Bach Chorale of St. Cecilia Music Society
The mission of The Bach Chorale of St. Cecilia Music Society is to preserve, promote, and provide high quality performances of choral music of predominantly European composers, with a special emphasis on the music of J.S. Bach, in an effort to keep the music of the masters alive.
The part-time professional ensemble was originally assembled by Martin Werner in 1997 to perform J.S. Bach's motet, “Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied,” BWV 225, for a chamber concert during the inaugural Grand Rapids Bach Festival. The Chorale also served as the professional core chorus for the 1999 Bach Festival Chorus' performance of the “Mass in B Minor,” and for the “St. John Passion” for the Bach Festival 2001, under the direction of guest conductor, Karl Hochreither. In addition to its performances at the biennial Bach Festival, the ensemble has been giving its own concerts at St. Cecilia Music Society and other venues.
Martin Werner, Music Director
Martin Werner studied orchestral conducting and cello at the Robert Schumann Conservatory in Dusseldorf , Germany , and then continued his study of choral conducting at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt under Helmuth Rilling. Upon completion of his degree in 1981, Werner received a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service, and as a result, spent a year at California State University-Fullerton as a graduate student and student conductor of the University Singers. While there he served as student conductor of the University Singers and conducted the University's production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
In 1982 he moved to Ann Arbor , Michigan , where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from the University of Michigan in 1985. During this time he served as Director of the University of Michigan Arts Chorale and as Chancel Choir Director at First United Methodist Church in Ann Arbor . He returned to Germany and served as Assistant Chorus Master for the Concert Choir of the City of Dusseldorf .
In 1993, Dr. Werner returned to the U.S. and took the position of Adjunct Professor of Music at Calvin College and Interim Director of the Calvin College Alumni Choir for the spring term of 1993. He was named Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus during the 1993-1994 season. From 1993-1999, Werner served a Chorus Master of the Grand Rapids Symphony Chorus. He was appointed chorus master/coordinator of choirs for the 1997 production of Verdi's Aida by Opera Grand Rapids. He was Adjunct Professor of Choral Music and Associate Conductor of the Graduate Chorale at Michigan State University . He has also served as choir director for two Grand Rapids churches. In 1997, Dr. Werner became music director and conductor for the Bach Chorale of St. Cecilia Music Society. An experienced cellist and baritone singer, Dr. Werner also pursues a career as an artistic whistler, and is currently a visiting scholar in the orchestral conducting department at Michigan State University.
Bach Around the Clock Gala Concert
Karl Hochreither, Conductor Laureate
Karl Hochreither performs, conducts, and teaches worldwide. His recent tours of the United States have included performances, seminars, courses and lectures, and he frequently serves as a judge for competitions and as a guest conductor.
Mr. Hockreither's first position was organist and choirmaster of Protestant Palatinate Church Council in Speyer, Germany. He continued his studies of musicology at the University of Heidelberg, and was sole prize winner of the Berlin Organ Competition in 1961.
In 1970, he was elected Artist in Residence at the Unversity of Stellenbosch in South Africa. He also served as Artist in Residence at the Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music in Manila, Philippines and at the Taiwan Theological College.
He directed the Bach Symposium at the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and was the director of the Berlin Music Days. His concert tours include tours with the Bach Choir and Bach Collegium to Israel, Poland and Japan. He has also conducted workshops on performance practice in Manila/Philippines and Taipei/Taiwan.
In 1992, Mr. Hochreither conducted master classes for organists in Singapore and New York and Washington. He has also toured with Bach's St. John Passion throughout Spain with the Bach Choir and Collegium.
In addition to recordings, he has also published writings analyzing several musical works and authored a book entitled The Performance Practice of Johann Sebastian Bach's Vocal-Instrumental Works. He has made over ten concert and lecture tours of the United States and Canada. He has served as guest director for Grand Rapids Bach Festivals 1999, 2001 and 2003.
