Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial By Jury and more…

Recorded
May 5, 2024 – 4:00 PM

Saint James Place,
Great Barrington, MA

Performers:

Sopranos: Rebecca Palmer, Christiane Olson, Margie O’Brien
Mezzo Soprano: Sarah Bleasdale
Alto: Max Rook
Tenors: Igor Ferreira, Kevin Ray, Douglas Schmolze
Baritones: Stephen Quint, John-Arthur Miller, Joseph Klebanoff
Bass-Baritone: Gabriel Garcia

Crescendo Chorus

Trudy Weaver -Miller
David Baranowski, piano
John-Arthur Miller, narrator
Christine Gevert and John-Arthur Miller, co-directors

Program

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900), composer & Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911), dramatist

Trial by Jury

• Hark, the hour of ten is sounding
• Is this the Court of the Exchequer? When first my old, old love I knew All hail, great Judge!
• When I, good friends, was call’d to the Bar Swear thou the Jury
• Where is the Plaintiff?
• Oh, never, never, never, since I joined the human race May it please you, my lud!
• That she is reeling is plain to see! Oh, gentlemen, listen, I pray
• That seems a reasonable proposition A nice dilemma we have here
• I love him – I love him The question, gentlemen Oh, joy unbounded

~ INTERMISSION ~

“The Trials of Love in the Spring!” – Operetta excerpts with narration by John-Arthur Miller

Ruddigore                         

• Welcome Gentry for your entry

The Mikado                                     

• Behold the Lord High Executioner
• The Flowers that bloom in the spring
• Braid the raven hair
• The sun whose rays are all ablaze

H.M.S. Pinafore

• We sail the ocean blue
• I’m called little Buttercup
• The Nightingale
• A maiden fair to see

Iolanthe                                          

• Oh foolish fay *Performed in memory of Patricia P. Gomez, dedicated by Susan & Richard Vreeland
• When you’re lying awake (Nightmare Song)

Patience                                          

• Twenty lovesick maidens we
• The soldiers of our Queen, excerpt
• In a doleful train
• I hear the soft note

The Pirates of Penzance                 

• Hail Poetry – with audience
• When the foeman bears his steel

The Mikado                                     

• Willow, tit Willow

Princess Ida                                      

• With joy abiding (Act 3/Finale)

Encore – The Gondoliers                 

• Once more gondolieri (Finale, excerpt)

Learn More About All of the Performers

Rebecca Palmer, soprano is a graduate of San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Bachelor of Music) and The Boston Conservatory (Master of Music).

Rebecca made her Austrian debut at the Wien Modern festival, where she sang the soprano solo in Goetia 72 by Lera Auerbach. She has also performed with Chorus Sine Nomine, under the direction of Johannes Hiemetsberger, in Brahms Requiem (Graz Musikverein), Mahler Symphony II (Vienna Musikverein) and Bach Mass in B minor (Vienna Musikverein). Rebecca collaborates with the ensemble Cracow Singers, based in Cracow, Poland. Past performances include works by Des Prez, Bach, Penderecki and Pärt. She has sang with conductor Zoltán Pad, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Beethoven Academy Orchestra and has toured in France (Chaource Organ Festival), Armenia (Penderecki a cappella with Hover Chamber Choir in Yerevan) and Hungary (72 Angels by Lera Auerbach with Raschèr Saxophone Quartet in Budapest).Rebecca was also a soloist at ICE Krakow Congress Centre during the annual Film Music Festival, where she sang the music of composer Jan Kaczmarek.

