ABOUT THE CONCERT

Featuring soloists, Jill Gardner, soprano and Jake Gardner, baritone. Also on the program two a cappella works sung by the Chorale.

Weis Center concert sponsored by the Woodcock Foundation for the Appreciation of the Arts.

Jill Gardner - soprano
Jill Gardner has appeared as soprano soloist with the Susquehanna Valley Chorale in Brahms Requiem, Vaughan Williams' Hodie and Verdi's Requiem. A North Carolina native, she received her Bachelor of Music degree at Centenary College of Louisiana and her Master's degree in vocal performance at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. She has appeared with the Greensboro Ballet, the Ocean City Pops, the Binghamton Philharmonic and Binghamton's Tri-Cities Opera in leading role of Madama Butterfly, La Traviata, Le Nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflote.

Her oratorio performances include Felix Mendelssohn's Elijah, Handel's Messiah, Dubois' Seven Last Words of Christ, Honnegar's King David, Orff's Carmina Burana, Bach's B Minor Mass, and Haydn's Creation

In addition to her singing career, Ms. Gardner is co-founder, voice teacher and music director for A Singing Actor's Studio in Binghamton, NY, with her husband, Jake Gardner. She is also the director of music and organist at First Presbyterian Church, Binghamton, where she heads a program of choirs as well as the Jubilee Arts Concert Series.

Jake Gardner - baritone
Baritone Jake Gardner has appeared with major opera companies and orchestras throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Known for the diversity of his repertoire, Mr. Gardner was for many seasons the principal baritone with the Cologne Opera. He made his debut at the Chatelet in Paris in a production of "Billy Budd" conducted by Jeffrey Tate and sang Ford in a new production of "Falstaff" at the Komische Oper in Berlin. He has often appeared with the San Francisco Opera, and he sang with the San Diego Opera in gala performances of Die Fledermaus with Dame Joan Sutherland. He debuted at Lincoln Center in nationally televised "Live from Lincoln Center" concert with Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne and Luciano Pavarotti. He has performed with opera companies throughout the United States and Canada. SVC audiences heard him in Ralph Vaughan Williams' Hodie in December, 2005. He and his wife, Jill, are co-founders of A Singing Actor's Studio in Binghamton NY.

William A. Payn - conductor
Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., Payn has been active as a composer since the early '70s. His most recent choral work, "With What Shall I Come Before The Lord" was distributed by GIA Publications in 2006 and dedicated to the Fortieth Anniversary of Rooke Chapel at Bucknell. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College and his Doctor of Musical Arts in organ and harpsichord literature from West Virginia University. As a member of the American Choral Directors Association, he has served as Pennsylvania state president and as accompanist for the National Children's Honors Choir. Information about him appears in two reference publications: Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary, and Who's Who in American Music: Classical. In 1987, he was presented with the Harriman Award for contributions to the intellectual life of Bucknell University, and in 1994, he received the Bucknell University Cook Award, given annually to a member of the faculty to promote creative travel. In 1995 the national board of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers conferred upon him the status of "Master Conductor" and "Master Instructor" of Conducting and Musicianship; in May 1996, he received the Westminster Choir College Alumni Merit Award from his alma mater, and in 2001 he received the "Class of '56 Lectureship" award for inspirational teaching from Bucknell University. In 2005 he received an honorary life-membership in The American Guild of English Handbell Ringers, the highest honor granted by the guild.

Four nationally distributed compact discs feature his Bucknell choirs:
An American Collage ~ Albany Records
Southern Harmony ~ Lovely Records
Stephen Foster Civil War Songs ~ Albany Records
On This Day Earth Shall Ring! ~ Albany Records

ABOUT THE CONCERT

These sparkling classics are reminders of that other favorite, Handel's Messiah, with their brilliant sounds and seasonal message, from the Chorale, Baroque orchestra, and soloists.

Sponsored by ButterKrust Baking Company and M&T Bank.

