Baltimore Choral Arts Society
Digital Concert Program
About the Artists
Baltimore Choral Arts Society
Baltimore Choral Arts Society builds a stronger, more connected, more inspired community by celebrating the joy of choral music through exceptional performances and diverse educational and artistic partnerships. Baltimore Choral Arts Society, now in its 58th season, is one of Maryland's premier cultural institutions. The Symphonic Chorus, Chorus, and Chamber Singers perform throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, as well as in Washington, D.C., New York, and in Europe. Music Director Anthony Blake Clark has established new, large-scale collaborative performances with Maryland Institute College of Art, Maryland State Boychoir, and Peabody Youth Orchestra. In October 2022, Choral Arts went on its second European tour under the direction of Maestro Clark, with performances in Vienna, Berlin, and Prague, and concluded with a prestigious invitation to perform with the Vienna Radio Orchestra under the baton of Marin Alsop. Baltimore Choral Arts provides several thoughtful and impactful music education programs that serve youth in and around Baltimore. These programs include CoroLAB, a partnership with Overlea High School and Baltimore City College's choral music programs; Vocal Fellows, an expanded professional development program for early-career singers; Student Composer Project, a competition for high-school and college composers; and Sing and Play with Baltimore Choral Arts, a series of free music classes for children ages 0-5 and their caregivers, presented in conjunction with the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Through these educational programs, Choral Arts serves the very young to early-career adult musicians. For the previous 25 years, WMAR Television, the ABC network affiliate in Maryland, featured Choral Arts in an hour-long special, Christmas with Choral Arts, which won an Emmy Award in 2006. In 2022, Christmas with Choral Arts was broadcast on Maryland Public Television, bringing the performance to new audiences. In 2022, Choral Arts collaborated with composer Jasmine Barnes to present Mozart’s Requiem Reframed, which was recorded by Maryland Public Television for the Emmy® Award-winning episode, Artworks: Dreamer. The ensemble has been featured frequently on The First Art (Public Radio International), Performance Today (National Public Radio) and VOX (XM Radio). In Europe, Choral Arts was featured in a program devoted to the music of Handel broadcast on Radio Suisse Romande. In 2010, under the direction of then-Music Director Tom Hall, Choral Arts released Christmas at America’s First Cathedral on Gothic Records, recorded at the Baltimore Basilica, which includes familiar Christmas favorites as well as premieres by Rosephanye Dunn Powell and James Lee, III. A recording with Dave Brubeck, featuring Brubeck’s oratorio, The Gates of Justice, was released internationally on the NAXOS label in 2004; Choral Arts is also featured on Introducing the World of American Jewish Music on Naxos. Choral Arts has two other recordings in current release: Christmas with Choral Arts and a live recording of the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil and will soon celebrate the release of their newest album, Dreamer, on Acis Records, featuring Maestro Clark’s new edition of Mozart’s Requiem and Portraits: Douglass and Tubman by Jasmine Barnes. Recent awards and recognitions include the 2020 Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award, the 2020 American Prize in Community Chorus Conducting (Anthony Blake Clark), and the 2020 Emmy Award nomination for the 2019 Christmas with Choral Arts broadcast.
