Musician's Spotlight Archive

Previous Musician's Spotlights:

Michael Beattie came to Emmanuel Music almost by accident about 20 years ago, and the experience changed his life. “It all started with Craig Smith’s disorganization,” Beattie explains. Three days before rehearsals of The Marriage of Figaro were to begin with Peter Sellars and Sanford Sylvan, Smith realized he hadn’t scheduled a rehearsal pianist ... read more

Violist Mark Berger wears more musical hats than most freelance musicians. He plays viola and violin and composes concert music. In any of these roles Berger has been featured in many Boston and New England classical music organizations
... read more

Emmanuel Music was one of the first ensembles where tenor Charles Blandy auditioned when he moved to Boston in 2001, and it’s been at the heart of his musical career ever since. Blandy came to Boston after getting a Master’s in voice at Indiana University ... read more

Violinist Heather Braun began playing at Emmanuel Music as many musicians do – she subbed for another musician and waited to be called back. After two seasons as a sub Heather was given a solo part in the gala opening concert of the 2008-09 season. She now performs as a regular member of the ensemble and has appeared as concertmaster and soloist ... read more

Soprano Kendra Colton intended to be a concert pianist, but unanticipated successes as a singer gradually changed her career. Colton first began singing “for fun” in the year between high school and college, when she lived in Vienna during her father’s sabbatical ... read more

Soprano Susan Consoli’s singing career may have started when she was assigned a solo in a third grade school play.  Though daunted at first about singing alone, Consoli soon moved from her youthful “I’m not doing that!” to launching a successful career. In high school she performed at weddings and funerals. As word of mouth spread she traveled farther afield for these engagements ... read more

Violinist Rose Drucker is a freelancer whose work runs the gamut from orchestral to chamber performances and teaching. But there is a special “serendipity” to the Bach cantatas.  “This music now informs much of my inner musical life and how I approach music in other contexts,” she says. “I can’t imagine not knowing this music and having it play such an important part of my life” ... read more

Mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal has been with Emmanuel Music since 1984, a featured soloist who is one of Boston’s favorite local singers. But her Emmanuel Music career is unusually varied. Not only does Dellal lend a hand with bookkeeping, but her translation work has been a critical resource for Emmanuel Music and has shaped her understanding of the Bach cantatas she so often performs ... read more

Bass-baritone Paul Guttry has a life on two tracks. He is an active ensemble musician and, in a parallel world, a medical writer and editor. The worlds may have little in common, but both require an unusual ability to understand and communicate with others ... read more

Violinist Randy Hiller began his professional music career with Emmanuel Music when he was making a major life change. The self-described “math geek” with a Ph.D. from MIT was ready “to feed my soul” after running a money management company for ten years, working on Wall Street, and teaching at the Harvard Business School ... read more

Pianist Brett Hodgdon has made a unique career at Emmanuel Music, where he is as important behind the scenes as on the stage. Since 2006, Hodgdon has been a regular rehearsal pianist who works with the conductor almost every Saturday to prepare the chorus and soloists for the Sunday cantata ... read more

Tenor Frank Kelley first sang for Emmanuel Music as Ferrando in Cosi fan tutti, one of the three great Mozart opera collaborations between Craig Smith and Peter Sellars. “Peter and Craig were both great teachers,” Kelley says ... read more

Like many singers, David Kravitz was for many years a part-time musician with other things going on in his life. He fell into singing almost by accident in high school, studied science in college but took voice lessons and sang in the chorus, and then enrolled in the New England Conservatory (NEC) Master’s degree program on his voice teacher’s recommendation ... read more

Oboist Barbara LaFitte has played with Emmanuel Music for 30 years and loves the Baroque repertoire as much as any oboist. “Almost every Baroque piece has an oboe part, and Bach is the best,” she says. “Playing the Bach cantatas for 30 years has been my religious experience” ... read more

 

Mezzo-soprano Thea Lobo counts herself lucky. While an undergraduate at the New England Conservatory, she heard about Emmanuel Music and admired what she heard: the idea of a very professional organization that is also unusually collegial and supportive. “I loved that Bach is the ‘bread and butter’ of Emmanuel Music,” she says. “I loved the idea of the weekly cantatas in Emmanuel Church” ... read more

