Soprano Heather Barnes is active in recital, oratorio,and opera. As a solo concert artist, her performances include Fauré’s Requiem, Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, Stravinsky’s Three Japanese Lyrics, Sandstrom’s Gloria (heard on CBC radio), Beethoven’s Fantasia for Piano, Chorus, and, Orchestra, Bach’s Magnificat, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Cavalieri’s Rappresentazione di Anima e Corpo, Praetorius’ Canticum trium puerorum, and various other pieces. Ms. Barnes has appeared with the Helena Symphony Orchestra, the University of Montana Symphony Orchestra, Soulpepper Theater, Musikanten Montana, Diagenesis Duo, the University of Toronto Contemporary Ensemble, Montana Lyric Opera, University of Montana Opera Theatre, and the University of Toronto Opera Chorus. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Barnes frequently works with composers to perform their pieces. In 2009, she performed the world premiere of Lynn Petersen’s song cycle, Patterned for Thee (performed with Artisan Dance). In July 2010, she participated in the soundSCAPE composition and performance exchange in Maccagno, Italy, performing Jake Heggie’s scene for soprano and piano, At the Statue of Venus, and the world premiere of three arias from Brian Hulse’s forthcoming opera, Age of Innocence. She is also the vocalist for Diagenesis, a duo with cellist Jennifer Bewerse that specializes in new music for cello and voice. They have performed throughout the United States premiering pieces by Lynn Petersen, James Kallembach, Aaron Jay Myers, Scott Ordway, and Mischa Salkind-Pearl.
Ms. Barnes is also interested in Early Music and in August 2008, she completed the Vancouver Early Music Programme’s Compleat Singer Programme. She was also a soloist for the Montana Early Music Festival in 2012, 2011, 2009 and 2008.
Ms. Barnes is the winner of 2010-2011 University of Montana Concerto Aria Competition. In January 2011 she received an honorable mention at the Coeur D’Alene Symphony’s Young Artist Competition and in the spring of 2010 she was a National Finalist in the MTNA Young Artist Competition, where she placed third.
2011-2012 season highlights include performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Helena Symphony Orchestra, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Montana Early Music Festival, and several performances with Diagenesis Duo.
In Helena, Montana, Heather maintains an active private music studio as well as teaching at the University of Montana-Helena. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Toronto and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Montana.
www.heatherbarnes-soprano.com
The Conductor
As a young, woman conductor, Breanne Cepeda breathes new life and energy into the classical world. On the podium her “energy and precision were readily apparent” (Opus Colorado, 2012). Her conducting style has been described as “energetic and demanding, and it is clear that she knew precisely what she wanted, and was not going to be shy about demanding it from the orchestra” (Opus Colorado, 2012). Cepeda is currently the Apprentice Conductor with the Helena Symphony Orchestra. She is also a graduate student studying at University of Denver’s prestigious Lamont School of Music. There, she is the Assistant Conductor of the Lamont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Theatre while she pursues a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting.As a Montana native, she graduated from Montana State University- Bozeman where she was the Associate Conductor of the MSU Symphony. She was the first student entered into their undergraduate conducting program. In her final year at MSU she founded the Orchestra da Camera whose purpose was to provide students with a greater depth of orchestra repertory and served as a community outreach ensemble.
Not only is she an active performer but also a distinguished leader in the collegiate music community. Her two terms as Montana State CMENC President (Montana collegiate division for the National Association of Music Education) gave her recognition across the northwest for her musicianship and leadership. She regularly contributes columns to the Montana music education publication the Cadenza, which is distributed to music educators across the northwest. At Lamont, she teaches undergraduate courses in conducting as a part of her assistantship.
Cepeda is passionate about women in music. Cepeda is the youngest and first woman in both the conducting programs at MSU and at Lamont. She is also Montana’s first female assistant to a music director. Cepeda’s future is promising as she “shows a great deal of intelligence and composure on the podium” (Opus Colorado 2012). Her passion for music and conducting has made her, simply put, someone “to watch” (Opus Colorado 2012).
The Violinist
Chilean-American violinist, Stephen Cepeda, is widely recognized as a dynamic figure in classical music today. Beginning his studies at the age of five with Daniel Reinker, Mr. Cepeda has studied with some of the nation’s finest violinists, including Stephanie Sant’ Ambriosio, Greg Mulligan, and Julius Schulman. Cepeda was selected to study with Andrzej Grabiec as a part of the Performance and Continuing Studies program at the Moores School of Music at University of Houston, confirming his reputation as a talented violinist. The Independent Record proclaimed Cepeda “one of the world’s finest musicians" (January 2011) for his mastery of Orchestral, Chamber, and Solo playing.The 2012-2013 season marks Cepeda’s seventh year as concertmaster of the Helena Symphony. Cepeda has appeared as concertmaster for the Bozeman Symphony and Intermountain Opera Association productions.
