Northwest Repertory Singers presents Tapestries: Music for Choir & Cello

• Tom Walworth, cello
• Matt Kelzenberg, cello
• Roberta Hansen Downey, cello
• Kaitlynn Turner, cello
• Margorie Skreen, piano
• Kyle Haugen, conductor

Spring is here, and Northwest Repertory Singers are just weeks away from our much-anticipated concert, "Tapestries: Music for Choir and Cello." Our singers are hard at work, and we can't wait to share this extraordinary musical experience with you. Join us on Saturday, May 17 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 18 at 3pm at Christ Episcopal Church (310 N. K St., Tacoma).

This concert will be unlike any we've done before—almost every choral work features the cello as a solo instrument. Our collaborative pianist, Marjorie Skreen, will be joined by NWRS members Matt Kelzenberg and Tom Walworth, who are both well known for their artistry as cellists throughout the Puget Sound region and beyond.

Besides choral works with cello, I'm delighted to feature Tom Walworth's innovative ten-minute composition, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Inspired by the novel of the same name, the work was originally scored for a large ensemble of cellos at Central Washington University. For our program, Tom is adapting his work as a cello quartet. Prominent local cellists Roberta Hansen Downey and Kaitlynn Turner will join Matt and Tom and perform with NWRS on selected choral pieces.

About Northwest Repertory Singers

A premier, collaborative choral organization performing throughout the pacific northwest's south sound.

About Tom Walworth, cello

Tom Walworth is the director of orchestras at Thomas Jefferson High School and Lakota Middle School in Federal Way, Washington. In addition to his duties as principal cellist for Rainier Symphony, he is a charter member of the Northwest Repertory Singers (Tacoma) and serves as a cello coach for the Tacoma Youth Symphony Association. He has studied with Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel (University of Puget Sound), Hamilton Cheifetz (Portland State University) and performed in a masterclass for Janos Starker (Indiana University at Bloomington). Mr. Walworth is a published composer of choral works and enjoys arranging music for string groups in the Pacific Northwest.

About Matt Kelzenberg, cello

Matthew Kelzenberg has enjoyed a varied career as a cellist and pedagogue, on stages and in halls from the Banff Centre, Canada, to Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Matthew has been a member of the Tacoma Symphony, the Arizona Opera Orchestra, and the Filarmônica de Minas Gerais (Brazil), and he holds degrees in Music Performance from the University of Puget Sound and Arizona State University. Matthew is a proud member of NWRS, and when he is not making music, he enjoys driving a bus for Intercity Transit, is an avid runner, and loves to bake bread and pastries.

About Roberta Hansen Downey, cello

Roberta Hansen Downey grew up in Seattle and Tacoma. She earned her Bachelor of Music at the University of Southern California, studying cello with Gabor Rejto, and continued her cello studies with Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel. She was a winner of the Northwest Young Artist Competition and the Don Bushell Concerto Competition. She joined the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in 1978, and subsequently joined the Seattle Symphony in 1982. After her first six seasons with the Orchestra, Roberta took time off to earn her Master’s Degree in Performance at the Eastman School of Music. She is a frequent guest artist on the Second City Chamber series in Tacoma.

About Kaitlynn Turner, cello

Cellist Kaitlynn Turner is a prominent performer and music teacher in the Seattle-Tacoma area, praised for her passionate and sensitive playing. Nowadays, she performs regularly in orchestras, chamber ensembles, and string quartets. Some of Kaitlynn's most notable accomplishments have been performing with Keali'i Reichel's string ensemble at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, touring Europe with four-time grammy winner Daniel Ho, and serving as principal cellist in the Ars Nova Sinfonia, Pacific Lutheran University Symphony Orchestra, and El Camino College Symphony. Kaitlynn is currently principal cellist of the Tacoma Community Orchestra, teaches private cello lessons in Puyallup, and is a sought-after cellist for various church, wedding, and community events.

About Margorie Skreen, piano

Marjorie Skreen received the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Puget Sound and the Master of Music from the University of Washington. Ms. Skreen has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and has appeared as a vocal soloist with the Tacoma Symphony, as a featured artist with the Orpheus Chorus, as a featured piano soloist for the University of Puget Sound Centennial Celebration, and as a vocal soloist for the university's Jacobsen Series featuring music of women composers. She is a member of the Tacoma Chapter Music Teachers Association, where her students have been chosen as convention representatives. Ms. Skreen has served Northwest Repertory Singers since its founding in 2001.

About Kyle Haugen, conductor

Kyle Haugen (b. 1973) is a versatile musician with experience spanning Baroque organ to musical theater. A native of Tacoma, WA, he majored in music at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA before earning the Master of Sacred Music degree from Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, in conjunction with St. Olaf College.

Kyle's choral compositions and arrangements are published with Augsburg Fortress and Pavane Publishing. Since 2000, his music has been performed, recorded, and broadcast on radio and television across the United States. His choral pieces have earned recognition on regional and national American Choral Directors Association lists and as "Editor's Choice" by one of the leading national music retailers in the United States.

Currently, Kyle is the full-time Cantor at Queen Anne Lutheran Church in Seattle, where he serves as organist, director of parish ensembles, and coordinator of concerts and arts outreach. In 2018, Kyle was named the second Artistic Director of Northwest Repertory Singers, an auditioned choral ensemble of forty to fifty voices. In 2017, he served as Artistic Director for Northwest Reformation 500 and led a massed choir of 250 singers from across the Puget Sound region to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

Kyle is passionate about bringing mountaintop musical experiences to singers of all ages. For nearly a decade, he directed the high school Men's Choir and co-directed the mixed Chorale for Tacoma Youth Chorus, and he led the touring choirs to England and Ireland. Kyle has also served as music director for youth and community musical theaters and teaches voice to youth and adults.

As a freelance professional choral singer, Kyle has performed with ensembles in the Seattle area including the Byrd Ensemble, The Compline Choir, the Schola Cantorum of St. James Cathedral, and Schola Stella Maris. He has also toured in Europe with Boston's Canto Armonico and with Seattle's St. James Cathedral Choir. In the early 2000's Kyle served as organist, choir director, and professional choral singer at churches in Boston, MA. During this time he was the tenor soloist for the premiere of Daniel Pinkham's Missa Brevis and contributed to two landmark recordings of Renaissance choral works with the historic Choir of the Church of the Advent.

After living in places that are too cold in winter and too hot in summer, Kyle loves the water, mountains, arts scene, and the weather (mostly!) of the Seattle area, where he grew up. He lives near his childhood home in Tacoma and enjoys seeing how the arts have flourished in his hometown.