Baritone Lourin Plant, dancer Paule Turner and pianist Alexander Timofeev, members of the FPA faculty, collaborate on a program that includes spirituals (arranged by Johnson, Burleigh and Bonds), reflective dance and recitations of historic slave writings. Guest artists James Osby and David Bollar are readers for the evening.
Plant's presentations on African-American spirituals have been featured in state, regional and international conferences, including a tour of Ukraine. He has performed with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Dayton Opera, Amherst Early Music Festival, Philadelphia Classical Symphony, Philadelphia Ancient Voices, Voces Novae et Antiquae and in touring ensembles for Michael Crawford, Russell Watkins and Barbra Streisand. At Rowan, he has served as coordinator of the vocal division and conductor of the Chamber and Concert choirs and Collegium Musicum early music ensemble.
Turner has been a highly visible and active member of the Philadelphia dance community, named among the "Top 25 to Watch" by Dance Magazine in 2000 and hailed as Philly's most madcap movement artist. As a choreographer and performer, he has created "dance dramas" that are at once entertaining, compelling and humorous, while also confronting politics full force He earned a B.F.A. in Dance from Virginia Commonwealth University and an M.F.A. in Dance from Temple. Turner serves as Dance Coordinator and Advisor/Artistic Director of Dance Extensions in the Department of Theatre & Dance.
Timofeev is an acclaimed pianist, winning the Eastman School Concerto Competition, Niss Piano Competition in Serbia and Margaret Guthman Piano Competition in Atlanta. As a composer, his work has earned top prizes in competitions and festivals in England, Russia, Slovakia, Belarus, Romania, Moldova and the United States. He made his debut as a conductor with the National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova and has conducted Britten's opera Noye's Fludde and the Concerto Winners Concert at the 2008 Northern Lights Music Festival. He has degrees from Rowan and Eastman School of Music.
Admission to this event is free and open to the public. Pfleeger Concert Hall is located in Wilson Hall on the campus of Rowan University, Route 322 in Glassboro, NJ. For directions and information, contact the box office at (856) 256-4545, email [email protected] or visit www.rowan.edu/fpa.