Timeless Vaughan Williams

More about the Guest Artists

Jonathan Pilkington is an Atlanta based tenor and voice teacher. In recent years as an oratorio soloist, he has performed solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus, among others. He was tenor soloist in the New York premiere of Mendelssohn’s Humboldt Cantata, as well as a performance of Elliott Carter’s The Defense of Corinth with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall. Most recently, he performed Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra and Lili Boulanger’s Vieille prière bouddhique with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra. Jonathan was a guest soloist at the 2014 Bassi Brugnatelli International Conducting and Singing Symposium in Robbiate, Italy.

Recent recital appearances have included performances at regional colleges, universities, and churches, as well as in Dallas, Kansas City, Tucson, and northern California, featuring art song repertoire of various languages. As a professional chorister, Pilkington has performed many major choral works with the New York Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Taylor Festival Choir, and others. Dr. Pilkington has lectured on vocal pedagogy topics at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and for a number of regional choirs. He holds degrees from Shorter College (B.M.), Westminster Choir College (M.M), and University of Georgia (D.M.A.). As a dedicated voice teacher, he has participated in the highly selective NATS Intern Program, competed further training at the LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework™ at Baldwin Wallace University, as well as One Body/One Voice at Penn State University.

Pilkington currently teaches at Emory University and at his private studios in Atlanta and LaGrange, GA. He is a staff singer at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. As a multi-passionate entrepreneur, he also is a Luxury Travel Advisor. For more information, please visit www.jonathanpilkington.net or www.pilkingtontravels.com

The Vega String Quartet, Quartet-in-Residence at Emory University, is cultivating a new generation of chamber music lovers through dynamic performances and innovative community engagement.  The New York Times raved that “[the Quartet’s] playing had a kind of clean intoxication to it, pulling the listener along…the musicians took real risks in their music making” and the L.A. Times praised their “triumphant L.A. debut.” They concertize both nationally and internationally, most recently in Baltimore, Chicago, Nashville, Sacramento, Berlin, San Miguel, the Brahmssaal in Vienna’s Musikverein and the Kleine Zaal in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. The Quartet’s major performing projects at Emory have included performing the complete cycle of Beethoven quartets, as well as pairing Bach’s complete works for solo violin, viola and cello with the six Bartók quartets.

A unique aspect of the Quartet’s residency at Emory is bringing performance into the classroom, collaborating with academic professors to create interdisciplinary parallels and conversations.  They also enrich the cultural life of their community, having founded the Emory Youth Chamber Music Program, which gives intensive training in small ensemble playing to advanced pre-college students.  The Quartet was appointed to the roster of the Woodruff Arts Center’s Young Audience program, engaging thousands of students throughout the greater Atlanta school system.  They have also held residencies in Augusta, Jacksonville and Juneau which combined traditional concerts with educational outreach, performances in non-traditional venues and masterclasses for area students.

The Vega Quartet has won numerous international awards, including at the Bordeaux String Quartet Competition, as well as top prizes from the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition, the Carmel Chamber Music Competition, and the National Society of Arts and Letters String Quartet Competition.  They have toured throughout Asia, Europe and North America and have appeared at Weill Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Bargemusic, and Duke Hall at the Royal Academy of Music, London.  The members of the Vega Quartet collaborate with some of the world’s finest musicians including David Shifrin, Mark and Maggie O’Connor, Andres Cardenes, Eliot Fisk, Christopher O’Riley, William Preucil, Richard Stoltzman, Robert Spano, Charles Wadsworth, Soovin Kim, Zuill Bailey, the Juilliard Quartet and the Eroica Trio.