Founded in 1996 and based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, The Rose Ensemble
reawakens the ancient with vocal music that strives to stir the
emotions, challenge the mind, and lift the spirit.
Spanning more than four decades, Hannibal Lokumbe’s career
in music continues
to propel him forward on a globetrotting odyssey. Lokumbe’s journey has taken
him from the cotton fields of Elgin, Texas — where he was first inspired by the
spirituals and hymns of his grandparents — to the stages of Carnegie Hall and
much of the world.
Sowah Mensah is an ethnomusicologist, composer and a “Master
Drummer” from Ghana, West Africa. Sowah has taught music in both Ghana
and Nigeria and is currently a music professor at both Macalester
College, and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN where he
also directs each school’s African Music Ensemble.
Recording artist, actress and community organizer Tonia Hughes is known throughout the
Twin Cities for her electrifying delivery style, which fuses elements of
Gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and worship. Tonia has garnered critical
acclaim for her leading roles in musical and theatrical productions.
Michael Daugherty is one of the most frequently
commissioned, programmed, and recorded composers on the American concert music
scene today, hailed by The Times (London) as “a master icon maker” with a
“maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear.”
Composer/pianist William Bolcom has received the Pulitzer
Prize in Music for 12 New Etudes for Piano, the National Medal of Arts, and a
Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition [one of four awarded the
recording of his setting of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of
Experience], and was named Composer of the Year by Musical America in 2007.
VocalEssence and a number of other arts organization
Comprised
of select women's voices from the first year class, the Manitou Singers
is one of the most popular music organizations on the St. Olaf College
campus. Despite a complete turnover in personnel each year, the
100-voice choir sings at the opening worship service of the college as
well as at various campus functions throughout the year such as daily
chapel and church services, the annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival,
Family Weekend Concert and its own Spring concert in April.
The Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (MSO)
is Minnesota’s most highly regarded civic orchestral ensemble. MSO
concerts have been broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio and featured on
public television. The Star Tribune has described the Metropolitan
Symphony Orchestra as “the very model of a modern major orchestra –
community style.”
Born in Mexico in 1983, Rodrigo
Michelet Cadet Díaz started his musical studies at the age of eight. Cadet earned his degree in Musical
Composition at the Bellas Artes School of Music under the guidance of Hugo
Rosales, Mario Lavista, Alejandro Romero and Georgina Derbez. Cadet also has a certificate of studies
in choir conducting with Digna Guerra, Sergio Cárdenas, Adriana Blagoeva and
Alfredo Mendoza.
Founded in 1996 and based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, The Rose Ensemble
reawakens the ancient with vocal music that strives to stir the
emotions, challenge the mind, and lift the spirit. 
The University of St. Thomas Chamber Singers is a select, mixed ensemble
of undergraduate students representing a number of major fields. 
Spanning more than four decades, Hannibal Lokumbe’s career
in music continues
to propel him forward on a globetrotting odyssey. Lokumbe’s journey has taken
him from the cotton fields of Elgin, Texas — where he was first inspired by the
spirituals and hymns of his grandparents — to the stages of Carnegie Hall and
much of the world.
Recording artist, actress and community organizer Tonia Hughes is known throughout the
Twin Cities for her electrifying delivery style, which fuses elements of
Gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and worship. Tonia has garnered critical
acclaim for her leading roles in musical and theatrical productions. 
Michael Daugherty is one of the most frequently
commissioned, programmed, and recorded composers on the American concert music
scene today, hailed by The Times (London) as “a master icon maker” with a
“maverick imagination, fearless structural sense and meticulous ear.” 
Composer/pianist William Bolcom has received the Pulitzer
Prize in Music for 12 New Etudes for Piano, the National Medal of Arts, and a
Grammy for Best Classical Contemporary Composition [one of four awarded the
recording of his setting of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of
Experience], and was named Composer of the Year by Musical America in 2007.
VocalEssence and a number of other arts organization 
Born in Mexico in 1983, Rodrigo
Michelet Cadet Díaz started his musical studies at the age of eight. Cadet earned his degree in Musical
Composition at the Bellas Artes School of Music under the guidance of Hugo
Rosales, Mario Lavista, Alejandro Romero and Georgina Derbez. Cadet also has a certificate of studies
in choir conducting with Digna Guerra, Sergio Cárdenas, Adriana Blagoeva and
Alfredo Mendoza.
