Friday, November 11, 2011
All events are on the University of Missouri - St. Louis Campus in the J.C. Penney Building..

Friday, November 11, 2011 Women in the Arts Conference University of Missouri-St. Louis

Gail Fleming

Title: Rosemary Nalden and the Buskaid Soweto String Project in South Africa Friday 9:00 JCP

 Gail H. Fleming earned a B.A. in Fine Arts from Northwestern University, a Masters Degree in Music Education from SIU-E, and a Doctor of Education Degree from UMSL. She currently teaches music education courses at UMSL and McKendree University and is an Educational Consultant. She has taught music courses to all levels of students, from Pre-K through adult, for the past 34 years: at Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville, IL; at O’Fallon High School and Jr. High in O’Fallon, IL; at the Professional Children’s School in New York City; and at Assumption High School and St. Teresa Academy in East St. Louis, IL. She has also free-lanced as a professional musician in New York City and in the greater St. Louis area. Dr. Fleming is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arts Alliance of Illinois; she has earned Outstanding Faculty Awards from SWIC, the Illinois Community College Trustees Association, and Emerson Electric; she traveled to South Africa with a People-to-People Music Educators’ Delegation in 2010; and she has published the book, Alice Parker: American Composer, Arranger, and Educator. She is also a member of the: American Choral Directors Association, the National Music Educators Association, and the American Association of University Professors.
gailfleming@sbcglobal.net

 

Dr. Rita M. Csapó-Sweet

Title: Pioneers of Early Cinema: The Films of Alice Guy-Blaché and Lois Weber Friday 9:30 JCP

Dr. Rita M. Csapó-Sweet earned her BA (Eastern European history) and BFA (painting) from Washington University, and her masters and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in educational technology. She is Associate Professor of Media Studies at UMSL. Csapó-Sweet is an internationally recognized expert on the culture and politics of Eastern and South Central Europe.

For almost 40 years she curated programs on international cinema at the St. Louis Art Museum, Harvard University Film Archive, the St. Louis International Film Festival, the Mediawave Film Festival, and the Hungarian National Film Archive.

Csapó-Sweet has published over a dozen articles and book chapters on film, propaganda, media analysis, globalization, and children’s television in: Critical Studies in Mass Communication; the European Journal of Communication; Filmmaker Magazine, and other scholarly periodicals.

Csapó-Sweet has been an independent film/television producer since 1976. Since 1993, she has co-produced documentaries with Judit Kopper at Hungarian Television for the award-winning programs Videoworld and Mediamix. Their documentaries include: Joseph Pulitzer’s Message; Virtual Objectivity: Media and the Critics; Democracy and Propaganda: An Interview with Noam Chomsky; Election 2000; CNN at Twenty; and Whose Minding the Media?: Charles Klotzer and the SJR. Their programs are distributed by Filmakers Library. Her research has been funded by CALOP, and the University of Missouri, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), the Soros Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the ArtsLink Foundation.

Recently, Csapó-Sweet has created student / faculty exchange educational and cultural programs between UMSL and the universities of Sarajevo, Tuzla (Bosnia), and Dubrovnik (Croatia). As part of that cultural exchange, she is curating a Bosnian Film Side-bar at this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival in November.
csapo@umsl.edu

 

Renee Thomas Woods

Title: The Great Northwest – film Friday 10:30 JCP

Renee Thomas Woods, Assistant Professor of Communications at St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley, teaches mass communications, film and journalism courses. Also, she advises the Mass Communications Club and the student-run campus publication, the Forum Newspaper. She has taught at the college’s Forest Park campus and at St. Louis University. North County Incorporated recognized Woods as one of the “40 Leaders Under 40” and she was nominated for the Florissant Valley New Faculty of the Year Award.

In 2010, Woods completed the direction of her first film, a documentary titled, “The Great Northwest: It’s Not About Us. It’s About Them.” In June 2011, she directed her first play, “Fathers and Other Strangers” written by Jeff Stetson.

