Special Guests

Special Guests
Saturday, June 3, 2000

Maria Jette

MARIA JETTE enjoys a wide-ranging career, singing chamber music, oratorio, and operatic repertoire. A Twin Cities resident, she has performed locally with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Plymouth Music Series, Ex Machina Baroque Opera, and others. Other engagements have included performances with the Los Angeles Chamber and Portland Baroque orchestras, the New York Chamber and Kansas City symphonies, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Her 45+ operatic roles range from Handel's Cleopatra and Alcina to Mozart's Fiordiligi and Countess. Later this summer, Jette will make return appearances at the Oregon Bach Festival, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, and the Victoria Bach Festival. With harpist Judith Kogan, she has two recordings of Britten's Folksongs of the British Isles and songs of Fauré scheduled for release later this year on Centaur Records. Kogan and Jette will perform rarely-heard Spanish, Sephardic and Argentinian music at St Paul’s Church on the Hill at 4 p.m. on June 18.

Raised in Northeast Minneapolis’ Ukrainian community, PETER OSTROUSHKO grew up listening to his shoemaker father play traditional Ukrainian songs, and taught himself to play the piano, mandolin, guitar, fiddle, banjo, bass, and other string instruments. He is well-known to APHC listeners as a frequent guest performer and as the former musical director. He also performs orchestral works and has appeared with both the Saint Paul Chamber and Minnesota orchestras, among others. During the ’70s, he worked as a session musician in Nashville. His first recording session was an uncredited mandolin set on Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. He has followed that with work on more than 100 albums with artists such as Jethro Burns, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Chet Atkins and Johnny Gimble. His debut solo album, Sluz Duz Music (Rounder Records) was released in 1982. Subsequent albums include Blue Mesa and Pilgrims on the Heart Road (both on Red House), and Down the Streets of My Old Neighborhood (Rounder). The title track from Heart of the Heartland (Red House) was the theme for Meriwether Lewis in Ken Burns’ film, Lewis and Clark. His newest CD, Sacred Heart (Red House), was released in April.

THE ENSEMBLE SINGERS OF THE PLYMOUTH MUSIC SERIES first sang together in 1991. They are the professional core of the larger Plymouth Music Series, which, for 31 years under the direction of founder and artistic director Philip Brunelle, has grown to become one of the premier music organizations in Minnesota. Commissions and world premiere performances include works of Dominick Argento, Randall Davidson, Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus and Conrad Susa. The Ensemble Singers are heard on the Angel, Collins Classics, and RCA labels. Last year, they represented the US in Stockholm’s “Midwinter Festival,” were featured at the American Choral Directors National Convention in Chicago, presented the opening concert for the Chorus America conference, and appeared in Rotterdam at the World Choral Symposium. Performing tonight are: Soprano: Kathleen Hanson, Margaret Lanning, Barbara Nelson, Andrea Schussler, Ruth Spiegel, Linda Zelig; Alto: Anna M. Dick, Kathleen Grammer, Nina Heebink, Cybil M. Jones, Barbara Kastens, Karen Lovgren Kennedy; Tenor: Brian Arreola, Robert Griffin, Thomas Larson, Jordan Sramek, Lawrence Wiliford; Bass: Steve Burger, Adam Gedde, Jerry Johnson, Michael Jorgensen, Michael P. Schmidt.