Next Concert

Christine Donahue, Soprano
Accompanied by
Lynn Bauman on the Bechstein Grand.
Thursday, September 9, 2010, 7pm 

Christine Donahue’s voice has been acclaimed for its beauty and intensity.  “Chilling”, “electrifying”, “infused with astonishing beauty…seeming something more than human, [Ms. Donahue's] control, sensitivity, and delicacy were exquisite…” are some of the words used to describe her performances.

Ms. Donahue has performed with numerous companies throughout the United States, Canada and abroad. She boasts a repertoire encompassing a broad spectrum of operatic heroines, including Lucia di Lammermoor, Mimi (La Boheme), Madama Butterfly, Gilda (Rigolleto), Violetta (La Traviata), Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), Tosca, and all four heroines in Tales of Hoffman. The soprano has also received recognition for performances of Governess (Turn of the Screw), Fiordilidgi (Cosi fan tutte), Nedda (Pagliacci), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Marenka (The Bartered Bride), Norina (Don Pasquale) and (Martha). She has graced the stages of opera houses in Cleveland, Houston, Birmingham, Raleigh, Philadephia, Augusta, Little Rock, Atlanta, Omaha, Greensboro, Honolulu, Sarasota, Orlando, Mobile, Norfolk, Grand Rapids as well as New York City Opera and, internationally, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Hong Kong.

Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Donahue has performed Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder, Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s Ninth Synmphony with such orchestras as the St. Paul Chamber Orcehstra, the Houston Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Syracuse Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony and the Arkansas Symphony.

Early in her career, Ms. Donahue was a winner of the Luciano Pavarotti/Opera Company of Philadelphia International Competition, 2nd place winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions and a recipient of both the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund Grant and the Sullivan Grant.  She holds a Masters of Music Degree in Voice and Opera from the Juilliard School of Music and was a member of the Houston Opera Studio. While in Houston, she toured with Texas Opera Theater.

Presently, Christine Donahue is Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Central Arkansas. In November of 2009, along with other members of the voice faculty, she sang the part of Hester Prynne in the world premiere of The Scarlet Letter by renowned American conmposer Lori Laitman. The work was commissioned by the UCA music department. She also represented her school in an exchange engagement with the East China Normal University in Shanghai a year ago in May.  While there she sang a recital, performed with their orchestra and conducted a Master Class. These days she can be found performing in concert and recital venues.  She is married to George Mayo and has a fifteen year old son, Eamonn.

Past Programs

Thursday April 3, 2008 at 7:00

John Erwin

The University of Central Arkansas Concert Choir is the most select of the choral ensembles in the Music Department at UCA. The choir was founded in 1975 by present conductor, John Erwin.

In 1982, the UCA Concert Choir was the Grand National Prize Winner of the Great American Choral Festival earning the $25,000 award.

The choir has performed in many important venues in the United States, Canada, and Europe. The UCA Concert Choir enjoys a reputation of performing important choral repertoire of all eras consistently at the highest level.

In 2004, the UCA Concert Choir was a finalist and was less than a half point from winning the Riva del Garda International Choral Competition A1 Category in Italy.

In addition, UCA Concert Choir continues to tour within the State of Arkansas and had a 10-day tour in Florence, Rome and other places in Italy in the month of June in 2007.

Membership in the choir includes students who are music majors as well as those majoring in a wide variety of disciplines from across the campus.

Mr. Phil Bordeleau, Organist, St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Little Rock, Arkansas

Friday, May 9, 2008

John Paul & Shawn Leopard: Music for two harpsichords

Thursday June 12 at 7:00 p.m.

Shawn Leopard received a BA degree in Foreign Languages from the University of Southern Mississippi and an MA in Musicology from Indiana University with special emphasis in early music performance. Her teachers included Dana Ragsdale, Lois Leventhal, and Elisabeth Wright, a former student of Gustav Leonhardt. Ms. Leopard is currently teaching and performing in Jackson, Mississippi, where she is associated with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral as a professional soloist and consultant. Her specialty in early music performance, as a continuo player and harpsichordist, has been admired in many concerts with various groups throughout the Southeast.

