Sherry MacLean         Stephen Mumbert         Regina Torres          Frederick Kilgallin 

SHERRY MACLEAN -- Soprano Sherry Boushell MacLean has been a Brevard County resident for thirty-one years. She is presently on the voice faculty at Brevard Community College and has been teaching privately for over twenty five years. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education at Stetson University, she continues to be active in public and private schools.  She is a soloist in the area primarily known for sacred songs and oratorio work. She has been a featured soloist with the Brevard Community choir locally, as well as internationally on their concert tours. She has appeared as a guest soloist with the Community Band of Brevard, the Central Florida Winds, the Galmont Ballet Company, the Melbourne Municipal Band, the Melbourne Community Orchestra, and the Space Coast Pops singing a wide variety of music. She has been a featured soloist in the Riverside Presbyterian Church Master Series of Famous Oratorios under the direction of both Dr. Vernon Boushell and Maestro Aaron Collins. Her students have been local and state winners in the National Federation of Music Clubs as well as the chapter auditions of NATS. She has recorded a CD called "Songs for the Troubled Heart" featuring various hymns and sacred classical pieces. Mrs. MacLean currently resides in Melbourne with her husband, a wonderful and highly skilled engineer and has two married daughters.  She attributes much of her vocal skills and great appreciation of music to her father, the late Dr. Vernon Boushell.

REGINA TORRES -- Described as a “tour de force of vocal virtuosity married to a fabulous stage presence” (Captain Classics – WFCF, St Augustine), mezzo-soprano Regina Torres wields her voice with equal acclaim in opera, oratorio, and musical theatre.  Her powerful and beautiful sound has thrilled audiences in her portrayals of such vastly different roles as the gypsy Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore and Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music.  Her comic timing has made her a deliciously evil Witch (Hansel and Gretel and Sondheim’s Into the Woods) and a Gilbert & Sullivan favorite in roles such as Katisha (The Mikado), Counsel for the Plaintiff (Trial by Jury), the Duchess of Plaza-Toro (The Gondoliers), and Little Buttercup (HMS Pinafore).  A Florida native, Ms. Torres has performed with First Coast Opera, Central Florida Lyric Opera, and as a Guest Artist at Palm Beach Atlantic University.  She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Florida and a Performance Diploma in Voice from the Indiana University School of Music where she performed on the Mainstage as Ludmilla in The Bartered Bride, Mrs. Gleaton in Susannah, and La Zelatrice in Suor Angelica.  She has also appeared as a soloist in performances of Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and made her debut in Orlando’s Bob Carr Auditorium in Handel’s Messiah.  Ms. Torres is also prominently featured in the recent CD release, Soul of Christ, showcasing sacred works written by Jacksonville composer, Robert Waddell.  Later this spring, she will be making her directing debut with First Coast Opera’s final season production, Opera Noir.

FREDERICK KILGALLIN -- Frederick Kilgallin completed his public schooling in Brevard County, and then began music studies at Florida State University. He switched his focus to foreign languages, earning a B.A. and M.A. at FSU, and then later began work on a Ph. D. in Comparative Literature at Indiana University in Bloomington. While there, he began studying voice again with the late Vera Scammon, and performed in several university productions, both small and large. Mr. Kilgallin moved back to Brevard County with his wife and 3 daughters in 1994, and now teaches public school in Melbourne. He has been a featured soloist in several local performances at the King Center, and in various concert performances elsewhere in Florida as well as in Europe.

