Sigismund's Cathedral
Featuring the music of Michael Haydn
Friday, November 10
8:00pm
Christ Church, Rochester
"Sigismund" Requiem in C Minor
with the Christ Church Schola and vocal soloists Laura Heimes, Hailey McAvoy,
Pablo Bustos, and Mark Hosseini
Trumpet Concerto in C
featuring Brian Shaw, trumpet
Pastorello in C
Select Organ works
performed by Edoardo Belotti
Conductor
Michael E. Ruhling is Professor of Performing Arts in the College of Liberal Arts at the Rochester (NY) Institute of Technology, and a Senior Affiliate Faculty in Musicology at the Eastman School of Music. From 2004 to 2009 Michael served on the conducting and lecture faculty of the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, and sang bass in the Festival Chorus for concerts at the Esterházy palace and Masses at the Eisenstadt Bergkirche and Stephansdom in Vienna. He has appeared as guest conductor of the Brighton Symphony Orchestra, Prince George’s Philharmonic, Finger Lakes Symphony, UNLV Symphony and Opera, Rochester’s Air de Cour, and several other orchestras and choirs throughout the United States. He is the author of Johann Peter Salomon’s Scores of Four Haydn Symphonies: Edition with Commentary, published by the Edwin Mellen Press, and his essay on the symphonies of Michael Haydn is included in The Symphonic Repertoire, Vol. 1: The Eighteenth Century Symphony published by the Indiana University Press. Dr. Ruhling was named the 2008-2009 Christopher Hogwood Historically Informed Performance Fellow by the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, the oldest performing ensemble in the U.S. He is the first president of the Haydn Society of North America and editorial director of HAYDN: Online Journal of the Haydn Society of North America (haydnjournal.org). In 2011 he was elected to the Haydn Society of Great Britain’s Committee of Honour, and he recently served as secretary-treasurer of the Society for Eighteenth Century Music. Dr. Ruhling holds a PhD in historical musicology from The Catholic University of America, and graduate degrees in orchestral conducting ((U. of Missouri) and music history (U. of Notre Dame).
Soloists
Praised for her “sparkle and humor, radiance and magnetism” and hailed for “a voice equally velvety up and down the registers,” soprano Laura Heimes is widely regarded as an artist of great versatility, with repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century. She has collaborated with many of the leading figures in early music, including Andrew Lawrence King, Julianne Baird, Tempeste di Mare, The King’s Noyse, Paul O’Dette, Chatham Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, The New York Collegium, Voices of Music, Brandywine Baroque, Trinity Consort, and Piffaro – The Renaissance Band. She has been heard at the Boston, Connecticut, Berkeley and Indianapolis Early Music Festivals, at the Oregon and Philadelphia Bach Festivals under the baton of Helmuth Rilling, at the Carmel Bach Festival under Bruno Weil, and in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil in concerts of Bach and Handel. With the Philadelphia Orchestra she appeared as Mrs. Nordstrom in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. December 2003 marked her Carnegie Hall debut in Handel’s Messiah with the Masterwork Chorus and in December 2011 appeared in the acclaimed staged production of the same work with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Maestro Honeck. A native of Rochester NY, she holds her Bachelors degree from SUNY Geneseo and Master of Music degrees in Choral Conducting and Voice Performance from Temple University.
Mezzo soprano Hailey McAvoy is currently a Take-5 Student at the Eastman School of Music & University of Rochester, where she is pursuing a double major in Vocal Performance and Musical Arts and studying German and Translation. At Eastman, Ms. McAvoy had performed on both the opera and concert stage. Favorite roles include Emmanuel, the Abductress, in Doug Lowry's Polite Abductress, Mrs. Soames (Our Town), The Mother Superior (Suor Angelica), Zosha (Out of Darkness), and the 6th Spirit (Cendrillon). In addition to opera, Ms. McAvoy has appeared as a soloist in Haydn's Theresienmesse, Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and Berio's O King. As a young recitalist, Ms. McAvoy particularly loves performing German art song, collaborating with composers, and sharing American music. She is working to champion the music of little-known American composer Hub Miller, whose songs she is studying extensively at Eastman.
