"I really believe in the power of music - and I mean literally the power of musical tones- to rearrange the way you can think"
Michael Azerrad
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MEET THE ARTISTS
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DR. RYAN BEHAN
Ryan Behan has won acclaim from audiences throughout the United States, Europe and China as an exceptionally versatile pianist. Recent highlights include performances as concerto soloist with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and Vince Lee, conductor; solo recitals of selections from the three suites of Franz Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage; local performances with Vadim Gluzman and Paul Neubauer for the Artist Circle Concert Series in Columbus; and guest artist at Haus der Kultur and the Salzburg Kammermusik Konzertreihe in Austria. A winner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, he has also presented bicentennial celebrations devoted to the solo, chamber music and vocal literature of Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Frederic Chopin. Dedicated to the advancement of new music, he has performed the works of many living composers including the subject of his doctoral document, Luxembourg composer Alexander Müllenbach, as well as those by Joseph Schwanter at the Contemporary Music Festival and Composers, Inc. in Columbus.
Since 2012 he has served on the faculty of the Mozarteum International Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria where he has taught pianists participating in Lied classes, and coached instrumentalists and singers alongside many of the great artists of our time, including violinists Zakhar Bron, Michael Frischenschlager, Igor Petrushevski; Umberto Clerici, and opera singers Grace Bumbry, Sumi Jo, Wolfgang Brendel, Hedwig Fassbender, and Wolfgang Holzmair. He also served as korrepetitor for the Vienna Hochschule für cello studio of the late Heinrich Schiff, and for AIMS in Graz, Austria. With a strong profile throughout Ohio and the Midwest he has concertized with members of the Chicago Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic and Indianapolis Symphony, been guest artist at IU Bloomington and CCM, given solo concerts and master classes at the University of Toledo, Wittenberg University, and Kenyon College, and served as adjudicator for the Ohio MTNA Young Artist State Competition and the Columbus Youth Symphony Concerto Competition.
Dr. Behan holds degrees from Bowling Green State University, the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and The Ohio State University, and was a student of Jerome Rose, Imre Rohmann, and Caroline Hong; further studies with Leslie Howard at the International Keyboard Institute in NYC and James Tocco in Cincinnati. Since his appointment at OSU in 2008 he has taught applied piano, served as vocal coach for the opera productions, and guest lecturer for piano literature and graduate German diction courses. He is a founding member and Treasurer of the The American Liszt Society Ohio Chapter, which hosted its first annual Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Columbus, Ohio in October 2017; the second to be held in May 2020.
SEAN FERGUSON
Sean Ferguson has performed extensively as a soloist, accompanist, chamber musician and orchestra member on instruments of the lute family and classical and early guitars, including appearances with Opera Columbus, Columbus Dance Theatre, Lancaster Chorale, The Ohio State University, Otterbein University, Capital University and Ohio Wesleyan University. He has collaborated as a continuo player for numerous concerts and productions of Baroque operas by Monteverdi, Cavalli, Purcell, and Handel, working under lutenist-conductors Lyle Nordstrom and Lucas Harris, among others. As a music librarian, he has worked at OCLC Online Computer Library Center and The Ohio State University Music & Dance Library, and is President of the Columbus Guitar Society. Mr. Ferguson holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music history from The Ohio State University and a master of library science degree from Kent State University. In Philadelphia, he studied guitar at the University of the Arts and was a winner of the WFLN Radio Instrumentalists Competition.
KATHERINE ROHRER
Mezzo-soprano Katherine Rohrer has been impressing audience members internationally with her warm, expressive tone, vocal agility, and dramatic, emotionally gripping performances. Balancing the rigors of traditional and mainstream repertoire with some of today’s most celebrated composers, Katherine Rohrer garnered critical acclaim in recent performances as Nicklausse/Muse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Opera Colorado and Florida Grand Opera, Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust with Oper Frankfurt, the Malaysian Philharmonia, and the Saint Louis Symphony, the role of Lady Macbeth in Bloch’s rarely-heard Macbeth with London’s University College Opera, and her first Pilgrim in Saariaho’s L’Amour de Loin with Vlaamse Opera. In her debut in the title role of Carmen with Glyndebourne on tour, the Times Online writes, “she has already deeply assimilated the strength and complexity of this Carmen. And her minutely expressive mezzo-soprano traces every nerve ending of Bizet’s writing.”
Highlights of previous seasons include performances Prokofiev’s L’Amour des Trois Oranges with Thèâtre de Genève (2010), Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mzensk with the Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile (2009), Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery in Valencia, Spain (2008), and Stella in Elliott Carter’s opera What Next? at the Miller Theatre in New York City (2007), Oberto in Alcina (later reprised in Opera Lyon), Dorebella in Cosi Fan Tutte, Pauline in The Queen of Spades and Maddalena in Rigoletto with San Francisco Opera and Stephano in Roméo et Juliette with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her New York debut with Gotham Chamber Opera in the role of Teseo in Arianna in Creta was ecstatically received by the New York press, prompting Ann Midgette of the New York Times to remark, “...the role of Teseo.... is one of the hardest in the book, every aria a flood of notes spewing out as if from a fire hydrant. Katherine Rohrer...was deeply impressive, playing it convincingly as an angry teenage boy of about 16, and hurling her agile voice (full but not dark) up and down the scale as she executed various bits of stage business, like brushing her teeth without any break in the cascade of notes.” She returned to New York for her debuts with New York City Opera (2006) in a rarely performed Handel opera Flavio as Vitage and with Glimmerglass Opera (2007) in the role of Messenger, and Proserpine in Monteverdi’s Orfeo.
Recent and previous concert engagements include Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Japan with the Mito Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Seiji Ozawa (released internationally on CD and DVD), Mozart’s C Minor Mass with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Donald Runnicles, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and a Gala Concert with New Orleans Symphony under the baton of Kauspeter Siebel, Verdi Requiem with the Columbus Symphony under Dr. Scott McCoy and Messiah with Toledo Symphony. Her Carnegie Hall debut was for the Marilyn Horne Foundation followed by recitals in Louisville, Kentucky and Bradford, Pennsylvania. The Louisville Courier-Journal’s review of the performance praises her “luscious, ringing voice,” and notes that she displayed “just enough sass to convert you immediately to her cause.”
In 2015, she directed Opera Columbus (Opera on the Edge) production of La Traviata. She also completed a recording (Naxos) with the Ohio State University Wind Ensemble of Um Mitternacht. She was a finalist in the Eleanor McCollum Competition at Houston Grand Opera, and finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Ms. Rohrer was an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera from 2004-2006. She has a BM in music education from Stetson University as well as a MM in performance from New England Conservatory and a PhD from Ohio University in 2018. In autumn 2013, she joined the faculty at The Ohio State University as an assistant professor of voice.