About the Artists

Mary Beth Lee
Lyric coloratura Mary Beth Lee earned her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She was one of four sopranos selected nationally as an Artist-Fellow for the 1995 Bach Aria Festival. Her oratorio credits span the centuries from Monteverdi's Vespero della beate vergine through Rutter's Requiem. In the field of opera, she sang the role of Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus in 1993, winning the Eugene O'Neill Award for Best Actress. In her December 1995 debut with Rhode Island's Musica Dolce, the New London Day called her "the star of the evening", complimented her "nicely focused soprano voice [without] mannered vibrato" and praised her mastery of "stratospheric range, toss[ing] off roulades with abandon." Lee sang the premier performance of Phil Haynes' Never Doubt I Love, which he wrote for her voice, in October 1997 at Bucknell University. In addition to standard repertoire, she enjoys researching and performing parlor music of the 18th and 19th centuries. She has sung four different concerts for Connecticut's Antiquarian & Landmarks Society since 2001, three of them at the Isham-Terry House in Hartford with period instruments. A reviewer of the 2005 concert wrote in the Reed Organ Society Quarterly: "Graced with a heavenly voice, Mary Beth not only "sang" the songs, but interpreted each so ... that the rapt audience was now laughing ..., and now teary-eyed." Based in Norwich, Connecticut, Lee is organist and choir director for St. John the Evangelist Church in Uncasville. She is in demand in the region as soloist and cantor. She maintains an active private studio and also teaches voice at the Pomfret School in the state's northeast corner. Performances this coming spring will include a solo faculty recital in February. She has coached with Gary Glaze of New York City Opera and her teachers have included Brunetta Mazzolini, Mary Langdon, and Beverly Hoch.

Timothy LeFebvre
Baritone Timothy LeFebvre recently made his debut with Central City Opera singing in productions of The Ballad of Baby Doe and The Coronation of Poppea. 2007-2008 performances include Madama Butterfly with Opera Delaware, concerts with Jacksonville Symphony, Hamilton College, Cornell University, and Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. Other engagements of the 2006-2007 season included singing the Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Mozart's Requiem with Syracuse Symphony, and Mozart's Coronation Mass at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. LeFebvre has appeared in concert with the Jacksonville Symphony, Pensacola Symphony, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Symphony, Minnesota Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Binghamton Philharmonic, Rochester Bach Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival, Williamsport Symphony, Syracuse Chamber Music Society, the Skaneateles Festival and the Marlboro Music Festival. He has also appeared in concert at New York's Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. His operatic experience includes leading roles with San Francisco Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Sarasota Opera, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Syracuse Opera, Indianapolis Opera, and Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.

Mr. LeFebvre is a winner of the New York Liederkranz Vocal Competition, and other awards include the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, an Opera Fellowship at Binghamton University and Regional Finalist in several Metropolitan Opera Competitions. Mr. LeFebvre is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and Binghamton University and is currently on the faculty at Binghamton University.

Amanda Carlson Robie
A native of New Hampshire, Amanda Carlson Robie began her musical journey as a small child. After begging her parents for over a year, she began taking violin lessons at the age of 8. Shortly after beginning her violin study, she joined her school choir and became a vocal music enthusiast.

Ms. Robie continued studying music through high school, participating in All-State music festivals as well as school musicals, orchestra, choir and chamber music. When she arrived at Bucknell University in the fall of 1999, she again found herself attracted to the music department and ensembles. Ms. Robie became a Music Education major with a concentration in Voice Performance and Choral Pedagogy. She was a member of the Rooke Chapel Choir and Concert Chorale, both under the direction of Dr. William Payn. She also was a member of the Bucknell Opera Company which gave her the opportunity to work with composer Jake Heggie on his opera Dead Man Walking as well as participate in a masterclass with soprano Heidi Grant Murphy

Upon graduating from Bucknell, Ms. Robie moved to Washington, DC, where she was an associate professional of the Master Chorale of Washington, an alto section leader for The Episcopal Church of St. Andrew and Fort Myer Protestant Church as well as a featured soloist for many engagements in the surrounding area. Favorite performances include Requiem for a Madman, based on The Tell-Tale Heart with music from Verdi's Requiem for the Annual Baltimore Edgar Allen Poe Celebration and Haydn's Seven Last Words of Christ at Riverdale Presbyterian Church. She also returned to her alma mater in 2005 as the alto soloist for the Rooke Chapel Choir's performance of J.S. Bach's Magnificat in D.

Ms. Robie is currently completing her Master of Music in Voice Performance at the Boston Conservatory of Music. Amanda is an avid runner and competes in marathons and half-marathons, recently completing her second full marathon. She also plays tennis and enjoys camping and other outdoor activities. She loves spending time with her family in Maine as much as possible!

Benjamin Sosland - tenor
Recent engagements for tenor Benjamin Sosland include concerts of Bach cantatas with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at the Metropolitan Museum, the role of the Evangelist with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in Bach's Christmas Oratorio, the Mozart Requiem at the Hamptons Music Festival, and a series of recitals with the Ensemble for the Romantic Century. He recently made his debut with L'Opera Francais de New York and, this past summer, was a featured soloist at the Wintergreen (VA) Music Festival. Mr. Sosland won First Prize in the 2006 Joyce Dutka Foundation Art Song Competition.

