Well-known performing duo, Louis Welcher, Dramatic Tenor, and Vicky Kiehl, Organist, will present a concert of seasonal music this coming Sunday, December 06, 2009, at St. Mary’s Church, Altus, Arkansas. The program begins at 3:30 P.M., and is open to the public without charge.
Bearing the title, “Once Again, the Heart Rejoices”, the concert will consist of three main sections. The first portion, “With Joyful Anticipation”, features texts with advent themes, set to music by Bach, Yon, and Handel. Welcher reports, “it simply doesn’t feel like the Advent and Christmas seasons have truly begun for me until I have the opportunity to sing “Comfort Ye” and “Every Valley Shall Be Exhalted” from the opening of Handel’s Messiah. I’m grateful to be able to do so this year in such a beautiful setting.”
The second section, “Hymns to the Blessed Mother”, contains prayers, hymns, and lullabies referrencing Saint Mary,the Patron Saint of the host Church. The popular “Ave Maria”, by eary Baroque composer, Caccini, is followed by a unique arrangement of “Silent Night”. The familiar text and tune are sung, but they are coupled with Bach’s “Prelude in C”. The lush “In the Bleak Mid Winter” will be followed by the tender “Virgin’s Slumber Song”. “The Virgin’s Lullaby”, arranged by one of Welcher’s former colleagues from the University of Utah, Bernell Hales, will close the section.
Mrs. Kiehl will accompany these first two portions of the musicale on the historic Pfeffer tracker pipe organ. The long-time professor of piano, harpsichord, and organ at ATU, states, “there aren’t very many stops on this organ, but each one is an absolute jewel. With each having such beauty, there is no need to wish for more.”
The program will conclude with a section called, “A Carol for to Sing”, with Kiehl moving to the piano. “The Shepherd’s Pipe Carol”, “What Sweeter Music”, “O Come, Little Children”, and “Immortal Babe” will end the recital with tenderness, joy, and emotional impact.
In addition to her tenure at Arkansas Tech University, Mrs. Kiehl has served Central Presbyterian Church, Russellville, for many years as organist, children’s choir director, and bell choir director. She is equally appreciated as a private teacher of piano, and has served the musical community as a leader in the Federated Music Club, Piano Guild, and Music Educators’ National Conference. She was recently named Arkansas’ Music Teacher of the Year. She and Welcher have been performing together intermittently for almost 40 years.
Professor Welcher has taught at The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Crowder College in Missouri, Westmont College in California, and at The University of Utah. In that Salt Lake City institution, he was chairman of the voice department, with its 7 voice teachers and over 100 voice students majoring in Vocal Performance, Vocal Music Education, and Musical Theater. There, he received the Park Foundation Award for Faculty Research, and was elected by his colleagues as their representative to the College Council and the University Senate.
Maestro Welcher has been a featured speaker at the national convention of the National Association of Teachers of Singing in New Orleans, and contributes scholarly articles on a regular basis to the journal of the American Choral Directors’ Association. He founded and directed the community chorus in Russellville, and has served as choral conductor since the age of 18 in church positions in Arkansas, Utah, and California.
He has won awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, the Naumberg Foundatipn, the New York Concert Artists’ Guild, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the National Federated Music Clubs. He was national winner of the Young Artist Auditions, sponsored by the Music Educator’s National Conference.
The singer-actor is known throughout the States, Canada, and Mexico as a recitalist and concert singer, having served as soloist under such conductors as Maurice Abravanel, Hiroshi Kodama, Helmut Rilling, and Roger Wagner.
At home in Europe for several years, the heldentenor was a leading interpreter of the stentorian repertoire of such composers as Cornelius, Humperdinck, R. Strauss, and Wagner. His fame as a “specialist”, singing demanding roles undertaken by few other “heroic tenors” in the German-speaking opera houses, spread throughout Europe. “Opern Glass”, the primary magazine on opera on the continent, and “Opera”, England’s leading music theater journal, reported him to have
“inexhaustable vocal power, stamina, and interpretive skills”. Critiques from the major newspapers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland called him, “a passionate, yet intelligent, singer, with German diction and understanding of the Wagnerian style to rival any German singer on the stage today”.
Former students of the teacher now perform at the Metropolitan Opera, several opera houses in Germany, on Broadway, in professional choirs, and are themselves teachers, conductors, college and university professors, and church musicians.
In addition to his long singing career, Mr. Welcher has frequented the dramatic stage, appearing as “Grandpa” in the stage version of “The Grapes of Wrath”, in the male lead in “The Lion in Winter”, and as both Gonzolo and Prospero in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. His most recent role as Lady Bracknell in “The Importance of Being Earnest” highlighted his ability as a comic actor, as did his role in “Einstein at the Lapin Agille”, by Steve Martin. He is now preparing a one-man, full-length play, “Blessed Assurance”, by award-winning American playwright, Steven Willis, who plans to be present at the performances. Simultaneously, he is preparing one of Shakespeare’s greatest roles, the title part in “The Tragedy of King Lear”.
Kiehl and Welcher have become especially appreciated for their presentations of the great song cycles by German, French, and English composers. Most recently, they received standing ovations both at All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Russellville, and The University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, for their interpretation of Robert Schumann’s iconic and quintessential cycle, “Dichterliebe”.
Professors Welcher and Kiehl state that they hope their faithful audiences from their many years of performing together in the community will attend. However, they hope that new friends will join, in order that the nave may be filled to capacity for this much-anticipated event. Further, they trust that all will enjoy the program sufficiently to donate quite generously to St. Mary’s several renovation projects, or to other ministries of the parish.
Additional information about the upcoming Christmas concert by the Welcher-Kiehl Duo may be obtained by calling 967-6347 or 857-1616.
Contact: Louis Welcher
967-6347; 857-1616
