The award winning Concord Ensemble came together in 1997 and was quickly catapulted into the international music scene by winning the Grand Prize in the First Early Music America Recording Competition. Subsequently their debut recording, The Victory of Santiago: Voices of Renaissance Spain, earned them the prized “5-Star†distinction in Goldberg Magazine.
The Concord Ensemble has toured extensively throughout the United Status and in Europe, and has headlined some of the most prestigious festivals, including the early music festivals of Berkeley, Washington, D.C., Madison, Milwaukee, Bloomington (IN), San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, New York’s Cloisters, Indianapolis, Tage Alter Musik Regensburg (Germany) and Feldkirchen (Austria). Their work has been broadcast on National Public Radio’s Harmonia, Millenium of Music and Performance Today.
The most recent performances of Concord include newly commissioned programs of Spanish and Latin American Christmas and paschal music. Equally at home in the contemporary medium, Concord has performed music by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Stephen Hartke, Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, and Libby Larsen.
The group has an outstanding tradition of collaborating with several instrumental ensembles of renown, including Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra, the Folger Consort, Piffaro, the Renaissance Wind Band, and the contemporary dance troupe the Pennington Dance Group. The ensemble’s versatility recently reached the rock world, when the men of the ensemble were asked to perform with Sting and Bosnian lutenist Edin Karamazov to sold-out audiences at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The program featured Sting’s latest foray in the music of 17th-century English composer John Dowland in a program titled “Songs of the Labyrinth.†Recent performances include a series of concerts in Washington, D.C. with the Folger Consort, a guest performance in Portland for the Cappella Romana series, and another collaboration with Musica Angelica Baroque orchestra, featuring Purcell’s The Faerie Queene.
Tickets for the concert are $35 and are available through the Music Guild’s website: www.MusicGuildOnline or at the door the night of the concert.
INDIVIDUAL BIOGRAPHIES
Pablo Corá (tenor/hautecontre) began singing and playing recorder as a child in his native Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he completed a trilingual baccalaureate from Barker College. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from Ithaca College, and a Masters in Vocal Performance from Indiana University. He performs regularly with The Concord Ensemble, Musica Angelica, The Los Angeles Master Chorale, the LA Chamber Singers and Cappella, and has toured with Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices, Piffaro and the Folger Consort. Pablo has performed as a soloist in the U.S., Europe and South America, in a vast variety of repertoire ranging from early music and oratorio, to twentieth-century opera. Notable roles include the title role in Charpentier’s La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers, Orphée Descendant aux Enfers, Les Arts Florissants, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. His recorded credits include Harmonia Mundi USA, HM France, Dorian Recordings, Gothic, RCM. He can also be heard in the world-premiere recording of Steve Reich’s “You Are†Variations and the more recent Daniel Variations on the Nonesuch label, and is featured in the Grammy-winning CD “Padilla, Sun of Justice†with the Los Angeles Chamber Singers’ Cappella. Solo appearances for the 2009-2010 season include roles as evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Disney Concert Hall, and the St. John Passion with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra.
Rachelle Fox (soprano) received her Master’s Degree in voice performance from Indiana University’s Early Music Institute. Active as a soloist and a vocal chamber musician, Rachelle specializes in Baroque and Renaissance music as well as New Music, and has been praised for her sensitivity to style and interpretation. Recent operatic performances have included Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Musica Angelica, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Early Music Vancouver and Peri’s Euridice with Long Beach Opera. She has appeared as featured soloist of Handel’s Messiah, J.S. Bach’s Weinachtsoratorium and Magnificat with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, The Vancouver Symphony and Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra. She has also performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Singers and Cappella, Theatre of Voices, with whom she toured The Netherlands, and The Concord Ensemble. Rachelle can be heard on three recordings on the Harmonia Mundi record label, RCM and on the upcoming world premiere recording of Steve Reich’s “You Are†Variations for the Nonesuch label. She also appears on numerous recordings for television and film. Rachelle has recently welcomed the newest member of the Fox family, her son Simon Emmett Fox.
Scott Graff (bass-baritone) is in his third season with The Concord Ensemble. Mr. Graff appears as a soloist with numerous ensembles including Musica Angelica, Catacoustic Consort, Carmel Bach Festival, Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale and Los Angeles Chamber Singers. Mr. Graff has appeared with Long Beach Opera in a number of productions: Semele, Lagrime d’Amante al Sepolcro dell’Amata , Il Turco in Italia, Il Tabarro, Volo di Notte, and From the House of the Dead. He participated in the inaugural productions of Long Beach Opera’s Downtown Opera series, singing the role of Halitosis in Consumer’s Paradise by William Houston and the role of the Voyeur in Martin Herman’s. He sang the roles of Apollo and Pluto in Marc Antoine Charpentier’s Baroque Opera La Descente d’Orfée aux Enfers with the Catacoustic Consort in Cincinatti, OH. Most recently, he premiered the roles of Lewis and Father Tree in Michael Webster and Eileen Myles’ new opera Hell, performed in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Mexico. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the California Institute of the Arts. Mr. Graff currently resides in Long Beach, California with his wife Alison, a conductor and soprano.
N. Lincoln Hanks (tenor) was raised in Muscatine, Iowa and began his musical training in piano at the age of five. He attended college in Nashville, TN at Lipscomb University, where he studied piano with Jerome Reed. His masters and doctoral work in music composition were completed at Indiana University-Bloomington, where he helped found the award-winning early music vocal group, The Concord Ensemble. Lincoln studied voice with Nina Hinson and Paul Kiesgen, composition with Don Freund, Frederick Fox, Claude Baker and John Harbison at the Aspen Music Festival. He also studied early music performance practice with Thomas Binkley and Paul Hillier at Indiana University’s Early Music Institute. As a composer Lincoln’s accolades include winning the Contemporary Choral Composition Competition from The Roger Wagner Center for Choral Studies and an ASCAP Foundation/Morton Gould Young Composer Award. He has been commissioned and performed by many distinguished performing artists and performing groups, including the Cyprus String Quartet, The Dale Warland Singers, Jerome Reed, The Decesare-Francis Duo, Volti and The Denver Young Artists Orchestra. He has also served as administrator and assistant to John Harbison for Songfest’s Program for New Art Song. Lincoln teaches music theory and composition at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
Kristen Toedtman (mezzo-soprano) holds a BM in vocal performance from Indiana University where she studied with Martina Arroyo and performed with the Pro Arte Singers under the baton of Paul Hillier. She then went on to earn a Masters degree from the Peabody Conservatory, studying with Phyllis Bryn-Julson and soloing with the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble and the Peabody Opera Company. She toured the east coast with Mark Cudek, a founding member of the Baltimore Consort, as Duo Encina, and frequently collaborated with composers on new music. She appeared in recital frequently in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Ms. Toedtman has recorded for Harmonia Mundi and actively records her own music. Since relocating to Los Angeles, she is pursuing a career of solo music. Her debut CD titled The Fall is available at http://www.kristentoedtman.com.
