No charge for admission.

Matthew Wilkinson is an American organist, residing in Denton, Texas. At the age of 22 he was appointed as the youngest music director in the history of St. Michael’s Anglican Church, the oldest church in Charleston, South Carolina (1751). There he served for six years as organist and choirmaster and had the privilege of developing a thriving choral program, starting a concert series, and performing orchestral works such as Bach’s Magnificat and Vivaldi’s Gloria.

Before moving to Charleston, Matthew received a performance degree in piano from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, where he was awarded the school’s prestigious Instrumental Performance Award and Presser Scholarship. After serving as music director in Charleston, he moved to Freiburg, Germany, to continue his studies in organ and to have the opportunity to play historical instruments. His teachers have included: Matthias Maierhofer, David Franke, and Vincent Dubois, and he has participated in lessons and masterclasses with Daniel Roth, Ullrich Böhme, Guy Bovet and Robert Hill (cembalo).

In 2020 Matthew performed concerts in Stoermthal, Freiburg, Naumburg, and Memmingen, Germany, was an artist in the Roquevaire International Organ Festival in France, and a semi-finalist in the International Franz Schmidt Organ Competition. This Spring, his recording of Bach’s Clavierübung III on the Trost organ in Waltershausen will be released with Spektral Rekords. He is currently organist at Christ Church Cathedral, Plano and is pursuing his DMA in organ at the University of North Texas with Dr. Jesse Eschbach.

Ticketed event: $40 General / $35 Senior

$5 Student tickets available at the door.

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Wolfram Lattke Tenor

THE SOUND OF DISTINCTION

It all began in Leipzig – a city which has lived, breathed and celebrated music for centuries. Vocal quintet amarcord was founded in 1992 by members of St Thomas’s Boys Choir who dreamed of making their shared passion for vocal music their career. These days, following a string of highly acclaimed CD recordings, awards and international recitals, amarcord has long been a household name in the world of vocal ensembles. Many even say they’re in a class of their own!

Robert Pohlers Tenor

PERFECTION WITH SOUL

Five voices which have become legendary for their homogenous sound. Five singers who jointly explore the character of each song in order to bring it to life for the audience. Five singers so perfectly in tune with each other that their ‘vocal instrument’ spans the range of an entire orchestra. Listening to amarcord reminds us that singing is the most natural form of music – produced by the body for the human soul.

Frank Ozimek Baritone

THEIR HALLMARK: STYLISTIC VARIABILITY

There is probably no other vocal ensemble as varied or as flexible as amarcord. Wolfram Lattke, Robert Pohlers, Frank Ozimek, Daniel Knauft and Holger Krause lend a contemporary voice to medieval songs, renaissance madrigals and Romantic compositions. With their roots in the city where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and worked for decades, and with their performance skills blessed with instinctive certainty, the five singers intone the vocal heritage of Bach, come up with inventive arrangements of traditional folk songs, and even add their own drive to jazz and soul songs. Yet despite treating each style individually, the result is always unmistakably amarcord: accomplished, harmonically sophisticated, and brilliantly performed.

Daniel Knauft Bass

MUSIC SPAWNED BY CURIOSITY

Behind amarcord’s success is its curiosity for music of every type and genre, its history, compositions, traditions and uniqueness. Over the years, the members have forged a musical diversity taking them to over 50 countries, where they keep their eyes and ears open amidst the local musical heritage in search of inspiration for future programmes. Music, musicians, people and places merge into a symbiosis which remains the driving force behind amarcord.

Holger Krause Bass

BRINGING PAST TO PRESENT

For the audience, this is now the golden age of amarcord, an ensemble at the height of its abilities. With their musical perfection, conceptual prowess and world-class voices, Wolfram Lattke, Robert Pohlers, Frank Ozimek, Daniel Knauft and Holger Krause leave their mark today where tomorrow their legacy will lie.

Experiencing these five exceptional singers from Leipzig is an unforgettable experience. The ensemble’s name is perfectly apt, for in the Emilia-Romagna dialect, the word amarcord means ‘I remember’. In their performances, amarcord unearth musical gems from yesteryear and present jewels of contemporary composition, creating an unforgettable evening for the audience which long lives on in the memory.

