GARY WOLF appears as a recitalist and ensemble musician and has performed throughout the United States and Europe. Major cities where he has been heard include New York, Toronto, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Salzburg, Brussels and Merida. He has been a concerto soloist with the Orlando Philharmonic and presented a special solo recital at the Orlando Museum of Art on the Steinway "Olympia" Concert Grand Piano designed by Dale Chihuly. Dr. Wolf conducts workshops, master classes, and clinics for various teacher groups. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, NY), where he studied with Cecile Staub-Genhart. He previously studied with Gordon Terwilliger and Adrian Pouliot at Wichita State University. As a Fulbright Scholar at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, Dr. Wolf studied with Kurt Neumuller. He is active in many professional organizations and has taught many award-winning students. Dr. Wolf has taught at the University of Denver (Denver, CO), and the University of South Florida (Tampa), and was for many years Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Central Florida (Orlando). He received the status of Professor Emeritus (Music) from the University of Central Florida. Currently he is Artist-in-Residence in the Music Department at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. "Monumental Pianist… serenity which mounted up to monumentalism."
HET VADERLAND, AMSTERDAM "World-Class Pianist"
CORRIERE DI MONZAE BRIANZA, ITALY "One is always aware of a sensitive musical mind at work."
ORLANDO SENTINEL
ARVID O. VOLLSNES began teaching at the Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo in 1970. He was appointed assistant professor in 1973, associate professor 1987, and full professor in 1998. He has also taught for nine years at the Academy of Music in Oslo. He was a Fulbright research fellow at Yale University in New Haven from 1977-78. He has served for three terms as Chair of Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo. Professor Vollsnes has served many years on the music board of the Norwegian Cultural Council and for the music committee in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is founder and first chair of NoTAM, the Norwegian Network for Technology, Acoustics and Music. He has been president of the International Edvard Grieg Society, and now serves as its vice-president. Professor Vollsnes was elected to the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Besides several publications on Edvard Grieg, he has published books on the Norwegian composers, Fartein Valen and Ludvig Irgens-Jensen. He was in charge and chief editor of the project Norsk musikkhistorie (Norwegian History of Music, five volumes 1999-2001), the definitive collection on Norwegian music history. In 2008, he finished a book on the history of Norwegian opera and ballet.
SIREN STEEN is Head of the Music Department and the Grieg Archives at Bergen Public Library in Norway. She graduated with degrees in Literature at the University of Bergen and the Norwegian School of Librarianship. She has held positions as librarian at the Oslo Public Library (Deichman), Music Department., Bergen Public Library/Hordaland County Library. In 1982, she served as librarian for the Zambia Council for the handicapped in Lusaka, Zambia, and in 1985 as librarian at Hordaland County Library
She was also a member of the board and later Head of the Norwegian Association of
Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres. Publications include "Finn
musikken" (book on music librarianship), 1990, and "Norsk pop & rockleksikon:
populærmusikk i hundre år" (Encyclopedia, Norwegian popular music), Vega 2005, editor, and numerous professional articles.
NJÅL SPARBO has established himself as one of Norway's most active and versatile singers. Sparbo has had more than 120 Lieder recitals together with Norway's leading pianists. His recordings of "Grieg & Schubert: Songs", and Schubert's "Winterreise", have been highly praised. He is currently working on a CD-anthology of Norwegian songs, and the first volume has been released: Norge, mitt Norge! Njål Sparbo is a merited oratorio singer with more than 50 major oratorios in his repertoire, and he has sung leading parts in numerous opera productions. He is an advocate of contemporary music and has sung 50 world premiere performances of Norwegian composers, including 10 contemporary opera productions. His solo engagements include all the major Norwegian choirs and orchestras, The Norwegian National Opera, and venues all over Europe, including Russia, USA and Japan. He performs regularly at festivals and on television/radio, and has appeared as soloist on 26 CD recordings. In 2007 Sparbo performed all of Edvard Greig's 172 songs in a series of 7 concerts in Bergen in conjunction with Grieg's 100th year commemoration. In 2008 he will be working with songs by Geirr Tveitt. A complete CV and samples from recordings may be found at www.sparbo.com "Exemplary Sparbo, brilliant Schubert"
"... I must give him my unreserved congratulations to a recording which leaves you with a sense of loss from the moment it ceases. It is in fact not just the work itself that so strongly spellbinds the listener in me, it is equally Sparbo's interpretation ... Sparbo's German is exemplary, and with this CD he takes the step into the international arena…" Espen Mineur Sætre, MORGENBLADET "Njål Sparbo as Hans Egede is a sensation. He carries the whole performance on his talented shoulders. I cannot recollect having ever seen a singer who so convincingly balances theatrical and musical ability." Eyvind Solås, DAGBLADET "His concert at the Bergen International Festival was a convincing demonstration of the unusual quality of his voice, and of his sincerity. With great clarity of diction, Njål Sparbo sings the words, in a way that makes singing appear not merely an artistic convention, but a higher form of natural expression." Harald Kolstad, ARBEIDERBLADET
