The Illumination Opera Company

Our company in alphabetical order...

Demetra Bristol, soprano (Sandman and Dew Fairy) is a graduate of the University of Michigan’s Colleges of Engineering and Business Administration. Upon joining the Westford Chorus in 2001, Demetra rediscovered her passion for classical voice and found many new friends who share her love of music. Demetra sang the role of Mercedes in the Westford Chorus’ 2006 production of Bizet’s Carmen and has sung several solos, duets and ensembles in past Westford Chorus programs. Demetra also sang the role of a Stepsister in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, and the role of Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium for a scene study class, both at Indian Hill Music School. Demetra studies voice with Chelmsford resident Monique Phinney.

Nancy Bush, soprano (The Witch) After an early start pursuing a musical performance degree which included many opera scene study roles as well as a turn as Ado Annie in Oklahoma, Nancy returned to serious singing in 2000. Since that time she has performed solo work in Schubert’s Mass in G as well as Handel’s Judas Maccabeus and The Messiah. With the Westford Chorus she is a soloist and sang the role of Marcellina in an abridged production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro as well as Frasquite in the full production of Bizet's Carmen. She also appeared as one of the Trio in the fall 2005 production of Trouble in Tahiti by Leonard Bernstein, as The Witch in a production of Into the Woods and Anna Maurant in Kurt Weill's Street Scene through Indian Hill Music Center. Nancy lives in Westford with her husband Dan and children Emily and Kevin. She is currently a student of Monique Phinney.

Megan Errgong-Weider, soprano (Gertrude) is very excited to be making her debut in Hansel and Gretel. Megan holds her Master of Music from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. She is an elementary music educator in the Chelmsford Public Schools as
well as the choir director for the Atkinson Congregational Church in Atkinson, NH. Megan is a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus and is currently studying voice with Monique Phinney.

Susan Julian Gates, mezzo-soprano (Hansel) and co-producer, is a resident of Chelmsford. She studies voice with Monique Phinney and is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Dramatic Art. She began her career in stage management with the Inverness Music Festival and the Washington Opera. She has also worked for the Manhattan Theatre Club and the New York Lyric Opera. She sang the title role in the Westford Chorus production of Carmen in 2006, as well as Cherubino in a reduction of The Marriage of Figaro and Julie in Show Boat. At Indian Hill Music School she has sung the role of The Mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, which she is reprising in December, as well as Dinah in Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, and Miss Todd in Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief. She, along with Nancy Bush and Bill Kruger, are the founding members of After Five Cabaret. They debuted at The Java Room in Maltby and Shire’s Starting Here, Starting Now. Ms. Gates also is a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the official chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Debra LeBrun, Assistant Conductor/Rehearsal Pianist received her B. Mus. from Syracuse University and her M.M. in Organ Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. She is active in the New England area as a teacher and performer on both piano and organ and as a conductor. Since 1986, Mrs. LeBrun has been the Minister of Music for the Congregational Church of Littleton where she directs an active music program including an intergenerational handbell and singing choir program. Debra has been the accompanist for the Nashoba Valley Chorale since 2000 and regularly accompanies for many musicians in the area. She is a staff accompanist at Indian Hill Music School in Littleton, MA where, in addition to general accompanying, she assists with the opera workshop program. She has accompanied and helped with the music direction of opera workshop productions of The Old Maid and the Thief, Trouble in Tahiti, Into the Woods, and Amahl and the Night Visitors as well as scenes from many other operas. Other local shows she has played piano for recently include You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Just So!, the Bug Opera, and Starting Here, Starting Now. Debra is also an adjunct Professor of Organ at UMass Lowell, has served on the board for the Worcester American Guild of Organists, and is Past Chair of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers, Area I, Inc. She lives in Westford, MA with her husband, Steven, and daughter, Sarah.

Maggie Marshall, Co-Producer, has degrees in English from SUNY Binghamton and Library Science from URI. She has sung in choirs for decades, taken piano and organ lessons for decades, and has been the Minister of Music at All Saints' Episcopal Church since 1985. Maggie has been a strong proponent of the arts through her many years as Enrichment Chair at the Harrington Elementary School, and is also passionate about literacy, and has been a Chelmsford Public Library Trustee for many years.

Daniel Rowntree, Conductor (B.M./M.M University of Michigan/ Western Michigan University. Post-grad: Moscow Conservatory - formerly USSR) is a native of Michigan and began his conducting studies as a high school student at Interlochen Academy. After completing his undergraduate and graduate work at University of Michigan and Western Michigan University, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and completed his postgraduate work in orchestral conducting and orchestration at the Moscow Conservatory of Music, where he studied conducting with Dmitri Kitaenko. Upon returning to the U.S. in 1982, Mr. Rowntree studied conducting with Leonard Bernstein and Mistislav Rostrapovitch at Tanglewood, and with Zubin Mehta, Sir Georg Solti and other prominent conductors in master classes at the Julliard School, Boston Conservatory, Oberlin College, and Chicago Conservatory of Music.
Since that time, Mr. Rowntree has directed hundreds of ensembles and productions, ranging from touring companies of “Annie"; to a great deal of studio work in NYC (creating some of the most catchy used-car dealership jingles ever recorded for New Jersey demographics) and Renaissance Ensembles; from World Music Groups to professional orchestral productions; from community orchestra to community choruses. For the past ten years, Dan's passion has been to foster excellence and innovation in amateur community ensembles, taking singers and instrumentalists to performance at levels beyond the usual scope of what they would generally achieve in local groups.
Mr. Rowntree has directed the Westford Chorus since 1997.

Linda Holstein Stronge, soprano (Gretel) returned to singing six years ago when she joined Westford Chorus. It was a terrific decision for not only has she had the opportunity to grow vocally but she’s made a wonderfully supportive group of friends whom she cherishes. Previous roles with Westford Chorus include Edith in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Micaela in Bizet’s Carmen, Barbarina in a reduction of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and most recently Magnolia in Showboat. As a student at Indian Hill Music School, Linda sang the role of Monica in Menotti’s The Medium and Rose in Weil’s Street Scene for a scene study class. She also sang the role of Cinderella in the IHMS production of Into the Woods. When not practicing, Linda works with young children and their families in the Lowell area. Linda studies with Chelmsford resident Monique Phinney.

Dan Swanson, baritone (Peter), a resident of Westford, MA, is a graduate of the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At the Univ. of Illinois he sang with the Oratorio Society, which included a recorded performance of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis directed by Robert Shaw. At the Univ. of Michigan he sang with the Men’s Glee Club, which included a 30 day tour of Europe and a first place finish at the The Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod, Llangollen, Wales. Dan has been singing with the Westford Chorus since 1997 and is in his second season with Spectrum Singers. His previous roles include the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance, Hucklebee in The Fantasticks, Noah in Two by Two, Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief, Figaro in scenes from The Marriage of Figaro, the Postman in The Most Happy Fella, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Escamillo in Carmen, and Dr. Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro. Dan studies voice with Chelmsford resident Monique Phinney.

Michael Withers, Orchestrator, has over 30 years experience conducting a wide range of opera, from Purcell to Britten, and taking in a healthy dose of Mozart, Puccini and Verdi en route. Over the past 15 years he has been working with Heber Opera, a semi-professional group based in Brighton, UK, and specializing in chamber-scale productions ‘in the round’. It was Heber Opera’s need for orchestrations of operas that would suit the group’s touring performances that led Michael to start ‘re-orchestrating’ the repertoire – with the result that he has completed chamber orchestrations of 11 operas.