Artists In Residence

Artists in Residence at PACC

PACC has a tradition of supporting musicians and musical performance.  Over the last 25 years, the PACC Concert Series has featured a wide variety of musical styles and local as well as internationally-known artists.   During these years, our own staff has included artists who have won awards in performance or composition, and yet many at PACC may not be aware of their impressive talents.  The Concert Series Program is pleased to announce our new “Artists in Residence” program to celebrate and promote these talented individuals within PACC and the larger community.  Our greater mission is to gain recognition and respect for PACC’s musical heritage, commitment and performance opportunities.

Kathleen Fink, a PACC member and the publicity head for our Concert Series wrote an article on our Artists in Residence program which appeared in the Arlington Advocate in early 2015.

Jeffrey Brody

Music Director / Organist

Our  first Artist in Residence is our own Music Director/Organist Jeffrey  Brody.  While the congregation has been  treated to some anthems composed by Jeffrey, he has other accomplishments: he  is a conductor and vocal coach, as well as being a composer, pianist and  organist.  He teaches and coaches both professional and amateur singers in our own Sanctuary.

Jeffrey Brody was named Music Director and Organist at PACC  in 2007, and in addition to his duties here at PACC, he is also  Music Director of Longwood Opera, and Principal  Accompanist of the Paul Madore Chorale, and serves as Staff  Accompanist at New England Conservatory.

Jeffrey enjoys an active musical career as  composer, conductor, vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and organist.  Appointed to the musical staff of Seattle Opera in  1986, he has done the musical preparation of that company’s critically acclaimed  production of Wagner’s “Ring,” serving as Assistant Conductor and Prompter.  He has also done musical preparation for Sarah  Caldwell’s Opera Company of Boston, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera New England, MIT Chamber Opera, Janus Opera Productions and the Princeton June Opera  Festival.  Mr. Brody has been Music  Director of Longwood Opera since 1998 and was appointed Musical Advisor of the Boston Wagner Society in 2005.

He  made his orchestral conducting debut with the Richmond Festival Orchestra in 1995 in a program of all original works.  Most recently, he guest-conducted the Salem Philharmonic Orchestra at the invitation of Music Director and Conductor Alan  Hawryluk, and is a frequent guest conductor of the Harvard Musical Association  Reading Orchestra.  His compositions include two operas, as well as works for orchestra, chorus, chamber music and organ.  They have been performed in Boston’s Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, the Washington National Cathedral, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Altenburg and Muenster Cathedrals, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival, the prestigious festival “la città, la musica e il sacro” in Venice, the Temple of the Shinji Kai in Shiga, Japan and on National Public Radio.

Recent commissions include “Beowulf,” a Musical Legend for soloists, double chorus and large orchestra written for performance in the Vienna  Musikvereinsaal under the direction of Maestro Gerhard Track, as well as  “Planetarium,” a work for the Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus premiered in May of 2005 under the direction of Barry Singer.  Most recently, Mr. Brody was the recipient of a very generous grant from the Brannen-Cooper Fund of Brannen Brothers Flute Makers for the composition of a three-movement, 29-minute Concerto for Flute and Orchestra premiered in January of 2009 by flutist Judith Braude and the Salem Philharmonic under his direction.

Past seasons have brought the world premiere of his opera, “The Measure of Love,” hailed by the Boston Herald as a “sure-fire hit;”  the premiere performances of his choral work, “O Fairest Love Divine” by the Paul Madore Chorale; the first performances of his transcriptions for orchestra of three works by Mozart for mechanical organ by the Salem Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Alan Hawryluk; the performance of his Concerto for Organ and Orchestra with organist Berj Zamkochian and the State Symphony Orchestra of Lebanon under the direction of Harout Faslian; the Vienna
premieres of his “Haec Dies” for Organ, Strings and Timpani as well as his Symphony for Organ, with Zamkochian performing in the Konzerthaus as well as at Vienna’s renowned Karlskirche; and the premiere of “Fanfare!,” a short orchestral work written for the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Michigan State Symphony Orchestra.

