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Daniel Raessler
(e-mail)
Whether participating in a national Sacred Harp sing in Birmingham, Alabama; watching Zuni Kiva groups perform the Comanche Dance at their Pueblo in New Mexico; or hearing Delta bluesman T-Model Ford sing for a small group of students in his living room in Greenville, Mississippi, Prof. Raessler enjoys a wide range of music. His interests have led him to pursue research on a variety of topics, from historical keyboard performance practices to women in music, from Busoni's compositional style to his revisions of works by Liszt and Schoenberg, from humor in hillbilly music to disability issues. His edition of two piano works by Jane Guest Miles appears in volume III of Women Composers: Music through the Ages, while his articles have been published in the U.S., England, and Europe in such journals and dictionaries as Early Music, The Music Review, The Piano Quarterly, Journal of the Arnold Schoenberg Institute, Quodlibet (a Spanish journal in which his article on keyboard touch was translated into that language), Exceptional Parent, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and in the Encyclopedia of the Blues and the 60-volume Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Those interests and scholarly activities, along with his having participated in summer seminars and institutes funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, in the College's Colloquium and American Culture Program, and continued study of literature inform his teaching of European and American music history.
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An alum of the internationally acclaimed Dale Warland Singers, Randall Speer has performed as tenor soloist in local and regional oratorio, opera and musical theater productions across the United States, including the Fresno Lyric Opera (Fiddler on the Roof), Magnum Chorum (Bach Christmas Oratorio), the Mississippi Valley Chamber Orchestra (Carmina Burana), the Lynchburg Community Concert Series (Amahl and the Night Visitors and Missa Luba), and the Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven Symphony No. 9).
Dr. Speer has conducted a wide variety of ensembles, including a women’s prison chorus, which he founded — a truly unique and powerful experience in the communal benefits of choral singing. From 1992 to 1999, he served as founder/director of Voce Magna, a critically acclaimed vocal chamber ensemble performing primarily 20th century repertoire. He has conducted choral and orchestral works across the United States and in Europe, including Brahms Symphony No. 3, Verdi Requiem, Paulus The Three Hermits (mid-Atlantic premiere), Mozart Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Carissimi Jephte, Bernstein Chichester Psalms, Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Delibes Misse Breve, Randall Thompson Place of the Blest, and Rutter Gloria, to name a few. His conducting mentors have included Floyd Mussard, Gary Unruh, William Hatcher, Dale Warland, John Lehman, Earl Rivers, Larry Wyatt, and Dian Chobanov. In 1989, Speer’s original composition Pauper Sum won first prize in the Riverside Masters Chorale Choral Composition Competition. His work has been reviewed as “a significant contribution to the choral repertoire” (Choral Journal, December, 1990). His compositions have been published with National Music Publishers and Thomas House, and recorded by the National Lutheran Choir.
On demand as a guest conductor, lecturer, and clinician, Speer serves as Associate Professor of Music at Randolph College, where he directs two choral ensembles, teaches class and individual voice lessons, diction for singers, vocal pedagogy, song literature, and conducting. He has enjoyed the distinct pleasure of serving as music director to two Randolph College music theatre productions (The Robber Bridegroom, Splendora), and of directing the music to two of Randolph College’s Greek plays (The Clouds, Elektra). Speer serves as Music Director at Court Street United Methodist Church in downtown Lynchburg, Virginia.
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Pianist Emily Yap Chua recently made her international solo debut at The Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, where she was described as “a remarkably passionate piano soloist . . . vividly enchanting,” [The Daily Tribune] and praised for “tonal beauty and clarity,” “a graceful, effortless manner,” and a performance described as “vibrant, . . . spirited and movingly expressive.” “ . . . The overall impression Chua gave was of an exceedingly talented young pianist readying herself for greater acclaim in the year 2008 and beyond.” [The Philippine STAR] An active soloist and chamber musician, her collaborations include performances with musicians of orchestras and institutions around the world, including recitals with members of the Cincinnati, San Francisco, Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), Granada (Spain), Charlotte, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras, as well as faculty from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati (CCM-UC), The Juilliard School, University of Virginia, and Florida State University, among others. Recent appearances include a guest artist residency at the Asolo Song Festival and Insitute for Song Interpretation in Asolo, Italy, and recitals at The College of Charleston, University of North Florida, University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Mary Baldwin College, Longwood University, University of Dayton, and at the national convention for Phi Beta National Performing Arts Fraternity. Chua earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in music with minors in mathematics and dance from the Florida State University in 1996, graduating magna cum laude, and continued on to graduate study at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. As a full scholarship student and teaching assistant at CCM-UC, she earned the Master of Music degree in piano performance in 1998 and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance with a cognate in music theory in 2002. She is an active clinician and adjudicator and in demand nationally as a collaborator, and her students have been prizewinners in competitions in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions. Chua is currently working on a CD recording of the piano works of composer Kent Holliday, a project in collaboration with pianist Nicholas Ross to be released by Centaur Records in the fall of 2009. Dr. Chua is Associate Professor of Music at Randolph College, where she coordinates the Guest Artist Series and teaches Piano, Accompanying, Music Theory, Women in Music, and Ensemble, and team-teaches in the interdisciplinary BFA Colloquium and Senior Seminar.