Dr. JOHN SINCLAIR was appointed Artistic Director and Conductor of the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park in 1990. He selects all choral and orchestral works to be performed for the Choral Masterworks Concert Series and the Winter Park Bach Festival, as well as contracting visiting artists for all series. He conducts all performances of the Bach Festival Choir as well as their weekly rehearsals. Under his leadership, the Winter Park Bach Festival has earned high critical praise and was recently recognized by The New York Times as "one of the outstanding choral events in the country." One of Central Florida's most visible musicians, Dr. Sinclair conducts the Walt Disney World Candlelight Processional at EPCOT, directs the Moravian Music Festivals, and participates in recording projects for Warner Brothers and the Walt Disney Corporation. He conducts approximately 150 performances each year. In the past 12 years, Dr. Sinclair has made more than 500 appearances as conductor, clinician, or lecturer throughout the United States and overseas, including conducting a principal mass at St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. Dr. Sinclair is the Director of Music for Rollins College and holds the John M. Tiedtke Chair of Music. A master teacher, he has received many awards, including the Hugh F. McKean Teaching Award and the Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship, the two highest awards bestowed to Rollins College faculty members. He was twice named United Arts of Central Florida's "Outstanding Music Educator of the Year" in consecutive years.
The pianist EINAR RØTTINGEN was born in Bergen and received his education at the Bergen Music Conservatory and Eastman School of Music. In addition to being a regular guest at the annual Bergen International Festival and Edvard Grieg Museum concert series in Norway, he has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician in major cities in Europe, USA and Asia. Throughout the 1980s, Røttingen worked closely with the Norwegian composer Harald Sæverud and has recorded all the solo piano music in addition to the Piano Concerto with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Simax). He has also collaborated with many living composers and has commissioned numerous works. His contemporary music recordings include the solo-CD Avgarde with works by Knut Vaage and Ketil Hvoslef and others, Hika - with the violinist Trond Sæverud in works by Crumb, Takemitsu, Messiaen, Debussy and Grieg - and George Crumb's Makrokosmos (Classico). Hika was chosen as 'Selection of the month' in The Strad in 2002. In 2005 Einar Røttingen was soloist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in the first performance of Knut Vaage's Piano Concerto The Gardens of Hokkaido. The solo-CD Norwegian Variations, which includes Grieg's Ballade op.24 and sonatas by Fartein Valen and Geirr Tveitt, was chosen as 'Special Selection' in International Piano in 2006 and awarded 'Record of the Year' by The International Grieg Society of Great Britain. The CD is also included in his recent PhD dissertation Establishing a Norwegian Piano Tradition: Interpretive Aspects of Edvard Grieg's Ballade op.24, Fartein Valen's Sonata no.2 op.38 and Geirr Tveitt's Sonata no.29 op.129. In 2007 Røttingen performed the complete 172 songs of Edvard Grieg with the bass-baryton Njål Sparbo in a series of 7 concerts as part of the Grieg September Festival in Bergen. As a part of the 100th anniversary of Olivier Messiaen's birth in 2008 he will perform, among other works, Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jesus, Harawi and Des Canyons aux Etoiles. A CD of rarely performed French song cycles by Faure, Chausson, Saint-Saens and Debussy with the mezzo soprano Bettina Smith is soon to be released. Einar Røttingen has been awarded the City of Bergen Cultural Prize and, at the Bergen International Festival, the Robert Levin Festival Prize. He is Professor of Music Performance and leads the Masters Program in Performance at the Grieg Academy, Department of Music, University of Bergen. "These three near-masterpieces show different faces of the Norwegian piano tradition, the program usefully coupling a well-known item as a bridge to two pieces that deserve similar centrality… - and the utter fluency and conviction of Røttingen's performance here will assure listener's who haven't heard the handful of recordings of the Tveitt and Valen works that his handling of them is just as assured. Excellent recorded sound, too. Here's a disc that should appeal to specialists and newcomers alike".
INTERNATIONAL PIANO (chosen as IP selection of the month March/April 2006) "With 'Norwegian Variations' Einar Røttingen presents some of the best Norwegian piano music. Tveitt, Valen and Grieg is here taken seriously… Røttingen brings out melodic beauty and variation in sound production in addition to the Sonata's monumental and contrapuntal forces (Tveitt)… The Ballade is a drama of great contradictions, and here Røttingen articulates the sudden shifts from the dancing wildness to the far-stretched melancholy and funeral march in the middle variation".
