Conductors’ Biographies
Jeff
BUHRMAN | Gay Men’s Chorus de Washington,
DC
Jeff Buhrman is in his sixth season as Artistic
Director of the Gay
Men’s Chorus de Washington, DC. During
his tenure the chorus has performed in Carnegie
Hall in New York, Symphony Hall in Boston, and
at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In December
2002, GMCW was featured at the Kennedy Center
Honors, appearing in the CBS television special,
where they sang a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor.
Under Jeff’s leadership the chorus has grown
to over 200 singers and has recorded four CD’s.
GMCW’s 20th anniversary
CD, I Dream of a Time, won the 2002 Washington
Area Music Association’s WAMMIE award for
outstanding choral recording. Consistently praised
by local critics, GMCW was hailed as “one
of the finest male choruses in the world”
by a Washington Post critic. Another noted that
“huge choruses often sound thick and ponderous,
but conductor Jeff Buhrman educed a light, limber,
beautifully balanced sonority that ebbed and shimmered,
framing lyrics with coronas of color.”
Jeff began his association with GMCW directing
the small ensemble, Potomac Fever, in 1988, a
job he held for the next 10 seasons… He
would return to directing the group in 2004. However,
in 1989 he began an eight-year run as Assistant
Director of GMCW, working with Music Director
Jim Holloway. Jeff had the honor of directing
GMCW at an inauguration concert for President
Clinton in 1997.
Under Jeff’s direction, Potomac Fever has
attained a wide following with its distinctive
style, characterized by fluid phrasing and warmth
of tone. One of two GMCW outreach ensembles, Potomac
Fever has performed hundreds of concerts and fundraisers
within the gay community and the community at
large. Jeff led the group on a European tour,
highlighted by a performance at the opening ceremony
of the European Gay and Lesbian Association of
Choruses Festival in Munich.
A lifelong musician, Jeff holds a Bachelor of
Arts degree in music education and voice from
Montclair State University and a Master’s
degree from George Washington University. In addition,
he studied voice with Marden Bate and conducting
with David Randolph. He received additional training
in voice with Walter Blazer of the Manhattan School
of Music. He has performed with preeminent choral
conductors such as Robert Shaw, Roger Wagner,
David Randolph, and Dennis Keene.
Andrée
DAGENAIS | Brandon University Chorale, Manitoba
Andrée Dagenais
is assistant Professor at Brandon University since
the year 2000 where she directs the Brandon University
Chorale, and where she also founded the Brandon
University Women’s Voices in 2003. Andrée
earned her doctoral degree in choral conducting
from the University of Iowa; she obtained her
master’s degree from the Eastman School
of Music of Rochester in New York. Under her direction,
the Brandon University Chorale has been invited
to sing at the New Music Festival in Winnipeg,
Canada (2003 and 2004), the Festival Unicanto
de Corais de Londrina, Brazil, and the Festival
de musique sacré of Sao Paulo (2002). The
Brandon University Chorale has represented Manitoba
at the National Festival of Music and has been
awarded the City of Lincoln Trophy in 2000 and
in 2001.
In the past, she has taught at McGill
University, the University of Saskatchewan and Université de Montréal.
As a researcher for the C.N.R.S., at the Centre
de musique baroque de Versailles, she completed
the publication of a critical edition of the motets
of Pierre Robert, an important composer of the
Royal Chapel under Louis XIV.
In 2006, Andrée will be the
invited Director for the Provincial Honours Choir
of Manitoba, at the CAMMAC Lake MacDonald Music
Centre; she will also be giving a workshop for
the French-speaking choral singers of Vancouver.
Last summer she gave an advanced workshop on conducting
for choral directors, offered by A Coeur Joie
International, in the Upper Rhine in France and
she returned to South America where she gave a
number of workshops on choral singing. She has
taught choral conducting for the summer courses
offered by the Alliance des chorales du Québec for many years As co-coordinator, Andrée
was actively involved in the programme of the
last National Congress of the Association of Canadian
Choral Conductors (ACCC ), held in Winnipeg in
May 2004.
John
DAWKINS | Music and Artistic Director Mélo'Men,
Paris
Born in Brighton, UK, Mr. Dawkins pursued his
studies in music at Reading University, England.
He specialized in piano with Eric Parkin and
in choral and orchestral conducting with Brian
Fawcett.
In 1988, he left England for Paris and became
the Assistant Director of Choeur d’hommes
Françoise Legrand in 1991.
In 1996, he was named Director of the men’s
chorus Mélo’Men, an international
gay chorus in Paris, with which he performed
numerous concerts throughout France and toured
internationally. He was awarded First Prize at
the 2002 Coups de Choeurs Competition in Paris.
That same year, he was selected as Director of
Choirs for a production of the Barber of Seville,
which was held at the Nîmes Theatre and
at the Narbonne Opera House.
In 2002, he was nominated
Conductor for the Rainbow Symphony Orchestra
in Paris. Under his direction, this new ensemble
interprets works from the standard repertoire,
but also performs numerous rare pieces like
Brahm’s Tragic
Overture, the New World Symphony by Dvorak, the
Symphony in D minor by Franck, Mendelssohn’s
Scottish Symphony, and the Capriol Suite by Warlock.
In 2003, he created the vocal ensemble Borromée,
who was invited to perform on the stairs of City
Hall for the 59th celebration of the Liberation
of Paris. He was also invited to conduct Mélo’Men
at the Lido, the Palais des Congrès and
the National Assembly in Paris, France.
In 2004, the ensemble Mélo’Men
participated with the choir of the Orchestre
de Paris and the Consort de Paris to perform
the opera The Tales of Hoffman by Jacques Offenback.
The opera, presented at Bercy, was directed by
Jérôme Savary with the musical direction
by Jean-Claude Casadesus.
Mr. Dawkins’ work as a conductor and musical
director takes him regularly to countries around
the world, such as Germany, Austria, Canada,
Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland and
the United States. He is equally known and respected
as an accompanying pianist, especially with Gay
Marshall in the show, If I were me, and as a
composer, with Dracula, a musical comedy, and
other numerous vocal arrangements, most notably
in June 2004, when he wrote a piece of background
music for a production of A Midsummer’s
Night Dream in Le Pecq.
Since 2005, Mr. Dawkins has been working for
Le jeune choeur de Paris at the CNR as professor
of English Lyrical Diction.
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