The Department of Music at Hamilton College presents the Hamilton College and Community Oratorio Society on Tuesday, Nov. 28, at 8 p.m. at Wellin Hall in the Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts on the Hamilton campus.
The ensemble, under the direction of G. Roberts Kolb, will perform Felix Mendelssohn's St. Paul. Featured soloists are Tim LeFebre, Janet Brown and Todd Greer.
Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847), was born to a wealthy and cultured Berlin family. He began his musical career at a young age and had written many acclaimed works by his teens. He was commissioned to write a choral work in 1831, and he turned to the Bible for inspiration. The text of St. Paul is based very largely on the Acts of the Apostles. After a lengthy overture, Part I opens with the martyrdom of Stephen and Saul's persecution of the Christians. This is followed by the conversion of Paul, his baptism and ordination as a minister by Ananias. Part II finds Paul and Barnabas becoming the ambassadors of the Church. Their duet is followed by one of the oratorio's best-loved choruses, 'How lovely are the messengers.' We then hear of the Jews' attempted entrapment of Paul and the miraculous healing at Lystra of a crippled man. The work ends with Paul leaving his church at Ephesus and sailing for Jerusalem, and new challenges.
A member of the Hamilton faculty since 1981, G. Roberts Kolb earned a master's at California State University at Fullerton and a D.M.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kolb is director of choral activities at Hamilton and is conductor of the Hamilton College and Community Oratorio Society, as well as past conductor of the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble and Cayuga Vocal Ensemble. He is a contributing author to Up Front: Becoming the Complete Choral Conductor. Kolb is a former holder of the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Chair at Hamilton.
Baritone Timothy LeFebre is a frequent performer with Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, having sung leading roles in numerous productions including La Traviata, Rigoletto, The Crucible, La Bohéme, Faust, Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen, Lakmé, and Die Fledermaus. He has appeared in operas with several regional companies, including Indianapolis Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Ithaca Opera, and Saratoga Opera and as a concert singer with the Minnesota Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, Syracuse Chamber Music Society, Syracuse Symphony and the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival. An adjunct lecturer in voice at Binghamton University, he has received the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, an Opera Fellowship at Binghamton University, and was a semi-finalist in the Baltimore Opera Vocal Competition.
Soprano Janet Brown has been praised by critics for her warm, clear voice and direct expression. On the opera stage she has performed roles with the Syracuse Opera Company, Oswego Opera Theatre, the American Repertory Theatre, the Boston Early Music Festival and PepsiCo Summerfare. Brown received her undergraduate musical training at Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. She did her graduate work at Boston Conservatory and Syracuse University. Brown currently serves as academic coordinator and instructor in voice at Syracuse University Setnor School of Music. She also teaches voice at Hamilton College
Tenor Todd Geer recently completed an Adler Fellowship with San Francisco Opera, where he performed as a resident artist for two seasons. After his professional debut with Syracuse Opera as Ferrando in Cosí fan tutte, the young tenor became a resident artist of Tri-Cities Opera (Binghamton, N.Y.), where he sang the leading tenor roles in, La Bohème, La Traviata and Madama Butterfly. His career developed further in the 1996/97 season with a Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in Salome, and Long Beach Opera's Elegy for Young Lovers by Henze. A frequent concert and oratorio singer, Geer made his European debut in 1996 singing Carmina Burana in the Arena de Nimes, Annecy, and Aix en Provence. That same year, he made his first appearances in Carnegie Hall singing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Schubert's Mass in F. A native of Charlotte, N.C., Geer holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Binghamton University. He was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold career grant from the Shoshana Foundation and was a prizewinner in the 1999 MacAllister Competition.
Tickets for this performance are $6 general admission and $4 for senior citizens and students. Hamilton College students are admitted free. All seating is general admission. For more information or tickets, call the box office at (315) 859-4331, 1-4 p.m. weekdays.
The ensemble, under the direction of G. Roberts Kolb, will perform Felix Mendelssohn's St. Paul. Featured soloists are Tim LeFebre, Janet Brown and Todd Greer.
Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847), was born to a wealthy and cultured Berlin family. He began his musical career at a young age and had written many acclaimed works by his teens. He was commissioned to write a choral work in 1831, and he turned to the Bible for inspiration. The text of St. Paul is based very largely on the Acts of the Apostles. After a lengthy overture, Part I opens with the martyrdom of Stephen and Saul's persecution of the Christians. This is followed by the conversion of Paul, his baptism and ordination as a minister by Ananias. Part II finds Paul and Barnabas becoming the ambassadors of the Church. Their duet is followed by one of the oratorio's best-loved choruses, 'How lovely are the messengers.' We then hear of the Jews' attempted entrapment of Paul and the miraculous healing at Lystra of a crippled man. The work ends with Paul leaving his church at Ephesus and sailing for Jerusalem, and new challenges.
A member of the Hamilton faculty since 1981, G. Roberts Kolb earned a master's at California State University at Fullerton and a D.M.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Kolb is director of choral activities at Hamilton and is conductor of the Hamilton College and Community Oratorio Society, as well as past conductor of the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble and Cayuga Vocal Ensemble. He is a contributing author to Up Front: Becoming the Complete Choral Conductor. Kolb is a former holder of the Christian A. Johnson Excellence in Teaching Chair at Hamilton.
Baritone Timothy LeFebre is a frequent performer with Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, having sung leading roles in numerous productions including La Traviata, Rigoletto, The Crucible, La Bohéme, Faust, Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen, Lakmé, and Die Fledermaus. He has appeared in operas with several regional companies, including Indianapolis Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Ithaca Opera, and Saratoga Opera and as a concert singer with the Minnesota Symphony, American Symphony Orchestra, Syracuse Chamber Music Society, Syracuse Symphony and the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival. An adjunct lecturer in voice at Binghamton University, he has received the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, an Opera Fellowship at Binghamton University, and was a semi-finalist in the Baltimore Opera Vocal Competition.
Soprano Janet Brown has been praised by critics for her warm, clear voice and direct expression. On the opera stage she has performed roles with the Syracuse Opera Company, Oswego Opera Theatre, the American Repertory Theatre, the Boston Early Music Festival and PepsiCo Summerfare. Brown received her undergraduate musical training at Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. She did her graduate work at Boston Conservatory and Syracuse University. Brown currently serves as academic coordinator and instructor in voice at Syracuse University Setnor School of Music. She also teaches voice at Hamilton College
Tenor Todd Geer recently completed an Adler Fellowship with San Francisco Opera, where he performed as a resident artist for two seasons. After his professional debut with Syracuse Opera as Ferrando in Cosí fan tutte, the young tenor became a resident artist of Tri-Cities Opera (Binghamton, N.Y.), where he sang the leading tenor roles in, La Bohème, La Traviata and Madama Butterfly. His career developed further in the 1996/97 season with a Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in Salome, and Long Beach Opera's Elegy for Young Lovers by Henze. A frequent concert and oratorio singer, Geer made his European debut in 1996 singing Carmina Burana in the Arena de Nimes, Annecy, and Aix en Provence. That same year, he made his first appearances in Carnegie Hall singing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Schubert's Mass in F. A native of Charlotte, N.C., Geer holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Binghamton University. He was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold career grant from the Shoshana Foundation and was a prizewinner in the 1999 MacAllister Competition.
Tickets for this performance are $6 general admission and $4 for senior citizens and students. Hamilton College students are admitted free. All seating is general admission. For more information or tickets, call the box office at (315) 859-4331, 1-4 p.m. weekdays.
