Ellen Heinicki Foster, Harpist

A native of Wenatchee, Washington, Mrs. Foster has performed with many symphonies, chamber groups, and opera and ballet orchestras in the U. S. and Canada. She earned the Bachelor of Music, Cum Laude, in Harp Performance and Music Education from the Eastman School of Music, a Master of Music Degree from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and an Artist's Diploma from Yale University.

In 1992 she won the Concerto competition at UBC and was runner-up in the 1993 Aspen Music Festival competition. Most recently, she was featured as the soloist in Debussy's Danses with the Wenatchee Valley Symphony and Tennessee Chamber Orchestra. In addition, she has performed with the Atlanta, Macon, Columbus, Savannah, Greenville, and Huntsville symphonies; has become the President of the Georgia Chapter of the American Harp Society; and has created her own Harp Camp which she holds for one week each summer. In 2003 she accompanied the Atlanta Boy Choir on its European Tour. She can be heard on recordings with the Macon Symphony and the Atlanta Boy Choir. Mrs. Foster teaches privately out of her home in Alpharetta.

Dr. Mel Foster, Tenor

A native of Charlotte, NC, Dr. Foster has a Bachelor of Music Degree from the Eastman School of Music and his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His most recent performances have been with the Americolor Opera Association in the role of Alonzo Herndon in The Herndons, as Aleph in The Candlers (world premier) and Azael in Debussy's L'Enfant Prodique with the Wanatchee Valley Symphony. Other performances have been in Salt Lake City in The Life of Roland Hayes and The Moor Tenors' Project; tenor soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Fairbanks Symphony and Macon Symphony; The Rome Festival 2001 as Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte in Rome, Italy; twice performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra in a nationally broadcast event entitled A King Celebration in memory of Martin Luther King, Jr.; as a featured soloist with the Atlanta Chamber Players; Mozart's Requiem with the Augusta Choral Society; and tenor soloist in Bach's St. John's Passion with the St. Paul's Bach Society. As an Associate Professor of Voice at Morehouse College, Dr. Foster gives a number of recitals and master classes annually.

Mary Ann Hill, Soprano

Mary Ann Hill was born into a performing musical family and has been singing since the age of five. Her formal studies at Syracuse Universtiy, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice and Piano and a Masters in voice, were complimented with study in Florence, Italy; the Ecole Hindmith in Switzerland; and at AIMS in Graz. Austria. She has performed leads in many operas including Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, Carmen, Cavalleria Rusticana, La Boheme, and The Medium. Leads in musical theater in New York include Guys and Dolls, The Music Man, Pirates of Penzance, and many others. Ms. Hill is also a soloist for many churches throughout the East Coast, and has been a scholarship recipient with the Portland, Oregon Opera Workshop, singing scenes from La Traviata. She is a frequent soloist with the Atlanta Balalaika Orchestra and is included in their CD of Russian Folk Music. Ms. Hill has also performed with the Callanwolde Concert Band and with the Binghamton Symphony Orchestra as the featured soloist in the Poulenc Gloria. Ms. Hill enjoys enormously teaching voice for Georgia State University NHS. Many of her students are winners of competitions and are enjoying successful careers in music. Ms. Hill serves on the board for the Atlanta Opera Guild and The Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta.

Madonna Brownlee, Organist/Pianist

Madonna Brownlee is a graduate of Florida State University and is a certified music teacher as well as media specialist/librarian in Florida. While at FSU, piano study was with Mary Winslow and she accompanied the graduate students of Anna Kaskas, formerly with the Met (voice); her post-graduate study was at the Union Theological Seminary School of Sacred Music, NYC (now merged with Yale University) where her organ study was with Vernon de Tar. Post-graduate study in organ was also with Diane Bish (Joy of Music). Mrs. Brownlee accompanied an 80-voice oratorio choir that performed Bach's Mass in B Minor annually and an 18-voice a cappella choir as well as numerous ensembles and soloists, among who were many competition winners. She was organist for the Miami Oratorio Society in Handel's Messiah and more recently the Williamsburg, VA. Chamber Chorus in Vivaldi's Gloria and has been organist for Brahm's German Requiem with the Tampa Bay Orchestra. She was Director of Music/Organist at First Methodist Church, St. Petersburg, FL; Church by the Sea, Bal Harbour, FL; St. Christopher's by the Sea, Key Biscayne, FL; and is currently Organist at the First Church of Christ Scientist, Atlanta. Mrs. Brownlee has performed many organ recitals among which include the Parish Church of St. Oswald, Seefeld, Austria; the Bruton Parish Church, Williamsburg, VA; the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Atlanta; and the Cathedral of St. Phillip, Atlanta.

Dr. J. Robert Adams, Baritone

J. Robert Adams is founder and artistic director of the newly established Adams Opera of America, Inc., voice teacher, principal artist with Americolor Opera Alliance, recitalist, soloist for the First Church of Christ Scientist, Fayetteville, GA, and former professor of music-voice and chair of the Department of Music at Elizabeth City State University. He also served as project director for the Missouri Artists Series at Lincoln University, Lincoln, Missouri. Dr. Adams has performed with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Rome Opera Festival, and Studio Lirico of Italy. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Illinois where he studied under the tutelage of Professor William Warfield.

Jay Hanselman, conductor of Emory Community Brass Ensemble

Jay Hanselman will join the Georgia State University School of Music faculty as instructor of horn in the fall 2005. After receiving a Bachelor of Music Education Degree in 1981 from Florida State University, he taught middle and high school band in Greensboro, NC for three years. He left teaching and returned to school at UNC Greensboro to get a B.S. in Management Information Systems and following 17 years in the business world as a programmer analyst, Mr. Hanselman returned to music in 2002. While pursuing his Master of Music in performance at Georgia State, where he was the winner of the Thomas M. Brumby Concerto/Aria Competition, and graduating in 2004, he opened Jay's Horn Studio. Mr. Hanselman conducts horn and brass clinics and is a member of the Gainesville Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, Orchestra Atlanta, the Cobb Symphony Orchestra, and the Rome Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Hanselman has also performed in the Emory Brass Ensemble since 1998 where he serves as assistant conductor and personnel manager.

Program

Artists' Biographies