Our 2020 Program
| Schicksalslied | Johannes Brahms | |
| Requiem | Gabriel Fauré |
July 31 and August 1, 2020
ST. SAVIOUR'S, BAR HARBOR
7:30 P.M.
(PRE-CONCERT TALK BY THE DIRECTOR AT 7 P.M.)
Click here for Ticket Information
James Martin, Baritone
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James Martin has won critical acclaim for his performances in opera, musical theater, and concerts as a versatile singer, actor, and entertainer. He has appeared with leading musical organizations throughout the United States and abroad. Most recently, he toured Taiwan and Thailand with frequent collaborator, pianist Lynn Raley. As a concert artist, Martin enjoys a rich and varied repertoire ranging from the classic art song and oratorio repertory to modern and contemporary classics with specialties in the music of Black-Americans and the Great American Songbook. Favorite operatic roles include Mozart’s Papageno (Die Zauberlöte), Figaro, and Puccini’s Marcello (La bohème). Martin’s musical theatre roles include Bill Starbuck/110 in the Shade, Quixote/Man of La Mancha, Billy Flynn/Chicago (Big Easy Award nomination), Billy Crocker/Anything Goes, the Pirate King/The Pirates of Penzance, Joe/Show Boat, and multiple cabaret performances.
Tessika McClendon, Soprano
Soprano Tessika McClendon is an acclaimed coloratura from Jackson, Mississippi. Ms. McClendon’s repertoire includes the operatic heroines of Verdi, Mozart, and Handel; the oratorios of Bach, Fauré, and Brahms; and classics from the American concert stage, screen, and musical theatre. Ms. McClendon graduated cum laude from the Historically Black College & University, Tougaloo College in 2003 and received her master’s degree in voice from the Boston Conservatory in 2005. In May 2016, she received the prestigious Professional Studies Certificate in vocal performance from Temple University, where she studied with Benita Valente.
A frequent recitalist and soloist, Ms. McClendon has been a guest with the Hershey (PA) Symphony Orchestra (Verdi Requiem), Mississippi Opera (Noye’s Fludde, La Bohème, Die Fledermaus, Renée Fleming – Voice of the Century), The Mississippi Chorus (Brahms’ Requiem), St. Philip’s Episcopal Church (Jackson, MS) Great 50 Days Concert Series, and Italy’s Opera Festival di Roma (Suor Angelica, Cosí fan tutte). She won the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award (NAATSA) competition for the state of Mississippi multiple times, and was the third-place winner for the Southeast Regional in 2005. Ms. McClendon has served as voice faculty at Tougaloo College and is a member of Sigma Alpha Iota music fraternity. She currently resides in the Philadelphia area and serves as a cantor at St. Pauls’ Episcopal Church in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
Daniel Pyle, Organist
DANIEL PYLE is Organist/Music-Director for the St. Saviour’s Episcopal Church in Bar Harbor ME, Artistic Director of the Acadia Choral Society, and Musical Director of the Baroque ensemble Harmonie Universelle. In 2018 and 2019 he conducted Messiah for the Blue Hill Bach Festival; he has also been the conductor for the International Viola d’Amore Society for its biennial congresses in 2016 and 2018. Dr. Pyle played regularly with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra as harpsichordist and organist and has played for the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. His solo recording, The Maiden’s Songe: Elizabethan music on the lautenwerk, was released in 1994 on the Gasparo label. He received his training at the University of Alabama from Warren Hutton and at the Eastman School of Music, from the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, and with Kenneth Gilbert at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. Dr. Pyle was a founder of the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, its harpsichordist from 1997 to 2014, and its Resident Director 2003-2011. He has taught at the University of Kansas, the Louisiana State University, and Clayton State University; he has also taught masterclasses in Atlanta and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK.
Amy Lynn Wlodarski, Guest Conductor
A native of Orono, ME, Amy Lynn Wlodarski is a professor of music at Dickinson College. She has held conducting positions at Middlebury College, the Eton College Summer Choral Festival, and for fourteen years at Dickinson, where she has led the choir in a diverse repertoire spanning thirteen languages, world premieres of new works by Mohammad Fairouz and Su Lian Tan, and frequent orchestral collaborations. Under her direction, the choir has performed major choral works, including Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion, Handel’s Messiah, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and the Requiems of Brahms, Fauré, Mozart, and Verdi. Dr. Wlodarski received her undergraduate degree in history and music from Middlebury College and her masters and doctoral degrees from the Eastman School of Music. During her training, she participated in conducting workshops with international choral clinicians, including Ralph Allwood, James Jordan, and James Ripley. A recipient of Dickinson’s Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching, Dr. Wlodarski is also an active scholar of post-Holocaust memorial music whose research has been underwritten by the Fulbright Commission, the Presser Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Harvard University. Her publications include Musical Representation and Holocaust Witness (Cambridge University Press, 2015), which was awarded the Lockwood Book Award from the American Musicological Society, and most recently George Rochberg, American Composer: Personal Trauma and Artistic Creativity (University of Rochester Press, 2019). An avid educator, she has developed program notes and pre-concert talks for leading American musical institutions, including the Bard Music Festival, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Opera. In the summer, Dr. Wlodarski resides in Northeast Harbor with her husband and two children.
Clayton W. Smith, Accompanist
Clayton W. Smith was born in Maine and now lives in Bangor. After attending the University of Maine at Orono, he earned the Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Accompanying from the Shenandoah Conservatory of Music. He has performed at many diverse venues, including Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia; Musicana Dinner Theatre in Melbourne, Florida; and on the Canadian cruise ship MV Northern Ranger. He has served as the rehearsal accompanist for the Chorale since 2005. He has played in our concerts, accompanied our annual readings of masterworks, and played for our guest artists in recital.
In addition to playing for the choruses of Hampden Academy, he is a member of the staff at the University of Maine in Orono, where he accompanies the Oratorio Society and the Collegiate Chorale and serves as the coach for the Opera Workshop. He has been the Director of Music of the Brewer Youth Theatre since 1997.
Mr. Smith's arrangements were used for the MPBN documentary “Remember the Maine,” and he has created scores for silent films for the Northeast Historic Film of Bucksport, ME. He is also the founding director of an American ensemble called The Bon-Ton Salon Orchestra, which recreates turn-of-the-century concerts featuring sing-alongs, marches, and ragtime.
