The next recital in the new lunchtime series at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church will take place at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, December 5. The program, entitled The Music of Christmas Past, will consist of vocal and instrumental music for the Christmas season from the Medieval and Renaissance periods.
Music at St. Michael’s recitals take place in the sanctuary of this historic church, located in downtown Trenton at 140 N. Warren St., and the performers are faculty members of Westminster Conservatory, the community music school of Westminster College of the Arts of Rider University. Events in the series are free of charge and last approximately 45 minutes. The performers on December 5 will be Danielle Sinclair, voice; Melissa Bohl, oboe and early instruments; and Timothy Urban, voice and early instruments.
The program on December 5 includes carols such as ” The Wexford Carol,” “There is No Rose of Such Virtue,” “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” and instrumental music by Michael Praetorius and Tilman Susato. Early instruments in use will include recorders, krummhorn, psaltery, and hurdy-gurdy.
Danielle Sinclair has performed with orchestras throughout the country in works ranging from Bach’s Magnificat and St. John Passion to Respighi’s Lauda per la Natività del Signore and Orff’s Carmina Burana. She has appeared in numerous operatic roles including Musetta in La Bohème, Despina in Così fan tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel and Mabel in Pirates of Penzance. In 1990 she won Seattle’s 200+1 Vocal Competition, and in 1995 she won the prestigious Opera at Florham Guild Competition. Ms. Sinclair has been a frequent artist in Westminster Conservatory’s concert and recital series, and performs often with the Princeton Society of Musical Amateurs. In 2004 she performed in the ensemble of the world premiere performance of Charles Wuorinen’s opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories with New York City Opera. She can be heard as soloist on the Seattle Symphony Chorale’s recording “Singing a Glad Noel.”
In addition to a PhD degree in musicology Timothy Urban holds graduate degrees in early music performance practice, voice and recorder performance, and music theory. While a Fulbright scholar in Hungary he performed throughout Hungary and Austria with the choir Ars Nova. Mr. Urban has sung with the associate choruses of Tri-Cities Opera, Syracuse Opera, and New York City Opera. He has been heard in concerts and recitals in Taipei, Taiwan and Hong Kong, and has recorded programs for Hong Kong Radio. Mr. Urban regularly performs throughout the greater New York City area as both a singer and an instrumentalist. In addition to teaching voice and recorder at Westminster Conservatory, he gives lectures for Westminster Conservatory Opera Outings and for the Princeton Festival. He is also an adjunct professor at Rutgers University and Westminster Choir College.
Melissa Bohl is the principal oboist of the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey, the Orchestra of St. Peter-by-the-Sea, the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, and the American Repertory Ballet Orchestra. She plays oboe and English horn with the Plainfield Symphony and performs regularly with many other area musical organizations, including the Garden State Symphonic Band and the Central Jersey Symphonic Orchestra. At Westminster Conservatory she teaches oboe and is head of the woodwind, brass, and percussion department. She also coordinates three faculty performance series at Westminster Conservatory: the Kaleidoscope Chamber Series, the noontime series Westminster Conservatory at Nassau, and the outreach series Music at St. Michael’s in Trenton, NJ. Ms. Bohl has degrees in music from the Eastman School of Music, the University of Notre Dame, and Princeton University. Her principal teachers were Jerry Sirucek, Robert Sprenkle, and Ray Still. She is the artistic director and chair of the Princeton University Summer Chamber Concerts Committee.
The next Music at St. Michael’s recital will take place at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, February 6, and will feature Dezheng Ping, violin and Larissa Korkina, piano, performing music by Hummel and Grieg.