John Paul grew up in the small West-Country town of Lyme Regis, England. Self-taught until the age of 18, when an audition earned him entrance to the Royal Academy of Music in London, he has continually studied and performed on piano, organ, and harpsichord. His principal teachers were Alan Richardson, Harold Craxton, C. H. Trevor, and Thurston Dart. With performance diplomas from the Royal Academy of Music and an honors degree from the University of London, he immigrated to the United States in 1965 to assume the position he still holds as organist-choirmaster of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1971 he received a doctoral degree from the University of Colorado.

Shawn Leopard and John Paul began their collaboration in 1996 to explore and perform the repertoire of music written for two harpsichords. They focus on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons and create their own transcriptions of French, Spanish, and Italian music suited to their medium. They have toured extensively in the Southeastern United States and recorded to critical acclaim with Lyrichord Discs of New York City and Centaur Discs of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Whether in concert or conducting master classes with students, Shawn Leopard and John Paul select programs to entertain the listener and to demonstrate the evolution of keyboard music in a historical context. Such programs contain a variety of musical examples ranging from the late Renaissance to 19th – century Spanish music and 20th -century popular music. The music, as well as the instruments themselves, relates to other aspects of history: graphic arts, dance in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the general history of the time. The instruments, in turn, are explained, taken apart, and demonstrated in relation to the piano and various other musical instruments.

Piano students and other interested parties are invited to approach the instruments after the program’s conclusion to view the instruments more closely, and perhaps to try them for themselves. The artists work at giving music a historical perspective, to show how keyboard music existed in a fascinating form before the invention of the piano. This process greatly widens the listener’s perspective of music by demonstrating music, art, and society from another age.

Third Sunday at 3 Summer Organ Recitals

Thomas Robichaux, Senior High School Organ Recital

July 20, 2008, 3:00 p.m.

A valedictorian of the Alexandria Senior High class of 2008, he studied organ for nearly nine years and piano for eleven years. His first teacher was Melva Villard, under whose leadership he was able to serve as an assistant organist at St. Rita Catholic Church and School for three and one-half years.  In 2004, Thomas became the Music Director St. Martin, in Lecompte, and only a few months later, also became the Music Director at Mary, Mother of Jesus, in Woodworth.

In the summer of 2007, he was approached by Fred Graham, the Director of Music/Organist of St. Francis Xavier Cathedral at that time, with the prospect of becoming his assistant. Thomas made these comments: “under the teachings of Fred Graham and Lynn Bauman, the present Organist/Choir Director at the Cathedral, I have gained a new appreciation and love for sacred and choral music. The chance to learn and grow in organ study at the Cathedral was one I always hoped for and an opportunity I am very blessed to have had.”

This fall, Thomas will attend Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. and major in Biology.  Thomas is the son of Tommy and Marika Robichaux of Woodworth.

An old fashioned “Ice Cream Social” reception will immediately follow the recital in Xavier Hall in honor of Thomas.

Lynn Bauman, Cathedral Organist

Sunday, August 17, 2008, 3:00 p.m.

Lynn Bauman,  Director of Music and Organist of the Cathedral comes to us with over thirty years experience as a church musician.  He has served churches in Arkansas and Tennessee, most recently St. Mary’s Catholic Church in downtown Memphis.  As the national Music Chair of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers he was responsible for all music publications and for the set-up of all the National Festivals.  Lynn has served as sub-dean of the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists where his duties included the program for a Regional Convention.  Lynn is an active member of the National Pastoral Musicians, The American Guild of Organists, The Royal School of Church Music, The Association of Anglican Musicians and The American Choral Directors Association.  He is a graduate of DeWitt (AR) High School and Henderson State University (Arkadelphia, AR).  A frequent traveler to the UK, since 2000 choirs under Lynn’s direction have sung or rung (handbells) at Lincoln, Canterbury and Salisbury Cathedrals in the UK, served as Choir in Residence for a week’s services at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin IE, and local parishes in Taunton and Aldington, UK. 

He commented, “I look forward to working with the Cathedral Community here in Alexandria and building on what is already a fine tradition of music.”

Mockingbird Early Music Ensemble

Thursday, September 25, 2008, 8:00 p.m.