Ingrid Matthews, Violinist
Violinist Ingrid Matthews is the Music Director of Seattle Baroque, and one of today’s most respected exponents of her instrument. She won first prize in the Erwin Bodky International Competition for Early Music in 1989, and performed extensively with numerous leading period-instrument ensembles, including Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Joshua Rifkin’s Bach Ensemble, before founding Seattle Baroque in 1994 with harpsichordist Byron Schenkman. In addition she serves as concertmaster of the New York Collegium, under the direction of Andrew Parrott, and has held the same position for the prestigious Boston Early Music Festival Orchestra. Matthews has won international critical acclaim for her extensive discography as a solist, which ranges from the early seventeenth-century Italian repertoire to the complete Sonatas and Partitas for unaccompanied violin of J.S. Bach. Ingrid Matthews has served on the faculties of the University of Toronto, the University of Washington, Indiana University, and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Brian Asher Alhadeff, Conductor
Brian Asher Alhadeff is an internationally recognized operatic and symphony conductor. Alhadeff has worked with California State University Los Angeles Opera Theater; Opera Pasadena; the New Valley Symphony; University of California, Los Angeles; Eastern Bohemian Filharmonie Hardec Kralove; Intimate Opera Company; South Florida Opera Company; Los Angeles Symphonic Camerata; Eastern Sierra Symphony; Hollywood Opera Company; and the Karlove Vary Sinfonie. In the Czech Republic, he is both Artistic and Music Director of the Hardec Kralove International Summer Festival in conjunction with the Eastern Bohemian Filharmonie Hardec Kralove. Alhadeff has held assistant conducting positions with the Long Beach Opera, Opera Pacifica, and currently is the Associate Conductor of the Beverly Hills Symphony. Future engagements include Carmen and Cosi fan Tutte for the 2007 Hradec Kralove International Summer Opera Festival.
Alhadeff received his Bachelor of Arts with special emphasis in orchestral conducting from Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), a Masters of Music with special emphasis in orchestral and opera conducting from California State University of Los Angeles, and a Doctor of Musical Arts with special emphasis in orchestral conducting from the University of California, Los Angeles. At Grand Valley State University, Alhadeff is a full-time visiting assistant professor of music where he serves as Music Director of the GVSU Symphony Orchestra and the GVSU Chamber Orchestra.
Dylana Jenson, Violinist
Dylana Jenson, Distinguished Professor at Grand Valley State University, began playing the violin at the age of two and a half. She then studied with Manual Compinsky until the age of 12. At 13 Jenson began to study with Nathan Milstein and Josef Gingold. By the age of thirteen, Jenson had performed with most major orchestras in the United States and traveled to Europe and Latin America for concerts, recitals and recordings. After her triumphant success at the Tchaikovsky Competition, where she became the youngest and first American woman to win the Silver Medal, she made her Carnegie Hall debut playing the Silbelius Concerto with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The New York Times hailed her as “a mature master” and critic Edward Downes states “unsurpassed since Heiftez.” When she performed with the San Francisco Symphony playing the Brahms Concerto, the critics responded, “Dylana is a rarity, a complete concert violinist, the real thing.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
Darren Lael, Pianist
Darren Lael is the Director of Music and accompanist for the Grand Valley State University Dance Program. A native of North Carolina, he has served on the accompaniment staff at the North Carolina School of the Arts and has held positions as choir director and organist. Amond numerous solo and collaborative projects, his professional credits include positions of conductor/keyboardist with the national touring musicals Grease!, Smokey Joe’s Café, Godspell, Oklahoma, and The Full Monty where he worked with the likes of Chubby Checker, Erik Estrada, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian. Lael holds degrees from the University of Maryland and the North Carolina School of the Arts.
The Calvin College Choral Concert
Capella, Concert Choir
Capella is the concert choir of Calvin College , composed of 44 advanced singers from all areas of study. The choir gives a major concert each semester in addition to annual tours and leadership participation in area church services and campus worship. The Capella was founded by Seymour Swets in 1935 and later conducted by Howard Slenk and Merles Mustert. In 2002, Joel Navarro was appointed as the choir's fourth conductor in its 68-year history.
The Capella has been selected to perform for several conventions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) including the regional convention of the State of Michigan in October 2004. Cappella performed Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass under the direction of Joseph Flummerfelt.