Operatic roles include a portrayal of Vespetta (Pimpinone, Telemann) with Krakowska Opera Kameralna in Cracow, Poland and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte, Mozart) with Connecticut Lyric Opera in the United States. “Rebecca Palmer was refulgent as Pamina, especially in Ach ich fühl’s.” – Connecticut Summer Opera Foundation. She has also performed Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart), Le Feu & Le Rossignol (L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Ravel) and Zerlina (Don Giovanni, Mozart). Rebecca was described as having, “impeccable technical aptitude complemented by smooth and mature tone…[Rebecca Palmer] displayed a level of communication unparalleled among her fellow soloists.” – The Boston Musical Intelligencer. Rebecca is a featured soloist with Crescendo, an Early Music/Baroque ensemble led by Christine Gevert, based in Connecticut in the United States. Past concerts include works by Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia, the Ferrara Court composer, Luzzasco Luzzaschi, and Domenico Zipoli. Rebecca has lived in the United States, Germany, Italy, England, Poland and Austria. She speaks English, Italian and German. Rebecca currently resides in Vienna, Austria.

Christiane Olson, soprano, is a professional actor and singer who has performed in Paris, New York, Seattle, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan, Montana, Kentucky and Colorado. She is an educator with over 10 years of experience teaching acting in higher education. She has also served as a dialect/vocal coach for many productions, helping actors with British (RP), Cockney, and French to name a few. Fluent in both English and French, she teaches French at Housatonic Valley Regional High School. Last year she was named the new Director and co-producer of The Housatonic Musical Theater Society, and recently directed Beauty and the Beast for their 2024 season. Christiane earned an MFA in Acting from Michigan State University.

Margaret O’Brien, soprano, teaches private voice and piano lessons at the Kent School, in Kent, CT. She has a B.A. in Music from Hamilton College and a M.A. in Music Therapy from New York University. She has performed as soloist with the Sherman Chamber Ensemble and the Kent Singers. While living in New York City, she was a member of the professional choir at St. Bartholomew’s Church and at St. Michael’s Church. She is a frequent soloist at St. Andrew’s Church in Kent, CT and has performed in recital for the St. Andrew’s Music in the Nave series. When not engaged in music, she enjoys gardening and riding dressage.

Sarah Marvel Bleasdale, mezzo-soprano, started her career with the Gilbert and Sullivan touring company, Opera a la Carte, based in Southern California, and has continued to perform the repertoire frequently with various organizations, including the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Troupers Light Opera, and Utopia Opera. She recently performed at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra in performances of the Dvorak Requiem and Schoenberg’s Gurre-lieder, and is singing this spring in concerts with the Westchester Choral Society and Music on the Hill. Sarah will appear this summer in Meyerbeer’s Le Profète, with the Opera at Bard Summerscape. Past performances include playing Madame Giry in the German cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera and her recordings include Bloch’s Sacred Service recorded live in Jersusalem with the Israel Philharmonic, and the soundtrack of the animated film Halo: The Fall of Reach.

Max Rook is an alto vocalist and a composer. They studied at Manchester Community College, where, after a long and winding road down more than a few other possible paths, they finally graduated with an Associates Degree in Music Studies.

Along the way, Max has found themself a place in the alto and tenor sections of several vocal ensembles in the New England area. They perform regularly with the Schola Cantorum at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Hartford, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Manchester Symphony Orchestra Chorale, Voce, and Crescendo. Max can also be found singing in shows around Massachusetts and Connecticut with Big Smile Entertainment, as well as performing as a singer and bassist around the general Tolland County area with their band, Long Way Round.

While their compositional career is still fledgling, Max has had a few of their pieces performed by the Manchester Symphony Orchestra Chorale. They write primarily for vocal ensembles, though they also sometimes dabble in electronic music.

Igor Ferreira, Brazilian-born tenor and pianist received his master’s degree in Piano Performance from the University of Hartford, under tutelage of Prof. David Westfall and Prof. Frederic Chiu. He was featured in the Brazilian TV show Segunda Musical on TV ALMG in the years of 2008, 2009 and 2011, which was recorded live at the Teatro da Assembléia Legislativa de Minas Gerais, in Brazil. He performed as a pianist in many venues and festivals, including the inaugural concert of the Oficina de Artes Narcio Rodrigues, a new integrated cultural space in the city of Itapagipe, Brazil. Also, he played on the 90^th birthday recital of one of the Brazil’s most acclaimed composers, Edino Krieger (1928-2022), with the honor of having the composer in the audience.

