2016 Festival Season
Journeys in Opera: from the Black Forest to the Wild West
Friday, July 29th, 7:30pm
Central Christian Church, 3690 South Cherry Creek Drive
Saturday, July 30th, 2:00pm
Mercury Cafe, 2199 California St
Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the Colorado Chamber Orchestra
Saturday, July 30th, 8:00pm
Christ Congregational Church, 2500 South Sheridan Blvd
Sunday, July 31st, 3:00pm
Christ Congregational Church, 2500 South Sheridan Blvd
2016 Festival Season Artistic Staff
Andrew Adams, Music Director
Thomas Blomster, Conductor, Colorado Chamber Orchestra
Liana Lansing, Chorus Master
Layna Martinez, Stage Director
2016 Advisory Board & Officers
Andrew Adams maintains a very active private voice studio in Denver. His students are frequently featured in opera and musical theater productions in Colorado, across the United States, and in Europe. He is also a popular master teacher and clinician. His studio is noted for presenting seldom performed vocal works such as Liza Lehmann’s In a Persian Garden and Poulenc’s La Dame de Monte Carlo.
Andrew Adams has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Spoleto Festival USA, Festivale dei Due Mondi, Italy, the Westminster Choir; in opera, concert & recital in the US and Germany; and was a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, New York Choral Artists, and the Westminster Choir. He has been music director of several prominent churches and temples in New York City and the Los Angeles metro area. He is the founder and music director of Denver’s Orpheus Pagan Chamber Choir.
Liana Lansing boasts an extensive background as performer and conductor. She has sung professionally with the New York City, Central City, and Santa Fe Operas, the National Chorale (NYC), and the Desert Chorale (Santa Fe). She is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music (Boston) with BM and MM Degrees in Voice. Liana toured Europe, Russia, Romania, Scandinavia, Australia, China, and Japan with the Rocky Mountain Singers, directed by her father, the late Robert Lansing.
Back in Denver, Liana earned a MM degree in Choral Conducting at CU, and has directed the Holy Ghost, Washington Park UM and Christ Congregational Church Choirs, the Colo. Welsh Society and Northland Chorales. She currently leads the GAL-axies women’s chorus, the NEW CHORDS, a mixed show choir that has entertained audiences for over 25 years, and SHIR AMI, a group specializing in Jewish ethnic folk song. In addition to all of the above, Liana teaches voice privately.
THOMAS POOLE
Daniel Mullens is a young professional musician based out of Arvada, CO. He has been involved with a wide range of musical organizations along the Front Range, including the opera department at the University of Northern Colorado- Greeley, Stampede Troupe, Fort Collins Children’s Theatre, Bovine Metropolis Theater, Boulder Opera, Opera on Tap, Opera Theater of the Rockies, and Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Currently, he teaches private lessons in Stapleton and Arvada and serves as the organist and Sunday School music director at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Arvada. He is also the assistant conductor of Voices West, an auditioned community choir in Littleton, and directs its chamber choir (Voices West Select). Daniel is an accomplished collaborative pianist and was named Pianist of the Year at the 2013 West Central NATS Conference in Emporia, KS. He is originally from upstate New York, where he earned his undergraduate degree (Bachelors of Music Education and piano) from Houghton College in Houghton, NY.
MARLENA HOOKER MOORE, President
Mezzo-soprano Marlena Hooker Moore holds degrees in vocal performance from Metropolitan State University and the University of Northern Colorado. Additional study at DePauw University led to music and German language studies in Vienna, Austria. She currently studies with Andrew Adams in Denver, Colorado.
With Germany’s Opera Classica Europa, she sang Flora in La Traviata and the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte. Committed to contemporary music, Marlena’s roles include Madame Flora in The Medium and Rosine in Thomas Pasatieri’s Signor Deluso. She appeared as Queen Victoria II in Luminous Thread’s original steampunk opera, Queen Victoria’s Floating Garden; Adele in the world premiere of Russell Guyver and Brian Luedloff’s electronic opera, Opera-tion World Peace, and as Sally in Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge, presented by the Chamber Ensemble con Grazia and pianist Grace Asquith, with whom she regularly performs.
She has been a soloist in choral works including Lotte Lehmann’s In a Persian Garden with the Orpheus Pagan Chamber Choir and Verdi’s Requiem with the University of Northern Colorado chorus and orchestra.
Marlena grew up in King George, Virginia, and first started taking music lessons with her grandmother, a church pianist. Her own teaching studio, MHM Music, has provided voice and piano lessons for students of all ages in the Denver Metro area for the past ten years. For several years, Marlena was the Director of Music at the Sixth Avenue United Church of Christ in Denver.