Mockingbird Ensemble

The Mockingbird Early Music Ensemble

was formed in 2003, and is located in Oxford, Mississippi.  The group is composed of enthusiastic proponents of the historically informed presentation of music created before 1750, played on recreations of original instruments which are found in museums throughout Europe.  These instruments include recorders, viole da gamba, crumhorns, and harpsichord.

Irene Kaufmann, a native of Uruguay, South America, played flute with the National Uruguayan Symphony from 1990 to 2001.  She was also a member of the Grupo Barroco and the Orquesta Barroca de Montevideo.  Ms. Kaufmann has studied with Prof. Raul Botella, Ricardo Kanji and Steven Rosenberg.  She graduated Suma Cum Laude from the University of Mississippi (MM) and has a Masters of Music from the University of Texas at Austin.

 Susan Marchant  majored in music education at the University of New Hampshire and has studied recorder with Frans Brueggen, Frances Blaker, and Han Tol and viola da gamba with Martha Bishop, Alison Crum, John Mark Roozendal, and Brent Wissick.  She has performed early music at numerous festivals, concert series, and on radio and television with the Harwood Ensemble in Chicago, IL and PanHarmonium in Birmingham, AL.  She is a member of the board of directors of the Viola da Gamba Society of America.

Warren Steel is Associate Professor of music at the University of Mississippi, where he teaches music history, organ, and harpsichord.  He is co-director of the Mississippi Early Music Ensemble, which he founded in 1983 as a chamber ensemble.  He holds degrees from Harvard and Michigan; he studied organ with John Fesperman and harpsichord with James Weaver and Edward Parmentier.  His books and other writings document early American psalmody and its survival in the Sacred Harp singing tradition.

Linda Pereksta  joined the faculty of The University of Mississippi in 2007, where she teaches flute and plays in the faculty woodwind quintet. Prior to her appointment, she was a member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and taught flute at Tulane University and music history at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). Formerly a member of the Memphis and Greenville (SC) Symphony Orchestras, Dr. Pereksta has appeared with Mallarmé Chamber Players, Grammy-nominated jazz artist Nnenna Freelon, Baroque Southeast, Fiori Musicali, Tallahassee Bach Parley, the Iowa Center for New Music and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. As a doctoral fellow at Florida State University, she directed the baroque ensemble and taught recorder and baroque flute. Twice a major prizewinner in the National Flute Association’s baroque flute artist competition, she has served as coordinator of the competition and is now Chair of the NFA’s historical flutes committee. Her doctoral treatise, “20th-Century Compositions for Baroque Flute,” was a winner in the 2004 NFA call for DM/PhD papers.  Dr. Pereksta holds degrees from The University of Iowa, The Peabody Conservatory of Music of The Johns Hopkins University, and Florida State University. Her flute teachers have included Betty Bang Mather, Christopher Krueger, Leone Buyse, Charles DeLaney and Robert Willoughby.

Ronald Vernon is associate dean, College of Liberal Arts, and professor of music at the University of Mississippi.  He conducts the Lafayette-Oxford-University Orchestra and performs as singer and instrumentalist with the Mississippi Early Music Ensemble.  From 1986 to 1996 he served as chair of the Department of Music.  His Bachelor of Music degree is from Louisiana Tech University, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree is from The University of Texas.  In addition to his university duties, he is Music Director of the Germantown (TN) Symphony Orchestra.  He has studied recorder with Frances Blaker and Marion Verbruggen and medieval music performance practice with Robert Mealy.

Morten Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna”, The Cathedral Choir with Orchestra

Sunday, November 2, All Soul’s Day, 7:30

The Cathedral Choir will sing Morten Lauridsen’s “Lux Aeterna” accompanied by Orchestra in the context of Vespers on Sunday evening, November 2 at 7:30 p.m.  All programs presented by the Cathedral Music & Arts are free to the public.  A reception will follow in Xavier Hall.University of Central Arkansas Concert & Chamber Choirs

Advent Lessons & Carols, with The Cathedral Choir

Sunday, November 30,  7 p.m.

The Cathedral Choir and soloists will sing a traditional service of Advent Lessons & Carols beginning at 7 p.m.

