Andrew Bleckner, Composer in Residence
Andrew Bleckner studied composition with George Crumb at the University of Pennsylvania, and received a Ph.D. in composition in 1995. While at Penn, he received the Paul Rochberg Fellowship, and the Helen L. Weiss Prize for Vocal Music. He currently serves as Resident Composer for the Singing City in the Schools.

Recently, Bleckner was featured on NPR’s Sacred Classics program as a member of the next generation of exciting new composers. His music is available form Boosey & Hawkes, Alliance Music, and Transcontinental Music Publications.

Mr. Bleckner has received composition awards, grants, and fellowships from ASCAP, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the American Composers Forum, the University of Pennsylvania, and the MacDowell Colony. He has received commissions from the Westminster Choir College, the Dale Warland Singers (1999 Choral Ventures Program), the Virginia Beach Symphony Orchestra, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church (Pennsylvania), Virginia Wesleyan University, and Voces Novae et Antiquae. His music has been performed at conventions and schools throughout the U.S., as well as by ensembles including the American Composers Orchestra (1996 Whitacre Reading Session), the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Zamir Chorale. Recently, he has been a finalist in the 2005 Vocal Essence composition contest, the 2004 Meistersingers Composition Contest, and the 2004 Vanguard Premieres Composition Contest. His setting Psalm 42 is included on the recent release of the Atlanta Singers new CD: Deep River: A Program of American Music.

Katy Gentry, Workshop Director
Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, soprano Katy Gentry completed her undergraduate studies at Haverford College in 2005 with a major in Music and a minor in Education. Haverford College awarded a year-long fellowship to work at the Village of Arts and Humanities in North Philadelphia. She worked with the Arts and Education Program and helped run the after-school arts program that provided classes in video, spoken word, dance, and visual arts to local teenagers.

In 2009 at Temple University, Katy completed her M.M. in Voice Performance as well as a Professional Studies Certificate under the instruction of Dr. Christine Anderson. While at Temple, Katy produced, directed, and sang the title role in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah and performed the roles of the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Mrs. Gobineau in The Medium, Semele in Cavalli's L'Egisto, and La Bergere in L'Enfant et les sortileges. In 2008, Katy sang the role of Mimi in La Bohème with Opera in the Ozarks in Arkansas, and performed the title role in Suor Angelica in Mercatello sul Metauro, Italy this past July.

Having grown up singing with the internationally-renowned Piedmont Children's Choir, Katy continues to love working and singing with choirs. She returned to the Piedmont Choirs for the past several summers to work at their summer camp, teaching music theory and voice to the young singers. Katy also sings and works with the choirs at the Church of the Redeemer in Bryn Mawr, where she is the soprano section leader and director of the Cherub Choir.

For 2009-10 Singing City will be in the final year of its three–year residency at the Tanner Duckrey School at 15th and Diamond Streets. We are pleased to be following the third graders we worked with last year to the fourth grade. We hope to track the impact of the program by working with the same students for three consecutive years. In addition to Tanner Duckrey, Singing City will be in its second year of residence at the Philadelphia Montessori Charter School on Island Avenue.

The mission of Singing City is to build bridges of understanding through shared experiences of performance, outreach and education. SCIS engages young people in the choral arts through an inclusive approach to singing and composing that fosters creativity, self-expression, empowerment and new learning. The Singing City in the Schools model puts the creative process at the center of the choral arts experience, inviting diverse students to participate using multiple intelligences, interests and talents. The Singing City in the Schools program works with teachers and principals in schools to offer children opportunities to learn music rudiments, vocal techniques, poetry and composition.