Eric Townell, conductor

Conductor Eric Townell is widely recognized for imaginative, innovative programming and excellence in traditional repertoire for chorus, orchestra, and opera.

A versatile and dynamic musician, Eric became the third Music Director in the 78-year history of the Rochester Oratorio Society in 2006. He has led the ROS in subscription concerts, regional outreach performances, live radio broadcasts, televised concerts, commissions of new work, collaborative concerts with the region’s leading arts organizations and with the University of Rochester Humanities Center, award-winning tours to Beijing and Shanghai for the 2008 Olympic Cultural Festival and to Eastern European capitals. He has prepared the ROS for numerous appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, including several broadcast nationally, and for the New York State Ballet. His choral and orchestral performances with the Oratorio Society have been heard nationally via WXXI’s “Performance Rochester” series.

Eric has appeared to critical acclaim as guest conductor of the Silesian State Opera Orchestra in the Czech Republic and with the Milwaukee, Lincoln, Madison and Symphoria (Syracuse) symphony orchestras, among numerous others. He has conducted holiday, special event and regional outreach concerts as a frequent guest conductor for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, including their 2012 Messiah, selected for national broadcast, and the 2013 Ninetieth Anniversary Concert of the RPO, sponsored by the City of Rochester. He substituted at short notice to conduct the Hellas Soloists Orchestra of Patras, Greece, for their Italian tour. Twice winner of the International Opera Conducting Course/Competition, he made his European debut conducting Eugene Onegin at the Silesian State Opera Company of the Czech Republic. He conducted an acclaimed production of Rigoletto with L’Opera Piccola of Chicago in 2002. He has led performances for the national touring company of Amahl and the Night Visitors and concerts of opera scenes and arias with the Beethoven Chamber Orchestra of the Czech Republic. With the Empire State Lyric Theatre in Rochester, Eric led Rossini’s La Cambiale di Matrimonio in March of 2012. As Artistic Director for Rochester Lyric Opera (2013-2017), he led fully professional productions of Donizetti’s rarely performed gem Rita, Haydn’s Lo Speziale and numerous concert and outreach performances. He developed innovative programming for its Chamber Opera Festival and for staged, professional performances for community outreach at the Strong Museum of Play (Giannini: Beauty and the Beast) and at Rochester’s Family Court (Gilbert & Sullivan: Trial by Jury).

Eric Townell’s festival appearances include the Ost-West Musikfest (Austria) and Festival dà Bach á Bartók (Italy) and the 2012 Finger Lakes Choral Festival. Following a successful guest appearance leading the Berlioz Requiem in 2018, Eric was appointed Artistic Director for the Finger Lakes Choral Festival in 2019, a position he retains.

In support of his artistic endeavors and his ensembles, Eric has developed strong organizational and non-profit expertise, resulting in markedly increased grant support, endowment funding and individual campaign growth. As a grant writer, he has won unprecedented, statewide support for the Rochester Oratorio Society and greatly enhanced contributions from private foundations. Eric previously served asVice Chair of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. As a board member of the William Warfield Scholarship Fund, Eric initiated the William Warfield Vocal Competition for African American High School Students, to be held annually beginning in October 2019. An experienced and effective communicator on music and arts topics, Eric has offered pre-concert chats, creative consultation and program annotation for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic and several other ensembles and chamber music series. He is a frequent commentator on arts topics on WXXI radio and producer and host of “In the Spotlight,” an arts magazine program distributed via cable access television stations throughout New York. His orchestral and choral conducting were the subject of the 1994 Wisconsin Public Radio broadcast “Music from Wisconsin: A Wisconsin Conductor.” Eric Townell appears by arrangement with Harwood Management Group.

