Haydn the focus of WNYCO April concerts in Fredonia and Buffalo

The Western New York Chamber Orchestra will present its Classics #3 "The Musical Life of Haydn" on Friday, April 13, at 7:30 p.m., at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo and at King Concert Hall on campus on Sunday, April 15, at 4 p.m.

The concert will feature Haydn's Symphony No.44 "Farewell" and the "Theresien Mass" with the Fredonia Masterworks Choir and Fredonia School of Music Voice faculty as soloists. Tickets for the Fredonia performance, $20 for the general public and free to students with ID, are available at the Fredonia Ticket Office in the Williams Center. The event at Westminster is free but with a suggested donation at the door.

Lisa Layman	Lynn McMurtry
Daniel Ihasz	Joe Dan Harper

The "Farewell" Symphony No. 44 is one of Haydn's most popular and the "Theresien Mass" gives people a unique opportunity to not only hear a Viennese style Mass, but also revel in the singing of the Fredonia Masterworks Choir under the direction of Dr. Adam Luebke. Faculty soloists will include, Lisa Layman, soprano; Lynne McMurtry, mezzo; Joe Dan Harper, tenor, and Daniel Ihasz, baritone.

The Buffalo performance is in collaboration with the choir at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, under the direction of Garrett Martin, as a part of its residency with Westminster.

A native of South Bend, Ind., Ms. Layman has appeared with the Houston Grand Opera, the Concert Chorale of Houston, Yale Opera, Yale Chamber Music Society and the Yale Philharmonia. She made her operatic debut to critical acclaim as Micaela in a Connecticut Grand Opera production of Bizet's “Carmen.” As a founding member of the Lyric Orchestra of New York, New Jersey and Florida, she sang the title roles in Donizetti's “Lucia di Lammermoor,” Bellini's “Norma,” Cilea's “Adriana Lecouvreur,” Verdi's “La Traviata,” Luisa Miller, Gilda in “Rigoletto,” as well as in Puccini’s “La Boheme,” “Suor Angelica,” “Madama Butterfly” and “Tosca.”

With Soviet-Russian-born American classical composer and pianist and poetess Lera Auerbach, Layman premiered three songs written especially for the soprano at the prestigious Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colo., with Ms. Auerbach at the piano. For composer Stephan Collantti, Layman debuted the role of Autumn in his world premiere opera “The Selfish Giant” with the Erie Opera Theatre, and can be heard on the debut album as well. She thrilled audiences at Tampa Opera with Gilda in “Rigoletto” where one critic referred to her has "a young Callas!"

Layman’s oratorio work and concert recitals have included performances of Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem,” Haydn's “Lord Nelson Mass,” and Handel's “Messiah.” She appeared with the Riverside Choral Society in Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C minor at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center as well as Beethoven's Mass in C, and at Merkin Hall in “Mirjam's Siegesgesang” by Schubert. She debuted at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall with the Lyric Orchestra singing Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise.”

An active church musician, recitalist and teacher, Layman has appeared locally with the Erie Philharmonic, Erie Opera Theater, Erie Chamber Orchestra, Winds on the Lake, the Hillman Opera at Fredonia, the Fredonia College Symphony Orchestra and numerous faculty recitals.

Described as "a force of nature" (Toronto Star) and "an actress of immense talent" (Opera Canada), Ms. McMurtry enjoys a busy and diverse performing career. She has performed with the Boston Symphony, the Winnipeg Symphony, the Edmonton Symphony, Opera Ontario, Edmonton Opera and Manitoba Opera, and at many of the major festivals, including Tanglewood, Ravinia, Banff and Aldeburgh. Conductors with whom she has performed include Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, James Meena, Howard Dyck, Kevin Mallon, Wayne Strongman, Robert Cooper, and Lorraine Vaillancourt.On the operatic stage, McMurtry's vocal and theatrical versatility has won her excellent reviews in such diverse roles as Arsace in Rossini's “Semiramide,” Olga in “Evgeny Onegin,” and Mme. de Croissy in Poulenc's “Dialogues des Carmélites.” Recent performances include Mistress Quickly in “Falstaff” with Edmonton Opera, and the title role in “Tamerlano” with Opera in Concert. Her performance of Roberto in Vivaldi's “La Griselda” with Aradia Ensemble was released on Naxos last season.

McMurtry's rich, generous instrument and keen musical intelligence have brought her acclaim in a wealth of opera and orchestral concert repertoire. Credits include Janáček's “Glagolitic Mass” with the Edmonton Symphony, Handel's “Messiah” with both the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and the Kitchener Waterloo Philharmonic Chorus, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Kingston Symphony, “Elijah” with the Newfoundland Symphony, Mahler's “Rückert Lieder” with the Winnipeg Symphony, and Mahler's “Das Lied von der Erde” with the Eastman Faculty Players.

