Meet the performers in the February through May 2025 Music at Bath Concert Series!
Edward Vogel and Mark Murphy Vogel
Saturday, February 1, 2025
4pm in the Historic Chapel
British Art Song
American Sign Language Supported
With a voice described as “velvet-toned” (BBC Music Magazine), and praised for his “appealing, midweight baritone” (The New York Times),“forthright agility and bold declamation” (MusicalAmerica), baritone Edward Vogel is recognized as a sensitive, versatile performer. Recent highlights include solo appearances with GRAMMY®-winning Apollo’s Fire, solo debuts with the Jacksonville Symphony and Boise Philharmonic, and his solo debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Handel’s Israel in Egypt. In 2024, he received a GRAMMY® nomination for his work as a soloist on Apollo’s Fire’s recording of the Handel’s Israel in Egypt.
Mark Murphy Vogel is a versatile musician, excelling as both a tenor and pianist. He recently made his Wigmore Hall debut alongside his husband, baritone Edward Vogel. Mark performs with many of the nation’s premier professional choirs, including Apollo’s Fire, True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Seraphic Fire, and The Crossing, and was awarded first prize in the 2021 Audrey Rooney Vocal Competition. As a choral scholar at Hereford Cathedral, he performed in the 2018 Three Choirs Festival, and at prestigious venues such as Buckingham Palace, and the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.
Stephen Philip Harvey Octet (SPH8)
Friday, February 21, 2025
7pm in the Sanctuary
Jazz
Stephen Philip Harvey is an African American saxophonist, composer, arranger, and educator. As a musician and bandleader, he has performed throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions of the United States. Stephen leads several jazz ensembles which range in size from a trio to a full orchestra with a drive to explore a vast array of avenues in improvisation and composition. He funnels his eclectic musical background into his compositions, fusing Jazz and Classical with Popular, Funk, Hip-Hop, Rock, and Gospel. Stephen has also held instructional positions at all levels of education in diverse areas of music education and currently teaches at the high school and university level in Salisbury, MD. He has seven full album releases with the most recent ones being released on Harvey’s label Hidden Cinema Records.
In addition to Stephen on tenor sax, this SPH8 concert will feature Chris Coles (alto sax), Tommy Lehman (trumpet), Reggie Watkins (trombone), Tim Picard (guitar), Ben Tweedt (piano), Jordan McBride (bass) and Dustin May (drums).
Austin Walkin’ Cane
Sunday, March 16, 2025
4pm in the Sanctuary
Blues
Austin Walkin’ Cane is not your typical bluesman-he’s a storytelling troubadour with a guitar in one and and a slide in the other, roaming the backroads of the blues with a style that’s as gritty as it is soulful. Hailing from Cleveland, Ohio, Austin’s music is steeped in the traditions of Delta blues, but it’s his life experiences that really give his sound its unique edge. Whether he’s playing a resonator guitar that echoes the ghosts of blues legends or belting out lyrics that cut straight to the bone, Austin brings an authenticity to his performances that can only come from living the blues. Austin has toured the world, sharing stages with icons like Buddy Guy and Robert Lockwood Jr.
Wit’s Folly
Friday, March 28, 2025
7pm in the Historic Chapel
Chamber Music
Wit’s Folly is a Northeast Ohio chamber ensemble specializing in engaging, energetic and high-quality performances of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century chamber music. Music of this period was written to be heard in small, intimate settings. Good music played well was important to the listeners, but they also wanted to mingle, chat, flirt, eat, drink and generally enjoy themselves. This is the atmosphere Wit’s Folly strives to achieve with their small group of historical instruments: two violins, viola, cello and clarinet.
Andrew Sords Quintet
Saturday, April 5, 2025
4pm in the Sanctuary
Romantic Strings
Born in Newark, Delaware, Sords was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and asked for piano lessons at age five. Shortly thereafter, Sords commenced violin lessons, and his studies led him to the ENCORE School for Strings, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and Southern Methodist University. As a teenager, Sords garnered prizes from concerto competitions (including the NFMC National Competition and the Pittsburgh Society Career Grant), signed with management, and cultivated a media and audience following from innumerable interviews, profiles, and appearances. Following Sords’ debut in Australia, the Melbourne Age declared, “Sords made a voluble soloist in Mozart's Turkish concerto, forging his statements with an admirably firm clarity and bringing out the work's virtuosity as often as possible.” Sords makes his home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
In addition to Andrew on violin, Mari Sato (violin), Lynne Ramsey (viola), Madeleine Kabat (cello) and Elizabeth DeMio will also perform.
Singers Companye
Sunday, April 27, 2025
5pm in the Sanctuary
Modern Choral
Singers Companye is one of northeast Ohio’s premiere chamber choirs. Under the direction of founding executive artistic director, Samuel Gordon, the ensemble consists of about 32 singers whose collective vocal/musical backgrounds constitute a vibrant sound and extraordinary musicianship. In recent years, the ensemble has concentrated on primarily modern choral works which often involve collaborative instrumentalists who bring a wide variety of musical textures to the listening experience. The ensemble regularly appears on the finest music series in the region and has also garnered superb reviews in Europe. The 2023-25 season will feature them as Choir-in-Consortium at the Bath Church, their new home base in Bath, Ohio, where they will offer an exhilarating series of concerts.
Alla Boara
Sunday, May 18, 2025
5pm in the Sanctuary
Italian Folk Music
Alla Boara celebrates the deep history of human music-making by cultivating fresh sounds from the ancient roots of regional Italian folk songs. Amanda Powell’s impassioned vocals burst with the drama and humor of Italian life propelled by drummer and ensemble founder Anthony Taddeo. The storytelling behind this daring ensemble is intoxicating and has the dazzling soloing of a veteran jazz ensemble to Taddeo’s imaginative re-composition of these ancient songs, many of which have disappeared in a tide of modernity. The band has received critical acclaim from NPR’s “Shuffle,” SWR2 in Germany, All About Jazz, Jazz Weekly, and Cleveland Magazine.
Additional performers in this Alla Boara performance will include Dan Bruce (guitar), Tommy Lehman (flugelhorn/trumpet), Jon Kinnaman (bass) and Mark Micchelli (accordion/piano).