This concert is FREE and open to everyone!
Parking Information: Click here
Silver service reception begins at 9:30 am.
Featuring Thursday Musical Members Patricia Kent, mezzo soprano accompanied by guest artist Sarah Lockwood, piano; Yumiko Oshima-Ryan, piano; and Meghann Schmidt, soprano accompanied by guest artist Susan Munson, piano.
Patricia Kent has performed as soloist with many orchestras including Wooster (OH) Symphony, the Duluth Superior Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. She holds a DMA from the University of Minnesota, where she won the coveted Schussler Prize. She is an active performer in opera, chamber music, recitals and oratorio. Patricia is a featured artist on several recordings, including the Minnesota AIDS Quilt Songbook, “All in the Family,” a CD of songs of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn with pianist Robert Koopmann and a CD of French songs, la Vie Intérieure, with Roderick Phipps-Kettlewell. Patricia serves on the music faculty of Augsburg University and Macalester College.
Sarah Lockwood received her Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Depauw University (Greencastle, IN), and her Masters of Music degree in Collaborative Piano at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis). Sarah has held staff accompanist positions at Carleton College, Augsburg College and MacPhail Center for Music. She has collaborated with participants for various competitions such as The Schubert Club, Thursday Musical and NATS, and has also worked with singers for Minnesota Opera auditions. Sarah is also a violinist and violist and in 2013 she accepted a viola position with the Rochester Symphony in Rochester, Minnesota. Sarah teaches privately on all three instruments and enjoys working with students of all ages and levels. Sarah has lived in Hastings, Minnesota since 2004 where she has worked with the public schools’ music programs and has also been involved with the local Black Dirt Theater musical productions as music director, assistant music director and orchestra musician. In December of 2014 Sarah and her husband, Travis, purchased the former Guardian Angels Catholic Church and converted it into a performing arts space, art gallery and music school. The school is Blessings Academy of Arts and Music and the former church building is now called the Hastings Arts Center.
Yumiko Oshima-Ryan is an active performer of both solo and collaborative works. Her awards include first place in the Wurlitzer Collegiate Artist Competition and second in the International Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition.
Since 1995 she has been incorporating contemporary Japanese piano works into her repertoire. She has performed these works nationally and internationally including world premieres of new works by Japanese composers.
Her recordings “Piano Works for the Left Hand - Takashi Yoshimatsu” and “From Afar,” Japanese Contemporary piano work, are available on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, and Naxos Music Library. “Piano Works for the Left Hand” was selected as a special edition in the August 2022 issue of Record Geijutsu a top music review magazine in Japan.
A native of Japan, Oshima-Ryan graduated from Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. Her piano teachers include Eunice Norton (a pupil of Arthur Schnabel), Menahem Pressler, Eugene Pridonoff, Richard Syracuse, Jerome Rose, and Satoko Tokumaru.
Oshima-Ryan is currently a Professor of Music at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.
Meghann Schmidt, soprano, holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas and a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In a previous life she performed with Theater Latte Da, Colorado Lyric Opera, Skylark Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Bloomington Civic Orchestra, and the St. Paul Cathedral. In her current life, she enjoys sharing music throughout the Twin Cities and spending as much time as possible with her family.
Susan Munson, pianist, is a lifelong student, educator, and performer on this magical journey that is making music. She holds BA & MM degrees in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from St. Catherine’s University and St. Thomas University where she studied respectively with Sr. Mary Ann Hanley and Marianne Fleming Bryan. In recent years, she has played for Daniel Pollack, Olga Kern, Allison Franzetti, Grigory Gruzman, and Elizabeth Wolff. Currently she finds joy being among the creative, artistic, and educational ideals at MacPhail Center for Music where she is a Suzuki Piano Faculty member.
