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musical director . singers . composer . pianist
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musical
director LINDA RANEY
director of the Santa Fe Women's Ensemble since 1988, is very
active as a choral director, teacher, and organist. As director
of music and the organist at the First Presbyterian Church of Santa
Fe, she leads a diverse choral and handbell program for adults
as well as the Recital Series. This season the church will be receiving
a new thirty-stop mechanical-action pipe organ from C. B. Fisk
of Glouchester, MA. Linda is also the choral director of the Santa
Fe Symphony Chorus. She completed her undergraduate and graduate
studies at Indiana University, attaining a doctor of music degree.
She has also studied in Italy, France and England. She has attended
conducting master classes with Helmut Rilling, Andre Thomas, Renee
Clausen, Anton Armstrong, and Rodney Eichenberry. Linda’s
love of women’s music began in college. Poulenc’s Litanies
for the Black Virgin and Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten
introduced her to the unique timbre of women’s voices. Today’s
vast literature for women with profound texts set in a multitude
of styles has kept this passion alive for the past almost 20 years.
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Lynda Abshire, second soprano, joined
the Women’s Ensemble in 2006, having sung with the Fort Worth
Opera Chorus, the Atlanta Symphony Chorus, the Arlington Choral
Society, the Austin Civic Choir, the Las Cruces Chamber Chorale,
and Master Singers at NMSU. Another passion for Lynda is early
music; she’s played harpsichord and recorder in groups from
Las Cruces, El Paso, Chama, and Albuquerque. A member of the American
Recorder Society, she was instrumental in starting the Rio Chama
Early Music Society.
Linda Rice Beck, second soprano, also
sings with the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus and First Presbyterian
Chancel Choir. She is a published composer and member of ASCAP.
Her “Pié Jesu” was included in the repertoire
of the Corofest Umbria Music Festival in Assisi, Italy, in 2004,
and “O Sacrum Convivium” has been performed nationally,
and locally under the direction of Dennis Shrock. Linda’s “Prayer
of Saint Francis” will be performed by SFWE on its concert
tour of Italy in June.
Mickey Bond, first alto, joined the
Women's Ensemble in 2006. She has sung with the Longy Chamber Singers
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, under Lorne Cooke DeVaron, and in
Santa Fe with New Mexico Pro Coro. She is currently singing with
Canticum Novum and has studied voice with Margaret Pettengill.
A painter of expressionist landscapes, Mickey is the mother of
two teenage children.
Barbara Doern Drew,
singing both first and second soprano, is celebrating her 25th
year with the Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble. Her choral experience
has varied from small female ensembles to large mixed-voice
groups with full orchestra. Barbara is the mother of two teenagers,
the associate editor of Sun Monthly magazine, a writer, and
a professional tarot reader, bringing ancient wisdom to assist
in our modern challenges. She loves sharing the adventure of
life with her husband, Walter.
Gwen Gilligan,
second alto, joined the Women’s Ensemble in 1983 and, except
for a brief hiatus when her children were young, has been with
the group ever since. She has lived in Santa Fe for 35 years and
has sung with many choral groups here. Her two children grew up
in Santa Fe, attending many Ensemble concerts; Johanna now lives
in New Orleans, and Patrick lives in Albuquerque. Gwen is also
a longtime real estate broker with Santa Fe Properties.
Sue Katz,
first alto, has been with the Women’s Ensemble since 2005.
She has had the opportunity to sing with Canticum Novum recently.
In the past, she sang with Santa Fe Pro Coro and the Santa Fe
Symphony Chorus. Sue has been a family physician with La Familia
Medical Center for 17 years and is the medical director of the
Villa Therese Clinic.
Christine Keightley second
alto, an early member of the Women’s Ensemble, rejoined
the group in 2006. She and her husband moved back to New Mexico
after 20 years in California, where she sang with Los Robles
Master Chorale and the Chamber Singers in Moorpark, and Cuesta
Master Chorale in San Luis Obispo. A former speech pathologist,
Chris is retired and also sings with the Santa Fe Symphony
Chorus. She is on leave from the Ensemble for the fall 2007
season.
Julie Kirk,
first soprano, rejoined the Women's Ensemble in 2004, having
sung with the group from 1986 to 1990. She also sings with
the Zia Singers and Canticum Novum. Julie is co-owner of Frontier
Frames and enjoys painting in watercolor and wood carving.
She is a volunteer with the Library for the Blind and Physically
Disabled, recording her seventh book, and is a member and past
president of the Santa Fe Civitan Club.
Mary Mittnacht,
first soprano, joined the Women’s Ensemble in 2007, having
moved to Santa Fe from New York City in 2006. She also sings
with the Symphony
Chorus. Her choral experience includes the New York Choral
Society (NYC) and the Back Bay Chorale, Harvard University Choir,
and
Radcliffe Pitches (Boston area). Mary works part time for the
NY-based human resources consultancy Towers Perrin. She is
thrilled to be in Santa Fe with husband Stewart and their menagerie
of
pets.
Tina Ossorgin,
joining the Women’s Ensemble this year as alto, has lived
in Santa Fe 31 years. In 1988 she participated in honoring the
Baptism of
Russia by singing with the SF Millennium Choir. She has sung at
SFCC, at UNM under Bradley Ellingboe, as well as with the Early
Music Ensemble. She has attended various workshops on Russian Orthodox
liturgical music over the years and sings regularly while conducting
the choir at St. Juliana of Lazarevo Russian Orthodox Church.