He has sung at the Spoleto (Italy) Festival as Der Soldat in an acclaimed production of Victor Ulmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Other roles include Anfinomo in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria and Gomatz in Zaide, both at the Aldeburgh Festival, as well as Peter Quint (Turn of the Screw), Monsieur Triquet (Eugene Onegin) at The Juilliard School, and Agenore in Mozart's Il re pastore with the Ridotto Chamber Opera. Mr. Sosland sang in the American premier of Mozart's Il sogno di Scipione during the inaugural season of the Gotham Chamber Opera, a performance in which the New York Times noted his "intelligent musicianship." He has created roles in new operas with American Opera Projects, The Juilliard Opera Center, and Tri-Centric Opera, which can be heard on the Braxton House label.

In recital, he has performed at the Ravinia Festival, the Merchants House Museum, the Morris Jumel Mansion in New York, with the New York Festival of Song, and the annual Composer's Concert, sponsored by Joy in Singing, at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. He has been the guest of several summer music festivals including the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute for Young Artists, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Aspen Summer Music Festival and the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival.

A native of Lewisburg, Mr. Sosland completed undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music. He received his master's degree from the Juilliard School, where he is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow.

Judith White - soprano
Soprano Judith White is a alumnus of Susquehanna University and was a member of the Susquehanna Valley Chorale for many years. Ms. White has been active as a performer of art song, church music and oratorio, serving as soloist in such works as Handel's Messiah, Bach's B Minor Mass, Haydn's Mass in D Minor and The Creation, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Requiems of Mozart and Rutter, Vaughan Williams' Hodie, and Honegger's King David.

Before joining the voice faculty at SU in 1993, Ms. White maintained a twelve-year private studio of thirty students, ages 5-80, some of whom went on to pursue careers in music or theater professionally. She also taught applied voice at Bucknell University and Lycoming College. Judith White has furthered her passion for vocal pedagogy with additional study at Marywood College, workshops at Westminster Choir College, and has pursued vocal coaching with Klara Meyers at Temple University, as well as Ruth Drucker, Phyllis Curtin and regionally acclaimed vocal pedagogue Thomas Houser.

William A. Payn - conductor
Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., Payn has been active as a composer since the early '70s. His most recent choral work, "With What Shall I Come Before The Lord" was distributed by GIA Publications in 2006 and dedicated to the Fortieth Anniversary of Rooke Chapel at Bucknell. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College and his Doctor of Musical Arts in organ and harpsichord literature from West Virginia University. As a member of the American Choral Directors Association, he has served as Pennsylvania state president and as accompanist for the National Children's Honors Choir. Information about him appears in two reference publications: Contemporary American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary, and Who's Who in American Music: Classical. In 1987, he was presented with the Harriman Award for contributions to the intellectual life of Bucknell University, and in 1994, he received the Bucknell University Cook Award, given annually to a member of the faculty to promote creative travel. In 1995 the national board of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers conferred upon him the status of "Master Conductor" and "Master Instructor" of Conducting and Musicianship; in May 1996, he received the Westminster Choir College Alumni Merit Award from his alma mater, and in 2001 he received the "Class of '56 Lectureship" award for inspirational teaching from Bucknell University. In 2005 he received an honorary life-membership in The American Guild of English Handbell Ringers, the highest honor granted by the guild.

ABOUT THE CONCERT

Susquehanna Valley Chorale and Orchestra under the direction of William Payn will perform Karl Jenkins' "The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace" at 3:00 pm Saturday, March 1st and Sunday, March 2nd at Zion Lutheran Church, 5th and Market St., Sunbury. A pre-concert talk by Dr. Gary Boerckel begins at 2:15 pm. This is a powerful and compelling account of the descent into and terrible consequences of war. Commissioned for the millennium by the Royal Armouries and dedicated to the victims of the Kosovo crisis, this work is a contemporary example of a mass based on the 15th-century French song L'Homme Arme (The Armed Man). The complete work sets sacred and secular texts including Tennyson, Kipling, The Koran and the Hindu Mahàbharàta within the framework of the Christian mass. Premiered in London in 2000, it is one of the most currently performed and poignant choral works of the moment. A reception for audience and performers follows the concert.

