Concord Chamber Ensemble with NAHS Wind Ensemble Concert – March 21
The Concord Chamber Ensemble, under the direction of Mr. Alan Yost, will perform in a concert starting at 7:00pm on Thursday evening, March 21st, at North Andover High School. Members of the North Andover High School Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Mr. Justin Smalley, will also perform at this concert.
This event is open to the public; donations accepted at the door as a benefit for the North Andover Music Association.
The Concord Chamber Ensemble, made up of a string quartet + bass, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, oboe, bassoon, French horn, piano, harmonium(electric keyboard), and 3 percussionists, will present:
Ray Bauwens – tenor
Ray Bauwens is well known to audiences in the New England area. His musicianship, acting and vocal skills have drawn praise from audiences and critics alike. Some of Mr. Bauwens’ recent performances have included such roles as Jean in Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Enzo in La Gioconda and Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. He is equally at home in oratorio and concert works as his performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Verdi’s Requiem and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, among others, will attest. Mr. Bauwens has performed with the National Symphony of the Ukraine, the Mexico State Symphony Orchestra, Boston Academy of Music, Connecticut Concert Opera, Opera Providence, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Warren Symphony, the New Bedford Symphony, the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, Boston Civic Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Concord Orchestra, the New Philharmonia Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, Symphony Pro Musica and even the Boston Ballet in Lila York’s staging of the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. His operatic roles have also included Anatol in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Matteo in Strauss’ Arabella, the title role in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, Canio in I Pagliacci, Don Alvaro in Giuseppe Verdi’s original St. Petersburg version of La Forza Del Destino, Leicester in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Pollione in Norma, Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen. Mr. Bauwens’ concert and oratorio performances include Elijah, Messiah, the Petite Messe Solennelle of Rossini, J.S. Bach’s B-Minor Mass, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, Requiem, and Mass in C, La Vida Breve by Manuel de Falla, Hector Berlioz’ Romeo et Juliette, St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn, and the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion. Mr. Bauwens traveled to Kiev in order to record Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, which has been released by Naxos Records.
Sarah Telford – soprano
Sarah Telford’s musical endeavors have been many and varied, from classical, musical theater, and opera, to folk, jazz, and rock. She has performed with the Concord Players and Friends of the Performing Arts in Concord in leading roles (Shelby in The Spitfire Grill, Diana in Lend Me a Tenor, Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, Plaintiff in Trial by Jury), as well as stage directing and chorus directing for the yearly spring operetta (The Mikado, Die Fledermaus), and she served for five years as accompanist for student choruses in the Sudbury Public Schools. In 1999, she joined with a group of friends to form the rock band Firefly, serving as lead vocalist, keyboardist, and manager for 12 years, and playing to enthusiastic audiences at events, clubs, and functions throughout New England.
A magna cum laude graduate of Boston University in French Language and Literature, Sarah has served as French diction coach for the Boston Symphony Orchestra chorus, where she also sings in the soprano section.
By day, Sarah is Assistant to the Head of School at Middlesex School, a private boarding school in Concord, Massachusetts. She and her husband Ellis are kept busy raising two teenage daughters, both aspiring sopranos in their own right
Cindy M. Vredeveld – Mezzo-soprano
A native of Michigan, Ms. Vredeveld has been involved in music for most of her life. She studied piano and flute and was a member of a local children’s choir in her hometown of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. In junior high school, she was a member of both the band and choir. After playing in the high school band for one year, she decided to focus on singing. She joined the Mt. Pleasant High School Concert Choir, Treble Ensemble and Madrigal Ensemble, and was selected for the Michigan State High School Honors Choir. She also performed in her school’s productions of Pirates of Penzance, The Music Man and Guys and Dolls, and was the Assistant Director for their production of The Wizard of Oz during her senior year.
Ms. Vredeveld attended Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music (voice performance). While at Luther, she was a member of the freshman women’s choir and a 3-year member of its touring choir, the Luther College Nordic Choir. As a member of the Nordic Choir, she had the privilege of touring much of the United States, and also Eastern Europe (Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia). During her senior year, she was a soloist in Luther’s annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah, and performed her first operatic role in their production of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride.
She has been an employee of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary since 1998, where she is currently the Compliance Auditor and Privacy Specialist.
Ms. Vredeveld has performed with several choral groups in the Boston area, including the New World Chorale and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Festival Chorus (TFC). She toured Europe in 2001 and 2007 with the TFC and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and performed with the Chorus for the Opening Ceremonies of the 1998 Winter Olympics. In 2002, at the invitation of Seiji Ozawa, she and several other members of TFC performed in Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes at the Saito Kinen Festival in Matsumoto, Japan.
Since joining the TFC in 1995, Ms. Vredeveld has performed several solos with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops Orchestra. These solo performances include Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Falla’s La Vida Breve, world premier performances of Bolcom’s Eighth Symphony (at Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall in New York City), and most recently, Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. She was the mezzo-soprano soloist for Copland’s In the Beginning, in performances with the TFC, at Tanglewood, and at the Schlesswig-Holstein Festival in Lübeck, Germany. She has also appeared with several other local orchestras, including the Claflin Hill Symphony Orchestra, the Lexington Symphony Orchestra and the Concord Symphony Orchestra. Solo appearances include Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Mass in C, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Mozart’s Requiem.
Susan Jackson – Flute
Susan Jackson earned her bachelors and masters degrees in performance from New England Conservatory where she studied with Fenwick Smith and Claude Monteux. As a member of the NEC Honors Woodwind Quintet she performed a series of concerts in Moscow as part of Sarah Caldwell’s Making Music Together Festival. Ms. Jackson was a three time finalist in Boston’s prestigious Pappoutsakis Flute Competition, winning second prize in 1989. Ms Jackson has performed with several orchestras throughout New England including the Portland Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Boston Philharmonic and Central Massachusetts Symphony. She is currently principal flutist with the New Hampshire Philharmonic and the Concord Orchestra where she has been the featured soloist performing George Hue’s Fantasie and Michael Daugherty’s MXYZPTLK.
