Rachmaninoff Three

Soprano, Amy Cofield, is a highly sought-after performer and teacher. Praised by the New York Times for her "lovely, rich tone," Ms. Cofield has performed to critical acclaim across the U.S. and in Italy, France, Croatia, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, England, Santo Domingo, Guam, Taiwan and Japan. Highly regarded for her technical facility, beauty of interpretation and an arresting presence, her operatic roles have included Minnie (Girl of the Golden West), Violetta, Cleopatra, Micaela, Lucia di Lammermoor, Elcia (Rossini’s Moses in Egypt), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Mimi, Rosalinda, Cunegonde, Susannah, Musetta, Pamina, Adina, Gilda, Norina, Konstanze, and Belinda in the opera/oratorio, The Rape of the Lock (Alexander Pope), by NY composer Deborah Mason. Credits include performances with Houston Grand Opera where she covered Renee Fleming’s Traviata, New York City Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Lyric Opera San Antonio, Pro Cantus Lyric Opera (TX), Indiana Opera North, Annapolis Chamber Orchestra and Chorale, Teatro Lirico D'Europa, Knoxville Opera, Nevada Opera, Greensboro Light Opera, Opera Roanoke and Opera Orlando.

In concert repertoire, Ms. Cofield has appeared with Festival Chamber Music in recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and with The Masterwork Chorus (NJ) at Carnegie Hall, the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis Chorale and Chamber Orchestra, Tucson Masterworks Chorale, Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society, Garden State Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Virginia Symphony, Virginia Arts Festival, Norfolk Chamber Consort, Opera Camerata of Washington, Washington and Lee University, Tulsa Symphony, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Community Chorus, Brevard Symphony Orchestra and Space Coast Symphony Orchestra.

Amy’s recent performances included solos with Space Coast Symphony Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah and the debut of Christopher Marshall’s Cançó del Mar, Brevard Symphony Orchestra for their Sounds of the Season annual holiday concert, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra for Mozart’s Requiem, Opera Roanoke for Verdi’s Requiem, Annapolis Chorale and Chamber Orchestra for Brahms’ Requiem and Brevard Community Chorus and Orchestra for Poulenc’s Gloria, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. This season she will return to Roanoke Symphony for Handel’s Messiah and will perform recitals and concerts throughout the Space Coast of Florida.

American soprano Mary Anne Kruger graduated with a Master of Music degree from Indiana University where she studied voice with world-renowned voice teacher Margaret Harshaw.  She then went to Germany where she established an impressive repertoire of over 40 major operatic and concert roles.  Her repertoire spans in vocal range from Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) to Salome, and in stylistic range from Poppea (L’Incornazione di Poppea) to Anne Trulove (The Rake’s Progress), as well as some world and German premieres. Among innumerable accolades, Opernwelt called her Contessa (“Le Nozze di Figaro”) “dazzling”, and Orfeus International declared her Salome to be “worthy of the greatest houses.” She built her repertoire primarily as a member of the Hessisches Staatstheater Darmstadt, but she has performed in over 20 European theaters including the Bayerische Staatsoper- Nationaltheater in Munich, Staatstheater Stuttgart, the Latvian National Opera and Theater Basel.

Her prizes include a nomination in the category “Best Singer” in the Opernwelt Jahrbuch for her portrayal of Alcina.  She was awarded the role of Donna Elvira in the Don Giovanni production  at the Athens Concert Hall directed by Ruggiero Raimondi and conducted by Gustav Kühn. The “Sonderpreis der Wiener Staats-und Volksoper” at the Belvedere Competition secured for her a performance as Hanna Glawari (Die Lustige Witwe) at the Wiener Volksoper.  She was also awarded a DAAD scholarship (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdient) to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich.  She currently lives in Satellite Beach with her husband and two dogs.

Lucas Cornejo is a senior at Melbourne High School. His passion for music began at age 2 when he used to entertain his family by jamming out with Red Hot Chili peppers on his miniature guitar. Guitar lessons began in earnest when Lucas was 8, and a short time after, he began tinkering on a baby grand piano his mom had found on Facebook Marketplace. He would improvise for hours at a time, and discovered he could teach himself complex pieces by ear. During the Covid-19 quarantine, his mom, a classically trained violist, noticed the potential in his improvisations and bought him a music composition software, with which he would write many pieces.  Under the guidance of Aaron Collins, three of Lucas’s pieces won him a spot at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute program for music composition during the summer of 2022. Lucas currently plays violin in the Melbourne High School orchestra program and has ambitions to attend Florida State University to major in music composition, with longer term goals of writing music for film. He draws inspiration from John Powell, Hans Zimmer, Frédéric Chopin, Gustav Holst, and J.S. Bach.

Mark Piszczek (b. 1957) is a native of central Florida where his parents worked in the fledgling space program. A professional performer on both oboe and saxophone, Piszczek has a deep background in both jazz and classical music. He has led his own groups and worked as a studio musician for over thirty years. Piszczek's father was a devout fan of classical music and it played daily on the family phonograph. This early exposure to concert music and the presence of highly competent music teachers, instilled a love of music that later turned into a lifelong passion. The composer cites the music of Karel Husa, Bela Bartok, Hindemith, Miles Davis, Chick Corea and Ralph Towner as key influences in his early musical development.  Piszczek studied oboe at the University of South Florida and The University of Wisconsin, Platteville. After years of performing and recording professionally as a jazz artist, he decided to return to his classical roots and received a master’s degree in composition at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, where he studied with composers, Elliott Schwartz and Dan Sonenberg.  He has written hundreds of jazz compositions, a flute sonata, two woodwind quintets, a string quartet, four works for chamber orchestra, a brass quintet, a trio for clarinet, viola and piano, a symphony for winds and percussion, a major work for symphony orchestra, Songs from the Gulf of Sorrows, which was premiered by The Brevard Symphony Orchestra in 2016, a trio for flute, clarinet, bassoon and piano based on native American folk songs, a trio for woodwinds and a new orchestral work dedicated to Lalo Schifrin, Walter Scharf and Elmer Bernstein.  He now resides in Melbourne FL. and performs with his Orlando based, progressive jazz group, Strange Angels as well as musical collaborations with lifelong friend, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Larry Williams.