Robert Lehmann was born and raised in Mexico City.
He is a graduate of the University of the Pacific and the Eastman School of Music, and a 2008 recipient of a doctorate in violin performance from Boston University.

He is Director of String Studies, Associate Professor of Music and Artist Faculty in violin and viola at the University of Southern Maine School of Music.
He Conducts the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra, the Portland Youth Symphony Orchestra, the North Shore Philharmonic, the Portland Chamber Orchestra, and the White Mountain Bach Festival.

He has been a frequent guest conductor of the Portland Symphony Orchestra as well as other professional orchestras around the world, and is in great demand as a violinist, teacher, adjudicator and conductor.

WMMA is proud to welcome Dr. Lehmann back is Festival Director for the fourth season.

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PAUL MCGOVERN
WMMA CHORAL CONDUCTOR

WMMA is pleased to announce that Dr. Paul McGovern, will be preparing the Festival Chorus for the 2011 Bach Festival. Dr. McGovern has over 20 years teaching experience, both in K-12 schools and at the college level.

Throughout his career, he has conducted school and community choral ensembles of all types and ages. Currently he serves as chorus master for PORTopera and as conductor of the Southern Maine Children's Choir at USM. Previously, he has served as music director and conductor of the UMF Community Chorus and the Granite State Choral Society. Paul continues to sing with the Choral Art Society’s chamber choir, Camerata.

Currently he teaches music at Portland High School. He has taught music and directed choirs at Cape Elizabeth High School, Saint Joseph’s College, SUNY-Potsdam, and Georgia Southern University. Dr. McGovern received his Bachelor’s degree from Queens College/CUNY and his Masters and Doctoral degrees in Choral Conducting from Indiana University. Before graduate school, he taught music in the public schools in the greater Philadelphia, PA area for six years.

Ray Cornils is the Municipal Organist for the City of Portland and is also Minister of Music at Parish Church, UCC in Brunswick, Maine. A member of the music faculties of Bowdoin College and the University of Southern Maine, he also teaches organ, harpsichord and related classes. Mr. Cornils graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music. Ray has concertized throughout the United States and in Germany, France, Spain, Russia, Ecuador and New Zealand. He has performed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia’s famed Wanamaker Organ. He has been a featured recitalist for conventions of the American Guild of Organists and the Organ Historical Society. He performs regularly with the Portland Symphony and Musica Tricinia, a group of two trumpets and organ.

Concert ~ Sunday afternoon, August 21 at 4 PM

Aaron Pettengill, Young Artist

Aaron Pettengill began playing the violin in third grade after seeing the an orchestra perform at his school in the third grade. Since then, he's been a dedicated musician and has devoted his life to music. His teachers have included Anne Wilkinson, Deardre Oehrtman, Ronald Lance and Robert Lehmann. Before graduating high school, he became the concertmaster of the Portland Youth Symphony and the Maine All-State Orchestra. He is currently persuing a performance degree in music at the University of Southern Maine.

Frank Glazer

Frank Glazer has had a long and distinguished career as a soloist, recording artist, chamber musician and teacher. Critics from all over the world have called him "a master musician as well as a virtuoso" and have praised his performances as "formidable", as well as "extraordinary", and "phenomenal". Mr. Glazer studied with the great pianist and Beethoven interpreter Artur Schnabel in Berlin where he met the composer Arnold Schoenberg with whom he also studied. His New York debut when he was 21 was a notable success, as was his first appearance three years later with a major symphony orchestra, the Boston Symphony led by Serge Koussevitsky. Since then he has played in 24 countries with the world's finest
orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and many of the finest ensembles abroad. Mr. Glazer was a founding member of the Eastman Quartet and, as a chamber musician, has performed with the Fine Arts Quartet, the Cleveland Quartet, and the New York Woodwind Quintet, among others. He was on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music for 15 years before coming to Maine. He is Artist-in-Residence at Bates College, and continues to perform, conduct master classes and lecture frequently in Maine, throughout the United States and abroad.

