Michigan, Ms. Dubenion-Smith attended Alma College (Bachelor of Music) before moving to Maryland to complete her studies at The Peabody Conservatory of Music (Master of Music) in Baltimore. https://kristendubenionsmith.com/

Kyle Stegall, tenor

Kyle Stegall’s performances around the world have been met with accolade for his “blemish-free production” (Sydney Morning Herald), “lovely tone and ardent expression” (NY Times), as well as his “lively and empathetic delivery” (San Francisco Classical Voice). An artist who communicates equally well on concert, opera, and recital stages, his performances are characterized by an unfailing attention to style and detail, and a penetrating directness of communication.

Mr. Stegall’s successful solo debuts in Japan, Australia, Vienna, Italy, Singapore, and Canada as well as on major stages across America have been in collaboration with many of the world’s most celebrated artistic directors including Manfred Honeck, Joseph Flummerfelt, William Christie, Stephen Stubbs, and Nicholas McGegan, among others.

Heard frequently as evangelist and tenor soloist in the passions and cantatas of J.S. Bach, Mr. Stegall made his Lincoln Center debut as the evangelist in the St. John Passion under the direction of The Bach Collegium Japan’s artistic director, Masaaki Suzuki. In demand as a symphonic soloist, Mr. Stegall’s seasons often include the oratorios of Handel and Haydn, the great masses of Mozart and Beethoven, and works from the Bel Canto and 20th century concert canon.

Holding a special relationship with the music of Benjamin Britten, Mr. Stegall was twice invited to participate as a fellow at the Aldeburgh Music Festival, in the composer’s hometown of Suffolk, England. There, he performed in recital and studied Britten song and Schubert lieder under the guidance of Ian Bostridge and Malcolm Martineau. Kyle has been heard in recital singing all of the composer’s cycles for tenor, including Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings. https://www.kylestegall.com/

Edward Vogel, bass

With a voice described as “rather appealing” (The New York Times), and praised for his “clarion tone” (Chicago Classical Review) and “commanding and animated” presence (Seen & Heard International), baritone Edward Vogel possesses a diverse repertoire spanning ten centuries. Highlights of the 2023-2024 season include solo appearances with GRAMMY®-winning Apollo’s Fire under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell, solo debuts with the Jacksonville and Tucson Symphonies, and his solo debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Handel’s Israel in Egypt, for which Musical America praised him as “one of the evening’s highlights.” Other recent solo appearances include Handel’s Messiah and Monteverdi’s Vespers with Apollo’s Fire; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, Bach’s Mass in B minor, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with GRAMMY®-nominated True Concord under the direction of Eric Holtan. In 2019 Edward made his international solo debut in Bach’s Mass in G Major at Snape Maltings, UK, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. Highly in-demand as an ensemble singer, Mr. Vogel has performed with groups including Bach Collegium Japan, and Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices in the world premiere of David Lang’s the writings at Carnegie Hall.

An avid recitalist, Edward finds passion in delivering sensitive, intimate performances of both art song and genres that go beyond the traditional classical canon. A two-time Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, he has honed his craft by coaching with champions of art song including Dawn Upshaw, Roger Vignoles, and the late Sanford Sylvan. His musical interests have led to engaging and acclaimed recitals of repertoire ranging from music of medieval Iberia to British art songs of the twentieth century.

Mr. Vogel holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the University of Notre Dame.

Ensemble VIII is a world-class vocal ensemble whose mission is to perform vocal music of the Renaissance and Baroque at the highest artistic level with a keen attention to scholarship and historically informed performance practices.

Ensemble VIII comprises some of the nation’s most accomplished and outstanding early musicians. Under the direction of artistic director Donald Meineke, these artists bring to the extremely challenging music of the Baroque and Renaissance superior technical abilities and experience in performing stunning and exacting repertoire.

Ensemble VIII’s ambition is to make the vast canon of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music accessible and fresh to Austin and Central Texas audiences. The ensemble offers a rare opportunity to hear superb specialists in early music perform at the highest degree of technical precision and dramatic intensity.

Philharmonie Austin & Ensemble VIII

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E-flat Major
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem

Jennifer Paulino, soprano
Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto
Kyle Stegall, tenor
Edward Vogel, bass

Ensemble VIII; Donald Meineke, artistic director
Philharmonie Austin; Mark Dupere, conductor

{$30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}

Ensemble VIII comprises some of the nation’s most accomplished and outstanding early musicians. Under the direction of artistic director Donald Meineke, these artists bring to the extremely challenging music of the Baroque and Renaissance superior technical abilities and experience in performing stunning and exacting repertoire.

Ensemble VIII’s ambition is to make the vast canon of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music accessible and fresh to Austin and Central Texas audiences. The ensemble offers a rare opportunity to hear superb specialists in early music perform at the highest degree of technical precision and dramatic intensity.

Philharmonie Austin is Austin's premier period instrument orchestra.

In 2002, Redeemer Presbyterian Church began a ten-year collaboration with First Presbyterian Church in its annual St. Cecilia Music Festival. Each year, the two churches contracted period instrument players for three separate concert programs. In 2010, Redeemer moved its part in the festival to the church’s current East Austin location on Alexander Avenue. At that time, the orchestra not only began to accompany the Redeemer Choir but also began its own orchestral concerts under the direction of conductor Mark Dupere. The name Musica Redemptor Orchestra was first adopted and has recently been changed to Philharmonie Austin, and has since played annual orchestra concerts featuring repertoire of the baroque and classical periods. The development of the orchestra more recently expanded in size for the performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, a work requiring an orchestra of 45 players.

Donald Meineke, Artistic Director

Hailed as a “fresh voice on New York’s musical scene” (The New Yorker), Donald Meineke is an organist, conductor, tenor, and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble VIII. He maintains an active career as a recitalist, lecturer, conductor, and singer performing with local, national, and international ensembles.

Meineke serves as the Director of Music and organist for the historic Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal) on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, known fondly as the birthplace of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” composed as a collaboration between the priest and organist in 1868. He has served as Cantor of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City where he led the twice Grammy®-nominated Bach Choir and Players in the internationally renowned Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity series. His Bach Choir’s recording of Samuel Capricornus’ Jubilus Bernhardi, in collaboration with string ensemble ACRONYM, received critical acclaim and was on Colorado Public Radio’s December 2017 “Top 5 Must Have New Recordings” list. His recordings of Capricornus and Bach Vespers have been featured on classical music stations nationally and internationally, including KMFA’s Ancient Voices and WXXI’s With Heart and Voice, and he has appeared as a guest artist on Columbia University-WKCR’s Bachfest. 

He was the Co-Founder and Director of the 2014 Early Music Festival: NYC which featured over thirty concerts by dozens of local and national ensembles to critical acclaim. Meineke served as a choirmaster for Maestro Helmuth Rilling for many years, preparing choirs across Europe and South America for performances of the major choral and orchestral works by Bach, Mozart, and others.

Mark Dupere, conductor

Mark Dupere is Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University, where he is the Director of Orchestral Studies. He currently conducts the Lawrence Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonie Austin, as well as making guest appearances with Regional and National Honor Youth Orchestras. As a cellist, Mark performed throughout Europe with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Haagsche Hofmuzieck, Anima Eterna Brugge and as an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. Mark was an “Emerging Artist” at the Victoria Bach Festival, performed in the Leipzig Bach Competition, and was recently named a national finalist in the American Prize in Conducting. Mark holds degrees in Cello from the University of Texas at Austin, Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, The Netherlands and a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University.

Jennifer Paulino, soprano

San Francisco Bay Area soprano Jennifer Paulino’s voice has been praised as “graceful yet powerful” and “sensitive and clear” by San Francisco Classical Voice.  Her performance in Handel’s Messiah with Seraphic Fire was praised in South Florida Classical Voice:  “The sheer beauty and sincerity that soprano Jennifer Paulino brought to I know that my Redeemer liveth would be hard to equal.”

Jennifer specializes in 17th and 18th century repertoire, and appears with period ensembles and orchestras nationally.  Recent performances include a concert of cantatas by Conti, Bernier, and J.S. Bach with Grammy nominated Agave baroque ensemble, and Buxtehude’s Jesu Membra Nostri, J.S Bach’s Magnificat, and Johann Kunau’s Magnificat with renowned Belgian ensemble Vox Luminis at the 2022 Berkeley Festival and Exhibition.  She regularly appears with Philharmonie Austin and the Redeemer Choir, as well as Cantata Collective (CA), Bach Collegium San Diego, California Bach Society, Santa Cruz Chorale, San Francisco Choral Society, and at the Carmel Bach Festival.  Jennifer has also made solo appearances at Festival Mozaic (San Luis Obispo), the Festival of Contemporary Music in San Francisco, and the Tropical Baroque Festival in Miami, FL.  Internationally, Jennifer has performed at the Organs of Ballarat Festival in Australia, the International Chamber Music Festival in Olsztyn, Poland, and in Odense, Denmark for David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion.

