MGS presents Stephen Tharp & Kendra Berentsen
Having played more than 1600 concerts across more than 60 tours worldwide, Stephen Tharp has built one of the most well-respected international careers in the world, earning him the reputation as the most traveled concert organist of his generation. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World, and has been given the 2011 International Performer of the Year Award by the New York City chapter of the American Guild of Organists. In May 2015, he was given the Paul Creston Award which recognizes artistic excellence by a significant figure in church music and the performing arts.
He is also an active chamber musician nationwide, having performed on organ, piano and harpsichord with artists such as Thomas Hampson, Itzhak Perlman, Jennifer Larmore, Rachel Barton Pine, the American Boychoir (James Litton, conductor), the St. Thomas Choir (John Scott, conductor, in Duruflé’s Requiem), and at Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center. His 16 solo organ recordings can be found on the labels Acis Productions, JAV Recordings, Aeolus, Naxos, Organum and Ethereal, and are available from the Organ Historical Society.
Kendra Berentsen was winner of the Oratorio Society New York's Esther Korshin award at the 2023 at Carnegie Hall. As an oratorio soloist, she has performed “Messiah” with Fairfield County Chorale, Vaughn Williams’ “Pastoral” Symphony with New York Repertory Orchestra, and Mahler’s “Das Himmlishe Leben” with Astoria Symphony. Kendra’s past credits include Juliette in Romeo et Juliette, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Frasquita in Carmen, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Kendra received her BM and MM from Eastman School of Music, and headlined as Carolina Il Matrimonio Segreto, Flora in Turn of the Screw, Herz in The Impresario, Kost in Cabaret, and Manon in Concert.
Ms. Berentsen returned to the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera Center in 2018 singing Leïla in Les Pêcheurs de Perles in the Schwabacher Concert under the baton of Kathleen Kelly and Massenet’s Thaïs in the Merola Grand Finale under the baton of Dean Williamson. In 2018 the Shoshana Foundation awarded Ms. Berentsen the Richard F. Gold Career Grant for the Merola Program. In 2017, she was featured in The Schwabacher Concert as Baby Doe in under the baton of Anne Manson as well as Marie in La Fille du Regiment for the Grand Finale under the baton of Anthony Walker.
Stephen Tharp & Kendra Berentsen, organ & voice
Friday, March 5, 2027 - 7:30 pm
Christ United Methodist Church
