Findlay, Ohio, April 6, 2000 – Nearly 200 singers, eight professional soloists and a 35-piece orchestra will come together to present a complete performance of George Frideric Handel’s 1742 choral masterpiece Messiah on Sunday, May 7, at 2 p.m. in Central Auditorium in Findlay.

The event will be conducted by Micheal F. Anders, professor of music and director of choral activities at The University of Findlay. Sharon Vaas will serve as accompanist for the chorus. This performance will feature the largest rehearsed community chorus ever to perform in Findlay. Members of the nearly 200-member chorus come from the UF Concert-Chorale and the Findlay-Area Community Chorus.

Community performances of Messiah in Findlay date back to around 1930 and were regular features of the Christmas season from the early 1940s until 1967. These performances centered around the Christmas sections of the score and were not complete performances. The first complete performance of Messiah in Findlay took place in May 1996 and was given by the UF Concert-Chorale at the First Presbyterian Church.

The May 7 performance marks the Findlay premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 1789 arrangement of Messiah that utilizes a full classical orchestra with strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion, unlike Handel’s original version that was written solely for strings and solo trumpet.

Although Messiah is often associated with Christmas, Handel originally intended it to be performed in the spring, around Easter. Also, in its original form, Messiah was performed by a very small orchestra with a male chorus. It was not until the Victorian Era of the 1800s that large-scale performances, such as the one that will take place in Findlay, became popular.

Soloists for the May 7 event will include Vivian Robles Dettbarn, Angela Gwinn, Jennifer Hilbish Schuetz, Renee Clair, Gregory B. Rike, Erik Johanson, Robin Rice and Matthew Carroll.

Vivian Robles Dettbarn, soprano, is in her third year as a senior lecturer of voice at The University of Findlay and is on the music and theatre faculty at Adrian College. She has studied voice at the Music Academy of the West and holds music degrees from the University of California at Santa Barbara and Appalachian State University in North Carolina. She is a candidate for a doctor of musical arts degree in vocal performance from the University of Memphis. She has performed numerous roles on stage, most recently as the Sandman and Dew Fairy in the OPERA! Lenawee production of Hansel and Gretel and as soprano soloist with the Lenawee Community Chorus and Adrian Symphony Orchestra performance of Messiah.

Angela Gwinn, soprano, holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in vocal performance from the Julliard School, where she studied on a full scholarship as a member of the American Opera Center. She has performed in numerous opera and musical theatre roles. Among her numerous awards, Gwinn has received the Richard Tucker Foundation’s Robert Jacobson Grant, three Metropolitan Opera study grants, the Leona Gordon Lowin Memorial and the Sigma Alpha Iota Awards from the San Francisco Opera, the Winner’s Concert in the Pavarotti Voice Competition and the R.F. Gold Award from the Shoshana Foundation.

Jennifer Hilbish Schuetz, mezzo-soprano, is an adjunct assistant professor of voice at Heidelberg College and Bowling Green State University. She has taught on the voice faculties of Appalachian State University in North Carolina, Eastern Michigan University and the University of Michigan-Flint. She has her doctor of musical arts degree in vocal performance from the University of Michigan. In addition to performing, Schuetz is also known for her musical and operatic stage direction, which includes Trouble in Tahiti for the Papagena Opera Company and Tintypes for the Prairie Fire Theatre in Illinois.

Renee Clair, mezzo-soprano, has recently returned to Bluffton after living in Australia for five years. She is on the voice faculty of UF and Heidelberg College and teaches for “Private Sounds” in Lima. She holds piano and vocal performance degrees from San Francisco State University and has continued her operatic studies with Donald Munro, founder of the New Zealand Opera, and Michael Black of Opera Australia, Sydney. While in Australia, Clair coached for Opera Australia and founded a vocal recital series called “Chanter” at the Laidley Shire Cultural Centre, Queensland.

Gregory Rike, tenor, resides in Findlay and holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Heidelberg College and a master’s degree in vocal performance from Ohio University. He is completing his doctor of musical arts degree in vocal performance from The Ohio State University while teaching voice at Ohio Northern University and maintaining his own private studio in Findlay. Beginning in August, Rike will become chair of the doctor of arts program in vocal pedagogy at the University of Mississippi. He was a soloist for UF’s 1996 presentation of Messiah.

Erik Johanson, tenor, is associate professor of music at the University of Toledo. He has performed in concert, oratorio, opera and recital venues throughout the United States, central Europe and in Singapore. He was the first prize winner in the 1991 McMahon International Competition for Singers in Oklahoma and has twice won the Friedrich Schorr Memorial Prize for voice in Adrian, Mich. In addition to an extensive list of performances, Johanson is a regular soloist with the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, he was featured as tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony #9 with the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra.

Robin Rice, baritone, is associate professor of voice at The Ohio State University. A native Texan, he holds a bachelor’s degree in voice from Baylor University and a master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from the University of Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He has studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York City and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Austria. A specialist in French repertoire, Rice became an honored participant under Elly Ameling, Gerard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin at the Cleveland Art Song Festival. Recently, he won the Carolyn Brice Award in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artists Award Competition.

Matthew Carroll, bass-baritone, is a native of Pennsylvania and is a doctoral of music arts degree in vocal performance candidate at the University of Michigan. He has a bachelor’s degree in music from Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory of Music and a master’s degree in music from the University of Michigan. He has numerous oratorio credits, including Messiah performances with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony Orchestra, the Lakeside Summer Orchestra and the Old Stone Church in Cleveland. This summer, he will perform leading roles with the Central City Opera Company in Colorado.

Micheal F. Anders, conductor, is professor of music and director of the music area at The University of Findlay. He holds music degrees from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas, where he received a bachelor’s degree in vocal music education and a master’s degree in music literature and vocal performance. He has a doctor of philosophy degree in music history from The Ohio State University. Currently in his 19th year at UF, Anders received the Founders Academic Excellence Award for Teaching in 1996 and has been honored with an endowed vocal music scholarship named for him. In the spring of 2001, Anders will work in the Rodgers & Hammerstein Archives in New York City to construct the little known Richard Rodgers/Sheldon Harnick musical Rex for a UF production in 2002, the centennial year of the birth of Richard Rodgers. Anders is serving as music director for the Findlay Light Opera Company’s upcoming production of Fiddler on the Roof.

The May 7 Messiah concert is free and open to the public.