Saint Martin’s announces musical Artist-in-Residence

August 29, 2007

Inaugural concert slated for Saturday, September 8

Lacey, Wash. – The Saint Martin’s University music department opens its performing year with a recital featuring 2007-08 Artist-in-Residence, Brother Aelred Woodard, tenor, and monk of the Order of Saint Benedict. The recital, showcasing his musical background, range and abilities is scheduled for Saturday, September 8th in the Abbey Church. The event is dedicated to the memory of Saint Martin’s “first” first lady, Lillian Mary Horiuchi Ishii, June 22, 1920 – August 13, 2007.

“Lillian Horiuchi Ishii was a gracious, lovely and sophisticated woman who lived life to the fullest,” recalls University President Douglas Astolfi, Ph.D. “Dedicating this recital to her is an appropriate recognition of all she meant to the Saint Martin’s community.”

Lillian first stepped onto the Saint Martin’s campus in 1973, at the side of her husband, Dr. John D. “Jack” Ishii, who was returning to his alma mater to teach in the Political Science Department. Jack graduated from Saint Martin’s High School in 1938 and Saint Martin’s College in 1942, receiving a BA degree in Political Science. Lillian became the college’s “first” first lady when Jack was appointed the first lay President of Saint Martin’s College, serving from 1980 until December 31, 1984.

Darrell Born, Saint Martin’s music department director, notes that, “Br. Aelred is a nationally recognized tenor and it is an honor to have such an accomplished artist on campus to inspire our students.” During the September 8th recital, Br. Aelred will perform with members of the Saint Martin’s staff and faculty. Accompanying Br. Aelred will be Art Peterson on piano, Phil Lawson, guitar and Louise Moon, flute. Darrell Born will perform vocal duets with Br. Aelred, “who is a wonderful role model and mentor to our aspiring student artists,” he adds.

The public is invited to attend and the performance is free of charge. For more information about the program, please call the University’s department of music, 360-438-4506.

Born in 1944, Br. Aelred has been involved in music for most of his life. He began as a boy soloist with the Paulist Choristers in New York City. He continued his voice and piano studies with Albert Auger, a classmate and accompanist to the famed American baritone, John Charles Thomas. He simultaneously studied organ with M. Bernard Piche, one of the last North American students of Marcel Dupre and Charles Tournemire.

While attending university, Br. Aelred studied voice with the renowned Canadian Tenor, Joseph Victor Laderoute, who had recorded Beethoven’s Fidelio with Toscanini. He graduated from the University of Ottawa in 1966 with a BA in Philosophy.

He was later drafted into the US Army, where he served three years on active duty, and subsequently enrolled in Saint Martin’s on the GI Bill in 1972. The same year he was district winner of the Metropolitan Opera auditions in Seattle. He earned his MA in theology from Saint John’s University in 1989.

Br. Aelred is now teaching in the Saint Martin’s University music department, where he is also the choirmaster of Saint Martin’s Abbey. He began giving recitals as a tenor in 1965. He has premiered several works by Ronald Hurst OSB, as well as a cycle of Thomas Merton poems set to music by Henry Bryan Hays OSB and broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio. Celtic Invocations, by Seattle composer, Bern Herbolsheimer was created for Br. Aelred in 1983.

Br. Aelred has given recitals in western Washington, California, Missouri, Michigan, Maine, Vermont and Washington D.C. He has also performed in Abbeys and churches in England, Belgium, Spain, France, Austria and Bavaria. He specializes in the sacred works of Bach, French melodies, lyric operatic arias and the vocal works of Benjamin Britten.

Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year, Catholic, coeducational university located on a 320-acre wooded campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 21 majors and six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes 1,250 students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its main campus, and 650 more to its five extension campuses located at Fort Lewis Army Post, McChord Air Force Base, Olympic College, Centralia College and Tacoma Community College.

For additional information:

Darrell Born
Music department director
Saint Martin’s University
360.438.4506
dborn@stmartin.edu