McMurtry is also an active recitalist and has sung at many distinguished song venues, including Tanglewood, Ravinia, and the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. She is on the faculty of the Vancouver International Song Institute, an annual multi-disciplinary program devoted to all aspects of the art song, and has collaborated there on numerous recitals with pianists such as Alison d'Amato and Margo Garrett. She is a frequent performer of contemporary music and has many premieres to her credit, including works by Augusta Read Thomas, the Canadian premiere of Ned Rorem's “Evidence of Things Not Seen,” and the North American premiere of Judith Weir's “The Voice of Desire.” Her highly acclaimed and multi-faceted performance in Tapestry New Opera Works' 2004 "Opera to Go" was broadcast on CBC Radio.

As a teacher/performer, McMurtry has worked with students at the Vancouver International Song Institute, Dickinson College, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and the Okanagan Vocal Arts Festival. She is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Fredonia School of Music.

Hailed for his "magnificent purity of expression" (Fanfare Magazine) and "stirring delivery" (Boston Globe), Mr. Harper is a versatile and engaging interpreter of a wide-ranging repertoire from Schubert to Britten. Harper has performed widely with such groups as The Boston Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Boston Academy of Music, Central City Opera, Handel & Haydn Society, South Carolina Opera, Utah Festival Opera and Utah Opera, and has been heard in such venues as Boston's Jordan Hall, Berlin's Gorki Theater and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.

Harper has premiered works by some of America's most prominent composers, including Thea Musgrave, Stephen Paulus, Daniel Pinkham, Libby Larsen, Ned Rorem, Robert Deemer and Lior Navok. He has been a featured performing artist and member of the faculty at SongFest in Malibu, Calif., and the soundSCAPE new music festival in Pavia, Italy. A passionate interpreter of song repertoire with a noted gift for expressive and poetic diction, his discography includes Florestan Recital Project's "The Complete Songs of Daniel Pinkham, volumes 1 and 2," Daniel Pinkham's opera “The Garden Party” in the role of "Adam" on the Arsis label and Wesley Fuller's setting of five poems by William Carlos Williams, “A Solace of Ripe Plums,” released on Capstone Record.

Harper performs frequently with his wife, pianist Anne Kissel. Highly regarded as interpreters of contemporary music, the Kissel-Harper duo has premiered works by numerous composers including Daniel Pinkham, Ned Rorem, Libby Larsen, and Stephen Paulus. Over the past 10 years, they have performed at a wide variety of venues throughout the United States and in Germany, and have been featured on National Public Radio (WGBH Boston) “Live Performances” with Richard Knisely. Harper and Kissel were co-founders and served as artistic co-directors for 10 years of the Boston-based Florestan Recital Project.

Harper was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Germany, has been a Fellow at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center. He holds degrees in performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and Southern Methodist University. He has been a member of Fredonia School of Music voice faculty since 2004.

Mr. Ihasz earned a Master of Music degree in Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music, along with the prestigious Performer’s Certificate. Since 1992, he has been a member of the voice faculty at the Fredonia School of Music, where he is currently Full Professor.

He has served as recitalist and clinician in Colorado, Wisconsin and Puerto Rico, as well as Artist in Residence for the 2002 Canticum Novum Festival in Caracas, Venezuela. Other highlights include appearances with Peter Schickele, Dave Brubeck, Glimmerglass Opera (including the world premiere “Central Park” taped for PBS - Great Performances and broadcast in January 2000), Carolina Chamber Chorale (Piccolo Spoleto Festival), Central City Opera, Opera Sacra, New York State Baroque, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Rochester Chamber Orchestra, Rochester Oratorio Society, Madison Opera, Madison Symphony, Milwaukee Opera and the Fredonia Chamber Players. Recording labels include Centaur, Albany and Naxos.

Teaching responsibilities have included studio voice lessons, vocal pedagogy, class voice, lyric diction (German, French, and Italian), opera workshop and American song literature. Workshop topics include Vocal Pedagogy and musical expression through movement, which draws upon the basic principles of Dalcroze Eurhythmics.

Ihasz’ current research is centered on VoceVista, a realtime spectrograph analysis program that utilizes an electroglottalgraph. The program provides visual feedback of the sound spectrum and measures vocal fold activity. He recently established a Voice Science Lab and is teaching a new course, VoceVista the Science of the Singing Voice.

An active member of National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), he recently served as the president for the Central New York Finger Lakes (CNYFL) chapter and as the local coordinator for the 2003 NATS Summer Intern Program, of which he is an alumnus.