In Depth Information on Our 2006 Performers

VOCI – Voices of Canton

Directed by Dr. Sam Gordon

For over sixty-five spectacular seasons, VOCI has been performing opera, operettas, musicals, major choral works, madrigals and musical revues for audiences of greater Canton. Originally founded in 1939 as the Canton Civic Opera, the organization has since broadened its horizons to include different musical genres. The name VOCI – Voices of Canton was chosen to reflect what the group now encompasses.

With over 80 singing members, the group rehearses at the Canton Cultural Center for the Arts. Their purpose, mission and vision is to be the premier organization engaging adults in the performance of excellent choral music and to improve the quality of life in Canton, other regions of the United States and abroad through the performance of various vocal music.

In 1997 Dr. Samuel Gordon assumed the directorship of the group. Under his direction, area audiences have been treated to numerous outstanding concerts of sacred and secular music. Great acclaim was showered on the group during its 2004 tour to Italy, and they were invited to attend the International Schubert Festival in Austria in 2005.

Dr. Samuel Gordon is Director of Choral Studies and Professor of Music at the University of Akron where he leads the program in choral conducting. A graduate of The Indiana University School of Music with highest honors, he received his master's degree in conducting and his doctorate in voice performance from that institution.

Dr. Gordon is a member of the Vocal Arts Quartet, a four-voice chamber ensemble in residence at The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He has soloed with major orchestras including The National Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony, The Kansas City Philharmonic, The El Paso Symphony, and The National Gallery Orchestra. As a conductor, Dr. Gordon is the recipient of the Fiat Conducting Prize. He has won first prizes at the Concorso Polifonico Internazionale "Guido d'Arezzo," in Italy, The Royal National Eisteddfed in Wales (the first American to win this competition), and The International Eisteddfad (Llangollen, Wales). In 1985, the city of Cadiz, Spain presented him with the Trimillenial Medal for his contributions to Spanish-American cultural relations when he conducted a concert honoring Manuel da Falla who was born in Cadiz. That same year the city of Oviedo gave him the Bronze Medal in recognition of his heralded performance in the Cathedral of San Francisco. Recently he conducted the Taiwan Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in a performance of Mozart's Coronation Mass. He has also been guest conductor for the Philadelphia Ballet Orchestra, The Maryland Festival Orchestra, The Mid-America Singers, and The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. He has led workshops, clinics and festival choirs in thirty-eight states. A member of international adjudication panels, he has judged choral events for the Festival of the Americas in Nassau, Bahamas and the Angelo International Festival in Coventry, England. He is the new Artistic Director of Corofest Umbria, a choral festival that takes place in June and July, 2001 in six Umbrian cities in Italy.

He is a recording artist for Koch International Classics and his professional choral ensemble known as Singers Companye was recently featured on the Telarc CD, The Big Sound with Eric Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. He has prepared world premiers for the St. Louis Symphony with Leonard Slatkin and Walter Susskind, the Kansas City Philharmonic with Hans Schwieger (Meyer Kupferman's Comicus Americanus) and with the same orchestra under Jorge Nestor, The Maryland Orchestra with Robert Gerle, the Pittsburgh Symphony with Sergiu Commissiona, the Baltimore Symphony with Sergiu Commissiona, the Bridgeport Symphony with Gustav Meier, and with Hartford Opera under the baton of Saul Lilienstein for two summer seasons of opera.

Mark Morton, Bassist

Mark Morton is principal bass of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and is the first-prize winner of the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition in New York City. Morton is currently instructor of bass at Capital University, and was the assistant double bass instructor to Gary Karr at The Hartt School of Music.

A busy recitalist and concerto performer, Morton has been a featured double bass soloist on radio and television broadcasts including NPR's "Performance Today." He recently released his “Thresholds” album, a compact disc of standard solo bass repertoire. He also shares a compact disc with world-renowned bassist Gary Karr of solo double bass music by Paul Ramsier. It was with that CD that Classical CD Reviews hailed him as “a most artistic representative of the new generation [of bassists] developed in the last half century.”

An accomplished pianist, Morton began his musical studies on both the double bass and piano. By the age of seventeen he had performed as piano soloist with several orchestras including the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He then focused his musical energies on the double bass, earning the undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Juilliard School in New York. He subsequently went on to be only the second bassist to receive the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the history of that institution.

As an author, Mark has written and published the "Dr. Morton" series of books on the art of bass playing. He has had many articles appear in Strings, Bass World, and American String Teacher magazines, as well the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Mark Morton is the Artistic Director of the American School of Double Bass, housed in a century-old restored firehouse. The American School of Double Bass draws students, teachers, and professionals from all over the United States to its summer camps, private lessons, workshops and masterclasses.

As a soloist, Mark Morton performs on a string bass made circa 1775 in Naples, Italy by Gennaro Vinnacia. When playing in the bass section of the Columbus Symphony, he performs on a large double bass, also made in Naples, by Antonio Gagliano in 1805.

Mark Morton is a D’Addario Diamond Artist and plays exclusively on D’Addario Helicore Strings.



Summer Festival Orchestra
Conducted by Eric Benjamin



We are excited to announce the first performance of The Summer Festival Orchestra, a group made up of members of orchestras in Akron, Canton, Cleveland and Erie. They will be performing the original orchestration of Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring”, a work so completely and perfectly suited for a performance in the barn that it promises to be breathtaking in this pastoral setting. The concert will end with the jazzy and upbeat “Rags” of Scott Joplin.

Eric Benjamin is Music Director of the Tuscarawas Philharmonic, and former Resident Conductor of the Akron Symphony. He has also served as the Director of the Akron and Canton Youth Symphonies. His programs have been hailed for their imaginative choice of music and personal appeal to members of the audience. He has directed and prepared the Tuscarawas Philharmonic Chorus, as well as the Akron Gospel Meets Symphony Chorus for performances with orchestra. His rehearsals with and programs featuring the Philharmonic Children’s Chorus have been celebrated as outstanding community events for young people. He has also achieved considerable recognition as a composer and arranger, and was recently named Composer of the Year by the Ohio Music Teachers Association. He is the host and producer of the award-winning radio show "Klassical Kids," a program for young people about classical music airing on WCLV Cleveland at 104.9 FM. He earned a master's degree in orchestral conducting at New England Conservatory and lists among his conducting teachers Gunther Schuller, Kurt Sanderling, Gustav Meier and Leonard Bernstein.