Chanticleer in Sonoma Choral Workshop - Optional Voice Lesson
June 15-19, 2011
“I became a more confident singer and made great progress in areas I wanted to improve.”
Optional Voice Lesson
Thirty-minute private voice lessons will be available
to participants for an additional fee by advance reservation only.
Voice lesson description (pdf)
Voice lesson reservation form (pdf)
To reserve a session, please submit your reservation and payment
for this activity along with your workshop registration.
Our Voice Teachers
Karen Clark
Karen Clark’s repertory includes the medieval chant of Hildegard von Bingen, chanson of the troubadour and trouvere,19th century German lieder, and new music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her singing has received critical acclaim from the New Yorker, New York Times, Seattle Times, South China Post, and San Francisco Chronicle: “The most striking performance was with Karen Clark. With minimal vibrato and malleable tone, Ms. Clark showed an astonishing range of expressive subtlety, carrying the listener rapt.” James Oestreich, New York Times
From Boston to San Francisco, and Hong Kong to Holland, Karen has performed in prestigious festival and concert series. She has toured North America with New York Early Music, and the Waverly Consort; and, Europe with Ensemble Sequentia. Career highlights include singing Bach’s B-minor Mass with Joshua Rifkin’s Bach Ensemble in Brixen, New York, and Perth, and with the National Chorale in Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Hall; and, in Thomas Binkley’s reconstruction of the Greater Passion Play (Carmina Burana ms.) where Karen sang the role of Maria Mater in Berkeley, Bloomington, and New York.
In 2011, Karen's recording with the Galax Quartet: On Cold Mountain: Songs on Poems of Gary Snyder is released on the Innova label (American Composers Forum.) Karen is also recorded on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi (Sequentia), Dorian (El Mundo), Erato (Boston Camerata), Focus (Indiana University), Musica Omnia (Magnificat), and New Albion (American Baroque.) Karen has held adjunct positions in the music departments of Princeton University, Swarthmore College, University of Southern California, and Sonoma State University. As guest director, Karen has led the Early Music Collegium at USC in a performance of Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame, and the Chamber Choir at University of California, Berkeley in Machaut's Le Lai de la Fonteinne.
Karen holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music where she studied opera and was a graduate assistant (voice) in the Early Music Institute under Thomas Binkley. Karen received her Feldenkrais certification in 1999. She lives in Northern California where she maintains Berkeley and Petaluma studios. Please visit: www.karenrclark.com
Christopher Fritzsche
Christopher Fritzsche is a performing artist, an educator, a frequent soloist with Bay Area vocal and instrumental ensembles, currently serves as Music Director for the Center for Spiritual Living in Santa Rosa and is a member of the vocal ensemble, Clerestory. Internationally recognized for his effortless countertenor voice, he can be heard on well over a dozen recordings on Warner Classics’ Teldec label.
From 1992 until 2003, he performed with the world-renowned a cappella vocal ensemble, Chanticleer. In those 11 years he sang over 1,000 concerts world-wide, appearing with the New York Philharmonic (Emil de Cou), San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, (Christopher Hogwood and Hugh Wolff), and more recently the Santa Rosa Symphony, (Jeffrey Kahane and Robert Worth) and has sung concerts in some of the world's most renown venues: The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.), New York's Lincoln Center, as well as national concert halls across Asia and Europe, including London's Wigmore Hall.
He has also appeared with the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago as soloist in Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and, as a member of Chanticleer, earned two Grammy awards for the CDs Colors of Love and Lamentations and Praises by the celebrated British composer Sir John Tavener. His singing has been described as “crystalline artistry”, Cleveland Plain Dealer, “crystalline rich soprano”, Los Alamos Moniter, and as having “extraordinary range and purity”, New York Times.
As an educator Christopher was on the voice faculty of his alma mater, Sonoma State University, (B.A. in Music, 1998) from 2004-2009, and continues to lead vocal workshops for choral and solo singers of all levels.
Todd Wedge
Todd Wedge, tenor, received his BM from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Voice Performance & Music Education and furthered his study with a MM from the Northwestern University School of Music in Vocal Performance and Literature. During this time he was a fortunate recipient of awards from the Friends of Austria Lieder Competition, American Opera Society, Bel Canto Society, and the Loretta Kearns award for excellence in music education. While living in the Chicago area he was frequently featured as the tenor soloist in the oratorio works of Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Bach, and Mozart while simultaneously maintaining a private studio and teaching courses in vocal health and pedagogy at the University of Notre Dame.
After completing a season as a young artist with the Chicago Opera Theatre, Mr. Wedge was invited to join the GRAMMY award winning men's ensemble "Chanticleer" with whom he spent three life-changing seasons. It was during his tenure in Chanticleer that Mr. Wedge met and fell in love with the San Francisco School of the Arts and it's mission. He is honored to be in his second year as the director of the SOTA Vocal Department. Mr. Wedge also maintains a private studio in San Francisco where he continues to develop his passion for vocal pedagogy.
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