Alumni Soloists Are Returning
On March 24, 2019, at 2 p.m., the group presents an all-Mozart concert at the Hale School auditorium. This concert crowns our 40th anniversary celebration season, bringing back familiar soloists from earlier years of the group and welcoming new musical friends as well.
We open with “Concerto for Flute & Harp in C”, featuring Katherine Kleitz, flute and Charles Overton, harp. For the second half, Artistic Director Barbara Jones will conduct the chorus in Robert Levin’s edition of the timeless Mozart Requiem, with alumni soloists Margot Law, soprano; Martha Remington, mezzo; Ray Bauwens, tenor; and Jason Jordan, baritone. A reception at the school for audience and performers follows the concert and will feature photos and other memorabilia highlighting four decades of outstanding musical ventures.
Margot Law (soprano) holds a Bachelor of Music from the Crane Conservatory at the State University of New York at Potsdam, where her major instrument was flute. At home in New York, she was a student of Harold Bennett, principle flutist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Margot studied voice with Robert Gartside of Boston University and has since given recitals in New England, New York, England, France and Germany, specializing in the art songs of the Belle Époque. She holds a Master of Theatre Education from Emerson College in Boston, with a concentration in technical theatre. A past president of Sounds of Stow, Margot has been teaching theatre and music for thirteen years at the Willow Hill School in Sudbury, Massachusetts and has been directing students and adults in plays and musicals for almost 50 years.
A native of New York state’s Adirondack Park, Martha Remington (mezzo) is an alumna of the Crane School of Music, State University of New York at Potsdam, where she earned her B. S. in Music Education degree. Accepted at Crane with a major in either bassoon or voice, she chose voice and studied with baritone C. Robert Reinert (who also happened to be the professor who taught bassoon). At Crane Martha sang in the compulsory 300-voice chorus under such esteemed conductors as Nadia Boulanger, Robert Shaw and Stanley Chapple.
Once arriving in Manhattan in 1964, she pursued an active career as a free-lance concert singer and for three seasons toured all the eastern and central United States with the The Gregg Smith Singers and the Whit/Lo Singers. In 1967 she made her solo debut at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Mozart Serenades: A Mozart Festival, under the baton of John Nelson.
Ray Bauwens (tenor) is well known to audiences in the New England area. Some of Mr. Bauwens’ recent performances have included such roles as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata, Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Boheme, Danilo in Lehár’s The Merry Widow as well as concert performances of Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, Verdi’s Requiem, and J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Magnificat.
Mr. Bauwens has performed with the National Symphony of the Ukraine, the Mexico State Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Academy of Music, Connecticut Concert Opera, Opera Providence, Warren Symphony, Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, Boston Civic Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the New Philharmonia Orchestra, and even the Boston Ballet in Lila York’s staging of the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. His operatic roles have also included Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, Dick Johnson in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West, Riccardo in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, and Turiddu in Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana as well as Edgardo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Matteo in Strauss’ Arabella, the title role in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, Canio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, Don Alvaro in Verdi’s La Forza Del Destino, Pollione in Bellini’s Norma, Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen. His concert and oratorio performances include Handel’s Elijah and The Messiah, J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor and St. John Passion, Verdi’s Requiem, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Mr. Bauwens has been recorded in his role of Anatol in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa by Naxos Records, which was recorded in Kiev, Ukraine.
An accomplished sound designer, composer, pianist and vocalist, Jason Jordan (baritone) has been creating music – and being recognized for his works – since the age of three. During his youth, Jason traveled the world with the Texas Boys Choir, and won numerous honors for his composition. His training culminated with three years each at Texas Tech University and Berklee College of Music, where his studies focused on composition and sound design.
Since 2003, Jason’s work as Lead Sound Designer for Sonivox has earned industry acclaim. Electronic Musician’s Editors’ Choice Awards celebrated Anatomy as Best New Sound Library (2009); Muse as Best Software Sample Player (2007); Sonic Implants Complete Symphonic Collection as Most Comprehensive Orchestral Library (2006); and Atsia as Outstanding Sample Library (2004). Jason has scored original music for documentaries and short films which have caught audiences’ attention. His credits include As Is: A Downsized Life and Interrogate This: Psychologists Take on Terror from MG Productions, featured in numerous U.S. and international film festivals. Jason’s team’s 2007 Boston 48 Hour Film Project offering, In Medias Res, won seven awards – including Best Film.
Jason Jordan’s work is defined by a unique mix of carefully honed skills, blended with an artistic sensibility. He puts his skill and talent to work for his clients through music composition and sound design, within a highly personalized partnership approach.
Katherine Kleitz (flute) received BM and MM degrees from the New England Conservatory and a PhD from Tufts University. She studied flute with James Pappoutsakis, Michel Debost, and Jean-Pierre Rampal, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She teaches in the Boston area and has performed with numerous chamber ensembles, including Arroyo, Bell’ Aria, New England Voices, Joie de Vivre Dance Company, Current Dance Company, the Boston Theater Group, and orchestras such as Sounds of Stow.
She also played for many years in a music duo with pianist Ernest Goldman, performing well over a hundred recitals together. Since 1987 Katherine Kleitz has been Artistic Director of Row Twelve Chamber Ensemble, a group that regularly premieres new compositions and performance art throughout New England.
Katherine can be heard on CDs with Row Twelve, December Journeys and Cross Currents (Amazon) and on her solo CD, Airs to Charm a Lizard (Amazon).
Charles Overton (harp) is a Boston-based harpist and performer of classical, jazz and contemporary music. A native of Richmond VA, he began playing the harp at the age of 10 in Lynelle Ediger-Kordzaia’s American Youth Harp Ensemble program. In 2009 he went on to the Interlochen Arts Academy to study with Joan Raeburn Holland, and in 2012 Charles made the move to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music, and continued his harp studies under the direction of BSO principal harpist, Jessica Zhou.
During his time at Berklee, he competed in the Advanced Division of the 2013 American Harp Society National Competition where he was a finalist, attended summer festivals like the Castleton Festival, and Bowdoin International Music Festival, and appeared as a soloist with local ensembles Symphony Pro Musica and Benjamin Zander’s Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. As an orchestral musician Charles has performed under the batons of Andris Nelsons, Alan Gilbert, Stephane Deneve, Francois-Xavier Roth, & the late Lorin Mazel, among others in orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, and the Virginia Opera Orchestra. As a chamber musician he has performed both standard repertoire and new music with organizations like the Walden Chamber Players & Collage New Music, and at summer music festivals including the Marlboro Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Pacific Music Festival.
Currently, Charles resides in Boston where he maintains an active performance schedule. Engagements during his 2018-2019 season include an appearance at the Marlboro Music Festival in a special project led by Leon Fleisher, regular performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and solo appearances with the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, Sounds of Stow Orchestra, and Mount Holyoke Orchestra.
In addition to his classical music pursuits, Charles is an avid performer of jazz and other improvised musics. At Berklee he was the first harp student to be admitted to the Berklee Global Jazz Institute – a specialized program at the school in which students are given the opportunity to work intimately with master jazz artists such as Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Joe Lovano, and Terri-Lynn Carrington. Today Charles leads his own jazz quartet, the “Charles Overton Group” which has twice headlined at Boston’s Sculler’s Jazz Club, and performs both domestically and abroad at various music festivals. In 2016 the group released their first commercial album entitled “Convergence,” and are now looking forward to getting back into the studio soon to produce a second.