Joe Illick
Piano, Artistic Director
Joe Illick, Piano,
Artistic Director
Joe Illick has just completed his fourth season
as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Fort Worth Opera. He has
served in a similar capacity for Lake George Opera Festival, Shreveport
Opera, Greater Miami Opera (now Florida Grand Opera) and Opera Theater
of Pittsburgh. His symphonic conducting includes frequent engagements
with the Santa Fe Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Mid-Columbia Symphony
(Washington), Miami Symphony Orchestra, the Augusta Symphony and the Austrian
Radio Orchestra. Other opera conducting engagements include Skylight Opera
(Milwaukee), the Vienna Chamber Opera, Staattheater Aachen (Germany),
the Covent Garden Ensemble (London), Nevada Opera Theater, Teatro Lirico
d’Europa, Kansas City Lyric Opera, Opera Carolina and Opera Theatre of
St. Louis.
He is a champion of outreach, and his lectures and informal talks on classical music, composing and opera have proven to be extremely popular. He has given hundreds of live presentations to audiences around the United States and in Europe as well as numerous radio programs and television broadcasts on classical and symphonic music.
His symphonic works have been performed in New York, Washington and Santa Fe, and his monodrama EMMA was performed on public television. His ULYSSES was premiered this summer in Italy, and his Trio in B minor for piano, violin and ‘cello was premiered in Dallas this February. He is also an active piano soloist and chamber music pianist.
Virginia Dupuy,
Soprano
Ms. Dupuy has delighted audiences from coast to coast with her performances of major works from the oratorio, symphonic, operatic and recital repertoire. She is winner of the Mid-America Concert Singers Competition and was a finalist in the National Opera Association and Concert Artists Guild competitions. She has appeared with the Dallas, Phoenix and Houston Symphonies, and at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Dupuy has recored on the VOX label with the New York Virtuosi, and has been heard on both public television and radio. Currently, Ms. Dupuy is a member of the Voice Faculty of the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU. She has sung with Voices of Change since 1991.
Helen Blackburn,
Flute
Ms. Blackburn is principal flutist with the Dallas Opera Orchestra and in the summer of 2002, became principal flute at the Brevard (NC) Music Festival. She appears frequently in recital across the country and in Europe as a soloist and also with her husband, Drew Lang, in their flute/marimba duo. Ms. Blackburn teaches at Texas Christian University and has served on the faculties of Stephen F. Austin State University and McMurry University. She received her B.M. (summa cum laude) from West Texas State University and her M.M. from Northwestern University. An advocate of contemporary music, she works closely with many living composers including Dan Welcher, Simon Sargon, Martin Amlin and G. Bradley Bodine.
Paul Garner,
Clarinet
Mr. Garner joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as Associate Principal and Solo E-flat Clarinetist in 1992. Prior to his Dallas appointment, he held positions in the orchestras of New Orleans and Denver and was a member of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point. He is on the faculty of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.
Deborah Mashburn,
Percussion
Deborah Mashburn, Percussion
Deborah Mashburn, resident percussionist with Voices
of Change since 1984, is Principal Timpanist of the Dallas Opera and Assistant
Principal Timpanist/Percussionist of the Fort Worth Symphony. She studied
at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, on a Rotary International Undergraduate
Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship and two Austrian Government Grants
and is a graduate of the University of North Texas School of Music with
a Masters in Percussion Performance.
She toured throughout Europe as a member of the Glorieux Ensemble and performed frequently with the Mozarteum Orchestra, the Salzburg Academia Camerata Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Nuremberg Opera and the Munich State Opera.
Ms. Mashburn also toured North America, Europe and Singapore with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and performed at music festivals in Mexico and South America. She was featured as soloist on the Cliburn Concert Series.
Ms. Mashburn is actively involved in introducing music and percussion to students of all ages in the Metroplex. She leads a percussion trio that has performed hundreds of educational concerts for thousands of students over three decades.
Ms. Mashburn has been featured on several Voices of Change recordings including Voces Americanas which was nominated in 1999 for a Grammy. In addition she has played on many recordings of the Dallas Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony and the Dallas Opera.
Maria Schleuning,
Violin
Ms. Schleuning joined the Dallas Symphony in 1994. Prior to joining the Dallas Symphony, she served as the concert mistress of several orchestras including the Banff Festival Orchestra in Canada. As a soloist she has performed with the Oregon Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Indiana University Chamber Symphony and the Columbia Symphony. Recently, she has been a faculty member and performer at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Maine. Her other chamber music appearances include performances at Carnegie Recital Hall, Merkin Hall and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Ms. Schleuning's teachers include Joel Smirnoff, Josef Gingold and Yfrah Neaman. This is Ms. Schleuning's fifth season with Voices of Change.
Jolyon Pegis,
'Cello
Mr. Pegis was a prizewinner in the Hudson Valley Competition and a winner of the Artist International Awards in New York City, among other honors. He has performed as soloist with numerous regional symphonies, and from 1993-1995 was the Music Director of the Jamestown Youth Orchestra. Since 1994, he has been the Assistant Principal ‘Cellist of the Chautauqua Symphony, in 1995 he became Principal ‘Cellist of the San Antonio Symphony, and in September 2000, he joined the Dallas Symphony.