B+A+C+H

Thursday, May 19, 2022
7:00 p.m.
Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Rochester, MN

Friday May 20, 2022
12:00 p.m.
Live-streamed only

This concert is co-presented with the Bach Society of Minnesota, as part of the Minnesota Bach Festival.

This program begins with a suite of Bach arias for soprano with obbligato flute and violin. The premier of a cantata by Paul Jacobson concludes the concert. The new work, B+A+C+H—Lament to Jubilation, incorporates the BACH theme (Bb-A-C-B), which has been employed by composers from the time of J.S. Bach to the present. The text of the cantata comprises paraphrases by Paul of Psalm 42 (“As the deer desires the waterbrooks. . .”) and of three poems by Rainer Maria Rilke. This poetry reflects the fears and joys of our present day realities and dreams.

Anna Christofaro, soprano
Paul Jacobson and Immanuel Davis, traversi 
Marc Levine, violin
Julie Elhard, viola da gamba
Donald Livingston, harpsichord

Artists

Praised for her vocal agility and clear tone, Minneapolis based soprano, ANNA CHRISTOFARO, is gaining recognition as an interpreter of a wide range of repertoire from early to contemporary music.  She recently was the guest soloist at the 2022 Messiah Festival of the Arts in Kansas performing Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.  She made her soloist debuts of Bach’s St. Johns Passion with the Bach Society of Minnesota, Fauré’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Minnesota Chorale, Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with the Grinnell Oratorio Society and Vivaldi’s Gloria with Consortium Carissimi.  Other solo appearances include Handel’s Ulrecht Te Deum, and Mozart’s Regina Coeli, as well as Bach’s B Minor Mass and numerous Bach cantatas with the Bach Roots Festival.  She’s also been featured on numerous Artist Series Recitals of music by local composers.

Anna performs with professional ensembles across the country.  She performed on the 2022 GRAMMY nominated album “The Singing Guitar” with Conspirare and the 2018 GRAMMY nominated album, Tyberg Masses, with the South Dakota Chorale.  Other highlights include performing at the Olavsfestagene Festival in Trondheim, Norway with Conspirare and recently performed on their national tour of Considering Matthew Shepard by Craig Hella Johnson.  She’s performed numerous times with the True Concord Voices and Orchestra based in Tucson, AZ.  She’s also performed under the baton of Bach-scholars, Helmuth Rilling and Hans-Christoph Rademann, at the Weimar Bach Academy and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart in Germany.

Anna holds a Master of Music degree from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Music degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.  

PAUL JACOBSON, a performer on baroque flute for over four decades, has had a multi-faceted career as soloist and teacher. Known for his expertise on the baroque and classical flutes, he has been featured with many ensembles locally and across the nation. He is co-founder of The Lyra Baroque Orchestra and served for many years on the board and as Executive Director. Paul has been a featured soloist at several National Flute Association conventions, at the 1993 International Artist Series at Worcester College (MA), and at the Boston and Berkeley Early Music Festivals. He has been a NFA board member, chair of the NFA Historical Flutes Committee, and Vice President of Early Music America. Paul did his graduate work in composition at Union Seminary and Columbia University in New York and has become a prolific composer of music for church and chamber. He also has transcribed many orchestral works of Mozart and Haydn for chamber ensemble. Paul and his wife enjoy wood-working, gardening, hiking, and fishing.

Flutist IMMANUEL DAVIS is a highly versatile performer and innovative teacher. He has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Weill Recital hall at Carnegie Hall, MoMa’s Summer Garden Series, Noonday Concerts at Trinity Church, and the Meet the Virtuoso series at the 92nd St Y. As a member of the New York Flute and Harp Project, he has performed with harpist Park Stickney at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and on board the Queen Elizabeth 2. Orchestral work has included performances with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Riverside Symphony, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Jupiter Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic. Davis has also played on Broadway in Show Boat and Ragtime, among others, and has performed with the contemporary music ensembles Music Mobile and 20th Century and Beyond. Immanuel released his first CD, “Prevailing Winds“ in December of 2003.

