The
St. Mark’s Choir, and St. Mark’s Festival Orchestra and Soloists, under the
direction of George Emblom, will
offer Krönungsmesse,
K. 317 (Coronation Mass) and Regina
Coeli, composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Vocal Soloists
will include Carol Kessler, soprano; Clifton Massey,
countertenor; Michael Jankosky, Tenor; and Hadleigh Adams,
Bass-Baritone.
Dr. Donn Morgan, Professor Emeritus
of Old Testament at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, will offer the
sermon, and The Rev. Stephen Trever will
preside.
The
idea of a Music Memorial Sunday originated with Kate MacArthur and David Lee
Maulsby, a previous Music Director, and further developed as they explored ways
of using a generous fund that has grown from many people’s gifts in memory of
the Rev. Lee MacArthur, a long-time member of the choir. The fund
continues to grow from the constant flow of gifts that are made in memory of
those who have died.
The
overall premise of the memorial list is that once a name is added, it remains
there permanently. The list is printed in the bulletin on every Music
Memorial Sunday. The interest income from the fund serves to underwrite extra
expenses. The capital can still grow so there will be more interest
income available. Contributions continue to be sought in order to realize
the goal of self-sufficiency of these offerings. Tax-deductible donations
are welcome now, and also throughout the year.
In 2017, the St. Mark’s Choir will offer their fifth
residency in Ely Cathedral from July 24-30,
and in Bristol Cathedral, July 31-August 6.
Please
make checks payable to St. Mark’s Choir Association with the designation of
“Music
Memorial.” Checks,
together with the name of the person(s) being memorialized (Printed, please!)
can be given or sent to Marg Barron, Treasurer, St. Mark’s Choir Association, 2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94704. Thank
you. Deadline for the inclusion of names in the Music Memorial
Bulletin is Wednesday, May 13 at noon.
Soloist
Biographies
Carol Kessler,
Soprano, grew up in Davis, CA, immersed in all things musical, athletic and
animals. Her talents led her to Indiana
University for her Bachelor’s Degree in Music, where, in addition to continuing
her piano studies, swimming and playing intramural basketball, she followed her
passion, singing Baroque Music, as well as the Lieder Repertoire of composers
dedicated to the Art Song tradition. She has also sung with AVE since
their second season in 2005. Fluent in
German, having lived in Germany for a few years where she gave solo recitals
and concertized in the Southern Region, she now makes her home in the East Bay,
maintaining a private voice and piano studio.
She also swims for a Masters swim team, volunteers for a nonprofit Parrot
Rescue organization, helping to run annual Parrot Behavior Seminars, and enjoys
the company of her animal companions: a Toy Poodle and six parrots. She
continues an active schedule as a soloist and recitalist. Please visit
her web site at: www.CarolKessler.com for engagements and repertoire.
Clifton Massey,
countertenor, is known to audiences in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond
for stylish interpretations of wide ranging musical styles. Praised by SF
Classical Voice for "gloriously rounded tone and a measure of heft often
missing in proponents of his voice type", his singing has taken him to
many festivals and venues including the Concertgebou in Amsterdam, Musikverein
in Vienna, Tanglewood Music Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie
Hall, Tokyo Opera City, Oregon Bach Festival, and the Early Music festivals of
Toronto, Berkeley, and Boston. He was a member of the GRAMMY® award
winning male ensemble Chanticleer, performing over 200 concerts in a variety of
the world's finest halls. He collaborates frequently with notable early music
ensembles including the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists,
Magnificat Baroque, Bach Collegium San Diego, and the Dallas Bach Society.