Woods founded Communique’ Public Relations, in St. Louis, MO prior to teaching full time. Her career began with AT&T Bell Laboratories Public Relations and Lucent Technologies in New Jersey and Chicago, IL. She earned a Masters of Arts in Communication from Saint Louis University in 2000 and a Bachelor’s in Journalism from the University of Missouri - Columbia School of Journalism in 1994. A member of Friendly Temple M.B. Church, she served on the Education and Scholarship Committees. Her past volunteer work includes the Annie Malone Children and Family Services board, and service for the St. Louis African Arts Festival and the Joe Torry “Giving Back the Love” Foundation.
rthomaswoods@stlcc.edu

 

Dr. Diane Touliatos, musicologist

Diane Touliatos-Miles, Director of the Center for the Humanities and University of Missouri Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Musicology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, has an acclaimed international reputation for her research specialties and pioneering discoveries in Ancient Greek Music, Medieval Byzantine Music and Dance, and Women Composers from those epochs. She was the first scholar to publish research on the secular music of Byzantium, the music of Ancient Greek and Medieval Byzantine women, and to uncover and publish catalogues of the Byzantine musical répertoire in the manuscripts of the Vatican Library and the National Library of Greece. She has published several books and over 70 articles in scholarly refereed journals. Some of her published books are the following: The Byzantine Amomos Chant of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Thessalonika : Institute for Patristic Studies, 1984) ; A Descriptive Catalogue of the Musical Manuscript Collection of the National Library of Greece: Byzantine Chant and Other Music Repertory Recovered (England: Ashgate Publishing, 2010); Women in the Arts: Eccentric Essays in Music, Visual Arts and Literature (England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010) ; and Her Art : Greek Women in the Arts from Antiquity to Modernity (Frankfurt, Berlin, Oxford, Vienna : Peter Lang Verlag, 2011).
  touliatosd@umsl.edu

 

 Jane Solose

Title: Mary Jeanne Van Appledorn and Liszt – Piano Lecture/Recital Friday 11:30 JCP

 A native of Niagara Falls, Canada of Hungarian-German descent , Jane Solose received her early music training at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario in Canada, and the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, where she was awarded their prestigious Performer's Certificate and was David Burge’s first teaching assistant. She studied with the noted teachers David Burge, William Aide, Myrtle Guerrero, Patricia Parr, George Lucktenberg (piano and harpsichord), Greta Kraus (harpsichord), Arthur Haas (harpsichord) and also received private piano instruction from Guido Agosti, Damiana Bratuz, and Peter Katin. She performed in masterclasses and summer festivals for Leon Fleisher, Grant Johannesen, Adele Marcus, Gyorgy Sebok, Abbey Simon, and Rosalyn Tureck.

Her active career as a featured concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, duo pianist and master teacher has taken her to Korea, Japan, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Russia, Canada, and around the U.S. She is a past winner of the CBC Canada National Radio Competition and received special commendation at the International Vienna Modern Masters Performers Recording Award Competition. Eroica Classical Recordings released two of her compact discs - Style Hongrois and Variations: Three Centuries of Solo Keyboard Variations. Capstone Records released another CD, Array, which celebrates works by American composers. Her articles have been published in the journals 20th Century Music and Clavier .

This past summer she toured Eastern Europe presenting concerts and masterclasses, and was invited to perform at the 2011 World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia. She was the convention artist at the 2011 Kansas Music Teachers State Convention.

Duo Solose, a duo-piano collaboration with her sister, Kathleen Solose (Professor of Piano, University of Saskatoon, Canada) have performed to enthusiastic ovations. In 2003 they toured Hungary, presenting concerts, master classes and lectures at various Universities and Conservatories throughout the country. In 2008 they were invited to perform in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory and at Sheremetev Palace. Their CD of duo piano works was released by Eroica Classical Recordings.