The 2004-5 season brought premieres of his “Sinfonietta nel stilo antico” and “The Ballad of the Four Brothers” by the Salem Philharmonic Orchestra.  In August 2005 the Harvard Summer Orchestra, under the direction of Judith Zuckerman, played his “Nigun” in Sanders Theater, Cambridge.  Highlights of the 2005-6 season included the world premiere of his Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, written for Alan Hawryluk, played by the Salem Philharmonic under the direction of the composer.  In the 2008-9 season he had premiere of his commission, the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, by flutist Judith Braude with the Salem Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of the composer, and the world premiere of a song-cycle, “Phantasmagoria” with tenor Christopher Aaron Smith and pianist Terry Decima at New England Conservatory’s Brown Hall.  The 2009-2010 season saw performances of his works with the Salem Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dirk Hillyer Festival Orchestra, the Harvard Summer Orchestra, the Parkway Concert Orchestra and the Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus.  The premiere of his second opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Longwood Opera, as well as the premiere of his Pezzo Serioso by the Salem Philharmonic Orchestra, and premieres of his arrangements for organ, brass quartet and timpani of Vierne’s Carillon de Westminster and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Procession of the Nobles have all come during the 2010-2011 season.

A finalist in the 1999 European International Composers Competition, he has been the recipient of numerous ASCAP special awards. Several of his commissioned choral and organ works have been released on compact disc by the AFKA and SPC labels. His compositions are published exclusively by Ashbrook Music, Boston.

Mr. Brody is a member of the International Siegfried Wagner Society; the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers; the National Association of Teachers of Singing; the American Guild of Organists, and is a founding member of the Boston Singers Resource, for which he has served as audition adjudicator.  In honor of the many years of his artistic collaboration with the late Boston Symphony Orchestra Organist, Berj Zamkochian, the Gomidas Organ Fund presented Mr. Brody with the baton used by Dr. Charles Munch, Music Director and Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1949-1962.

Last Fall, Longwood Opera wrapped up its 27th season with Jeffrey Brody as Music Director for one of the most popular operas in the standard repertoire, by presenting Mozart’s ever popular, “The Magic Flute.” Stage Directed by J. Scott Brumit, and imaginatively costumed by Charlotte Brumit,”Flute” tells a story of mysterious characters and events in a mystic, faraway land. The opera was fully staged and sung in English with piano accompaniment with Alanna Levy Flautist. To view some photos and the program from The Magic Flute, visit the Longwood Opera’s website: www.longwoodopera.org.

The Premiere performance of Jeffrey Brody’s Adagio for Winds, Brass, Harp and Percussion will be presented in concert at Sanders Theater in Harvard Square, Cambridge on Saturday, August 1 at 8 PM.  The Harvard Summer School Orchestra will present the piece under the direction of Judith Zuckerman.  Admission is free.

More information about Jeffrey Brody can be found at his website: www.jeffreybrody.com.

Andrea Hart

Youth Choir Director

Andrea Hart is currently Director of Youth Music at PACC, working with young singers and instrumentalists to bring them into the musical life of the church.  For over twenty years, Ms. Hart has performed as pianist, flutist, singer and chamber musician in numerous concert settings, and has taught piano, flute, music theory, sight singing, and choral ensembles in both private studio and schools, including the Cambridge Friends School, Shady Hill School, and Creative Arts in Reading, MA. She has also worked for a number of cultural organizations, most recently as General Manager and Booking Representative for nationally acclaimed World Music Ensemble Libana, and as Director at Creative Arts, a community school for music and the visual arts. She has sung with The Boston Cecilia, The Mudville Madrigal Singers, The Longy Chamber Singers, and various Boston area church choirs. Ms. Hart holds a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and a Masters in Education from Harvard University.

She previously performed in our PACC Concert Series in May of 2012 with pianist Margaret Tuttle in a concert titled “From Formal to Fanciful…Music for Flute and Piano” which included works of Bach, Schumann, Poulenc and Bolling.