MORGENBLADET
Baritone EDMUND LEROY, the senior professor of voice at Rollins College, holds the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Juilliard School where he was a full scholarship student of Hans Heinz. Concentrating in the recital and concert repertoire, Dr. LeRoy was twice awarded the Enrico Caruso Memorial Prize at Juilliard and is a past unanimous first prize winner of the prestigious Naumburg International Competition in Lieder. He made his New York recital debut singing at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, which the New York Times noted as "a joy to hear." He has since concertized on three continents in solo concerts, with orchestra, and in radio broadcasts, singing most of the solo song repertoire of the nineteenth century. After a recital in St. Louis, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch remarked that he "remains a remarkably ingenuous artist, free of theatrics, free of affectation. His means are subtle, and with them he continues to draw listeners deeply into whatever world the poet and composer have sought to portray." Dr. LeRoy has sung the part of Jesus in both Passions of J. S. Bach many times in the past two decades. Other performed solo repertoire with orchestra include most of the baritone parts in works such as Mendelssohn's Elijah and St. Paul, Bach's B-Minor Mass and Magnificat, Handel's Messiah, Jephtha, Solomon, Henze's Fünf neapolitanische Lieder, Martin's Monologe aus "Jedermann" and many other works. Venues have included the Aspen Music Festival, Lincoln Center, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, and he has been a frequent soloist at Winter Park's own Bach Festival. Dr. LeRoy has premiered many new works, including John Perkins's Andrea del Sarto, a monodrama (with St. Louis Symphony), Rhian Samuel's Rondeau, Within a Dream, and Three Songs, and Ellen Taafe Zwilich's Einsame Nacht. He also participated in the first performance in the USA of Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Les Sauvages" from Les Indes galantes in the first American staging at the University of Chicago with Albert Fuller conducting. Dr. LeRoy is also an accomplished organist. His undergraduate degree was in organ, and he obtained a Master of Sacred Music degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York with organ as his major instrument. He has played organ recitals at many churches including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. Dr. LeRoy's students have pursued diverse careers. Some have become lawyers, advertising agents, and educators. Others are performing in the world of opera today on stages such as Covent Garden, the New York City Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera.
ROUTA KROUMOVITCH was born in Riga, Latvia. She began playing the piano at age four and the violin at age six at the Music Academy of the Latvian Conservatory. Referred to as one of the best violinists of her generation, Kroumovitch participated in numerous concert tours and recorded on radio and television throughout the former USSR, in cities such as: Leningrad, Vilnius, Tallin, and Moscow. She was a scholarship student in the Moscow Conservatory and studied with David Oistrach, who said, "Kroumovitch is a violinist of exceptional talent with an expressive, rich sound and brilliant technique." After emigrating to Chile, South America, she completed all of her studies at the "Universidad de Chile," with honors. Kroumovitch held positions as first violin of the Santiago Chamber Orchestra, concertmistress of the Chilean Philharmonic Orchestra, and concertmistress of the Chilean Symphony Orchestra. She also received the Critic's Award for the best solo performance in Santiago, Chile, and a Fulbright Award. She also toured worldwide as a soloist and in duo with her husband - Chilean violinist Alvaro Gomez. Thus, Kroumovitch has become internationally hailed for her "virtuoso brilliance" (Cambera, Australia) "clear sensitive tone" (Jerusalem Post) and "exquisite beauty of sound" (Straits Times, Singapore). Her solo performances appear in Asian, South American, European, and North American radio, television, and live video recordings. In 1987, Kroumovitch and her family emigrated to the United States, where she was first violin of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and taught at the University of Central Arkansas. In 1989, Kroumovitch became a professor of violin, viola, and chamber music at Stetson University's School of Music, in DeLand, Florida, where she currently teaches. Kroumovitch tours in the United States, Canada, Europe, and South America. Her master classes in Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Israel, and Europe are in high demand. She represents the United States as a judge in international violin competitions. She has been the concertmistress of the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, is the Bach Festival Orchestra concertmaster in Orlando, and is a regular guest in festivals such as Grand Tetons, the Florida International Festival, Frutillar Music Festival in Chile. Routa Kroumovitch has been a soloist with the following conductors: V. Tevah (Chile), J.C. Santos (Peru), W. Torkanowsky (USA), S. Bedford (England), L. Halaz (USA), R. Henderson (USA), M. Benzecry (Argentina), U. Mayer (Canada), T. Sleeper (USA), Tovi Lifsics (Latvia), Kypros Markus (Greece), J. Sinclaire (USA), etc… During the summers, Ms. Kroumovitch teaches at the Schlern International Music Festival (Italy), www.schlernmusicfestival.org, and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival (Alaska), www.fsaf.org.