Highlights of tenor Pablo Bustos’ recent solo concert appearances include: Handel’s Ode to St. Cecilia, conducted by Ton Koopman with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, Mozart's Requiem with the Gregory Kunde Chorale, the Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion with the Voices Ensemble, and Dvorak’s Stabat Mater with the Fort Street Chorale and Orchestra, Detroit, MI. Upcoming concert performances include: world premiere of Jennifer Bellor's Christabel, Handel's Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, with David Chin, and Handel's Messiah with the Fort Street Chorale and Orchestra. Recent operatic engagements include: Alfred in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, the Witch in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflӧte with Opera Theatre of Weston. Under the auspices of the early music ensemble La Donna Musicale has participated in two modern premieres, singing the role of Scipione in Maria Teresa Agnesi’s La Sofonisba and the role of Il Padre in Camilla de Rossi’s Il Figliuol Prodigo, opposite Julianne Baird singing the role of La Madre. Mr. Bustos’s discography includes: The Lutheran Masses and Advent Cantatas of J. S. Bach with the Publick Musick Baroque Orchestra and Chorus (Musica Omnia). In 2006, Mr. Bustos was a finalist in the Philadelphia Bach Festival’s International Bach Aria Competition. He currently resides in Rochester, NY, where he is the Organist/Director of Music Ministry at the Reformation Lutheran Church, as well as Adjunct Voice Professor for the Liberal Arts College of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Pablo Bustos is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he received both his Bachelor and Master Degrees in Vocal Performance.
Baritone Mark Hosseini is currently working towards his Master’s Degree in Voice Performance & Literature at the Eastman School of Music under the instruction of Dr. Jonathan Retzlaff. Mr. Hosseini was seen as Pandolfe in Eastman Opera Theatre’s production of Massenet’s Cendrillon, and will return to perform the role of Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. As a concert soloist, he has sung in performances of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Haydn’s Theresienmesse, Duruflé’s Requiem, and Matthias Pintscher’s songs from Solomon’s garden with various choirs and orchestras at the Eastman School of Music. Mr. Hosseini was recently featured as the bass soloist in Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Malaysia Bach Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was a chorus member in Pegasus Early Music’s production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Mark is a graduate of the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Michigan, where he was honored with the Music, Theatre, and Dance Department Award for Outstanding Student in Voice Performance. He was also a winner of the Oakland Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition in 2015. Mr. Hosseini was recently a finalist in the Edward M. Murray Competition of Voice, hosted by Opera Ithaca. He has also received four first place awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition (Michigan Chapter), as well as a second-place award from the Elizabeth Gardner Voice Competition in Rochester Hills, Michigan.
Brian Shaw is Carruth Associate Professor at Louisiana State University where he teaches applied trumpet, jazz improvisation, arranging, and leads the LSU Jazz Ensemble. He is also Visiting Professor of Baroque Trumpet Studies at the Eastman School of Music. Brian currently serves as Principal Trumpet of the Baton Rouge Symphony, Co-Principal Trumpet of the Dallas Winds, and enjoys an international performing career on modern and Baroque trumpets. This season, Shaw will be a featured soloist at the inaugural concert of Ensemble Perihipsous in Rochester, NY (Michael Haydn Concerto in C Major), will perform in Carnegie Hall with the English Concert (Handel’s Rinaldo), at Metro State University in Denver, as guest principal trumpet with Santa Fe Pro Musica, Bach Society Houston, and solo artist with the Acadiana Symphony (Lafayette). His critically acclaimed solo recordings include redshift, (accompanied by the Dallas Wind Symphony), and his 2008 Baroque album, Virtuoso Concertos for Clarino. As a jazz trumpet player, Brian plays regularly with the LSU faculty trio and leads a big band every December. Brian continues his work as co-author on a biography of legendary jazz trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler, titled Song for Someone, which will be published by Equinox Books, London. He is proud to be a Yamaha Performing Artist. For more information, visit Brian's web site.
Internationally renowned organist and harpsichordist Edoardo Bellotti performs as a soloist and with ensembles and orchestras in Europe, USA, Canada, Japan, and Korea. He is frequently invited to give seminars and master classes as an expert of Renaissance and Baroque repertory, performance practice, and improvisation. In addition to his musical studies (organ and harpsichord), he studied humanities at the University of Pavia, Italy, completing laurea degrees in philosophy and theology. Before joining Eastman School of Music in 2013 as Associate Professor of Organ, Harpsichord and Improvisation, Edoardo Bellotti taught in several academic institutions in Germany (Trossingen, Bremen) and Italy (Milan, Udine, Trento). In addition to teaching and performing, he has devoted himself to musicological research, publishing articles, essays and critical editions of organ music, and presenting his work in many international conferences and symposia. He has edited the first modern edition of two of the most important Baroque treatises on organ playing: Adriano Banchieri's L’ Organo suonarino (Venice 1605), and Spiridion a Monte Carmelo's Nova Instructio pro pulsandis organis (Bamberg 1670). He has made more than thirty recordings on historical instruments, which have obtained critical acclaim.