Anthony Blake Clark
Anthony Blake Clark is a leading voice among his generation of choral conductors. He is in demand by both amateur and professional choral artists because of his “readily apparent musicality” (Baltimore Sun) and his conviction that lives can be changed by participating in classical music, whether on the stage or in the audience. Clark has performed with some of the most important ensembles in legendary venues throughout the USA and Europe. He has prepared choral ensembles for prestigious orchestras such as the Rundfunkchor Berlin with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Richmond Symphony Orchestra for esteemed conductors such as Marin Alsop, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Fabio Luisi, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, and Simon Halsey. He and his choirs have performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Symphony Hall Birmingham (UK), St. Martin-in-the-Fields London, The Kennedy Center, and the Washington National Cathedral, among others. At Baltimore Choral Arts, Clark has expanded subscription concert offerings while building a robust community outreach and education initiative. He has consistently received glowing reviews, both for work on the podium and as chorusmaster for performances with the Baltimore Symphony and other area partners. His work with BCAS has been recognized with an American Prize in Choral Conducting and a second nomination for best community ensemble, as well as the Chorus America/ASCAP Alice Parker Award. He annually conducts and produces the celebrated “Christmas with Choral Arts” television concert, first on ABC2 and now on Maryland PBS station MPT, for which the ensemble has received three regional Emmyâ nominations. Clark has secured invites to several important festivals and collaborations; after a sold-out and enthusiastically received UK tour, BCAS was in residence with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for performances of Mahler’s 8th Symphony. Recently, Clark and Baltimore Choral Arts made their Berlin Philharmonie debut with the Freie Universität Orchester. On the same tour, BCAS collaborated with the Vienna Singakademie to perform with the Vienna Radio Orchestra under Marin Alsop. Maestro Clark has recently been appointed as the Jean. D Wilson Chair Chorus Director for the Dallas Symphony. After preparing three critically praised programs for the Dallas Symphony Chorus in 2022 and 2023, Music Director Fabio Luisi appointed Clark to become Chorus Director beginning in the 2023-2024 season. In Dallas, Clark administers the choral programs of the Dallas Symphony, preparing the 200-voice ensemble for classical and pops programs. Highlights this season include Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem and Schmidt’s Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln. The Dallas Symphony Chorus under Clark’s preparation can be seen on Medici TV (Orff Carmina Burana and Catulli Carmina) and DSO’s “Next Stage” streaming platform (Beethoven’s 9th Symphony). Anthony Blake Clark is also the Artistic Director of Bach Vespers in New York City. In residence at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in mid-town Manhattan, the Bach Choir and Players are composed of some of the finest early music professionals in the nation, presenting works of Bach using historically informed practices within the liturgical context of a Vespers service. Anthony Blake’s passion for Baroque historical performance has been able to take flight with Bach Vespers and in the coming season they will present many cantatas celebrating the 300th anniversary of Bach’s arrival in Leipzig as Thomaskantor, culminating in a performance of the B-minor Mass. He has also served as the James Erb Choral Chair Director of Choruses for the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. Anthony Blake Clark is equally adept in the orchestral field and made his Baltimore Symphony debut in 2021 and made his Richmond Symphony debut in 2022. He has also appeared as cover conductor for the National Symphony Orchestra, assisting conductors such as Ton Koopman, Gianandrea Noseda, Teddy Abrams, Christoph Eshenbach, and Manfred Honeck, and has assisted Marin Alsop at the Baltimore Symphony. Maestro Clark is a passionate teacher and served as Director of Choral Activities at The George Washington University in DC. His university choirs performed at the Kennedy Center and National Cathedral and sang with the Washington Chorus, Baltimore Choral Arts, Naval Academy Glee Club, and the Baltimore and Annapolis Symphonies. Recently he was Guest Conductor/Lecturer for the Westminster Choir College Symphonic Choir. He regularly leads workshops and clinics for school and community ensembles. Legacy and mentorship are paramount to Maestro Clark; he is a mentee of Marin Alsop’s, having worked with her extensively and studied with her at the Peabody Institute in the doctoral conducting program. Mr. Clark completed a master’s degree under three-time Grammy Award winner Simon Halsey CBE at the United Kingdom’s University of Birmingham and considers Halsey his lifelong mentor. During his time in the UK, he embedded himself in the choral life of the UK and sang under the batons of Sir Simon Rattle, Edward Gardiner, and Andris Nelsons, and had opportunities to conduct the London Symphony Chorus and the CBSO Chorus. Other teachers include Simon Carrington (Yale Norfolk Festival, Sarteano Workshop) and Lynne Gackle (Baylor University). An active composer and arranger, Anthony Blake Clark’s music has been performed in Washington DC, London, Oxford, Texas, and at Prague’s Dvorák Museum Concert Hall. In 2022 his new performance edition of Mozart’s Requiem was recorded by Acis Records.