Andrea’s group Mudville Madrigals was in concert at 2 venues in 2013. Click here to see a PDF of that concert flyer.  They also appeared in our PACC Concert Series in 2014 and in 2017.

Vox Lucens

voxlucens6_small Our Artists in Residence Program group, Vox Lucens has graced our Sanctuary in concerts and in special music services.

This Early Music a capella ensemble is quite familiar to those who attend our Concert Series regularly, as they have performed at PACC several times over the past years, always to the acclaim and enjoyment of the audience.  They were featured as performers in PACC’s annual Christmas Concert this past December, and you may occasionally hear them in the upstairs area of the Parish Hall building as they rehearse here at PACC regularly.

Vox Lucens, Latin for “a shining voice,” came together in 1998 to explore the Renaissance sacred and secular a capella repertoire.  The group has developed programs combining popular favorites with lesser known works, to shed light on the wide variety of styles and textures of the Renaissance repertoire.

Current Vox Lucens members are:

Mary Briggs (Alto)
Holly Druckman (Music Director)
Laurie Francis (Soprano)
Barry S. Goldberg (Bass)
Jean Monroe (Alto)
John Nesby (Baritone)
Jessica Raine* (Soprano)
Sarah Richmond (Soprano)
Jonathan Solomon (Tenor)
Diane Taraz (Soprano)
Michael Terranova (Alto)
Marc Vilain (Tenor)
John Yannis (Baritone)

* not pictured.

Vox Lucens will be appearing in The Magic of Christmas, PACC’s Annual Christmas Concert on Sunday, December 2, 3:00 pm.   They also have a schedule of their own 2018 holiday concerts:

Click here for a PDF of  VoxLucensHolidayConcerts2018

Sing Noël!

Friday, November 30, 8 pm
Grace Episcopal Church
76 Eldredge St., Newton

Saturday, December 1, 7:30 pm
St. Anne’s
147 Concord Road, Lincoln

Saturday, December 8, 7:30 pm
University Lutheran Church
66 Winthrop St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge

Please see Vox Lucens’ Concert Schedule page for all their concert details.

Holly Druckman, Vox Lucens DirectorThe group is directed by Holly Druckman,  who is quickly gaining recognition as a smart, sensitive performer of early and contemporary music. She is starting her premiere season with the ensemble with a program of challenging works by Josquin, Stolzer, Byrd, Lambe, and others. In addition to Vox Lucens, Ms. Druckman is the Founder and Music Director of Carduus (formerly the Carr Consort), a chamber choir dedicated to exploring often overlooked repertoire from the Renaissance and modern periods. Previous choral engagements include conducting posts with the Commonwealth Chorale, Cappella Clausura, Amor Artis, and the Columbia Josquin Singers, as well as guest appearances with the choir at Saint Stephen’s Church in Providence, RI, and apprenticeships with the New England Conservatory Concert Choir and Chamber Singers.
Ms. Druckman received her MM with academic honors from the New England Conservatory, studying Historical Musicology and Choral Conducting, with a focus on Middle Renaissance Polyphony. She is the 2018 recipient of NEC’s Gunther Schuller Award.

 

Joanna Porackova

Soprano

The PACC Artists in Residence Program is delighted to welcome the internationally recognized Classical Opera Soprano Joanna Porackova as our newest Artist in Residence.   She has been celebrated for her “soaring majesty” (Opera News) and “huge vocal and emotional range” in both the mezzo soprano and soprano dramatic repertoire.

In 2010, singing Brünnhilde in Wagner’s the “Immolation Scene” with the Longwood Symphony under the direction of Jonathan Mcphee, the Boston Globe praised her as a “powerful soprano with a heartfelt, involving sense of the music’s inner drama” and the Boston Musical Intelligencer noted and her “warm smooth voice rang out over Wagner’s heavy orchestral texture…clearly at home in the role of Brünnhilde” and praised her for “using her impressive instrument to full dramatic effect” for the mezzo soprano solo in Verdi’s REQUIEM with the Masterworks Chorale.  The New York Sun, in reviews of DIE WALKÜRE in the 2008 Easter Salzburg Festival with the Berliner Philharmoniker under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle singled her out as “foremost of the Valkyries…she was girlish and fantastic.”