 In addition to baroque and classical period repertoire, Jennifer is also at home performing contemporary works.  She is passionate about collaborating with living composers and has premiered works by Stacy Garrop, Lansing McLoskey, Jocelyn Hagen, and Preben Antonsen, among others. 

Jennifer studied baroque styles with Julianne Baird, Jill Feldman, and Michael Chance, and holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands and Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ.  In 2010, Jennifer won second prize in the Gerhard Herz Young Artists Competition for her interpretation of works by Bach, Mozart, and Handel, and in 2012 she was the Cal-West regional winner and a national finalist for the Artist Awards Competition for the National Association Teachers of Singing

When Jennifer’s not performing, she’s teaching voice, caring for her young son, and composing and arranging with her husband, an indie singer-songwriter. https://jenniferpaulino.com/

Kristen Dubenion-Smith, alto

Recognized for her “velvety legato and embracing warmth of sound” (Washington Classical Review) and “lyric-mezzo of uncommon beauty” (The Washington Post,)  mezzo soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith enjoys an active performing career in oratorio and sacred vocal chamber music, specializing in music of the medieval, renaissance and baroque eras.

As a concert soloist, Kristen has earned recognition for her performances of the works of the high baroque, especially Bach and Handel.  Her “ lyric-Mezzo of uncommon beauty” (The Washington Post) was praised following her December 2019 performance as Alto Soloist in Bach's Christmas Oratorio with The Washington Bach Consort. Highlights from recent seasons include Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Bach’s St. John Passion with The Dryden Ensemble, and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with The Washington Bach Consort. In previous seasons, she has appeared as Alto Soloist in works such as Handel’s Messiah, Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Praetorius' Christmas Vespers and Mozart's Requiem among others, with ensembles including Apollo's Fire, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Opera Lafayette, The New Dominion Chorale, The Folger Consort, and Chatham Baroque. In the summer of 2019, Ms. Dubenion-Smith attended the American Bach Soloists Academy where she was featured in Bach’s Trauerode and Mass in B Minor. She was also a 2020 (transferred to 2022 due to the pandemic) Virginia Best Adams Fellow with the Carmel Bach Festival.

Starting in the fall of 2016, Ms. Dubenion-Smith joined the Choir of Men and Boys/Girls at the Washington National Cathedral as the first woman to be offered a position in this choir. She had previously served as cantor since 2011.  In her time with the Cathedral Choir, she has sung for liturgies, commemorations, and events of national importance- most recently, the State Funerals of President George H. W. Bush and Senator John McCain, the internment of Matthew Shepard, the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony and Prayer Service, and the 9/11 services at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. 

As a professional choral singer, Ms. Dubenion-Smith performs regularly with Cathedra, Chantry, The Washington Bach Consort and the Grammy Nominated, NYC based, Clarion Choir. She also sings on the 2021 Grammy winning recording of The Prison by Ethel Smyth with The Experiential Choir and Orchestra. She can also be heard on commercial recordings with The Folger Consort, Apollo’s Fire, Cathedra, and Via Veritate.

 In 2010, Ms. Dubenion-Smith co-founded the award winning, Washington D.C. based Eya: Ensemble for Medieval Music.  Eya has been presented at a number of distinguished venues and series including the Academy of Early Music, National Gallery of Art, The Music Center at Strathmore, Washington National Cathedral, Columbus Early Music, and Dumbarton Oaks, in addition to numerous colleges, universities, and concert series across the east coast. The ensemble has been featured on Voice of America Radio, Millennium of Music on NPR, and is the recipient of the 2013 Greater DC Choral Excellence Award for Best Specialty Group: Early Music as well as a 2015 nominee for Most Creative Programming and 2018 nominee for Best New Recording.

To keep busy during the pandemic, Ms. Dubenion-Smith started a weekly series on her YouTube channel entitled Social DistanSING. Despite specializing in early music, she spans many genres of music on her channel, featuring music by Dolly Parton, Claudio Monteverdi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Enya, Henry Purcell, the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Benjamin Britten, Extreme, Hildegard von Bingen, Toto, Richard Einhorn, Elise Witt, and Frideric Handel as well as commissioned arrangements of hymns and popular music, specifically for her series, by dear friend and colleague, Carter Sligh.

2022-2023 season highlights are BWV 170 with Chatham Baroque, Venus and Adonis with San Diego Bach Collegium (debut,) the Monteverdi Vespers with both Apollo’s Fire and the Washington National Cathedral Baroque Orchestra, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with The Washington Bach Consort, Handel’s Messiah with Ensemble Altera (debut,) BWV 3 with Bach in Baltimore, and an international tour with The Clarion Choir and The English Concert.

Originally from Michigan, Ms. Dubenion-Smith attended Alma College (Bachelor of Music) before moving to Maryland to complete her studies at The Peabody Conservatory of Music (Master of Music) in Baltimore. https://kristendubenionsmith.com/

Kyle Stegall, tenor

Kyle Stegall’s performances around the world have been met with accolade for his “blemish-free production” (Sydney Morning Herald), “lovely tone and ardent expression” (NY Times), as well as his “lively and empathetic delivery” (San Francisco Classical Voice). An artist who communicates equally well on concert, opera, and recital stages, his performances are characterized by an unfailing attention to style and detail, and a penetrating directness of communication.

Mr. Stegall’s successful solo debuts in Japan, Australia, Vienna, Italy, Singapore, and Canada as well as on major stages across America have been in collaboration with many of the world’s most celebrated artistic directors including Manfred Honeck, Joseph Flummerfelt, William Christie, Stephen Stubbs, and Nicholas McGegan, among others.

Heard frequently as evangelist and tenor soloist in the passions and cantatas of J.S. Bach, Mr. Stegall made his Lincoln Center debut as the evangelist in the St. John Passion under the direction of The Bach Collegium Japan’s artistic director, Masaaki Suzuki. In demand as a symphonic soloist, Mr. Stegall’s seasons often include the oratorios of Handel and Haydn, the great masses of Mozart and Beethoven, and works from the Bel Canto and 20th century concert canon.

Holding a special relationship with the music of Benjamin Britten, Mr. Stegall was twice invited to participate as a fellow at the Aldeburgh Music Festival, in the composer’s hometown of Suffolk, England. There, he performed in recital and studied Britten song and Schubert lieder under the guidance of Ian Bostridge and Malcolm Martineau. Kyle has been heard in recital singing all of the composer’s cycles for tenor, including Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings. https://www.kylestegall.com/

Edward Vogel, bass

With a voice described as “rather appealing” (The New York Times), and praised for his “clarion tone” (Chicago Classical Review) and “commanding and animated” presence (Seen & Heard International), baritone Edward Vogel possesses a diverse repertoire spanning ten centuries. Highlights of the 2023-2024 season include solo appearances with GRAMMY®-winning Apollo’s Fire under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell, solo debuts with the Jacksonville and Tucson Symphonies, and his solo debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Handel’s Israel in Egypt, for which Musical America praised him as “one of the evening’s highlights.” Other recent solo appearances include Handel’s Messiah and Monteverdi’s Vespers with Apollo’s Fire; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, Bach’s Mass in B minor, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with GRAMMY®-nominated True Concord under the direction of Eric Holtan. In 2019 Edward made his international solo debut in Bach’s Mass in G Major at Snape Maltings, UK, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. Highly in-demand as an ensemble singer, Mr. Vogel has performed with groups including Bach Collegium Japan, and Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices in the world premiere of David Lang’s the writings at Carnegie Hall.

An avid recitalist, Edward finds passion in delivering sensitive, intimate performances of both art song and genres that go beyond the traditional classical canon. A two-time Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, he has honed his craft by coaching with champions of art song including Dawn Upshaw, Roger Vignoles, and the late Sanford Sylvan. His musical interests have led to engaging and acclaimed recitals of repertoire ranging from music of medieval Iberia to British art songs of the twentieth century.

Mr. Vogel holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the University of Notre Dame.

Ensemble VIII is a world-class vocal ensemble whose mission is to perform vocal music of the Renaissance and Baroque at the highest artistic level with a keen attention to scholarship and historically informed performance practices.

Ensemble VIII comprises some of the nation’s most accomplished and outstanding early musicians. Under the direction of artistic director Donald Meineke, these artists bring to the extremely challenging music of the Baroque and Renaissance superior technical abilities and experience in performing stunning and exacting repertoire.

Ensemble VIII’s ambition is to make the vast canon of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music accessible and fresh to Austin and Central Texas audiences. The ensemble offers a rare opportunity to hear superb specialists in early music perform at the highest degree of technical precision and dramatic intensity.

