Program Description
Event Details
In celebration of Black History Month, we are thrilled to present a program of African-American spirituals and piano works by African-American women composers, featuring baritone Ron Williams and and pianist Olga Rogach.
Join us for an afternoon of music in the Grice Community Room on Saturday, February 15th at 2pm.
Olga Rogach received a Master of Music degree in piano performance from Russia's famed St. Petersburg Conservatory. After graduation she was appointed to the St. Petersburg Music College Faculty and became a featured pianist for the Literary Association of St. Petersburg and the All-Russian Theatrical Society. She emigrated to the U.S. in 1991 and made her home in Worcester, MA.
A leading regional piano teacher, Ms. Rogach maintains a private piano studio and is a private piano instructor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Many of her students have been prize and scholarship winners in International and local competitions. Ms. Rogach performs extensively in New England and is acclaimed for her recitals and collaborations with instrumentalists and vocalists. She has been heard numerous times on WGBH Radio's Classics in the Morning and Morning Pro Musica.
For over 20 years she was the official pianist for the nationally recognized Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Foundation (Providence, RI). Ms. Rogach is a pianist and a board member for the Greater Worcester Opera Company and Music Director at First Parish Church of Northborough, MA.
Ron Williams is a renowned singer, lecturer, and vocal instructor known for his exceptional talent and contributions to the world of opera and oratorio. He has achieved recognition on a national scale for his outstanding work in both stage performances and concert halls. He has sung leading roles with opera companies nationally, including San Francisco Spring Opera, Detroit Opera, as well as Opera San Jose, where he performed in the world premiere of Alva Henderson’s The Last Leaf.
Locally, Ron debuted with Boston Lyric Opera in the revival of Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars, receiving critical acclaim from the New York Times. In the summer of 2017, Ron debuted as bass soloist with Boston Landmarks Orchestra at the DCR Hatch Shell in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
Always the busy artist, he has been seen in many Greater Worcester Opera productions including Don Giovanni, Carmen, and Gianni Schicchi. Ron performed in the groundbreaking premiere of The Handmaid’s Tale with Boston Lyric Opera and last year he was seen in La Traviata with Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Ron made his European concert debut in Germany with the Düsseldorf Chamber Orchestra. His stage debut was in Saint Gallen, Switzerland and has performed extensively throughout the rest of the Europe.
An artist committed to works of 20th century American composers, last summer he performed with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in a new recording of The Life and Times of Malcolm X by Anthony Davis, which has since been nominated for a Grammy Award for best opera recording. This spring Ron performed in the revolutionary new opera, Omar by MacArthur Fellowship award winner Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, which garnered a Pulitzer Prize for the composers.