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NEXT
CONCERT: Brahms Requiem ... |
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Handel's Messiah
Courtney Taylor, Soprano
Jane Shim, Mezzo Soprano
Timothy Gonzales, Tenor
Steve Pence, Baritone
Members of the
American Youth Symphony
Don Neuen, Conducting
Saturday, December 15th, 8:00 p.m. |
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Soprano Courtney Taylor holds her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from Chapman University in vocal performance. While at Chapman, Courtney participated in all of the university's Opera Chapman performances as well as their prestigious choral ensemble Chapman Singers. Courtney went on to receive her Master of Music from one of the countries leading music conservatories Manhattan School of Music. While living in NY she sang many operatic roles with One World Symphony and also participatedin Manhattan School of Music's Opera Workshops.
Courtney has participated in the Miami Frost School of Music Summer in Salzburg Austria Program and the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute where she sang the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute. She has received many vocal awards among them 1st place in the Opera100 Competition and finalist in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition.
Courtney has recently relocated to Southern California where she is active in the performance community. She has recently sung with Los Angeles Opera in their production of Tannhauser and has been a soloist for the Crystal Cathedral's Messiah. |
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Mezzo Soprano Jane Shim, a native of Korea, studied under Jane Paul and Suzanne Harmon at California State University in Fullerton. While in school, she was coached as a soprano and has performed many soprano solo roles. She also won several competitions while in school.
Jane is now a familiar face to Orange County choral music audiences as a mezzo-soprano. She joined Pacific Chorale and the John Alexander Singers in 1999, and has appeared as Mezzo soloist with them in many works, including Bach's B Minor Mass, Vivaldi's Gloria, Mozart's Requiem, Verdi's La Traviata, Handel's Messiah and Mozart's The Magic Flute, etc. Jane was a featured soloist in performance of Stravinsky's Les Noces with Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal at the L.A. Music Center in the fall of 2006.
Jane is also known to world-wide Hour of Power viewers. She was a featured soloist during Cryatal Cathedral Choir's tour to Holland under direction of Don Neuen. This year, she is engaged in two Handel's Messiah performances under direction of Don Neuen, one with the Angeles Chorale, and another at the Crystal Cathedral.
While remaining based in southern California, Jane has performed in numerous cities across the countr, including Savannah, Houston, Austin, Dallas, Boston, Chicago, and Newark. As a soloist and member of ensemble, she has performed with such well-known orchestras as Musica Angelica, Pacific Symphony, L.A. Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Hollywood Bowl Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. |
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Tenor Timothy Gonzales Hailed by the Press Enterprise as “the surprise of the evening,” Timothy Gonzales, lyric tenor has been singing opera and oratorio for the past decade in the Inland Empire and greater LA area. Mr. Gonzales has sung with such conductors as Maestro Donald Neuen, John Debney, H. Vincent Mizzelfelt, and Dr. William Dehning. Mr. Gonzales has sung many roles with the USC Opera, including Arbace, from Mozart’s Idomeneo in 2006. Most recently he sang Peter Doyle in the West Coast premier of Lowell Lieberman’s Miss Lonelyhearts. In November, Mr. Gonzales will return to USC Opera to sing Tebaldo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi.
As a concert singer, Mr. Gonzales has performed in over 30 oratorios and masses including Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B minor and Passions, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Mozart’s Great Mass, Coronation Mass and Requiem.
Mr. Gonzales currently attends USC’s Flora L. Thornton School of Music where he pursues a Bachelor’s of Music in the Vocal Performing Arts. He studies with the noted mezzo-soprano, Ms. Cynthia Munzer.
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Baritone Steve Pence, originally of Costa Mesa, CA, has recently appeared onstage at Disney Hall as a guest artist with The Los Angeles Master Chorale in Haydn’s Creation Mass and as soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass also with The LA Master Chorale. Other recent solo appearances include Britten’s War Requiem with Cypress Masterworks as well as Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with the Cuesta Master Chorale. Steve has performed roles in several operas including Baron Douphol in La Traviata, Sciarrone in Tosca, and Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Chapman University and two Masters of Music Degrees from New England Conservatory. He studies voice with Julian Fielder in Pasadena. |
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