Leo Wanenchak
Leo Wanenchak enjoys a fulsome career as conductor, pianist, organist, vocalist, composer, narrator, clinician, and teaching artist. This is his 21st year with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society. He studied conducting with its founder, Theodore Morrison. In 2016 he was named Associate Conductor. In addition to preparing and performing with the chorus in the acclaimed Choral Arts Concert Series and outreach, He has prepared the chorus for performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under the batons of Marin Alsop, Jack Everly, John Storgårds and Yuri Temirkanov. Community outreach and education are hallmarks of Leo’s métier. He is the director of “The Larks,” a women’s vocal ensemble, community service project of the Junior League of Baltimore, bring the gift of song to the underserved. He developed and is director of “ParkinSonics” choral ensemble for the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Neurology in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins Center for Music and Medicine. This past year members of ParkinSonics were featured in a Kennedy Center webinar with Reneé Fleming, “Music and the Mind Live” and participated in the Iowa State University Neuromotor Lab Virtual Singing Festival with Parkinsons singers worldwide. He has served as Director of The Maryland Camerata at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the Children’s Chorus of Maryland, and on the faculty of the Peabody Preparatory as Director of Arts for Talented Youth, Chair of the Piano Department and member of the Dean’s Council. Formerly the Academic Dean and Director of the Walden School Choral Program, Leo is a devoted advocate of new music. During his over 35 years at Walden and the Peabody, he mentored over 1,000 young composers and world premiered over 1,500 of their works. His students have been awarded by the Music Teacher’s National Association and Broadcast Music Incorporated. With the founding generation of The Walden school, he founded Avivo.com, creative, comprehensive, and customized education for musicians. Mr. Wanenchak’s appearances include performances at Carnegie Hall, Riverside Church, and Grace Cathedral. He has also performed in England, France, Greece, The Netherlands and Romania. He is a sought-after clinician and maintains a large private teaching studio in Bolton Hill, Baltimore.
Aani Bourassa
American soprano Aani Bourassa is a versatile singer of stunning emotional depth, praised for her “brilliant, yet sparkling high notes” (Burlington Hawkeye). Highlights and memorable engagements from recent seasons include performances of Bach’s magnificent motet Jesu, Meine Freude and his Easter Oratorio with the American Classical Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center; Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Stimmung (outdoors in the middle of a starry Kansas field) at the Ad Astra Music Festival; Bach’s Magnificat and Cantata 140 on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (while experiencing the absolute glory that is winter on Lake Superior) as part of the Marquette Bach Festival; recordings of the complete Czerny Opus 432 with pianist Samuel Gingher; polyphony at The Old Round Church in Richmond, Vermont; Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, part of Bang on a Can’s Long Play festival; and numerous other feature performances, collaborating with some of the best colleagues and friends on can hope for in the business. Ms. Bourassa is a frequently sought after choral and chamber musician and has performed regularly with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the Choir of St. Luke in the Fields, Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Ad Astra Music Festival, the Schola of St. Vincent Ferrer, Spire Ensemble. She is passionate about folk music from Appalachia, promoting the works of under-represented composers, and seeking out positive collaborative musical relationships. A native of Iowa, she trained at the Capital University Conservatory of Music and the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign studying with Dr. Lynn Roseberry and then Yvonne Gonzales-Redman. Equally comfortable in recital, concert and operatic settings, she has also performed as a soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Requiem, Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and Die Zauberflöte, Handel’s Saul, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, Eşenvalds Passion and Resurrection, George Crumb’s Madrigal 2, and Steve Reich’s So-drumming. When she’s not making music, Ms. Bourassa enjoys obsessively watching movies, experimenting in the kitchen, playing video games, running in Prospect Park, learning the Appalachian dulcimer, and tending to her growing collection of houseplants. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, Kevin.