Dr. Solose is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Keyboard Studies Division at the Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is a Steinway Artist.
solosej@umkc.edu


Vanessa Woods – Artist-in-Residence

Title: Film and Works Friday 1:00 JCP

Vanessa Woods graduated with an MFA in film, with honors, from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her artwork and films have been exhibited internationally and she has been the recipient of numerous awards including a Murphy and Cadogan Fellowship for Film from the San Francisco Arts Commission, a Film Arts Foundation Personal Works Grant, and the San Francisco Art Institute's MFA Film Fellowship. She has also been awarded residencies at Djerassi, the Headlands Center for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony and in Pont-Aven, France, through the Museum of Pont-Aven. Woods has produced eleven films that have been broadcast nationally and screened internationally, including the Education Channel, the Centre International d'Art (France), The Anthology Film Archives (New York), the Oberhausen Film Festival (Germany) and the San Francisco International Film Festival.
vanessacwoods@gmail.com

 

Dr. Carole Harris – Theorist-in-Residence

Title: Composers Louise Talma and Nadia Boulanger Friday 2:00 JCP

A native of Niagara Falls, Carole Harris received her BA in Music, magna cum laude, I 1991 from SUNY at Buffalo, where she studied organ with Dr. Barbara Harbach, now on faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Dr. Harris received her PhD in Music Theory and Historical Musicology from UB in 2002. Her dissertation was “The French Connection: the Neoclassical Influence of Stravinsky, Through Boulanger, on the Music of Copland, Talma and Piston.” Dr. Harris also holds at BA in French (UB, 1968).

 Dr. Harris is currently on faculty at Canisius College in Buffalo, where she teaches Music Theory. She was previously on the faculty at Niagara County Community College in Sanborn, NY, where she taught courses in Music Theory, Music History, Women in Music, Music and Film, and World Music.

 She organized a four-day “Women in the Arts Festival” in April 2008 and a month-long festival in March 2010.  A third Women in the Arts Festival will take place during the month of March 2012.    For the past 12 years, she has been Music Director at Church of the Nativity UCC in Buffalo, and previously was the music director at First Presbyterian Church, Lockport.
ccjjharris@gmail.com

 

Dr. Nancy Berg

Title: Into the Dark Room: Iris Nesher’s Gaze
Friday 2:30 JCP

 Nancy E. Berg is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at Washington University where she teaches courses in Israeli culture, Hebrew, Jewish, and Middle Eastern literatures. She has lived and worked in the Middle East (Cairo, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv) for several years. Her first book, Exile from Exile, explores the writings of Israeli Jews from Iraq, heirs to the longest continuous Jewish community: Babylonian Jewry.

In More and More Equal, her next book, she analyzes the literary career of Israeli writer Sami Michael, a champion of human rights and the underdog.

His increasing popularity and critical acclaim reflect changes in Israeli society, especially attitudes towards immigrants and others from the margins. She has recently finished a book manuscript We Remember Babylon, about the ways in which Israeli immigrant writers remember home. She has also written on the Israeli mystery, women writers, food in literature, place, memory, and the question of language choice.
nberg@wustl.edu

 

Dr. Kathleen Nigro

Title: Pictures at an Exposition:  Kate Chopin and the 1904 Palace of Fine Arts Friday 3:00 JCP

 Kathleen Butterly Nigro is an Assistant Teaching Professor for the Department of English and Program Advisor for the Gender Studies Program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.  Much of her work focuses on the women of Missouri and, most recently, on Missouri's slave narratives from the WPA.  She directed the campus conference "Compromising Positions: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Missouri and the Midwest" in April of 2011.  Nigro is the president of the Kate Chopin Society of North America and on the board of the Kate Chopin International Society; her work on Kate Chopin emphasizes that writer's St. Louis identity.  Her contribution to the 2008 Women in the Arts conference on the UMSL campus  was published in the conference proceedings, Women in the Arts:  Eccentric Essays in Music, Visual Arts, and Literature.  Nigro was awarded the 2010 Governor's Humanities Award for Exemplary Community Achievement. 
nigrok@umsl.edu

Break 3:30-4:00

 

Sara Paula Hoffman

Title: “The Living Ibsen,” paintings influenced by Henrik Ibsen’s plays, “A Doll House” and “Ghosts” Friday 4:00 JCP

 Sara Paula Hoffman is a Professor of Art at Savannah College of Art and Design.  She received her MFA in Painting from Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri.  Hoffman refers to her small format oil on panel paintings as “theater on a two-dimensional stage.  Hoffman’s paintings are psychological reflections on family photographs with a starting point in Henrik Ibsen’s plays “A Doll House” and “Ghosts.” Hoffman’s work has been exhibited with International Ibsen Conferences:  2006 Oslo, Norway; 2009, Fudan University, Shanghai, China; 2009, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
shoffman@scad.edu

 

Susan Crowe

Title: Portrait of a Woman 1873 – a bust by Edmonia Lewis Friday 4:30 JCP
Susan Crowe is an alumna of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and holds a Master of Arts degree in Art History from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Her paper "Portrait of a Woman – A bust by Edmonia Lewis" is part of a larger research project that explores the social and historical significance of the extant portrait busts sculpted by the artist. Supported by a grant from the University of Missouri –Kansas City Women's Council in 2009, her work received an Outstanding Merit Award from the fellowship committee.

