PRAYER FOR PEACE
SEASON OPENING 2022-2023
An evening of creative splendor combining live-cinema visual art with neoclassical, classical, and jazz music written by contemporary American composers in sacred style.
Join us for a special evening to celebrate the beginning of Lyrica Classic's season!
On Sunday, October 2, at the historic Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park (MD), Lyrica Classic, with the support of the Maryland State Arts Council, presents a program of contemporary music in sacred style and live-created digital art titled "Prayer for Peace." The program presents a creative and aesthetically beautiful combination of visual art, technology, and neoclassical, classical, jazz, organ and vocal music featuring American composers and artists from Maryland.
The program will include works for the pipe organ and voices by Eli Tamar and Emmanuel Dubois; ensemble works in neoclassical style by Serge Khrichenko, and original jazz compositions by Anders Lundegard.
The visual art will be generated by the Maryland artist Sue Slagle (also known as SUE-C). Sue is an award-winning artist, engineer, and educator whose work in "real-time cinema" presents a new, imaginative perspective on live performance. Her works challenge the norms of photography, video, and technology by blending them all into an organic and improvisational live performance setting.
During the show, Sue will create customized handmade digital art in real-time on the music that will be performed live and project her work on the screen-walls on the stage and create a unique experience for our audience to enjoy.
To attend the live event, please purchase your ticket below:
Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church is easily accessible from all parts of the county
and is wheelchair friendly with ample parking space.
CONCERT PROGRAM
PART I
- "ORGAN SONATA" by Emmanuel Dubois, performed by organist Paul Byssainthe
- "AVE MARIA" by Eli Tamar, performed by soprano Olga Orlovskaya and organist Paul Byssainthe
- Trio "LORD'S PRAYER" by Eli Tamar, performed by soprano Yulia Petrachuk, soprano Charlene Canty, mezzo-soprano Maria Maskhulia, and organist Paul Byssainthe
- "AKATHIST TO THE HOLLY VIRGIN" by Eli Tamar, performed by soprano Olga Orlovskaya
- "SALUTATIO VIRTUTUM" by Eli Tamar, performed by soprano Charlene Canty and organist Paul Byssainthe
- "O, GLADSOME LIGHT" by Eli Tamar, performed by soprano Olga Orlovskaya and organist Paul Byssainthe
- Duet "CANTICUM FRATRIS SOLIS" by Eli Tamar, performed by soprano Charlene Canty, mezzo-soprano Maria Maskhulia, and organist Paul Byssainthe
PART II
- "CANTATA FOR PEACE" by Serge Khrichenko, performed by quartet Lost on Mars (Tatiana Loisha piano, Serge Khrichenko guitar, Paul Byssainthe organ, and Yulia Petrachuk soprano)
- "BE MY HYMN", "MY BEACON", and "HOPE" by Anders Lundegard, performed by mezzo-soprano Maria Maskhulia, saxophonist Anders Lundegard, and guitarist Steve Herberman.
VISUAL ART by SUE-C
With the support of the Maryland State Arts Council
Welcome To Sligo Church
It was formed in 1970 in pastoral Takoma Park, Maryland, grow into a vibrant, international congregation with 2,958 members that resembles the United Nations. Seventy-eight nationalities are represented speaking 142 languages.
COMPOSERS
SUE-C
Sue Slagle, who goes by the stage name SUE-C, is a video and light artist working at the intersection of creative coding and live performance. For the past 18 years, she has created handmade videos and live media performances, traveling extensively in Europe and the US. Her works challenge the norms of photography, video, and technology by blending them all into an organic and improvisational live performance setting. Employing a variety of digital tools to create an experimental animation “instrument,” she synthesizes cinema from photographs, drawings, watercolors, handmade papers, fabrics and miniature lighting effects.
Eli Tamar
Dr. Tamar holds a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pittsburgh and served for nine years on the faculty of Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University. Three of Tamar’s major compositions were featured on the CD “Laudato Si” on Navona Records in 2016. Tamar’s sacred works were presented in venues such as St Paul’s Knightsbridge (Elysian Singers), London; Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (“De Boni Arte” Foundation series of sacred music), Andrey Rublev Museum, Moscow; and St. Paul Cathedral, Pittsburgh.
In 2021, Tamar's new Requiem was world premiered by renowned Moscow Synodal Choir and soloist of Budapest Opera, mezzo-soprano Polina Shamaeva.
Anders Lundegard
Mr. Lundegård was born and bred in Växjö, Sweden, educated at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and at Northwestern University as a Fulbright Scholar. He is the founder of The Swedish Jazz Duo, along with guitarist and singer Al Baumann. Anders owns semiannual concert series, at the Lyceum, a concert venue in Old Town Alexandria, alternates between chamber music and jazz performances, often featuring his compositions in both genres.
Besides performing his own works for saxophone and piano, Anders performs extensively the chamber music repertoire originally written for flute, clarinet, violin and cello.
Between concert seasons, he is an avid sailor and the proud owner of a 23-ft sailboat named after his two grandmothers Greta and Gudrun.