Increasingly in demand as a teacher, he has been invited to teach classes at Yale University, Grinnell College, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and Seattle Pacific University. For several years he taught with Keith Underwood in master classes at Hidden Valley in California, and will soon be making his fifth trip to Mexico, where he serves as woodwind clinician for the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra. This August Immanuel will play and teach a master class at the 2004 summer National Flute Convention to be held in Nashville, Tennessee.

Educated at the Juilliard School, Davis received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees as a student of Julius Baker. Other studies have been with Keith Underwood, Ransom Wilson, Sandra Miller, and with Philip Dunigan at the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2001 he was awarded a Fulbright Grant under the auspices of the Netherlands-America Foundation for study of the baroque flute.

Immanuel Davis plays on Louis Lot flute #888 made in Paris in 1866. Louis Lot is known as the Stradivarius of flute makers. This flute, one of his earliest, is probably the oldest “modern“ flute being played on the concert circuit today.

Immanuel Davis has been the flute professor at the University of Minnesota since 2001.

MARC LEVINE enjoys a career as a chamber musician and orchestral leader specializing in performances on both modern and baroque violin. On baroque violin, Marc performs with his chamber ensemble, Flying Forms, that, in addition to performing standard and contemporary repertoire, also presents larger scale programs including oratorios and operas. In Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he is based, Marc regularly appears as leader or section member with the Bach Society of Minnesota, Oratory | Sacred Bach, Consortium Carissimi, and the Lyra Baroque Orchestra. On modern violin, Marc performs chamber music from all eras on various series and with groups including the Lowertown Piano Trio (founding member), Minnesota Bach Ensemble, Minneapolis Music Company, and the MacPhail Spotlight Series. With many of these groups, both recorded and live, Marc has been featured many times as a soloist and ensemble player on Minnesota Public Radio. A noted entrepreneur, Marc co-founded The Baroque Room, a performance space in downtown Saint Paul that hosts over 50 events each year including the Saint Paul Classical Music Crawl, an event featuring the entire city’s classical music scene and named one of the top ten classical music events of 2015 by the Saint Paul Pioneer Press.

JULIE ELHARD appears regularly as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States. She has made several appearances with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, including J.S. Bach”s St. Matthew Passion under the direction of Nicholas McGegan. She has been a guest artist with Apollo’s Fire in Cleveland and is a founding member of Violes Egales and Glorious Revolution Baroque. Julie has been the recipient of an Artist’s Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, as well as a Jerome Foundation grant to study vielle and early string playing with Margriet Tindemans. She also received a Performing Artist Certificate from the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, Netherlands. She has taught at workshops in North America and at the Viola da Gamba Society of America’s national Conclaves. She currently teaches viola da gamba at Macalester College and also at the St. Paul Conservatory of Music, where she has developed a Suzuki-style approach for children to learn the viola da gamba. Julie has played cello and viola da gamba with Lyra for over 15 years. More information at www.julieelhard.com

Keyboardist DONALD LIVINGSTON collaborates with musicians from across the musical spectrum. Founding director of the Twin Cities Early Music Festival and director of Ensemble Sprezzatura, he has performed with such ensembles as Bach Sinfonia (Washington DC), Musica Antigua (Panama City), La Donna Musicale (Boston), Lyra Baroque (St. Paul), Minnesota Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Phoenix Symphony, as well as with soloists and collaborators Cléa Galhano, Anton Nel, Jacques Ogg, Elisabeth Wright, Joel Frederiksen, Ryland Angel, Jed Wentz, Barthold Kuijken, and Dame Emma Kirkby. He has sung as a member of the Rose Ensemble, as well as with the Pro Arte Singers under the direction of Thomas Binkley and Paul Hillier at the Historical Performance Institute of the renowned Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University where he received the Doctor of Music in historical keyboard performance. He recently left a positions as Lecturer of Organ and Harpsichord at the University of Texas Butler School of Music and organist at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church to become organist at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis.