The Dallas Pro Musica  will be performing music from the Renaissance and early Baroque.  Based on "The Meaning of Life", the concert will include major works by Morley, Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Weelkes, Landini, and others. This is a rare opportunity to hear this music live. The Dallas Pro Musica consists of Kathryn Evans, soprano; Mary Medrick, mezzo-soprano; Michael Austin, countertenor; Hoyt Neal, tenor and Michael Borts, bass.  The group is in residence at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Free to UT Dallas Students with UT Dallas Photo ID at the venue box office the night of the event. Discounts are available to faculty, staff, alumni, retirees and students.

The Dallas Pro Musica is dedicated to the re-creation and realization of vocal music from the Medieval, Renaissance and Early Baroque periods, with occasional forays into the 20th and 21st century.  The ensemble is based at the University of Texas at Dallas and consists of Kathryn Evans, soprano: Mary Medrick, mezzo-soprano; Michael Austin, counter-tenor, Hoyt Neal, tenor and Michael Borts, bass.  Recent programs have included  “The Italian Way”, based on the secular vocal works of the Italian renaissance “Basically British”, works from the masters of the English madrigal including and “Bird, Beasts and Bugs’, with works about nature.  The Dallas Pro Musica is also dedicated to educational outreach and offers programs in a casual and fun lecture/concert format, as well as master classes and coaching sessions for students in voice and choir.  To contact the ensemble, please email Kathryn Evans at kcevans@utdallas.edu.

Kathryn Evans joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in 1994. She served as the Associate Dean for the Arts in the School of Arts and Humanities from 1995-2010. She continues to teach vocal and choral music, and directs the UT Dallas Chamber Singers and the Musical Theatre Workshop. Evans is an accomplished recitalist and chamber musician, performing in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, across the U.S. and in Europe and Latin America. Before coming to UT Dallas, she was the Director of the Bach Society Chamber Orchestra and Chorus in La Jolla, California and the Musical Director of the Orpheus Ensemble. She founded and directed the Washington Pro Musica and the Early Music Ensemble of San Diego. She has directed European concert tours of Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy. Evans holds Master of Arts degrees in Music and in Mathematics from the University of California at San Diego. She has completed tours of music for voice and guitar with fellow faculty member Dr. Enric Madriguera in Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Mexico and Latin America. Evans released the CD “Voz y Guitarra” with Dr. Madriguera and is the Executive Director of the Annual Texas Guitar Competition. She has directed such concerts as “La Boheme," "Rent,” “Shakespeare in Song,” “A Tribute to Manhattan Transfer,” “The Best of Broadway,” and directed “Side Show: The Musical” in 2010. Evans recently completed a Latin American tour with guitarist Enric Madriguera and performed “The Songs of Isaac Albeniz” in Hawaii with pianist Michael McVay.

Mary Medrick’s career has featured performances as a keyboardist in 17 countries. She has served as Musical Director for numerous productions including “The Threepenny Opera” at the University of North Texas (UNT), and “A Christmas Carol” and “Twelfth Night” at Dallas Theater Center. Along with graduate study in music at UNT, Medrick holds an MA in Arts & Humanities from UT Dallas. Her original works include musical scores for three shows and libretti for three operas. Her libretto for the opera “The Old Majestic,” a collaboration with composer Robert Xavier Rodríguez, was showcased in 2003 by the New York City Opera. Their most recent work is “La Curandera,” which was premiered by Opera Colorado in 2005 and performed at UT Austin in Spring 2009. On the UT Dallas faculty, Medrick teaches piano, theory/composition and musical theater.

Michael Austin is a recent graduate of the Ph.D. program in Humanities - Aesthetic Studies (Arts and Technology) at UT Dallas, specializing in the analysis of contemporary music and sonic art.  There is, however, a special place in his heart for early music. He also holds an M.M. in Music Theory from UT Austin and a B.M. in Music Composition from UT San Antonio.  Dr. Austin is currently a lecturer in sound design at UT Dallas and has also taught courses in music theory, music history, commercial music and piano at UT Austin and Collin College. He is a member of the Laboratoire Musique et Informatique de Marseille (MIM), working on methods of analyzing the phenomenological experience of time and energy in music and sound. Austin has performed with various groups throughout the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Brazil, including UT Austin’s Early Music Ensemble, the Texas Bach Choir, the UTSA Lyric Theatre, UT Dallas’ Musica Nova Ensemble and other university choirs and ensembles. As an active composer/arranger, Austin has written for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists, film, new media and sound installations. He is currently focusing on composing electro-acoustic music based on Baroque idioms and forms. He is also active as a keyboardist (organ and piano) and has been the recipient of several named fellowships and scholarships in music theory and performance.

Hoyt Neal received his BS in Music from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas and Master of Music Education degree from UNT in Denton, Texas. While completing course work towards a DMA at UNT, Neal studied vocal performance with Eugene Conley, former leading tenor with the Metropolitan Opera, and Harold Heiberg, vocal coach.  He has served at all levels in churches, colleges, synagogues and public school as a choir director and tenor soloist. His major conducting credits include Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem and Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb and Hymn to St. Cecilia. Neal has been a tenor soloist in numerous churches and synagogues in the Dallas area. His solo credits include the Dallas premiere of Dan Welcher’s Three Songs for High Voice and Piano, Britten’s St. Nicholas, Schubert’s Mass in G, Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s St John, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and many performances of Handel’s Messiah. His stage credits include roles in works by Mozart, Puccini, Menotti and Gilbert and Sullivan.

Michael Borts has performed the national anthems of the United States, Canada and Mexico over 600 times since 1978, for professional and collegiate sports teams including the Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Baltimore Orioles and Florida Marlins of Major League Baseball; the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets and Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association; the Dallas Stars, Hartford Whalers and Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League; and FC Dallas and the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer. He is a featured soloist and active singer with the eleven-time International Gold Medal chorus The Vocal Majority, and has sung solos accompanied by the Houston Tidelanders Barbershop Chorus, the Houston Pops Orchestra, the Texas Wind Symphony and the Richardson Symphony Orchestra. 

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Box Office: 972-883-2552 
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Tagged as Arts and Performances