Past Event: SOLD OUT! “Ave Maris Stella: Sing to the Stars”

Rex Benincasa (percussion) has been a freelancing drummer and percussionist in New York since 1978. He has performed with Concordia Chamber Players, Apollo’s Fire, Alba Consort, Flamenco Latino, American Ballet Theater, Washington Ballet, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He appears on recordings for Marty Balin, Andrea Marcovicci, Foday Musa Suso, Philip Glass, Sesame Street, NFL Films, and the Ivory Consort among others. Broadway shows include Fosse, The Full Monty, Flower Drum Song, Man Of LaMancha, Little Shop of Horrors, Hairspray, The Color Purple, In The Heights, Billy Elliot, and Motown the Musical. Rex likes all kinds of music.

Carrie Crompton (hammered dulcimer, accordian) is a performer, recording artist, teacher, and the author of books for both hammered dulcimer players and children, including Expressive Hammered Dulcimer, a classic method book, and Hammered Dulcimer Solos, Volumes 1 and 2. Carrie’s recordings with The Barolk Folk have won national awards, including a Parents Choice Gold Award for Boys and Girls, Come Out to Play. She performs with the Connecticut quartet Eclectica. An avid landscape designer and gardener, Carrie is a Goodwin Master Naturalist.

Emily Tumbleson (voice) is a visual and performing artist based in Jersey City. Emily has a lifelong background in choral singing and has performed in state, school, church and nonprofit choirs since the age of sixteen. She is an active member of the New York City Master Chorale as well as a section leader and cantor in the NYC Metropolitan area. A photographer and digital artist by trade, she studied music and studio art at Goucher College and Fine Art photography at the Glasgow School of Art, and works as a freelance photographer.

Lisa Mischke (director, voice, guitar) is a singer, organist, choral conductor, and ritual-maker. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from San Francisco State University and has worked as a music director and organist, primarily in the Roman Catholic church, for over twenty years. She is a founding member of GreenFaith Long Island and the director of Chora Women’s Choir. She is led by the question “what is the liturgy of ecotheology?” Her experiences in ritual-based dance theater and performance art, environmental activism, writing, and the graphic arts are braiding themselves into responses to that question.

Katherine Doe Morse (voice) is a mezzo soprano, pianist, and conductor. Favorite roles she has performed include Cherubino, Dame Carruthers, Mercedes, Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), and the Secretary (The Consul). Katy conducts and sings with the C4 Collective, which specializes in new and experimental choral music. She is on the roster of the New York Philharmonic Chorus and Bard Festival Chorale, and regularly sings as a liturgical cantor. Katy has taught with Opera on Tap, New York City Children’s Theater, Little Orchestra Society, Highbridge Voices, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She teaches private piano and voice in Westchester.

Margo Andrea (vielle/voice) Noted by Chicago Classical Review for “effortlessly pure intonation” and by Early Music America for her “unique voice”, Margo Andrea (mezzo-soprano, actress, violin/vielle) has performed with ALBA Consort (founder), NY’s Ensemble for Early Music, University of Chicago Presents, Indianapolis and Bloomington Early Music Festivals, the Cloisters, Academy of Ancient Music, Early Music Now, NY Philharmonic’s New World Initiative and Long Island Baroque Ensemble. She is soloist on Sony Classics Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass and Robert Wilson, a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company and has performed with Lincoln Center Theater and the London Shakespeare Company.

Ruston Ropac (voice) California native Ruston Ropac is an explorer of dynamic, eclectic vocal landscapes. An alumna of the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Music Program, she also brings her artistry to early music, opera, and choral ensembles. Ms. Ropac has sung the world premieres of over thirty-five works for chamber orchestra and chamber ensemble. She has performed as a soloist with the Albany Symphony and its contemporary sinfonietta, Dogs of Desire, as well as the National Sawdust Ensemble, Melodia Women’s Choir, and Ember. She has also performed as an early music soloist in several oratorios and Bach and Telemann cantatas.