STEPHEN MUMBERT -- Up and coming baritone, Stephen Mumbert, is quickly gaining attention on the concert and opera stage throughout the United States and England. Stephen was recently praised for being “Vocally, the most promising singer” and for “possessing an assured and stylish technique” for his interpretation of the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Aldeburgh Festival in the United Kingdom. He has participated in the young-artist programs of Bay View Music Festival (Marcello/La Boheme), Seagle Music Colony (Aaron Greenspan/Morning Star), and Britten-Pears (B Minor Mass/Bach, Don Giovanni/Don Giovanni, Junius/The Rape of Lucretia). Mr. Mumbert’s previous roles include Publio in Mozart’s La Clemeza Di Tito, the Usher in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, the Father in Giannini’s Beauty and the Beast, Eisenstein as well as Falke in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir D’amore, and Tarquinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. In 2008 Stephen was engaged as a Studio Artist at Fort Worth opera with operatic performances including Slim in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men, King Melchior in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, and solo ensemble trio in the professional American premier of Peter Eötvös’ Angles in America. Following his residency in Fort Worth, Stephen was asked to sing the role of Smirnov in William Walton’s The Bear on the Island of Ischia, Italy  in Lady Walton’s personal garden La Mortella conducted by Anthony Hose. On the concert stage this year Stephen has been seen performing as the Bass soloist in Donizetti’s Requiem, Adam in Haydn’s Creation, and as the Bass soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in the UK under the baton of Masaaki Suzuki. Last year was Mr. Mumbert’s International Solo Recital debut in Malpas, UK where he performed a program of American art songs and Operatic Arias. Most recently, Stephen finished a residency at Opera Naples during their 2009-2010 season performing a number of roles including King Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Count di luna (Cover) in Il Trovatore, and Paris as well as Mercutio (Cover) in Romeo et Juliette. Stephen currently studies voice with Mollie Rich.

Jamila Tekalli, an American pianist of Japanese and Libyan descent, has participated and performed in various festivals including the Young Artist Piano Program at Tanglewood, Keyboard Festival in Banff, Canada and the International Keyboard Institute of Mannes College in New York City. Ms. Tekalli primary teachers include Evelyne Brancart, Arnaldo Cohen, Laurent Boubkoza, Leonidas Lipovetsky, and has performed in masterclasses for Julian Martin, Marc Durand, Andre La Plante and Frederic Chiu. In the summer of 2007, Ms. Tekalli played a series of chamber music concerts throughout Ecuador, including in the Teatro Variedade of the Teatro Sucre in Quito, Ecuador. Ms. Tekalli’s awards include National finalist and third place in the Music Teachers’ National Association Baldwin Piano Competition, winner of the MTNA Yamaha Piano State Competition, and a junior division finalist in the 1995 Stravinsky Awards International Piano Competition.  

Ms. Tekalli has a B.M. in Piano Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where she was a scholarship recipient of the Indiana University School of Music Dean’s Award and a Friends of Music scholar and performed Franz Liszt’s Totentanz with the Indiana University Philharmonic Orchestra as the School of Music’s Concerto Competition winner. 

Ms. Tekalli holds a Masters degree in Performance from the University of Central Florida and is currently a full scholarship Doctoral student and Graduate Assistant at the University of Miami where she studies with Tian Ying.

George Weremchuk has performed and recorded with such diverse groups as the New World Symphony, under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, and Sam Rivers’ Rivbea Orchestra. He is featured on the New World Symphony’s recording entitled New World Jazz (RCA Red Seal), and has performed with Sam Rivers at the Chicago Jazz Festival, Matosinhos Jazz Festival in Portugal, and at Lincoln Center in New York.

In Europe, Dr. Weremchuk performed in 14 countries with the international touring company of Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Ladies”, including a tour of Italy with Mercer Ellington conducting. He has appeared as a soloist with the Brevard Symphony Orchestra, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the University of Central Florida Symphony Orchestra and with the University of Miami Wind Ensemble. He is featured with the University of Miami Wind Ensemble on the world premiere recording of Urban Requiem by Michael Colgrass. In addition, Dr. Weremchuk performs regularly with the Orlando Philharmonic, Florida Orchestra, Brevard (FL) and Florida West Coast Symphonies. He was an invited performer at the 12th and 13th World Saxophone Congresses.

Weremchuck holds the Doctor of Music degree from the University of Miami. He is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Massachusetts, where he received a double major in Saxophone Performance and Music Education and Indiana University where he received the Master of Music degree.

His teachers include Eugene Rousseau, Lynn Klock, Gary Keller, and Daniel Deffayet. He is currently Associate Professor of Saxophone at the University of Central Florida, Orlando.