Soprano YOU-SEONG KIM has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, Portugal, Belgium, and her native Korea. She has appeared with the Kentucky Symphony, Cincinnati Opera, Hickory Choral Society, Bloomington Early Music Festival, Korean National Opera Studio, University of Cincinnati Opera, and Indiana University Opera Theatre. Among the operatic roles she has performed are Alcina, Pamina, Ilia, Despina, Fiordiligi, Bastienne, Sinaede, and Suor Genovieffa. Her concert performances include the soprano solo in Bach B-minor Mass, Mozart Requiem, Haydn Harmoniemesse and Creation Mass, Brahms German Requiem, Mozart C-minor Mass, Poulenc Gloria, Handel Messiah, Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, and Orff Carmina Burana. Ms. Kim has been a winner at the prestigious German art song competition, Internationaler Wettbewerb für Liedkunst in Stuttgart, and at the early music competition, Concours Chimay Chant Baroque. She was also a finalist at several singing competitions including the International Singing Competition in Cologne, Contemporary Opera Competition in New York, and the Palm Beach Atlantic National Vocal Competition. She was a three-time district winner and a tri-state regional winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. She participated in the program for singers at the Steans Institute for Young Artists of the Ravinia Festival, where she sang in the master class of Maestro Christoph Eschenbach. In early 2005, her CD of singing Hans Eisler Lieder produced by Hugo Wolf Akademie in Stuttgart was released. Ms. Kim recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in voice at University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music where she received the top prize at the Corbett opera scholarship competition. Other education includes bachelor and master of music degrees in vocal performance at Seoul National University. Kim's teachers include Barbara Honn, Patricia Havranek, and Moon-sook Park.
MONICA JANGAARD became Curator at Edvard Grieg Museum at Troldhaugen in 1998. She has held the position of Head of Music and Collections at the Edvard Grieg Museum since 2006. Monica Jangaard is educated as a church musician and has held positions as organist and choir conductor in Bergen Norway for many years. After finishing her Masters Degree in Musicology, she taught in High School. She has co-authored books on Edvard Grieg and has written the forward in the recent release of the Centenary Song Album published by Peters.
HSING-AY HSU ("Sing-I Shoo") has performed at such notable venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and abroad in China, Japan, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Denmark, and France. Upon entering her freshman year at Juilliard, she won the 1996 William Kapell International Piano Competition second prize. Hsu was also winner of the prestigious Juilliard William Petschek Recital Award in 2000, a 2003 McCrane Foundation Artist Grant, a 1999-2001 Paul & Daisy Soros Graduate Fellowship Award, and a 1997 Gilmore Young Artist Award. She was also named a US Presidential Scholar of the Arts by President Clinton at the White House. Her debut CD (Pacific Records) has received critical acclaim, and Albany records has just released her solo CD of Ezra Laderman's piano works. A versatile concerto soloist performing Bach to Barber, she is described by the Washington Post as full of "power, authority, and self-assurance." Concerto collaborations include the Houston Symphony Orchestra as first-prize winner of the 2003 Ima Hogg National Competition, the Baltimore Symphony, the Pacific Symphony (CA), Florida West Coast, New Jersey, Waterbury (CT), China National, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Xiamen orchestras. Television and radio feature broadcasts include Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion Live from Tanglewood (with a standing ovation from 10,000+ live audience members and 3.9 million broadcast audience), NPR's Performance Today with Martin Goldsmith, TCI cablevision's Grand Piano Recital (CA), CPR's Colorado Spotlight, China Central National TV, Hong Kong Phoenix TV, and Danish National Radio. An advocate of new music, she has given numerous world premieres including Ezra Laderman's Piano Sonata and Beshert; Ned Rorem's Aftermath (2002) for baritone and piano trio; Daniel Kellogg's scarlet thread at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and his Momentum, which she commissioned for the 1998 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival; as well as Du MingXin's Piano Concerto No.3 at the Gulangyu International Piano Festival Opening Gala. Chamber music appearances include Weill Hall and Bargemusic in New York, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Gardner Museum in Boston, the Detroit Art Museum, Denmark's Viborg Hall, Taiwan's Novel Hall, and a 2007 all-stars gala in Hong Kong for the 10th anniversary of the reunification. Recent projects include collaborations with mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore, violinist Judith Ingolfsson, choreographers David Capps and Viki Psihoyos, and a series of lecture-recitals for Olivier Messiaen's centennial year in 2008. She is currently the Artistic Administrator of the Pendulum New Music Series at the University of Colorado in Boulder, where she resides with her husband, composer Daniel Kellogg.
