Peter W. Shea, tenor, is a featured tenor soloist in area concerts with groups such as the Arcadia Players, the Hampshire Choral Society and the Brattleboro Community Chorus. He has sung professionally since 1972 throughout New England and the Hudson Valley. Mr. Shea is also a cataloger at the W.E.B. DuBois Library at UMass/Amherst. During his recent sabbatical he began preparing a performer's guide to solo vocal settings of Heine's poetry. As part of that project he planned a series of three concerts of Heine songs, many of which he discovered in the course of the project. This is the third concert in that series. Ever since his days as a voice student of Virginia Schorr and Arthur Koret at Hartt School of Music, Mr. Shea has had a deep love for the German Lied, especially those songs based on Heine's poetry. This project combines his enthusiasm for the music and poetry with his graduate training in musicology and librarianship.

Susan Klein, piano, was a student Charles Fisher at the University of Michigan. She has been a faculty member of the Brattleboro Music Center since 1984, where she is also staff accompanist, and has been director of the BMC Community Chorus since 1990. She has also recently been Musical Director of the Brattleboro Opera Theater production of Dido and Aeneas and conductor of the Friends of Music at Guilford "Labor Day Weekends." Ms. Klein is Organist/Choirmaster at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church.

Jean Jeffries studies horn with Laura Klock, and is a regular performer with the Windham Orchestra, the Pioneer Valley Symphony and the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra. She has also appeared with the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, the Wantastiquets and the Arcadia Players. While living in England she played extensively in groups in and around the Oxford area, including the St. Giles Orchestra, the Oxford Radcliffe Orchestra, the Abingdon and District Choral Society, and the Burford Orchestra. She received her B.A. from Harvard College and her Masters degree in English from the University of Massachusetts. She makes her home in Amherst, MA, with her husband and two small boys.

Soprano Kate Judd received her Artist Diploma from the Longy School of Music, where she studied with Sanford Sylvan. She sings throughout the New England area, including frequent performances with the Arcadia Players Baroque Orchestra. She teaches voice and Alexander Technique in Brattleboro and Bennington, and offers classes at the Brattleboro Music Center and Marlboro College.

Peggy Spencer is concertmistress of the New England Bach Festival, a member of Arcadia Players, and first violinist of the Bella Rosa String Quartet. She teaches at the Brattleboro Music School.

Laurie Rabut Castellano has her music degree from Boston University School of Fine and Applied Arts, and performs and teaches violin, viola and viola da gamba in the New England area. She is a string specialist in the Amherst, MA schools, and performs regularly with the Arcadia Players Baroque Orchestra. Her other performance credits include the Boston Camerata, Boston Baroque, The Apollo Ensemble, and the Valley Festival Orchestra.

Catherine Bowers, violist, is a graduate of New England Conservatory in Boston. She has performed widely throughout New England, including performances with Arcadia Players, Mohawk Trail Concerts, and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra. She has performed locally with the Windham Orchestra. She "pays the bills" as a registered dietician in long-term care facilities in Western Massachusetts.

Zon Eastes teaches cello and coaches chamber music at Dartmouth, Amherst and Keene State Colleges, as well as at the Brattleboro Music Center. He performs regularly with the New England Bach Festival Orchestra, Arcadia Players and the Bella Rosa String Quartet, and is conductor of the Windham Orchestra. He holds degrees in performance and music history fom the University of New Mexico and SUNY Stony Brook.

Many thanks to the many people who have made this concert possible: the musicians profiled above; Marcelle Lipke for her invaluable help with publicity and my sabbatical project; my son Simon and my wife Suzan for many things large and small; Gregory Hayes and the Unitarian Society of Northampton, MA; Hilary Farquhar and the Brattleboro Music Center; and not least, Marlboro College and its kind and thoughtful staff, including Piet Van Loon and Nathan Gilsdorf.