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Dallas Pro
Musica is dedicated to the re-creation and realization of vocal music from
the Medieval, Renaissance and Early Baroque periods, with occasional forays
into the 20th and 21st centuries. The ensemble, based
at UT Dallas, consists of faculty members Kathryn Evans, soprano, Mary
Medrick, mezzo-soprano, and Hoyt Neal, tenor, with Michael Borts, bass.
More Info at UTD... |
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Kathryn Evans
joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in 1994.
Currently, she serves as the Associate Dean for the Arts in the School of
Arts and Humanities, teaches vocal and choral music, and directs the UT
Dallas Chamber Singers. She is an accomplished recitalist and chamber
musician, performing in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and in Europe. Before
coming to UT Dallas, she was the Director of the Bach Society Chamber
Orchestra and Chorus in La Jolla, California and the Musical Director of the
Orpheus Ensemble. She founded and directed the Washington Pro Musica and the
Early Music Ensemble of San Diego. She has directed European concert tours
of Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy. Ms. Evans holds Master of Arts
degrees in Music and in Mathematics from the University of California at San
Diego. Ms. Evans has completed tours of music for voice and guitar with
fellow faculty member Dr. Enric Madriguera in Austria, Switzerland, the
Czech Republic and Mexico. Ms. Evans released the CD “Voz y Guitarra” with
Dr. Madriguera in October of 2003 and is the Executive Director of the
Annual Texas Guitar Competition. She appeared as the Mother Abbess in the
“Sound of Music” and directed the UT Dallas Chamber Singers in “La Boheme/Rent”
at UT Dallas in 2005, “Shakespeare in Song” in 2006 and “A Tribute to
Manhattan Transfer” in 2007. Ms. Evans is the founder of the Dallas Pro
Musica, a vocal quintet dedicated to the performance of Medieval and
Renaissance music. Ms. Evans recently completed a Latin American tour with
guitarist Enric Madriguera.
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Mary Medrick
is a writer/arranger who is active as a musical director, conductor and
keyboardist. Along with graduate study in music at UNT, Medrick holds an
M.A. in Arts & Humanities from UT Dallas. As a keyboardist, she has toured
17 countries and has performed under the direction of such conductors as
Johnny Green, Christopher Wilkins (San Antonio Symphony), David Stahl
(Charleston Symphony) and Graeme Jenkins (Dallas Opera). Along with studio
recording, Medrick arranges commercial music and performs frequently. She
directed UT Dallas’s 2002 production of the musical Personals. As a
composer, Medrick has written two Broadway-style shows based on the
Frankenstein legend and, in 2003, was commissioned to write High
Popalorum, a musical about Louisiana politicians. Her original libretto
for the opera The Old Majestic, a collaboration with composer Robert
Xavier Rodriguez, was showcased in 2003 by the New York City Opera. Their
most recent work is the opera La Curandera, which was commissioned by
Opera Colorado and premiered in Denver in 2005. On the UT Dallas faculty,
Medrick teaches piano, theory and musical theater.
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Hoyt Neal
received
his Bachelor of Science in Music from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas
and Master of Music Education degree from the University of North Texas in
Denton, Texas. After returning from military service in Vietnam, he was
admitted to the Doctor of Musical Arts vocal performance program at UNT.
Neal studied vocal performance with the late Eugene Conley, former leading
tenor with the Metropolitan Opera, and Harold Heiberg, Vocal Coach.
He
has been a tenor soloist in numerous churches and synagogues in the Dallas
area. His solo credits include Benjamin Britten’s St. Nicholas,
Schubert’s Mass in G, Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s St John,
Mozart’s Requiem performed with the combined choirs of LLUMC and
Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass performed
with the Dallas Symphony Chorus, Mendelssohn’s Elijah performed with
the Brookhaven College Chorus, and many performances of Handel’s Messiah.
His stage credits include roles in works by Mozart, Puccini, Menotti, and
Gilbert and Sullivan.
Neal has
served at all levels in churches, colleges, synagogues, and public school as
a choir director. His conducting credits for choir and orchestra include
Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem,
and
Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb
and Hymn to St. Cecilia.
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Michael
Borts
has performed the National Anthems of the United States, Canada and Mexico
over 600 times since 1978 for 20 professional and collegiate sports teams
including the Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles, and Florida
Marlins of Major League Baseball, the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, and
Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association, the Dallas Stars,
Hartford Whalers and Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and
FC Dallas and New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer. He is a featured
soloist and active singer with the eleven-time International Gold Medal
chorus The Vocal Majority, and has sung solos accompanied by the Houston
Tidelanders Barbershop Chorus, the Houston Pops Orchestra, the Texas Wind
Symphony and the Richardson Symphony Orchestra. Borts’ uptempo rendition of
the Star Spangled Banner reaches its melodic and emotional peak by his
holding of the word “Free” for as many as 12 seconds. Fox Sports Network
Hockey announcer Ralph Strangis used the term “stirring” to describe
Michael's Anthem performances. Talk show host Mike Rhyner of Sports Radio
1310, The Ticket, in Dallas commented on the air that he wished “all
National Anthems could be performed the way Michael Borts performs them.” |
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