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Critically acclaimed soprano MELISSA GIVENS has appeared with the Victoria Bach Festival, Houston Masterworks Chorus, Houston Ebony Opera Guild, Houston Ballet, Texas Ballet Theater, and in numerous other venues in the United States. She has also performed abroad, including a performance of Five Poems at the Bolshoi Theatre with the Houston Ballet. Currently on the voice faculty of Houston Baptist University, she is in demand as a recitalist and frequent oratorio guest soloist. Upcoming events include a recital for the Cypress Creek FACE Promenade Series, and performances with Ars Lyrica Houston, The Bach Society of Houston and Conspirare: Craig Hella Johnson and Company of Voices. Critical Praise for Melissa Givens: Soprano Melissa Givens was the best, singing with effortless tone and gracious musicality. - Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle, March 2005 Givens' focused, agile, velvety instrument and her fine sense of the text did justice to Bach's cantata. She shone brighter still in...Schubert's "The Shepherd on the Rock."... Here, Givens' sustained notes took on a gorgeous bloom, sounding disarmingly like a very fine cello. She was thrilling at full voice in the joyous final section. - Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express News, June 2005 Houston soprano Melissa Givens, performing the treacherous solo in the fifth movement [of Brahms' A German Requiem], sounded like the angelic voice that Brahms probably imagined as he composed it. - David Mead, Austin American-Statesman, July 2003 About the other Artists: JOBY BELL coordinates the Sacred Music degree program and teaches organ, harpsichord, and theory as a Visiting Professor at the Miriam Cannon Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. His concertizing in the United States has met with high critical acclaim, and his performances abroad have been enthusiastically received in Paris, Chartres, Romania, Hungary and Scotland. He is currently involved in three solo recording projects. Flourish! is the working title of the first CD, recorded at First Presbyterian Church, Houston. The second will be recorded on the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University's 1997 Fisk-Rosales organ in January 2006. The two Houston recordings will be released by Raven Recordings. A third CD will be recorded in May 2006 on Appalachian State University's 1984 Casavant Freres organ for release by ASU. THERESA HANEBURY is one of Houston's premier trumpet players, equally in demand as a soloist, chamber player and Musician Contractor. She appears frequently with the Houston Ballet Orchestra. Ms. Hanebury is also the co-director, with Nancy Goodearl, of the Houston Holiday Brass Concerts, benefiting the International Women's Brass Conference scholarship program. THE PICASSO STRING QUARTET (Christine Brain Elston, Linda Sanders, Lawrence Wheeler and Steve Estes) is Houston-based. Its members play with the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet Orchetras and are in demand as artist teachers in the Houston area. Check out the artist's website: http://www.melissagivens.com Track List: 1. Let the Rain Kiss You 2. Cantata: Prelude 3. Cantata: Rondo 4. Cantata: Recitative 5. Cantata: Air 6. Cantata: Toccata 7. If Music Be the Food of Love 8. Ave Maria 9. Summertime 10. Elfenlied 11. O Divine Redeemer 12. The Lord's Prayer 13. Chorale and Alleluia, from Cantata 51 14. Epheu, from Maedchenblumen 15. No word from Tom... I go, I go to him, from The Rake's Progress 16. Hear ye, Israel, from Elijah 17. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, from Messiah 18. It Is Well With My Soul Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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