The New York Times praised her for singing with “great fervor and skill” as Magda Sorel in The Consul directed by the composer himself Gian Carlo Menotti at the Washington National Opera, and for “transmitting the character’s obsessive passion and warmth” as Senta at Katharina Wagner’s directorial debut of Der Fliegende Holländer in Würzburg Germany. Joanna has been engaged with the Aix en Provence, Salzburg, and Opera North (Canada) Festivals, Paris Opera Bastille, Grand Theatre de Tours, Klagenfurt, Würzburg, Bern, Stralsund, Hong Kong, Boston Lyric, Opera Boston, Seattle, Connecticut, Anchorage, Boston Bel Canto opera companies. She has performed the title roles of Norma, Tosca, Aida, Medea, Turandot, Dalia, Carmen, Salome, Isolde and La Wally as well as the Komponist, Amneris, Brünnhilde, Sieglinde, and Santuzza, to name a few. Her concert repertoire includes Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder, the mezzo and soprano roles in the Verdi Requiem, and the Mahler 2nd Symphony, alto solo in Mozart Requiem, Bach B Minor Mass. In 2011 she sang the alto solo in Beethoven’s 9th with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra, Boston, MA.

Her professional relationship with Jeffrey Brody has brought her to PACC where she has performed in the Concert Series, in a special presentation of a reduction of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Joanna is currently using our space not only for her own vocal practice, but as a voice teacher herself, with students from the Boston area community as well as some from our own PACC Community.
She is always ready to welcome new students, and enjoys working with people of all levels. Joanna concentrates her teaching on breathing, using yoga postures and healthy use of the voice no matter what level of singer. Her focus on physical and vocal health comes from her background in Nursing; she has an MS degree in Nursing, and worked in nursing for close to 20 years (including as a professor of Nursing at Indiana, Boston Universities, and the Mass College of Pharmacy) before becoming a professional singer.

On Sunday, June 25th, 2017 at 3 PM in the Sanctuary, Joanna Porackova and Jeffrey Brody will be presenting a free Studio Recital featuring some of Joanna’s voice students. The PACC community and family and friends are invited to enjoy some beautiful music for a summer afternoon.

Dr. Phillip Sullivan

PACC Principal Trumpet

PhilSullivan We are pleased to announce that trumpeter Dr. Phillip Sullivan has been appointed “PACC Principal Trumpet.” Over several years he has brought his trumpet to the PACC music program, at Easter and for special services. He has enjoyed an artistic collaboration with Jeffrey Brody, our Music Director and Organist, and has performed in our concert series.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area in California, Phil is now based in the greater Boston area. He has had an active schedule performing and teaching in California, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and North Carolina, and has performed and conducted internationally in Italy. Phil is Artist in Residence at St. Stephen’s Church in Orinda, California, and from 2007-2010 was the Trumpet Studio Coordinator at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

As a performer he has performed in a wide variety of styles and venues including Carnegie Hall as principal trumpet, and as a teacher he has experience in a wide variety of settings including summer music festivals, year round music centers, and as a private in-home instructor. Phil has worked with students of all ages from elementary, through high school and college levels.

Phil holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Master’s Degree from the New England Conservatory. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro in 2014.

On Sunday, June 28th, Phil will begin his position as PACC Principal Trumpet, performing the Neruda Concerto in E-flat Major.

Johann Baptist Neruda (c. 1708 – 1780) composed 18 symphonies, 14 concertos, 30 trios, 6 violin pieces and an opera. The E-flat Major concerto was originally intended for the corno-da-caccia (hunting horn), a valveless member of the horn family with a shallow cup-shaped mouthpiece similar to that of a trumpet. To play this instrument correctly, trumpeters were used, therefore the tone more resembled a modern trumpet rather than a modern French horn. The sound and range of Neruda’s concerto is reason enough to include this in early classic trumpet works.

Visit his website for more information:  http://philsullivan.webs.com/