Christmas Lessons & Carols, with The Cathedral Choir, soloists & String Quartet

Wednesday, December 24,  11 p.m. preceeding Midnight Mass

The Cathedral Choir and soloists accompanied by the organ and string quartet will sing a traditional service of Christmas Lessons & Carols beginning at 11 p.m.

Thursday, February 5, 7:00 p.m. Kathleen Turner Oboe and Organ

Kathleen Turner, Director of the Austin (Texas) Children’s Choir and graduate of Eastman School of Music will join Cathedral Organist, Lynn Bauman in a night filled with the beautiful sounds of the oboe and the Cathedral’s Reuter Organ, Op. 2218. Gala reception following for all attendees and Cathedral Music & Arts Series 2009 renewing Supporters.

Artistic Director Kathleen Kalin Turner is one of only a few graduates of the Eastman School of Music to be awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate in two disciplines, earning hers in organ and oboe. In addition, she holds a Masters of Music in Sacred Music from Westminster Choir College, (Princeton, New Jersey) and was the 1988 winner of the national MTNA-Wurlitzer Collegiate Artist Competition in organ. Since 1988, Kathleen has held sacred music positions in the Episcopal denomination, most notably Organist/Choirmaster of Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock, Arkansas and historic Christ Church, Frederica on St. Simons Island, Georgia. In addition to her work with the Austin Children’s Choir, Kathleen also serves as the Director of Music for St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Austin, TX.  Kathleen enjoys an active performing career and presents workshops in various facets of music education throughout the country. She lives in Austin with her
husband, Te and son, Chris.

Thursday, May 7 at 7:00 p.m.

Susan DeKam and Jason Alden, Organ Duo.

 Susan De Kam is originally from Caledonia, Michigan.  She completed her undergraduate studies in 2002 with a major in piano, studying under Joan Conway, at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.  It was in her freshman year there that she began studying organ as a secondary instrument with Huw Lewis, but it soon became her principal interest.  In 2004, Susan earned her Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan.  She studied organ with Robert Glasgow, piano with Louis Nagel, and harpsichord with Edward Parmentier.    

As an organist and pianist, Ms. De Kam has become a well rounded musician not only through her solo concertizing on both instruments, but also as an accompanist, chamber musician, and teacher.  In addition to being the recipient of numerous prizes and awards for her performances on piano and organ, she has also been a finalist in the Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Organ Competition (2002) and the Miami International Organ Competition (2006).  Most recently, she was a semi-finalist in the Bach/Liszt International Organ Competition, held in Weimar, Germany.

Ms. De Kam is a doctoral candidate in organ performance at the University of Michigan where she studies with James Kibbie.  Currently, she serves as Artist in Residence at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Dallas and is a member of the piano faculty at Coppell Conservatory in Coppell, Texas.     

Jason Alden is a graduate of Elmhurst College and Valparaiso University.  His former organ instructors have included Lorraine Brugh, Martin Jean and Robert Glasgow.  He has also received additional coaching from Naji Hakim, Frédéric Blanc and Douglas Reed.  He is currently a University of Michigan doctoral candidate and will soon complete his degree under the direction of James Kibbie.  His doctoral research focuses on the Æeolian-Skinner pipe organs of Roy Perry.

Mr. Alden was involved in the restoration of two historic Belgian organs in Costa Rica.  In 1998, he was featured as a guest artist with the Chamber Orchestra of Budapest at the Basilica of Santo Domingo as he began a year long project to renovate their Schyven organ.  In 2003, he played a gala concert celebrating the completed restoration of his second Latin American project at the Metropolitan Cathedral in San José.  His documentation of the organs of Costa Rica has been published in The Tracker.

Mr. Alden has served on the faculty of Elmhurst College as Teaching Associate in Organ.  He has also held the position of Assistant Professor of Music and University Organist at Concordia University in Ann Arbor.  He is a popular recitalist and has presented concerts in the United States, France and Spain, including performances at national conventions for the Organ Historical Society. 

Currently, Mr. Alden is a Regional Sales Representative in the south central United States for the Reuter Organ Company of Lawrence, Kansas.  Mr. Alden is the proprietor of the newly-established Alden Organ Services in Dallas, Texas.