 

Melita Belgrave

Title: Engaging Older Adults in the Community through Lifelong Music-Making Experiences Friday 5:00 JCP

 Melita Belgrave is currently Assistant Professor of Music Therapy at University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Belgrave received her bachelor’s degree in music therapy from Michigan State University. Dr. Belgrave also earned her master’s in music therapy, a certification in aging studies, and a Ph.D. in music education with an emphasis in music therapy at Florida State University. Dr. Belgrave has worked as a music therapist in special education, mental health, rehabilitation, hospice, geriatric, and intergenerational settings throughout Texas and Florida. Her research interests are music therapy with older adults and intergenerational programming. Dr. Belgrave has presented at regional, national, and international conferences, and her research has been published in the Journal of Music Therapy and Music Therapy Perspectives. Dr. Belgrave currently directs Forever Young an intergenerational ensemble comprised of older adults in the Kansas City area and Conservatory students from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
belgravem@umkc.edu

 


Concert of Women in Jazz featuring Monika Herzig, violinist Carolyn Dutton, and vocalist Janiece Jaffe



Title: Jazz Concert Friday 5:30-6:20 JCP

Indiana University faculty member and jazz pianist Monika Herzig has performed at many prestigious jazz clubs and festivals, such as the Indy Jazz Fest, Cleveland’s Nighttown, Louisville’s Jazz Factory, the W.C.Handy Festival, Jazz in July in Bloomington and Cincinnati, Columbus’ Jazz & Rib Fest, to name just a few.  Groups under her leadership have toured Germany, Italy, Japan, opened for acts such as Tower of Power, Sting, the Dixie Dregs, Yes, and more. Recently, Herzig has been signed to the Owl Studios label and released the holiday CD “Peace on Earth”and a CD/ DVD combo entitled “Come With Me”. 

Together with collaborator Heather Ramsey, Herzig founded Isis of Indy in 2010, an organization in support of female involvement in music.  In addition to a concert series, the first annual “Girls Create Music” camp teaching songwriting and musicianship to girls ages 9-16 was held during the summer of 2011.  More info at www.isisofindy.commherzig@indiana.edu

 

The Music of Beth Denisch – Concert Friday 7:30 JCP featuring the Equinox Chamber Players and Friends

Chamber Music Concert 7:30pm JCP

This evening's program opens with the Forth Project, a set of six miniatures for solo piano based on the paintings of Mark Forth. The performance is accompanied by slide projections of his paintings. The next work, Star ll, features bassoon and percussion and uniquely incorporates traditional and graphic notation with improvisation. 

The first half of the program ends with a stirring work, Night Forest Fantasia for viola, celeste and percussion. The score calls for virtuosic performers, (which we were fortunate to have on the UMSL faculty!)  Tonight we also feature the world premiere of Denisch's Love Is, Love Says, a choral work inspired by the poetry of Samual Hanser. Jim Henry leads the Vocal Point singers in this soulful piece. We end our performance this evening with Jordan and the Dog Woman written for woodwind quintet and percussion. The music was inspired by Jeanette Winterson's phantasmagorical novel Sexing the Cherry and was commissioned and recorded by the Equinox Chamber Players.