Serge Khrichenko
A winner of the International Music Competition EUTERPE in Italy, 2015, Serge Khrichenko is one of the most accomplished and innovative guitarists performing today. A graduate of the prestigious Rimsky Korsakov Music College in St. Petersburg, Russia, Mr. Khrichenko started his career as a guitarist and then worked as a professional composer and performer with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic for more than 10 years.
His compositions “Tango Mephisto” and “Raising Buddha” were finalists in the instrumental category of the UK International Songwriting Contest, 2007, and his composition “Dangerous Journey” was listed many times in the “Top 10 on Earth” in the jazz-fusion category.
Paul Byssainthe
Paul Byssainthe, Jr. is an accomplished organist, conductor, and composer. A native of New York, he has been involved in music since a young age. He was a multiple winner in the International Concert Alliance Piano Competition as well as the Piano Teachers’ Congress of New York Piano Competition. He is a graduate of Andrews University, where he earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and the Master of Music Degree in Orchestral Conducting. His major teachers were Kenneth Logan in Organ, and Claudio Gonzalez and Stephen Zork in Conducting. During his time at Andrews, he served as a Graduate Conducting Assistant, conducting works by Tchaikovsky, Barber, Brahms, and Operatic scores of Verdi. He recently served as Organist and Choir Director at St. Martin de Porres Parish in Brooklyn, NY, and as Piano Instructor for the Lang Lang International Music Foundation’s Keys of Inspiration Program at PS 46 in Harlem, NY. As a Composer, he has written several short pieces, and works extensively as an Arranger and Orchestrator for various recording projects.
PAUL BYSSAINTHE
Organist
Olga Orlovskaya, soprano
Russian-born soprano Olga Orlovskaya inherited her talent from her great-grandfather, the famous Russian bass, Fedor Shalyapin. She graduated with honors from the Russian Academy of Music and received her Master of Arts in voice specialty.Her career highlights include singing the role of Katerina in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Shostakovich with Novosibirsk State Opera Theater, for which she won a Golden Mask nomination. This role became a signature role for Olga, and she performed it with great success with many other opera companies.Ms. Orlovskaya made her debut in the US in 2006 with “Helicon Opera” as Adele in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss on the stages of 50 theaters in the continental US. After she immigrated to the States, Olga performed many title roles for soprano in operas such as Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata, Tosca, Aida, Madame Butterfly, La Boheme, Carmen, and Turandot.In the 2010-2011 season, Olga was a season opener for a concert series for the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. In 2010, Ms. Orlovskaya became a soloist for Washington Balalaika Society – the biggest and most respected Russian folk instruments orchestra in the United States.
Simone Brown
Simone Brown is a Maryland native with both a BM and MM from Xavier University of Louisiana and Peabody Conservatory. After recently relocating to Arlington VA, Simone was last seen at the Kennedy Center with Opera Nova’s Black History Concert, in Keegan Theater’s Womxn of Fire Festival and in The Snowy Day at Adventure Theater MTC. Simone has performed at Toby’s Dinner Theater as an ensemble member and understudy for Rachel Marron in The Bodyguard, Heather Chandler in HCC’s The Heathers, and the Kensington Arts Theater production of Sweeney Todd as Johanna.
CHARLENE CANTY
Soprano
Charlene Canty, soprano
Charlene Canty received her Masters degree in vocal performance from Duquesne University. She has been the featured soprano soloist in the requiems of Mozart, Faure and Rutter, and a Mass by Yuri Falik. Among others, her operatic roles include Suor Angelica, La Boheme, The Tender Land, Don Giovanni, The Medium, and Gianni Schicchi. She has also been a two-time scholarship recipient of the Ezio Pinza Council for American Singers of Opera.
Ms. Canty has received numerous awards and has worked with various coaches and conductors in the United States as well as in Italy. Most recently, she was the featured guest artist in the Pittsburgh premiere of David Fanshawe's African Sanctus. She has also been heard in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with the Youngstown Musica Sacra Orchestra, and Brahms' A German Requiem with the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Tatiana Loisha, pianist
Tatiana Loisha studied at the Belarusian State Academy of Music, Minsk, Belarus, where she graduated with a B.A. in piano performance and received a degree in collaborative piano. Tatiana is a winner of the Shostakovitch competition (St. Petersburg, Russia, 2001), the International Competition for Young Pianists (Brest, France, 2002), and a winner of contests for singers’ and pianists’ duets in Vilnius, Lithuania, 2006; St. Petersburg, Russia, 2006; and Kazan, Russia, 2007. In 2016-2019, Tatiana worked as a staff accompanist at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Baldwin Wallace University, and as a rehearsal and performance pianist with the Cleveland Opera Theater. She also worked as a pianist at the Oberlin program in Italy (Arezzo, Italy) in the summer of 2018. Since first moving to the D.C. area in 2014, Tatiana worked as a piano accompanist with the Potomac Vocal Institute and has actively performed in the D.C. metropolitan area accompanying singers and instrumentalists. Tatiana has collaborated with well-known vocalists such as Yuri Gorodetski, Oksana Volkova, and Ilya Silchukov, to name a few. The collaboration embraced preparing for and performing at international competitions including the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Operalia, BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, and the Montreal International Musical Competition.
