A Rosemary Scales Prize winner for best cello concerto performance at the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, cellist Sam Ou has performed at prestigious summer festivals including those at Tanglewood, Sarasota, Musicorda, Santa Fe, and La Jolla.  He completed his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music at Columbia University and The Juilliard School in the schools’ double-degree program, and later received a Doctorate of Musical Arts from New England Conservatory (NEC) in Boston. He was praised by The Boston Globe for his “impassioned performance” of Liszt’s Romance oubliée at NEC’s Jordan Hall. He has been a visiting lecturer and cello teacher at Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taipei, Taiwan, and currently teaches at the NEC Preparatory School. A frequent collaborator with organist Harry Lyn Huff, Mr. Ou and Mr. Huff recently released the CD With String and Pipe, recorded in the sanctuary of Old South Church.

Flutist Ainsley Land is a first-year doctoral student at Harvard Divinity School, where she studies American religious history and its intersections with environmentalism. She studied with Michel Debost at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music’s summer flute institute and played in the Denver Young Artists Orchestra throughout high school. She is the sole instrumental musician weekly involved in Old South Church’s Evening Worship, a service in the ancient Celtic tradition that weaves Gregorian chant and Appalachian folksong throughout a baptism renewal liturgy, centered around the font, in the candlelit gothic splendor of Old South’s Gordon Chapel.

Since 2005, alto saxophonist Willie Sordillo has served as artistic director for Old South Church’s weekly Jazz Worship services, at which he heads a quartet selected from Boston’s finest jazz players. He has performed throughout North America and internationally, and his original compositions have appeared in numerous song books, magazines, and college texts. He has co-led the three-time Boston Music award winners Flor de Caña, freelances with a variety of groups, and leads his own jazz ensembles. He has contributed music to several films and an arrangement to the television show ER. He has performed with or opened shows for Pete Seeger, Ruben Blades, Kurt Elling, Richie Havens, and Tito Puente, and has the great pleasure of backing up a James Brown impersonator.

George A. Sargeant has served as associate organist and choirmaster at Old South Church, Copley Square, Boston, since September 2005. He has also been assistant organist at Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in Sudbury since January 2010. Prior to these appointments, he was interim director of music at Boston’s Church of the Covenant, and has also held positions at Memorial Congregational Church in Sudbury and at Fisk Memorial United Methodist Church in Natick. He holds a Bachelor of Music from Ashland College (now Ashland University), a Master of Sacred Music from Boston University School of Theology, and an Artist Diploma in organ performance from the Longy School of Music. His organ teachers have included Charles Hickman, John Gilbert, John Ferris, and Peter Sykes.

Harry Lyn Huff is minister of music at Boston’s historic Old South Church (UCC), where he plays the 1921 E.M. Skinner organ, Op. 308, of one hundred fifteen ranks; conducts the Old South Choir; and supervises an extensive music program. He is also music director and lecturer on ministry at the Harvard Divinity School, and chapter organist at The Memorial Church, Harvard University. From 1984 to 2004, he was director of music at Calvary Episcopal Church, and, from 1986 to 2004, was organist and artist-in-residence at Union Theological Seminary, both in New York City. His other New York positions have included associate organist/choirmaster at St. Bartholomew’s Church; auxiliary organist at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; adjunct organist at St. Paul’s Chapel, Columbia University; organist at Temple Shaaray Tefila, director of choral activities at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, CUNY; and artistic director of St. George’s Choral Society.

 The Choir of the Church of the Advent, Boston is a professional choir with the prime responsibility of providing appropriate music for the liturgy in this Anglo-Catholic parish. In a year’s time, it sings fifty Mass settings and more than one hundred anthems, motets, canticles, and carols, in addition to a body of chant. While specializing in renaissance polyphony, its repertoire is truly catholic, spanning all historical periods and genres, from Gregorian chant to world premieres. The Advent Choir’s performances have achieved both national and international recognition, including critical acclaim for compact disc recordings on the Arsis and AFKA labels. The choir has been broadcast on National Public Radio, BBC Radio 3, and Classical New England/WGBH.

Christopher Wilkins

 Christopher Wilkins was appointed Music Director of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra in the spring of 2011. Since then the orchestra has reaffirmed founder Charles Ansbacher’s vision of community-oriented music making with an emphasis on access and inclusion. Mr. Wilkins has initiated collaborations with the Villa Victoria Center for the Arts in the South End, the Conservatory Lab Charter School, and Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, among others. He also serves as Music Director of the Orlando Philharmonic and the Akron Symphony. As a guest conductor, Mr. Wilkins has appeared with many of the leading orchestras of the United States, including those of Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and a masters from the Yale School of Music. Born in Boston, he performed as an oboist with many area ensembles including the Boston Philharmonic under conductor Benjamin Zander.

chris-wilkins-casual-medium

The Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Christopher Wilkins, Music Director, was founded in 2001 by Charles Ansbacher. The orchestra performs free concerts in the summer that bring people together to enjoy the power of great music. Since 2007, Landmarks has made the DCR’s Hatch Shell on Boston’s Esplanade its principal home. Currently the orchestra performs in neighborhoods throughout the Boston area, and at the Hatch Shell every Wednesday night between mid-July and late August. The Landmarks Orchestra’s mission is to create important and moving experiences for diverse communities throughout metropolitan Boston. The orchestra is recognized as a national leader in eliminating barriers to access, including those of cost, location, disability, and racial and cultural divides.

Boston Landmarks Orchestra

Boston Landmarks Orchestra Roster

Mark Dwyer

Mark Dwyer

Well-known as both a skilled church musician and concert artist, Mark Dwyer is the organist and choirmaster of The Church of the Advent, Boston. He has held similar positions at St. Paul’s Church, K Street in Washington, D.C., and The Cathedral of All Saints, Albany. He has presented recitals throughout the eastern United States and in England. His work as conductor, accompanist, and recitalist may be heard on the JAV, Arsis, and AFKA recording labels.

Dr. Dwyer is organist and choirmaster and on the teaching faculty of Saint Michael’s Conference for Young People, an Episcopal Church summer conference for one hundred young adults. He also served on the faculty of the Dexter School in Brookline, Massachusetts. He is a graduate of New England Conservatory. In 2012, Nashotah House Seminary awarded him a Doctor of Music, honoris causa, in recognition of his contributions to the field of sacred music.

Ross Wood

Ross Wood became associate organist and choirmaster of The Church of the Advent, Boston, in 2001. He studied with Russell Saunders at Eastman and Robert Anderson at Southern Methodist University. From 1985 through 2001, he was associate organist at Trinity Church, Copley Square.

Among Mr. Wood’s recital appearances are New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, St. Thomas Church, Church of St. Mary the Virgin, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and Trinity Church, Wall Street. In France, he has appeared at Notre-Dame de Paris on two occasions and at festivals in Bourges and Carcassonne. Equally appreciated as an accompanist, he has four critically acclaimed recordings with the Trinity Choir. He accompanied that choir on tour at Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s Cathedral, as well as Ely and Chichester cathedrals. As a freelancer, has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine and with the Boston Pops under Keith Lockhart.