Professor and Associate Dean Emeritus WILLIAM H. HALVERSON (B. A., Augsburg College, 1947; Ph. D., Princeton University, 1961) served on the faculties at Augsburg College (1959-67) and The Ohio State University (1967-87). Since retiring from Ohio State in 1987 he has devoted much of his time to the translation of books and other materials dealing with Norwegian music. Prof. Halverson's book translations include (in chronological order): Finn Benestad and Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe, Edvard Grieg: The Man and the Artist. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1988. (Co-translator with Leland B. Sateren.) Singable English versions of 130 song texts by various Norwegian, Danish and German poets in Edvard Grieg: Complete Works, vols. 14 & 15. Frankfurt, Leipzig, London & New York, C. F. Peters, 1990 and 1991. Nils Grinde, A History of Norwegian Music. Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1991. (Co-translator with Leland B. Sateren.) Jon-Roar Bjørkvold, The Muse Within. New York, HarperCollins, 1992. Finn Benestad and Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe, Johan Svendsen: The Man, The Maestro, The Music. Columbus, Peer Gynt Press, 1995. Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, Onstage with Grieg. Bloomington, University of Indiana Press, 1997. Roy Jacobsen, The New Water. Columbus, Peer Gynt Press, 1997. In collaboration with Finn Benestad: Edvard Grieg: Letters to Colleagues and Friends and Edvard Grieg: Diaries, Articles, Speeches. Columbus, Peer Gynt Press, 2000/2001. Articles growing out of Halverson's work as a translator include: "Nordic Wine in English Wineskins: The Challenge of Translating Grieg's Song Texts." In Studia Musicologica Norvegica, 1993. (First presented as a lecture at the International Grieg Symposium in Bergen, Norway, in June 1993.) "The Neglected Legacy." Concluding chapter in Edvard Grieg Today, 1994. (First presented as a lecture at the American Grieg Symposium at St. Olaf College in April, 1993.) "The Song of the Muse." The Norseman, 1994. "Edward MacDowell: Griegs amerikanske beundrer." In Amoroso, 1996. "Grieg and MacDowell: A Tale of Two Edwards." In Bulletin of the Sonneck Society for American Music, 1997. Honors: Prof. Halverson has received numerous honors for his work as a translator, including the Inger Sjöberg Translation Prize by the American-Scandinavian Foundation for his excellent translation of Roy Jacobsen, The New Water (1997); Knight First Class of the Royal Order of Merit by His Majesty King Harald of Norway for "his contribution to the furtherance of Norwegian culture in the USA and particularly for his superb translations of Norwegian song texts and of Norwegian literature about music, which as a result has been made better known, especially in the USA." (1997); invited scholar at the Centre for Advanced Study of the Norwegian Academy of Letters and Science to begin collaboration with Dr. Finn Benestad on selected writings of Edvard Grieg in translation (1998). He was also granted a private audience with His Majesty King Harald of Norway (1998).
STEVEN GLASER, Professor of Piano at Ohio State University, performs frequently throughout the United States and abroad with solo recital appearances in Orchestra Hall, Chicago; Merkin Concert Hall, New York City; and recital tours of Israel, Europe, Taiwan and New Zealand. In 2006, he performed on recitals series in Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Cleveland, Columbus, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and New York City. Among the chamber ensembles he has performed with are the Alard String Quartet, Thouvenel String Quartet, Quadriga Piano Quartet, and the Con Fuoco Duo with clarinetist Robert Walzel. The Con Fuoco Duo released their first compact disc entitled Con Fuoco: Duets for Clarinet and Piano, and have concertized in Great Britain, Belgium, and toured Africa as part of the Artistic Ambassador Program of Arts America, a branch of the U.S. Information Agency. Professor Glaser holds degrees from The University of Michigan and the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Nadia Reisenberg. He has garnered the top prize in numerous piano competitions including the prestigious New York Chopin International Competition, the Liederkranz Competition, and the Society of American Musicians Competition. In 2005-06, he was named Visiting Professor of Piano at the prestigious Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel-Aviv University. Professor Glaser is also on the faculty of the Melton Center for Jewish Studies at OSU. Prior to coming to OSU, he served on the piano faculties at Texas Tech University, Penn State University, and C.W. Post College.
