Baroque Concert II
August 2, 2008 (for pictures click here)
Megan
Boyko - Cello
Peter Dunn - Violin
Bruce Fifer – Bass-Baritone
Phyllis Knox – Soprano
Brian Start - Organ
THE MUSICIANS:
Megan Boyko, cellist:
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Megan
studied music and history at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) in
Waterloo, ON. For the duration of Megan’s studies in performance
she was a student of Paul Pulford, formerly of the Penderecki
String Quartet. While at university Megan was a member of the
WLU Symphony Orchestra, the WLU Baroque ensemble and numerous
chamber ensembles. Megan participated in The Vancouver Early
Music Festival at the University of BC where she studied baroque
cello and cello continuo under Viola de Hoog ('cello) and
Jacques Ogg (harpsichord). Megan is drawn greatly to the music
of the Baroque period but is also actively involved in the New
Music community often premiering new works for various different
ensembles by student composers. Megan and her husband Jacob now
live in Boutilier’s Point, NS with their young daughter and many
animals. Megan is proud to be a member of the Bluenose Quartet
and works as a freelance cellist and as a faculty member of the
Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts.
Heather Brill, Organ
Heather
Brill grew up in Southern Ontario where she attended Wilfrid Laurier
University. She studied organ with Jan Overduin, and graduated in
1994 from the Bachelor of Church Music program.
Ms.
Brill has since served in several churches in Ontario and Nova
Scotia, and is presently Music Director at Central United Church in
Lunenburg. She has a busy private music studio, and is a well known
vocal and choral accompanist on the South Shore.
Peter Dunn, Violin
Peter
Dunn graduated in Violin Performance in Halifax, Nova Scotia in
1983. From the beginning, his objective has been to teach violin
for a living and to play violin for pleasure. He has been
teaching violin for 24 years. In the early years he travelled an
average of 5 towns a week, playing and teaching, and estimates
he went the equivalent of 6 and 1/2 times around the world!
Happily, he now teaches from his studio next to his home in Halifax,
Nova Scotia. You can visit his website - Violin Works Music -
at www.violinworks.net
Bruce Fifer,
Bass-Baritone
Bruce
Fifer has sung with many leading orchestras and vocal ensembles in
the USA and has performed as a soloist under some of the world’s
most esteemed conductors (Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Sir
Neville Mariner, Michael Tilson Thomas and Robert Shaw). Mr. Fifer
has done extensive opera work, with over 40 opera roles in his
repertoire. He can be heard in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast,
Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and
Mulan. He is a co-founder of the Philadelphia Singers
and Chorus America. For 22 years, Mr. Fifer worked in New York’s
Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Currently, he is Head of the Arts
Department and Choral Director at the Taft School in Watertown,
Connecticut.
Kate Glen, Flute
Kate
Glen is a Grade 11 student at Lunenburg High School. She began her
flute studies six years ago, playing flute in her high school band.
Kate has studied with Angela Lake and Sandra Britten. She
has attended summer camps at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing
Arts and The Boxwood School of the Wooden Flute. Kate has been
a participant in the Lunenburg and District Music Festival for
several years. This year she represented the instrumentalists of
this festival at the Provincial level.
Phyllis
Knox, Soprano
Phyllis
Knox has sung oratorio and recital repertoire across Canada. Ms.
Knox is a favourite of the 'Summer Festival' circuit including
performances at the Stratford Summer Festival and the International
Baroque Festival in Lameque, N.B.. She has performed in Grand
Manan with Duo New Brunswick for the New Brunswick Summer Festival.
Opera Nova Scotia featured Ms. Knox in a cameo version of Mozart’s
great Countess Donna Almaviva, and she has sung with The Sopranos
Vocal Ensemble Concerts in Rothesay, N.B. Recently she sang with
Trio 1795 at St. George’s Round Church in Halifax. Ms. Knox
studied primarily with Carol Lynn Reifel of Queen’s University and
Hugette Tourangeau in Montreal. Ms. Knox teaches from her studio in
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Marvin Mills, Organ
Marvin Mills,
organist at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Kensington,
Maryland, is also music director of the National Spiritual Ensemble.
Active with the District of Columbia Chapter of the American
Guild of Organists since 1984. He has also participated in the
Guild’s Pipe Organ Encounters for Youth and Adults. As clinician,
he has given workshops for the Unitarian Universalists Musician’s
Network, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, Association of
Disciples Musicians and for the American Guild of Organists, and the
Smithsonian Institute. He has performed throughout the United States
in such places as The Academy of Music, Philadelphia; The Kennedy
Center; Wolf Trap; as well as historic churches in Krakow, Poland.
Concerto appearances include the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Johns
Hopkins Symphony, the Peabody Symphony, and the Jacksonville
Symphony. Active as a vocal coach and accompanist, he can be heard
on the recording Angels Watching Over Me with mezzo-soprano
Denyce Graves.
Oriana Singers
Oriana Singers are
well known in Halifax and are regular performers at the Baroque
Concerts.
Brian Start,
Fortepiano and Organ
Born in Japan to Anglican
medical missionaries, he began piano studies there and later in Brantford,
Ontario. He studied organ with Douglas Bodle in Toronto. Brian has held
several church music positions in Kingston, Ont. and in Truro and Halifax, NS.
He is on the Board of the Nova Scotia Early Music Society. His interests are
now focused on the harpsichord and fortepiano as well as on the construction and
repair of instruments. For a number of years he has acted as a music producer
for CBC Radio.
wheelchair accessible