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Christopher Fosnaugh
(e-mail)
Fosnaugh was a member of the Cadets of Bergen County Drum & Bugle Corps 1997-1999 and served as Lead Snare in 1998, during which they won the DCI World Championships. He earned the Bachelor of Music degree at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, where he was a Baur Scholarship awardee. He continued on to the Eastman School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music degree and was a teaching assistant in the percussion studio of John Beck. Fosnaugh also pursued additional post-graduate work at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He can be heard on CD recordings of the Eastman Wind Ensemble and the Kansas City Symphony, and on recordings of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on iTunes. Fosnaugh maintains a private studio in Lynchburg, Virginia, and is a faculty member for the North Carolina Governor's School West (Winston-Salem). He is also an Artist with the Vic Firth Education Team.
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Andrew Gabbert
(e-mail)
Cellist Andrew Gabbert currently performs with the flute and cello duo Terra Voce, having previously held titled positions with the Tulsa Philharmonic and Opera orchestras for eleven years. He has also performed as a soloist with the Tulsa Philharmonic and the National Repertory Orchestras, and recorded on Centaur Records as the Principal Cellist of the Chorus Civitas Orchestra on their compact disc of Ralph Vaughan Williams choral works. He has previously been a member of the Baton Rouge Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, Terre Haute Symphony, Camerata Chamber Orchestra, Britt Festival Orchestra, Sunriver Festival Orchestra and the Texas Festival-Institute Orchestra at Round Top. He has also performed with the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, the Solisti New York Orchestra at the OK Mozart Festival, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Sinfonietta, and Light Opera Oklahoma. As a chamber musician, he performed regularly in concerts and educational presentations as a member of the Tulsa Philharmonic String Quartet/Quintet. In addition to performing, Mr. Gabbert is a dedicated pedagogue and has taught as a Visiting Instructor at the University of Oklahoma and as a graduate assistant at Louisiana State University.
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Alycia Hugo
(e-mail)
Since completing her Master of Music in Flute Performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston, flutist Alycia Hugo has pursued a varied and interesting professional career as an orchestra member and recitalist. Her teachers have included John Wummer (New York Philharmonic Orchestra), James Pappoutsakis and Lois Schaefer (both with the Boston Symphony Orchestra), and Marjorie Lockwood (Phoenix Symphony Orchestra). She is a four-time winner of the National Flute Association Convention Performers Professional Flutist Competition, achieving national recognition for her skills as a performer of twentieth century music, and is a two-time winner of the National Flute Association Professional Flute Choir Performer Competition performing at conventions throughout the United States. Ms. Hugo has also been a semifinalist and finalist in the Myrna Brown Artist Competition in Dallas, Texas. For two summers, Ms. Hugo performed as a member of the Rome Festival Orchestra in Rome, Italy, and as a member of the Hugo/Garat Trio performed in recital at the Debussy birth place at St. Germaine-en-laye, France. She has performed as soloist with several orchestras in the New England area as well as with the Roanoke and Lynchburg Symphony Orchestras and currently serves as principal flutist with the Roanoke and Lynchburg Symphony Orchestras and the Opera Roanoke Orchestra. She is a member of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra and teaches flute performance at Liberty University, Lynchburg College, and Randolph College.
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Jana Ross
(e-mail)
Violinist Jana Vander Schaaf Ross is a much sought after soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player in Central and Southwest Virginia. As a member of the James Piano Quartet, she is Artist-in-Residence at Sweet Briar College and the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival. She is also is concertmaster of Opera on the James, and principal second violinist of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and Opera Roanoke. Ross began her violin studies at the age of three at the St. Louis Conservatory and School for the Arts. She received her bachelor’s degree from Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with Taras Gabora, and her master’s degree at Rice University where her principal teacher was renowned pedagogue Sergiu Luca. She has appeared in the Tanglewood and Aspen music festivals, as well as being concertmaster and soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado. She has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Houston and Richmond Symphonies, and was a tenured member of the Colorado Symphony for two years before moving to Lynchburg, where she now resides with husband, Nick, and two sons. Ross currently serves on the faculty of Sweet Briar College, Randolph College and Hollins University, as well as maintaining a large private studio at the Ross School of Music.
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