Category: LMC in the News

LMC Opera: Famous Mothers to be performed at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Friday, May 11 at 7:30pm in Kirkland (click for details and directions) and again on Sunday, May 13 at 3:00pm in Seatac (click for details and directions).

“Nur eine Mutter weiß allein, Was lieben heißt und glücklich sein.” (Only a mother knows what it means to love and be happy)
– from Robert Schumann’s Woman’s love and life

About the performers

Lin Chen keeps herself busy singing and playing the violin as a freelance musician in the Greater Seattle area. Her vocal adventures started at the age of 16 when she started taking singing lessons out of her love for Musical Theatre. It wasn’t long before she started to discover a new interest for Opera and has been singing and learning the classical repertoires ever since. Growing up in Australia, she was fortunate to study with a number of teachers from the Griffith and the Sydney Conservatoriums and was an active participant in the local performance scene. Lin is excited to be a part of LMC and look forward to sharing her music with the LMC community!

Soprano Meg Daly’s most memorable performance came when she stepped in minutes before curtain to sing the Queen of the Night in a Seattle Opera production of Die Zauberflöte. Other roles include Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus, Kitsap Opera), Noëmie (Cendrillon, Puget Sound Concert Opera), soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah (Peninsula Community Chorus), and Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Tacoma Community College Orchestra). She was a featured musician in Bainbridge Performing Arts’ award-winning production of Amadeus. Ms. Daly received her M.M. in voice from the University of Washington.

Soprano Ki-Jung Jun completed her Masters’ degree at New York University and was in the emerging artist program at Pacific Opera in New York City. Her operatic roles there included Nora (Riders to the Sea), First Knitter (A Game of Chance), Princess (L’enfant et les sortileges) and the role of Hyangdan in Chun-Hyang-Jeon, an opera celebrating the 100th anniversary of Korean immigration in America. In the Northwest, her most recent opera role is Giulietta (Cover) in Bellini’s I Capuletti ed i Montecchi and Caterina in Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz with Puget Sound Concert Opera.

Joan Lundquist has served as a collaborative pianist for Seattle area musicians and organizations for 30 years. Since moving to the area from Humboldt State University in northern California, where she was staff accompanist, Joan has worked with the Northwest Boychoir, Seattle Choral Company, has taught at Seattle University and Northwest University, and has worked with several area private music teachers. Currently, Ms. Lundquist is the Director of Music at Immanuel Lutheran Church in downtown Seattle and rehearsal accompanist for the Seattle Choral Company.

Mele Santos earned her Masters’ Degree in Vocal Performance at The University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University. As Magda Sorel in Menotti’s The Consul, the review in The Arizona Daily Star stated: “[Mele Santos] is very intense dramatically. She inhabits the role.” She has performed in Verdi’s La Traviata and Rigoletto, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and numerous opera scenes. She premiered the roles of Agath in Abinadi and Elisa in The Wanderer, both contemporary works by living composers. Mele is an accomplished teacher as well; she currently maintains a voice studio and has served as a guest vocal technique clinician for high school and middle school choral programs in Washington and Arizona.

An outstanding member of the Northwest Musical community for over 20 years, Regina Thomas has performed with a variety of companies including Kitsap Opera, Willamette Concert Opera, Bellevue Opera, Puget Sound Concert Opera, Seattle Opera and the Seattle Opera Guild. Currently, LMC’s trustee of concerts and Artistic Director of Puget Sound Concert Opera, Regina has served as Seattle Opera Guild’s VP of Education and is a past President of LMC. Favorite operatic roles include Adriana Lecouvreur, Suor Angelica, Tosca and Judith (Bluebeard’s Castle). Concert work includes Schumann’s Frauenleibe und-leben, Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, soprano solos in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Fauré Requiem and Berio’s Folk Songs for voice and chamber ensemble.

Gwen Trussler, mezzo-soprano, holds Performance degrees from Florida State University (BM/MM) as well as ARRT Certification in Radiography, Computed Tomography, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. She has appeared with Tacoma Musical Playhouse, Heavier Than Air Theatre, Evergreen Performers, TMP Family Theater, Amici Opera, Operesque, South Georgia Opera, and Florida State Opera. A Wagner enthusiast, she was chosen to perform in the inaugural year of the Baldwin-Wallace Wagner Intensive where she coached with Jane Eaglen, Timothy Mussard, and Nancy Maultsby. Gwen works with MultiCare and Franciscan Health as an MRI Technologist and is also a Voice Over artist specializing in audiobook narration.

Come and see LMC members perform a free concert of songs, duets and music for flute and piccolo on Friday, April 13 starting at 7:30pm at St. John’s Episcopal Church, a new venue as part of LMC’s annual free concert series throughout the Seattle metropolitan area. Click for directions and concert details.

Come early and check out Kirkland’s Art Walk where you can visit downtown Kirkland galleries and businesses and meet with local Kirkland artists. Click for details.

About the performers

Beth Ann Bonnecroy is in demand as a conductor, singer and teacher of voice. In 2013, she joined the music faculty of Seattle Pacific University where she teaches voice and conducts the SPU Women’s Choir. Beth Ann also conducts Vivace, the middle school level singers of the Northwest Girlchoir. With colleague, Rebecca Rottsolk, Beth Ann founded and co-conducts Mirinesse Women’s Choir. Mirinesse received the high honor of performing at the American Choral Directors Association national conference in 2009 and regional conference in 2011. A life-long church musician, Beth Ann has conducted church choirs and handbell choirs of all ages. She is currently a member of the music staff of Phinney Ridge Lutheran church in Seattle where she conducts the Chancel Choir and Handbell Choirs. Also an accomplished soprano, Beth Ann is a frequent recitalist in the Seattle area. Students, aged 15 to adult, fill Beth Ann’s active voice studio. Beth Ann holds a BA of Music in church music/voice from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN and a Master of Music degree in voice performance from Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ.

Soprano Ya-Li Lee has been performing in the Pacific Northwest since relocating here in 2004. Recently, Ya-Li was a featured soloist in Brahms’ Girls with Gallery Concerts. Other performances include New Year’s Eve Gala with St. James Cathedral and world premiere performances of a scene from the opera Road to Zion by Dolora Zajick as well as The St. Cecilia Cantata and The Seven Last Words by Patrick Stoyanovich. In reference to her performance of The Seven Last Words, the noted music journalist Bernard Jacobson has written: “Ya-Li Lee, who had by far the largest assignment of the three excellent soloists, has a fine voice and used it with skill and taste.”

Joan Lundquist has served as a collaborative pianist for Seattle area musicians and organizations for 30 years. Since moving to the area from Humboldt State University in northern California, where she was staff accompanist, Joan has worked with the Northwest Boychoir, Seattle Choral Company, has taught at Seattle University and Northwest University, and has worked with several area private music teachers. Currently, Ms. Lundquist is the Director of Music at Immanuel Lutheran Church in downtown Seattle and rehearsal accompanist for the Seattle Choral Company.

A second Prize winner in the National Flute Association’s Young Artist Competition, a Carnegie Hall Recital Debut winner with Artists International, and a First Prize winner in the Carmel Chamber Music Society Competition, Dr. Kris Palmer is the founder and director of Black Cedar, an ensemble championing new commissions for flute, cello, and guitar. She is a former member of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque, and she is currently Principal Flutist with Island City Opera. With a D.M.A. from Rice University in 18th century ornamentation, Dr. Palmer maintains a private studio in Kirkland.