Personnel

SOLOISTS FOR "A SEA SYMPHONY"

Susan Payne O'Brien is a singer, director, and pedagogue living in the Seattle Area. As a soloist, she has performed with Opera North, Opera UnBound, Quad Cities Opera, Forte Chicago, Links Hall Chicago, IIVA, Orvieto Musica, Chicago Chorale, and Seattle Pro Musica. She is a frequent recitalist, with recent collaborations with Entre Rios Press, Folio, The Alliance Française de Seattle, and the estate of composer Lockrem Johnson. In her teaching and work with theatrical and operatic ensembles, she is committed to helping students and artists of all levels access authenticity of voice using tools developed at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago where she trained and taught for over twenty years. As an opera staging director and pedagogue, her work has been featured on the stages of The Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, DePaul University, North Park Opera, El Paso Opera and The Chicago College of Performing Arts. She is the founding artistic director of Forte Chicago, an all-female improvisational comic opera troupe due to tour to Seattle in 2025. Her recent direction of Francine and Monkey in The City of Tigers can be seen this June at Seattle Opera and in outdoor spaces this summer as part of Seattle Opera in the Parks.


Damien Geter is a celebrated bass-baritone—“amazing to listen to. Possessed of a rolling, resonant voice even at the lowest register” (Northwest Reverb)—whose varied credits include performances from the operatic stage to the television screen. Opera Today praises his sound palette, which “is very much his own distinct voice, and invigoratingly fresh” while The News Tribune calls him “superb.” In addition to his vocal accomplishments, Geter serves as Portland Opera’s Interim Music Director and Artistic Advisor, Resonance Ensemble’s Artistic Advisor, and Richmond Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence. This season, Geter portrays the role of abolitionist and historian William Still in Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Paul Moravec’s oratorio Sanctuary Road, presented by Virginia Opera, and based on the writings of Still, who is credited with helping nearly 800 enslaved African Americans escape to freedom. He also joins Rembrandt Chamber Musicians in The Wayfarer’s Melodies: A Musical Journey, singing the John Ireland Songs of a Wayfarer cycle. Last season’s performance credits featured the bass-baritone as Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden with Hawaii Opera Theatre, plus concert credits entailing Handel’s Messiah with North Carolina Symphony and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Fresno Philharmonic.

Susan Payne O'Brien is a singer, director, and pedagogue living in the Seattle Area. As a soloist, she has performed with Opera North, Opera UnBound, Quad Cities Opera, Forte Chicago, Links Hall Chicago, IIVA, Orvieto Musica, Chicago Chorale, and Seattle Pro Musica. She is a frequent recitalist, with recent collaborations with Entre Rios Press, Folio, The Alliance Française de Seattle, and the estate of composer Lockrem Johnson. In her teaching and work with theatrical and operatic ensembles, she is committed to helping students and artists of all levels access authenticity of voice using tools developed at the Piven Theatre Workshop in Chicago where she trained and taught for over twenty years. As an opera staging director and pedagogue, her work has been featured on the stages of The Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, DePaul University, North Park Opera, El Paso Opera and The Chicago College of Performing Arts. She is the founding artistic director of Forte Chicago, an all-female improvisational comic opera troupe due to tour to Seattle in 2025. Her recent direction of Francine and Monkey in The City of Tigers can be seen this June at Seattle Opera and in outdoor spaces this summer as part of Seattle Opera in the Parks.

Dr. John Seesholtz, baritone, is the Director of Vocal Pedagogy at the University of Colorado. His most recent operatic performances include: La Traviata (Germont), The Merry Widow (Baron Zeta), Madame Butterfly (Sharpless), Florencia en el Amazonas (Alvaro), Verdi's Otello (Iago), Candide (Pangloss), Pagliacci (Silvio), Verdi's Falstaff (Ford), and Gianni Schicchi (title role). Some of his solo concert performances include Carmina Burana; Brahms' Requiem; and Five Mystical Songs, A Sea Symphony, and Dona Nobis Pacem by Vaughan Williams. He has multiple articles published with the Journal of Singing: "Hyperadduction: A Pedagogic Approach for the 21st Century Voice Instructor," "The AIDS Quilt Songbook and Its Uncollected Works," and "The Origin of the Verdi Baritone." He has also published and curated a song collection with New Music Shelf, "The Lost Songs of the AIDS Quilt Songbook." He is the former President of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Colorado and Wyoming Chapter, and holds positions with La Lirica Musica, Art Song Colorado, and West Central NATS. In 2023, he submitted "Rethinking the Italian 24 Songs and Arias" to the Journal of Singing and is working on a book, The 24 Spanish Canciones and Zarzuelas Arias: A Pedagogic Guide to Latin American Spanish Song, and concurrently, an online database called "The Canciones Project: Expanding Bel Canto Canon Through the Innate Pedagogic Fluency of Latin American Spanish Art Song." 

AUBURN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

About Auburn Symphony Orchestra and Wesley Schulz

Auburn Symphony Orchestra changes lives and our South Puget Sound community through the shared experience of live orchestral music performances and by nurturing the relationship between our audiences and our artists.

