Anne Manson
Music Director and Conductor
First violin
Karl Stobbe, concertmaster
Mary Lawton
Mona Coarda
Jun Shao
Darryl Strain
Barbara Gilroy
Second violin
Simon MacDonald
Kathryn Sigsworth
Boyd MacKenzie
Julie Savard
Elizabeth Dyer
Viola
Daniel Scholz
Richard Bauch
Suzanne McKegney
Merrily Peters
Cello
Yuri Hooker
Alex Adaman
Carolyn Nagelberg
Margaret Askeland
Bass
Meredith Johnson
Paul Nagelberg
Flute
Martha Durkin
Laurel Ridd
Oboe
Robin MacMillan
Clarinet
Connie Gitlin
Sharon Atkinson
Bassoon
James Ewen
Allen Harrington
French horn
Patricia Evans
Caroline Siverson
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Alex is origially from Caracas, South America but grew up in Toronto. Early studies with the cello were at the Royal Conservatory and later at the University of Toronto. By age 16 he was a full time cellist with the O'Keefe Centre Theatre Orchestra, Toronto, and at 17 joined the National Ballet of Canada Orchestra and extensively toured Norh America. At age 19 he became principal cellist with both organizations for the next five years. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in music from Queen's University at Kingston and a Master's Degree from the State University of New York at Stonybrook Long Island, where he studied with Bernard Greenhouse and Uzie Weisel. Further private studies were with Peter Schenkman, principal with the Toronto Symphony and Theodor Salzman, principal with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Alex attended summer sessions at Banff, Aspen, and Indiana University at Bloomington where he studied with Janos Starker. He also attended two summer sessions with the American Federation of Musician's Congress of Strings and also another two sessions with the International Cello Congress where he took part in a performance by an orchestra of some 200 cellists led by M. Rostropovich.
Alex has played with numerous orchestras across Canada including the National Arts Centre, Hamilton, Saskatoon, Regina and was principal with the Thunder Bay Symphony for one season. For a year he was a sabbatical replacement at Brandon University where he taught cello, music theory and ear training. For 10 years he performed with the Aurora Musicale chamber music series at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. He joined the Winnipeg Symphony in 1983 and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in 1985.
Because she was born here, Sharon Atkinson has never wanted to leave Winnipeg. She did, however, obtain her degree in music performance at the University of Toronto and toured internationally for several years with Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. It was by hearing Greg Atkinson's voice on stage while playing in the pit orchestra for Phantom that she discovered the opera singer she was destined to marry and with whom she has one son, James. Over the past twenty-five years, Atkinson has freelanced with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Manitoba Opera, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Groundswell, Manitoba Theatre Centre, and Rainbow Stage for thirteen of its musical productions. She has played on three WSO CDs. On two of them, Collage and Lark Ascending, she was the acting principal clarinetist. She also played clarinet and bass clarinet on Sefarad, released by the Marquis label and featuring the music of Sid Robinovitch. In 2010, she will be playing clarinet and tenor sax in The Drowsy Chaperone at MTC. Atkinson is proud to be a member of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and still call Winnipeg home.
Richard Bauch has been with the Winnipeg Symphony for 30 years. He grew up in Chicago with sports being the main focus of his life. He has a bachelor’s degree in math and a master’s degree in music performance. He plays with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, does some private teaching, and is also the organist and choir director at St. Mary’s Anglican Church.
Mona Coarda was born in Romania and attended the Music Academy there.She moved to Chicago,Illinois and received her Bachelor of Musical Arts degree at Roosevelt University where she studied violin with Elaine Skorodin.Mona came to Winnipeg in 1986 and has been a member of the first violin section of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra since her arrival.Three years ago she joined the MusikBarock Ensemble.She is on the faculty of the International Music Camp at the Peace Gardens.Her participation in Winnipeg's musical community includes a busy teaching and chamber music schedule.
Yuri Hooker is the Principal cellist with both the Manitoba Chamber and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestras. Since his arrival in Winnipeg in 1999, he has become a well-known figure in the Manitoba music scene. He appears regularly with the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society, the Brandon Chamber Players, Groundswell, and the Clear Lake Chamber Music Festival. In past seasons he has performed concertos with the WSO, MCO and Musikbarock, and he has arranged and performed music for the MCO Chamber Music Night. He can also be heard regularly on CBC Radio Two. As well as performing, Yuri maintains a private teaching studio, is Sessional Instructor of Cello at the University of Manitoba and is the founder and director of the Winnipeg Summer Cello Institute, which had its inaugural session in 2007. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Brandon University, followed by graduate studies under Janos Starker and Stanley Ritchie (period performance) at Indiana University.
