Author: LBarnes

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CYNTHIA WEBSTER, Vocalist

Cynthia Webster
Cynthia Webster

Lyric soprano Cynthia Webster worked professionally with the late Gordon Nelson of the international award-winning Detroit Concert Choir as featured soloist, coach and vocal advisor. She was instrumental in the choir’s winning several prestigious awards in Wales, Austria and Spain.

In addition to her work with the Detroit Concert Choir, she maintained a vibrant music studio for a number of years. Her specialty: helping middle school students find their way to their true selves through music, assisted by Sadie, her iconic studio dog.

A Port Angeles native, she is loving her new life back home where she lives, writes and makes music with her friends on her beloved Peninsula.

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PAUL CREECH, Pianist

Paul Creech

Paul Creech was born and grew up on a farm in Missouri. Introduced to the piano at the age of nine, he discovered he could play in any key. He studied related theory and composition at Kansas State University and performed his own concertos with conductor W. Eric Stein and the Salina Symphony.

Early in his career, Paul became a sought after technician and tuner for various colleges and universities throughout Texas, Kansas, Missouri and Washington. As he continued to perform for live audiences, Paul began offering music classes to private students and opened a successful piano tuning business, allowing him the rare opportunity to become acquainted with virtuosos Van Cliburn, Victor Borge and Stecher & Horowitz. As his musical career progressed, composing and arranging became a passion.

“For me, composing is a natural extension of my training and devotion to music. Any person who has the ability to write music and perform is truly fortunate. I take great pleasure in teaching others the process of musical arrangement – blending the melody with the harmony and perfecting the art of transposing for a variety of instruments. Indeed writing for artists who appreciate original music is most satisfying and, of course, the audience response is thrilling. Writing music for solo and two pianos, or for full orchestras is a genuine treat because the music seems to flow effortlessly, inspiring the performers as well as the audience.” – Paul Creech

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RENT LACOUR, Pianist

Trent LaCour (photo from the Sequim Gazette)

Trent LaCour’s passion for piano began when he was eleven years old. Within a year of structured piano lessons, his technical virtuosity and interpretive abilities became evident and he was encouraged to advance his musical education under the direction of Paul Creech.

A devoted and motivated pupil, Trent has studied with Paul since 2009 and the two have performed together in a variety of musical venues including a benefit concert for the Sequim Community Church and a special performance at the Music Teachers’ Association in Port Angeles.

Trent was the youngest featured soloist at the 2014 North Olympic Land Trust Dinner. He continues to practice his craft by entertaining delighted audiences at retirement homes throughout Clallam county.

“I personally feel very honored to have been asked to play with Paul for this performance. This gives me a huge opportunity to also work with the Port Townsend Orchestra and to play with such fine musicians under the direction of Maestro Dewey Ehling.” – Trent LaCour
(February 2015)

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MICHAEL HELWICK, String Bass

Michael Helwick
Michael Helwick

Born in Seattle, Michael moved to Port Angeles at age three. He started playing cello in fourth grade, but Switched to the double bass in fifth grade. Michael is a student of Clint Thomas.

He has participated in the All State and All Northwest orchestras, including once under the direction of then-Seattle Symphony conductor Gerard Schwarz. He has competed at the State Solo and Ensemble Contest at Central Washington University for three years, in the string bass category and with the chamber orchestra.

Michael has been in the award-winning Port Angeles High School Chamber Orchestra for three years, and has played with the Port Angeles Symphony for four years.

He has attended the Hammond Ashley Memorial Bass Workshop at Seattle Pacific University for three years, working with renowned teachers including Jeff Bradetich, Max Dimoff and Tiang-Yang Liu. He teaches for the Morgan-Ellis Chamber Workshop and Strings Camp.

An active Boy Scout, Michael has achieved the rank of Life Scout. Currently in his senior year in high school, Michael hopes to attend the University of North Texas and study with Jeff Bradetich. His career plans include playing the double bass in any way he can!

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PHIL MORGAN-ELLIS, Conductor

Phil Morgan-Ellis (photo from Sequim Gazette)

Phil Morgan-Ellis grew up in Utah, where he played violin in the Golden Spike Youth Symphony. He studied Music Education at Weber State University. After graduating in 1972 Mr. Morgan-Ellis left for Seattle. In 1977 he moved to Port Angeles, where he taught orchestra, band and computers in the elementary and middle schools of the Port Angeles School District.

Mr. Morgan-Ellis and his wife, Deborah, started what became the North Olympic Youth Symphonies in 1979, and together they managed and conducted this group of orchestras for 25 years. They received a citation for their work from the Port Angeles Education Foundation in 1995, and were named Clallam County Citizens of the Year in 1996. The Port Angeles Symphony gave them the Biz Gehrke Award for their work with the youth of the peninsula in 1995.

Mr. Morgan-Ellis was principal violist in the Port Angeles Symphony until he moved from Washington state to Costa Rica in 2006. There he taught in the National Youth Orchestra and the European School in Heredia.

