Today’s lunchtime recital at 13:30 is performed by the University of Richmond Schola Cantorum.
Admission to the recital is included in usual cathedral entry.
The University of Richmond, Virginia USA
The University of Richmond provides a collaborative learning and research environment unlike any other in higher education, offering students an extraordinary combination of the liberal arts with law, business, leadership studies, and continuing education. It is characterized by a distinctly integrated student experience—a rich and innovative life for students inside and outside the classroom—and a welcoming spirit that prizes diversity of experience and thought. It is rooted in a determination to engage as a meaningful part of our community and our world. It is committed to ensuring its opportunities are accessible to talented students of all backgrounds.
The Department of Music leads students to integrate creative and practical musical skills with critical thinking and intellectual inquiry, empowering them for a lifetime of learning. The curriculum provides an excellent foundation that prepares students to be adaptive leaders equipped to actively engage in their communities through the arts. The Department of Music welcomes students with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and interests in music and provides pathways for performers, listeners, scholars, and creators of all kinds. The curriculum trains students in music performance, composition, industry, and research and cultivates the creative habits of mind that make our majors competitive in a wide range of careers.
Students graduating with music majors and minors have established careers in the performing arts, medicine, law, finance, neuroscience, accounting, librarianship, and non-profits. Graduates also have pursued advanced study in music composition, film scoring, musical performance, environmental management, and classics at institutions of national and international renown.
Most courses in the music department are open to students who choose not to major or minor in music, and all students may take private lessons or enroll in ensembles. Many ensembles tour internationally, with recent tours to the Baltics, Spain, Portugal, Cuba, Italy, Costa Rica, and Columbia. Vocal ensembles include Schola Cantorum, a mixed-voice ensemble that performs classical repertoire, and Women’s Chorale. The department offers a wide range of instrumental performing groups, including the following Balinese Gamelan, Brazilian and African Ensembles, Classical Chamber Ensembles, Combos (American Roots, Bluegrass, Swing), Guitar Ensemble, Japanese Taiko Drums, Jazz Ensembles, Wind Ensemble, and University Symphony Orchestra.
Jeffrey Riehl is Associate Professor and Director of Choirs at the University of Richmond where he has taught since 1995. At UR, he conducts Schola Cantorum, teaches voice and courses for both music majors and general students. His choirs have performed to critical acclaim in distinguished venues throughout the United States and Europe and released their third CD recording produced by Malcolm Bruno in 2010. Dr. Riehl’s choirs are widely admired for their musicality, vitality, and expressive sound. An accomplished solo and ensemble singer, Riehl has performed with Robert Shaw, Helmuth Rilling, Peter Schreier, Joseph Flummerfelt, the Carnegie Hall Professional Training choir, the early music consort Affetti Musicali, the Eastman Collegium Musicum and lutenist Paul O’Dette, the Williamsburg Choral Guild, the Carolina Chamber Chorale at the Spoleto Festival USA, and numerous collegiate and civic choirs throughout the East. He is an active guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator and has recorded for Chesky Records as a member of the Westminster Choir and for the Milken Foundation Archive of American Jewish Music.
Riehl is Director of Music at historic Second Presbyterian Church in downtown Richmond and a nationally sought-after guest conductor and adjudicator. Before joining the UR faculty, he held appointments at Nazareth College of Rochester, Westminster Choir College, and Lebanon Valley College of Pennsylvania. Dr. Riehl’s research focuses on the choral music and traditions of Slovenia, where in 2003 he was Artist in Residence at the Academy of Music and lecturer at the University of Ljubljana, sacred music at the Court of Versailles, and music in the American combat film.
Riehl earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting at the Eastman School of Music, where he was a conducting Fellow and received the Walter Hagan Conducting Award, and the Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting at Westminster Choir College. His conducting studies have been with Joseph Flummefelt, Frauke Haasemann, Don Neuen, and William Weinert, and in master class with Helmuth Rilling, Leonard Slatkin, Kenneth Jennings, Michael Morgan, and David Effron; voice studies with Thomas Houser, Oren Brown, Marvin Keenze, Philip Morgan, and Carol Webber.
Mary Beth Bennett is a nationally recognized performer and composer who earned degrees from the University of Southern California, Stetson University, the Eastman School of Music, and the State Conservatory of Music in Cologne, Germany. The Organist-Choirmaster of Seventh Street Christian Church in Richmond, Dr. Bennett also serves on the adjunct faculty of the University of Richmond and has accompanied the UR Choirs since 2001.
Pablo Talamente, Tenor
The Mexican-American Singer, made his operatic debut with the Kentucky Opera as “the third jew” in the Opera SALOME, which led to many singing contracts on a variety of stages in both Concert and Opera in the United States and abroad. The tenor received the Washington DC Area Musical Award (Wammy) for the best folk recording in Ariel Ramirez Misa Criolla with The Choral Arts Society of Washington. His musical education comes from the University of Louisville and the Catholic University of America. An avid actor, Mr. Talamante studied Acting at the Theatre Art School and Drama of the Institute of Fine Arts (INBA), in Mexico City under the direction of Mr. Alejandro Bichir and staging technique from Mr. Emilio Carballido. There, Talamante played several leading roles in plays by the renowned author/stage director, Emilio Carballido.
Among his musical performances include: the Louisville Orchestra, the National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Kentucky Opera, Washington National Opera, Washington Concert Opera, the Reston Chorale, the Catholic University Opera theatre, the Virginia Oratorio Society, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the Richmond Pops, The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” , The United States Army Chorus, Gloria Musicae Choral Society of Sarasota and the Sarasota Opera, FL. Mr. Talamante’s extensive repertoire of folk, romantic ballads, semi-classical and classical music of Latino-America, has given him a special recognition among many musical associations often calling him the “Ricky Ricardo” of our time. (The Washington Post- “Raices Cubanas” 1998)
While serving in the Army as a member and soloist with the United States Army Chorus and the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own”, Master Sergeant Talamante was requested by her majesty Queen Sofia of Spain to perform Agustin Lara’s Granada at the United Nations in NYC, where he received a standing ovation from her Majesty and the Holy See of Rome. The tenor has worked with celebrated conductors and pianists such as Lawrence Leighton Smith, Heinz Fricke, Steven Crout, Duane Wolfe, Pablo Zinger, Miguel Roa, Anthony Walker, Scott Tucker, Stan Engrebetson, J. Reilly Lewis, Norman Scribner, Steve Gathman, Charles Staples and Placido Domingo.
While a member of the Armed Forces the United States, MSG Talamante was requested by the White House to perform for the last six presidents of The United States. Retiring from active duty in 2021, Pablo is now pursuing his acting/singing career under artistic management , while taking a position as an adjunct professor of Voice at the University of Richmond, VA.
