Hartwick college

Johana Arnold
dlonraanohoj@hotmail.com

Johana Arnold sings regularly as a soloist with the Folger Consort in Washington, D.C. For many years, she was a member of the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble in New York City, where she also performed with the Ensemble for Early Music, Concert Royal, and the New York Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. Ms. Arnold has sung with Western Opera and Michigan Opera Theaters and with ensembles including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Meredith Monk. She has concertized and sung in operas in Europe, Asia and South America.

Ms. Arnold now lives outside of Delhi, New York and enjoys a lively career combining musical theater, acting and singing with groups including Orpheus Theater, the Catskill Symphony and the Catskill Choral Society. She teaches voice at Hartwick and continues to concertize. Ms. Arnold has recorded with Nonesuch, Musical Heritage, Bard, CRI and Western Wind labels.

Cynthia Donaldson
donaldsonc@hartwick.edu

A resident of Otego, Ms. Donaldson is the general music teacher at Greater Plains School, an artist-in-residence at Hartwick College, and serves as the Choir Director at the First Presbyterian Church in Oneonta. She attended the Crane School of Music for her Bachelors in Music Education and Indiana University at Bloomington for a Masters in Opera Performance where she studied with Gabriella Tucci and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni.

Ms. Donaldson has toured with Theodore Bikel in Fiddler on the Roof. Other national tours include Me and My Girl and in Ken Hill's Phantom of the Opera, where she appeared as Carlotta the Spanish Diva.

Regionally, Ms. Donaldson has appeared as Trina in the critically acclaimed Blackfriars production of Falsettos, and the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods in Rochester, and as Woman #2 in Butterfinger's Angel at Syracuse Stage with Ron Pallilo.

Ms. Donaldson has performed with Orpheus Theatre in Oneonta. Her last show was Into the Woods where she portrayed the Baker's Wife. Other roles include the Wizard of Oz where she appeared as Glinda the Good Witch, Laurie in the 1987 production of Oklahoma, Marion the Librarian in The Music Man, Mazeppa in Gyspy and Nettie Fowler in Carousel.

She has been a soloist with the Catskill Symphony Orchestra, The Catskill Choral Society and the Voices of Cooperstown.

Christopher Pfund
pfundc@hartwick.edu

Christopher Pfund is an internationally acclaimed singer and vocal pedagogue. His performing career includes performances with countless major orchestras throughout the United States including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of St. Lukes. International engagements have included performances with major orchestras in the Czech Republic, Canada, Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Brazil. Critics have praised his "rounded vocal beauty" and The New York Times called his voice an "attractive tenor, which helps define a sympathetic character."

While best known for his oratorio work with orchestra, Mr. Pfund has also enjoyed success on the opera stage, including performances with Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera, Florentine Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, to name a few. An active recitalist, he regularly presents performances of the song cycles of Schubert, Schumann, Britten and Brahms as well as other celebrated composers of the classical song literature.

Pedagogically, Mr. Pfund seeks the balance between the meaning of text both literal and poetic, the phonetic resonance of their sounds, and their motivation and stabilization from the breath. Key to this pedagogy is the belief that singing is an academic, artistic, and athletic pursuit.In this way, learning voice is not just taking lessons, but engaging a lifestyle of vocal training.Mr. Pfund’s principal teachers and pedagogical influences include Marlena Malas, Mary Morrison, Warren Jones, and Dr. Carl Gerbrandt.

Mr. Pfund holds degrees from the University of Northern Colorado, the Manhattan School of Music and was a 20th Century Song Recitalist at the Banff Centre in Banff, Canada.In addition, Mr. Pfund was awarded the prestigious Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation.

Mary-Anne Ross
rossm@hartwick.edu


Mary-Anne Ross, an active soloist in liturgical music, has performed as soloist with a wide array of music groups: choral, chamber and orchestral, including appearances with the Catskill and Albany Symphonies, Catskill Chamber Players and Capitol Chamber Artists. Her recitals of songs and arias have been featured in concerts throughout the northeast, including the Cooperstown Concert Series.

She has presented works by Virgil Thomson, Michael Tippett, George Walker, John Cage, Tom Johnson and Yehudi Wyner in the presence of or in collaboration with the composers. A Juilliard graduate, her voice teachers include Josephine Antoine, Belle Soudant, Alice Howland, Helen Boatright and Cynthia Hoffmann.

She is known for presenting concerts of sacred music of varying periods and genres, and is especially fond of the American Moravian composers and the works of J.S. Bach, receiving a highly favorable review of Kantate 51 from Will Crutchfield in the N.Y. Times. In 2004, she formed a trio, “Serendipity,” with two talented teenagers, presenting vocal chamber music accompanied by flute and harp.

A member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) she is a member of the voice faculty at Hartwick College and the Hartwick Summer Music Festival. Ms. Ross holds a M.S. from The Juilliard School.

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