X’zaya Ivy, soprano

A native of Rochester, NY, lyric coloratura soprano X’zaya Ivy has recently completed her master’s degree in Vocal Performance from SUNY Fredonia in May 2024, studying with Dr. Angela Haas. X’zaya holds a B.A. in Music with concentrations in Voice & Jazz Studies, which she also received from Fredonia in May 2020. She made her first full operatic debut with the Hillman Opera, performing the role of Adele in Die Fledermaus last fall. In previous years, X’zaya has performed in various opera scenes productions through Fredonia’s Student Opera Theatre Association, playing roles such as Sacharissa in Princess Ida, Micaela in Carmen, La Princesse Laoula in L’Etoile, and most recently Snout/Wall in Spring of 2024. She recently made her international debut this summer with the Rochester Oratorio Society, as a chorister and soloist during their France & Switzerland tour. Following her graduation in the spring of 2024, X’zaya continues to participate in young artist/apprenticeship programs and pursue professional performance opportunities on concert and operatic stages. She plans to eventually pursue a DMA in Vocal Pedagogy/Performance.

Rocky Eugenio Sellers, bass-baritone

Praised by the New York Observer as a “vibrant, booming bass” and “Robust baritone” by New York Classical Review, Bass-Baritone Rocky Eugenio Sellers made his principal debut in the 2022-23 with the Metropolitan Opera in their production of Fire Shut Up In My Bones as Adult Robert and covering the role of The Undertaker in Porgy and Bess. He also looks forward to joining the company for their productions of Don Carlos, Die Meistersinger, Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem. Additionally, he makes his house debut covering Adult Robert in Fire Shut Up In My Bones at Lyric Opera of Chicago and, another house and role, debut with Opera Memphis as Don Alfonso in Cosíí fan tutte As well as joining readings for new operas such as The Conductor/Devil in That Hell-Bound Train by Lisa DeSpain and Winters in Watch Night by Tamar-Kali Brown.

Other recent performances include his appearance as a featured soloist, Crap Shooter #4, on the Metropolitan Opera’s Grammy Award winning production of Porgy and Bess, his Tokyo debut with The Japan Society of NYC and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan as Male Chorus III in the premiere of Four Nights of Dream, and his New York City Opera debut as Valarie in Iain Bell’s Stonewall. Additionally, he joined The Keene Chorale and Bennington Choral Society as the Bass Soloist in Verdi’s Requiem; Portland Opera as cover for Joe in Showboat and Dr. Dulcamara in the Elixir of Love with Portland Opera To Go!; Pacific Opera Project as Dulcamara in Elixir of Love; Utopia Opera as Gremin in Eugene Onegin; Natchez Festival of Music as Joe in Show Boat, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, and Zuniga in Carmen; Manhattan Opera Studio, as a Guest Artist, to sing Dr. Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni; Opera Ebony as Baku in Imoinda; Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble as Banquo in MacBeth; Delaware Valley Opera Company as Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia; and, Regina Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto.

Additionally, Mr. Sellers has been seen as a Young Artist at various acclaimed opera houses such as: Santa Fe Opera, Opera Saratoga, Sarasota Opera, Opera Naples and Opera on the James. On the concert stage, Mr. Sellers has presented a plethora of works as the Bass Soloist with notable orchestras including Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. He has also presented concerts with the Kennett Symphony, the American Spiritual Ensemble, the Wagner Society of Cincinnati where he presented the Wagnerian repertoire, and Penn Square Music Festival for their Lift Every Voice and Sing concert presentation of spiritual and African American art songs.

Mr. Sellers has received awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Mendelssohn Club of Albany, Anna Sosenko Assist Trust, Kennett Symphony Voice Competition, Dell’Arte Opera, Opera Birmingham Voice Competition, and the American Prize Competition in Vocal Performance. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He currently studies with Brian Montgomery and Mark Oswald.