Organist & Choir Director, Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, NYC

{no charge for admission}

David Hurd is widely recognized as one of the foremost church musicians and concert organists in the United States, with a long list of honors and achievements, and immeasurable expertise in organ performance, improvisation, and composition.  For 39 years David Hurd was on the faculty of The General Theological Seminary in New York City, as Director of Chapel Music, Organist, and Professor of Church Music.  He is the composer of dozens of hymns, choral works, settings of the liturgy, and organ works published by a number of major houses. His music appears in hymnals and choir libraries in churches of nearly all religious denominations. In 2010 he became the fifteenth recipient of The American Guild of Organists’ Distinguished Composer award. Dr. Hurd is now Organist/Choirmaster of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in New York City. 

As a concert organist, David Hurd enjoys instant recognition having performed throughout North America and Europe, and featured at conventions of the American Guild of Organists. He was invited to perform at the Internationaal Orgelfestival Haarlem where he was awarded the diploma for improvisation at the Stitchting Internationaal Orgelconcours. 

He studied both at the Preparatory Division of the Juilliard School and at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art. Later he attended Oberlin Conservatory, and went on for further study at the University of North and at the Manhattan School of Music. His organ teachers have included Bronson Ragan, Garth Peacock, Arthur Poister, and Rudolph Kremer.  

David Hurd is represented in North America exclusively by Phillip Truckenbrod Concert Artists, LLC.

Premier British early music choral ensemble

Peter Phillips, conductor

{$30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}

Program

Robert White: Lamentations II

Robert White: Exaudiat te

Thomas Tallis: Lamentations II

Intermission

Robert Parsons: O bone Jesu

Robert Parsons: Ave Maria

Robert White: Regina caeli

William Byrd: All Saints Propers

• Gaudeamus omnes

• Timete Dominum

• Justorum animae

• Beati mundo corde

The journey behind this program is a familiar one: from darkness into light. Or, to put it in a more Christian way, from penitence into joy. This is an emotional journey, often associated with Lent and Easter, which has inspired some of the greatest sacred music ever written. Our first half is largely devoted to the mood of Lent, nowhere more beautifully captured than in the two English settings of the Lamentations, by White and Tallis. Both composers are masters at alternating the traditional words of lament with the greater reflection provided by the Hebrew letters, which punctuate the main text.

In the second half we join in worship of Jesus and Mary as they fulfill the Easter prophecy and lead us to heaven through the Saints: Jesus in Parsons's magnificent setting of O bone Jesu; Mary in the Ave Maria and Regina caeli settings. The message of these pieces is then summed up in the complete cycle of Byrd's Propers for All Saints - four motets which take us to stand, with the Saints, before God, who is the origin of light. The beautiful music of Justorum animae - one of Byrd's most performed motets - assures the righteous of their place in heaven, while the final Beati mundo corde affirms that the clean of heart 'shall see God'.

- Peter Phillips

The Tallis Scholars were founded in 1973 by their director, Peter Phillips. Through their recordings and concert performances, they have established themselves as the leading exponents of Renaissance sacred music throughout the world. Peter Phillips has worked with the ensemble to create the purity and clarity of sound which he feels best serves the Renaissance repertoire. It is the resulting beauty of sound for which The Tallis Scholars have become so widely renowned.

The Tallis Scholars perform in both sacred and secular venues, giving around 80 concerts each year. In 2013 the group celebrated their 40th anniversary with a World Tour, and now look ahead to their 50th anniversary in 2023. As of the beginning of the cancellations caused by the COVID-19 crisis, the Tallis Scholars had made 2,327 appearances, worldwide.

2022/23 season highlights include performances in Australia, New York and Boston, Amsterdam, Zurich, Paris, tours of Italy, a number of appearances in London as well as their usual touring schedule around the USA, Europe and the UK. In a monumental project to mark Josquin des Prez’ 500th anniversary celebrations The Tallis Scholars sang all eighteen of the composer’s masses over the course of 4 days at the Boulez Saal in Berlin in July 2022.

Recordings by The Tallis Scholars have attracted many awards throughout the world. The latest recording of Josquin masses including Missa Hercules Dux Ferrarie was released in November 2020 and was winner of the BBC Music Magazine’s much coveted Recording of the Year Award in 2021 and the 2021 Gramophone Early Music Award. This disc was the last of nine albums in The Tallis Scholars' project to record and release all Josquin's masses before the 500th anniversary of the composer’s death in 2021.

Peter Phillips has dedicated his career to the research and performance of Renaissance polyphony, and to the perfecting of choral sound. He founded The Tallis Scholars in 1973, with whom he has now appeared in over 2,300 concerts and made over 60 discs, world-wide. As a result of this commitment Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars have done more than any other group to establish the sacred vocal music of the Renaissance as one of the great repertoires of Western classical music.

Peter Phillips also conducts other specialist ensembles. He is currently working with the BBC Singers, the Netherlands Chamber Choir, the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Intrada (Moscow) and El Leon de Oro (Spain). He is Patron of the Chapel Choir of Merton College Oxford.

In addition to conducting, Peter Phillips is well-known as a writer. For 33 years he contributed a regular music column to The Spectator. In 1995 he became the publisher of The Musical Times, the oldest continuously published music journal in the world. His first book, English Sacred Music 1549-1649, was published by Gimell in 1991, while his second, What We Really Do, appeared in 2013. During 2018, BBC Radio 3 broadcast his view of Renaissance polyphony, in a series of six hour-long programmes, entitled The Glory of Polyphony.

In 2005 Peter Phillips was made a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture. In 2008 Peter helped to found the chapel choir of Merton College Oxford, where he is a Bodley Fellow; and in 2021 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford.

Organist, Abbey of Saint-Maurice in Valais, Switzerland

{no charge for admission}

Born in 1991 in Strasbourg, Thomas Kientz is a French organist and improviser, international concert performer.

Thomas Kientz is a laureate of several international competitions: the Olivier Messiaen competition (Lyon 2019), the 8th organ competition of Saint-Maurice (Switzerland 2015), the "Grand Prix Florentz" of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (Angers 2016), the André Marchal/Gaston Litaize competition (2017), the Schnitger competition of Alkmaar (Netherlands, 2017).

Since then, he has had an international career as a concert artist and organ improviser. He is regularly invited to prestigious festivals in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States where he was artist in residence at the Cathedral of New Orleans (Louisiana).

Thomas Kientz is a professor at the Haute Ecole de Musique (HEMU) in Lausanne/Fribourg and teaches at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.

He is also titular organist at the Abbey of Saint-Maurice (VS). At the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris,

Thomas Kientz studied with Olivier Latry, Michel Bouvard, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Lefebvre, Yves Henry, Pierre Pincemaille, Laszlo Fassang, Isabelle Duha, Alain Mabit. He holds a Master's degree in organ performance, a Master's degree in improvisation, and Prizes in harmony, counterpoint, 20th-21st century writing and fugue. In addition, he met in Brussels the Belgian composer Benoît Mernier and within the framework of the Higher Institute of Music in Namur (Belgium) obtained a Master's degree specialized in organ interpretation.

On the recording front, Thomas Kientz has made several recordings, including his complete Homilius organ chorales published by Hortus. It has been acclaimed by the critics, obtained 5 diapasons and 5 stars in Classica. "This endearing repertoire finally benefits from its reference version" (X. Bisaro, Diapason, n°667, p 91).

Passionate about creation in all its forms and about timbre, Thomas Kientz is also a composer. His work Dominus Illuminatio mea for grand-organ won the composition competition of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. He also won a 3rd prize in the competition of the Swiss Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) with his work for choir O Virgo Splendens.

Brahms Symphony No. 4
Brahms Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn
Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture

Philharmonie Austin
Mark Dupere, conductor

{$30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}

Philharmonie Austin is Austin's premier period instrument orchestra.

In 2002, Redeemer Presbyterian Church began a ten-year collaboration with First Presbyterian Church in its annual St. Cecilia Music Festival. Each year, the two churches contracted period instrument players for three separate concert programs. In 2010, Redeemer moved its part in the festival to the church’s current East Austin location on Alexander Avenue. At that time, the orchestra not only began to accompany the Redeemer Choir but also began its own orchestral concerts under the direction of conductor Mark Dupere. The name Musica Redemptor Orchestra was first adopted and has recently been changed to Philharmonie Austin, and has since played annual orchestra concerts featuring repertoire of the baroque and classical periods. The development of the orchestra more recently expanded in size for the performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, a work requiring an orchestra of 45 players.

Mark Dupere, conductor

Mark Dupere is Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University, where he is the Director of Orchestral Studies. He is a passionate educator and hopes to impart a love of music-making and active engagement with audiences in the performance of music from all periods. He currently conducts the Lawrence Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.