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Gregory Eaton is a conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and recorderist active in both sacred and secular music.  After initial keyboard training from his mother, his musical studies were at the University of Redlands and Manhattan School of Music.  He considers his most formative teachers to have been Jeffrey Rickard in church music and conducting, and Dr. Leslie Spelman in organ.  Dr. Spelman was himself a pupil of Joseph Bonnet and Charles-Marie Widor in Paris, and one of the great organ pedagogues of the 20th century.

Gregory is currently the Organist/Choirmaster at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, in Austin, TX, where he has been since November of 2014.  He conducts the parish’s two vocal choirs and handbell choir, and provides music for Sunday services, monthly Evensong, and other special events.  He is also the Lecturer in Organ and Harpsichord at the Butler School of Music, University of Texas, since 2019.  In addition, he serves as director of the Damenchor (women’s choir) of the Austin Saengerrunde (German singing society).  He is a member of the Austin Recorder Quartet, which plays instruments ranging from the 7" sopranino to 6' contrabass recorder.  Gregory is on the Board of La Follia Austin Baroque Orchestra, and president of the Board of Ensemble VIII.  Mr. Eaton is a member of the American Guild of Organists, and has recently served as Dean of the Austin Chapter. In the Brooklyn Chapter of the AGO, he served as a member of the Executive Board, three terms as Sub-Dean, and three terms as Dean.  

Prior to Austin, Gregory was in New York from 1984 to 2014, where he moved upon being invited to be a part of the music staff at Trinity Church, Wall Street.  In addition, he served as Lecturer in Church Music at the General Theological Seminary for 24 years, concurrent with his position as director of music at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church for 21 years.  At St. Ann’s, he founded a weekly organ concert series on the church’s historic E.M. Skinner organ, on which he played over 600 concerts in a 15-year span, utilizing a repertoire of more than 650 works, from short chorales to full-scale organ symphonies.  Gregory was also co-founder, with David Hurd, of Chelsea Winds recorder ensemble

Eric Mellenbruch is a liturgical musician and typographer who has served as Organist and Associate Music Director of St David’s Episcopal Church, Austin, since 2015. In recent years his performing and study have focused on chant and the polyphony, mainly from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, based upon it: a series of Organ Vespers (2013–16) exploring this liturgical organ music in its native context; a concert series (2019–20; interrupted by the pandemic) of vocal and organ music based on the chorales translated in the first English hymnal, of which Eric is preparing the first critical, corrected edition; ongoing analysis, translation, and adaptation of chant from the Latin repertory for use with the Daily Office of the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer. He has also written, arranged, edited, and/or translated nearly a hundred anthems, especially for the St David’s Singers, which he ordinarily directs; and in the last year, responding to restrictions brought about by the pandemic, has recorded about sixty pieces on virtual organs (ericmellenbruch.com). In addition to mediating, and meditating upon, verbal and musical texts through study, translation, and performance, Eric likewise seeks the correspondence of meaning and form, source and issue, in the typography of, inter alia, the printed artefacts of the aforementioned projects; countless liturgical booklets; some experimental work; and books such as The Gospel of Mark, with helps as to its structure (2018) and Hymns for all, and all for one (2020–). Since 2008 Eric has also designed a number of books for the Concordia University Press and The Wendish Press.

Eric earned the degrees of Bachelor of Music (church music) and Master of Music (organ performance) at Baylor University and held an internship in music and liturgy at the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, subsequently serving the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, Austin, as Organist (2000–15), Director of Communications (2005–7), and Director of Music (2007–15).

Chris Oelkers was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada.  A recipient of numerous scholarships and awards, he studied organ and church music at the University of Manitoba and University of Kansas, where he was also organist at various local churches in Lawrence and Topeka.

From 1998-2005, Chris was Principal Organist and Associate Music Director for Village Presbyterian Church in suburban Kansas City.  In August of 2005, he joined the ministry team at St. Louis King of France Catholic Church in Austin, and from 2009 to 2016 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.  He has been a semifinalist and finalist in the American Guild of Organists National Competition in Organ Improvisation. He has been featured on the Great Organ Series at the University of Texas, and has been Guest Artist on KMFA 89.5 FM radio’s weekly broadcast of “Pipeworks.”  When not occupied as a church musician, he directs the Austin Sängerrunde, a German choir representing the oldest ethnic society in Austin, dating to 1879.  Chris lives in Austin with his wife Christine and daughter Katherine.

Chris played the very first concert in this Holbrook Organ Series on November 4, 2011, soon after it arrived from Harvard and was set up in Covenant Hall. We are very glad to have him back!

