Katherine Jolly

Soprano

 

A bright, young, accomplished singer on the opera and concert stages, soprano Katherine Jolly has appeared in leading roles with Opera Theatre Saint Louis, Florida Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Virginia Opera, Amarillo Opera, Piedmont Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, American Lyric Theatre, and  Union Avenue Opera. In the concert arena she has performed in multiple seasons with Bach Society Saint Louis in Bach’s Coffee Cantata, The Kingsbury Ensemble in Bach’s Wedding Cantata and Handel’s Il Delirio Amoroso, as the soprano soloist in Handel’s The Messiah with the Evansville Philharmonic, the Richmond Symphony, and the Phoenix Symphony. Jolly was also featured with the Phoenix Symphony in staged performances of Brundibar, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Sinfonia Gulf Coast, Carmina Burana with Northwest Florida Symphony, and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Sacramento Choral Arts Society.

 

Jolly made her debut with Houston Grand Opera in 2012, performing as part of their East/West Chamber Opera series in a premier of New Arrivals. “Katherine Jolly, also making her HGO debut, employed tender and expressive soprano vocals to make her portrayal of Iris poignant and unforgettable,” stated Operaworld.com. She debuted with Virginia Opera, reprising Yum-Yum in The Mikado, and was featured with the company as one of three sopranos in their Simply Sopranos Gala. Jolly returned to New York City Opera in 2010 for performances as Laoula in L’Etoile following her performances in Cendrillon in 2007 where Variety wrote of her debut, “As the Fairy Godmother, coloratura soprano Katherine Jolly, delights with her endlessly flowing trills, runs and roulades.”

 

A winner of the 2006 Metropolitan Opera National Council Grand Finals, Jolly was praised by the New York Times who stated “Katherine Jolly used her agile, bright lyric soprano to superb effect in showpieces from Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail and Ariadne auf Naxos.” Jolly returned to the Met in the spring of 2010 to workshop An Enchanted Island with the company and was featured with City Opera’s VOX series in new operas, Acquanetta, and Josephine, broadcast on NPR. In addition to her Metropolitan Opera National Council Award, she has been the recipient of other awards including an honorable mention as a 2007 George London Finalist, the 2006 Opera Theatre Saint Louis William B. McMillan award, and a 2005 McAllister Career Grant.

 

Jolly received the Doctorate of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and has taught on faculty at Saint Louis University and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She is an Associate Professor of Voice at Oberlin Conservatory. photo: Tanya Rosen-Jones

 

katherinejollysoprano.com

bergerartists.com/katherinejolly

jollyvoicestudios.com

 

 

Emily Yap Chua

piano

 

Pianist Emily Yap Chua made her international solo debut at The Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, where she was described as “remarkably passionate . . . vividly enchanting,” (The Daily Tribune) and praised for “tonal beauty and clarity,” “a graceful, effortless manner,” and a “vibrant, ... spirited and movingly expressive” performance (The Philippine STAR). An active soloist and chamber musician, her collaborations include performances with musicians of orchestras and institutions around the world, including recitals with members of the Cincinnati, San Francisco, Detroit, Nashville, Charlotte, and Virginia Symphony Orchestras and faculty of the Juilliard School, University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, and Florida State University.

 

PREACH SISTER, PREACH is Chua’s second album release. Her recording of the piano works of composer Kent Holliday, a project in collaboration with pianist Nicholas Ross, was released by Centaur Records in 2009.

 

Chua is Department Chair and Professor of Music at Randolph College, where she has taught since 2002.

 

Joshua Harper

conductor

 

Joshua Harper enjoys a multifaceted career as a conductor, tenor, and educator. Harper has prepared choruses at Indiana University for Krzysztof Penderecki, Betsy Burleigh, and Dominick DiOrio. In 2018 he served as Associate Chorus Master for the second-ever production of Mason Bates’ Grammy Award-winning (R)Evolution of Steve Jobs. He has conducted the Grammy Award-nominated Elora Festival Singers and Toronto Mendelssohn Choir as one of the five conductors in North America invited to participate in the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s “Emerging Conductor Symposium” in 2016. In 2015 he was a conducting fellow at Yale’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival where he studied with Simon Carrington. Harper has completed coursework for the D.Mus. in Choral Conducting at the Jacobs School of Music and has premiered or given regional premieres of 15 new works. He holds an M.M. from UMass-Amherst. As a vocalist, he records at Aire Born Studios in Indianapolis and has sung professionally with Novi Cantori and Illuminati Vocal Arts in Massachusetts. He has served on the teaching faculties of Williston Northampton and Putney Summer Arts and is published by Colla Voce Music, Inc. He is a student of Dominick DiOrio, Betsy Burleigh, Walter Huff, and Tony Thornton.

