December Bach’s Lunch Programs Celebrate Music of Holidays and Hope

CONCORD, NH — Spirit-lifting holiday music is the theme for the next two installments in the Bach’s Lunch Series of lectures and concerts at the Concord Community Music School. On Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, Mary Dolch, associate director of chapel music at St. Paul’s School in Concord, will give a lecture titled “O Come, O Come: Why Not Christmas Now?”

The following week, on Dec. 8, the soprano trio Trillium, comprised of Peggo Horstmann Hodes, Hannah Schramm Murray, and Jane Berlin Pauley will join with pianist Calvin Herst for a concert of holiday favorites. Bach’s Lunch programs are free and open to the public, according to a press release, and take place from 12:10 to 12:50 p.m. in the School’s Recital Hall, 23 Wall St. in Concord.

Mary Dolch grew up in Concord studying piano with Kathy Southworth at the Concord Community Music School and organ with Ken Grinnell during her high school years. She recently earned her master's degree in Organ Performance from Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music, where she studied organ with Thomas Murray. In her December 1 lecture, Dolch will explore Advent music, discuss the importance of the Advent season, and give a taste of what the chapel program at St. Paul’s School does to celebrate the season.

In Trillium’s Dec. 8 holiday concert, the group will bring their lyrical vocals and finely-tuned harmonies to favorite holiday music selections, old and new.

For more information, please call 603-228-1196 or visit ccmusicschool.org.

About the Speaker and Artists

Mary Dolch (originally Mary Copeley) grew up in Concord studying piano with Kathy Southworth at the Concord Community Music School and organ with Ken Grinnell during her high school years. She recently earned her master's degree in Organ Performance from Yale University's Institute of Sacred Music and Yale School of Music, where she studied organ with Thomas Murray. While a student there, she served as the Interim Director of Music & Organist for Saint Luke’s Parish in Darien, CT, and was a member of the Yale Schola Cantorum. Prior to that, she earned a Bachelor's degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, graduating summa cum laude with a major in Organ Performance (studying with Dr. Matthew Lewis) and a minor in Piano Pedagogy. She has won several awards for her playing in both piano and organ, including The Charles Ives Prize from the Yale School of Music in 2015, The Joan Lippincott Competition for Excellence in Organ in 2014 and The Westminster Piano Scholarship in 2012. As a choral singer, she has performed in venues throughout the United States, England and Paris, such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, the Philadelphia Kimmel Center, The Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, Westminster Abbey, St. John’s College Cambridge, Lancing College Chapel, Saint-Sulpice, and two live radio broadcasts by the BBC in 2015. This fall Mary joined the faculty of St. Paul’s School where she lives with her new husband, Eric, and Newfoundland puppy, Hildegard. She serves as the Associate Director of Chapel Music, assisting Nicholas White with the Chapel Music Program, teaching music lessons, and coaching basketball.

Hannah Schramm Murray, soprano, earned a master’s degree in music from Westminster Choir College. Additional studies include Connecticut College (B.A.), the Royal Academy of Music in London, and Middlebury College’s Deutsch fur Sangerin Program. Mrs. Murray is a frequent soloist throughout the Northeastern United States, including singing for the Nashua Symphony, Trinity United Methodist Church in Springfield, Mass., the Monadnock Valley Chorus, and Concord Community Chorus. Mrs. Murray is also an in-demand voice teacher. Her students have gone on to some of the nations leading schools of music and have sung off and on Broadway. She is the Chair of the Voice and Choral Department at Concord Community Music School. Mrs. Murray is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the mother of two girls, Grace and Caroline.

Peggo Horstmann Hodes, soprano, is an extraordinarily versatile performer. She holds masters’ degrees in Elementary Education from Lesley College and in Vocal Pedagogy from New England Conservatory. Director of the Songweavers women’s chorus at the Concord Community Music School where she also presents Vibrant Voice workshops, Peggo has been a soloist with the New Hampshire Symphony, the Granite State Symphony, the Concord Chorale, and the Musicians of Wall Street. In recital, she has premiered works written for her by William Fletcher and Thomas Oboe Lee. In 2009, Peggo premiered “Kaddish,” a new work about the Holocaust by Lawrence Siegel. Peggo has recorded six CDs with her husband, Paul Hodes, in their groups Peggosus and Peggo & Paul, two of which won Parents' Choice Awards. Peggo has recorded numerous other CDs, including with femme m'amie, a solo CD - Peggo: In Love, and recently, Homeward Bound with Larksong Trio. Peggo loves to sing anytime...anywhere.

Jane Berlin Pauley, soprano, received her bachelor of music in performance from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts and her master’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. She pursued further studies at Westminster Choir College, Manhattan School of Music, Aspen Opera Theater Center, and the Tanglewood Music Center. Her opera and concert engagements include Rutgers Summerfest, New England Lyric Operetta, Dartmouth Handel Society, Longwood Opera, and Opera D’amore. Her teachers include Susan Clickner, Bruce Kolb, Cynthia Hoffman, and William Sharp.

Calvin Herst, piano, performs frequently as a collaborative pianist. He has appeared in concert performances at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, throughout the People’s Republic of China, and in venues across northern New England. He has performed in numerous regional, state and national competitions supporting both student and professional performers. He can be heard on recordings with Peggo Horstmann Hodes (Summer Nights) and the Larksong Trio (Homeward Bound), of which he is the founding pianist. He is the pianist for the Unitarian Universalist Church in Concord and the Suncook Valley Chorale. Recognized with the NH Governor's Arts Award in Education in 2015, he has previously been on the faculty of the Ithaca College School of Music, the Community Music Center of Boston, and Buckingham Browne & Nichols School. Mr. Herst received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees magna cum laude in piano performance from Ithaca College, along with the Dalcroze Eurhythmics Teaching License. He has also studied conducting extensively, including a summer at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.

Submitted by Liz Faiella.