As a lyrical tenor, Mr. Ferreira was a soloist for the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Choir, the CRESCENDO Chorus and Orchestra and the Hartt Symphony Orchestra and Hartt Choirs. He was a tenured member of the prestigious Coral Lírico de Minas Gerais (CLMG), which is the professional symphony/opera choir of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, housed in the Palácio das Artes alongside the state’s orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfônica de Minas Gerais (OSMG). He has performed in many operatic super-productions including Carmen, Lucia de Lammermoor, Porgy and Bess, La Traviata, Rigoletto, Der Fliegender Holländer, Norma, L’Elisir d’Amore, Il Guarany and many others. He also performed, with the choir in the inaugural concert of the Sala Minas Gerais, that houses the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais (OFMG). He took part on the A Cançāo das Iluminuras, a specialized early-music ensemble with a vast collection of early-music instruments and, the Octeto da Fundação de Educação Artística, which was an eight-member voice chamber group. As a member of the Suzuki Association of Americas, he has been certified in Suzuki Teacher Training with Prof. Sachiko Isihara. Currently, he is a piano faculty at the Suzuki Music Schools, in Westport/CT.

Kevin Ray, tenor, is praised by Opera News for his “commendable style” and abilities with “subtle coloristic nuance.” This season, he returns to the role of the Prince in Rusalka in his Portland Opera debut, sings his first performances of Macduff in Macbeth with Resonance Works, and joins his alma mater Oberlin College Conservatory of Music for a gala performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Last season he joined New Orleans Opera for his first performances of Siegmund

in Die Walküre. He recently made his LA Opera debut as Loud Stone in Aucoin and Ruhl’s Eurydice, his Metroplitan Opera debut as the Messenger in Aida. Other recent engagements include joining Indiana University for a special bicentennial production of Parsifal covering the title role, his first performances of King Charles VII in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans with Odyssey Opera, the Prince in Rusalka with Arizona Opera, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer with Estonian National Opera, and Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with Berkshire Opera Festival. On the concert stage, Mr. Ray made his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut singing Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under the baton of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, joined the Phoenix Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, the Florida Orchestra for Rachmaninov’s The Bells, the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem, and was a resident artist at the Ravinia Festival Steans Music Institute. He is a 2016 second prizewinner in the Wagner division of the Gerda Lisnner Foundation’s International Vocal Competition and a 2015 winner of the William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation

Award. The tenor was one of eight finalists in Seattle Opera’s 2014 International Wagner Competition. He is a 2012 Grand Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions as well as a three-time district winner of the competition in previous years. He has also received second prize from the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and third prize in the Wagner division of the Liederkranz Comeptition. Additionally, he is a two-time recipient of study grants from the Wagner Society of New York. The Cornwall, New York native earned his Master of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music, at which his roles included Don José in La tragédie de Carmen, the Schoolmaster in Cunning Little Vixen, and Toni Reichsmann in The Elegy for Young Lovers. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and completed further studies at the Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro and the Mozarteum Sommerakademie in Salzburg.

Doug Schmolze, tenor and guitarist, studied guitar and composition at the Berklee School of Music, classical guitar with Alexander Bellow and voice with Frank Kelley. He has sung with the Pro Art Choral, the Berkshire Bach Singers, Berkshire Choral Festival, Berkshire Opera, Cantilena Chamber Choir. He was the tenor section leader at the First Congregational Church, Stockbridge Ma. in past years; currently with the Crescendo Chorus of Lime Rock, CT. He is active as a church musician and is a music practitioner, trained in the Music for Healing and Transition Program. His repertoire includes art songs guitar music from Spain and Latin America as well as American Songbook classics from composers such as Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Rogers and Hammerstein, etc. Doug is married and lives in Great Barrington, Ma.

