Volume 1, Number 4   March 8, 2004

Letter from Dr. Lynne Ransom, Music Director, VOICES Chorale

Dear concert goers and music lovers,

My name is Lynne Ransom, and I am the founder and music director of VOICES, one of New Jersey's outstanding choral organizations. This week, we will present Handel's ISRAEL IN EGYPT. This wonderful and rarely performed work will be presented on Saturday, March 13 at 8 pm at the First Presbyterian Church of Morrisville, 771 N. Pennsylvania Ave, in Morrisville, PA and on Sunday, March 14 at 4 pm at the First Presbyterian Church, 13 S. Main Street, in Pennington, NJ.

The work, written in 1738, three years before MESSIAH, includes over 25 choruses of great variety---somber, melodic, rhythmic, rhetorical, meditative, jubilant. Choral recitatives, harmonized and single line melodies, are unique to this work. Orchestra parts, especially his writing for oboes, are a joy to hear.

Handel's writing for solo voices is also unique--there are three duets, and several solos representing a diverse expressive and technical angle--from pure, simple melody so unique to Handel, to florid passage work heard in later arias like "Every Valley."

The soloists joining us for the concert are fabulous, and I want you to know about them. We are fortunate to have a skilled countertenor, Timothy Linwood, singing the alto solos, and if you have never heard Handel's solos this way, live, I would encourage you to experience it. This performance will be a treat for the vocal music lover, not to be missed.

The soloists are:

*	Rochelle Ellis, soprano (a frequent guest soloist with VOICES)
*	Lucy Salome Sträuli, mezzo-soprano
*	Timothy Linwood, counter-tenor
*	David Price, tenor
*	Sean Guerrier, baritone
*	John Sergey, bass

Along with this letter, you will find additional details regarding each of these wonderful soloists. Call 609-637-9383 or visit www.voiceschorale.org for further information. I sincerely hope that you will join us on March 13 or 14 to enjoy this spectacular oratorio!

Lynne Ransom, D. M. A.
Music Director & Conductor

Introducing our Soloists

Rochelle Ellis, soprano, is a frequent soloist on the concert and opera stage. This year's performances have included singing in the Prague Autumn Fest, and appearances with New Jersey Symphony and Princeton Pro Musica. Other recent performances have included Verdi's Requiem with Hartford Symphony, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Louisville Symphony and Mendelssohn's Elijah with Princeton Pro Musica. She made her New York City Opera debut in 2002, singing the role of Serena in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

Ms. Ellis has sung as a soloist under the batons of Christoph Eschenbach with Houston Symphony, James DePriest with Oregon Symphony, and with Lukas Foss conducting the Milwaukee Symphony. She has also sung the Verdi Requiem in Beijing, China, with the Oratorio Society of New York. Performing at Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, she premiered a work written by jazz great Dave Brubeck, Hold Fast to Dreams, based on poetry by Langston Hughes with conductor Sue Ellen Page and the Nassau Presbyterian Church Children's Choirs. She made her Carnegie Hall debut performing Bach's Cantata 140 and Schubert's Mass in G with the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Westminster Choir, conducted by Joseph Flummerfelt.

Ms. Ellis received her Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and her Master of Music Education from Westminster Choir College. A resident of West Windsor, NJ, she currently is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College. She teaches voice privately and is now a licensed Realtor in New Jersey.

Lucy Salome Sträuli, mezzo-soprano, performs a diverse range of music, from opera and concert repertoire to operetta and musical theater. Her operatic performance credits include "Strawberry Woman" (cover) in Porgy and Bess with New York City Opera, "Zita" in Gianni Schicchi with Tanglewood Music Festival, "Addie" in Regina with Bronx Opera, "Dame Quickly" in Falstaff, "Filipyevna" in Eugene Onegin and "Marthe" in Faust with Opera San Jose, "La Zia Principessa" in Suor Angelica, "Ragonde" in Le Comte Ory and "Ulrica" in Un Ballo in Maschera with the Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater in New York City.

Ms. Sträuli is often a featured soloist on both the East and West Coasts concert stages. Some of her recent engagements include Rossini's Stabat Mater with Choral Society of Durham, Handel's Messiah with New York Harlem School of the Arts, "100 Years of Broadway" with Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra, Duruflé's Requiem with VOICES, "A Salute to Broadway" with LAUDA, Chamber Singers and Mozart's Missa Solemnis with San Jose State University Symphony Orchestra. Other orchestral venues have featured Ms. Sträuli as a soloist in Brahms' "Alto Rhapsody," Vivaldi's Gloria and "Beatus Vir" and Verdi's Requiem.