June 18, 2009, Dedication of the Harding Memorial Bechstein Grand Piano.

Pianist Arielle Levioff is a versatile soloist and collaborative artist.   In New York City she has appeared as a soloist at Bargemusic, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, Steinway Hall, Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, and in the “Meet the Virtuoso” series at the 92nd Street Y.  Ms. Levioff has also performed at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the French Embassy in Washington D.C., and has performed several solo recitals in London.   She has also appeared as a soloist with the Merion Symphony in Gladwyn, Pennsylvania and the Goliard Chamber Orchestra in New York City, as well as with the Christ Church Festival Orchestra In Oyster Bay, New York earlier this month.  Ms. Levioff is a specialist in French repertoire of the 19th and early 20th centuries and has studied in depth with the great French pianists Frédéric Aguessy, Philippe Bianconi, Philippe Entremont and the late Gaby Casadesus.

As a chamber musician, Ms. Levioff recently completed her 11th season as principal pianist and fourth season as Artistic Director of Goliard Concerts, a New York-based group dedicated to reaching audiences of all ages with creative programming in various vocal and instrumental combinations. The principal members of the ensemble perform new works by leading American composers on annual tours of the Southeastern United States.  The tours include traditional concert venues as well as school performances, master classes and radio appearances. Visit www.goliardconcerts.com to hear recordings of live performances from recent years.

Ms. Levioff received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and has attended numerous summer festivals including the Tanglewood Institute, the Cleveland Orchestra’s Kent/Blossom Festival, and the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France.   A dedicated educator, she is on the piano faculty of the 92nd Street Y and maintains a private teaching studio.  Ms. Levioff has been a Yamaha artist since 2004.  She also happily performs on Beckstein pianos.

A native of San Antonio, Texas, Mezzo Soprano Tynan Davis is establishing a reputation as a vibrant, entertaining performer in opera and musical theatre alike. Summer 2008 marks her mainstage artist debut with the Natchez Festival of Music singing Ado Annie in Oklahoma! and Dorabella in Cosí Fan Tutte. Other recent performances include Cherubino with Mendocino’s Opera Fresca and concerts with New York’s Goliard Ensemble where she premiered Your World, a short song cycle based on the poetry of Georgia Douglas Johnson, composed by Michael C. Haigler expressly for Ms. Davis’ voice. She has also performed with New York’s Amato and Bronx Operas and the Spoleto Arts Symposium, Spoleto, Italy. Recently, Ms. Davis received 3rd place in the Southwest Regional Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. In addition to her diverse performance schedule, Ms. Davis is committed to community outreach and education. Before relocating to New York, she worked exclusively with the choral departments at Barbara Bush Middle School, James Madison High School and Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio’s Northeast Independent School District. Maintaining popular private voice studios in each school, Ms. Davis also served as choreographer and choral clinician for small and large ensembles alike. Her commitment to young people has led to a recent invitation to join both the Performing Artist and Teaching Artist rosters for Young Audiences New York; a not-for-profit arts organization dedicated to advancing arts education in New York public schools.

Thursday, October 8, 7pm
Organ: Donald Smith, Organist/ChoirDirector, St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, Shreveport.

Donald Smith is Organist and Choirmaster of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Shreveport, Louisiana. He recently completed twenty-five years of service at St. Mark’s. A native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Don was a graduate in Church Music from University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In 1980, he was awarded a Master of Music with High Distinction from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. His teachers include  Robert Rayfield, John L. Hooker, Isa McIlwraith and Walker Breland.  Throughout his career he has trained young people to sing.  In addition to his work with St. Mark’s Choir, Donald has worked with the Chattanooga Boy Choir, the boy and girl choristers of Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, Indiana, St. Mark’s Cathedral School choirs and the Red River Children’s Choir.  He is active in the Royal School of Church Music, the Anglican Association of Musicians and the American Guild of Organists. Donald performs on harpsichord with The Baroque Artists of Shreveport.  He concertizes on the organ and has led choral and church music workshops in the United States and England.

Jennifer Pasqual, Organist, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York City.
Thursday, April 8, 2010 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, May 13, 7pm  Areille Levioff, piano