When violinist Dani Maddon came to Boston University to study with Raphael Druian, she had no idea what a wonderful concert town she’d come to. “I became an insatiable concert-goer,” Maddon says. “It was wonderful to me that you could go to a concert every night of the week.” ... read more

Tenor Jason McStoots began his career with Emmanuel Music when he got an invitation “sight unseen” from Craig Smith to join the chorus for a concert performance of Handel’s oratorio Hercules. McStoots had met Smith the summer before when he was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow ... read more

As Emmanuel Music prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary next season, oboist Peggy Pearson is one of the very few – along with Acting Artisic Director John Harbison, violinist Rose Mary Harbison, and violist Betty Hauck – who were there at the creation and are still part of the ensemble ... read more

Trumpeter Paul Perfetti’s varied career reflects both his broad tastes and the life of a successful freelance musician. He has put his talents and heart into Emmanuel Music’s Bach cantatas, a 19-year run with Les Miserables and the polka bands of his Duluth, Minnesota roots. In all these performances Perfetti has found musical challenges and satisfactions. ... read more

Dianne Pettipaw experienced two sides of Craig Smith at her first Emmanuel Music rehearsal 38 years ago, and she fell in love with both. “I was so taken by the intensity of Craig’s interest in and love of the music and the level of his sharing with us,” she says ... read more

Cellist Rafi Popper-Keizer is one of Boston’s busiest freelance musicians, but he sees something special in Emmanuel Music. “Musicians always love what they’re doing, but the whole approach at Emmanuel Music is so passionate, a true labor of love,” he says. “Everyone is so open and welcoming, and the sense of community is absolute.” ... read more

Pianist Russell Sherman was Emmanuel Music founder Craig Smith’s teacher, and has long had a deep relationship with the organization. And fittingly, it was Sherman who had the inspiration for the first Emmanuel Music season not planned by Craig Smith – the season of Haydn and Schoenberg. “The genesis came in a flash,” said Sherman ... read more

Oboist Jennifer Slowik was honored this year as one of Emmanuel Music’s Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellows. The awards recognize talented young musicians at the start of their careers. This recognition was no easy feat for an oboist who’s been Emmanuel Music’s “third string” player behind long-established musicians Peggy Pearson and Barbara LaFitte ... read more

Raised in Texas and educated at Southern Methodist University, Ryan Turner arrived in Boston in 1995 to study for a Masters Degree at The Boston Conservatory. Since then he has consistently demonstrated his excellence and versatility as a conductor, singer and educator ... read more

In 2007, when double bassist Tom Van Dyck played John Harbison’s “Snow Country” at Harvard’s Houghton Library, Harbison was in the audience and liked what he heard. He soon invited Van Dyck to perform with Emmanuel Music. Now, four years later, Van Dyck has been named one of Emmanuel Music’s Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellows ... read more

This concert season has been a good one for soprano Teresa Wakim. She won first prize in the International Soloist Competition for Early Music in Austria, made her European solo debut with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, sang the title role in Handel’s Acis and Galatea in a BostonEarly Music Festival performance that won glowing reviews across the country ... read more

Soprano Kristen Watson hit a high point in her career with Emmanuel Music last spring when she sang the role of Anne Trulove in Emmanuel Music’s performance of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. The audience was wildly enthusiastic about a performance that was dramatically as well as musically compelling ... read more

Baritone Dana Whiteside has two careers. In addition to singing at Emmanuel Music and elsewhere he serves as Deputy Director for Community Economic Development for the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA). Although his life is a juggling act, Whiteside is more fulfilled living in two worlds with complementary roles ... read more

Tenor Zachary Wilder’s Boston career began when he auditioned for the Boston Early Music Festival as an undergraduate at Eastman. “Just getting to Boston was a harrowing experience,” Wilder recalls ... read more

 

Baritone Donald Wilkinson was steeped in music from an early age and knew he wanted to be a singer, but when it came to plan for college, he hedged his bets. Wilkinson chose Lowell University because he could follow a double track, getting a degree in electrical engineering while taking voice lessons and music classes in a strong music program. ... read more