Noon Hour Online Concert: Returning to our roots

We will be presenting a recital of English songs and duets by British, Canadian, and American composers, including Vaughan Williams, Barber, Finzi, Larsen, Raminsh, and Weill. Since the partnership between poetry and music is so essential to art song, we wanted to return to our linguistic roots by presenting songs written in our mother tongue. As we chose sets for this recital, the theme of women arose, as our songs are written about women, or set the words of women."

Elizabeth Lepock, soprano

Michael Lepock, baritone

Anna Ronai, piano

Biographies

Elizabeth Lepock, soprano, holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance from the University of Western Ontario. Over the course of her doctoral studies, in addition to honing her performance and pedagogy skills Elizabeth also pursued ground-breaking interdisciplinary research into muscle tension voice disorders. Elizabeth passionately loves the challenge of mentoring aspiring musicians, the joy of performing, and all the background work that comes with both (especially delving into history, poetry, and foreign language study).

Michael Lepock, baritone, holds a Bachelor of music in composition from Wilfrid Laurier University. Nowadays he sings in a number of community and professional choirs including Spiritus Ensemble and the DaCapo Chamber Choir, which has rehearsed and recorded a number of pieces in the Uptown Waterloo car park. He is thrilled to be presenting this program of Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch with his wife, Elizabeth.

Pianist Anna Ronai has performed at major venues in Europe, North America and China, including the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York, Gläserner Saal, Musikverein, and Schubert Saal, Konzerthaus in Vienna. Anna has collaborated with such distinguished singers as Michelle Breedt, Bernarda Fink, Robert Holl, and instrumentalists like Ulrike Anton and Brooks de Wetter-Smith.
Anna graduated from the University for Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, [Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Wien] with two Masters degrees, one in Piano Performance and the other in Collaborative Piano. She maintained vocal and instrumental coaching positions at the Vienna and Innsbruck Conservatories, and a faculty position for piano chamber music at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna. She has played for master-classes with esteemed artists including Brigitte Fassbaender, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Hampson and Linda Watson. Anna has appeared and placed in several major Lied Duo competitions such as the Robert Schumann Duo Competition in Zwickau, Germany, the East & West Artists International Auditions in New York, and Schubert und die Moderne in Graz, Austria. In 2009 Anna moved to Canada, and is now the instrumental accompanist and piano instructor at Conrad Grebel University College. She also teaches at Wilfred Laurier University.