 

Christa Cole

violin

 

Christa Cole is a music theorist, violinist, and pianist hailing from Boise ID. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music Theory with a minor in Violin Performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Cole currently studies violin with Grigory Kalinovsky and received a BM in Violin Performance from the Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied with David Bowlin. While at Oberlin, Cole performed Shulamit Ran’s Violin Concerto with the Oberlin Orchestra as a winner of the Conservatory’s annual concerto competition. As a member of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, she has nurtured a love for participating in premieres and performances of new works and this passion influences both her performance and research interests today. These research interests include the music of Elisabeth Lutyens and Shulamit Ran, agency and musical meaning in 20th and 21st-century music, and aural skills pedagogy. In addition, Cole studied piano formally for 15 years and she enjoys singing recreationally.

 

Rachel Mossburg

viola

 

Rachel Mossburg began her passion of playing stringed instruments at the age of 5. She is one of nine children and performed extensively with the oldest three throughout her younger years — over 100 times a year until graduating high school. After taking a few years off to explore other interests, she started a degree in Viola Performance at IPFW while maintaining a studio of 15 young string students. After two years, she decided it was time to move on, and transferred to the Jacobs School of Music. Some highlights in her journey thus far include playing in a masterclass for Roberto Diaz (President of the Curtis Institute of Music), being a finalist in the concerto competition at the Brevard Music Festival, and working with William Bolcolm and performing one of his solo compositions. She enjoys collaborating with other musicians in small ensembles and hopes to one day be in a prestigious quartet that travels and performs together.

 

Samantha Johnson-Helms

CLarinet

 

Hailed for her “great dynamic sensitivity and exquisite phrasing,” Samantha Johnson-Helms is a sought-after collaborative musician and teacher. She currently serves as Principal Clarinet of the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra and the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. Prior to being appointed to Principal Clarinet, she served as Second/E-flat Clarinet of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic. She has also been featured as a concerto soloist with the Butler University Symphony Orchestra, the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra of Indiana. In addition to her regular performance schedule, Johnson-Helms is a sought-after substitute for ensembles in the Midwest and can be heard on recordings for Naxos and Hal Leonard. Johnson-Helms is also a founding member of the award winning clarinet quartet Novacane Quartet. The quartet’s mission is to create new avenues for art music and encourage composers to write new, substantial works for the clarinet quartet repertoire. The quartet has commissioned and premiered many works, introducing new quality pieces to the clarinet quartet repertoire.

 

Per Björkling Double bass

Double bassist Per Björkling pursued a Master of Music degree from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in 2015 and is currently an Artist Diploma student in double bass with Prof. Kurt Muroki at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He has worked in most professional orchestras and ensembles in Sweden such as the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Musica Vitae, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Gävle Symphony Orchestra, and the Swedish National Symphony Orchestra in Gothenburg.

 

 

Composers

 

 

Evan Williams

Originally from the Chicagoland area, composer and conductor Evan Williams currently resides in Memphis TN, where he is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Activities at Rhodes College. Williams’s catalog contains a broad range of work, from vocal and operatic offerings to instrumental works, along with electronic music. Williams has been commissioned by ensembles including the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, with further performances by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and many more.

 

Williams received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. He also holds degrees from Bowling Green State University and Lawrence University. Before joining the faculty at Rhodes, Williams held teaching positions at Bennington College, Lawrence University, and at the Walden School’s Young Musicians Program.

evanwilliamsmusic.info

 

Katherine Bodor

Minneapolis native Katherine Bodor currently lives in Bloomington IN, where she is pursuing an MM in Composition at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She takes interest in music as a vessel to explore psychological processes of human concepts of cause versus effect, as well as internal versus external life. Her music has been described as “stark and declamatory,” “evocative,” and filled with “a quiet passion,” and she has premiered works internationally and throughout the United States with ensembles including PHACE Contemporary Ensemble, Chamber Project St. Louis, NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, Third Wheel Trio, and Six Degree Singers.

 

Bodor currently studies with Claude Baker, and has studied with Don Freund, Christopher Stark, and Martin Kennedy. Her work has been featured in masterclasses led by composers such as Andrew Norman, Reinhard Fuchs, and Robert Paterson. She graduated in 2016 from Washington University in St. Louis with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a second major in Music Composition.

katherinebodor.com

 

Evan Mack

Believing that opera should be “theater grounded in climactic expression that delivers larger-than-life stories and music that harnesses the full athletic thrill of singing,” Evan Mack has devoted much of his compositional life to opera and song.  His first major operatic composition, where he served as both composer and librettist, was Angel of the Amazon. Angel premiered in May of 2011 by Encompass New Opera Theatre and was subsequently released worldwide by Albany Records. Following its success, Mack partnered with librettist Joshua McGuire. Their works, The Secret of Luca, Roscoe, Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena, and The Ghosts of Gatsby have been performed all over the United States. Their new comedy, Yeltsin in Texas!, is slated for a world premiere in 2020. Mack was named 2018 Professional of the Year by Musical America and was a resident artist at Yaddo. Mack is a Professor at Skidmore College. He lives in Albany with his wife, Kristin, and two sons, Carter and Henry.

evanmack.com