Stephen A. Futrell conducts the Elon University Chorale, Camerata, Festival Chorus and Orchestra, combined with the Front Street UMC Chancel Choir and the North State Chorale, on April 30 in an hour and a half performance of Handel’s master work. The McCrary Theatre event is free and open to the public.
Department of Music presents Handel’s Messiah
McCrary Theatre, 7:30 p.m.
Selections from all three portions of Messiah will be performed. Guest soloists for the evening include Catherine Clarke, soprano; Mary Gayle Green, mezzo-soprano; Gerald Knight, tenor; and KB Solomon, bass.
About the soloists:
Catherine Clarke is a frequent concert soloist, appearing twice at Carnegie Hall, and with the Toldedo Symphony, the Boulder Philharmonic, the Lexington Philharmonic, the Owensboro Symphony, the Orchestra Sinfonica dell’International in Rome, and the Natchez Festival of Music, as well as the National Youth Choir, Nebraska Choral Works, Huntington Choral Society, Limestone Chorale and the Middletown Chorale.
She has also appeared in opera roles with the Aspen Opera Theater Center, the Colorado Lyric Theater, Chautauqua Music Festival, Operafestival di Roma, the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre and the University of Colorado Opera. She was a finalist in the Rocky Mountain District Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions, twice a winner of the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Scholarship, and a prizewinner at the Alltech Opera Scholarship Competition.
Clarke has toured extensively, performing throughout the United States, and in Canada, England, Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. A native of Maysville, Kentucky, Ms. Clarke received her BM at the University of Kentucky, her MM from the University of Colorado and is currently a DMA candidate at the University of Kentucky.
Since moving to North Carolina, mezzo soprano Mary Gayle Greene has sung with the North Carolina Symphony as a soloist in such works as the Verdi Requiem, Bach B Minor Mass, Handel’s Judas Macabeus and Messiah and also Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan Tutte by Mozart. Greene has been a frequent soloist with the Duke Chapel Choir, Durham Civic Chorus, North Carolina Master Chorale, North Carolina Symphony, Greensboro Oratorio Society, Greensboro Symphony and the Winston Salem Symphony. She has performed roles with Longleaf Opera, Piedmont Opera and Opera Carolina. As a North Carolina Visiting Artist she performed all over the state in Opera, recital, and chamber music.
A finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in New York, she has performed with Oper der Stadt Bonn in Germany, at the Edinburgh Music Festival, and with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Chicago Lyric Opera Studio, Knoxville Opera, and the St. Louis Symphony.
Greene’s performances have earned enthusiastic praise: “one should note…the extraordinary mezzo-soprano Mary Gayle Greene. This is a voice of molten chocolate… what a voice!” proclaimed the Raleigh News & Observer. …“a dark mahogany, deep plush mezzo-soprano sound”. Das Opern Glass in Germany lauded her debut in Bonn: “Ms. Greene’s singing was of the highest caliber…she has a bright voluminous voice.”
A former student of Edward Zambara, several of her performances have been broadcast on NPR and PBS. She is also the mezzo-soprano soloist on a recently released world premiere recording of Abraham Kaplan’s K’dusha Symphony with soprano Roberta Peters. Mary Gayle is on the voice faculty at the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University. She has also served on the voice faculties at Elon University and at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Gerald R. Knight, tenor, earned the Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Benedict College, both the Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and the Master of Music Education from the University of South Carolina and the Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education/Choral Conducting from The Florida State University. Additionally, Knight has studied at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina, Salzburg College in Salzburg, Austria, and the Studio Lirico, Cortona, Italy.
During his studies in Italy, Knight performed the role of Checco in the opera Il Convito by Cimarosa at the Teatro Signorelli and served as a vocal studio accompanist for the Studio Lirico. Knight has appeared in recitals in Cortona, Italy and in Salzburg, Austria. He has appeared throughout the southeast in recital and in oratorio performances. Knight appeared as the featured guest artist for the Fayetteville State University MLK Celebration and has appeared twice as tenor soloist in Messiah by Handel with the Fayetteville State University Concert Choir. He has also appeared several times with the Johnson C. Smith University Concert Choir performing the tenor solos in Handel’s Messiah and Magnificat by Bach.
Knight sang the roles of Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte by Mozart at the Historic Dock Street Theatre in Charleston, S.C., for the Charleston College/Charleston Opera Workshop.
Prior to pursuing doctoral studies Knight served as Choral Director at Alcorn Middle School in Columbia, South Carolina. Before teaching middle school Knight served as instructor and director of the Morris College Chorale at Morris College in Sumter, S.C. He has held numerous church positions as music director. Most recently, he served as Director of Music at the First Missionary Baptist Church and as Director/Pianist at the St. Jude Catholic Church, both in Sumter. In 2002 Knight held a one-year appointment as Guest Artist Director of the Capital City Chorale in Columbia, South Carolina.
Knight is currently Associate Director of Choral Activities at Elon University where he conducts the Elon University Chorale, teaches applied voice and is a member of the Music Education faculty.
Basso profundo KB Solomon, formerly known as Kevin Bell, has performed principal roles with major opera companies nationwide and in Europe for 20 years, including Deutsch Opera Berlin, Hanover Staas Theatre, Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Washington Opera, and many more. He is the recipient of many awards, including first place winner in the Metropolitan Western Regional Auditions, National finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions and the Richard Tucker Career Grant.
Currently, KB Solomon is also appearing in a new one-man show, “Speak Of Me As I Am.” Written and produced by Solomon and Krys Howard, Solomon appears as Paul Robeson returning from “the other side” to give an account of his stand – his raison d’etre. He amazingly morphs into the immortal 20th Century Renaissance man and brings to light Robeson’s political stand, and reflects upon the heavy price he paid. The show features outstanding dialogue and between seventeen and twenty patriotic and spiritual songs, most of which Robeson recorded.
This summer, KB Solomon will be performing the show for the California Arts Council 2009 Grand Performance Series in Los Angeles.