Stephen Quint, baritone, grew up in Maine (Pittsfield), went to college in Boston (New England Conservatory, as a French horn player), and lives in Brooklyn Heights (where Old is the new New). While playing the horn professionally in New York, he decided to audition for the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players. For the next 30- plus years, he performed the principal comedian “patter roles” with the company. Over 1,000 performances of Sir Joseph (“Pinafore”), the Major-General (“Pirates of Penzance”), and Ko-Ko (“The Mikado”), plus countless performances (in that nobody counted them) of the other 10 G&S operas. In addition to NYGASP he has sung for regional opera companies such as Anchorage Opera, Boston Academy of Music, New York Grand Opera, the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England, and many, many more. So many more. Steve is also delighted to do other things, and his most recent performance was Fagin in “Oliver!.”

Gabriel García, bass (Foreman of the Jury, Ko-Ko, Bunthorne, Colonel), currently lives in Harlem, NYC, where he is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Performance at the Manhattan School of Music. Gabriel seeks to be a true arbiter of change by working to increase representation on our stages as well as seeking out or commissioning works by people of color. Gabriel previously attended Carnegie Mellon and grew up in the Connecticut area.

Joseph Klebanoff , bass hails from Waccabuc, NY. A lifelong chorister, he joined the Westchester Oratorio Society at age 11 and sang with them for seven years. While in college, he sang with the Catskill Choral Society, the Canticum Novum Singers, and Voctet. He has sung with at least one choir per week for the past 23 years. Joe is a section leader and soloist for the Westchester Choral Society and Hudson Chorale. Last spring, with members of WCS, HC, and Westchester Music of India, he was the tenor soloist for the world premiere of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy performed in Hindi.

Since 2019, Joe has been the tenor soloist at St. Matthew’s Church in Bedford. Previously, he sang for three years each at St. Joseph’s Church in Danbury and Christ Church Bronxville. He also sings with the Yuletide Singers, Qara’ Vocal Ensemble, Park East Men’s Choir, Yossi Schwartz Choir, and The Zingers Choir.

An avid collaborator, Joe has performed and recorded new works by Robin Pitre, Eric Freeman, Sophie Pope, Andrew Seligson, Icli Zitella, Derek Cooper, and Anthony Newman. Joe is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Mignon Dunn. He currently studies with Gary Norden.

David Baranowski, piano is a highly versatile conductor and musician, performing with equal virtuosity on piano, keyboard, organ, and harpsichord.

He has played and directed numerous chamber and choral concerts in New York and Connecticut, conducted Così fan tutte for Delaware Valley Opera, and musical directed and conducted The Wild Party and Crazy for You for the Musical Theater department at Western Connecticut State University. He is the Artistic Director for both the Hudson Chorale and the Westchester Choral Society, and Music Director and organist for the Salisbury Congregational Church.

For the past twenty years, David has been touring internationally with rock icon Ritchie Blackmore, as both keyboardist and singer. He has played over 10concerts and visited nearly 25 countries as a member of Blackmore’s Night, which has been on the charts and on prime time television in Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, England, and the United States. David Baranowski has also collaborated with Irish pop singer and composer, Julie Feeney, whose NY shows earned rave reviews in the New York Times and a live appearance on WNYC’s Soundcheck. Mr. Baranowski studied piano with Paul Ostrovsky and Steven Lubin, organ with Robert Fertitta, voice with Stefano Algieri, and conducting with Mark Bailey. He received both his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Purchase College Conservatory of Music.

John-Arthur Miller, bass-baritone, was part of the professional singer scene in New York City for many years, as a soloist, an opera singer, and a choral singer. His early training was at Kent State University, in Kent, OH, and his vast G&S experience with the Ohio Light Opera Company in Wooster, OH, under the direction of James Stuart. For many years he was a member of the Concert Chorale of New York, the professional choir performing with the New York Philharmonic and other touring orchestras, as well as Musica Sacra, and the various oratorio societies, as a soloist. He toured the United States with New York City Opera for several seasons. He was on the faculty of the Berkshire Choral Festival for many years, relocating to the Berkshires in 2001. Since then, he has enjoyed many years singing as soloist and bass section leader with Christine Gevert and Crescendo, as well as conducting and singing at Christ Trinity Church in Sheffield.