Simon MacDonald began playing the violin at age seven in Victoria, British Columbia. He earned his AVCM from the Victoria Conservatory, Bachelors degree from NewEngland Conservatory in Boston, and Masters degree from McGill, in Montreal. Simon’s principalteachers include Sydney Humphreys, former first violin of the Purcell and Aeolian String Quartets,Malcolm Lowe, concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Israeli violinist Yehonatan Berick. Simon has participated in several international music festivals around Europe and North America, includingSchleswig Holstein in Germany, National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado, TheFestival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, its sister festival, The Spoleto Festival in Charleston South Carolina,Manchester Music Festival in Vermont, and Tanglewood, in Massachusetts. After playing the 1999 seasonwith the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans, Simon returned to Canada where he now callsWinnipeg home. In Winnipeg Simon is active as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, and soloist; heis a violinist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Musickbarock Ensemble, he is the principal secondviolin of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, he performs with Ground Swell, a new music ensemble, and hasbeen a featured soloist on Arts Encounters, CBC radio 2, with host Joe Fingerote. For the past two summershe has been a guest performer at ArtSpring Music Festival on Saltspring Island, B.C., and in numerous otherconcert series on the west coast.
Anne Manson < annemanson.com >
Conductor Anne Manson has achieved a series of historic milestones. She was the first woman to conduct at the Salzburg Festival, where she led the Vienna Philharmonic and a cast that included Samuel Ramey and Philip Langridge in a production of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, which met with great critical acclaim. Ms Manson is one of only three women to have been appointed music director of a leading American symphony orchestra — the Kansas City Symphony — which she directed from 1999 to 2003. She launched her career in 1988 as Music Director of the London-based Mecklenburgh Opera, where, over a span of eight years, she programmed operas ranging from Mozart to 20th-century rarities, while commissioning world premieres from numerous composers.
Ms Manson continues to take on new challenges in her career as she balances acknowledged masterworks with vanguard contemporary works. She made her debut with New York City Opera in the company’s premiere of Samuel Barber’s Vanessa in November 2007, about which The New York Times wrote, “Ms Manson, who in 1994 was the first woman to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in an opera at the Salzburg Festival, has broken into the New York opera scene, and it’s about time. She approached Vanessa not like some neo-romantic artifact, but as a substantive, intelligent and worthy contemporary work. Thanks to (her) urgent and sensitive conducting, Vanessa emerges as an authentic American masterpiece.” In July and August 2007, she conducted Philip Glass’s Orphée at Glimmerglass Opera. Of these performances, The New York Times said, “As presented here … vibrantly conducted by Anne Manson, Mr. Glass’s work was the surprise hit: a rich, complex and challenging experience.”
In November 2006, Ms Manson led Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers with the Juilliard Opera Center.“ [Anne Manson] untied every rhythmic and melodic knot of this naughty opéra bouffon with flair that buoyed both a splendid orchestra and an eager cast. She imposed fast tempos that never seemed rushed, transparent textures that never seemed precious. She sustained propulsion without leaving anyone breathless. It was an elegant achievement.” (Financial Times)
A quote from The San Francisco Chronicle: “…a brilliant local debut by conductor Anne Manson seemed to embody all sorts of hopes for the future of women on the podium … (she) revealed herself as a conductor of insight and technical assurance. Her podium manner is crisp and fluid, with a wonderfully precise beat that opens on a dime into phrases of lyrical breadth.”
Her reputation for excellence in the central German repertory, combined with a passionate advocacy of the music of the present, has led to invitations to some of the most important concert stages in the world. While based in London, she conducted regularly at Queen Elizabeth Hall. In Europe, she has led concerts with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the London Philharmonic, the Royal National Scottish Orchestra, and the Residentie Orchestra of the Hague, and conducted at festivals such as the BBC Proms and the Berlin Biennale. In America, her engagements include concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the symphony orchestras of Houston, New Jersey, Indianapolis and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. She has recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony, the Residentie Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the orchestras of Singapore and Iceland.
Ms Manson’s opera work is equally diverse, from Mozart and Mussorgsky to works of Kurt Weill and Carlisle Floyd, to such little-known 20th-century works as Viktor Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Judith Weir’s Missa del Cid. In 2005, she conducted Così fan tutte for San Francisco Opera, and returned for the third time to Washington National Opera to conduct the world premiere of Scott Wheeler’s Democracy, commissioned by Placido Domingo. Other major productions include Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah with Samuel Ramey and Nancy Gustafson for the Grand Theatre, Geneva.
In April 2008, Ms Manson led the Juilliard Opera Center in the highly anticipated New York premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town. In July, she conducted the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra on its Toronto / Ottawa tour, and later that autumn on tour to Vancouver, Boston, New York, San Francisco, Toronto and Orange County with soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian.
This season she conducted with great success the Minnesota Opera Company in the United States premiere of Jonathan Dove’s new opera The Adventures of Pinocchio and the Canadian Opera Company in Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For the latter she received, in June 2009, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Music Direction.