ROS Chorus

10 Year Member ♪ | 20 Year Member  ♪♪ | 30 Year Member  ♪♪♪ | 40 Year Member  ♪♪♪♪ | 50 Year Member ♪♪♪♪♪

SOPRANOS

Laura Anders, Sara Anthony, Karen Bailey-Francois, Cecilia Beach, Tania Beghini, Barbara Bissell-Erway ♪, Elizabeth Brault, Laurel Buckwalter, Caris Burton, Miriam Cowans, Luanne Crosby, Karen Crummins, Lisa deBlieck ♪, Ash Deharder, Emilia Del Vecchio, Karen Dey ♪, Sharon Dumbleton, Amy Ewell ♪, Nancy Fink, Maria Foti, Paulette Gissendanner, Liane Grasso, Kaleigh Green (Choral Scholar), Diane Hamilton, Lilith Hart ♪, Erica Hoenig, Shari Holzer ♪♪♪♪♪, X’zaya Ivy, Cora Jackson ♪♪♪, Rebecca Johnson, Beth Keefer, Jane Keller, Suzan Keng, Kristin Kerr, Katelynn Kochalski, Katie Kovacs (Choral Scholar), Jo Ann Lampman ♪♪♪♪♪, Annette Leopard, Ruth Mance, Sarah Miller, Leta Mueller ♪♪♪, Mary Ann Nazzaro ♪♪♪, Wendy Nelson, Kristina Phillips, Susan Reindel, Ann Robinson ♪, Alison Romano, Pamela Rosen, Elise Rosenfeld ♪♪♪♪, Judith Schewe, Katherine Schumacher ♪♪♪, Maura Slon ♪, Kelly Smeltzer, Mary Taylor-James, Cynthia Towler, Lorraine Tyra, Vicky Wadsworth, Julia Weston-Town, Laura Wilks, Christine Whitbourne, June White, Roni Yahav, Denise Yarbrough ♪

ALTOS

Deborah Loo Anderson ♪♪, Dianne Bailey ♪, Angela Bartlow, Sarah Blood, Lynn Brussel ♪♪, Donna Budgeon ♪, Jane Capellupo ♪♪♪♪♪, Jenifer Cheney ♪, Mary Ellen Coleman, Francheska Diaz, Carol Elliott ♪♪♪♪♪, Sarah Engel, Kety Esquivel, Sue Geier ♪, Maryellen Giese ♪♪, Susan Gilday, Kathleen Green ♪, Barbara Hellwig ♪♪♪, Carol Herford, Jennifer Horn ♪, Carole Huther ♪♪♪, Lois Johnson, Margaret Kaminsky, Barbara Kassnoff, Julie Kirkwood, Lisa Klein, Nina Koski, Rev. Lisa Lancaster, Anna Lieser, Sue Lione, Erika Masters, Honey Meconi, Larisa Melder, Sandy Moncrief ♪, Dorothy Needler ♪, Virginia Payne ♪♪♪, Patricia Sanborn ♪♪♪, Molly Sanchez ♪, Ursala Scholz, Nancy Schreiber ♪, Grace Seiberling ♪, Mary Avis Seitz, Deb Stiker, Deborah Sullivan, Robin Townell ♪, Cheri Trimble, Monica Tyne ♪, Patricia Van Dussen ♪♪♪, Susan Walders, Betty Wells ♪, Jennifer Whitney, Susan Woodhouse

TENORS

John Buckwalter, Evan Burnet, Mark Darling, Richard Gudgel, Richard Johnson, James Kirkwood, Colleen Knapp, Greg Madejski, Daniel McInerney ♪♪♪, Charles Meyer ♪, Craig Mix, Jeffrey Moran, Simone Picciolo ♪♪, Jeffery Snarr, Keith Van Nostrand, Samuel Wersinger, Virginia Wohltmann ♪♪♪♪

