Tag: Voice

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ROBIN REED, Baritone

Robin Reed
Robin Reed

Coming from a family of professional musicians, Robin Reed started singing at a very early age, singing in church choirs and community chorales. He has been a professional singer since 1970. He has had many varied appearances in opera, operetta, musical theater, movies and television.

Robin and his family lived in Germany for five years while he was engaged by Stadt Theater Bremerhaven as a leading tenor, singing 25 leading roles. He was also a guest artist in Hamburg, Krefeld, Kassel and Osnabrueck, among other German cities. After returning from Europe, Robin continued as a contract artist with Arizona Opera, Virginia Opera, Sarasota Opera and Los Angeles Opera Theater.

He has made many appearances with symphonic orchestras and prestigious choral societies as a soloist performing works from Bach to Mahler.

Robin created a vast repertoire of solo music from parlor songs to classical and has been in demand as a “one-man-show” since high school.

He is very pleased to be making his Port Townsend Orchestra debut.

Robin and his wife moved to Sequim in 2013 due to their love of nature and their desire to visit as many National Parks as possible. Their honeymoon (41 years ago) was a six-thousand mile camping trip from Los Angeles to Winnipeg to Victoria, BC; then returning through Port Angeles via Highway 101, all the way back to their first home in Pasadena, California.

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JOEL YELLAND, Vocalist

Joel Yelland first sang in public in fifth grade, performing “This Is the Army, Mr. Jones” in Cub Scout uniform and doughboy helmet.

Joel studied voice at Central Washington University and sang in community choruses for several decades before resuming vocal training a few years ago. He appeared in many community musicals in his former home of Omak, before moving to Sequim in 2010. He sings with Peninsula Singers and in Readers Theater Plus productions; he studies with Linda Grubb and Anneliese von Goerken.

Joel is a family medicine physician and medical director of the Lower Elwha Health Clinic in Port Angeles. His wife, Grace, is a pediatrician and oboist, and his two children attend college.

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VICKI HELWICK, Soprano

Vicki was raised in Long Beach, California, and sang her first solo in church there at the age of five. Singing in the choir was, and still is, a favorite pastime. She even met her husband singing in the choirs at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo.

She earned her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at California State University, Sacramento.

After staying home to raise two children (a violist and bass player), she went back to school to earn her teaching credential and is currently teaching 7th grade Language Arts at Sequim Middle School.

Recently, Vicki has done two fundraising concerts, one for Port Angeles High School’s orchestra and another for the Sequim Choir. Both groups were preparing for trips to perform at Carnegie Hall. She sings with the Peninsula Singers. Her daughter, Elizabeth, is a freshman at the University of Idaho majoring in Dance Pedagogy and Choreography. Her son, Michael, is a junior at Port Angeles High School and plans to pursue a degree in Bass Performance.

Vicki recently appeared in Winter Wonderettes, a Readers Theater production directed by Maestro Ehling.

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RAY CHIRAYATH, Vocalist

Ray Chirayath
Ray Chirayath

A native of India, Ray Chirayath began singing at the age of fourteen. While in India, he performed as Joseph in Joseph and his Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat; Rusty in Starlite Express; and Mungojerrie in Cats.

As his family traveled the world and lived in many different places, Ray frequently sang with church choirs, usually as a cantor.

He has performed with the Bangalore Academy Chorale, in India; the Moscow Oratorio, in Russia; the Buffalo (New York) Choral Arts Society; the Central Florida Master Choir, in Ocala; and the Peninsula Singers, in our own backyard.

Ray moved to Sequim about a year ago and works as a financial advisor with D.A. Davidson.

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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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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)