In 1996, Founding Conductor and Music Director Stewart Kershaw assembled a talented group of regional musicians to form a symphony orchestra. Now under the direction of Wesley Schulz, the fully-professional Auburn Symphony Orchestra has become one of the most acclaimed orchestras in the Northwest with its core of musicians from the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra. Recent special projects include collaborations with other arts groups such as the Reno Chamber Orchestra and the Guild Dance Company to co-commission new choreography for Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Schulz and ASO were invited in July 2022 to perform for the closing concert of the American Guild of Organists National Convention with soloist Renée Anne Louprette at Benaroya Hall. With New Music USA’s Amplifying Voices program and New Music for America, ASO has been a proud partner in co-commissions of new music, often as the smallest budget orchestra in these nationwide projects. 

The Orchestra's home is the Auburn Performing Arts Center in downtown Auburn. Chamber concerts take place around the Auburn community including St Matthew - San Mateo Episcopal Church, Soos Creek Botanical Gardens, and the Auburn International Farmers Market.


Wesley Schulz is widely recognized for his superb programming and spirited yet heartfelt music making with orchestras. At home with masterworks, contemporary music, as well as pops, the Cultural Voice of North Carolina deems Schulz’s conducting “spectacular.” Schulz is Music Director and Conductor of the Auburn Symphony Orchestra and recently completed four successful seasons as the Associate Conductor of the North Carolina Symphony. Prior to this, Schulz was a Conducting Fellow at the Seattle Symphony, Assistant Conductor of the Britt Festival Orchestra, and Education and Family Conductor for the Austin Symphony Orchestra.

Key to Schulz’s success is his passion for diversifying classical music and expanding the concert hall to include all listeners. He has collaborated with some of the most dynamic musical artists of our time including Philippe Quint, Bella Hristova, Richard Lin, Leslie Odom Jr, Pink Martini, Randall Goosby, Cirque de la Symphonie, John Williams, Amos Lee, and many more. When not on the podium, Schulz enjoys distance running, doing CrossFit, cooking, and playing endless fetch with his two dogs, Chewbacca and Han Solo.

Orchestra Members

VIOLIN I

VIOLIN II

VIOLA

CELLO

BASS

FLUTE

OBOE

CLARINET

BASSOON

HORN

TRUMPET

TROMBONE

TUBA

TIMPANI

PERCUSSION

HARP

SEATTLE PRO MUSICA

About Seattle Pro Musica and Karen P. Thomas

Seattle Pro Musica believes in the power of voices joined in harmony to enrich the lives of their audiences, their singers, and the community at large. SPM also believes in making the beauty of choral music available to as many people as possible.

Throughout their 51-year history, SPM has been recognized for the caliber of their programming and performances. They’ve received the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming, and they were ranked as “among America’s very best choirs” by American Record Guide. Under the baton of Artistic Director and Conductor Karen P. Thomas, they’ve received international acclaim for their CD recordings and live performances. Choir and Organ writes, “Seattle Pro Musica presents a cappella singing at its best,” and Fanfare Record says, “This is truly an extraordinary choir.” SPM has also appeared by invitation at numerous international and national festivals, and they’ve been fortunate enough to perform with artists like Jane Eaglen, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Pacific MusicWorks, and Seattle Symphony. Most importantly, Seattle Pro Musica is beloved by a community of listeners and supporters who make everything they do possible.


Karen P. Thomas, Artistic Director and Conductor of Seattle Pro Musica, has conducted at international festivals in Europe and North America, including the Berkshire Choral International and the Bergen International Festival. With Seattle Pro Musica, she received the Margaret Hillis Award from Chorus America, and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming. She has received awards from the NEA, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and ASCAP, among others. For her leadership in multiple areas, including making choral ensembles welcoming spaces for transgender and nonbinary singers, she received the 2018 Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award. Named the Washington State “Outstanding Choral Director,” she has been recognized for her “charismatic...magnetic podium presence” and “sweeping vision.”

An award-winning composer, her music has been praised as “superb work of the utmost sensitivity and beauty.” Her music is regularly performed internationally by groups such as The Hilliard Ensemble, The Vocal Consort of Brussels, NOTUS, and Cathedra of the Washington National Cathedral. Among her numerous commissions are works for the Harvard/Radcliffe Choirs, the Grand Jubilee in Rome, the American Choral Directors Association, and the American Guild of Organists. She currently serves on the board of Chorus America, having previously served on the board of the American Choral Directors Association and on the Seattle Music Commission.

Singers

SOPRANO 

ALTO 

TENOR 

BASS 


Soloists for Canticum Calamitatis Maritimae

Staff

Karen P. Thomas, Artistic Director & Conductor

Katie Skovholt, Executive Director

Kate Kelley, Operations & Administrative Associate

Heidi Blythe, Assistant Conductor

Dwight Beckmeyer, Collaborative Pianist

Jenny Spence, Soprano/Alto Section Leader

Jenn Newland, Stage Manager

Board of directors

Wes Kim, President

Jan Strand, Vice President

Rick Johnson, Treasurer

Kacey Shiflet, Corporate Secretary

Paul Henderson

Meaghan Leferink

Kenn Sebastian

Robert Wade

Advisory board

Dean Arnold

Keith Axelsen

Mona Dworkin

Samuel F. Dworkin

Mike Evans

Phil Haas

Noreen King

Teena Littleton

Terri Lords

Katie Oman

Joy Portella

John Schilling

Dale Whitehead