Michael Phillips, a former head chorister and choral scholar at Chelmsford Cathedral in the UK, began organ studies in his mid teens under Graham Elliott and Peter Wright at Southwark Cathedral. Shortly thereafter, he won a scholarship to Eton College where he studied with Alastair Sampson and won the school’s prestigious organ prize in his final year. Following a period as organ and choral scholar at Truro Cathedral, Michael spent a year singing with the choirs of Gloucester Cathedral, Tewkesbury Abbey, King’s College London and the Dublin-based Riverdance spin-off choir “Anúna’.” While subsequently studying for his Masters in Music at the University of Cambridge, he was for three years a choral scholar at Trinity College under Richard Marlow and Stephen Layton, and a deputy choral scholar at St John’s College under David Hill. Michael can be heard on a wide variety of commercial recordings with several different choirs, and has performed regularly on live BBC radio broadcasts and TV programs. As an organist he has given recitals in many prestigious venues around the UK.  Tonight’s recital will be his first in North America.

Since 2007, Michael has combined a busy financial services career with organ playing and singing predominantly at St. Luke’s Church in Chelsea, London.  Shortly after moving to Texas with his family in 2015, Michael was appointed Organist and Minister of Music at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Dallas, and since 2018 has been Organist at Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Austin.

Ticketed event: $30 General / $25 Senior

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Parker's Website

PROGRAM

Bach Goldberg Variations, transcribed by Parker Ramsay

Parker Ramsay’s career, unique in its integration of contemporary music and historical performance, defies easy categorization. Equally at home on modern and period harps, Parker is dedicated to invigorating the existing canon while delving into new and underperformed works. In 2020, the recording of his transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for the King’s College, Cambridge label was praised as “remarkably special” (Gramophone), “nuanced and insightful” (BBC Music Magazine), “relentlessly beautiful” (WQXR), “marked by keen musical intelligence” (The Wall Street Journal) and “a resounding success” (The Independent). His essay on the transcription process, “Is Bach Better on Harp?” was published in The New York Times, and followed up with further insights in VAN Magazine and on his blog, Harping On: Thoughts from a Recovering Organist.

A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Parker began harp studies with his mother at a young age before moving to the UK at age 16. Parker was awarded the undergraduate organ scholarship at King’s College, Cambridge where he served under the direction of Stephen Cleobury. His tenure with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge included performing for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 2012, as well as six international tours and four recordings. Parker has performed at the Concertgebouw in (Amsterdam), the Royal Albert Hall (London), the Musée d’Orsay (Paris), the National Center for the Performing Arts in (Beijing), Sejong Center for the Performing Arts (Seoul), Verizon Hall in (Philadelphia), and Alice Tully Hall (New York City).

Parker is co-director of A Golden Wire, a period instrument ensemble devoted to French and English music from the seventeenth century. He has appeared with the Shanghai Camerata, the Academy of Sacred Drama, Ruckus, Teatro Nuovo and Apollo’s Fire. Upcoming projects include collaborations with composers Tom Morrison, Michael Seltenreich, David Fulmer, Saad Haddad, Josh Levine, Nico Muhly and Marcos Balter.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in history at Cambridge, he pursued graduate studies in historical keyboards at Oberlin Conservatory. In 2014, he was awarded First Prize at the Sweelinck International Organ Competition. He then studied modern harp at The Juilliard School, under the tutelage of Nancy Allen. He is a regular contributor for VAN Magazine, and his writing has appeared in Cleveland Classical, The New York Times and The Washington Post. He lives in New York City.

PROGRAM

Musical works by Heinrich Scheidemann, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, and Dietrich Buxtehude

No charge for admission.

Projecting “a warmly musical personality,'“ Julia Brown’s many recordings on Naxos hail her as an “unquestionably first-class artist and superb technician… exceptionally sensitive.”  Her organ and harpsichord recordings of W. F. Bach, J. S. Bach, Buxtehude, and Scheidemann have gained high critical acclaim. 

In demand as a historical keyboardist and collaborative artist, Brown’s performances include chamber music, orchestral repertoire, and continuo playing in addition to solo recitals.  Brown has appeared in concert in North and South America and in Europe, having performed at the Oregon Bach Festival, Astoria Music Festival, Chico Bach Festival, American Guild of Organists Regional and National Conventions, Organ Historical Society Conventions, Latin American Organist Conventions, and National Public Radio. 

