This year’s Waupaca Community Chorus and Civic Orchestra Concert will feature several soloists who have previously taken the stage with the choir.
The soloists will be Dr. Gary Moss, Karla Hughes, Dr. Bill Lavonis and Naomi Enter.
Moss, Hughes and Lavonis have performed with the choir in the past. This will be the first time Enter performs with it.
The concert will begin at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 6, at the Waupaca High School Performing Arts Center.
Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door for adults. They are $4 in advance and $6 at the door for students.
Tickets may be purchased at the Waupaca Area Chamber of Commerce, Stratton’s Drug Store, The Waupaca Community Arts Center, from choir members and at the door.
Seating will be on a first come, first served basis.
This year, the choir will perform Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore and Handel’s Coronation Anthems.
“The Mozart is a stunningly beautiful work which utilizes a SATB quartet. While the work is in Latin, I believe this work to be more accessible than the Requiem. The second work by Handel is in English and is a tip of the hat to the birth of His Royal Highness Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge,” said Dan Wolfgram, director of the community choir.
The choruses by Handel have been used at every coronation since the coronation of George II in 1727.
This year’s soloists have varied performance experience.
Moss, bass soloist, performed with the choir in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2012.
He enjoys a varied repertoire that includes opera, oratorio, operetta and musical theater. Moss was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions in 2003, and has sung roles with opera companies throughout the country.
Moss holds an undergraduate degree in vocal performance from the University of Utah, and a master’s degree and doctorate in vocal performance from the University of Michigan.
In March 2008, he joined the roster of Wade Artist Management. In addition, he serves on the voice faculty at Luther College and the musical theater faculty at Viterbo University.
Hughes, soprano soloist, performed with the Waupaca Community Choir and Civic Orchestra in 2009 and is delighted to return as a soloist this year.
In 2009, she was the soprano soloist for the Mozart Requiem.
As a professional musician, she has performed throughout the United States with opera, musical theater and theater companies. In April 2011, she made her Lincoln Center debut as soprano in Mozart’s Coronation Mass.
Hughes currently heads the music theater voice area at Viterbo University, where she has taught since 2005.
She earned her Master of Music in opera performance from Wichita State University and a Bachelor of Art in music from Colorado State University.
Lavonis, tenor soloist, appeared in the 1996 and 1997 Waupaca Community Choir concerts.
He holds degrees in voice, opera and musical theatre from the University of Cincinnati, Philadelphia’s University of the Arts and Shenandoah University.
Lavonis has held teaching positions at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Northern Iowa and Southwest Missouri State. Recently retired after 15 years as professor of voice and director of Opera and Musical Theatre at UW-Milwaukee, he produced, directed and conducted numerous stage works.
He recently returned from a short-term professorship at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville School of Music and now teaches privately in the greater Milwaukee area.
A native of Southern New Jersey, Lavonis made his professional singing debut at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra in Israel in Egypt and has performed more than 100 leading and supporting roles in opera and musical theatre throughout the United States.
Enter, mezzo-soprano soloist, received her Bachelor of Music in flute and vocal performance from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
She has performed professionally as a flutist, singer and pianist in a variety of contexts around the world with a variety of groups.
In 2008, Enter made her China debut as the alto soloist for Handel’s Messiah (Beijing International Festival Chorus), and provided a repeat performance in 2009.
She currently sings with the Florentine Opera Company in Milwaukee, is a regular soloist at Victory of the Lamb Lutheran Church in Franklin and teaches out of her home studio.
For more information about the April 6 concert, contact Wolfgram at Waupaca High School, at 715-258-4131, ext.1419.