Annual Recital for Donors

Samson McCrady

Samson McCrady graduated from Roberts Wesleyan College in December 2015 with a degree in vocal performance. He won first place in the Rochester Lyric Opera recital competition and gave a recital there in March 2016. He also won first place in the Classical Singer Competition at the Boston Convention in May, 2016.
 

While a student at Cincinnati College Conservatory, he was invited to be a Young Artist at Opera Theatre of St. Louis in the summer of 2018, and a Young Artist in the Domingo-Caffritz program at Washington National Opera for the 2018-2019 season, where he sang the role of Wagner in Faust.  Samson spent the summer of 2019 as a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival where he sang the lead baritone role in the Missy Mazzoli 2018 opera, Proving Up.  He was invited back to Washington National Opera last fall as a young artist for the 2019-2020 season, where he sung Papageno in the Maurice Sendak production of The Magic Flute.

​

Listen to Samson McCrady singing an excerpt of the Sextet from
La Cenerentola.

Brock Tjesvold

Samson will be accompanied by Brock Tjesvold, who has performed throughout the United States with many up-and-coming musicians, as well as established ensembles. Brock is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the Eastman School of Music, studying with Dr. Andrew Harley. He previously completed his master’s degree at the University of Michigan with Martin Katz and a Performer’s Certificate at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, studying with Anne Epperson and Kevin Murphy.

Most recently, he was the official pianist for the 2019 Donald Runnicles Musical Arts Scholarship Competition Finals at the Grand Teton Music Festival. Brock was a collaborative piano fellow at the 2018 Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA., studying with Jonathan Feldman, and other recent performance highlights include Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the National Repertory Orchestra and a performance at Carnegie Hall with clarinetist Amy Humberd. In March 2020, he will perform as piano soloist with ÆPEX Contemporary Performance Ensemble for a performance of Berg’s Kammerkonzert.