The Capella has toured extensively in North America and in Europe . In 1988, the choir toured Central and Eastern Europe giving several concerts in Hungarian Reformed churches. During its 1996 tour of California and Arizona, the choir made a guest appearance on the Hour of Power telecast in Garden Grove. In 1995 and in 1998, Capella appeared in several cathedrals and churches in France , the Netherlands and England . In 2001, Capella performed in Boston 's Church of the Advent and at the Church of Heavenly Rest in New York City . Capella traveled to Germany and the Netherlands in December 2004.
Joel Navarro, Associate Professor of Music at Calvin College , teaches conducting and directs the Capella and the Meistersingers Choirs. Prior to this appointment, he was Assistant Professor and Chair of the Choral Conducting Department at the University of the Phillipines College of Music for 16 years. He is known internationally as the Music Director and Conductor of the Ateneo de Manila University Glee Club which amassed a string of top prizes during the last 20 years in choral competitions in Cantonigros (1983) and Tolosa (2000) in Spain, Arezzo (1983) and Riva del Garda (2000) in Italy, Llubljana (2000) in Slovenia, Cork (2000) in Ireland, Tours (2000) in France, and Marktoberdorf (2001) in Germany.
Campus Choir
Campus Choir is the chapel choir of Calvin College . Supported by both the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the Music Department, the campus choir performs at the annual Fall Music Festival, gives a Lessons and Carols advent service, at LaGrave Christian Reformed Church, and presents a concert in the chapel each April.
Sean Ivory is the director of the Calvin College Campus Choir. Sean has a BA from Calvin College and a MM in choral conducting from Michigan State University . Sean teaches music for Forest Hills Public Schools and is on the conducting staff for the North American Choral Company. Sean is also a noted choral arranger whose music is published by Earth Songs.
Angela Hewitt, Pianist
Angela Hewitt is a phenomenal artist who has established
herself at the highest level over the last few years, not least through
her superb, award-winning recordings for Hyperion. Completed in 2005,
her 11-year project to record all the major keyboard works of Bach has
been described as “one of the record glories of our age” (The
Sunday Times) and has won her a huge following. She has been hailed
as “the pre-eminent Bach pianist of our time” (The Guardian)
and “nothing less than the pianist who will define Bach performance
on the piano for years to come” (Stereophile). She has
a vast repertoire ranging from Couperin to the contemporary. Her discography
also includes CDs of Granados, Chabrier, Olivier Messiaen, the complete
solo works of Ravel, the complete Chopin Nocturnes and Impromptus,
and three discs devoted to the music of Couperin. Her recordings of the
complete solo keyboard concertos of J.S. Bach with the Australian Chamber
Orchestra entered the U.S. billboard charts only weeks after their release,
and were named Record of the Month in Gramophone magazine. Albums
to be released in 2006-2007 include works by Rameau and Beethoven.
Angela Hewitt has performed throughout North America and Europe as well
as in Japan, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, Israel, China, Mexico,
Turkey, and the former Soviet Union. Highlights of recent seasons include
her debuts in Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and with the Cleveland
Orchestra, as well as a North American tour with the Australian Chamber
Orchestra. Her recitals have taken her to the festivals of Edinburgh,
Osaka, Prague, Hong Kong, Schleswig-Holstein, Brescia/Bergamo, and Oslo
to name but a few. Her frequent Wigmore Hall recitals in London sell out
months in advance, and in 2005 she made two debuts in the Royal Festival
Hall: her orchestral debut with the London Philharmonic, and her recital
debut in the International Piano Series.
During the 2005-2006 season her engagements included appearances in the
Berlin Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw, the Lucerne Piano Festival, the
European Music Festival in Stuttgart, the Tonhalle in Zurich, and with
orchestras in Malmö, Helsingborg, Calgary, Copenhagen, and San Francisco.
Much in demand for solo recitals, she performed the complete Book
I of The Well-Tempered Clavier by Bach in England, the United States,
Portugal, and Italy, and appeared in the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.
To celebrate the Mozart anniversary in 2006, she gave an all-Mozart recital
at the Wigmore Hall and recorded a two-hour special for CBC Radio. As
a chamber musician she joined international artists at Lincoln Center
in New York and in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, and in July 2006
recorded the Bach Gamba Sonatas with German cellist, Daniel Müller-Schott.
