Guest Biographies ..................................................... 12–13

Guest Artists

Karen Manley Kahler

Karen Manley Kahler resides in Belvidere, Illinois and can often be seen on stage at the amazing Starlight Theatre in Rockford. Some of her all-time favorite roles there include Eve in Children of Eden, Gertrude in Seussical the Musical, Mother in Ragtime, Lily in Secret Garden, and Donna in Mamma Mia! Karen received her degree in Music Theatre from Illinois Wesleyan University. She has been a guest artist with the Rockford Concert Band and the Dekalb Municipal Band. One of her favorite things to perform is our country’s National Anthem, which she does often at various events in the community. Karen also serves as Music Director at her Church, First Presbyterian, in Belvidere. During the day she can be seen at the historic Manley’s Ford Lincoln where she is heavily involved in coordinating efforts to raise money for nonprofit organizations and schools through Drive Events sponsored by Ford and Lincoln.

Nicolai Janitzky

Baritone Nicolai Janitzky is a native of Northern California, and currently resides in the Rockford area. He began his career with the Santa Fe Opera Young Artist Program, where he went on in the title role in Eugene Onegin on short notice. Since then, he has appeared with many opera companies in the United States and abroad, including San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, and Musica Viva in Hong Kong. He has performed many roles from the operas of Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, and Puccini, and has a particular interest in Russian repertoire. In addition to opera, he enjoys performing art songs, and has given recitals through the Marilyn Horne Foundation and other organizations at Cleveland Institute of Music Art Song Festival, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Carnegie (Weill) Hall in New York City. His recent concerts include baritone soloist in Carmina Burana, Brahms’s Requiem, and Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death. He studied at Yale University Opera Program and Music Academy of the West.

Lyrics

Richard Wagner, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg

APPRENTICES Silence! Silence! No talking and no murmuring! THE PEOPLE Ha! Sachs! It's Sachs! Look, Master Sachs! Begin! Begin! Begin! ALL "Awake! the dawn is drawing near; I hear a blissful nightingale singing in the green grove, its voice rings through hill and valley; night is sinking in the west, the day arises in the east, the ardent red glow of morning approaches through the gloomy clouds." HANS SACHS Scorn not the Masters, I bid you, and honor their art! What speaks high in their praise fell richly in your favor. Not to your ancestors, however worthy, not to your coat-of-arms, spear, or sword, but to the fact that you are a poet, that a Master has admitted you to that you owe today your highest happiness. So, think back to this with gratitude: how can the art be unworthy which embraces such prizes? That our Masters have cared for it rightly in their own way, cherished it truly as they thought best, that has kept it genuine: if it did not remain aristocratic as of old, when courts and princes blessed it, in the stress of evil years it remained German and true; and if it flourished nowhere but where all is stress and strain, you see how high it remained in honor - what more would you ask of the Masters? Beware! Evil tricks threaten us: if the German people and kingdom should one day decay, under a false, foreign rule soon no prince would understand his people; and foreign mists with foreign vanities they would plant in our German land; what is German and true none would know, if it did not live in the honor of German Masters. Therefore I say to you: honor your German Masters, then you will conjure up good spirits! And if you favor their endeavors, even if the Holy Roman Empire should dissolve in mist, for us there would yet remain holy German Art! THE PEOPLE Hail! Sachs! Hail to you, Hans Sachs! Hail to Nuremberg's dear Sachs!

Lyrics

“Mary Poppins” Medley

Chim-chiminey, chim-chiminey, chim chim cheree! A sweep is as lucky as lucky can be! Chim-chiminey, chim-chiminey, chim chim cheroo! Good luck will rub off when he shakes hands with you. Or blow me a kiss and that’s lucky, too! Up where the smoke is all billered and curled, ‘Tween pavement and stars, is the chimney sweep’s world. When there’s hardly no day nor hardly no night There’s things half in shadow and half way in light. On the rooftops of London, coo, what a sight! Chim-chiminey, chim-chiminey, chim chim cheree! When you’re with a sweep you’re in glad company. Nowhere is there a more happier crew Than them what sings “chim-chim cheree, chim cheroo!” Ain’t it a glorious day, right as the morning in May? I feel like I could fly. Have you ever seen the grass so green, or a bluer sky? Oh, it’s a jolly holiday with Mary, Mary makes your heart so light. When the day is gray and ordinary, Mary makes the sun shine bright. Oh, happiness is bloomin’ all around her, The daffodils are smilin’ at the dove; When Mary holds your hand you feel so grand. Your heart starts beatin’ like a big brass band. It’s a jolly holiday with Mary! No wonder that it’s Mary that we love! Oh, it’s a jolly holiday with Mary! A jolly, jolly holiday with you. A jolly, jolly holiday with you. Um diddle-diddle-diddle um diddle-aye, Um diddle-diddle-diddle um diddle-aye (repeat) Su-per-cal-i-frag-il-is-tic-ex-pi-al-i-do-cious! Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious, If you say it loud enough you’ll always sound precocious: Su-per-cal-i-frag-il-is-tic-ex-pi-al-i-do-cious! Um diddle-diddle-diddle um diddle-aye, Um diddle-diddle-diddle um diddle-aye. Because I was afraid to speak when I was just a lad, Me father gave me nose a tweak and told me I was bad. But then one day I learned a word that saved me achin’ nose, The biggest word you ever heard, and this is how it goes. Oh! Su-per-cal-i-frag-il-is-tic-ex-pi-al-i-do-cious! Su-per-cal-i-frag-il-is-tic-ex-pi-al-i-do-cious! Su-per-cal-i-frag-il-is-tic-ex-pi-al-i-do-cious! Su-per-cal-i-frag-il-is-tic, Su-per-cal-i-frag-il-is-tic, Su-per-cal-i-frag-il-is-tic-ex-pi-al-i-do-cious! Step in time, step in time, step in time, step in time. Never need a reason, never need a rhyme When you step in time, you step in time. Kick your knees up, step in time, kick your knees up, step in time. Never need reason, never need a rhyme Kick your knees up, step in time. ‘Round the chimney, ‘round the chimney, ‘round the chimney, step in time. ‘Round the chimney, step in time. Never need reason, never need a rhyme, ‘Round the chimney, in time! Link your elbows, step in time. Link your elbows, step in time. Never need a reason, never need a rhyme. Link your elbows, link your elbows in time. Step in time, step in time, step in time, step in time. Never need a reason, never need a rhyme when you step in time. Kick your knees up, ‘round the chimney, link your elbows, step in time When you step in time you step in time.

Lyrics

“Oh, Danny Boy”

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling From glen to glen, and down the mountain side. The summer's gone, and all the roses falling, It's you, it's you must go and I must bide. But come ye back when summer's in the meadow, Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow, ‘Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow, Oh, Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so! But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying, If I am dead, as dead I well may be, You'll come and find the place where I am lying, And kneel and say an Ave there for me. And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me, And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be, For you will bend and tell me that you love me, And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me!

“I Vow To Thee, My Country” (Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity)

I vow to thee, my country all earthly things above; Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love; The love that asks no questions, the love that stands the test, That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best; The love that never falters, the love that pays the price, The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice. And there’s another country, I’ve heard of long ago, Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know; And soul by soul and silent, her shining bounds increase, Her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.

“Land Of Hope And Glory” (Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1)

Land of hope and glory, mother of the free How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee? Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set. God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet. God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.