  Forth Project  

  • Sheep
  • Night Train
  • Equine I
  • Bad Girl Blues
  • Spring II
  • Swing Set II

David Doran, piano

 

 

Star II 

  • She Stirs Waters
  • Gold Radiation
  • Star

Donita Bauer, bassoon
W. Shane Williams, percussion

 

Night Forest Fantasia   for Viola, Percussion, Celesta  

Joanne Mendoza, viola
Alla Voskoboynikova, piano
W. Shane Williams, percussion

 

Intermission

 

 

Love Is, Love Says    (premiere)

Vocal Point, Dr. James Henry, conductor

 

 

Jordan and the Dog Woman  *

  • The Pools at Wimbledon
  • Jordan the Sailor
  • The Pit
  • Interlude
  • Points of Light Dancing

Equinox Chamber Players
Donita Bauer , bassoon
Ann Homann, oboe, English Horn, oboe d'amore
Paula Kasica, flute
Carole Lemire(horn)
Jeanine York Garesché, clarinet
W. Shane Williams, percussion

  • Commissioned by the Equinox Chamber Players

 

Vocal Point, under the direction of Dr. James Henry will premiere ‘Love is, Love Says…’ Denisch (1958) based her choral piece on Samuel B. Hanser, “Many Blessings: The Remembrance of One,” after his death in 2010. “This poem is meant to inspire and empower others to fill their lives with love,” according to Denisch, “ it has been a blessing and healing experience to meditate on these words.”
 
Beth Denisch’s music has been performed internationally, and her music has received extensive radio play. Her music is available on the Albany, Juxtab, and Interval record labels.  She is associate professor of composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

The New York Times calls Denisch’s music “fierce rhythmic patterns,” the Boston Globe says “brimmed with personality and drive,” and the New Music Connoisseur, “wonderfully evocative…simply splendid.”

This evening's program opens with the Forth Project, a set of six miniatures for solo piano based on the paintings of Mark Forth. The performance is accompanied by slide projections of his paintings. The next work, Star ll, features bassoon and percussion and uniquely incorporates traditional and graphic notation with improvisation. 

The first half of the program ends with a stirring work, Night Forest Fantasia for viola, celeste and percussion. The score calls for virtuosic performers, (which we were fortunate to have on the UMSL faculty!)  Tonight we also feature the world premiere of Denisch's Love Is, Love Says, a choral work inspired by the poetry of Samual Hanser. Dr. James Henry leads the Vocal Point singers in this soulful piece. We end our performance this evening with Jordan and the Dog Woman written for woodwind quintet and percussion. The music was inspired by Jeanette Winterson's phantasmagorical novel Sexing the Cherry and was commissioned and recorded by the Equinox Chamber Players.

Performers:

Alla Voskoboynikova, pianist

Alla Voskoboynikova has held the position of Coordinator of Piano Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis since 2004. She extensively performs and collaborates with area musicians and regularly accompanies and coaches for the Union Avenue Opera Company as well as Webster University in St. Louis.

Before moving to the United States in 1996, Alla was a pianist and vocal coach at the Kiev Opera and Ballet Theater in Ukraine. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Piano Performance from the Music College in Voronezh, Russia and her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance from the Gnessins Academy of Music in Moscow, Russia. Her teachers were Oleg Milman and Lina Bulatova (student of Elena Gnessina and Henry Neihaus). Alla was an accompanist in the Tchaikovsky Competition in 1996 and has performed solo recitals along with chamber music in several European countries.

Since moving to the United States, Alla has collaborated  performing chamber music with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra members including concert master David Halen, violin,  Heidi Harris, violin,  John Sant' Ambrogio, cello, Darwyn Apple, violin, Saveliy Shuster, cello, and the STLSO Trombones . In 1998, she performed at Carnegie Recital Hall with flautist Brenda Hagni and in 2002, Alla performed  Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto with the Voronezh Philharmonic Orchestra and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto with the Webster University Symphony Orchestra. In February 2004, Alla was the Russian coach for the Saint Louis Symphony performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and coached the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus for the performance of Sergei Rachmaninov’s Vespers in November 2006.  As a member of a duo, Alla performed John Adams’s Halleluiah Junction with pianist Orli Shaham in 2008. In the several past years Alla has organized a series of thematic chamber music recitals, including a commemoration of Dmitri Shostakovich's 100-year anniversary, a commemoration of Felix Mendelssohn's 200-year anniversary , piano and winds recitals and others. 

Alla resides in St. Louis with her husband Ilya Litvin, Russian born trumpet player and teacher and their son, Boris.

