March 13 , 2007

March Classical Concert

Join Conductors Philip Bauman and Charles Steck for a spirited performance of sacred music at Elston Theater in Michigan City on Saturday, March 24 beginning at 7:30 pm. This powerful orchestral program will include an expressive and varied palette with variations on such legendary sacred works as “The Alleluia Hymn,” “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” and will end our concert with the audience joining the orchestra in singing "Amazing Grace". (please note attachment)

The La Porte County Symphony Orchestra will share the stage with the LaPorte High School Orchestra in a student/professional side by side performance of Vaclav Nelybel’s treatment of the classic hymn “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” led by LCSO Associate Conductor Charles Steck. Also featured on the concert will be a performance from pianist Wen-Ting Ong, a winner of the 2006 LaPorte Symphony Young Artist Competition. She demonstrates her extraordinary skills performing the first movement of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3.

The featured piece after intermission will be Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Lord Nelson” Mass. Four majestic solo voices and the combined choirs of the LaPorte County Symphony Chorus and the Camerata Vocal Ensemble will bring the inspiring and dramatic work to life. The “Lord Nelson” mass is certainly one of the most beloved settings of the traditional Latin mass and one of Haydn’s best known treatments.

It will be an evening you won’t want to miss. Tickets can be purchase online at www.lcso.net or by calling 219-362-9020.

Attachments: Amazing Grace Side-Bar
Artist Profiles
Pictures: 
Chuck Steck
Wen_Ting Ong
Kathleen Van De Graaf
Lindsey Anderson
Christopher Cock
Peter Van De Graaf
Albert Jackson
For additional information:
219-362-9020
Executive@lcso.net

Artist Profiles

Charles Steck is Associate Director of Bands and Choirs at LaPorte High School and Professor of Trumpet at Valparaiso University. He holds both the degrees Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Music from Valparaiso University.

He has taught at LaPorte High School since 1994. Mr. Steck works with the Concert Band, the Symphonic Band, the Men's Chorus, the Jazz Lab Band, and teaches Music Theory and Music History.

Mr. Steck performs regularly as a trumpeter with the St. Joseph (Michigan) Municipal Band and the LaPorte Municipal Band, in addition to the Tom Milo Big Band, Windiana, and the Duneland Brass Quintet. He has made several guest appearances as a soloist and clinician, most recently as cornet soloist under the direction of noted Sousa expert Keith Brion with the Valparaiso University Chamber Concert Band.

He resides in LaPorte, Indiana with his wife, Mary, and oboist with the symphony, and their two children. They are members of Bethany Lutheran Church, where Mr. Steck directs the Sanctuary Choir.

Kathleen Van De Graaf, Soprano

Soprano Kathleen Van De Graaff enjoys a remarkable career in all aspects of performance. She recently returned from the Costa Rica International Music Festival where she sang to great acclaim in opera performances throughout the country. She has also been a featured soloist at the Grand Teton Music Festival, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, St. Louis Baroque Festival, Chicago Music of the Baroque, Bloomington Early Music Festival and the Manitou Music Festival. She has also worked with opera companies in Chicago, Milwaukee, Washington, Utah and Idaho.

Her operatic repertoire includes Gilda in “Rigoletto”, the Queen of the Night in “The Magic Flute”, Constanze in “The Abduction from the Seraglio”, Antonia in “The Tales of Hoffmann”, and the title roles in “Martha” and “Lucrezia Borgia” among others.

As an oratorio and concert singer, Ms. Van De Graaff has sung with Music of the Baroque, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Chicago String Ensemble, the Jackson Symphony, the Racine Symphony and the North Shore Choral Society, among many others. She has also been acclaimed as a recitalist, appearing in Tokyo, Japan, at the Teton Festival and at concert series around the country. This year, she will be singing in Indiana, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Wisconsin, Utah and Missouri in recitals and opera performances.

