Mozart in Salzburg International Choral Festival
Artist Profiles
Artistic Director, Mitchell Covington
Organistr, Thomas Scherbel
Soprano Soloist, MacKenzie Covington
Alto Soloist, Lezlee Flagg
Tenor Soloist, Eric Price
Bass Soloist, Chad Runyon
The Free State Orchestra of Bavaria
Assistant Conductor, Suvi Skinner
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, Mitchell Covington
Mitchell Covington is a conductor, composer, and educator who lives near San Francisco, California.
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Mitchell received his Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting at the University of Southern California, where he studied choral conducting with Rodney Eichenberger, orchestral conducting with Hans Beer, and graduated with honors.
Mr. Covington's choirs have performed throughout Europe. He is the founding director of VOCI Women's Vocal Ensemble (Berkeley, CA), former director of the Bay Choral Guild (Palo Alto, CA), and led a 9-choir music program at the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley for over 20 years.
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Mitchell's original choral music is published by top U.S. publishers including Hinshaw Music, Alliance Music and Beckenhorst Press. His music has been performed throughout the United States and Europe.
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Mitchell has served as adjunct professor at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He frequently serves as choral clinician and as an adjudicator at choir festivals and competitions. Mitchell has served on the boards of the California Choral Director's Association, and the American Choral Director's Associaiton (Western Division).
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email: music@mitchellcovington.com
ORGANIST, Thomas Scherbel
Thomas Scherbel studied Catholic church music at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich. Coursework included Organ as a Concert Instrument and choral conducting. After grading with a grade of "very good", he attended the organ training class and completed his studies in June 2005 with a concert diploma.
From 2000 to 2015 Thomas served as organist and choirmaster at St. Cecilia in Germering near Munich where he was responsible for the planning and implementation of twelve concert projects per year as artistic director of the concert association "Musica Sacra St. Cäcilia" These projects included works for chorus and orchestra by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Shubert, Haydn, Rossini and Mendelssohn. In November 2014, Thomas was awarded the Walter Kolbenhoff Culture Prize of the city of Germering. "
From 2002 to 2011 Thomas was conductor of the Visino Choir in Eggenfelden, a renowned vocal ensemble that has received several awards nationwide. Highlights of his work in Eggenfelden were the performances of two great works by Ludwig van Beethoven, the "Missa solemnis" in November 2008 and the 9th Symphony with the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic in January 2010.
Since February 2016, Thomas Scherbel has been the new church musician at the Church of St. Joseph in Munich's Maxvorstadt. The highlight of his tenure there as been the performance Handel’s "Messiah" in December 2017, followed in 2018 by Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2 "Lobgesang" and Mozart’s "Requiem in D minor" A total of 117 performed in front of a record crowd of 1080 concertgoers.
SOPRANO SOLOIST, MacKenzie Covington
MacKenzie Covington is a singer and artist based in San Francisco, California. She has a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from Louisiana State University where she studied with Loraine Sims. MacKenzie has been a principal and featured soloist with Opera Louisiane in Baton Rouge and Verismo Opera in the San Francisco Bay Area, She is also a member of the internationally acclaimed vocal ensemble Fog City Harmonia. Ms. Covington’s voice has been described as “ringing and expressive”.
MEZZO-SOPRANO SOLOIST, Lezlee Flagg
Lezlee Flagg studied vocal performance with Julio Viamonte at Willamette University in Oregon. She was a frequent soloist with the Oregon East Symphony and the Mid-Columbia Symphony, performing oratorios such as the Brahms Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and the Mozart Requiem. Lezlee was the featured soloist for a Mozart Festival with the Mid-Columbia Symphony where she performed Mozart’s Exultate Jubilate. She also had the opportunity to play the roles of The Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Magic Flute and Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte. She is thrilled to have this opportunity to sing the mezzo solos for the Mozart Requiem.
Mozart in Salzburg International Choral Festival
Mitchell Covington, Artistic Director
Mozart in Salzburg International Choral Festival
Mitchell Covington, Artistic Director
TENOR SOLOIST, Eric Price
Born in Italy, Eric Price is a versatile soloist known for his captivating performances domestically and internationally. Eric frequently collaborates with esteemed orchestras and ensembles such as L'arpa Festante, Concerto Köln, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, Le Cornet Noirs, and Collegium Vocale Gent.
As a highly sought-after concert soloist, Eric excels in interpreting the cantatas and passions of J.S. Bach, as well as J. Haydn's Creation and F. Mendelssohn's Lobgesang, among other works in his extensive repertoire. Eric has portrayed various roles including Tamino in “The Magic Flute,” Nemorino in “L'Elisir d'amore,” and Fenton in “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. In 2021, he was the lead in Georges Bizet's opera “Le Docteur Miracle” and made his debut at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music in the role of Josennah in Johann Mattheson's “Boris Goudenow.”
Recipient of the prestigious “Fritz Wunderlich Scholarship”, Eric has performed in esteemed opera houses including those in Paris, Munich, Berlin, Zurich, and Lyric Opera Chicago. He studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Prof. Andreas Schmidt, earning a Master's degree in Vocal Performance.
BASS SOLOIST, Chad Runyon
Chad Runyon, bass, has performed regularly with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Chorale, American Bach Soloists and the San Francisco Symphony. For a decade he was a member of the Grammy Award-winning ensemble, Chanticleer. Chad sang the opening solo in the Emmy Award-winning PBS broadcast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Concert with the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus and appears on over 20 professional recordings, including Sweet Irrational Worship: the Niles-Merton Songs, The Gift of the Magi, Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe, and Sing We Christmas. Chad works regularly with choral programs and teaches private voice at his home in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as online. www.chadrunyon.com
Free State Orchestra of Bavaria
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We are honored to have this opportunity to collaborate with one of the world's great orchestras.
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The Free State Orchestra of Bavaria is comprised of approximately 65 professional musicians from the Munich region and surrounding areas. Over the past decades, it has primarily performed as the orchestra of the Free State Theater of Bavaria.
As other concert organizers and church congregations increasingly engaged the orchestra, an independent orchestra with its own sponsoring association was founded in 2016.
In addition to the Free State Theater of Bavaria, numerous other organizations have since engaged our orchestra for their projects.
The diversity of commissions and requests in the genres of opera, operetta, musicals, church music, and smaller ensembles makes the Free State Orchestra of Bavaria a dynamic ensemble.
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, Suvi Skinner
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Suvi Skinner is a piano and harpsichord teacher, accompanist, assistant choir director, and choral singer. At Oxford University she sang in the Balliol College choir. In the 1990’s Suvisang in the renowned Brighton Festival Chorus.
After moving to Luxembourg in 2001, Suvi joined Voices International. She obtained a '1er prix ‘ in piano accompaniment and in Solfege (with grand distinction) along with studies in choral direction, from the Luxembourg Conservatoire de Ville. In 2014 she was appointed Assistant Director of the choir.
Since 2017 Suvi has been co-founder, Assistant Director, and rehearsal accompanist of the choir, Lux Vocalis. In 2021 she co-founded a professional classical orchestra, the Luxembourg Chamber Players, to accompany Lux Vocalis. They have performed Mozart’s Requiem, and other works by Palmeri, Vivaldi, Bach, and Händel
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Suvi participates in two Chamber Music Ensembles of Ancient Music at the Luxembourg Conservatoire, and sings in the Ensemble Vocal de Luxembourg, and previously in the ensemble Double 8.