Logan Tanner
Praised for his “striking musicality, clarity, and strong coloratura” (Opera Canada), countertenor Logan Tanner has performed on operatic stages throughout the United States and abroad. Mr. Tanner has garnered awards in numerous competitions, placing first in the American Prize Opera Competition, the Choralis Young Artist Competition, Ise-Shima International Singing Competition, New Opera Stars Vocal Competition, New York Classical Music Society International Competition, and the Vano Visioli International Opera Competition. He took third prize in the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition and 5th in the Opera Tools International Competition and has won the Pasadena Vocal Competition Special Encouragement Award. In addition, Tanner was granted honorable mention by the NOMEA International Competition and the Vienna New Year Concert International Competition. Tanner has been a Stern fellow at SongFest, and a Vocal Fellow at The Music Academy of the West, where he worked with famed mezzo-soprano, Marilyn Horne. He has been engaged as soloist with the Pacific Symphony orchestra, Boise Baroque, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Europa to name a few. Tanner’s concert repertoire spans a wide breadth of material, and he is known for bringing a flowing bel canto dimension to the alto solos in Handel’s Messiah, the Roasting Swan in Orff’s Carmina Burana, the Brahms Viola Songs, and the treble solos in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, which he performed alongside Jamie Bernstein, author, and daughter of Leonard Bernstein. Tanner has also appeared in concert alongside renowned artists including Cynthia Phelps of the New York Philharmonic, and Martin Katz. Tanner will make several international debuts in the 2021 season including appearances in Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, and Germany. A native of Texas, Mr. Tanner started his musical studies as a tenor at Baylor University and went on to graduate studies at Westminster Choir College. There he studied with Christopher Arneson who encouraged him to become a countertenor. Mr. Tanner dove into the repertoire and found it a perfect match. He entered the 2017 New York Classical Music Society International Competition and won it. “It was kind of mind-blowing,” he said. “I never looked back after that.”
Gene Stenger
Hailed as an “impressive tenor” (The New York Times) who sings with “sweet vibrancy” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer) Gene Stenger is one of the country’s most called upon Bach specialists who is also heralded for his performances of oratorios by Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Mozart. Mr. Stenger’s 2023-2024 season includes solo debuts with the Washington Bach Consort (Bach’s St. John Passion), Winston-Salem Symphony (Handel’s Messiah), Baltimore Choral Arts Society (Bach’s Magnificat), Resonance Works Pittsburgh (Bach’s Magnificat & Esmail’s This Love Between Us), and The Cathedral Church of the Advent Birmingham (Handel’s Messiah). He makes returning solo appearances with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah), Bach Society of St. Louis (Bach’s St. John Passion), Colorado Bach Ensemble (Bach’s Mass in B Minor), Yale Symphony (Britten’s War Requiem – cover soloist), Upper Valley Baroque (Bach’s St. John Passion), Bach Collegium at St. Peter’s NYC (Bach’s St. John Passion), Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity New York (BWV 75 & 165), and a solo quartet performance of David Lang’s the little match girl passion at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Originally from Pittsburgh, Gene holds degrees from Yale University’s School of Music, and Institute of Sacred Music, Colorado State University, and Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music. Mr. Stenger recently recorded a new solo quartet version of David Lang’s the little match girl passion which was released this past Fall on Cantaloupe Records, and is now available on all streaming platforms. He currently resides in New Haven, CT, where he serves as instructor of voice at Yale.