The 94-year-old Glazer, a pianist of international renown,
has been an artist in residence at Bates College, Maine since 1980.
In a era whose pianists often strive for the gloss of mechanical precision and a big sound, Glazer instead makes all else secondary to the music's own message.

"He has thought everything through and tried to get at the core of what the music is about. Everything he does is about that," says colleague James Parakilas, a pianist himself and the James L. Moody Jr. Family Professor of Performing Arts at Bates. "And he has a wonderful way of making a line sing."

JOHN ADAMS , BASS-BARITONE

Bass-baritone John David Adams has enjoyed acclaim as a concert soloist as well as for diverse opera and stage roles. His concert repertoire ranges from cantatas and oratorios by Bach, Handel and Haydn to premieres of new works, appearing with ensembles such as the San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, Berkeley Lyric Opera Orchestra, Marin Chamber Orchestra, Midcoast Symphony, Arlington Symphony, North Shore Philharmonic, New England Wind Symphony, Maine Music Society, Longfellow Chorus, Masterworks Chorale and Oratorio Chorale. His musical stage credits range from Cosi fan tutte to Sweeney Todd in productions by Boston Opera, Granite State Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, Berkeley Opera, Port Opera, Apollo Opera, SOLO Opera, Maine Grand Opera, New England Light Opera and Maine State Music Theater.

EMILY MARVOSH , SOPRANO

Emily Marvosh, mezzo soprano, is active in opera and oratorio in the Boston area. As a soloist, she has performed with Boston Lyric Opera, the Back Bay Chorale, L’academie, Longwood Opera and Intermezzo Chamber Opera; she, also, is a frequent soloist with the Marsh Chapel Choir Bach Cantata Series. In 2005 Miss Marvosh sang the role of Meg in the New England premiere of Mark Adamo’s Little Women, and also recently premiered the song cycle In the Sky She Floats. Recent concert performances include solo appearances with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Harvard University, the Providence Singers and Seraphic Fire and Firebird Chamber Orchestra. 2010 engagements include the Oregon Bach Festival under the direction of Helmut Rilling and the Berkshire Choral Festival She holds degrees from Central Michigan University (B. Music) and Boston University (Master of Music).

In the 2009-2010 season, Ashley Emerson will be seen at the Metropolitan Opera as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro and Young Lover in Il Tabarro. For her Seattle Opera debut, she will create the role of Young Amelia in the world premiere of Daron Hagen’s Amelia. Concert engagments include the Mozart Requiem in a joint project with the Choral Art Society of Maine and Portland Ballet; as well as Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Music Festival, conducted by James Levine.

This past season, Ms. Emerson was a Gerdine Young Artist with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where she covered Florestine in The Ghosts of Versailles. In concert, Ms. Emerson was a featured soloist with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra singing arias from Mozart’s Zaide, where she was described as “sweet, defiant, and sensual, Emerson has the deep, gutsy sense of urgency that lends any opera singer an air of dramatic authenticity (Bangor Daily News).”

A recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Emerson appeared at the Met in new productions of La Rondine and Macbeth, and made her professional stage debut there in Le nozze di Figaro. She was also featured in the “Met in the Parks” summer concert series in 2009 and recently appeared as Despina at the Verbier Festival.

Ms. Emerson won First Prize in the Junior Division at the 2006 Palm Beach Opera Competition. In the summer of 2006, Ms. Emerson participated in the Maine Emerging Artist Program with PORTopera, singing Auretta in Mozart’s L’oca del Cairo. Ms. Emerson completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern Maine, where her roles included Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Adele in Die Fledermaus, and Isabelle/Madeline in The Face on the Barroom Floor.

Described as “…a rare artist; one who is a consummate musician and brilliant virtuso.” Has appeared as a guest artist of the Philadelphia area’s top musical organizations; performed the premiere of several solo compositions for trumpet and has been a featured soloist at International Brass Conferences. Honors: Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Delaware; Master of Music degree (majoring in music performance & literature) from the Eastman School of Music; released a solo
CD: Barbara Prugh, Trumpet Artisty.