BERYL FOSTER (mezzo-soprano) is a graduate of London University and studied singing principally with Ranken Bushby, first in Colchester, Essex, and then at the Royal College of Music in London. She has sung in recital, concert and oratorio in many parts of Britain, including a performance of Donizetti's Requiem at St. John's, Smith Square, London. As well as singing and teaching standard repertoire, Beryl Foster specialises in the performance of Norwegian art-song and has given several first British performances of songs by Øistein Sommerfeldt and other Norwegian composers. In 1978 she was awarded a West European Research Grant by the British Academy (normally only given for post-doctoral research) and made her first visit to Norway. Her first book, The Songs of Edvard Grieg, published in 1990 (revised reissue 2007), is the only complete study in any language of this neglected but crucial part of a great composer's output and has been received with enthusiasm. She was the only non-Norwegian invited to contribute an article to a collection produced by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry for presentation at the international launch in London of Grieg Year 1993, for which she was also a member of the British organising committee. In June 1993 she gave the key lecture on the songs at the International Grieg Symposium in Bergen and also translated into English the brochure for the major exhibition, Your Grieg. Beryl Foster's recitals, lectures, master-classes and workshops on Norwegian song have taken her to the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, as well as to Norway and all around Britain. In 2001 she gave master-classes at Wuhan Conservatory in China on a wide variety of vocal repertoire and two recitals of Norwegian songs. In 1998, she became a research fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Oslo, resulting in another definitive book, Edvard Grieg: the Choral Music, published in 1999, and she has contributed articles to many international journals. Three volumes of Grieg's songs with her own singing translations have been published; a newly edited and annotated edition of the op.30 Album was made for Felling Male Voice Choir in 1993; Three Norwegian Carols, translated and arranged for ladies' voices are published by Lindsay Music; and a translation of Grieg's melodrama Bergliot, made for performance in 2000, was published in a short monograph, Bergliot; a forgotten masterpiece, in 2002. More recently Beryl has translated into English a substantial book on the Norwegian composer Ludvig Irgens Jensen, provided song translations for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and introductions for the Centenary Album of Grieg's songs for Peters Edition. She is currently working on Literally Grieg, a compilation of the texts to all Grieg's vocal music (solo and choral) with literal English translations. Beryl has been Chairman of the Grieg Society of Great Britain since 2000 and was President of the International Grieg Society in rotation from 2002 to 2004. More information can be found at www.berylfoster.com.
TRINE KOLDERUP FLATEN is Library Director at the Bergen Public Library in Norway and Chair of the International Edvard Grieg Society's Executive Committee. She has held positions as Director of the County Library of Sogn og Fjordane in Norway; Editor of University Press in Bergen Norway; and Director of J.W. Eide Publishing Company in Bergen before assuming the position as Director of Bergen Public Library in 1989. She has served on the Norwegian Cultural Council, the Advisory Committee for Nordic Cultural Ministers. She was Chair of the board for the Norwegian School of Librarianship, a board member of Norwegian Distant Education, and a member of the Norwegian Government's Advisory Committee on Information Technology. She assumed Chair of the International Edvard Grieg Society's Executive Committee in 2004 and has been member of the Executive Committee since 1998. She is author of numerous articles and publications.
BRADLEY ELLINGBOE has been on the faculty and Director of Choral Activities at the University of New Mexico since 1985, where he is Professor of Music and Regents Lecturer. He has served as Chairman of the Department of Music. He is also Director of Music at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Albuquerque. Ellingboe is a graduate of Saint Olaf College and the Eastman School of Music and has done further study at the Aspen Music Festival, the Bach Aria Festival, the University of Oslo and the Vatican. He is well known as a composer of choral music, with over 100 pieces in print. His choral music is widely sung and is published by Oxford, Augsburg, Walton, Hal Leonard, Mark Foster, Choristers Guild, Concordia, and particularly the Kjos Music Company, for whom he edits two series of choral octavos. His largest work, the Requiem for choir and orchestra, was premiered in 2002. Since its premiere it has been performed over 100 times across the United States. Ellingboe has won annual awards for his choral compositions from ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Arrangers and Publishers since 2000. His music has been performed and recorded by such groups as the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Philip Brunelle's VocalEssence, the Saint Olaf Choir, the Harvard Glee Club, Craig Hella Johnson's Conspirare, and the choirs of the University of Michigan and Luther College, among many others. Ellingboe has led festival choirs and workshops in 34 states and 10 European countries. In 2007 he became "Maestro del Coro" for the International Lyric Academy in Viterbo, Italy. In May of 2008, he makes his Carnegie Hall debut, conducting Faure's Requiem. As a bass-baritone soloist, Ellingboe has sung across the United States and in Japan, Korea, Norway, England and Mexico. He has appeared under such distinguished conductors as Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling and Sir David Willcocks. In 2005 Ellingboe joined the national board of the Chorister's Guild. The UNM University Chorus, which Ellingboe has directed since 1985, won the Albuquerque Arts Alliance "Bravos Award" for musical excellence in 2006. In 2008 the UNM Alumni Association named him Faculty of the Year. Professor Ellingboe is the editor of Choral Music for Sundays and Seasons (2004), published by Augsburg Fortress Press. He is also editor of two books of songs by Edvard Grieg which have been widely hailed as significant additions to the understanding of Grieg. For his efforts on behalf of Norwegian music, Ellingboe was awarded the Medal of Saint Olav by His Majesty King Harald V of Norway.