Joseph Parrish
Winner of the 2022 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, Joseph Parrish is a Baltimore native and holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School. Recent operatic credits include Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, and Augure in Rossi’s L’Orfeo at Juilliard; Spinelloccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi with Festival Napa Valley, Le Baron de Pictordu in the City Lyric Opera’s production of Viardot’s Cendrillon. Next season Joseph makes his Cincinnati Opera debut in Don Giovanni. In addition to opera, Mr. Parrish enjoys a robust concert career performing with orchestra and in recitals at such prestigious venues as The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Alice Tully Hall, St. Boniface Church in Brooklyn, and both Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Recent and upcoming performances co-presented by WPA, Newport Classical, Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, New York's American Classical Orchestra, Caramoor's Schwab Vocal Rising Stars, Death of Classical, Usedome Music Festival, Carnegie Hall Citywide Concerts, The Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Denison University in Granville, OH, Sleepy Hollow Friends of Chamber Music, NYFOS, and in concert with Bay Atlantic Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Aiken Symphony, Princeton Pro Music, and the Ann Arbor Symphony. As a current artist diploma candidate in opera studies at The Juilliard School, Mr. Parrish is passionate about giving back to the various communities that have nurtured him. He is a Music Advancement Program chorus teaching fellow, Gluck Community Service Fellow, and Morse Teaching Artist. Mr. Parrish is also a member of the inaugural cohort of Shared Voices, an initiative designed to address diversity, equity, and inclusion through collaboration between Historically Black Colleges and Universities, top conservatories, and schools of music in the United States with the Denyce Graves Foundation. Joseph Parrish appears by arrangement with Young Concert Artists, Inc. www.yca.org
The Baltimore Choral Arts Chorus
Anthony Blake Clark, conductor
Leo Wanenchak, associate conductor
Antonio Abreu
Brandon Addison
Tom Barth*
Eloise Bensberg
Sarah Berger*
Jean Shaffer Blair
Martha Blakely
Sandra Boyd
Shelley Brosius
Ajuante Brown
Kelly Buchanan
Eunju Chung Chen
Christine M. Collins
Jeb Cook
Marisabel Cordova
Shirlanna Correia
Robyn Dennis
Elizabeth DeVito
Chris Dias
Melanie Diaz Dodson
Arthur Ding
Connor Drew
Amanda Edgar
Nicholas Etheridge
Cameron Falby*
Sandra Files
Carla Finkelstein
David Frankenberger, Jr.
Robert Freund
Michael Furlane
Louis Gephardt-Gorsuch
Rebecca Gideon
Ruth Heilman
Brett Heischmidt
Danielle Horetsky
Douglas Jones*
Avery Kesar
Erin S. Koch
Julie Lang
Christine Layton
Benjamin Lieberman
Robert Lieberman
Elizabeth Liedahl
Sandra Losemann
Mark Lowitt
Caleb Madder
Amy Mansfield
Juliana Marin*
Brendan McCoy*
Lauren McDonald*
Elizabeth McGonigle
Rachel Altemose
Moore
Michael Mountain
Darin Ostrander
Nerissa Paglinauan
Emily Pallikal
Clark D. Pickett
Jorge Ramirez-Sanchez
Michael Rickelton*
Kristen Samuelsen
Maria Satyshur
Jacob Schleger
James Scofield
Melody Scofield
Priya Sekar
Michael Selmanoff
Ginette Serrero
Ying-Shu Kathleen Sheu
Karen Shively
Joel Slotkin
Mary Speers
Rina Steinhauer
Brandon Sumida
Alan Sweatman
Kelly Sweatman
Rachel Tanenblatt*
Tim Teeter
Shelbi Timmons
Raymond Toy
Adam VanGorder
Elisabeth Vaeth
Dan Weyandt
Ryan Wilson
Laura Wolf
Lynn Wolf
Nancy Womble
Norah Worthington
Erin Wright
John Wright*
Mara Yaffee*
Adam Zukowski
*Vocal Fellow/Section Leader
The Chorus Council
Kelly Buchanan, chorus manager | Karen Shively, treasurer
Dan Weyandt, music librarian | Sandra Boyd, board-chorus liaison
Amanda Edgar, Lynn Wolf, Adam Zukowski, and Tom Barth, section representatives
Violin 1
Jose Cueto
Linda Leanza
Iris Chen
Violin II
Kimberly McCollum
Jeffrey Thurston
Melinda Gajger
Viola
Nana Vaughn
Jim Kelly
Ting-An Wei
Cello
Lori Barnet
Kerry Van Laanen
Bass
Yoshi Horiguchi
Harp
Jacqueline Pollauf
Flute
Sara Nichols
David Lonkevich
Oboe
Amanda Dusold
Mark Christianson
Clarinet
David Drosinos
Bassoon
Lynn Moncilovich
Horn
Ken Bell
Trumpet
Luis Engelke
Tom Bithell
Philippe Brunet
Timpani
Barry Dove
Percussion
Robert Jenkins