Sunday, July 22, 2018, 4:00 pm
Edwin Lawrence
w\Thomas Gregg
Edwin Lawrence
w\Thomas Gregg
Organist Edwin Lawrence and tenor Tom Gregg will present a program of 19th century American music. The music will reflect times in the history of the Lanesborough church's history: the founding of the church in 1767, the erection of the current house of worship in 1836, and the building of the William Johnson and Sons organ in 1862. Composers will include Lewis Edson, who was a member of the church during its first decades, Benjamin Carr, Oliver Shaw, George F. Root, and Dudley Buck.
Edwin Lawrence is an Artist Associate in Harpsichord, Piano, and Organ, and Instructor in Music at Williams College teaching keyboard musicianship labs for music theory courses, and offering instruction in piano, organ and harpsichord. He holds a B. Music Degree from the SUNY College at Fredonia, 1969. He has studied piano with Gabriel Chodos, harpsichord with Preethi da Silva, and organ with William Porter. He is Minister of Music for the First Congregational Church, UCC of Williamstown and former Music Director for the Bennington County Choral Society, recently retiring after almost 40 years service. He has been a faculty member at Bennington College and music director for the Oldcastle Theatre Company in Bennington. As a producer for Dorian Recordings, he was directly involved with more than 20 recording projects. Lawrence is a founding member of the Consortium of Vermont Composers and has served as a guest conductor of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra. In 1990, he received a Citation of Merit from the Vermont Council of the Arts for his contributions to the vitality of the arts in the Green Mountain State. |
Tenor Thomas Gregg has been a Vermont (Putney) resident since 2011, with recent local appearances in operas with the Bennington County Choral Society and the Windham Orchestra in Brattleboro. Other professional opera appearances have included productions in New Orleans, Memphis, and Columbus, and historical operas in Boston and Washington, D.C. He has appeared as tenor soloist with numerous orchestras and choral groups, and as choral singer with distinguished ensembles, including Boston's King's Chapel choir, the Handel & Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, and the Washington Bach Consort. He has performed with early music ensembles in New England, Ohio, and the South. He also enjoys an active career in recitals and chamber music, especially with harpist Emily Laurance in the duo DoubleAction. He has worked closely with a number of composers to present new vocal works written for him, especially Boston composer Larry Bell. His European debut was at the Franz Schubert Institute in Austria. He has won numerous performance and academic awards and holds degrees in voice from The Ohio State University (DMA), the University of Michigan (MM), and Capital University in Columbus, Ohio (BM). He is a Professor of voice at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and his former students have careers as professional singers, actors, voice teachers, and music educators. |