As a cellist, Mark performed throughout Europe with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Haagsche Hofmuzieck, and Ani-ma Eterna Brugge and was an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. Mark was a “Emerging Artist” at the Victoria Bach Festival, performed in the Leipzig Bach Competition, and most recently was named a national finalist in the American Prize in Conducting. Mark holds degrees in cello from the University of Texas at Austin and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, the Netherlands, and a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University.

Emily Dupere, concertmaster

Emily Dupere, Australian violinist, has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout Europe, the USA, and Australia. She has collaborated with artists such as Malcolm Bilson, Bart van Oort, Petra Somlai, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Shunske Sato, Jaap ter Linden, Sigiswald Kuijken, Maasaki Suzuki, Jos van Immerseel, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Emily studied under Paul Wright at the University of Western Australia, graduating with first class honors and was awarded the Lady Callaway Medal for the most outstanding graduate. She completed her studies in baroque violin at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Ryo Terakado, Kati Debretzeni, and Walter Reiter.

In Australia, Emily performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, as an Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and with the award-winning Sartory String quartet. In Europe she performed with many groups including The Wallfisch Band (UK), Les Passions de l’âme (Switzerland), Les Inventions (France), Haagsche Hofmuziek (NL), Collegium Musicum Den Haag (NL), The English Baroque Soloists (UK), Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (UK), Bach Collegium Japan, and Anima Eterna Brugge (Belgium). Emily’s particular interests include the sacred music of Bach and classical and romantic chamber music on period instruments.

Brahms Symphony No. 4
Brahms Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn
Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture

Philharmonie Austin
Mark Dupere, conductor

{$30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}

Philharmonie Austin is Austin's premier period instrument orchestra.

In 2002, Redeemer Presbyterian Church began a ten-year collaboration with First Presbyterian Church in its annual St. Cecilia Music Festival. Each year, the two churches contracted period instrument players for three separate concert programs. In 2010, Redeemer moved its part in the festival to the church’s current East Austin location on Alexander Avenue. At that time, the orchestra not only began to accompany the Redeemer Choir but also began its own orchestral concerts under the direction of conductor Mark Dupere. The name Musica Redemptor Orchestra was first adopted and has recently been changed to Philharmonie Austin, and has since played annual orchestra concerts featuring repertoire of the baroque and classical periods. The development of the orchestra more recently expanded in size for the performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, a work requiring an orchestra of 45 players.

Mark Dupere, conductor

Mark Dupere is Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University, where he is the Director of Orchestral Studies. He is a passionate educator and hopes to impart a love of music-making and active engagement with audiences in the performance of music from all periods. He currently conducts the Lawrence Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.

As a cellist, Mark performed throughout Europe with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Haagsche Hofmuzieck, and Ani-ma Eterna Brugge and was an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. Mark was a “Emerging Artist” at the Victoria Bach Festival, performed in the Leipzig Bach Competition, and most recently was named a national finalist in the American Prize in Conducting. Mark holds degrees in cello from the University of Texas at Austin and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, the Netherlands, and a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University.

Emily Dupere, concertmaster

Emily Dupere, Australian violinist, has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player throughout Europe, the USA, and Australia. She has collaborated with artists such as Malcolm Bilson, Bart van Oort, Petra Somlai, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Shunske Sato, Jaap ter Linden, Sigiswald Kuijken, Maasaki Suzuki, Jos van Immerseel, and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Emily studied under Paul Wright at the University of Western Australia, graduating with first class honors and was awarded the Lady Callaway Medal for the most outstanding graduate. She completed her studies in baroque violin at The Royal Conservatoire in The Hague with Ryo Terakado, Kati Debretzeni, and Walter Reiter.

In Australia, Emily performed with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, as an Emerging Artist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, and with the award-winning Sartory String quartet. In Europe she performed with many groups including The Wallfisch Band (UK), Les Passions de l’âme (Switzerland), Les Inventions (France), Haagsche Hofmuziek (NL), Collegium Musicum Den Haag (NL), The English Baroque Soloists (UK), Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (UK), Bach Collegium Japan, and Anima Eterna Brugge (Belgium). Emily’s particular interests include the sacred music of Bach and classical and romantic chamber music on period instruments.

Director of Music, Church of the Holy Trinity, Philadelphia
Artistic Director, Ensemble VIII

{no charge for admission}

Hailed as a “fresh voice on New York’s musical scene” (The New Yorker), Donald Meineke is an organist, conductor, tenor, and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble VIII. He maintains an active career as a recitalist, lecturer, conductor, and singer performing with local, national, and international ensembles.

Meineke serves as the Director of Music and organist for the historic Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal) on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, known fondly as the birthplace of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” composed as a collaboration between the priest and organist in 1868. He has served as Cantor of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City where he led the twice Grammy®-nominated Bach Choir and Players in the internationally renowned Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity series. His Bach Choir’s recording of Samuel Capricornus’ Jubilus Bernhardi, in collaboration with string ensemble ACRONYM, received critical acclaim and was on Colorado Public Radio’s December 2017 “Top 5 Must Have New Recordings” list. His recordings of Capricornus and Bach Vespers have been featured on classical music stations nationally and internationally, including KMFA’s Ancient Voices and WXXI’s With Heart and Voice, and he has appeared as a guest artist on Columbia University-WKCR’s Bachfest. 

He was the Co-Founder and Director of the 2014 Early Music Festival: NYC which featured over thirty concerts by dozens of local and national ensembles to critical acclaim. Meineke served as a choirmaster for Maestro Helmuth Rilling for many years, preparing choirs across Europe and South America for performances of the major choral and orchestral works by Bach, Mozart, and others.

Christmas Lessons from the Scriptures
The Carols of Christmas
The Redeemer Choir
George Dupere, Chief Musician
Michael Phillips, organist
Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24, 2023, at 4:00 and 6:00 pm

{no charge for admission}

The King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s after experience as an army chaplain, which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. The music was then directed by Arthur Henry Mann, Organist 1876-1929. The choir included sixteen trebles as laid down in King Henry VI’s statutes, but until 1927 the men’s voices were provided partly by Choral Scholars and partly by older Lay Clerks, and not, as now, by fourteen undergraduates.

A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons, and from that date the service has always begun with the hymn “Once in Royal David’s City.” In almost every year some carols have been changed and some new ones introduced by successive Organists: Arthur Henry Mann; Boris Ord, 1929-57; Harold Darke (his substitute during the war), 1940-45; Sir David Willcocks, 1957-73; Philip Ledger, 1974-82 and, from 1982, Stephen Cleobury. The backbone of the service, the lessons and the prayers, has remained virtually unchanged.

The original service was, in fact, adapted from an Order drawn up by E.W. Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, for use in the wooden shed, which then served as his cathedral in Truro, at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1880. A.C. Benson recalled: “My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve—nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop.” The suggestion had come from G.H.S. Walpole, later Bishop of Edinburgh.

Almost immediately other churches adapted the service for their own use. A wider frame began to grow when the service was first broadcast in 1928 and, with the exception of 1930, it has been broadcast annually, even during the Second World War, when the ancient glass (and also all heat) had been removed from the Chapel and the name of King’s could not be broadcast for security reasons. Sometime in the early 1930s the BBC began broadcasting the service on overseas programs. It is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide. Recordings of carols by Decca and EMI have also served to spread its fame.

In these and other ways the service has become public property. From time to time the College receives copies of services held, for example, in the West Indies or the Far East, and these show how widely the tradition has spread. The broadcasts, too, have become part of Christmas for many far from Cambridge. One correspondent writes that he heard the service in a tent on the foothills of Everest; another, in the desert. Many listen at home, busy about their own preparations for Christmas. Visitors from all over the world are heard to identify the King’s College Chapel as “the place where the Carols are sung.”

Wherever the service is heard and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and strength of the service, as Dean Milner-White pointed out, derive from the lessons and not the music. “The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God…” seen ‘through the windows and words of the Bible’. Local interests appear, as they do here, in the bidding prayer, and personal circumstances give point to different parts of the service. Many of those who took part in the first service must have recalled those killed in the Great War when it came to the famous passage “all those who rejoice with us but on another shore and in a greater light.” The center of the service is still found by those who “go in heart and mind” and who consent to follow where the story leads.

Christmas Lessons from the Scriptures
The Carols of Christmas
The Redeemer Choir
George Dupere, Chief Musician
Michael Phillips, organist
Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24, 2023, at 4:00 and 6:00 pm

{no charge for admission}

The King’s College Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was first held on Christmas Eve 1918. It was planned by Eric Milner-White, who at the age of thirty-four had just been appointed Dean of King’s after experience as an army chaplain, which had convinced him that the Church of England needed more imaginative worship. The music was then directed by Arthur Henry Mann, Organist 1876-1929. The choir included sixteen trebles as laid down in King Henry VI’s statutes, but until 1927 the men’s voices were provided partly by Choral Scholars and partly by older Lay Clerks, and not, as now, by fourteen undergraduates.