BASSES

Brandon Bartlett, Alan Bartlow, Sr. ♪♪, Philip Burke, Timothy Coleman ♪, Douglas Constable ♪♪♪♪, Peter Gaess ♪, Ernest Goetz, Scott Griswold, Christian Haller ♪♪♪, Harry Hellwig ♪♪♪, Frederick Jefferson, Stanley Jones, Alan Kaminsky, Roy Kirvan, Dean Latten, Roger Leighton, Robert Leopard, Eric Logan, David Prener, Vicente Reyes, Jonathan Sacks, Stephen Schaefer, Robert Slon ♪, Steven Smith ♪♪♪, Richard Sterns, William Tyra, Rob White, Ted White, Benjamin Willmott, Jeffrey Wright ♪♪

SUNY Geneseo Festival Chorus

SOPRANOS
Corinne Albicker, Macy Benz, Steph Dickman, Kenna Donalty, Samantha Ferretti, Haley Flynn, Emma Pickard, Rebecca SanGeorge, Logan Schojan, Nancy Steltzer, Nancy Stewart, Nina Taratuchin, Mariah Taylor, Emily Trask, Marissa Weaver

ALTOS
Lauren Bieniek, Kathleen Brodeur, Abigail Cornelius, Arya Dillon, Shirley Espersen, Tawn Feeney, Meghan Hauser, Barbara Hellwig, Abigail Hildebrant, Annamarie Lyman, Jacey Kleotzer, Vicki Rose, Christina Roselli, Mary Saporito, Elizabeth Savard, June Spratt, Lily Strattman, Sandi Szymanski, Olivia Turek, Natalie Utz, Emily Winiarz, Melanie Wysocki, Cindy Zhe

TENORS
James Bradford, Michael Cullinan, Christine Gelose, Jordan Lampack, Gabriel Lindsay, James McLean, Joseph Newman

BASSES
Doug Dickman, Kurt Fletcher, Harry Hellwig, Chris Leary, Daniel O’Connor, Jacob Testa

Orchestra

David Hult, Concertmaster

Jeremy Hill, Violin I
Sophia Klin, Violin II
Joanne Lowe, Viola
Sandra Halleran, Cello
Erik Polenik, Bass
Diane Smith, Flute
Judith Ricker, Oboe
Margaret Quackenbush, Clarinet
Peter Kurau, Horn
Jared Wallis, Trumpet
Thomas Nanni, Timpani/Percussion
Ted Canning, Percussion

Glenn McClure: Promised Land: An Adirondack Folk Opera

Promised Land: An Adirondack Folk Opera is based on the unique Adirondack abolition story, Timbuctoo. In the 1850s, abolitionist Gerrit Smith (with John Brown, Frederick Douglass and others) gave away over 120,000 acres of Adirondack farmland to 3,000 free blacks in an attempt to fulfill New York State’s onerous property requirement necessary for blacks to vote. This opera brings this complex struggle to life with deeply emotional melodies, driving 19th century dance rhythms and the dramatic struggle for racial equality and inclusive democracy.

The Adirondack Folk Opera was formed by founding artistic director, Helen Demong, and Glenn McClure in response to the success of 2013 performances of Timbuctoo: An Abolition Oratorio. The premier of this new musical work not only explored the unique role played by the Adirondacks in abolition history, but also provided a platform for the creation of a new community choir, The Northern Lights Choir, that continues to provide Adirondack communities with engaging, high quality choral concerts several times each year. The concerts placed Adirondack musicians in the forefront including soloists Kimberly Weems and George Cordes. The overwhelming response by our live audiences and print/broadcast media convinced us that this oratorio deserved an expansion into a full opera. The creation of an opera requires a long process that includes ongoing research, composition, partnership building, fundraising, publicity, public feedback on new music, etc.. Since 2013, we have engaged multiple Adirondack constituencies (middle/high school students, historical societies, scholars, churches and artists) in an ever-deepening discussion on racial equality and the right to vote.  

