Jeffrey Silberschlag, Music Director
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July 3 ~ A traditional 4th in an Unconventional Way
Hilary Kole
Bryan Bourne
Hosedown
Ballet Caliente
Sherri Fenwick
Jennifer Cooper
Carl Reichelt
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Introduction: Hillary Howard, anchor at WTOP & host of the quiz show “It’s Academic”
“Slowly with Freedom” Fisher Tull (1934-1994) Jeffrey Silberschlag, Trumpet from Auerbach Auditorium, St. Mary’s Hall Introduction: Jeffrey Silberschlag, Music Director, Chesapeake Orchestra & River Concert Series Professor of Music and Chair, Music Department, St. Mary’s College of Maryland Introduction: Dave Statter, STATter911.com Hosedown Morton Gould 1913-1996 Jeffrey Silberschlag, Conductor Dave Statter, Narrator The London Symphony Orchestra Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London Sliver Of You Hilary Kole The Moon Song Hilary Kole On My Way To You Michel Legrand Lyrics. Alan and Marilyn Bergman Hilary Kole, voice and piano Fantasie nègre No. 1 Florence Price 1887-1953 Lior Willinger, Piano Ballet Caliente Dancer: Josephine Fallon Music On The Boulevard Morton Gould Jeffrey Silberschlag, trumpet Gerard Schwarz, Conductor, Seattle Symphony Orchestra Intermission: Photo Montage of St. Mary’s College Background music: Su le Sponde del Tebro - Marie Claire Breen, soprano Chesapeake Chamber Orchestra The Winter’s Past Wayne Barlow Bryan Bourne, trombone Jose Cuéto, violin solo Roundtable talk: Jeffrey Silberschlag, Sherri Fenwick, Roy Johnson The Lord Is Blessing Me Soloists: Tia Bryant, Irvine Bryant, Omega Taylor Give Him Glory Soloist: James Toon Jr. The Blood Still Works/The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power Soloist: William Fenwick Unity Southern Maryland Community Gospel Choir, Sherri Fenwick Music Director A Fourth of July Finale Chesapeake Orchestra Groove Span Duo Jennifer Cooper, Voice Carl Reichelt, Guitar Music Credits: Introduction music: from KICKOFF by David Froom ACA Performed by Jeffrey Silberschlag, John Dent, Phil Snedecor, trumpets Jeffrey Lang, Anthony Valerio, horns Richard Clark, Bryan Bourne, trombones Michael M. Bunn, tuba Larry Vote, conductor Close Credit Music: Scarlatti - Su le Sponde del Tebro Marie Clarie Breen, soprano, Jeffrey Silberschlag, trumpet Chesapeake Chamber Orchestra |
Performer Bios
Hilary Kole, the New York native, studied composition at Manhattan School of Music, started her professional singing career at the legendary Rainbow Room.
In addition to performing at famed Manhattan venues like Town Hall, Birdland, Blue Note, Iridium, 54 Below, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall (with Michael Feinstein and The New York Pops), she made her concert-hall debut at Lincoln Center as part of the “American Songbook Series.”
In June 2007, she appeared at Carnegie Hall in a tribute to Oscar Peterson, a performance reprised in January 2008 at the Canadian Memorial to Dr. Peterson at Roy Thompson Hall alongside Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, and Nancy Wilson.
Globally, she has since headlined at the Umbria Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Nairn Jazz Festival, and the Cotton Club and Blue Note in Japan. She followed her 2009 debut album Haunted Heart (produced by and featuring jazz-guitar great John Pizzarelli), a Gold Disc Award winner in Japan, with You Are There, an ambitious compilation featuring vocal-piano duets with legendary pianists Dave Brubeck, Michel Legrand, Benny Green, Cedar Walton, Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, etc. which won a New York Bistro Award for record of the year, and received national recognition as a USA Today Best Album of the Year.
Hilary has appeared at The Alba Music Festival in Italy and twice with the Chesapeake Orchestra with Maestro Silberschlag.
Bryan Bourne
Long considered one of the nation's most accomplished trombonists, Bryan Bourne served for nearly 30 years in the United States Marine Band, "The President's Own." He held the principal trombone chair for 23 of those years until his retirement in 2013 from the Band. As a member of the "The President's Own." Bryan performed frequently at the White House for Presidents and Heads of States.
