Noon Hour Online Concert: Returning to our roots

Selections from Of Mothers and Children: Five Irish Lyrics for Soprano and Piano                       
                                                                                                                                Imant Raminsh (b. 1943)

I. The Woman with Child   
V. A Little Boy in the Morning  

Elizabeth Lepock, soprano, and Anna Ronai, piano

Amabel                                                                                                                       Gerald Finzi (1901-1956)
The Self Unseeing  
The Clock of the Years                                                                                                                   

Michael Lepock, baritone, and Anna Ronai, piano 

Try Me, Good King: Last Words of the Wives of Henry VIII                                Libby Larsen (b. 1950)

I. Katherine of Aragon 
II. Anne Boleyn
III. Jane Seymour
IV. Anne of Cleves 
V. Katherine Howard                                                                                                                 

Elizabeth Lepock, soprano and Anna Ronai, piano

Four Last Songs                                                                                    Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1952)
Procris   
Tired
Hands, Eyes, and Heart 
Menelaus

Michael Lepock, baritone, and Anna Ronai, piano (with Elizabeth Lepock, soprano)

Will You Remember Me from Knickerbocker Holiday                                         Kurt Weill  (1900-1950)

Elizabeth Lepock, soprano, Michael Lepock, baritone, and Anna Ronai, piano                     

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.