Her 2006-2007 season includes appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra,
the symphonies of Detroit and Toronto, the BBC Scottish Symphony, the
Hallé Orchestra, and the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra. Her recitals
will take her to such places as London, New York, Atlanta, Tokyo, Seoul,
Warsaw, Moscow, Florence, Venice (La Fenice), Dublin, and Stuttgart.
Future plans include a World Tour in 2007-2008 with performances of the
complete Well-Tempered Clavier, and the release of a DVD lecture-recital
devoted to her interpretation of the music of J.S. Bach.
In July 2005, Angela Hewitt launched her own Trasimeno Music Festival
in the heart of Umbria near Perugia. An annual event, it drew an international
audience to the Castle of the Knights of Malta in Magione, on the shores
of Lake Trasimeno. Six concerts in seven days featured Hewitt as a recitalist,
chamber musician, song accompanist, and conductor, working with both established
and young artists of her choosing. The second festival was held from July
17, 2006.
Born into a musical family (her father was the Cathedral organist in Ottawa,
Canada), Angela Hewitt began her piano studies aged 3, performing in public
at 4 and a year later winning her first scholarship. During her formative
years, she also studied violin, recorder, and classical ballet. At 9 she
gave her first recital at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music,
where she later studied. She then went on to learn with French pianist
Jean-Paul Sévilla at the University of Ottawa. She won first prize
in Italy’s Viotti Competition (1978) and was a top prizewinner in
the International Bach competitions of Leipzig and Washington, D.C., as
well as the Schumann Competition in Zwickau, the Casadesus Competition
in Cleveland, and the Dino Ciani Competition at La Scala, Milan. In 1985
she won the Toronto International Bach Piano Competition.
Angela Hewitt was awarded the first ever BBC Radio 3 Listener’s
Award (Royal Philharmonic Society Awards) in 2003. She was made an Officer
of the Order of Canada in 2000, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of
Canada. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in
2006. She has lived in London since 1985 but also has homes in Ottawa,
Canada, and Umbria, Italy.
Paul Jacobs, Organist
Paul Jacobs, chairman of the organ department at the Juilliard School, Lincoln Center, New York City, has re-invigorated the American organ scene with his once-in-a-generation gifts as a performer.
Critics, audiences and fellow musicians have been quick to applaud his phenomenal technique, his charismatic stage presence, his huge repertoire spanning five centuries, and the sense of showmanship he brings to this ancient and noble instrument. Pau lis also creating new interest for the organ in the wider musical world, which has recognized him as a musician of rare stature.
He is recognized as one of today's finest and most active concert organists in the United States and is also recognized as a performer of unusual merit in Europe, South America, Asia and Australia. Paul Jacobs is widely known for his series of one day marathon performances of the complete organ works of J.S. Bach and Olivier Messiaen in eight major American cities.
A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Jacobs subsequently earned a Master of Music degree from Yale University, where he was honored with its Distinguished Alumni Award.
Organ and Orchestra Concert
Linn Maxwell Keller, Mezzo Soprano
A native of Indiana , mezzo-soprano Linn Maxwell Keller enjoys a rich and varied career which has taken her to the stages of major orchestras, opera companies and recital halls across the U.S. and 25 foreign countries. Ms. Keller has been a soloist with the orchestras of Toronto, Cleveland, Chicago, Seattle, Oregon, Puerto Rico, San Antonio, Kansas City (where she appeared with Leonard Bernstein), Rochester, Denver, Brooklyn, Minnesota and the Orchestra of the U.N.A.M of Mexico City. In demand with oratorio and choral societies, Ms. Keller has appeared with the Bach festivals of Rochester, New York (for twelve seasons), Oregon (with Helmuth Rilling), Kalamazoo and Carmel. The San Francisco Chronicle said of her Carmel performance: “Her technique was flawless, her control spun out the long florid passages; her tone and phrasing were beautiful.” She has appeared with the Oratorio Society of Washington at the Kennedy Center, the Pro Arte Chorale at Carnegie Hall, the Oratorio Society of Utah in a nationally televised performance of Handel's Messiah from the Mormon Tabernacle, and on several occasions with Musica Sacra at New York's Lincoln Center. In recent seasons she has sung the Mozart Requiem with the Sofia, Bulgaria Philharmonic, premiered “Mary Cassatt” by Libby Larsen with the Grand Rapids Symphony, performed a concert of Russian opera arias with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and premiered a song cycle by Patrick Kavanaugh at Washington's Kennedy Center in 2002.