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brown studied piano, harpsichord and organ in her native Brazil before receiving her MM and DMA from Northwestern University as a student of Wolfgang Rübsam.  She has served as president of ABO (Brazilian Association of Organists) and is currently Co-Dean of the Grand Rapids Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Upcoming performance include the Taylor and Boody at Holy Cross College in Worchester, a week-long residency at the University of Oregon, and the National AGO Convention in Seattle.  Julia currently works as Director of Music and Organist at Mayflower Congregational Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Ticketed event: $25 General / $20 Senior

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PROGRAM

• Handel Messiah | Part I – The Nativity

• Bach Orchestral Suite No. 1

The Redeemer Choir

The Redeemer Choir was formed in the late 1990’s by then Chief Musician Leonard Payton and taken up by George Dupere in the fall of 2001. The choir serves Redeemer Presbyterian Church through its singing and support in the Divine Services. The ensemble is made up entirely of volunteers from the congregation who sing over 100 services each year. Since 2002, the choir has also participated in an annual Festival of Music in December and adds a second festival this season in the spring of 2022. Among other major works, it has sung Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, various Bach cantatas, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah and Utrecht Te Deum, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah.

Musica Redemptor Orchestra

In 2002, Redeemer Presbyterian Church began a ten year collaboration with First Presbyterian Church in its annual St. Cecilia Music Festival. Each year, these 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 adopted, and it 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. For the 2022-2023 season, it is our hope to extend these concerts, performing repertoire of the 19th century.

Mark Dupere, conductor, is Assistant 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 well the Fox Valley Youth Orchestra. 

As a cellist, Mark performed throughout Europe with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Haagsche Hofmuzieck, and Anima Eterna Brugge and was an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. Mark was a “New Young 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, Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, The Netherlands, and a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting at Michigan State University.

Emily Dupere, orchestra leader, is an Australian violinist who 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 is the concertmaster of Musica Redemptor Orchestra in Austin, TX and she also coaches chamber music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Her particular interests include the sacred music of Bach and classical and romantic chamber music on period instruments.

George Dupere is in his twenty-first year as Chief Musician at Redeemer where he provides oversight for liturgy and music and more recently serves as Artistic Director for Arts on Alexander. Prior to his move to Austin, he served as Minister of Music and Worship for over twenty years at Camelback Bible Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona. While there, he oversaw the development of a vibrant music program and the construction of a new sanctuary. He also produced two CDs, one of Mendelssohn’s Elijah and the other a collection of choral anthems entitled Songs of Triumph.

Building upon the work of predecessor Leonard Payton at Redeemer, George has continued to provide oversight of the Divine Services, the development of the Redeemer hymnal, and the development of the Redeemer Choir.

George’s undergraduate degrees were taken at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and at Bethel University in St. Paul. His graduate studies began at the University of Minnesota and Westminster Choir College and were completed in 1993 at Arizona State University. George’s doctoral dissertation explored the relationship of choral singing and architectural acoustics. 

Solo Artists

Elizabeth Ann McGee, soprano, originally from Houston and currently living in Dallas, holds her Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the University of North Texas. Elizabeth has been on three European tours as a featured soloist and, most recently, has premiered a new choral work in Ireland.

Recently she has been featured as a soloist on BBC Radio with The Incarnation Choir’s album Choral Evensong for Eastertide, after which she completed a week long residency at York Minster Cathedral. She was also featured as a soloist on the world’s first ever choral NFT, Betty’s Notebook, with Verdigris Ensemble.

Next to her solo activities, Elizabeth has performed with Orpheus Chamber Singers, Verdigris Ensemble, Denton Bach Society, Dallas Chamber Choir, Lake Houston Chamber Singers, Lumedia Musicworks, Highland Park Chorale, Incarnatus, Boston Early Music Festival, Victoria Bach Festival, & Ensemble VIII. Elizabeth currently works as a soprano staff singer at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas under the direction of Scott Dettra.

Karen Knudsen Stanley, mezzo-soprano, grew up in a large musical family and started performing with her seven sisters at age two, began playing piano at age four, and cello at age ten. Her solo singing career was born at age fourteen when she emerged from the orchestra pit to sing the alto solos in Handel’s Messiah.