Joanna Mendoza, violist

Violist Joanna Mendoza enjoys an active chamber music and teaching career. Praised for her "lush, sonorous and assertive tone" and eloquent phrasing, Ms. Mendoza has performed to critical acclaim throughout North America, South America and Europe and has given master classes in Beijing, China. She has collaborated with esteemed artists such as Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, David Shifrin,

Robert Levin, and members of the Cleveland Quartet. She has enjoyed summers teaching and performing at music festivals such as Interlochen Arts Camp, Madeline Island Music Camp, Killington Music Festival and Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

Joanna Mendoza is the violist of the Arianna String Quartet and Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Missouri - St. Louis where the quartet has been in residence since 2000. The Arianna Quartet has performed throughout the United States, Mexico, Japan, Canada and France with recent appearances in Brazil and South Africa. They have been heard on live, nationally broadcast performances in Osaka, Japan, on Canada’s CBC radio, National Public Radio as part of Chicago’s prestigious Dame Myra Hess Series “Performance Today,” and Live from Music Mountain which broadcasts to 125 stations in the U.S. and to 35 countries. Current projects include a long-term, multi-disc recording contract with Centaur Records and a world premiere of David Stock’s String Quartet No. 9 which the composer dedicated to the Arianna String Quartet.

Prior to joining the quartet, Ms. Mendoza performed with the Harrington Quartet for 10 years. Together they premiered new works by contemporary composers such as Daniel McCarthy, Kenji Bunch and John Novacek . Ms. Mendoza earned her degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Juilliard School.

 Dr. James Henry, Conductor of Vocal Point

Formed in the fall of 2005, Vocal Point from the University of Missouri-St. Louis has already distinguished itself as one of St. Louis’s premiere a cappella ensembles. Vocal Point performs both classical and popular music from Renaissance to contemporary styles, including motets, madrigals, jazz standards, folk songs, spirituals, multi-cultural pieces, pop and doo-wop tunes, and more. The group consists of about twenty singers who are selected by audition as demonstrating great versatility, refined musicianship, and a passion for excellence. They have just completed their first recording. The ensemble is conducted by Dr. Jim Henry, Associate Professor and Head of the Choral Music Department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Jim Henry holds degrees in vocal music education, music theory and music composition, including a Ph.D. in music composition from Washington University. He is currently the Director of Choral Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he conducts the University Singers and Vocal Point and teaches choral methods, choral arranging, choral conducting, and counterpoint. He has recently received the Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the MCDA St. Louis Suburban District Outstanding Director award, and the International Leadership Network’s prestigious “Dare to Lead” Award.

In addition to his duties at UM-St. Louis, Dr. Henry is the musical and artistic director of the Ambassadors of Harmony, a 160-voice men's a cappella chorus that performs barbershop, jazz, and light classical music. The Ambassadors of Harmony have produced three recordings, and recently won their second Barbershop Harmony Society International Chorus Championship, garnering the highest score in the history of the BHS. The Ambassadors of Harmony have produced several recordings.

Dr. Henry’s singing experience spans classical music to jazz. He currently sings bass with and arranges for Crossroads, BHS International Quartet Champions (making Dr. Henry the only man in history to win an International Competition as a singer and as a director in the same year). Crossroads has performed across North American and Europe and has produced two recordings. Dr. Henry was previously the bass of the Gas House Gang, also International Quartet Champions. Over the span of 18 years, the Gas House Gang entertained audiences in all fifty states and fifteen countries, and in venues from the Grand Ole Opry to Carnegie Hall. They were featured on NBC’s “Today Show,” NPR's “At the Creation,” and two PBS specials, “Voices in Harmony” and “The Egg.” The Gas House Gang produced five recordings. Dr. Henry also served as bass section leader for the Saint Louis Symphony Chorus.

As a composer, Dr. Henry has won awards for his songs and piano pieces. He served for three years as composer-in-residence at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School under the aegis of Washington University, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the Buder Foundation. He was also a music mentor for the “Music, Words, Opera” educational program sponsored by Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

Dr. Henry travels the world as a guest conductor, coach, and lecturer. He is also a contributing author for the Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music, published by Routledge Press, and the upcoming second edition of the Grove Dictionary of American Music, published by Oxford University Press.