His extensive concerto and solo recital tours have taken him
regularly around the globe. Cepeda is in demand as soloist, appearing with four different orchestras this season. He will perform the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D with the Lamont Symphony Orchestra in Denver, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, and plans to also perform the work in Chile. This will not be Cepeda’s international debut as Cepeda regularly plays with orchestras around the world. In the summer of 2009, he completed a tour throughout Southeast Asia performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor. There, he gave standing room only recitals, including a recital at the United States Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Cepeda is a founding member of the award winning Meritage String Quartet. Cepeda and the Meritage Quartet were recently selected as one of two ensembles from throughout the nation invited to attend the Deer Valley Music Festival’s emerging quartets and composers program. During the Festival, the Meritage Quartet worked closely with the world-renowned Muir String Quartet and in- demand composer Joan Tower. The Meritage Quartet also gave the premiere performance of the piece Circles by Joan Pannetti, commissioned for the Emerson String Quartet. They have also worked closely with the Tokyo String Quartet. The Meritage Quartet was featured on Emmy award winning television series 11th and Grant on PBS. Their recent recording projects include the album “What Ships May Sail” with compositions by Montana composer Eric Funk.
Another passion of Cepeda’s life is his involvement with young people through giving master classes and maintaining a private studio. While in Southeast Asia he gave master classes in Thailand, Singapore, and Vietnam. Cepeda has been a guest professor of violin at Montana State University. He is regularly asked to adjudicate festivals and competitions. Cepeda’s instruction in his private studio prepares students for study at music conservatories. Cepeda’s instruction prepares students for admission to the nation’s top music schools as he has students in major conservatories across the U.S.
The Cellist
A native of Florida, Jennifer Bewerse received her Bachelors of Music magna cum laude from the University of South Florida and her Masters of Music from The Boston Conservatory. Currently, she is pursuing her Doctorate in Contemporary Performance at the University of California in San Diego with a full scholarship. Her principal teachers include Joan Markstein, Scott Kluksdahl, Charles Curtis, and Rhonda Rider, founding member of the Lydian String Quartet.Jennifer is a devoted champion of the music of our generation and is involved in the work of many emerging young composers. As a result of her collaborations, she has premiered many works including Drew Cutler’s Authentic Interruption for cello and percussion (2007), Daniel Frantz’s Sech Kleine Tanze for solo cello (2008), and Mischa Salkind-Pearl’s In the Morning Light Gathered at My Window for solo cello (2010). Other composers she has had the privilege to work with include Augusta Read Thomas, Michael Sydney Timpson, Patricia Alessandrini, Stephen Goss, Chaya Czernowin, Kenji Bunch, Gunther Schuller, Jonathan Harvey, and David Del Tredici.
She has also participated in Sound Encounters, SICPP, Oregon Bach Festival: Composer’s Symposium, and Music from Salem: the Cello Seminar modern music festivals, as a guest soloist for the Robert Helps Festival and International Composition Competition, and was the 2010 Performance Prizewinner at the soundSCAPE festival in Italy.
Jennifer is an enthusiastic chamber musician and is currently the cellist of Diagenesis with vocalist Heather Barnes. She is also founding member of the Bricolage Quartet, formerly in residence as the Boston Conservatory Honors String Quartet.
She is an advocate of “adventurous concert going” and her fresh and genuine sound focuses on inviting her audience to open their minds to a new experience, no matter how established or unknown the repertoire.
www.jenniferbewerse.com
The Pianist
June Lee, pianist, is in great demand both as a professional accompanist and as a teacher of piano and voice. She holds the position of Staff Accompanist for the Helena Symphony, and maintains teaching studios in Helena and at her home in Townsend.
Ms. Lee received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance (with emphases in piano pedagogy and accompanying) at Pacific Lutheran University. After spending another year at PLU as a staff accompanist, she was offered an assistantship in vocal accompanying at the University of Washington, where she earned both a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and a Master of Music in Piano Performance.
The Clarinetist
Christopher Kirkpatrick, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Clarinet at the University of Montana, has given performances and masterclasses at universities throughout North America, and has maintained a private studio with students being accepted into many prestigious music programs across the country. As an orchestral musician he has performed with the Detroit Symphony, Lansing Symphony, West Michigan Symphony, Battle Creek Symphony, Brevard Music Center Orchestra, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Symphony, and the Missoula Symphony. International conference performances include the International Clarinet Association’s annual ClarinetFest (2006, 2007, 2011, 2012), North American Saxophone Alliance Conference (2012), the Montana/Idaho Clarinet Festival (2011), the Brandon University Clarinet Festival (2011), Michigan State University Clarinet Spectacular (2007) and the World Bass Clarinet Congress in Rotterdam, Netherlands (2004). He has recorded on the Summit label and the Blue Griffin label, and can be heard on a recently released recording of William Walton’s Facade: An Entertainment with the Albion Chamber Players. During the summer he is on the faculty of the International Music Camp. Dr. Kirkpatrick also serves in the International Clarinet Association as the editor of Clarinet e-news, an online newsletter, and as the Montana State Chair. He completed his doctoral degree at Michigan State University and also holds degrees from the University of New Mexico (MM) and the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga (BM). His teachers have included Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr, Keith Lemmons, Steve Cohen, Ted Gurch, Nikolasa Tejero, and Peter Temko.The Flautist
Flutist Rachel Beetz is an active performer of contemporary music. She has performed music of the last century across America and Italy. Rachel holds a Bachelor of Music Performance from Indiana University where she studied with Kathryn Lukas, a Certificate from University of Maryland-Baltimore County with Lisa Cella, and a Master of Arts from University of California-San Diego with John Fonville. Currently, you will find her giving many performances in San Diego where she is continuing her artistic exploration at the University and with San Diego New Music.