In addition to the Redeemer Artes Festival of Music, her frequent solo and professional ensemble engagements include Phoenix Chorale, Kansas City Chorale, Phoenix Symphony, Tucson Masterworks Chorale, Arizona Bach Festival, True Concord Voices and Orchestra (formerly Tucson Chamber Artists), Apollo Master Chorale, and Tucson Symphony. Ms. Stanley lives in Gilbert, Arizona, with her incredible husband and two children.

Daniel Buchanan, tenor, is a multifaceted artist active as a singer, actor, composer, pianist, and music educator.  He made his European debut singing St. John Passion with Finland’s  Kuninkaantien Muusikot  and performed the role of Nemorino in The Elixir of Love at the Portland Opera. Other recent performances include the Portland Chamber Orchestra (Messiah), Portland Opera (Madama Butterfly), Walla Walla Symphony, a tour of the Greek Islands with Cappella Romana, the title role of Werther with Opera Theater Oregon, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Newport Symphony, and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival.

For three years, he performed regularly with the Houston Grand Opera, including the roles of Tonio in The Daughter of the Regiment, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, and The Witch in Hansel and Gretel. Other opera roles include Ferrando in Così fan tutte, the title role in Albert Herring, and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni.  Mr. Buchanan enjoys frequent appearances with the Oregon Bach Festival (St. John Passion, Christmas Oratorio), Southwest Florida Symphony, Bach Society of Houston (St. Matthew Passion, Brockes Passion), Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and Houston Chamber Choir (B Minor Mass).

Since 2005, Mr. Buchanan has sung with the internationally-acclaimed vocal ensemble Conspirare, based in Austin, Texas.  With the group, he recorded the Grammy-nominated release A Company of Voices, which was aired nationally on PBS.  Conspirare was a featured choir at the Wold Symposium on Choral Music in Copenhagen in 2008.  He is also a founding member of Opera Vista, an innovative opera company based in Houston, Texas. Presenting a festival of contemporary opera every year, Opera Vista has become a vibrant addition to the arts community.  With the company, he sang in Amy Beach’s Cabildo, including performances at the French Quarter Music Festival in New Orleans.

Mr. Buchanan has served on the voice faculties of the Conservatory of Music at Wheaton College and Lone Star College.  He is also the founder and primary instructor of an active voice studio called Resound NW.  He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and two children.

Aaron Harp, bass, has been praised by the Dallas Morning News for his “appealingly rich baritone” and “sensitive singing.” He is building a reputation around the nation as a stylistic performer of early music. Recent solo engagements include performances of J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Mass in B minor, and Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah, and Mozart’s Requiem.

He has performed with many noted ensembles across the country, including Santa Fe Desert Chorale, The Thirteen, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Bach Society Houston, Dallas Bach Society and Orpheus Chamber Singers. He has been featured in performances at Bachfest Leipzig, Boston Early Music Festival, Berkeley Early Music Festival, and American Bach Soloists Festival.

Aaron is currently on faculty at Wofford College in South Carolina as the Director of Choral and Vocal Studies. He holds a doctorate in choral conducting from the University of Colorado Boulder and a master’s degree in vocal performance and choral conducting from the University of North Texas where he studied with Jennifer Lane and Stephen Morscheck. Originally from Texas, Aaron and his wife and three daughters now reside in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Musica Redemptor Orchestra | Mark Dupere, conductor | A Little Night Music | Classical String Symphonies

Ticketed event: $30 General / $25 Senior

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PROGRAM

• Stamitz Symphony in A Major, Op. 3 No. 5

• Mendelssohn String Symphony No. 10 in B minor, MVW N 10

• C.P.E Bach Symphony for Strings in B-flat, Wq 182/2

• Mozart Serenade in G Major, Eine kleine Nachtmusik for Strings, K. 525

Musica Redemptor Orchestra

In 2002, Redeemer Presbyterian Church began a ten year collaboration with First Presbyterian Church in its annual St. Cecilia Music Festival. Each year, these 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 adopted, and it 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. For the 2022-2023 season, it is our hope to extend these concerts, performing repertoire of the 19th century.

Mark Dupere, conductor, is Assistant 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 well the Fox Valley Youth Orchestra. 

As a cellist, Mark performed throughout Europe with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Haagsche Hofmuzieck, and Anima Eterna Brugge and was an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. Mark was a “New Young 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, Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, The Netherlands, and a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting at Michigan State University.

Emily Dupere, orchestra leader, is an Australian violinist and 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 is the concertmaster of Musica Redemptor Orchestra in Austin, TX and she also coaches chamber music at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Her particular interests include the sacred music of Bach and classical and romantic chamber music on period instruments. 

