Reed Busy Performing Throughout NE Ohio

Dr. Thomas Reed, professor of Music and chair of the Music and Theatre Departments, has given a number of performances in recent months. 

• Played saxophone with the Cleveland Orchestra in performances of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" at Blossom Music Center July 5 and 6.
• Performed as Assistant Principal Clarinet with the Blossom Festival Band on July 3 and 4. 
• On June 29 he played saxophone with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. 
• In May and June he played clarinet and saxophone in the Cleveland Orchestra's performances of the film score to "An American in Paris" at Severance Hall.
• And played Bass Clarinet with the Akron Symphony in the concert version of "West Side Story." 
• In March, he performed as Principal Clarinet with the Akron Symphony in Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra" and works by Korngold and Adams.
• Performed on the CD "Blue is More Than a Color," by Youngstown State University faculty member Dave Morgan. On the CD Reed plays baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, and is clarinet soloist on the song "Coisa Nova." The CD is available on Spotify and iTunes.

Fairy Tales, Comedy & Tragedy at 2019 Opera Scenes

Every spring the Ashland University Department of Music offers audience members a chance to experience live opera through a variety of scenes from a collection of well-known titles. In 2019, the two evenings of opera scenes will be performed on Thursday, April 25 and Friday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the intimate Studio Theatre at Ashland University. The performances are free and open to the public.

The variety of this year's scenes range from a fairy tale to comedies and a tragedy with many of them featuring story lines of love and romance. One similarity among all four of the operas is the idea of hidden and mistaken identities or masks. Also, all four of these operas are written by well-known composers (Mozart, Verdi, Strauss, and Humperdinck) and their titles (The Marriage of Figaro, La traviata, Die Fledermaus, Hansel and Gretel, respectively) are cornerstones of the opera world.

Based on the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale, Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel is associated with the holidays and is often performed around Christmas. The Ashland performance will feature the opening scene where Hansel and Gretel are at their home and Hansel becomes very hungry. We all know what that leads to.

Several songs will be performed from Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus (aka The Revenge of the Bat) which is a story of mistaken identities, flirtations at a masked ball, elegant frivolities and confusions of all kinds. Our cast will perform "The Drinking Song" duet, Orlovsky’s aria, "Meir Herr Marquis" and "Sing to Love."

W. A. Mozart's comic opera The Marriage of Figaro tells the story of how the servants, Figaro and Susanna, taught their employer a lesson in fidelity and then succeeded in getting married. Selections from this comedy will include "Porgi Amor," "Voi che sapete" and "Sull’aria."

The most serious of the evenings' opera scenes will come from Giuseppe Verdi's tragedy, La traviata (The Fallen Women). However, the song selection for Ashland's opera scenes is one of the lighter moments of the story as the ensemble performs "The Brindisi," the opera's famous drinking song and one of the best-known opera melodies.

Under the direction of Sandra Ross and accompaniment by pianist Deb Logan, this annual event features vocal performances from student singers. This year's cast includes Drew Berlin (Barberton), Kendra Garver (Shreve), Maggie George (Independence), Mia Kardotzke (Clyde), Maya Rickard (Wooster), Dave Tomlinson (Cleveland) and Rebecca Young (Sherwood, Oregon).

2018 Opera Scenes: An Evening of Menotti

Ashland University Department of Music presents two evenings of opera scenes on Friday, April 13 and Saturday, April 14 which will feature the theatrical operas of Gian Carlo Menotti. The nightly 7:30 p.m. performances will be held in the intimate Studio Theatre at Ashland University, and are free and open to the public.

The performances will present scenes from four of Menotti's operas including The Old Maid and the Thief, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Medium and The Consul. Complete with theatrical staging, the scenes will include lighting design by Seth Morrison, costume design by Justin Bilewicz and Drew Berlin, while Kendra Garver is the properties master.

Under the direction of Sandra Ross and accompaniment by pianist Deb Logan, this annual event features vocal performances from student singers. This year's female cast includes Samantha Eron (Brighton, MI), Gracie Fumic (Avon), Kendra Garver (Shreve), Mia Kardotzke (Clyde), Maya Rickard (Wooster), Anna Rivero (Ashland), and Rebecca Young (Sherwood, Oregon). Male singers include Cory Turpin (Ashland) and Drew Berlin (Barberton).

Equally at home on both operatic and musical theater stages, Ms. Ross has performed with Cincinnati Opera, Cleveland Opera, Central City Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Opera North, Sorg Opera and nine seasons with the Ohio Light Opera. Some of her favorite roles have been Orlovsky, Carmen and Cherubino. In Hamburg, Germany Ms. Ross appeared for 2 years as Madame Giry in Andrew Lloyd Weber's The Phantom of the Opera. A frequent concert soloist Ms. Ross has performed works including Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings Symphony, under the direction of the composer, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Beethovens’s Missa Solemnis, Prokofieff's Alexander Nevsky, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Mass in Bflat Major, Handel’s Messiah and Vivaldi’s Gloria, with organizations including the orchestras of Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Ashland, Toledo and Youngstown. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio Ms. Ross holds a bachelors degree from Heidelberg University and a masters degree from the New England Conservatory where she studied with the renowned Ed Zambara.