Staff
Michael Slon, Music Director
Active as a conductor of choral, orchestral, and operatic repertoire, Michael Slon is currently Conductor of the Oratorio Society of Virginia, Conductor of the University Singers, Chamber Singers, and recent Interim Conductor of the Charlottesville & University Symphony at the University of Virginia. He also serves as Assistant Professor of Music, and was named a member of the Mead Honored Faculty for 2006-2007. Recent repertoire with the choruses has included Mozart's Mass in C minor, the Brahms Requiem, Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, the Byrd Mass for Four Voices, and a range of shorter a cappella and accompanied works. And after substituting on one hour's notice for a January 2005 performance of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, Mr. Slon has led the Symphony in performances of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra, Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2, Mahler's Symphony No. 4, Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, and Copland's Appalachian Spring. Together with Symphony Executive Director Bill Martin, he also launched the University Singers-CUSO Family Holiday Concerts.
Opera and musical theatre engagements have included a production of Stephen Paulus's The Three Hermits with Buffalo's Opera Sacra, Sunday in the Park with George with the Heritage Repertory Theatre and The Light in the Piazza with the Heritage Theater Festival, and South Pacific and The Magic Flute with the Ash Lawn Opera Festival, where he served as resident conductor and coach. In addition, he has served as the music director for the Indiana University Theater and Brown County Playhouse (Indiana), and as an assistant conductor and chorusmaster for the IU Opera Theater. He also remains active as a guest conductor of honors choirs and orchestras.
Prior to UVA, Mr. Slon served as visiting conducting faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory, and as assistant conductor of Cincinnati's May Festival Chorus, in which roles he prepared and co-prepared choruses for concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. His ensembles have received critical acclaim in The C'ville Weekly, The Cleveland Plain Dealer and Opera News, and have worked with artists including Moses Hogan, Bobby McFerrin, Meredith Monk, and Franz Welser-Möst. Mr. Slon holds degrees from the Indiana University School of Music and Cornell University, where he was named a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is also a pianist and writer — his first book Songs from the Hill came out in 1998.
Randall Swanson, Executive Director
Randall Swanson developed a deep and abiding love for classical music and the arts at a very young age. In his teens and twenties he held positions as Classical Music Director and Program Director at several fine arts radio stations in Wisconsin and Texas, and in his mid-twenties he began a full-time career in church music.
Randall holds degrees in organ, conducting and sacred music from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin (Bachelor of Music, cum laude), the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas (Master of Music), and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (Doctor of Music).
Upon moving from Texas to Illinois in the 1980s, Randall served as Assistant Organist–Choirmaster under the renowned composer and conductor Richard Proulx at Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, and later as Director of Music and Organist at Saint Clement Church in Chicago, where he served with distinction from 1989 to 2010. His 1995 CD recording of Mozart's Requiem with the Choir and Orchestra of Saint Clement was released world-wide on the Amadis label and is featured in 1998's critically acclaimed film "Happiness." He is featured as organist on "The Last Song of Summer", a CD of quiet music for organ and cello recorded with Chicago Symphony Orchestra cellist Donald Moline and released on the Dorian classical label.
Randall has trained and conducted choirs for liturgical services and concerts in many of the great cathedrals and monuments of Christendom, including Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Chartres Cathedral, Mont-St-Michel Abbey in Normandy, St. Sulpice Church in Paris, St. Sernin Basilica in Toulouse (as part of the highly prestigious Toulouse les Orgues Festival International), St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, the Duomo in Florence, and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In 2006 he conducted the Saint Clement Choir of Chicago in two well-reviewed concerts for the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists. In reviewing the latter, The Diapason magazine said "I enjoyed this choir the most . . . Randall Swanson, conductor, was energetic, clearly understood, connected, and at all times sensitive to the music and text." His annual productions of Handel's complete Messiah with period instruments were highlights of the December concert season in Chicago for over two decades. All of his musical work and choir tours were supported by Randall's equal attention to the details of administration, marketing, and fundraising, which skills he brings to his work as Executive Director of the Oratorio Society of Virginia.
In 2010, Dr. Swanson was appointed to the historic Trinity Episcopal Church (founded in 1746) in Staunton, Virginia, where he presently serves as Director of Music and Organist, presiding over a three-manual Taylor & Boody pipe organ and conducting the Trinity adult and youth choirs.
Daniel Hine, Accompanist
Daniel Hine, pianist, violist, and lyric baritone, joined The Oratorio
Society as rehearsal accompanist in 2004, with 14 years'
experience as an accompanist and performer in New Jersey, Italy, and
Virginia. A graduate of Charlottesville High School and Westminster
Choir College, he studied piano with Yvaine Duisit, piano pedagogy
with Ingrid Clarfield, voice with Elem Ely, and viola with Kari
Caplin. For three years he was a leader in the internationally
renowned Westminster Concert Bell Choir. Mr. Hine currently serves
as Director of Music at St. Paul’s Memorial Church in Charlottesville
and as the accompanist for both The Oratorio Society and the Virginia
Glee Club. In addition, he has recently collaborated with the
University Singers, the Wellesley College Choir, Opera Viva,
Ash Lawn Opera Theatre, and Operafestival di Roma.
Johanna Beaver, Orchestra Personnel Manager
Violist Johanna Beaver holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the
State University of New York at Stony Brook where she was a student of
Katherine Murdock and Mitchell Stern.
Since moving to Charlottesville in 2005, Johanna has played with The Oratorio Society of Virginia, Charlottesville Chamber Orchestra, and The Afton String Quartet. She also plays in the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and is a frequent substitute in the viola section of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. Johanna has been on faculty at the University of Virginia, Interlochen Arts Camp, Opus 118 Violin Program in New York, and at the Stony Brook Pre-college.
Johanna is currently a member of the faculty at the University of Mary Washington and teaches private lessons from her studio at home in Charlottesville. Johanna is thrilled to be the Personnel Manager for The Oratorio Society of Virginia's 2011-2012 Season!