May Festival Chorus

MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS ROBERT PORCO, Director of Choruses Matthew Swanson, Associate Director of Choruses Heather MacPhail, Accompanist Matthew Swope, Conducting Fellow Kathryn Zajac Albertson, Chorus Manager Bryce Newcomer, Chorus Librarian The May Festival Chorus has earned acclaim locally, nationally and internationally for its musicality, vast range of repertoire and sheer power of sound. The Chorus of 125 professionally trained singers is the core artistic element of the Cincinnati May Festival as well as the official chorus of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops. Throughout a typical season the chorus members collectively devote more than 40,000 hours in rehearsals and performances.

Founded in 1873, the annual May Festival is the oldest, and one of the most prestigious, choral festivals in the Western Hemisphere. The annual Festival, now under the artistic leadership of Principal Conductor Juanjo Mena, boasts the May Festival Chorus—with choral preparation by Robert Porco—and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as anchors, hosts an international array of guest artists and presents two spectacular weekends of dynamic programming. James Conlon, who in 2016 brought to a close an unprecedented 37-year tenure as May Festival Music Director, was named Music Director Laureate upon his retirement. Many important choral works have received their World and American premieres at the May Festival, including Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnifi cat, Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana, Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Death of the Bishop of Brindisi and Robert Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses.

THE MAY FESTIVAL CHORUS

The May Festival Chorus is endowed by the Betsy & Alex C. Young Chair

Soprano

Natalie Badinghaus, 1 Tracy Bailey, 21 Karen Bastress, 23 A. Maris Bernard, 18 Laurel Boisclair Ellsworth, 17 Dawn Bruestle, 17 Renee Cifuentes, 5 Ally Clifton, 1 Kathy Dietrich, 8 Jennifer Dobson, 5 Rachel Dummermuth, 3 Sarah Evans, 7 Anita Marie Greer, 33 Melissa Haas, 4 Gaynelle Hardwick, 6 Dana Harms, 14 Mary Wynn Haupt, 20 Lauren Steiger Hess, 26 Carolyn Hill, 11 Sara Hook, 1 Hyejung Jun, 4 Alexandra Kesman, 7 Lisa Koressel, 22 Judith C. LaChance, 44 Hilary Landwehr, 33 Julia Lawrence, 2 Julia Marchese, 1 Audrey Markovich, 1 Alison Peeno, 3 Zohar Perla, 3 Lauren Peter, 18 Scott Brody, 7 Douglas J. Bruestle, 13 Darren Bryant, 1 Christopher Canarie, 28 Lawrence Coleman, 20 Steven L. Dauterman, 40 Steve France, 17 Mark Hockenberry, 1 Takuya Konishi, 1 Jim Laskey, 12 DeRon McDaniel, 1 John McKibben, 4 Daniel Parsley, 5 Justin Peter, 18 James V. Racster, 40 Mitch Radakovich, 1 Brian Reilly, 1 Joseph Taff , 3 Joshua Wallace, 15 Mark Weaver, 16 Paul Wessendarp, 2 Tommy Wessendarp, 1

Kristi C. Reed, 11 Beth Roberts, 16 Justine Samuel, 4 Julia H. Schieve, 27 Yvon F. Shore, 10 Sam Walker, 1 Patricia Wilkens, 1 Rosie Wilkinson, 1 Samantha Zeiger, 1

Alto

Alaina Diane Arwood, 3 Robin Bierschenk, 11 Erika Emody, 15 Kathy Falcon, 18 Sarah Fall, 1 Amanda Gast, 1 Jean Graves, 12 Sally Vickery Harper, 51 Beth Huntley, 3 Spence B. Ingerson, 32 Karolyn L. Johnsen, 50 Jenifer Klostermeier, 3 Sue Kozlowski, 1 Julie Laskey, 18 Megan Lawson, 7 Tiff any Lin, 1 Katherine Loomis, 2 Elaine P. Lustig, 12 Kathy Mank, 17 Teri McKibben, 14 Ashlinn Meechan, 1 Jennifer Moak, 8 Amy M. Perry, 10 Amanda Schwarz Rosenzweig, 1 Karen Scott-Vosseberg, 5 Sarah Stoutamire, 5 Megan Weaver, 9

Tenor

Lawrence Adams, 1 Avery Bargasse, 4 David Bower, 1 Douglas Easterling, 7 David Gillespie, 1 Robert Henderson, 3 Tyler Johnson, 4 Fansheng Kong, 1 Kevin Leahy, 4 Robert Lomax, 4 Andrew Miller, 1 Jason Ramler, 20 Larry Reiring, 13 Adam Shoaff , 9 Jeff rey Stivers, 12 Matthew Swanson, 10 Matthew Swope, 1 Stephen West, 1 Barry Zaslow, 38

Bass

Mark Barnes, 5 Jim Baxter, 31 Nathan Bettenhausen, 1 Andrew L. Bowers, 6 Numbers behind chorus members’ names signify their years of service. Those celebrating anniversaries of fi ve-year increments are honored with lapel pins they proudly wear with their May Festival uniforms.