Additionally, Bryan Bourne has held the principal trombone position of the Chesapeake Orchestra since 1994 and he is also a member of the Washington Symphonic Brass. Mr. Bourne has played with all the major performing ensembles of the Baltimore/Washington region including the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center Orchestra.
Much sought after for his skill as a teacher, Bryan Bourne has taught trombone at St. Mary’s College of Maryland since 1990. He received his bachelor of music degree with high honors from Indiana University in 1979, having studied with Lewis Van Haney and Keith Brown. In 1989 he completed his master of music degree at Catholic University, where he studied with Milton Stevens of the National Symphony Orchestra.
Most recently, Bryan released his new recording as solo trombonist. The Cd is named "Transitions." In May of 2016, he appeared in Italy at the Alba Music Festival as soloist with the Romanian State Symphony at the Cathedral of San Domenico.
Sherri Fenwick
Sherri Fenwick, a professional musician, has performed on the piano and organ since an early age in Baltimore, MD. She received her education from St. Mary’s College of MD and Towson University. For 36 years, Sherri taught music and was one of the major Choral Directors in the St. Mary’s County Public Schools. She has been a Minister of Music in churches in the MD, DC and VA areas, organist at the St. Nicholas Base chapel and continues to serve where there is a need.
In 1982, Sherri founded the St. Mary’s Gospel Choir and was their Choral Director from 1982 - 1987 Currently, she is the Choral Director of the Southern Maryland Community Gospel Choir. She has been their Choral Director since 2016. Sherri is invited regularly into the St. Mary’s County Schools to train new Choral Directors.
Lior Willinger
Award-winning pianist Lior Willinger performs as a solo and chamber artist in the US and abroad. At the age of 19, he made his New York concerto debut at Carnegie Hall performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich. He won grand prize and audience prize in the Camerata Artists International Piano Competition following his performance of Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev at Merkin Hall.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Willinger has collaborated in recitals with musicians of the Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. He currently serves as Director of the Homewood Chamber Music Seminar, coaching student chamber groups at Johns Hopkins University. Passionate about the music of our time, Mr. Willinger has premiered countless works and has released a 10-part commissioning/performance/video/article series on I CARE IF YOU LISTEN called Active Listening. Each work in the project hopes to bring awareness and action to a social justice issue chosen by the composer.
Mr. Willinger earned the Bachelor of Music degree and the Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where he is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree with renowned artist-teacher, Yong Hi Moon. During his graduate studies, Peabody Conservatory honored Mr. Willinger with the Sidney Friedberg Prize in Chamber Music and the Presser Music Award "given to a student demonstrating excellence and outstanding promise for a distinguished career in the field of music.”
Active in the Baltimore community, Mr. Willinger performs weekly for infusion patients at Sinai Hospital’s Lapidus Cancer Institute. He is the Founder/Artistic Director of the If Music Be the Food concert series in Baltimore which acts to increase support and awareness for those struggling with food insecurity. The series, which partners with Maryland Food Bank, has raised thousands of meals for those in need. He also serves as resident pianist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Orchkids program which provides a free music education to students in impoverished areas.
Florence Beatrice Smith
Florence Beatrice Smith was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on April 9th, 1887. The daughter of a music teacher, her musical potential was evident at a very early age and she gave her first performance on piano at the age of four. She and her peer, William Grant Still, both studied under educator Charlotte Andrews. Florence graduated from Capitol High School at the age of 14 as the valedictorian and a published composer. After graduating from high school, Florence attended the New England Conservatory of Music. During her time at the conservatory, Florence was able to pass as Mexican to avoid some of the challenges faced by African American students at the time. She graduated from the conservatory in 1906. In the years following her time at the conservatory, Florence worked as a teacher and a composer, even moving to Atlanta to head the music department at Clark University. In 1912 Florence married Thomas J. Price, one of the few African American lawyers in Arkansas. The couple moved back to Little Rock, where they had two daughters and one stillborn son, to whom Florence Price later dedicated one of her compositions.
After a lynching in their community, the Price family left Arkansas for Chicago in 1927. It was in Chicago that Price’s marriage hit rough waters as the Great Depression led to financial stress that drove her husband to become abusive. In a bold move for a woman at that time, Price filed for divorce in 1930. Price then had to work as a teacher and organ performer to support herself and her two daughters, at one point even rooming with one of her students, Margaret Bonds.