This evening’s performance is the first for this choral suite comprising twelve movements from the opera. While these choral works and arias do not tell the whole story, they explore key ideas and historical moments. Notes by the composer adapted from https://tinyurl.com/4deysm7j, 21 October 2024

Randall Thompson: The Testament of Freedom

The Testament of Freedom is a four-movement work for men’s chorus and piano composed in 1943 by Randall Thompson. It was premiered on April 13, 1943, by the Virginia Glee Club under the direction of Stephen Tuttle; the composer served as pianist. Thompson later orchestrated the piece, and also produced an arrangement for mixed chorus. The music was published in 1944.

The piece was written for the Virginia Glee Club while Thompson was teaching at the University of Virginia, and was meant to celebrate the bicentennial of the birth of Thomas Jefferson; consequently, the text for the work was taken from Jefferson’s writings. Although it was meant as an occasional work, the piece was soon seen as an opportunity to project an uplifting message about the United States in wartime; its premiere was recorded by CBS and quickly broadcast nationwide. It was also transmitted by shortwave radio over the United States Office of War Information (OWI) network to Allied servicemen stationed in Europe.

On April 14, 1945, it was performed by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall as part of a concert in memory of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died two days earlier. The piece continues to be popular and is performed frequently by men’s choruses.

The first of the piece’s four movements is similar in style to a hymn; it opens with a five-note instrumental invocation meant to rhythmically spell out the name “Thomas Jefferson”. The melody used in the movement reappears in various forms throughout the rest of the piece. The second movement is slower in nature, and resembles a dirge; numerous writers, including Virgil Thomson, commented on its resemblance to Eastern Orthodox chant. The third movement is a scherzo, while the fourth recapitulates themes heard in the other movements. The work ends with a return of the initial melody and text.

First movement

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them. —A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)

Second movement

We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Honor, justice, and humanity forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage upon them.

Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resources are great… We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the Divine favor towards us, that His Providence would not permit us to be called into this severe controversy until we were grown up to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most solemnly, before God and the world, declare that, exerting the utmost energy of those powers which our beneficent Creator hath graciously bestowed upon us, the arms we have been compelled by our enemies to assume we will, in defiance of every hazard, with unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation of our liberties; being with one mind resolved to die freemen rather than to live slaves.—Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (July 6, 1775)

Third movement

We fight not for glory or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spectacle of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or even suspicion of offense. They boast of their privileges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than servitude or death.

In our native land, in defense of the freedom that is our birthright and which we ever enjoyed till the late violation of it; for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest industry of our forefathers and ourselves; against violence actually offered; we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors and all danger of their being renewed shall be removed, and not before. —Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms (July 6, 1775)

Fourth movement

I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on steady advance… And even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them…The flames kindled on the 4th of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them.—Letter to John Adams, Monticello (September 12, 1821)

The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time; the hand of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.

Notes adapted from https://tinyurl.com/32kdjk8j, sampled 21 October 2024

Aaron Copland: “The Promise of Living,” from The Tender Land

The Tender Land, an opera with music by Aaron Copland and libretto by Horace Everett, tells of a farm family in the Midwest of the United States. Copland was inspired to write this opera after viewing the Depression-era photographs of Walker Evans and reading James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.] He wrote the work between 1952 and 1954 for the NBC Television Opera Workshop, with the intention of its being presented on television. However, the television producers rejected the opera. Eventually, the work had its premiere on April 1, 1954 at the New York City Opera, with Thomas Schippers as the conductor and Jerome Robbins as the director. It was poorly received, with criticism focused on the weaknesses of the opera’s characters and the storyline. Later analysis by Christopher Patton stated that one underlying cause of the opera’s failure at the premiere was the contrast between writing for the intimate medium of television, the originally intended medium of the work, versus the more public and larger-scale setting of an opera house.

With the composer’s agreement, Murry Sidlin re-scored the work with reduced forces – the same scoring as the original 13 instrument version of Appalachian Spring – for a production in New Haven in 1987, a staging that ran for more than 50 performances. This performance features this version. – Notes adapted from https://tinyurl.com/3uw2b5mh, sampled 21 October 2024