A native of Kansas, SYLVIA REYNOLDS ECKES' concert career began with decisive critical acclaim following her debut concerts at the Aula Concert Hall in Oslo Norway and at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. She has performed in the United States, Europe, and China, and has been guest soloist with orchestras in California, Florida, and New Jersey. Her career as chamber musician has taken her to Paris, Berlin, Copenhagen, and to numerous cities in Scandinavia. She made her debut as accompanist in Oslo's Aula Concert Hall with baritone, Erling Onsager, and at Carnegie Recital Hall with oboist Brynar Hoff. During a three-year residency in Oslo, she was an instructor and rehearsal pianist at the Norwegian State Ballet Academy, taught at the Oslo Conservatory, and served as orchestra pianist of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra for 1 ½ years. Following her successful debut in Oslo, she performed concerts under Gottschalk management and played regularly on Norwegian radio broadcasts. She also performed with many notable musicians, including Camilla Wicks and Stig Nielson. Recent performances include solo performances at Chopin's estate in Poland and at Grieg's estate, Troldhaugen. She has recorded on Crystal Labels with clarinettist, Melvin Warner. Her recording of piano works by Edvard Grieg was released on the Connoisseur Label in Spring 2000. Dr. Eckes holds a B.M. degree from Peabody Conservatory where she graduated at age 20, a M.S. degree from the Juilliard School, and a Doctor of Music Arts degree from the University of Kansas. As a graduate student at the Oslo Conservatory she received the debut concert award. She also received scholarships for summer studies at Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg Austria where she played in the Salzburg Festivals. She also studied at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara where she was a winner of the concerto competition. Before joining the faculty at Ohio University, Dr. Eckes held full-time academic appointments at the University of Kansas, Northern Illinois University, and Rollins College. She served as Interim Director of the Ohio University School of Music from 2001-2002. She performed and taught at several universities and conservatories in Beijing and Tianjin China in 1999 and in 2000, and was an instructor in 2003 and 2004 at the Festival "Musica in Laguna" in Chioggia Italy. Dr. Eckes has returned to Oslo Norway regularly for over 25 years as guest instructor at the Norwegian State Ballet Academy. Dr. Eckes' students have been winners in regional, national, and international piano competitions, and have performed in various festivals, with orchestras, and in locations including CAMI Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Washington D.C., the University of Illinois, and Princeton University. She holds the Genia Robinor Pedagogy Award of Excellence from the Piano Teachers Society of America, and "Teacher of the Year" award from the Steinway Society. From 1990-1995 she was president of a non-profit organization, JOIE, that produced music programs by children and for children for educational TV, in schools, and at libraries. "... refreshing grace and simplicity ... intimate manner of speech ... her unassuming affection for line and texture in Haydn's B minor Sonata (Hob.32) and the clarity and the sweetness of her phrasing in Schumann's difficult "Humoreske" was a soothing relief from New York's arena of giant egos." Bernard Holland, NEW YORK TIMES "It is always a pleasure to encounter well-played Grieg piano pieces. Ms. (Eckes) has just the style. She plays with clearly contoured phrasing and precise fingerwork. She produces a lovely sound, and she delicately responds to the lyricism of the music... I listened to these on a hot summer day, with a drink in my hand, and life was worth living again." HAROLD C. SCHONBERG, American Record Guide, 2000
ERLING DAHL, JR. is Head of Edvard Grieg Research Centre at the University of Bergen in Norway. He held the position of Professor at the Institute of Music at the University of Stavanger (teaching courses in practical and theoretical Pedagogy) from 1981 -1991. He was Director (VD) at Edvard Grieg Museum, Troldhaugen, in Bergen from 1991 - 2004, and Director (VD) of Bergen International Music Festival in 2004 and 2005. Since 2005, he has been Program Director at the Bergen International Music Festival. In 2006, he was appointed as International Museum Consultant for UNESCO. Professor Dahl holds a Masters degree in Music and is a candidate for the Ph.D. in Pedagogy. He is an author, a board member of several national culture institutions, government advisor, a choral conductor, and a cellist. Currently he holds the position of President of ICLM - The International Committee for Literary and Composer Museums within ICOM (2001-2007). He was awarded the Edvard Grieg Prize in 2007 for his lifelong work for Edvard Grieg's art.