It was only in 1932, when Price broke her foot, that she found the time to write a symphony. It was this work, Price’s “Symphony in E minor,” for which she won the Wanamaker Prize. In 1933, it was the first piece written by a woman of color to be performed by a major Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Florence Price was inducted into the American Society of Composers in 1940. Before dying of a stroke in 1953 Price had composed some 300 pieces.
Unfortunately, since her death many other contemporary composers have overshadowed Florence Price. Many of her compositions have been lost. However, around the turn of the millennium, female composers of color finally started to gain some recognition and Florence Beatrice Price started receiving some much deserved attention.
Price and her Music
It was in 1929 that Price wrote her first truly ambitious piano piece. This piece combined classical European and Negro spiritual musical styles. In Fantasie Negre, the main melody Price uses is actually that of the Negro spiritual, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass.
Sheryl-Marie Dunaway
Sheryl-Marie Dunaway is the owner and Artistic Director of Ballet Caliente for 16 years. Sheryl-Marie Dunaway has taught dance for over 30 years. She began her training at the tender age of 3 with the British Ballet Academy studying RAD. At 16, she was invited to become an apprentice with the San Francisco Ballet Company and danced with it for five consecutive summers. She attended the National Academy of Dance in Champaign, Illinois, a performing arts boarding high school that was a feeder school for the American Ballet Theater. During the summer months, she furthered her dancing interests by attending dance sessions at several famous dance schools and companies. Mrs. Dunaway has received scholarships to study with an extensive list of well-known dance organizations. Some of the most prestigious are the San Francisco Ballet, Ballet West, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; Dance Aspen and the School of American Ballet. She has studied with world-renowned teachers such as Lupe Serreno, Violette Verdy, Michael Maule, Harold and Lew Christiansen, Bene’ Arnold, Gus Giordano, and Joe Termaine. Mrs. Dunaway attended college on a dance scholarship at the University of Texas, El Paso, for one year then transferred to Southern Methodist University and received her BA, majoring in dance. Mrs. Dunaway has also performed as a professional dancer and a guest artist with several regional dance companies including Ballet El Paso, Ballet de Las Americas in Mexico, Ballet Fantastique, and the Monterey Peninsula Arts Company. Mrs. Dunaway enjoys writing and choreographing story ballets. Locally, she choreographed pieces and her troupe has performed with the St. Mary’s River Concert series in collaboration with Jeffery Silberschlag. Additionally, her group has performs the Nutcracker annually in conjunction with COSMIC orchestra, and the National Ballet of the Ukraine. The wife of an active duty Navy man, she has moved 17 times in 26 years of marriage and has taught several hundred students everywhere the Navy has taken her family, including Japan. Although many of her students are dancing professionally, or are enrolled at highly accredited dance schools and universities, Mrs. Dunaway feels her greatest success is in touching others. Her fondness for children has led to her greatest joy . . . teaching.
Jennifer Cooper
President/CEO of Go-DIVA! Productions, Inc. and professional vocalist, Jennifer Cooper, offers a unique, deeply varied repertoire of entertainment in an effort to blur the boundaries of genres and styles. Before taking the stage as a jazz, blues and pop songstress, Cooper sustained a successful, professional opera career during which she received rave reviews for more than thirty principle roles and various concert appearances throughout Europe, Canada and the U.S., and accumulated coveted top prizes in competitions including the Metropolitan Opera National Council, National Symphony Orchestra Young Artists, and others.
Following a hiatus from performing due to a medical setback, she returned to the stage in 2006, immersing herself in popular music genres. Cooper has since created, produced and starred in several original music productions, including her one-woman, auto-biographical musical cabaret, “Go-DIVA! ~ of Song, Silence & the Abuse of Chocolate” (written by LB Hamilton), “Velvet Nights” (international cabaret), “Sentimental Journey” (WWII era tribute), “Only Yesterday” (Carpenters tribute), and most recently, “Go-DIVA! Act III: The Swan Takes Flight” (sequel to the original “Go-DIVA!” which raised $5,800 for the Southern Maryland Youth Orchestra). In addition, her popular showcase series, “Opera Night” and “Broadway Night” consistently play to sold-out audiences in the southern Maryland region.