A revision of the Order of Service was made in 1919, involving rearrangement of the lessons, and from that date the service has always begun with the hymn “Once in Royal David’s City.” In almost every year some carols have been changed and some new ones introduced by successive Organists: Arthur Henry Mann; Boris Ord, 1929-57; Harold Darke (his substitute during the war), 1940-45; Sir David Willcocks, 1957-73; Philip Ledger, 1974-82 and, from 1982, Stephen Cleobury. The backbone of the service, the lessons and the prayers, has remained virtually unchanged.

The original service was, in fact, adapted from an Order drawn up by E.W. Benson, later Archbishop of Canterbury, for use in the wooden shed, which then served as his cathedral in Truro, at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve 1880. A.C. Benson recalled: “My father arranged from ancient sources a little service for Christmas Eve—nine carols and nine tiny lessons, which were read by various officers of the Church, beginning with a chorister, and ending, through the different grades, with the Bishop.” The suggestion had come from G.H.S. Walpole, later Bishop of Edinburgh.

Almost immediately other churches adapted the service for their own use. A wider frame began to grow when the service was first broadcast in 1928 and, with the exception of 1930, it has been broadcast annually, even during the Second World War, when the ancient glass (and also all heat) had been removed from the Chapel and the name of King’s could not be broadcast for security reasons. Sometime in the early 1930s the BBC began broadcasting the service on overseas programs. It is estimated that there are millions of listeners worldwide. Recordings of carols by Decca and EMI have also served to spread its fame.

In these and other ways the service has become public property. From time to time the College receives copies of services held, for example, in the West Indies or the Far East, and these show how widely the tradition has spread. The broadcasts, too, have become part of Christmas for many far from Cambridge. One correspondent writes that he heard the service in a tent on the foothills of Everest; another, in the desert. Many listen at home, busy about their own preparations for Christmas. Visitors from all over the world are heard to identify the King’s College Chapel as “the place where the Carols are sung.”

Wherever the service is heard and however it is adapted, whether the music is provided by choir or congregation, the pattern and strength of the service, as Dean Milner-White pointed out, derive from the lessons and not the music. “The main theme is the development of the loving purposes of God…” seen ‘through the windows and words of the Bible’. Local interests appear, as they do here, in the bidding prayer, and personal circumstances give point to different parts of the service. Many of those who took part in the first service must have recalled those killed in the Great War when it came to the famous passage “all those who rejoice with us but on another shore and in a greater light.” The center of the service is still found by those who “go in heart and mind” and who consent to follow where the story leads.

Ensemble VIII
Chris Oelkers, organist
Donald Meineke, artistic director

{$30 General | $25 Senior 60+ | $5 Student}

Plan now to attend this inspiring evening to celebrate the beauty of Advent and Christmas with the voices of Ensemble VIII. Director Donald Meineke will lead a choir of 18 singers in this reenactment of the well-known Christmas Eve services at King’s College Chapel, first performed in 1918. The singers will read the traditional lessons and the audience will be invited to sing the carols of the season.

Ensemble VIII is a world-class vocal ensemble whose mission is to perform vocal music of the Renaissance and Baroque at the highest artistic level with a keen attention to scholarship and historically informed performance practices.

Ensemble VIII comprises some of the nation’s most accomplished and outstanding early musicians. Under the direction of artistic director Donald Meineke, these artists bring to the extremely challenging music of the Baroque and Renaissance superior technical abilities and experience in performing stunning and exacting repertoire.

Ensemble VIII’s ambition is to make the vast canon of Renaissance and Baroque vocal music accessible and fresh to Austin and Central Texas audiences. The ensemble offers a rare opportunity to hear superb specialists in early music perform at the highest degree of technical precision and dramatic intensity.

Chris Oelkers, Organist

Chris Oelkers was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. A recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, he studied organ and church music at the University of Manitoba, the Toronto Conservatory of Music, and the University of Kansas, where he studied with Michael Bauer and James Higdon. He was Cathedral Organist at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Winnipeg, and later Director of Music for the First Congregational Church of Topeka, Kansas.

From 1998-2005, Chris was Principal Organist and Associate Music Director for Village Presbyterian Church in suburban Kansas City, where he presided over the organ concert series, as well as the Annual Handbell Festival. Chris served as adjudicator for the Carlene Neihart Organ Competition, judging performances in both repertoire and improvisation. During this time, Chris was organist and accompanist for the Festival Singers of Atlanta and later the Festival Singers of Kansas City. He played organ and piano on several CDs, including a recording of the landmark Laudes Organi by Zoltan Kodaly. Chris also served as accompanist for the Kansas City Chorale under the Direction of Charles Bruffy, most notably in a concert performance of the Duruflé Requiem. In 2004, he was commissioned by the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art to provide a live soundtrack for a screening of the 1914 film His Majesty the Scarecrow of Oz.

In August of 2005, he joined the ministry team at St. Louis King of France Catholic Church in Austin, and from 2009–16 served as Director of Music for that parish. In 2016, Chris answered a call to serve as Director of Music and Organist for the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Austin, where he oversees a thriving music ministry in a fast-growing parish.

Chris is active as a recitalist and has given many performances in the United States, Canada, and Europe, most notably at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig; Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire; St. Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh; and St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City. He was a semifinalist and finalist in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation. Chris was featured on the Great Organ Series at the University of Texas and was Guest Artist on KMFA 89.5 FM radio’s weekly broadcast of Pipeworks. When not occupied as a church musician, he directs the Austin Saengerrunde, a German choir representing the oldest ethnic society in Austin, dating to 1879. Chris and his family live in Austin.

Donald Meineke, Artistic Director

Hailed as a “fresh voice on New York’s musical scene” (The New Yorker), Donald Meineke is an organist, conductor, tenor, and the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Ensemble VIII. He maintains an active career as a recitalist, lecturer, conductor, and singer performing with local, national, and international ensembles.

Meineke serves as the Director of Music and organist for the historic Church of the Holy Trinity (Episcopal) on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, known fondly as the birthplace of the Christmas carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” composed as a collaboration between the priest and organist in 1868. He has served as Cantor of The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City where he led the twice Grammy®-nominated Bach Choir and Players in the internationally renowned Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity series. His Bach Choir’s recording of Samuel Capricornus’ Jubilus Bernhardi, in collaboration with string ensemble ACRONYM, received critical acclaim and was on Colorado Public Radio’s December 2017 “Top 5 Must Have New Recordings” list. His recordings of Capricornus and Bach Vespers have been featured on classical music stations nationally and internationally, including KMFA’s Ancient Voices and WXXI’s With Heart and Voice, and he has appeared as a guest artist on Columbia University-WKCR’s Bachfest. 

He was the Co-Founder and Director of the 2014 Early Music Festival: NYC which featured over thirty concerts by dozens of local and national ensembles to critical acclaim. Meineke served as a choirmaster for Maestro Helmuth Rilling for many years, preparing choirs across Europe and South America for performances of the major choral and orchestral works by Bach, Mozart, and others.

Johann Sebastian Bach: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140
Georg Frideric Handel: Concerto Grosso in B-flat Major, HWV 313, Op. 3, No. 2   
Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria

Soloists: Jessica Beebe, soprano; Doug Dodson, countertenor; Steven Brennfleck, tenor; Edward Vogel, bass
The Redeemer Choir
Philharmonie Austin
Mark Dupere, conductor

{no charge for admission}

Mark Dupere, conductor

Mark Dupere is Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University, where he is the Director of Orchestral Studies. He is a passionate educator and hopes to impart a love of music-making and active engagement with audiences in the performance of music from all periods. He currently conducts the Lawrence Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.

As a cellist, Mark performed throughout Europe with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Haagsche Hofmuzieck, and Ani-ma Eterna Brugge and was an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. Mark was a “Emerging Artist” at the Victoria Bach Festival, performed in the Leipzig Bach Competition, and most recently was named a national finalist in the American Prize in Conducting. Mark holds degrees in cello from the University of Texas at Austin and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, the Netherlands, and a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University.

Jessica Beebe, soprano

Lauded by Opera News as “evocative and ethereal”, “a honey-colored tone”, and "the most radiant solo singing", soprano Jessica Beebe is steadily gaining international attention as an affecting interpreter of repertoire spanning over four centuries, ranging from Renaissance music to contemporary American opera. In recent seasons, she has appeared as a guest soloist in concert with The New York City Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, The Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall, The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Raymond Leppard; The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra; the Princeton Festival Orchestra; The English Concert under Harry Bicket, Bourbon Baroque, Piffaro The Renaissance Wind Band; The Folger Consort; the Delaware Symphony Orchestra; the Utah Symphony under the baton of Craig Jessop, and several other orchestras and ensembles.

