 |
|
|
|
|
|
Depending on the program of music selected for each Viva season, Shulamit chooses from professional soloists, the choir’s own pool of talented singers, university and high school student music programs, and Bay Area musical theater performers. The result is an ability to match the choir’s varied and diverse mix of music with exactly the right talent. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This season's soloists |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Carla von Merz, soprano, is an accomplished church musician and soloist originally from the Austin area, where she sang and soloed with the Austin Civic Chorus. In the Bay Area, she has sung and soloed with several area churches, the Canada College chorus, and with Viva la Musica. A professional copy band lead and back-up singer, Ms. von Merz is also an accomplished director, most recently at the Burlingame United Methodist Church, where she created, directed, and arranged music for the church’s first sacred pop group. Her choral conducting career extends back to Austin, where for five years she directed the choir of the Koenig Lane Disciples of Christ Church, and to McAllen, Texas, taught chorus at Lincoln Junior High and coached high school All State participants. Ms. von Merz is a Music Education graduate, with high honors, of the University of Texas at Austin. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Seoung Lee Wilson, mezzo-soprano, is Professor Emeritus of Voice from St. Norbert College, De Pere Wisconsin. Ms. Wilson holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has sung major opera roles and alto solo of major choral works. She has appeared as a soloist with all the major symphony orchestras in Korea and in the United States with many Symphony Orchestras such as Charleston, Louisville, Green Bay, Aspen etc. She has studied with such eminent teachers as legendary song interpreter Madame Lotte Lehmann and Metropolitan Opera Baritone Mack Harrell. She is a member of NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) and Fortnightly Music Club where she performs regularly on their formal concerts. Since her retirement she enjoys teaching private students at her home in San Mateo. And most of all she is an enthusiastic member of Viva la Music! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Don Gustafson, tenor, has been a professional farrier (one who shoes horses) for twenty-seven years. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Baylor University and he enjoys singing in his free time. He sings with Schola Cantorum as a chorister and, frequently, as a soloist and is the tenor section leader and soloist for the Valley Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir. He also enjoys singing in musicals and opera. Productions in which he has appeared include The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Johnny Brown), Camelot, Carmen, Peter Grimes, Amahl and the Night Visitors (King Kaspar), Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye) and, most recently, as Captain Hook in Portola Valley Theater Conservatory’s Peter Pan. He has been featured with the California Pops Symphony Orchestra (formerly the Peninsula Pops S O) and has soloed with Los Altos United Methodist Church Chancel Choir. This is his second appearance with Viva la Musica and he is delighted to be back! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Paul S. Whitmer, tenor, has sung with local theater groups "The Stanford Savoyards" and The Gilbert and Sullivan Society of San Jose's "Lyric Theater", where he has had lead roles in every production. Paul is a long-time member of Los Altos United Methodist Church and has served as tenor section leader and soloist on many occasions and he is a past president of the LAUMC Chancel Choir. Paul is a mainframe software engineer, currently working for IBM in San Jose. When not working or singing, Paul is a devoted father of a three year-old daughter, Katherine. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Rick Williams, bass-baritone, is the winner of three Bay Area Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor in a Musical (title role in Man of La Mancha & John Adams in 1776 with the Willows Theatre, and Ko-Ko in The Mikado with the San Francisco Lamplighters). Mr. Williams has performed every Gilbert & Sullivan comic baritone role and appeared as King Gama in the Lamplighters’ award-winning production of Princess Ida at the 1995 International Gilbert & Sullivan Festival in Buxton, England. Along with the Lamplighters and Willows Theatre he has performed with West Bay Opera, Pocket Opera, Berkeley Contemporary Opera, Peninsula Civic Light Opera, and Piedmont Light Opera Theater. Roles include Dr. Bartolo (Barber of Seville), the Sacristan (Tosca), Voltaire, Pangloss and the Governor (Candide), Fredrik (A Little Night Music), Baron Zeta and Njegus (Merry Widow), Frosch (Fledermaus), Lutz (Student Prince), Madame Quimper-Keradec (Vie Parisienne), Henry Higgins (My Fair Lady), Fagin (Oliver), Captain Andy (Show Boat), and Scrooge (Christmas Carol). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