Cooper has performed jazz/cabaret concerts as a featured guest soloist with the renowned Chesapeake Orchestra led by Jeffery Silberschlag; with the Rappahannock Pops Orchestra, directed by her former music teacher and mentor, Kirk Wilke; and with the Chesapeake Choral Arts Society led by Michael Santana.
Cooper and her current ensemble, GrooveSpan, remain in high demand for various venues, music festivals, concert series, and private events. She also serves as a highly respected private voice instructor and vocal technique master class facilitator in the east coast region. As president and CEO of Go-DIVA! Productions, Inc. (a music presenter company), Cooper strives to provide exceptional quality entertainment, featuring the widest variety of eras and styles, while continuing to educate, inspire, and support the next generation of creative artists.
Carl Reichelt
A twenty-year veteran of the bandstand, Carl excels in genres ranging from rock to jazz, blues to art song, on both electric and acoustic guitar. A prolific composer, arranger and songwriter, Carl is also known for his work with local iconic groups such as Square Noon, Romi, Upstroke, and Round Midnite, a popular regional rock band that attracted a devoted following during its fifteen year run. Reichelt has shared the stage with Cooper as a member of Retroact, and performs regularly with Groovespan, of which he is an original founding member.
In addition to performing at famed Manhattan venues like Town Hall, Birdland, Blue Note, Iridium, 54 Below, Jazz at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall (with Michael Feinstein and The New York Pops), she made her concert-hall debut at Lincoln Center as part of the “American Songbook Series.”
In June 2007, she appeared at Carnegie Hall in a tribute to Oscar Peterson, a performance reprised in January 2008 at the Canadian Memorial to Dr. Peterson at Roy Thompson Hall alongside Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, and Nancy Wilson.
Globally, she has since headlined at the Umbria Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Nairn Jazz Festival, and the Cotton Club and Blue Note in Japan. She followed her 2009 debut album Haunted Heart (produced by and featuring jazz-guitar great John Pizzarelli), a Gold Disc Award winner in Japan, with You Are There, an ambitious compilation featuring vocal-piano duets with legendary pianists Dave Brubeck, Michel Legrand, Benny Green, Cedar Walton, Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, etc. which won a New York Bistro Award for record of the year, and received national recognition as a USA Today Best Album of the Year.
Hilary has appeared at The Alba Music Festival in Italy and twice with the Chesapeake Orchestra with Maestro Silberschlag.
Bryan Bourne
Long considered one of the nation's most accomplished trombonists, Bryan Bourne served for nearly 30 years in the United States Marine Band, "The President's Own." He held the principal trombone chair for 23 of those years until his retirement in 2013 from the Band. As a member of the "The President's Own." Bryan performed frequently at the White House for Presidents and Heads of States.
Additionally, Bryan Bourne has held the principal trombone position of the Chesapeake Orchestra since 1994 and he is also a member of the Washington Symphonic Brass. Mr. Bourne has played with all the major performing ensembles of the Baltimore/Washington region including the National Symphony Orchestra and the Kennedy Center Orchestra.
Much sought after for his skill as a teacher, Bryan Bourne has taught trombone at St. Mary’s College of Maryland since 1990. He received his bachelor of music degree with high honors from Indiana University in 1979, having studied with Lewis Van Haney and Keith Brown. In 1989 he completed his master of music degree at Catholic University, where he studied with Milton Stevens of the National Symphony Orchestra.
Most recently, Bryan released his new recording as solo trombonist. The Cd is named "Transitions." In May of 2016, he appeared in Italy at the Alba Music Festival as soloist with the Romanian State Symphony at the Cathedral of San Domenico.
Sherri Fenwick
Sherri Fenwick, a professional musician, has performed on the piano and organ since an early age in Baltimore, MD. She received her education from St. Mary’s College of MD and Towson University. For 36 years, Sherri taught music and was one of the major Choral Directors in the St. Mary’s County Public Schools. She has been a Minister of Music in churches in the MD, DC and VA areas, organist at the St. Nicholas Base chapel and continues to serve where there is a need.