Ms. Beebe's vast solo concert and oratorio repertoire includes such major works like Monteverdi's Vespro della beata vergine; Vivaldi's In furore iustissimae iræ and Gloria; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor, St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and a wide range of cantatas; Handel's Messiah, Dixit Dominus, Samson, Semele, Jepthe, and Judas Maccabaeus; Mozart's Mass in C minor, Coronation Mass, Vespers, and Requiem; Haydn's Die Schöpfung, The Seasons, Te Deum, Lord Nelson Mass, and Harmoniemesse; Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem; Fauré's Requiem; Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem; Delius' Requiem; and Orff's Carmina Burana. She has also performed late 20th & 21st-century works such as John Adam's El Niño; Andrea Clearfield's Alleluia; Donald McCullough's Song of the Shulamite; John Rutter's Requiem and Mass for the Children; and Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light.

In the realm of opera, Ms. Beebe has performed a variety of roles including Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro (the role of her 2015 debut with the Princeton Festival), Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Despina in Così fan tutte; Gluck's Euridice and Humperdinck's Gretel; 20th-century roles such as the First Niece in Peter Grimes with Princeton Opera Festival, and the First Daughter in Akhnaten with Indianapolis Opera, and in 17th-century repertoire, the commanding roles of La Gloire in Lully's Alceste and Purcell's Dido. Highlights of her operatic activity including covering the role of Lila in the 2016 East Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain, and joining Norway's Bergen National Opera to cover the role of the Angel in Netia Jones' hi-tech staged production of Messiah. In 2017, she helped to create the role of Luna in the world premiere of David Hertzberg's The Wake World with Opera Philadelphia and in 2018 she covered Winnie in Lembit Beecher's Sky on Swings. In 2019, Ms. Beebe debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the west coast debut of Meredith Monk's opera, Atlas. Beebe is a frequent performer of contemporary opera and is currently workshopping new operas with Opera Philadelphia by Jennifer Higdon and Missy Mazzoli.

Ms. Beebe is a member of GRAMMY winning ensemble The Crossing, GRAMMY nominated Clarion Society, GRAMMY nominated Seraphic Fire, founding member of Variant 6, Lorelei Ensemble, Trio Eos and Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia.

A native of the Philadelphia suburbs, Jessica Beebe earned her Bachelor of Music from the University of Delaware, her Master of Music in Early Music from Indiana University, and a Performance Certificate from London's Royal College of Music. Ms. Beebe is on faculty at both Franklin and Marshall and Muhlenberg Colleges. https://www.jessicabeebesoprano.com/

Doug Dodson, countertenor

Possessing a “beautiful, ringing, and agile countertenor” (Boston Classical Review), Doug Dodson brings sensitive musicality and strong dramatic instincts to repertoire ranging from the baroque to the contemporary. Praised as a “vivid countertenor” by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Dodson’s current and upcoming seasons feature a wide variety of exciting engagements throughout the United States.

In the 2022-23 season, Mr. Dodson makes his debut with Arts on Alexander in Austin, TX, performing parts IV-VI of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. He returns in the spring to sing his first complete St. John Passion of Bach. He will also be featured as a soloist in sections of the Christmas Oratorio and Bach’s Ascension Oratorio with Seraphic Fire (Miami, FL), and in Herr, wende dich und sei mir gnädig, a rarely heard cantata by Johann Christoph Bach with Atlanta's premier professional choral ensemble Kinnara in their exciting first collaboration with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. He was also happy to return to the operatic stage in Pegasus Early Music’s production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo as alto soloist and chorus.

Mr. Dodson's previous season in 2021-22 included performances of Handel's Messiah with the South Dakota Symphony in Sioux Falls, SD, and Bourbon Baroque in Louisville, KY. He also was featured as a soloist with Seraphic Fire in several Bach cantatas and a world premiere for men’s choir and countertenor soloist by Ilana Perez Velázquez, in Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb with the Summer Singers of Atlanta, and embarked on a tour of the UK with TENET Vocal Artists to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the birth of composer Thomas Tomkins, including performances in Cambridge, Oxford, Ely, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Edinburgh.

The 2019-20 season was unfortunately cut short due to the covid pandemic, but did include some exciting solo opportunities for Mr. Dodson, including Bach’s Cantata 106 (Actus tragicus) with Seraphic Fire in collaboration with the Aspen Music Festival and conducted by Robert Spano, and Schütz’ Musikalische Exequien with Boston’s Back Bay Chorale.

In the 2018-2019 season, Mr. Dodson appeared as an alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with New York City’s TENET Vocal Artists, in a unique unconducted performance featuring just twelve singers and the collaborative instrumental ensemble The Sebastians. He also joined TENET as an alto soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and appeared as the alto soloist in Messiah with the Handel Society of Dartmouth College. Additionally, Mr. Dodson created the role of Arion in the American premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Arion and the Dolphin with the Harvard Summer Chorus, and sang the countertenor solo in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra of Newburgh, NY.

Notable past engagements include the role of The United Way in the American premiere of Tod Machover’s highly anticipated new opera Death and the Powers, an innovative collaboration between the MIT Media Lab and The American Repertory Theatre performed at the A.R.T. (Boston, MA) and Chicago Opera Theatre, under the baton of Gil Rose. The world-premiere audio recording of this opera was released in 2021. Other operatic role creations include Ignis in the world premiere of Per Bloland’s opera Pedr Solis and Farinelli the Rooster in Ken Ueno’s Gallo with Guerilla Opera. The Boston Globe called his aria in Gallo “show-stopping” and Lloyd Schwartz (for New York Arts) praised his “impressive and uninhibited” countertenor. An accomplished Handelian, Mr. Dodson has been featured as the alto soloist in Messiah with the Charlotte Symphony and the South Dakota Symphony (among many others), and has performed the operas of Handel, Monteverdi, and Purcell and the cantatas and oratorios of Bach with such organizations as Boston Baroque, Aldeburgh Music, the Aspen Music Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston, MA), Seraphic Fire (Miami, FL), TENET Vocal Artists (New York, NY), Pacific MusicWorks (Seattle, WA), Pegasus Early Music (Rochester, NY), and the Henry Purcell Society of Boston.

Mr. Dodson is a dedicated ensemble singer and appears regularly with many esteemed choral ensembles throughout the country, including the prestigious Handel & Haydn Society, Seraphic Fire, Skylark, and Kinnara. He has been featured on four GRAMMY-nominated recordings by Skylark and the South Dakota Chorale.

His discography includes the United Way on the world-premiere recording of Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers, the Voice of the Angel on the world-premiere recording of James Kallembach’s The Most Sacred Body, as Perforated on the world-premiere recording of Nicholas Vines’ Loose, Wet, Perforated, and as a soloist in works by Charpentier and Sances on Viva Italia recorded with the Duke Vespers Ensemble.

Mr. Dodson has degrees from the University of South Dakota (Vermillion) and the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, and was a proud member of the prestigious Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in conjunction with Aldeburgh Music in Aldeburgh, UK. He also appears as a regular panelist on the critically acclaimed opera podcast OperaNow! and made his television debut in 2018 as a contestant on season 35 of Jeopardy!, where he was a three-day champion.. https://dougdodson.com/

Steven Brennfleck, tenor

Praised by the New York Times as a “stand out” performer, tenor Steven Brennfleck has been consistently acknowledged for his consummate artistry, vocal flexibility, and moving interpretations on the operatic and concert stage. He has received recognition from Classical Singer Magazine’s AudComps, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions | District Winner ‘06, ‘09, & ’10, and the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition. His operatic credits include performances with American Opera Projects, Glimmerglass Opera, OrpheusPDX, Portland Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, The Tanglewood Festival and others in roles such as Roderick Usher in Philip Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher, Don Ramiro | Cenerentola, Tamino | Die Zauberflöte, Laurie in Adamo’s Little Women, Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River, Gonsalve in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnol, Henrik | A Little Night Music, and Tobias Ragg | Sweeney Todd.

On the concert stage, Mr. Brennfleck has been hailed for his “Outstanding presence and clear, lyric voice” (Texas Classical Review) and “elegant” musicianship (The Baltimore Sun). He is a passionate interpreter of early music and regularly appears with some of the country’s top Baroque musical organizations in works by Bach, Handel, Monteverdi, the French hautre-contre repertory among others. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 and finds himself equally at home with art song as well as new and contemporary works. Mr. Brennfleck is a featured artist on recordings of Philip Glass’ Orphée with the Portland Opera and Charles Wuorinen’s cantata It Happens Like This among others. He has collaborated with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Ars Lyrica Houston, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Bach Ensemble, LA International New Music Festival, Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest, the MET Chamber Ensemble and the Victoria Bach Festival. In addition to his performance schedule, Mr. Brennfleck is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, presenting masterclasses for musicians throughout the United States and abroad. www.stevenbrennfleck.com

Edward Vogel, bass

Praised for his “clarion tone” (Chicago Classical Review) and “commanding and animated” presence (Seen & Heard International), baritone Edward Vogel possesses a diverse repertoire spanning ten centuries. Recent solo appearances have included Handel’s Messiah, Israel in Egypt, and Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine with GRAMMY®-winning Apollo’s Fire under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, Bach’s Mass in B minor, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with GRAMMY®-nominated True Concord Voices and Orchestra, under the direction of Eric Holtan. The 2023-2024 season will see his solo debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, reprising his role in Israel in Egypt with Jeannette Sorrell. In 2019 he made his international solo debut in Bach’s Mass in G Major at Snape Maltings, UK, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. Highly in-demand as an ensemble singer, Mr. Vogel has performed with Bach Collegium Japan, and Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices in the world premiere of David Lang’s the writings at Carnegie Hall.