Her awards have included the Tanglewood Music Festival Vocal Fellowship, The Leni Fé Bland Foundation Scholarship Award, The San Jose Opera Guild Scholarship and Planet-Tonga.com - Spotlight of the Month (May 2002).

Ms. Sträuli received her Masters of Music in Classical Vocal Performance from Manhattan School of Music, her Bachelor of Music from San Jose State University and currently studies voice with Bill Schuman. Of Polynesian descent [Tonga], Ms. Sträuli makes her home in Princeton, NJ.

Timothy Linwood, countertenor, has performed in concerts and recitals throughout Europe in repertoire spanning song literature and opera. Recently arrived in New York City, he was a longtime resident of Paris, where he studied with Nicole Fallien of the Comédie Française and was awarded a grant by the International Nadia and Lili Boulanger Foundation to further his study of baroque music. Mr. Linwood holds a master's degree in Romance Languages and Linguistics from Harvard University and conducted doctoral research at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris (Ulm). Additional study of operatic repertoire was conducted under the tutelage of René Bianco of the Opéra de Paris. His many concert and opera roles include: the title role in Orfeo, Cesare in Giulio Cesare, Nerone in L'Incoronazzione de Poppea, Idamante in Idomeneo, Sextus in La Clemenza di Tito, both St. Matthew's and St. John's Passions and many other baroque and classical works.

David Price, tenor, a Michigan native and resident of the Philadelphia area, has studied voice with Wayne Conner and Harold Evans. He has performed extensively as a soloist with such organizations as the Philadelphia Singers, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Music Group of Philadelphia, Ama Deus Ensemble, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Opera Theater, Chautauqua Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Philadelphia Renaissance Wind Band, Vox the Renaissance Consort, Kennett Symphony and 1807 & Friends.

His New York debut was made as the Male Chorus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, and he sang Orfeo in Vox the Renaissance Consort's production of Monteverdi's L'Orfeo opposite Julianne Baird's Eurydice. His European debut was at the Spoleto Festival as Apollo in Handel's Semele. He has recorded the tenor solos in Handel's Messiah with Valentin Radu and the Ama Deus Ensemble for Vox Records, as well as the role of Damon in Handel's Acis and Galatea and Bach's Magnificat. Mr. Price also appears as the soloist in excerpts from the Rachmaninov Vespers on a CD produced by the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, and as the Marquis on a recording of John Phillips Sousa's Desirée. Mr. Price's many oratorio roles include Gerontius in Edward Elgar's monumental oratorio The Dream of Gerontius, the Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion, Verdi's Requiem among many others. This past Christmas Mr. Price sang one of the wise men in a performance of Dave Brubeck's La Fiesta de la Posada with the Singing City Choir and Mr. Brubeck.

Mr. Price is also an active recitalist. He has performed on several recital programs with guitarist Allen Krantz, and their collaboration with the Wister Quartet was broadcast on WHYY-FM in Philadelphia. He has also been heard as soloist on the nationally syndicated radio shows The First Art and Performance Today.

Sean Guerrier, baritone, is a junior at Westminster Choir College of Rider University studying classical vocal performance. He performs regularly in works spanning musical theatre to the operatic stage. This season Sean can be seen as Friedrich Bhaer in Westminster Choir College Opera Theatre's production of Little Women by Mark Adamo.

John Sergey, bass, member of VOICES Chorale and retired business executive, grew up in the Chicago area, and, as a young adult, sang professionally both as a soloist and as a member of several recording and performing ensembles. He currently studies voice with Rochelle Ellis.

About VOICES

Dr. Lynne Ransom, D.M.A. is the founder, music director, and conductor of VOICES, which was begun in 1987 as a non-profit, professional music organization. VOICES performs the choral masterworks of the past along with the music of our time, even the premieres of modern composers, and ranges from renaissance to contemporary -- from spirituals and show music to the sacred and classic.

VOICES always welcomes new members who love to sing, or who wish to support the organization through their donations of time and resources. Call 609-637-9383, send e-mail or visit our Web site at www.voiceschorale.org to find out how you can get involved.

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