In 1982, Sherri founded the St. Mary’s Gospel Choir and was their Choral Director from 1982 - 1987 Currently, she is the Choral Director of the Southern Maryland Community Gospel Choir. She has been their Choral Director since 2016. Sherri is invited regularly into the St. Mary’s County Schools to train new Choral Directors.
Lior Willinger
Award-winning pianist Lior Willinger performs as a solo and chamber artist in the US and abroad. At the age of 19, he made his New York concerto debut at Carnegie Hall performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich. He won grand prize and audience prize in the Camerata Artists International Piano Competition following his performance of Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev at Merkin Hall.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Willinger has collaborated in recitals with musicians of the Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. He currently serves as Director of the Homewood Chamber Music Seminar, coaching student chamber groups at Johns Hopkins University. Passionate about the music of our time, Mr. Willinger has premiered countless works and has released a 10-part commissioning/performance/video/article series on I CARE IF YOU LISTEN called Active Listening. Each work in the project hopes to bring awareness and action to a social justice issue chosen by the composer.
Mr. Willinger earned the Bachelor of Music degree and the Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where he is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree with renowned artist-teacher, Yong Hi Moon. During his graduate studies, Peabody Conservatory honored Mr. Willinger with the Sidney Friedberg Prize in Chamber Music and the Presser Music Award "given to a student demonstrating excellence and outstanding promise for a distinguished career in the field of music.”
Active in the Baltimore community, Mr. Willinger performs weekly for infusion patients at Sinai Hospital’s Lapidus Cancer Institute. He is the Founder/Artistic Director of the If Music Be the Food concert series in Baltimore which acts to increase support and awareness for those struggling with food insecurity. The series, which partners with Maryland Food Bank, has raised thousands of meals for those in need. He also serves as resident pianist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Orchkids program which provides a free music education to students in impoverished areas.
Florence Beatrice Smith
Florence Beatrice Smith was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on April 9th, 1887. The daughter of a music teacher, her musical potential was evident at a very early age and she gave her first performance on piano at the age of four. She and her peer, William Grant Still, both studied under educator Charlotte Andrews. Florence graduated from Capitol High School at the age of 14 as the valedictorian and a published composer. After graduating from high school, Florence attended the New England Conservatory of Music. During her time at the conservatory, Florence was able to pass as Mexican to avoid some of the challenges faced by African American students at the time. She graduated from the conservatory in 1906. In the years following her time at the conservatory, Florence worked as a teacher and a composer, even moving to Atlanta to head the music department at Clark University. In 1912 Florence married Thomas J. Price, one of the few African American lawyers in Arkansas. The couple moved back to Little Rock, where they had two daughters and one stillborn son, to whom Florence Price later dedicated one of her compositions.
After a lynching in their community, the Price family left Arkansas for Chicago in 1927. It was in Chicago that Price’s marriage hit rough waters as the Great Depression led to financial stress that drove her husband to become abusive. In a bold move for a woman at that time, Price filed for divorce in 1930. Price then had to work as a teacher and organ performer to support herself and her two daughters, at one point even rooming with one of her students, Margaret Bonds.
It was only in 1932, when Price broke her foot, that she found the time to write a symphony. It was this work, Price’s “Symphony in E minor,” for which she won the Wanamaker Prize. In 1933, it was the first piece written by a woman of color to be performed by a major Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Florence Price was inducted into the American Society of Composers in 1940. Before dying of a stroke in 1953 Price had composed some 300 pieces.
Unfortunately, since her death many other contemporary composers have overshadowed Florence Price. Many of her compositions have been lost. However, around the turn of the millennium, female composers of color finally started to gain some recognition and Florence Beatrice Price started receiving some much deserved attention.
Price and her Music
It was in 1929 that Price wrote her first truly ambitious piano piece. This piece combined classical European and Negro spiritual musical styles. In Fantasie Negre, the main melody Price uses is actually that of the Negro spiritual, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass.