An avid recitalist, Edward finds passion in delivering sensitive, intimate performances of both art song and genres that go beyond the traditional classical canon. A two-time Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, he has honed his craft by coaching with champions of art song including Dawn Upshaw, Roger Vignoles, and the late Sanford Sylvan. His musical interests have led to engaging and diverse recitals of repertoire ranging from music of medieval Iberia to British art songs of the twentieth century.

Edward received his Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with tenor James Taylor. During his time at Yale, he appeared regularly as a soloist with the Yale Schola Cantorum and the Yale Voxtet, most notably in Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis at Lincoln Center with David Hill, and on an album of Christmas music by Heinrich Schütz released on the Hyperion label. Additionally, Mr. Vogel holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied with baritone Stephen Lancaster. Prior to his studies at Notre Dame, Edward sang for ten years with the Trinity Choir of Men and Boys in New Haven, Connecticut, where he received extensive training under the direction of R. Walden Moore, with whom he continues to collaborate. edwardvogelmusic.com

Johann Sebastian Bach: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140
Georg Frideric Handel: Concerto Grosso in B-flat Major, HWV 313, Op. 3, No. 2   
Antonio Vivaldi: Gloria

Soloists: Jessica Beebe, soprano; Doug Dodson, countertenor; Steven Brennfleck, tenor; Edward Vogel, bass
The Redeemer Choir
Philharmonie Austin
Mark Dupere, conductor

{no charge for admission}

Mark Dupere, conductor

Mark Dupere is Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University, where he is the Director of Orchestral Studies. He is a passionate educator and hopes to impart a love of music-making and active engagement with audiences in the performance of music from all periods. He currently conducts the Lawrence Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.

As a cellist, Mark performed throughout Europe with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Haagsche Hofmuzieck, and Ani-ma Eterna Brugge and was an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. Mark was a “Emerging Artist” at the Victoria Bach Festival, performed in the Leipzig Bach Competition, and most recently was named a national finalist in the American Prize in Conducting. Mark holds degrees in cello from the University of Texas at Austin and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, the Netherlands, and a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University.

Jessica Beebe, soprano

Lauded by Opera News as “evocative and ethereal”, “a honey-colored tone”, and "the most radiant solo singing", soprano Jessica Beebe is steadily gaining international attention as an affecting interpreter of repertoire spanning over four centuries, ranging from Renaissance music to contemporary American opera. In recent seasons, she has appeared as a guest soloist in concert with The New York City Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, The Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall, The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Raymond Leppard; The Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra; the Princeton Festival Orchestra; The English Concert under Harry Bicket, Bourbon Baroque, Piffaro The Renaissance Wind Band; The Folger Consort; the Delaware Symphony Orchestra; the Utah Symphony under the baton of Craig Jessop, and several other orchestras and ensembles.

Ms. Beebe's vast solo concert and oratorio repertoire includes such major works like Monteverdi's Vespro della beata vergine; Vivaldi's In furore iustissimae iræ and Gloria; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater; J. S. Bach's Mass in B minor, St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio, and a wide range of cantatas; Handel's Messiah, Dixit Dominus, Samson, Semele, Jepthe, and Judas Maccabaeus; Mozart's Mass in C minor, Coronation Mass, Vespers, and Requiem; Haydn's Die Schöpfung, The Seasons, Te Deum, Lord Nelson Mass, and Harmoniemesse; Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem; Fauré's Requiem; Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem; Delius' Requiem; and Orff's Carmina Burana. She has also performed late 20th & 21st-century works such as John Adam's El Niño; Andrea Clearfield's Alleluia; Donald McCullough's Song of the Shulamite; John Rutter's Requiem and Mass for the Children; and Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light.

In the realm of opera, Ms. Beebe has performed a variety of roles including Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro (the role of her 2015 debut with the Princeton Festival), Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Despina in Così fan tutte; Gluck's Euridice and Humperdinck's Gretel; 20th-century roles such as the First Niece in Peter Grimes with Princeton Opera Festival, and the First Daughter in Akhnaten with Indianapolis Opera, and in 17th-century repertoire, the commanding roles of La Gloire in Lully's Alceste and Purcell's Dido. Highlights of her operatic activity including covering the role of Lila in the 2016 East Coast premiere of Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain, and joining Norway's Bergen National Opera to cover the role of the Angel in Netia Jones' hi-tech staged production of Messiah. In 2017, she helped to create the role of Luna in the world premiere of David Hertzberg's The Wake World with Opera Philadelphia and in 2018 she covered Winnie in Lembit Beecher's Sky on Swings. In 2019, Ms. Beebe debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the west coast debut of Meredith Monk's opera, Atlas. Beebe is a frequent performer of contemporary opera and is currently workshopping new operas with Opera Philadelphia by Jennifer Higdon and Missy Mazzoli.

Ms. Beebe is a member of GRAMMY winning ensemble The Crossing, GRAMMY nominated Clarion Society, GRAMMY nominated Seraphic Fire, founding member of Variant 6, Lorelei Ensemble, Trio Eos and Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia.

A native of the Philadelphia suburbs, Jessica Beebe earned her Bachelor of Music from the University of Delaware, her Master of Music in Early Music from Indiana University, and a Performance Certificate from London's Royal College of Music. Ms. Beebe is on faculty at both Franklin and Marshall and Muhlenberg Colleges. https://www.jessicabeebesoprano.com/

Doug Dodson, countertenor

Possessing a “beautiful, ringing, and agile countertenor” (Boston Classical Review), Doug Dodson brings sensitive musicality and strong dramatic instincts to repertoire ranging from the baroque to the contemporary. Praised as a “vivid countertenor” by the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Dodson’s current and upcoming seasons feature a wide variety of exciting engagements throughout the United States.

In the 2022-23 season, Mr. Dodson makes his debut with Arts on Alexander in Austin, TX, performing parts IV-VI of Bach's Christmas Oratorio. He returns in the spring to sing his first complete St. John Passion of Bach. He will also be featured as a soloist in sections of the Christmas Oratorio and Bach’s Ascension Oratorio with Seraphic Fire (Miami, FL), and in Herr, wende dich und sei mir gnädig, a rarely heard cantata by Johann Christoph Bach with Atlanta's premier professional choral ensemble Kinnara in their exciting first collaboration with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. He was also happy to return to the operatic stage in Pegasus Early Music’s production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo as alto soloist and chorus.

Mr. Dodson's previous season in 2021-22 included performances of Handel's Messiah with the South Dakota Symphony in Sioux Falls, SD, and Bourbon Baroque in Louisville, KY. He also was featured as a soloist with Seraphic Fire in several Bach cantatas and a world premiere for men’s choir and countertenor soloist by Ilana Perez Velázquez, in Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb with the Summer Singers of Atlanta, and embarked on a tour of the UK with TENET Vocal Artists to commemorate the 450th anniversary of the birth of composer Thomas Tomkins, including performances in Cambridge, Oxford, Ely, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Edinburgh.

The 2019-20 season was unfortunately cut short due to the covid pandemic, but did include some exciting solo opportunities for Mr. Dodson, including Bach’s Cantata 106 (Actus tragicus) with Seraphic Fire in collaboration with the Aspen Music Festival and conducted by Robert Spano, and Schütz’ Musikalische Exequien with Boston’s Back Bay Chorale.

In the 2018-2019 season, Mr. Dodson appeared as an alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with New York City’s TENET Vocal Artists, in a unique unconducted performance featuring just twelve singers and the collaborative instrumental ensemble The Sebastians. He also joined TENET as an alto soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and appeared as the alto soloist in Messiah with the Handel Society of Dartmouth College. Additionally, Mr. Dodson created the role of Arion in the American premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Arion and the Dolphin with the Harvard Summer Chorus, and sang the countertenor solo in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra of Newburgh, NY.

