First Presbyterian Church February Lunch Music Series

First Presbyterian Music Lunch Series: Join us Tuesdays in February at 12:15 p.m. for 25-minute concerts with guest musicians from the University of Florida followed by lunch. Bring your own or purchase a lunch for $5.

Fourth in series: Tuesday, February 27, 12:15-1:15 pm
Ronald Burrichter and Dr. Brenda Smith, voice
University of Florida Music Faculty

The Joy of Singing Together: Music by Purcell, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Lerner & Lowe, and Bolcom

Ronald Burrichter, Professor of Music, joined the faculty of the University of Florida in 1984. Holding a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory, Mr. Burrichter keeps a busy performing schedule as a lyric tenor in addition to his voice teaching duties. He has spent four summers in France singing with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers, has served as soloist for Mr. Shaw at Spivey Hall in Atlanta in addition to solo appearances on two of the eight compact discs he has made with Mr. Shaw, and has appeared in Carnegie Hall under Mr. Shaw’s baton on ten occasions.

A choral conductor widely respected for his attention to the musical phrase and the vocal health of the young voice, Ronald Burrichter is widely sought as a choral adjudicator and clinician. His adjudications have taken him from Canada to Florida and his guest conductings to Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Iowa, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The UF Chambers Singers which he co-directed with Dr. Russell Robinson, were invited guests to perform at the White House Staff Christmas Celebration in 1988 and were guest performers at the Linz Festival in Linz, Austria, during which they were featured on Austrian National Television. In 1995 under Mr. Burrichter’s direction, the University Choir and Chamber Singers toured France, including appearances in Chartres, Toulouse, Nice, Avignon, Auch and Paris. Currently, Mr. Burrichter teaches studio voice and voice skills at the University of Florida.

Dr. Brenda Smith, DMA, a lyric soprano, teaches studio voice, singer’s diction, and vocal pedagogy and conducts research in voice and voice science at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. She is widely recognized for her contributions to the concept of lifelong singing through proper voice care. Dr. Smith was translator, collaborator, and assistant to Dr. Wilhelm Ehmann and Dr. Frauke Hausemann, the pedagogues whose work in Germany and the United States developed the concept known as “voice building for choirs.” Dr. Smith works regularly as consultant, clinician, and conductor with amateur and professional choirs.

In recent years, Dr. Smith has been active in singing voice research related to the aging process. Currently, she is involved with projects associated with the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida. With Professor Ronald Burrichter, she directs a program called “Sing for Life,” offering singing voice strategies to Parkinson’s patients and their caregivers. She and Professor Burrichter are co-conductors of the Oak Hammock Singers, a choral organization at a continuing care retirement community in Gainesville. Professor Burrichter and Dr. Smith won the 2018 “Spirit of Gainesville” Arts award for their contributions to community vocal health awareness. Dr. Brenda Smith joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 2001. Before her work at UF, Dr. Smith taught at Westminster Choir College, Dickinson College, Rowan University of New Jersey, and State College of Florida in Bradenton, Florida. As Coordinator of Musical Activities at the German School of Middlebury College in Vermont, Dr. Smith founded and directed the “German for Singers” program, a curriculum combining culture and language study with vocal performance. Dr. Smith holds degrees in vocal performance and pedagogy from the University of Evansville, Westminster Choir College, and the University of Maryland with further study at the Hochschule für Kirchenmusik der Ev. Kirche-Herford and the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst/Hamburg in Germany.