Maria Maskhulia
From an early age, Maria realized that music was her destiny. Throughout her teenage years, Maria Maskhulia-Roessler performed with the prestigious Russian National Children's Choir allowing her to travel the world. After high school, Maria continued her education at the Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatory in Tbilisi, Georgia, and then she transferred to the Gnessins Russian Academy of Music in Moscow.
Upon graduation, she was invited to join the renowned Helikon-Opera Theater in Moscow, where she performed successfully for over 20 joyous years. Throughout her artistic career, Maria was fortunate to have collaborated and performed with some of the most famous classical musicians and on the top opera stages in the world.
It was during these years in the theater that Maria found herself sharing the stage with many of the world's finest jazz musicians. With an orchestra behind her, Maria performed next to such all-time greats as Dave Brubeck and Wynton Marsalis. Thanks to fate and these incredible influences, Maria decided to incorporate jazz into her expanding musical repertoire. Her combination on the stage of classical opera with soulful jazz has left her audiences amazed and delighted all over the world.
Recently, Maria relocated to the Washington DC suburbs, and now she plans to continue her career throughout the USA.
Maria Maskhulia, mezzo-soprano
From an early age, Maria realized that music was her destiny. Throughout her teenage years, Maria Maskhulia-Roessler performed with the prestigious Russian National Children's Choir allowing her to travel the world. After high school, Maria continued her education at the Sarajishvili Tbilisi State Conservatory in Tbilisi, Georgia, and then she transferred to the Gnessins Russian Academy of Music in Moscow.
Upon graduation, she was invited to join the renowned Helikon-Opera Theater in Moscow, where she performed successfully for over 20 joyous years. Throughout her artistic career, Maria was fortunate to have collaborated and performed with some of the most famous classical musicians and on the top opera stages in the world.
It was during these years in the theater that Maria found herself sharing the stage with many of the world's finest jazz musicians. With an orchestra behind her, Maria performed next to such all-time greats as Dave Brubeck and Wynton Marsalis. Thanks to fate and these incredible influences, Maria decided to incorporate jazz into her expanding musical repertoire. Her combination on the stage of classical opera with soulful jazz has left her audiences amazed and delighted all over the world.
Recently, Maria relocated to the Washington DC suburbs, and now she plans to continue her career throughout the USA.
Lost On Mars
Quartet Lost On Mars was established in 2021 by its composer and guitarist Serge Khrichenko and soprano Yulia Petrachuk. At this moment, the quartet joined pianist Tatiana Loisha and organist Nick Will.
The ensemble performs original compositions by Serge Khrichenko in NeoClassical style.
LOST ON MARS
Quartet
Lost on Mars
Lost on Mars is one of the Lyrica Classic's projects established in 2021 by composer and guitarist Serge Khrichenko and soprano Yulia Petrachuk. At present, it is formed as a quartet that also includes piano and organ. The ensemble performs original compositions by Serge Khrichenko in NeoClassical style with elements of metal, art rock, and country styles.
Serge Khrichenko's compositions are incredibly diverse, with a set of common features. First of all, they are unique and sometimes even bizarre, and they sound incredibly improbable. Second, they are incredibly challenging technically but at the same time engaging emotionally through the "music" that may seem intellectually stimulating to the listener – a participant in an overall unique experience. And finally, each composition is immediately identifiable as his work, great movie scores for the human mind.
Yulia Petrachuk, soprano
Russian-American soprano Yulia Petrachuk studied at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and is a graduate of Bern Opera Studio in Bern, Switzerland. Her debut as a professional opera singer was with the State Theater Bern, Switzerland, in 2010. After that, she performed with many other recognized opera companies and concert venues such as Theater Biel (Switzerland), Ash Lawn Opera Festival (US), Opera Ischia (Italy), Dicapo Opera Theater in New York (US), Great Moscow Hall (Russia), Vocal Productions NYC (US), Nova and Opera Camerata in Washington, D.C. (US), Smetana Hall in Prague (Czech Republic), Carnegie Hall in New York (US), Musikverein and Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna (Austria), and many others.
Yulia specializes in contemporary opera and other forms of vocal music of the 20th and 21st centuries. She has performed many World and US premieres.
"The audience gave endless applause and shouts of bravo in response to this overwhelming performance by Yulia Petrachuk…" – Horst Groener, Thüringer Allgemeine (Strauss' opera "Elektra" with Thueringen Philharmonic)
Steve Herberman, guitarist
Steve Herberman is a graduate of Berklee College Of Music majoring in Jazz guitar performance. He began playing a seven-string guitar in 1993. Steve has recorded numerous CD's as both leader and sideman and is a respected jazz educator. Steve Herberman's original composition "What We Do" won first place in the jazz category of the 2018 USA Songwriting Competition. Steve has about 60 video lessons published on Mike's Masterclasses and has toured across the US and Europe playing and teaching. He is featured in the book The Great Jazz Guitarists by Scott Yanow. He is on the faculty of JazzWire and JazzBand Masterclass. Steve is an endorser of Comins Guitars and GLB Sound amps and is based in the Washington DC area.