A native of Israel, MATITIAHU BRAUN came to America in 1962 to study at The Juilliard School with Joseph Fuchs after graduating from the Israel Academy in Tel Aviv. At the Juilliard he received Artist and Post-graduate diplomas and was the recipient of the prestigious Naumburg Prize. After stints with the Musica Aeterna Orchestra and Denver Symphony, he joined the New York Philharmonic, a position he held from 1969 until 2006. He also served as Principal and Solo Violist with the Dallas Symphony in the late 1970s. Called "Master of Strings" by a New York critic, Mr. Braun is known as a recitalist and chamber musician, he also enjoys his role as teacher, working with students and professionals, as a coach for orchestra and chamber music groups, and presenting master classes on both violin and viola, most recently in Israel, Finland, Japan, Florida, Iowa, Texas, Wisconsin, and the New York metropolitan area. Mr. Braun currently resides in the Orlando area where he teaches at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and has private students in both violin and viola. In March 2007 and March and November 2008 he presented faculty recitals at Rollins, performing on violin in 2008 and both violin and viola in 2007. In addition to his Florida performances, he recently appeared in New York City in violin recital and chamber music concerts at Weill Hall and Lincoln Center, and violin recitals in Iowa and Wisconsin. In March 2009 Mr. Braun will be presenting a chamber music faculty recital at Rollins. He is currently preparing for a May 2009 performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto as soloist with the COSM Orchestra in New York City. Mr. Braun has a CD recording of solo violin music by Bach, Geminiani, Ysaye, and Ben-Haim and is in the process of producing a duo-CD set for both solo violin and viola. (Picture credit: photo by Chris Lee)
STEPHEN NORTH BOE received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from Indiana University School of Music, where he served as assistant to Henryk Kowalski, Josef Gingold, and Franco Gulli. He subsequently joined the IU School of Music faculty as an Assistant Professor of Violin. He has also been a member of the faculty of DePauw University and Ohio University. Mr. Boe is currently on the Violin Faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago. As a chamber musician, Mr. Boe has performed in Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, as well as in venues throughout Europe, China, South America and the United States. In 1991, he was a prize winner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Boe performed as an Artist in Residence for the National Endowment for the Arts. He was also a founding member of the New Artists String Quartet and first violinist with the Brooks Unstrung Quartet. In chamber music collaborations, he has worked with the Ying and Lark Quartets. Mr. Boe has served as concertmaster for the Joffrey Ballet orchestra, the Chicagoland Pops, the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, the Muncie Symphony Orchestra, the Evansville Philharmonic and the Indiana University Festival Orchestra. In addition to his position as concertmaster, he has also appeared as soloist with several of these ensembles. Mr. Boe has given master classes at many music festivals and music schools, including the Beijing Central Conservatory in China and the Royal College of Music in Sweden. He has been a performer at numerous music festivals including Villa Musica in Germany, Festival Filarmonico in Ecuador, Sarasota Music Festival, Brevard Music Festival, and Indiana University summer festival. Stephen has been heard on National Public Radio's "Performance Today" and in live broadcasts on KUNI and WFMT.
Stephen Boe, concert violinist and Violin Faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago
Matitiahu Braun, Adjunct Faculty, Rollins College, and former member of New York Philharmonic
Erling Dahl, Jr., Program Director of the Bergen International Music Festival and well-known
Grieg scholar
Sylvia Reynolds Eckes, Grieg Festival Director, Professor of Piano, Ohio University School of Music
Bradley Ellingboe, Director of Choral Activities, University of New Mexico
Trine Kolderup Flaten, Director, Bergen Public Library, Chair of International Grieg Society
Beryl Foster, singer and lecturer, well-known author of books about Grieg, Chair of the British
Edvard Grieg Society
Steven Glaser, Professor of Piano, Ohio State University
William H. Halverson, Professor and Associate Dean Emeritus, Ohio State University, and
editor and translator of books about Grieg
Hsing-ay Hsu, concert and recording artist, Gilmore prize winner in piano
Monica Jangaard, Head of Music and Collections, Edvard Grieg Museum - Troldhaugen, Bergen
You-seong Kim, Assistant Professor of Voice, Ohio University, Athens
Routa Kroumovitch, Professor at Stetson University's School of Music, in DeLand, Florida
Edmund LeRoy, Senior Professor of Voice at Rollins College
Einar Røttingen, Professor and Head of Masters Program, Grieg Academy, University of Bergen
John V. Sinclair, John M. Tiedtke Chair of Music at Rollins College, Artistic Director and Conductor
of the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park
Njål Sparbo, concert and recording artist, well-known interpreter of Grieg
Siren Steen, Head of Music Department and Grieg Archives, Bergen Public Library, Norway
Arvid Vollsnes, Professor, University of Oslo, Norway, Vice President of International Grieg Society
Gary Wolf, Artist-in-Residence, Rollins College Department of Music
* click on any name for extended bio
Grieg Festival
at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida
January 9-11, 2009
