 |
24th Annual
with the
Robert Dale Chorale
|
major performers' and guest artists'
BIOGRAPHIES
ALAIN TRUCHE (Guest Organist)
Alain Truche (Guest Organist) has been Director of Music/Organist at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Scranton, PA since October 2007. Prior to this position, he was Director of Music at Evangelical United Lutheran Church in Lincoln, NE and Organ Scholar at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, NE.
He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Central Michigan University, a Master of Music degree from Indiana University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. His teachers were Dr. Steven Egler, Dr. Marilyn Keiser, Dr. George Ritchie, and Dr. Christopher Marks.
He has given recitals both in the U.S. and in his native France, and he was finalist at the Arthur Poister Competition in spring 2007 held in Syracuse, NY. He is currently a member and sub-dean of the Northeast Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
DEREK CHESTER (Evangelist)
Praised by the Miami Herald for his effortless coloratura and firm, secure voice, is steadily making a name for himself in the world of classical singing. As a student of American tenor James Taylor, Mr. Chester completed his Masters Degree in Vocal Performance of Oratorio, Early Music, Song, and Chamber Music in 2006 from the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music. As a Fulbright Scholar, he spent a year in Germany working as a freelance musician and furthering his training as a student of acclaimed German tenor, Christoph Prégardien. In Germany, he is a member of the Gächinger Kantorei and has recently been heard as soloist in Bach Cantata’s 22 and 23 with the Bach Collegium Stuttgart. Mr. Chester made his Bay Area premiere as a semi-finalist in the 2006 American Bach Soloists & Henry I. Goldberg International Young Artists Competition. He also has appeared as soloist at the Oregon Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling, as Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion during Bach Woche 2007 in Stuttgart and also at the 2007 Toronto Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling, in Monteverdi’s Vespers with Seraphic Fire under Patrick Dupre Quigley, with whom he has also presented the complete motets of J.S. Bach (one voice per part). He is on the roster of the American Bach Soloists under Jeffrey Thomas. Other recent concert credits include Bach’s Mass in B minor and Weihnachts Oratorium, Britten’s Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, Mozart’s Litaniae de Venerabili Altaris Sacramento and Requiem, and Stravinsky’s Svadebka (Les Noces). Acclaimed as a versatile tenor, Mr. Chester has also excelled in the performance of opera and musical theatre spanning nearly six centuries in his repertoire. Theater and opera credits include Nemorino, with University of North Texas Opera Theatre, Abel/Japheth in Children of Eden with New Works New Haven, Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro with Athena Grand Opera, Grosvenor in Patience and Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas with the University of Georgia Opera Theatre. Mr. Chester is currently working on his doctorate in Opera and Early Music from the University of North Texas, where he is a doctoral fellow, and works as a freelance singer across North America and Europe.
Timothy LeFebvre (Jesus)
Nationally acclaimed baritone Timothy LeFebvre (Jesus) recently made his debut with Opera Delaware singing Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. Other recent performances include Vaughan-Williams’ Sea Symphony with Berkshire Choral Festival, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Dvorak’s Te Deum with Jacksonville Symphony, Brahms’ Requiem with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera and Cornell University, and The Ballad of Baby Doe and The Coronation of Poppea with Central City Opera.
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 Tri-Cities Opera, Sarasota Opera, Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Syracuse Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Opera Delaware, 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 Assistant Professor of Voice at Binghamton University. 2008/2009 performances include the title role in Rigoletto with Tri-Cities Opera, Messiah with Jacksonville Symphony, Ping in Turandot with Jacksonville Symphony, and the Brahms Requiem with the Binghamton Philharmonic.
Thomas C. Heinze (Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Concert)
Thomas C. Heinze (Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Concert) is currently performing and recording as a free lance woodwind specialist/studio musician in NE Pennsylvania and Southern New York. In his retirement, Mr. Heinze maintains an active teaching studio at Wilkes/Marywood Universities and Wyoming Seminary. He is also the curator/director of the Heinze Family Jazz Library, which is composed of 2,000 arrangements for big band and is currently housed at Wilkes University.
Sophie Till (concertmaster)
Sophie Till (concertmaster) holds an advanced music degree from the Royal College of Music in London and a master of music degree from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) where she studied under Charles Treger. She is persuing a PhD on the Beethoven Violin Sonatas at The University of Leeds (UK). An active free-lance violinist throughout Europe and Eastern United States, she formerly taught at both Eton College and the Royal College of Music, Junior Department. She was recently named the recipient of the F. Lammot Belin Arts Award and is currently recording the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas. She serves on the music faculty of Marywood University, where she is the director of the string division, and is an Artist in Residence at Wyoming Seminary.