Linn Maxwell Keller began her career in Europe, spending two seasons at the Städtische Bühnen in Essen, Germany where she sang Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier , and also sang major roles with the opera companies of Strassbourg, Lyon, Toulouse, the Netherlands (where she sang Baroque operas with Nicholas Harnancourt and Rosina in Barbiere di Siviglia), Hungarian State Opera and concerts with the Berlin Radio Orchestra. Her opera engagements in the U.S. have included San Francisco Opera in the role of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia , conducted by Placido Domingo, two appearances with Santa Fe Opera, and major roles with Cincinnati and Grand Rapids. She performed two roles in the New York off-Broadway production of The Mother of Us All by Virgil Thomson.
With Opera Grand Rapids she has performed the roles of Herodias in Salome, the Countess in The Queen of Spades (2001) , Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro (1995, 2003) , and Berta in The Barber of Seville (2004). Her new recording, Times Like This , featuring cabaret selections, was released in the fall of 2003 by Orignial Cast Recordings and was chosen among the top five new releases and top five female vocalists by an online collector site, Casrec.
Ms. Maxwell Keller was a winner of the Joy in Singing Award, which enabled her to present her New York recital debut at Lincoln Center 's Alice Tully Hall. The New York Times said of her debut, “A true mezzo soprano, ample in size yet easily modulated in either registral extreme and graced with an appealing plangency of timbre.” Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, she has made three tours to South America giving recitals, master classes, concerts and television appearances with the National Symphony of Peru and the Bogotá Philharmonic. She is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grant. In 1988 she made a post-Olympics recital tour of Korea.
Linn Maxwell Keller is a graduate of the University of Maryland and holds a Master of Music degree from the Catholic University of America. She has recorded for RCA Red Seal, New World, Centaur and Albany Records. A former board member of the Grand Rapids Symphony, she currently serves as president of the Board of Directors for Joy in Singing in New York City, and is founder/president of the Grand Rapids Bach Festival.
Larry Visser, Organist
Larry Visser began piano studies at a very early age and later began organ study at the age of thirteen. Formal training in musical studies took place at Calvin College in Grand Rapids , Michigan , where he earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in music history, theory, and composition. While at Calvin, he studied organ with Dr. John Hamersma and composition with Dr. John Worst. Upon graduation he was awarded the highest honor given by the Calvin College Music Department, the Anna Bruinsma Music Award. He pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan School of Music where he holds the Master of Music degree in organ and church music and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance. His organ training was under the tutelage of Dr. James Kibbie. While at Michigan , Larry also studied harpsichord and held a graduate student teaching assistantship in music theory.
In 1994, Larry was one of four finalists at the world's most prestigious organ competition, the “Grand Prix de Chartres.”
A church musician since the age of fifteen, Larry has held various church positions throughout the state in Jenison , Chelsea , Plymouth , and is currently Minister of Music and Organist at LaGrave Avenue Christian Reformed Church in downtown, Grand Rapids , a position he has occupied since the summer of 1999. He is a regular recitalist at LaGrave and has also administered a professional compact disc recording by the various musical ensembles of the church.
Dr. Visser has recently been invited to join the adjunct organ faculty at Calvin College where he will teach private organ lessons and studio classes in the fall of 2004.
He is a member of the American Guild of Organists, has served on the board of the Grand Rapids Chapter of AGO, and is also a member of the Hymn Society in North America and Canada .
Active as a composer of organ and choral music, Larry's compositions are published with GIA Publications and Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc. He is represented in many volumes of Wayne Leupold's new teaching method, “Discover the Organ.” Recent composition projects have included five “Organ Demonstrators,” multi-movement pieces based on a Biblical story with narration that demonstrate the various families of organ tone to children. Larry has also received several commissions for choral concertatos and anthems.
Larry has toured several times with the Calvin College Capella throughout the United States and abroad. The Capella has recorded two compact disc recordings on which Larry serves as organ accompanist.
* Subject to change without prior notice