Highlights of this season include his solo debut at Lincoln Center in Messiah
with the Choir and Orchestra of Trinity Church Wall Street under the direction
of Julian Wachner, Handel's Saul as part of the Twelfth
Night Festival in NYC, Carissimi's Jephte and
Charpentier's Actéon with Bach Collegium San Diego, and
the Steffani Stabat Mater with Voices of Music. Also a passionate educator,
Clifton teaches with the internationally acclaimed Piedmont Choirs. He
feels that instilling in youth a shared love of our musical history is integral
to educating the whole person, and essential for building bridges to the larger
world beyond the classroom walls. Clifton holds degrees from Texas
Christian University and the Indiana University Historical Performance
Institute, where he studied with Paul Hillier and Paul Elliott.
Hailing
from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, tenor Michael
Jankosky has performed with many San Francisco Bay Area companies,
including the San Francisco Opera Chorus, West Edge Opera, American Bach
Soloists, Fremont Symphony, Opera San Jose, Oakland Opera Theater, North Bay
Opera, and San Francisco Parlor Opera. In
addition to classical masterpieces, he enjoys performing Baroque, Opera, New
Works, and Musical Theater,Mr. Jankosky has sung in master classes with
Frederica von Stade, Christine Brewer, Gidon Saks, Warren Jones, Roger
Vignoles, Martin Katz, and Jeffrey Thomas. He received his Bachelor of Music
from the Conservatory of Music at Baldwin-Wallace College and his Master of
Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is an avid cyclist, hiker, and is running
his first half-marathon this July.
New
Zealand bass-baritone Hadleigh Adams
is a former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and a graduate of the Merola Opera
Program. Hadleigh studied at the University of Auckland, the New Zealand School
of Music, and was an Emerging Artist with the NBR New Zealand Opera before
relocating to Australia in 2009 as the inaugural Gertrude Johnson Scholar at
The Opera Studio, Melbourne. He subsequently received a full scholarship to the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he studied with Rudolf Piernay and Janice
Chapman, gaining a Masters of Music with Distinction.
While studying at Guildhall he
made his debut at London’s Royal National Theatre singing the role of Christ in
Jonathan Miller’s production of Bach’s St
Matthew Passion, to critical acclaim. He has also performed in concert at
St Martin-in-the-Fields, the Barbican Theatre, and at the Wigmore Hall as part
of the Voiceworks initiative.
Hadleigh’s opera roles include
the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro,
Papageno (The Magic Flute),
Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Claudio (Agrippina), Nardo (La Finta Giardiniera), Dappertutto (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream),
and Bob (The Old Maid and the Thief).
Concert engagements have included St
Matthew Passion (Southbank Sinfonia) and St John Passion (The Orpheus Choir), Purcell’s Come ye Sons of Art, Dvorak’s Stabat
Mater (Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra), David Hamilton’s Breaking the Quiet (Auckland
Philharmonia Orchestra), Messiah (Royal
Melbourne Philharmonic) and Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols (Musica Sacra).
Hadleigh’s
most recent performances include Schaunard (La
Boheme) Marquis (La Traviata),
Schlemil (Les contes d’Hoffmann),
Simon (The Gospel of Mary Magdalene),
Jimmy (Dolores Claiborne), all for the
San Francisco Opera, Claudio (Agrippina)
with Opera Omaha, Manfred (For a Look or a Touch), his highly
praised debut with Pinchgut Opera singing Pollux in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux, Gendarme in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias with Opera Parallèle, and a recital with
Steven Blier. He has also covered the roles of Ormonte (Partenope), Crespil (les Contes d’Hoffmann) and Dandini (Tosca) for San Francisco Opera.
2015
performances include Guglielmo (Cosí fan Tutte) with Opera Pittsburgh,
Zoroastro (Orlando) at the New York
City Whitebox, a residence at the renowned Marlboro Music Festival under the
artistic direction of Mitsuko Uchida, a return to Pinchgut Opera to perform the
title role in Vivaldi’s Bajazet, the
Fauré Requiem with Sydney
Philharmonia Choirs, Candide with
Oakland East Bay Symphony and Jake Heggie’s For
a Look or a Touch with San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Hadleigh will also
cover the role of Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking for Opera Parallèle.
