Sandy Knudson - Josephine Lee

Sandy Knudson

Sandy Knudson

Sandy Knudson teaches music at Adams Elementary School in Norman, Oklahoma, and was nominated as Teacher of the Year at her site in 1997. Her education preparation includes a B.M.E. from Oral Roberts University, and a M.M.E. and Kodály certification from The University of Oklahoma. Often requested as clinician, Sandy has presented workshops on state and local levels and four times at national conferences (OAKE 1992, MENC 2000 (2) and OAKE 2002). Sandy has served as President of the Oklahoma Kodály Educators and is currently serving OAKE as a Southern Regional Representative.

Sandy is the Artistic Director of Norman Children's Chorus which appeared as the Children's Honor Choir in Tulsa at the Oklahoma Music Educators Association conference in January 2003 and will sing again in January 2005. She has been guest conductor for honor choirs in Louisiana and Missouri and has served as a guest conductor throughout Oklahoma at Circle the State with Song festivals in Guymon, Tulsa, Altus, Tahlequah, Enid, Durant, Byng, Norman, Putnam City, and this year in Owasso. Sandy served Oklahoma Music Educators' Association as State Chair of Circle the State with Song and the All-OMEA Children's Chorus for two years and was responsible for commissioning pieces by David Brunner and Nick Page. With Norman Children's Chorus, she has commissioned pieces by Malcolm Dalglish, Francisco Nunez, and Jay Broeker. She has copmleted two summers of study with Doreen Rao in the Choral Music Experience Institute.

Master teaching is a priority for Sandy; she often has student teachers, field experience students, doctoral students, and methods' classes coming to work with or observe her elementary students. Since 1990, Sandy has taught Solfege I and II in The University of Oklahoma Kodály summer certification programs in Norman and in Tulsa and also at Central Missouri State University.

Josephine Lee

Josephine Lee

Born in Chicago to parents of Korean descent, Josephine Lee started violin lessons at the age of three, piano at the age of four, and conducting at the age of fifteen.

In December 1999, she was appointed the Chicago Children’s Choir’s Artistic Director, the youngest person to hold that position in the organization’s history. Under her direction, the Choir’s young singers have toured nationally and internationally, appearing in such prestigious venues as Vienna’s Musikverein, Hamburg’s Musikhalle, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and New York City’s Carnegie Hall. They have worked ? and performed ? with such distinguished artists as Bobby McFerrin, Samuel Ramey, Jai Uttal, John MacDowell, Rachel Barton Pine, Alban Gerhardt and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Josephine recently prepared the children’s choruses for Christoph Eschenbach’s performance of Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and for Carlos Kalmar’s performances of Britten’s War Requiem with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2001 the Choir performed in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Ravinia Music Festival and, the next summer, in Ravinia’s production of Romeo and Juliet.

Not only a choral conductor, Josephine led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the world premiere of Bobby McFerrin and Roger Treece’s He Ran to the Train and made her Grant Park Symphony conducting debut at Millennium Park in a concert with Tony Award winning Debbie Gravitte, Christiane Noll, and Doug LaBrecque. She also has conducted, performed concerts, and taught master classes in Canada, Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, South Korea, and Thailand.

In addition to working with the choral repertoire, Josephine has introduced the Choir’s singers to the worlds of opera and theater. Josephine was co-creator of Sita Ram, a groundbreaking work of musical theater. She prepared and directed the chorus and orchestra for the work’s 2003 world premiere written and directed by Lookingglass founding-member David Kersnar and performed in collaboration with Grammy-nominated recording artist Jai Uttal and South Indian classical dance master Krithika Rajagopalan of the Natya Dance Theatre. In recent years, Josephine has trained children’s choruses for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s productions of Pique Dame, Tosca, Otello, Hansel and Gretel, La Boheme, and The Cunning Little Vixen.

Josephine was honored by Today’s Chicago Woman Foundation in 2003, when she was named one of Chicago’s twenty-one “Rising Stars, ” a select group of professional women under the age of 40 drawn from a variety of disciplines including arts, business, education, and government. She also has won numerous major competitions and awards in her 25 years of musical study, including the 1995 Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Award in Piano and finalist rank in the National Chopin Competition in New York. In 2002, Chorus America awarded Josephine the first Robert Shaw Conducting Fellowship. This Fellowship honors the great conductor's legacy in the choral arts by supporting the professional development of outstanding, emerging young conductors who exemplify the highest standards of choral performance.

In the fall of 2004, Josephine and the Chicago Children’s Choir released Open Up Your Heart, an exciting new recording produced by Deaf Dog Studio’s Grammy-nominee John Ovnik with guest artists including Grammy-nominated violinist Rachel Barton Pine; cellist Alban Gerhardt; six time Grammy-nominated pianist Jon Webber; and Mark Walker, drummer and percussionist with the band Oregon.

Josephine Lee’s passion in life is opening people’s hearts and mind with music that represents the beauty that is within all of us.

Thomas Cabaniss

Thomas Cabiniss

Thomas Cabaniss writes for opera, theater, dance, film, and the concert stage. His choral works include Behold the Star, available on New World Records and published by Boosey & Hawkes. The Sandman, an opera based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann, was premiered to critical acclaim in New York in 2002, and the same collaborative team is now working on an operatic adaptation of Kleist's Penthesilea.

His theater scores include: Buffalo Gal (Studio Arena Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival); Mamba's Daughters (Target Margin Theater, Spoleto Festival USA); Galileo (Yale Repertory Theater); The Guest Lecturer (George Street Playhouse); A Streetcar Named Desire, A Christmas Carol (Dallas Theater Center); Pericles, The Marriage of Bette & Boo, Twelfth Night (Center Stage, Baltimore); Hard Times, The Hostage, Twelfth Night (Portland Stage, Maine); The American Plan, Egypt, Mother Courage, Measure for Measure, The Venetian Twins, The Barber of Seville, and When Ladies Battle (Off-Broadway).

His concert music has been performed by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, the Lark String Quartet, the Drumfire Percussion Ensemble, and many others.

He has served as Composer-in-Residence and conductor for the American Dance Festival's Young Choreographers & Composers Program, and his dance works have been performed at the American Dance Festival, the Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors, and Central Park Summerstage.

In 1990 he created the score for The Lunch Date (winner of the Academy Award and Palme D'Or for Best Short Film). Other awards include a 1998 Obie Award and Drama Desk nomination for his score and musical direction for Mamba's Daughters.

He is active in arts education, having served as Director of Education for the New York Chamber Symphony under Gerard Schwarz and the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. He is currently the Music Animateur of the Philadelphia Orchestra: Christoph Eschenbach, Music Director. Member ASCAP, American Music Center and Target Margin Theater, David Herskovits, Artistic Director.