Susan Phillips,
first alto, is a lifelong singer and has sung with the Women’s
Ensemble for 15 years. She has also sung with the UNM women’s
chorus, Las Cantantes, and the UNM Symphony Chorus with conductor/composer
Brad Ellingboe. She is a clinical exercise physiologist by profession
and has recently assumed new responsibilities at her late husband's
business, Reynolds Insurance, Inc. She enjoys pilates, walking
and hiking with the dogs, golf, traveling, and reading.
Sarah weiler,
first alto, is in her first season with the Women’s Ensemble.
She was very active in North Dakota and Minnesota, both as a
soloist and member of the Fargo-Moorhead Chamber Chorale. Sarah
studied voice at Minnesota State University Moorhead, then attended
the University of Cincinnati and received dual masters degrees
in arts administration. She is currently working in development
at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and is excited to join
the music community of Santa Fe.
Marty Noss Wilder,
second alto, has sung with the Women’s Ensemble since 1983.
She has a BA in music from Stanford University, where she sang
with the Stanford University Chorus and the Memorial Church Choir.
Locally, she sang with the Chorus of Santa Fe (now the Symphony
Chorus). Marty and her husband, Richard, own Wilder Landscaping,
and their son, Andrew, is a freshman at Santa Fe Secondary School.
She is a licensed massage therapist and a registered polarity
therapy practitioner.
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commissioned
composer
DR. SAMUEL GORDON
Dr. Samuel Gordon is director of
choral studies and professor of music at the University of Akron,
and
he has been engaged in both singing and conducting careers in the
United States and abroad, while also actively composing. He received
his BS in music from the Pennsylvania State University and his
MM in conducting and DMus in voice from Indiana University. He
was the tenor in the National Gallery of Art Vocal Arts Quartet
from 1985 to 2003, also enjoying a choral conducting residency
there from 1988 to 1996. He is the recipient of the Studio Lauda
Award at the International Early Music Festival in Zadar, Yugoslavia,
and was the first-prize winner (in several categories) at the prestigious
Concorso Polifonico “Guido d’Arezzo” (Italy),
the International Musical Eisteddfod (Wales), and the Welsh National
Eisteddfod, being the first American to win the Welsh competition.
Laureate of the Fiat Conducting Prize, he was also given the Trimillenial
Medal by the city of Cadiz, Spain, and the Bronze Horreo in Orviedo,
Spain.
Performances at international festivals have included the Salzburg
Festival, the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Bregenz International
Festival, the Llubljana Festival, Mozaik (Yugoslavia), the Flanders
Festival, the Holland Festival, the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds
(Italy), the Ambler Festival and the Haydn Festival of a Lifetime
at the Kennedy Center. He has performed for the BBC, Eurovision
and National Radio and Television throughout Europe. As guest conductor,
he has led the internationally acclaimed National Gallery of Art
Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), the Taipei Philharmonic, the Pennsylvania
Ballet Orchestra, the Perugia Chamber Orchestra and the Canton
Symphony, and last spring he conducted our Santa Fe Symphony and
Chorus in Dvorak’s Stabat Mater. He has performed concerts
of vocal chamber music with the Vocal Arts Quartet at the Louvre
in Paris and at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna. He has been featured
soloist with the orchestras of Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Kansas City,
St. Louis, El Paso, the National Gallery of Art and the National
Symphony.
Dr. Gordon has been guest clinician for the American Guild of Organists
and the Music Educators National Conference, and he has led workshops
and festival choirs in thirty-five states, throughout Europe and
internationally. He has been a member of the international jury
for the Anglo-International Festival (Coventry, England), Concerts
at Sea and the Festival of the Americas (Nassau, Bahamas). He is
the artistic director of the Singers Companye, a professional chamber
choir, and VOCI, a community choir based in Canton, Ohio. He is
also artistic director of Corofest Italia, a music festival based
in Assisi, Italy. In July of 2006, Dr. Gordon and the University
of Akron Choir were finalists in the Seghizzi International Choral
Competition in Gorizia, Italy; the ensemble returned with a first
prize. Also in 2006, he conducted the Mozart Coronation Mass with
over three hundred singers from thirteen countries along with the
Salzburg Dom Orchestra at the Salzburg Cathedral as part of the
International Mozart Birthday Celebration in Salzburg, Austria.
As a composer, Dr. Gordon’s works have been performed internationally.
In 2006 the Santa Fe Women’s Ensemble premiered his Motets
for the Ladymass. He has recorded for Koch International Classics
and Telarc International, and he has his own published choral music
series with National Music Publishers. His works have been premiered
at the National Gallery of Art and the Kennedy Center, both in
Washington, D.C. The Washington Post cited his Noel as “the
highlight of the program” when sung by the Washington Choral
Society at the Kennedy Center.
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pianist BILL EPSTEIN
began
studying piano at age eight in Linden, New Jersey. Further
studies were at
the Chicago Musical College
and Harvard
University. In 2002, Bill moved with his wife, Sheila, to Santa
Fe. His work here has included church jobs, playing for eurythmy
dance at the Santa Fe Waldorf School, and accompanying Canticum
Novum and the Santa Fe Community College Chamber Choir. Bill
began accompanying for the Men’s Camerata and the Women’s
Ensemble in the fall of 2006.
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The
Board of Directors |
President |
Keytha Jones |
Vice President of Development |
Mary Mittnacht |
Secretary |
Linda Rice Beck |
Treasurer |
Jim Beck |
Member |
Julie Kirk |
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