CRISTIN COLVIN, Vice President & Secretary
Soprano Cristin Colvin holds a Master of Music in vocal performance from the University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Arts in piano and voice from Emory & Henry College in Virginia. In Denver, she sings as soloist for St. Paul Lutheran Church, participates in Opera on Tap Colorado and Boulder Opera Company, and is one of the proud founders of this Denver Opera Collective. Recent credits include Gianetta (L’Elisir d’Amore) with Boulder Opera and Damon (Acis and Galatea) in DOC’s first season in 2016. In 2015, she appeared as a company member of the Castleton Festival under the direction of Maria Tucci to improvise a comic supernumerary role in the premiere of Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg and cover the role of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her other opera credits include Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady), Suor Genovieffa (Suor Angelica), Florencia Grimaldi (Florencia en el Amazonas), Euridice (Orphée et Euridice), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte), Antonia (Les contes d’Hoffman), and Young Wife in the premiere of Joseph Turrin’s Love Games.
A lover of contemporary works, Cristin has worked with both Anne Guzzo and her students at the University of Wyoming to perform their compositions. She also produces an arts salon series with Redline Contemporary Art Center to promote the performance of young composers, called (de)composition. Cristin can also be found around Denver fronting her own jazz combo. When not singing, Cristin enjoys learning to play guitar on a vintage Telecaster, running on the trails, and writing poetry. She’s an aficionado of all things 1960s.
KAT WAGNER, Treasurer
Soprano Kat Wagner received her Bachelors of Vocal Performance from the University of Idaho. Some of her favorite performance experiences include lead roles in Die Fledermaus, Die Lustige Witwe, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Rondine, and The Mikado. She enjoys singing and performing in all genres and has been a soloist for Chamber Ensemble Con Grazia for the past two years. She has been conducting church choirs for twenty years and has directed several musicals at the middle school level. She has been teaching private voice and theory in the Highlands Ranch, Colorado area for 13 years.
ROSEMARY DOWNS, Secretary
London native Rosemary Downs enjoys a varied career as a veteran choral singer and soloist in the Denver area. She was a member of Kantorei for five years, St. Martin’s Chamber Choir for one year, and was recently staff soprano at Wellshire Presbyterian Church. Prior to these engagements she was the music director at Christ the King Arvada. She currently studies in Andrew Adams’ voice studio. In addition to singing, Rosemary has also shared her talents on the piano as accompanist for Lakewood High School and Creighton Middle School.
In her hometown, Rosemary sang in an opera company in London from 1990 – 1993; first as a chorus member in Maria Stuarda and La Traviata, and then as Mercedes in Carmen. She participated in local competitions, claiming first place in Oratorio in 1992. She has since raised four children while continuing a love of music and singing. Rosemary has one son in the Rocky Mountain Children’s Choir and another son in the Colorado Children’s Chorale.
PRODUCTION COMMITTEE OFFICERS
MELISSA DALTON, Costume Chair
Soprano Melissa Sue Dalton holds a BM in Vocal Performance and a BS in Business Administration, Accounting from the University of Northern Colorado. She has performed several lead roles in opera and oratorio, including her European debut with Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte), Célie (Signor Deluso), the soprano soloist in Messiah, Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte), Autumn (The Riddle), Gabriel in The Creation, and Monica (The Medium). She studied with Professor Lesley Manring and is currently in the studio of Andrew Adams. Aside from singing, Melissa enjoys building cosplay, performing improv, and doing cosplay performance panels at several of the local conventions.
PEARL RUTHERFORD, Set Coordinator
Soprano Pearl Rutherford is affiliate voice faculty at Colorado Christian University. In addition to teaching in her private voice studio, she is voice instructor and choir director at Credo Academy, and serves as staff singer at Bethany Lutheran Church in Denver. Pearl currently sings with the highly acclaimed vocal ensemble, Kantorei, in Denver. She has sung the roles of Despina (Cosi fan tutte), Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), and Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow) with the Idaho Falls Opera Theatre, as well as Maria in a Honolulu production of West Side Story. Concert performances include solo appearances with the Metropolitan Choral Festival in Denver, Stratus (formerly Musica Sacra) chamber Orchestra, Orion Wind Ensemble, Colorado Christian University’s University Choir (with the Colorado Chorale), Hawaii Chamber Orchestra in Honolulu; the Star Valley Arts Council and Star Valley Choral Society in Wyoming, the Snake River Chamber Orchestra, and Caritas Chorale in Idaho. She was also a member and soloist with the Idaho Falls Symphony Chorale and Anam Cara, The Chamber Choir of Idaho.
Pearl was a Presser Scholar, earning her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and has received vocal instruction at the University of Northern Colorado. Her teachers include T. Alan Bowers, Annette Johansson, Laurence Paxton, Charmaine Coppom, and she currently studies with Andrew Adams.
Music and the arts are fundamental in Pearl’s family. Her husband is a double-bassist who is a host on Colorado Public Radio, her daughter is a cellist with a composition degree, and her son is a pianist who also studies film-making.
