Music

The music in our services feature a fine Steinway grand piano and a custom pipe organ built by the Boston based Aeolian Skinner company. Aeolian Skinner is best known for building pipe organs for five of the foremost symphony orchestras in America including the organ at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center. Guest instrumentalists are often featured in special services.

Our services also feature two fine voices; Tenor Michael-Paul Krubitzer and Nina Bruckner on the piano and the Organ. Our church service features wonderful music upholding the saying by St. Augustine "He who sings prays twice".

Michael-Paul Krubitzer

Tenor Michael-Paul Krubitzer is described as possessing a voice that is “easy and unforced, with a ringing top that flows effortlessly” (New London Day). Recent performances include Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Don Jose in Carmen with New Rochelle Opera, and the Duke in Rigoletto with Livermore Valley Opera, for which the San Francisco Classical Voice praised him as “honey-voiced.”

In the 2016-17 season he returns with Rapides Symphony as soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Recent successes include tenor soloist in Messiah with Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra and in Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the New Haven Symphony. Other highlights include soloist in Haydn’s Paukenmesse at Carnegie Hall for MidAmerica Productions, the role of Gerald in Lakmé with Connecticut Concert Opera, and Alfredo for family performances of La traviata at Central City Opera.

Mr. Krubitzer sang the title role in Faust in a return to Connecticut Concert Opera and has performed several times as a Resident Artist with Connecticut Opera in such roles as Dancairo in Carmen, Ruiz in Il trovatore, Il Messaggier in Aida. He returned as a principal artist singing Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Michael-Paul jas performed the role of Il Messaggier with Opera Omaha and Remendado in Carmen with Amarillo Opera. Other appearances include the Prince in Rusalka and Des Grieux in Manon for a performance of opera scenes with Yale Opera; appearing as soloist with the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; the role of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte in outreach performances, covering the role in mainstage performances with Atlanta Opera; Verdi’s Hymn of Nations with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra; and Alfredo in La traviata with Opera Theater of Connecticut.

Prior to two summers as an apprentice artist, Michael-Paul was a studio artist at Central City Opera and he appeared as Bushy in The Ballad of Baby Doe, A Young Tree in Paul Bunyan, and in productions of The Saint of Bleeker Street and Cendrillon. He also spent two years in the Intermezzo Young Artist Program, where he added the roles of Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus and Chavalier in Dialogues des Carmélites to his repertoire. He is also an alumnus of the Florida Grand Opera Young Artist Studio.

Michael-Paul Krubitzer is a graduate of the Opera Program at the Yale School of Music appearing in productions of Massenet’s La Navarraise and Die Zauberflöte with the Yale Opera Theater. He received his Graduate Performance Diploma in Vocal Performance from the Hartt School of Music where was featured in Susannah, Gianni Schicchi, and Don Giovanni.

He is the recipient of the 2007 Richard F. Gold Career Grant awarded by the Shoshana Foundation, and received both the 2007 Joseph Spada Award and the 2006 Maestro Willie Anthony Waters Award from the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition.

 

Nina Bruckner, pianist and organist

Daughter of a military officer in the former USSR army, Nina Bruckner's childhood and adolescence were split between Ukraine and Belarus. The family moved a lot, and the most valuable item in the household was the piano- a present from her father for her fifth birthday. That marked the beginning of a lifelong passion for music. She graduated from the State Conservatory in Minsk, cum laude, with a degree in piano performance. She has worked as an accompanist with opera singers, violinist, and cellists. She became the head of the educational program in a college of music, where she mentored a new generation of piano teachers. For the last 30 years she has resided in Stamford CT and maintained her extensive private practice as a piano teacher. Her students have participated in numerous festivals, competitions, and concerts. She enjoys collaborating with other musicians and singers.