Christine Gevert, organ, virginal and direction, holds a master’s degree in organ and early music performance from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg, Germany. After earning a bachelor’s degree in music theory from the Conservatorio Nacional de Chile, she studied choral and orchestral conducting in Berlin and harpsichord in London. She has taught at the Berliner Kirchen-musikschule, the Universidad de Chile, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile.

Ms. Gevert has performed in Europe, South America, and the U.S., appearing at the Washington Early Music Festival, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Fringe concerts of the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Amherst Early Music Festiva, the Early Music Festival in Narol, Poland, the Auditorium Wanda Landowska in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She also performed at the International Festival of American Renaissance & Baroque Music at the Chiquitan Missions in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She has recorded for Carpe Diem and Alerce. She has led master classes and workshops in early music, harpsichord, and baroque vocal technique at music festivals in Germany, Chile and the U.S., and has taught historic keyboards at the Berlin Church Music School in Germany, and locally at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. She has authored and published more than eighty historical basso continuo realizations with the Swiss music publisher, Amadeus Verlag. The founder and artistic director of Crescendo and her own baroque ensemble Les Inégales, Christine is currently music director at Trinity Episcopal Church, Lime Rock, CT.

Crescendo is a national-award-winning music performance organization. Now in it’s 20^th season, Crescendo has presented concerts year- round in northwestern Connecticut, the Berkshires, and the mid-Hudson Valley of New York. The organization is based at Trinity Church Lime Rock in Lakeville, CT.

Founder and Artistic Director, Christine Gevert, is celebrated for her innovative approach to programming and performance. Crescendo’s audiences are often rewarded with programs of rarely-heard and newly discovered works. Often Ms. Gevert uses original manuscripts to make her own performing editions for chorus, soloists and orchestra because there are no existing published editions. Frequently our programs feature early and contemporary music works alongside each other, creating a contrast for the listener. Eight new works have been commissioned for our chorus and vocal ensemble. Crescendo has presented ten U.S. premieres.

Crescendo’s innovative programming relies on a local base of dedicated and talented auditioned amateurs and professionals who make up the Crescendo Chorus and Crescendo Vocal Ensemble. Crescendo has its own Period Instrument Orchestra and Andean Ensemble, comprised of professionals from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Hartford. These instrumentalists and the internationally recognized soloists who regularly collaborate with Crescendo bring the performances to a level comparable to the best ensembles in the country. Instrumental music ensembles and concerts with vocal soloists have been part of Crescendo’s programs since the beginning. Some of the performers have been: Julianne Baird (Philadelphia) soprano, Nicholas Tamagna (Oldenburg, Germany) countertenor, Peter Sykes (Boston) and Władysław Kłosiewicz (Warsaw, Poland), harpsichord, Chris Bellsucio (Boston), natural trumpet, Tricia van Oers, recorder, I Fagiolini Renaissance Vocal Ensemble (London, UK), L’Orchestre de Chambre Francaise (Paris, France), Peter Lekx (Montreal) baroque violin, Duo Alturas (Hartford) charango, viola and guitar, and Duo Les Inégales, traverso and harpsichord.

We are strongly committed to educational outreach―to our own singers, our audiences and local students. Talented local high school singers and young musicians are coached by Ms. Gevert as part of our “Young Artist Program”, and often play a part in our performances. She and members of the chorus visit local schools to work with students.

Artistic Director Christine Gevert is celebrated for her innovative approach to programming and performance: In 2014 Crescendo won the prestigious Chorus America / ASCAP Alice Parker Award. Today’s programming reflects some of the diversity and scope of music that Crescendo is known for.