No charge for admission.

Eric Wall is Assistant Professor of Sacred Music and Dean of the Chapel at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.  He is the seminary musician, oversees the worship life of the campus, and teaches courses in church music and worship. He is also the Conference Center Musician in Montreat, where he spends the summer season overseeing the music for Summer Worship, directing the Summer Staff choir, and offering concerts and lectures. He was previously Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church, Asheville, North Carolina. He lives in Austin with his wife Mary; their son, Tristan, lives in Charlotte.

Eric has contributed to Call to Worship, the journal of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Theology and Worship, to The Christian Century, and to the Hymn Society journal The Hymn.

He has served on the conference faculty for PAM’s Worship and Music Conference at Montreat a number of times and directed that conference in 2005.  He worked for the 2017 PAM Professionals Gathering and served on the conference faculty in 2018 at the Mo-Ranch Conference.  He has also co-led music at Montreat Youth Conferences and been a Hymn Festival presenter for the Hymn Society. He has taught as an adjunct at Columbia Theological Seminary and served as a music and worship consultant in various congregational settings. He received a Bachelor of Music in Organ Performance in 1991 and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting in 1993, both from Florida State University.  

Eric holds memberships in the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and the American Guild of Organists (Dean of Western North Carolina Chapter, 2009 – 2011). This is his second appearance in the Holbrook Organ Series. He played a splendid concert in April of 2016.

Ticketed event: $40 General / $35 Senior

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PROGRAM

During the Renaissance, musical composition flourished, but it was a time of great change, fueled by religious division. This program traces music written by some of the English Renaissance masters over a period of two hundred years, encompassing florid medieval-sounding works by Sheppard and Forest, intricately woven polyphonic works by Tallis and Byrd, and the beautiful simplicity of Tomkins and White. 

Thomas Tallis - Te lucis ante terminum 

William Byrd - Ave verum corpus 

William Byrd - Afflicti pro peccatis nostris 

John Forest - Qualis est dilectus meus 

Sheringham - Ah, gentle Jesu 

John Sheppard - In manus tuas (III) 

William Byrd - Vigilate 

Leonel Power - Beata progenies 

Thomas Weelkes - All people, clap your hands 

Robert White - Christe qui lux es et dies 

Thomas Tallis - If ye love me 

Thomas Tallis - In manus tuas 

Thomas Tomkins - When David heard 

William Byrd - Laudate pueri Dominum

The Gesualdo Six is an award-winning British vocal ensemble comprising some of the UK’s finest consort singers, directed by Owain Park. Praised for their imaginative programming and impeccable blend, the ensemble formed in 2014 for a performance of Gesualdo’s Tenebrae Responsories in Cambridge and has gone on to perform at numerous major festivals across the UK, Europe, North America, and Australia. Notable highlights include a concert as part of the distinguished Deutschlandradio Debut Series and collaborations with the Brodsky Quartet, London Mozart Players, Luxmuralis, William Barton, and Matilda Lloyd.

The ensemble integrates educational work into its activities, regularly holding workshops for young musicians and composers. The Gesualdo Six has curated two Composition Competitions, with the 2019 edition attracting entries from over three hundred composers around the world. The group have recently commissioned new works from Joanna Ward, Kerensa Briggs, Deborah Pritchard, Joanna Marsh, and Richard Barnard alongside coronasolfège for 6 by Héloïse Werner.

Videos of the ensemble performing a diverse selection of works filmed in Ely Cathedral have been watched by millions online. The group released their debut recording English Motets on Hyperion Records in early 2018 to critical acclaim, followed by Christmas, a festive album of seasonal favorites in late 2019, and  Fading, an album of compline-themed music which was awarded Vocal & Choral Recording of the Year 2020 by Limelight.

OWAIN PARK DIRECTOR

I felt something click when we came together to rehearse for the first time, and I don’t think we’ve looked back since! The special feeling of hyper-engaged music-making, coupled with a good deal of enjoyment in each other’s company, has meant that this group has stuck together and embarked on an exciting journey.

I was born in Bristol and started my musical training with piano lessons before becoming a chorister at St Mary Redcliffe Church. I then took up the organ and the trumpet, finding a love for improvisation in both. My organ playing took me to Wells Cathedral as Senior Organ Scholar and then to Trinity College Cambridge, where I studied music, learning orchestration with John Rutter before undertaking a Masters degree in composition. My compositions are published by Novello, and I am privileged to have my music performed all around the world by ensembles including the Tallis Scholars and the Aurora Orchestra.

