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Thomas Machen (Founder & Artistic Director) Thomas Machen's passion for Lieder led to his founding the Memphis Vocal Arts Ensemble as a vehicle for area singers to perform varied repertory of professional quality. As a Rotary International Graduate Fellow at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Vienna, Austria, Tom sang the art songs of Schubert, Brahms, Schumann, and other 18th to 20th century composers of vocal music. He brought that song legacy to programming the first concert for MVAE, “Brahms’ Love Song Waltzes.� Understanding that not all audiences share his fervor for Lieder or only art songs, Tom draws upon his own varied background, which ranges from dinner theater to grand opera to English cathedral music, to program repertoire that both pleases supporters and challenges singers. Beginning each season with Broadway favorites and ending each with operatic selections, he chooses the concert selections from a wealth of literature every concert season. The Arizona native has credentials in all the vocal styles, underscoring his direction to the ensemble. As trombonist in the Phoenix Youth Symphony, the Arizona All-State Orchestra and the Interlochen Michigan National Music Camp World Youth Symphony Orchestra, as well as jazz combos, Dixieland and big bands, Tom became fluent in a range of musical language. His degrees in Vocal Performance from Arizona State University and the University of Illinois helped shape his musical career. Tom’s early career in New York included being a member of the original Metropolitan Opera Studio and the Saint Thomas Church Choir. Soloist credits include Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, National Public Radio, Voice of America, world premiers of opera and oratorio, and more than 150 performances of Billy in Carousel and Gaylord in Showboat for dinner theater productions in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. In Memphis, Tom has sung with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Opera Memphis, presented numerous solo vocal recitals and has served as choir director at area churches. As a professor of voice, he has coached soloists with regional and international opera companies and symphony orchestras, including current Metropolitan Opera soloists and Broadway performers. Under Tom’s direction, MVAE recorded the American Treasure compact disc in 1993 with renowned soprano Kallen Esperian. The CD included a set of American folk song arrangements as well as “Partings,� by his long-time friend, internationally acclaimed composer/arranger Alice Parker. A holiday concert in 1995 featuring Ms. Esperian with the Ensemble was telecast nationally over PBS for four subsequent holiday seasons. The Ensemble has also presented the American premiere of a Requiem Mass by Niccolo Jomelli that had been lost for 200 years. It had been among the household artifacts stashed in the private library of the Duchess of Parma in Italy. Rediscovered, it was given a first modern reading at the Busseto Verdi Festival shortly before the MVAE presentation. |
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