Lindsey Anderson, Mezzo Soprano

Mezzo Soprano Lindsey Anderson will receive her Bachelor of Music degree from Saint Mary's College in May 2007. At Saint Mary's she studies under the tutelage of Soprano, Dr. Laurel
Thomas. Presently she is a member of the Saint Mary's College Women's Choir, conducted by Dr. Nancy Menk, and is a regular performer in the college's opera productions and recital programs.

As a student of the American Institute of Musical Studies, during the Summer of 2006 Anderson studied German lieder and Operatic repertoire in Graz, Austria . The summer of 2007 will take her to study in Chianti, Italy with renowned Professor Emeritus of the Juilliard School, Daniel Ferro. In April she can be seen as a soloist in the Saint Mary's Harp
Ensemble Concert.

Christopher Cock, tenor
The conductor of the Valparaiso University Chorale is Christopher M. Cock, Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Valparaiso University, where he holds the Duesenberg Chair in Lutheran Music. Through his activities as a choral music educator and as a distinguished solo artist, Dr. Cock has forged a unique career path combining the roles of conductor and performer. He frequently brings his focus on outstanding repertoire, vocal technique and polished musicality to high school ensembles throughout the country.

As a solo artist Dr. Cock's extensive range and communicative performances have established him as a premier lyric tenor. Appearances as a Bach Evangelist are taking him to concert venues throughout the United States. In April of 2001, he appeared as Evangelist in the St. Matthew Passion with The Los Angeles Philharmonic. The LA Times praised his performance for its "illuminating freshness." He has for numerous seasons appeared as a guest artist with the Oregon Bach Festival, led by German conductor, Helmuth Rilling. In recent seasons he has sung with the Florida Orchestra, the Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Miami Bach Society, the American Sinfonietta, the Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Seattle Chamber Singers (with Orchestra Seattle). He frequently appeared as a soloist with Maestro Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Festival Singers. His performances with the Festival Singers can be heard on recordings released by Telarc International, including Francis Poulenc: Mass and Motets, Amazing Grace: American Hymns and Spirituals, Songs of Angels, and O Magnum Mysterium.

Peter Van De Graaf, Bass
Hailed by the critics as possessing a “resplendent voice” and “rich, burnished sound” with “formidable skill” and a “commanding grace and strength”, bass-baritone Peter Van De Graaff has sung to great acclaim throughout the world. In Europe, he recently returned from Salzburg where he was a featured soloist at the International Vocal Symposium. He has performed and recorded a Mass by Jan Vorisek with the Czech State Symphony under Paul Freeman and has also sung Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis throughout the Czech Republic and Poland with the Czech Philharmonic. He appeared in Berlin with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron.

Mr. Van De Graaff has made a specialty of the baroque repertoire and this has brought him as soloist to the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Costa Rica International Music Festival, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, Pittsburgh Bach Choir, Grand Teton Music Festival, St. Louis Early Music Festival, Boulder Bach Festival and many other festivals and concert series throughout the country.

His recordings include 3 intermezzos on the Naxos label and Menotti’s The Medium, Vorisek Mass in B-Flat and Mozart arias and duets, all on the Cedille label.

Wen-Ting Ong, Piano
Wen-Ting Ong begin working her fingers at age seven. Her first teacher was a college student named Roger Pauner and three months after Wen-Ting started, she performed "The Holy City" in a church. Wen-Ting Ong was later introduced to Dr. Sandra Camp. At 12, her first awards were winning first place in the South Bend Symphony Young Artist Competition, the Laporte Symphony Young Artist Competition, first place in the Chopin Competition, and honorable mention in the MTNA.

Wen-Ting's passion is her music. She plans to pursue music performance in college and is also considering Pre-Med studies to become a doctor. In school, Wen-Ting is currently in Business Professionals of America, Science Olympiad, Literature Club, and part of an accelerated math/science program held in Andrews University. Her future plans may include attending IU-Bloomington Jacobs School of Music or Umich-Ann Arbor.