Notable past engagements include the role of The United Way in the American premiere of Tod Machover’s highly anticipated new opera Death and the Powers, an innovative collaboration between the MIT Media Lab and The American Repertory Theatre performed at the A.R.T. (Boston, MA) and Chicago Opera Theatre, under the baton of Gil Rose. The world-premiere audio recording of this opera was released in 2021. Other operatic role creations include Ignis in the world premiere of Per Bloland’s opera Pedr Solis and Farinelli the Rooster in Ken Ueno’s Gallo with Guerilla Opera. The Boston Globe called his aria in Gallo “show-stopping” and Lloyd Schwartz (for New York Arts) praised his “impressive and uninhibited” countertenor. An accomplished Handelian, Mr. Dodson has been featured as the alto soloist in Messiah with the Charlotte Symphony and the South Dakota Symphony (among many others), and has performed the operas of Handel, Monteverdi, and Purcell and the cantatas and oratorios of Bach with such organizations as Boston Baroque, Aldeburgh Music, the Aspen Music Festival, the Handel and Haydn Society (Boston, MA), Seraphic Fire (Miami, FL), TENET Vocal Artists (New York, NY), Pacific MusicWorks (Seattle, WA), Pegasus Early Music (Rochester, NY), and the Henry Purcell Society of Boston.

Mr. Dodson is a dedicated ensemble singer and appears regularly with many esteemed choral ensembles throughout the country, including the prestigious Handel & Haydn Society, Seraphic Fire, Skylark, and Kinnara. He has been featured on four GRAMMY-nominated recordings by Skylark and the South Dakota Chorale.

His discography includes the United Way on the world-premiere recording of Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers, the Voice of the Angel on the world-premiere recording of James Kallembach’s The Most Sacred Body, as Perforated on the world-premiere recording of Nicholas Vines’ Loose, Wet, Perforated, and as a soloist in works by Charpentier and Sances on Viva Italia recorded with the Duke Vespers Ensemble.

Mr. Dodson has degrees from the University of South Dakota (Vermillion) and the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, and was a proud member of the prestigious Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in conjunction with Aldeburgh Music in Aldeburgh, UK. He also appears as a regular panelist on the critically acclaimed opera podcast OperaNow! and made his television debut in 2018 as a contestant on season 35 of Jeopardy!, where he was a three-day champion.. https://dougdodson.com/

Steven Brennfleck, tenor

Praised by the New York Times as a “stand out” performer, tenor Steven Brennfleck has been consistently acknowledged for his consummate artistry, vocal flexibility, and moving interpretations on the operatic and concert stage. He has received recognition from Classical Singer Magazine’s AudComps, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions | District Winner ‘06, ‘09, & ’10, and the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition. His operatic credits include performances with American Opera Projects, Glimmerglass Opera, OrpheusPDX, Portland Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, The Tanglewood Festival and others in roles such as Roderick Usher in Philip Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher, Don Ramiro | Cenerentola, Tamino | Die Zauberflöte, Laurie in Adamo’s Little Women, Madwoman in Britten’s Curlew River, Gonsalve in Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnol, Henrik | A Little Night Music, and Tobias Ragg | Sweeney Todd.

On the concert stage, Mr. Brennfleck has been hailed for his “Outstanding presence and clear, lyric voice” (Texas Classical Review) and “elegant” musicianship (The Baltimore Sun). He is a passionate interpreter of early music and regularly appears with some of the country’s top Baroque musical organizations in works by Bach, Handel, Monteverdi, the French hautre-contre repertory among others. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2012 and finds himself equally at home with art song as well as new and contemporary works. Mr. Brennfleck is a featured artist on recordings of Philip Glass’ Orphée with the Portland Opera and Charles Wuorinen’s cantata It Happens Like This among others. He has collaborated with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Ars Lyrica Houston, Austin Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Bach Ensemble, LA International New Music Festival, Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest, the MET Chamber Ensemble and the Victoria Bach Festival. In addition to his performance schedule, Mr. Brennfleck is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, presenting masterclasses for musicians throughout the United States and abroad. www.stevenbrennfleck.com

Edward Vogel, bass

Praised for his “clarion tone” (Chicago Classical Review) and “commanding and animated” presence (Seen & Heard International), baritone Edward Vogel possesses a diverse repertoire spanning ten centuries. Recent solo appearances have included Handel’s Messiah, Israel in Egypt, and Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine with GRAMMY®-winning Apollo’s Fire under the direction of Jeannette Sorrell; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, Bach’s Mass in B minor, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with GRAMMY®-nominated True Concord Voices and Orchestra, under the direction of Eric Holtan. The 2023-2024 season will see his solo debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, reprising his role in Israel in Egypt with Jeannette Sorrell. In 2019 he made his international solo debut in Bach’s Mass in G Major at Snape Maltings, UK, under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe. Highly in-demand as an ensemble singer, Mr. Vogel has performed with Bach Collegium Japan, and Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices in the world premiere of David Lang’s the writings at Carnegie Hall.

An avid recitalist, Edward finds passion in delivering sensitive, intimate performances of both art song and genres that go beyond the traditional classical canon. A two-time Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, he has honed his craft by coaching with champions of art song including Dawn Upshaw, Roger Vignoles, and the late Sanford Sylvan. His musical interests have led to engaging and diverse recitals of repertoire ranging from music of medieval Iberia to British art songs of the twentieth century.

Edward received his Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with tenor James Taylor. During his time at Yale, he appeared regularly as a soloist with the Yale Schola Cantorum and the Yale Voxtet, most notably in Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis at Lincoln Center with David Hill, and on an album of Christmas music by Heinrich Schütz released on the Hyperion label. Additionally, Mr. Vogel holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied with baritone Stephen Lancaster. Prior to his studies at Notre Dame, Edward sang for ten years with the Trinity Choir of Men and Boys in New Haven, Connecticut, where he received extensive training under the direction of R. Walden Moore, with whom he continues to collaborate. edwardvogelmusic.com

Organist, Freiburg Cathedral, Germany
Professor of Organ, The University of Freiburg

{no charge for admission}

We welcome back Matthias to Redeemer where he served as organist 2014-2016. This is his fourth appearance in the Holbrook Organ Series.

Matthias Maierhofer studied organ, early music and church music at the universities of Graz, Freiburg, Leipzig, and at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. Among his teachers were Arvid Gast, Andrea Marcon, Kurt Neuhauser and Martin Schmeding.

In 2007, Matthias Maierhofer was the winner of one of the most renowned international organ competitions: the Pachelbel Competition in Nuremberg. He was also a prize winner at the International Franz Schmidt Organ Competition in Kitzbühel in 2008, at the International Bach Competition in Arnstadt in 2007, at the International Organ Concours in Nijmegen in 2006 and at the International Organ Competition in Vilnius in 2003. Since then, regular concert activities have taken him to important concert venues and festivals in Europe, the USA, Russia, Japan and South Korea. As a soloist and continuo player, Matthias Maierhofer has performed with ensembles such as the Dresdner Kreuzchor, the Thomanerchor Leipzig, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Staatskapelle Halle. At the Freiburger Münster he performs weekly with the Domsingknaben, the girls' choir, the cathedral Domkapelle and the cathedral choir. He was involved in CD productions and publications by Edition Helbling, recordings are available for various radio stations and through the labels Ambitus, Ambiente and Spektral.

From 2009 to 2013, Matthias Maierhofer led an organ class at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy University of Music and Theater in Leipzig.

In 2013 Matthias Maierhofer was appointed as the successor to Prof. Dr. Gerre Hancock to the professorship for organ and church music at The University of Texas at Austin. There he was named a Dean's Fellow in 2015 for outstanding educational achievements and was awarded the Ducloux Fellowship of the College of Fine Arts.

Matthias Maierhofer has been a professor of organ at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg since 2016 and also works as cathedral organist at the Münster ‹Unserer Lieben Frau› in Freiburg. As artistic director of the Freiburg Cathedral organ concerts, he is responsible for one of the leading international organ concert series.

Students from his organ class have received over 50 national and international awards in important competitions, scholarship programs and foundations in recent years, including: the St. Albans International Organ Competition (GB), International Organ Competition in Miami (USA), Silbermann Competition Freiberg (Germany), Mendelssohn Competition Berlin (Germany), International Organ Competition «Organ without Borders» Dudelange (Luxembourg), Daniel Herz Competition Brixen (Italy), International Organ Competition Korschenbroich (Germany), The London Organ Competition (GB), Maria Hofer Competition Kitzbühel (Austria), Rheinberger Competition Vaduz (Liechtenstein), Faszination Organ Competition Mannheim (Germany), International Lazlo Spezferatti Competition Verona (Italy), Prix International Boellmann-Gigout Strasbourg (France), International Suisse Organ Competition St. Maurice (Switzerland). Furthermore, students of Matthias Maierhofer have been awarded the Deutschlandstipendium, the DAAD scholarship, the E.T.A. Hoffmann Scholarship, the Albertus Magnus and Hildegardis Scholarship, the Rosenberg Scholarship and the Recruitment Fellowship of the University of Texas and have also been accepted into the funding programs of the Cusanus Foundation, the Bucerius Foundation, the German Foundation for Music Life and the German National Academic Foundation.