Carolyn Nagelberg, cellist, received a Bachelor of Music degree with honors from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Before coming to Winnipeg, she was a member of several orchestras: the Toledo Orchestra in Ohio, the Richmond and Norfolk Symphonies in Virginia, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. and the St. Paul Opera Orchestra in Minnesota, among others. She is a member of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and MusikBarock Ensemble. Her summer activities have included Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg, the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder and the Great Music West Music Festival in the Bear Lake, Utah area.
Paul Nagelberg < pjn@shaw.ca >
Paul Nagelberg, double bassist, moved to Winnipeg to accept a position with the WSO in 1978. Since that time he also has become a regular member of both the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and MusikBarock Ensemble. Paul's freelance work in Winnipeg has included the CBC Winnipeg Orchestra, in-school concerts with the Canadian Education Ensembles (Keystone String Quartet), Rainbow Stage and private teaching. His summer activities have included the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra in Boulder; the Great Music West Music Festival Orchestra in Utah, assistant principal, and the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra in Iowa, assistant principal. Prior to coming to Winnipeg, Paul played principal bass in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada for two summers. He attended the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan School of Music, graduating with honors from the latter.
Paul and his wife Carolyn (MCO cellist) are proud parents of two sons who are fine musicians in their own right.
Daniel Scholz enjoys a versatile career as an orchestral performer, chamber musician, teacher and conductor. A native of Regina, Daniel studied at the University of Regina, McGill University and the University of British Columbia. He was a prize-winner at the Lionel Tertis Viola competition, the most prestigious event of its kind, held on the Isle of Mann. Mr. Scholz is the Principal Viola of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, and is a member of The Winnipeg Chamber Music Society, Brandon Chamber Players and the Rembrandt String Quartet. As a solo artist, Daniel has performed with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Okanagan Symphony and the Vancouver Chamber Players. This past season, Daniel was the soloist in the WSO premiere of the Viola Concerto by William Walton. Highly sought after as a teacher, Mr. Scholz is an instructor at the University of Manitoba and the Canadian Mennonite University, as well as the conductor of the Winnipeg Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has performed and taught at many of Canada’s major festivals and is a faculty member of the University of Manitoba Summer Chamber Music Program. Mr. Scholz has commissioned new works by Bramwell Tovey, David Scott, T. Patrick Carrabré and Jim Hiscott. Mr. Scholz plays a viola designed by Gerald Stanick and made by Alan Balmforth of Seattle..
Described as “a concertmaster who brings great drama and musicality to an ensemble sound” (Macleans, 2008), and “a remarkable artist who connects to his audience with laser-like focus” (Winnipeg Free Press, 2003), Karl Stobbe began his musical life as part of a group of gifted musicians who emerged from Prince George, BC in the 1980s. He began violin studies at the age of four, was awarded the Senior Violin Trophy at the Prince George Music Festival when he was 11, and at age 14 gave his first world premiere of a concerto written for him as a soloist with the Prince George Symphony Orchestra. Since that time, Karl has remained an avid lover and performer of new music, playing and premiering many solo and chamber works by national and international composers. Last season he performed three world premieres as a soloist in violin concertos by Michael Oesterle, Doug Smith, and Jocelyn Morlock.
In addition to performing new music, Karl is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, recitalist and concertmaster in Canada and the United States. He has collaborated as a soloist with many exceptional conductors, including Andrey Boreyko, Bramwell Tovey, Simon Streatfeild, Roy Goodman, Alain Trudel and Anne Manson. His diversity as a musician has also enabled him to record with many of Canada’s finest musicians, including James Ehnes on the 2006 Juno Award winning CD of all the Mozart violin concertos. A sought-after and dedicated teacher, Karl has maintained a private studio since the age of 18. He has conducted master classes throughout Canada, and has taught at the University of Manitoba. His students have won many awards, completed advanced university music degrees, and become fine professional musicians in Canada and the United States.
Karl has a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of British Columbia and a Masters of Music Degree in Violin Performance from Indiana University. Karl has always loved woodworking, and completed a minor in Violin Repair and Construction while at Indiana University. He enjoys building new violins and has restored several older instruments. He appreciates the beautiful craftsmanship of the master luthiers as much as he enjoys playing their instruments. Karl continues to devote his time in performance as the Concertmaster of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the Associate Concertmaster of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and a core performer with the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society.
Anne Manson / Music Director and Conductor
MCO's 2010/11 season is
sponsored by The
Great-West Life Assurance Company.
Support has been received from Media sponsors The
Winnipeg Free Press, CBC
Radio One 990,
CBC
Radio 2 98.3, Espace musique 89,9 and Golden
West Radio. Heartstrings
gala sponsor:
Mann
Financial Assurance Limited. Sponsor of open dress rehearsals:
Canadian Bridge Federation.
Arts Accessibility Program: Sun
Life Financial.
© 2010 Manitoba Chamber Orchestra