As a conductor, I work with ensembles including the BBC Singers, the Academy of Ancient Music, Cappella Cracoviensis, and Cambridge Chorale. I also enjoy teaching and frequently give workshops and masterclasses for composers and singers alike.

I am a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists (FRCO), have been a Tenebrae Associate Artist for two seasons, and regularly work with ensembles including The Sixteen and Polyphony. www.owainpark.co.uk

GUY JAMES COUNTERTENOR

Hello – I’m Guy, and I’m proud to be a founding member of The Gesualdo Six. Raised in Dursley in Gloucestershire, I am now based in London. Alongside my work with The Gesualdo Six, I have developed a passion for the music, language, and history of Italy and thoroughly enjoy performing regularly with the Italian Ensemble Odhecaton.

I enjoy working with a range of other choirs and ensembles including Amici Voices and the RUPA ensemble, and I deputize regularly with many London choirs including those of Westminster Cathedral, the Temple Church, and Westminster Abbey. I’m proud to have contributed to over 25 commercial CDs of choral music.

I have recently founded a new music project: Chapel Perilous, which debuted in 2019 with a program of chamber works by John Tavener, Arvo Pärt, Hildegard von Bingen, and Giacinto Scelsi. Other recent solo appearances have included Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Solomon’s Knot, works by Purcell and Blow in Turin, and a recital of Gloucestershire songs for Remembrance.

When I’m not to be found reading or singing, it’s likely that I will be practicing or watching cricket, a pastime I’ve enjoyed firmly establishing in the group’s culture in conjunction with group batting coach and baritone Michael Craddock.

 JOSEPH WICKS TENOR

I have been singing with The Gesualdo Six ever since the first concert back in March 2014. At that time, I was Organ Scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, where I was later to become Assistant Organist. I played the organ there for the world famous college choir for four years, enjoying tours, broadcasts, and recordings alongside the daily pattern of services.

In 2017, I was appointed Assistant Director of Music at Truro Cathedral in Cornwall. During my time there, I accompanied the cathedral choir in a concert performance of Duruflé’s Requiem live on BBC Radio 3 and recorded two CDs. I carried on singing with G6 as much as possible, recording two CDs and touring widely during my Truro holidays. Having moved away from Cornwall in the summer of 2019, I am now able to fully commit to the group’s expanding diary while maintaining my career as an organist and choir trainer.

Aside from G6, I have sung for other groups including Alamire and Tenebrae, having graduated from The Sixteen’s training scheme, Genesis Sixteen, in 2013. I am now on the London circuit and continue to give organ recitals across the UK. I have my own choir called the Beaufort Singers who sing at the Boxgrove Choral Festival which I founded in 2018.

As far as hobbies are concerned, I share with my dad not only a passion for music but also for all things Formula One motor racing. www.joseph-wicks.co.uk

 JOSH COOTER TENOR

I have been singing with The Gesualdo Six since 2016 and love the variety that the group’s schedule brings. I started singing as a chorister at Chichester Cathedral and later studied music at King’s College London. I now enjoy a busy ensemble career, singing for some of the UK’s most prestigious consorts such as The Sixteen and the Tallis Scholars.

I have also delved into the world of opera, singing the title role in Rameau’s Pygmalion at Brighton Early Music Festival was a particular highlight. I also enjoy creating site-specific operas in venues like the V&A Museum (Tim Watts’s Kepler’s Trial with my G6 pals!) and at the Carinthia Hotel.

Never one to say no to another portion of food, I am looking forward to our USA tour where hopefully I will also have time to curate my other two hobbies, climbing and trying to discover the newest bands to listen to.

Not just content with singing, I also teach the trombone and I would like to teach myself the harmonica in order to ultimately become the one man band I’ve always dreamed of…

 MICHAEL CRADDOCK BARITONE

In comparison to some of the other members of the group, some of whom practically came out of the womb singing, I came to music much later. I had fully intended to do something mathematical, but when I joined the choir at Trinity College Cambridge as an undergraduate, I totally fell in love with singing. I threw myself into everything musical I could find at university, and when I graduated, I moved to London and started freelancing, working, and touring with groups like Gabrieli and the Marian Consort.