Sponsored by Coldwell Banker Penn One Real Estate.

About the Composer

Karl Jenkins was born in Penclawdd, a small village on the Gower Peninsula, South Wales. At age six, he started piano lessons with his father who was the local chapel choirmaster. Upon entering Gowerton Grammar School, he added the oboe, becoming principal in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. On leaving school, Karl read music at the University of Wales, Cardiff followed by post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

It was as a jazz musician that he initially made his mark when he left the Royal Academy of Music, winning awards in the role of jazz oboist and multi-instrumentalist (playing oboe, saxophone, piano and keyboards). He worked with Ronnie Scott (among others) and co-founded Nucleus - which won first prize at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1972 before joining the one of the seminal and progressive bands of the 1970's - Soft Machine.

As a media composer, Jenkins received multiple prestigious awards in the field of advertising music. April 1995 saw the release of Jenkins' Adiemus - Songs of the Sanctuary, the first work in a series of Adiemus releases. The Adiemus project, which consists of extended works written for female choruses, percussion and orchestra, has consistently seen global success with 15 gold and platinum awards.

In recent years, Jenkins received prestigious commissions from the Royal Ballet, the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Eisteddfodd 2000, BBC Proms in the Park, the National Youth Orchestra of Wales, Bryn Terfel, Leslie Garret, Evelyn Glennie and The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace commissioned by the Royal Armouries and premiered at the Royal Albert Hall, London on September 10, 2001. A recording of The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace conducted by Karl Jenkins and featuring the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is available on Virgin Records. Learn more about Karl Jenkins at www.karljenkins.com.

ABOUT THE CONCERT

An evening of love songs featuring the exquisite voice of special guest Ted Keegan, star of Broadway and Las Vegas productions of Phantom of the Opera. Along with music from "Phantom" (in its 25th season on Broadway) SVC will sing such favorites as Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight," the pop hit by Stevie Wonder "For Once In My Life," "Skylark" by Hoagy Carmichael and the 1940's hit, "Taking a Chance on Love." Other love songs will include "Someone to Watch Over Me," "More Today Than Yesterday," "I Only Have Eyes for You," "Hey, Good Lookin'," "Hallelujah I Love Her So" and "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree."

Solos and group acts will be performed by members of the SVC and Ted Keegan will add his baritone voice throughout the evening as he sings several love songs of his own.

Instrumental music by the Jack Fries Stage Band and the Valley String Quartet.

About the Artists

Ted Keegan is a native of Watertown, New York with an undergraduate degree from Ithaca College and a graduate degree from UNC-Greensboro. He last seen as the Phantom in Phantom the Las Vegas Spectacular. He starred in the National Tour of The Phantom of the Opera following a very successful run in the Broadway Company. Ted has performed the role in over 24 States across the country. He has had the great pleasure of appearing as The Phantom on television, performing live from Rockefeller Center for the "Today Show" on NBC. And he has the distinction of being the actor who has sung the role in front of the largest audience ever, when he made a spectacular flying entrance from the dome of Madison Square Garden singing "The Phantom of the Opera" during the half-time show of the NBA All-Star Game. Ted was deeply involved in the George Gershwin Cen-tennial Celebration. He performed unpublished Gershwin at the opening of the George and Ira Gershwin Room at the National Archives in Washington, DC, which The New York Times reviewed as one of the ten best musical events of the year. Ted has also sung Gershwin with Audra McDonald in New York and with Marin Mazzie at the opening of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. He appeared in the Frank Loesser Celebration at Symphony Space in New York City and was a soloist at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, singing Unheard Bernstein. Ted hosted the Yuletide Celebration in Indianapolis, singing with the 90-piece Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. A few of the orchestras Ted has performed with as a solo performer include the Detroit, Syracuse, Charleston WV, Portland, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Omaha, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Edmonton Symphonies and the Dayton Philharmonic, as well as the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center. Ted made his Broadway debut in the highly acclaimed revival of Sweeney Todd, where he was seen as Anthony. Other Broadway and National Tour credits include Cyrano: The Musical, Mordred in Camelot with Robert Goulet, Freddy in My Fair Lady, Herman in The Most Happy Fella, Constantine in Hollywood/Ukraine and another Phantom too - in the European Tour of the Kopit/Yeston version. Ted's first solo CD, "Ted Keegan Sings" is available in music stores and at iTunes.

Ted Keegan's guest appearance underwritten by Wood-Mode Inc.
Mifflinburg Bank & Trust, concert co-sponsor