Sheryl-Marie Dunaway
Sheryl-Marie Dunaway is the owner and Artistic Director of Ballet Caliente for 16 years. Sheryl-Marie Dunaway has taught dance for over 30 years. She began her training at the tender age of 3 with the British Ballet Academy studying RAD. At 16, she was invited to become an apprentice with the San Francisco Ballet Company and danced with it for five consecutive summers. She attended the National Academy of Dance in Champaign, Illinois, a performing arts boarding high school that was a feeder school for the American Ballet Theater. During the summer months, she furthered her dancing interests by attending dance sessions at several famous dance schools and companies. Mrs. Dunaway has received scholarships to study with an extensive list of well-known dance organizations. Some of the most prestigious are the San Francisco Ballet, Ballet West, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; Dance Aspen and the School of American Ballet. She has studied with world-renowned teachers such as Lupe Serreno, Violette Verdy, Michael Maule, Harold and Lew Christiansen, Bene’ Arnold, Gus Giordano, and Joe Termaine. Mrs. Dunaway attended college on a dance scholarship at the University of Texas, El Paso, for one year then transferred to Southern Methodist University and received her BA, majoring in dance. Mrs. Dunaway has also performed as a professional dancer and a guest artist with several regional dance companies including Ballet El Paso, Ballet de Las Americas in Mexico, Ballet Fantastique, and the Monterey Peninsula Arts Company. Mrs. Dunaway enjoys writing and choreographing story ballets. Locally, she choreographed pieces and her troupe has performed with the St. Mary’s River Concert series in collaboration with Jeffery Silberschlag. Additionally, her group has performs the Nutcracker annually in conjunction with COSMIC orchestra, and the National Ballet of the Ukraine. The wife of an active duty Navy man, she has moved 17 times in 26 years of marriage and has taught several hundred students everywhere the Navy has taken her family, including Japan. Although many of her students are dancing professionally, or are enrolled at highly accredited dance schools and universities, Mrs. Dunaway feels her greatest success is in touching others. Her fondness for children has led to her greatest joy . . . teaching.
Jennifer Cooper
President/CEO of Go-DIVA! Productions, Inc. and professional vocalist, Jennifer Cooper, offers a unique, deeply varied repertoire of entertainment in an effort to blur the boundaries of genres and styles. Before taking the stage as a jazz, blues and pop songstress, Cooper sustained a successful, professional opera career during which she received rave reviews for more than thirty principle roles and various concert appearances throughout Europe, Canada and the U.S., and accumulated coveted top prizes in competitions including the Metropolitan Opera National Council, National Symphony Orchestra Young Artists, and others.
Following a hiatus from performing due to a medical setback, she returned to the stage in 2006, immersing herself in popular music genres. Cooper has since created, produced and starred in several original music productions, including her one-woman, auto-biographical musical cabaret, “Go-DIVA! ~ of Song, Silence & the Abuse of Chocolate” (written by LB Hamilton), “Velvet Nights” (international cabaret), “Sentimental Journey” (WWII era tribute), “Only Yesterday” (Carpenters tribute), and most recently, “Go-DIVA! Act III: The Swan Takes Flight” (sequel to the original “Go-DIVA!” which raised $5,800 for the Southern Maryland Youth Orchestra). In addition, her popular showcase series, “Opera Night” and “Broadway Night” consistently play to sold-out audiences in the southern Maryland region.
Cooper has performed jazz/cabaret concerts as a featured guest soloist with the renowned Chesapeake Orchestra led by Jeffery Silberschlag; with the Rappahannock Pops Orchestra, directed by her former music teacher and mentor, Kirk Wilke; and with the Chesapeake Choral Arts Society led by Michael Santana.
Cooper and her current ensemble, GrooveSpan, remain in high demand for various venues, music festivals, concert series, and private events. She also serves as a highly respected private voice instructor and vocal technique master class facilitator in the east coast region. As president and CEO of Go-DIVA! Productions, Inc. (a music presenter company), Cooper strives to provide exceptional quality entertainment, featuring the widest variety of eras and styles, while continuing to educate, inspire, and support the next generation of creative artists.
Carl Reichelt
A twenty-year veteran of the bandstand, Carl excels in genres ranging from rock to jazz, blues to art song, on both electric and acoustic guitar. A prolific composer, arranger and songwriter, Carl is also known for his work with local iconic groups such as Square Noon, Romi, Upstroke, and Round Midnite, a popular regional rock band that attracted a devoted following during its fifteen year run. Reichelt has shared the stage with Cooper as a member of Retroact, and performs regularly with Groovespan, of which he is an original founding member.
The River Concert Series program is subject to change