After four years he returned to the peninsula to start up Mr. Phil’s Strings, a group of after school orchestras for elementary and middle school string students. In February of 2012 he was asked by Lili Green to direct and conduct the Sequim Community Orchestra. He and his wife have two daughters: Elizabeth, a professional harpist in Philadelphia, and Esther, a professor of music at University of North Georgia.

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ANSON KA LIK SIN, Pianist

Anson Ka Lik Sin

Anson Ka Lik Sin is nineteen years old. A native of Hong Kong, he began studying piano at age six and violin at age twelve. At the Royal School of Music in England he passed the grade eight piano with distinction and the grade eight violin with merit. When he returned to Hong Kong, Anson was a piano accompanist and academic advisor. In 2011, he was taught in the piano master class by the great pianist Alexander Tutunov, who is widely recognized as one of the most outstanding virtuosos of the former Soviet Union. Last year he won third place in piano in the Young Artist Competition at the 61st Hong Kong Schools Music Festival.

While attending Peninsula College in Port Angeles, 2011 to 2013, he studied with Professor Kristin Quigley Brye, music director and conductor of Port Angeles Light Opera Company, and Heather Marie Ray, concertmaster in the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra. During the 2012-2013 concert season, he played in the first violin section of the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra and the Port Townsend Community Orchestra.

Currently, he is studying in the honors program at Hong Kong Baptist University for a Bachelor of Arts in music. He is also studying the piano with Mr. Cui Shi-Guang, among the greatest composers and teachers in China. (October 2013)

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NANCY BEIER, Vocalist

Ms. Beier had a thirty-year opera career, largely in Europe, specializing in Verdi, Wagner, R. Strauss and Puccini. She sang in Germany, Holland, Italy, Denmark and England, making her European debut as Tosca. 

Since moving to the peninsula in 2001, she has performed in and directed for both the Port Angeles Light Opera Association and the Port Angeles Community Players. In 2012, she was inducted into Oklahoma’s Will Rogers Foundation Hall of Fame.

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SHARON ANNETTE LANDCASTER, Mezzo-soprano

Seattle resident and Canadian mezzo-soprano Sharon Annette Lancaster is a gifted singer and musician actively performing in the Pacific Northwest.

Solo engagements have included performances with the Bellevue Philharmonic and Bellevue Chamber Chorus, the Philharmonia Northwest, Seattle Bach Choir, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Choral Company, Kirkland Choral Society and the Music Center of the Northwest.

She holds a Masters degree in organ and voice performance and teaches privately.

(April 2013)

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MILES VOKURKA, Clarinetist

Miles Vokurka (photo from Peninsula Daily News)

Miles Vokurka was born in Kladno, Czechoslovakia. His mother was an American citizen living abroad and his father was a musician and music store owner. To escape the communist take-over of his country, he and his family emigrated to Chicago in 1948 just in time for him to enroll in an American kindergarten.

He started piano lessons at an early age and then began playing the clarinet in 4th grade in his grade-school band. As a teenager he studied clarinet with Jerome Stowell of the Chicago Symphony and was a member of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Chicago.

He was accepted into Northwestern University as an engineering student, but quickly transferred into the School of Music (where he seemed to be spending most of his time anyway). He was an active member of the NU Student Band Staff working with directors John Paynter and Cecil B. Wilson, and played B-flat soprano and E-flat sopranino clarinet in the NU Symphonic Wind Ensemble.

Miles received a Bachelor of Music Education degree as well as a Masters in Clarinet Performance from Northwestern, and spent over 20 years teaching and directing high school instrumental music in the Chicagoland area.

Miles and his wife, Susan, live a pastoral life in rural Port Townsend with their menagerie of assorted critters: their dog Samantha, 4 cats, 5 chickens, 2 guinea pigs, a parakeet, and pygmy goats Thelma & Louise.

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SUSAN ROE, Soprano

Susan Roe’s radiant soprano voice has been heard throughout California, the Northwest and the East Coast with chamber music ensembles, in oratorio and opera festivals. She has soloed with the Inland Empire Symphony and Master Chorale, the Pasadena Chorale and Orchestra, the Redlands Symphony, the Riverside Master Chorale, the Monterey Bay Chamber Orchestra, the Cabrillo Opera Festival and the Bach Aria Festival in New York.

In 2007, Ms. Roe had the pleasure of performing with Dewey Ehling and the Peninsula Singers. She is delighted to have the opportunity once again to work with Maestro Ehling in his role as conductor of the Port Townsend Orchestra.

Ms. Roe made her international operatic debut in the role of Musetta at the Cairo Opera House in 1996 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Giacomo Puccini’s LaBohème.

Reviewers of Ms. Roe’s operatic performances praise her “impressive vocal gift, which she uses with beauty and subtlety” and attest that she is “as effective an actress as she is a singer.” Other credits include performance fellowships awarded by the Gluck Foundation (2002-2005), a recital funded by the Riverside Arts Foundation and several performances of Carlisle Floyd’s opera Susannah, funded by a California State University grant-award, in which she was recognized for “Excellence in Theatre.”

In 2004, Ms. Roe earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to performing, she has taught at the University of California, Riverside, UCLA and California Baptist University, Riverside.

(April 2012)