It was around this time that we started The Gesualdo Six, and it has been a huge pleasure to watch it grow from a student project, whose members averaged in age about 20 and had no ambitions of doing anything beyond the next concert, to an outfit that performs around sixty concerts a year, including the tours and recordings and all that comes with it. I still count the members of this group as some of my closest friends, and it still feels like we are making music for the same reasons as six years ago–namely we had a piece we really wanted to sing and a group of people we really wanted to sing it with.

In my non G6-related time, I try and cast my musical net as wide as possible. I love singing opera, Bach, lieder, and new music, and if you can’t find me singing, I will be either watching cricket or finding the next venue for the G6 dining club, of which I am the enthusiastic (self-appointed) instigator. www.michael-craddock.com

 SAM MITCHELL BASS

I began my musical education began at age 11 as a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral. I was then awarded a music scholarship to Oundle School and went on to read music at Manchester University. I spent some time as a choral scholar at Truro Cathedral before joining the back row as a lay clerk in Manchester, Ely, and Christchurch Cathedrals. I love playing the piano, and I’m proud to have gained a Distinction in my ABRSM Piano Performance Diploma.

My first performance with the group was, appropriately, music by Gesualdo in St John’s Smith Square in 2016. I also perform regularly with a variety of professional choirs both in the UK and abroad, including The Sixteen and the BBC singers. My stage roles have included Collatinus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Seneca in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

I am currently completing my postgraduate studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance as the Kathleen Roberts Scholar under the tutelage of Jon Christos.

In my spare time, I like to keep my piano skills to a reasonable standard, collect vinyls, and cook.

PROGRAM

Musical works by William Selby, Sor Maria Clara, Ignatius Sancho, Clara Schumann, Vincenzo Bellini, Nicola Sampieri, Fela Sowande, Elisabeth Lutyens, and J.S. Bach.

No charge for admission.

Christopher Holman is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Music at the University of Oxford, where he also directs the choir of Exeter College, and is a graduate teaching assistant in Bach Keyboard Music and Techniques of Composition at New College. He is also the organ teacher at the Dragon School and organist of the Glyme Churches in Oxfordshire. 

Since winning the Albert Schweitzer Competition, he has performed at major international festivals, including the Leipzig Bach Festival in Germany, the Festival international de l’Orgue Ancienne in Sion, Switzerland, and the Festival Internacional de Órgano y Música Antigua in Oaxaca, Mexico. Before coming to Oxford, he held a fellowship from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund to study and pursue research at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, and has performed on many of the most important historic organs in the world.

Mr. Holman is the founder and editor of the journal Vox Humana and has presented papers and lectured at leading international musicology conferences in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland. His research on seventeenth and eighteenth century organ performance practice in the context of the French Roman Catholic liturgy has been published in Early Music (with a forthcoming paper in Keyboard Perspectives 12). He previously studied with Robert Bates at the University of Houston and Dana Robinson at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

This is Mr. Holman’s second appearance in the Holbrook Organ Series. He played a splendid concert in August of 2018.

Ticketed event: $30 General / $25 Senior

PURCHASE TICKETS

PROGRAM

• Mozart Sonata for Piano and Violin in A Major, KV. 526

• Haydn Sonata for Piano in B Minor, Hob. XVI:32

• Beethoven Sonata for Pianoforte and Violin, No. 7 in C Minor, Op. 30, No. 2

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 performed on period instruments.

Anton Nel, winner of the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, continues to tour internationally as recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. Highlights in the US include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, and Detroit Symphonies as well as recitals coast to coast. Overseas he undertakes regular tours to South Africa and has appeared at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and major venues in China and Korea. Much sought after as a chamber musician, he regularly appears with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists at festivals on four continents. 

Mr. Nel holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair at the University of Texas at Austin, is currently also a Visiting Professor at the Manhattan School of Music, and annually presents masterclasses at the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. During the summertime, he participates on artist-faculties at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Orford Music Academy in Quebec, and at the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. Mr. Nel also frequently performs as harpsichordist and fortepianist. His recordings include four solo CDs, several chamber music recordings, and works for piano and orchestra by Franck, Fauré, Saint-Saëns, and Edward Burlingame Hill. 

The Johannesburg-born Mr. Nel is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he studied with Adolph Hallis, and the University of Cincinnati, where he worked with Bela Siki and Frank Weinstock. His website is antonnel.com.

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