Category: Arts

St. Clair County Community College (SC4) welcomes to campus award-winning mezzo-soprano Lisa Marie Rogali and sought-after pianist and vocal coach Nathalie Doucet, head of Music and Director of the Resident Opera Program at Detroit Opera, for performances at noon and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 7, in SC4’s Fine Arts Theatre.

Rogali has been praised as a versatile performer of opera, musical theater, contemporary and concert music. She’s debuted roles in operas and premieres across the U.S. and world, earning top accolades from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Jensen Foundation, Giulio Gari Foundation, Gerda Lissner Foundation and many more.

During Detroit Opera’s 2023-2024 mainstage season, Rogali will be featured as a soloist in Arias and Overtures, and Beyond the Pit. She will sing the role of Kate Pinkerton in Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” the role of The Dog in Janáček’s “The Cunning Little Vixen,” and will cover the role of Dodo in Missy Mazzoli’s and Royce Vavrek’s “Breaking the Waves.” She also will sing the role of Der Trommler in “Der Kaiser von Atlantis” with Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings.

Rogali holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and a bachelor’s degree in music education from Pennsylvania State University.

Doucet boasts a remarkable international career. In addition to her role at the Detroit Opera, she has collaborated with renowned opera-producing organizations, singers and conductors worldwide, including the Washington National Opera, Summer Scape Festival-Fisher Center at Bard, The Dutch National Opera, l’Opéra de Montréal, the Vancouver Opera and more.

She has held esteemed positions in Europe as head coach of the Opera Studio Nederland and principal coach at the Dutch National Opera Academy. She contributed her talents to organizations such as De Nederlandse Reisopera, the NTR Saturday Matinee (Concertgebouw), the Neue Stimmen, the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, and the International Vocal Competition in s’Hertogenbosch. Additionally, she spent 11 years as a faculty member at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.

Doucet also serves as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

The concerts on Dec. 7 are free as an SC4 Community Arts offering to encourage and support the arts in our community. No tickets are needed. For the most current list of upcoming events at SC4, visit sc4.edu/events/.

St. Clair County Community College (SC4) will welcome nationally acclaimed acoustic singer and guitarist Cliff Erickson to campus for performances at noon and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 16, in SC4’s Fine Arts Theatre.

Erickson—a longtime performer who’s opened for top industry icons such as Ringo Starr, Kenny Rogers, The Beach Boys and Wynona Judd—brings to the stage original works along with passionate renditions of classic cover tunes.

His two albums, “Rendezvous” and “Acquired Taste,” released by Accurate Records, capture the essence of acoustic songwriting. Sales of his Christmas album, “The Spirit of Christmas,” released in 2005, raised thousands of dollars for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The Nov. 16 Cliff Erickson concerts are free as an SC4 Community Arts offering to encourage and support the arts in our community. No tickets are needed. For the most current list of upcoming events at SC4, visit sc4.edu/events/.

St. Clair County Community College (SC4) is pleased to welcome award-winning singer, songwriter and storyteller Bob Marshall to campus for solo acoustic performances at noon and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 12, in SC4’s Fine Arts Theatre.

A second-generation cowboy, Marshall has been a solo performer for more than 40 years and specializes in a mix of contemporary western sounds and originals. His eclectic taste in music is inspired by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Dean Martin, Marty Robbins, Burl Ives, Motown, the blues greats, rock and roll, and various other singer-songwriters.

Also a member of the Bob Marshall Band, Marshall has won the Will Rogers Award for “Vocalist of the Year” (Academy of Western Artists), “Country Album of the Year” (CMA of Texas), and was a Pro Cowboy Country Artist Association (PCCAA) Nominee for “Songwriter of the Year.”

His music and personality, according to bobmarshallband.com, are “homegrown to pull the audience into a personal experience with an entertainer who knows how it is done.”

The Oct. 12 Bob Marshall concerts are free and open to the public—as are all upcoming arts events at SC4—and no tickets are needed. For the most current list of upcoming events at SC4, visit sc4.edu/events/.

The Lexington Bach String Quartet returns to campus to kick off the fall 2023 arts season at St. Clair County Community College (SC4) with performances at noon and 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 14, in SC4’s Fine Arts Theatre.

The Lexington Bach String Quartet features the following musicians:

• Melody L. Wootton, first violin, is an active performer in the Detroit metropolitan area, playing with Detroit Opera, Broadway shows that appear in Detroit, and as a substitute violinist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She is a member of the Baldwin Ensemble, the Fishwick-Levine-Wootton Piano Trio, and performs as a soloist for Detroit area churches.
• Denice Anderson Turck, second violin, and Lexington Bach Festival administrator, is a freelance violinist and music educator. She is concertmaster emeritus of the Adrian Symphony Orchestra, leader of Regency Strings and performs regularly with regional orchestras. Before moving to Michigan, Anderson Turck developed a highly regarded junior high school and elementary string music program for the Oconomowoc, Wisc., Public Schools. She also served as string coordinator of Project Create, a Suzuki Institute at Carroll University, Wisc., and was a member of the Madison Symphony, Waukesha Symphony and Milwaukee Ballet orchestras.
• Janine Bradbury, viola, is from Commerce, Mich. She is principal viola with the Flint and Saginaw Bay Symphony orchestras, a member of the Ann Arbor Symphony and is an active freelancer. Bradbury is a former member of the Michigan Opera Theatre Orchestra, the Boulder, Colo., Philharmonic, and has subbed with Windsor, Toledo and Detroit symphonies. Bradbury played Broadway shows in Detroit for 15 years and toured with the Phantom of the Opera. As a freelancer, she has played for Aretha Franklin, Plant and Page, Mannheim Steamroller, The Three Tenors, The Who, and Earth, Wind and Fire. She enjoys teaching violin and viola and frequently adjudicates student performances for the Flint Institute of Music.
• Irina Tikhonova, cello, began playing the cello at the age of six. Her mother, Lydia, loved to sing and selected cello for Tikhonova because its range is close to that of the singing voice. Before coming to this country, she performed with the Harmony Philharmonic Ensemble of Soloists in Kiev, the Renaissance Chamber Orchestra, and was the assistant principal cellist in the State Symphony Orchestra. Since immigrating to the United States from the Ukraine in 1991, Tikhonova has been principal cellist of the Saginaw Bay Symphony, the Bijou Music Ensemble, the Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, and is a member of the Flint Symphony Orchestra. She has more than 15 years of cello and chamber music teaching and coaching experience. Since 2008, Tikhonova has been on the faculty of Cellospeak in Pennsylvania.

Slated performance pieces include numbers by Johann Sebastian Bach, William Grant Still and Ludwig van Beethoven.

The Lexington Bach String Quartet concerts are free and open to the public—as are all upcoming arts events at SC4—and no tickets are needed. For the most current list of upcoming events at SC4, visit sc4.edu/events/.