Lon Ellenberger
Countertenor
Recent performances include: The premier of Tres Canciones for countertenor and clarinet ensemble composed by Chicago's own Leo Schwartz performed live on WFMT and in concert at NEIU; "West Meets East: French Sacred Music from Cyprus" with the Schola Antiqua of Chicago; the Vivaldi Gloria at the Unitarian Church of Evanston; the Monteverdi Vespers with Bella Voce and the Callipygian Palyers; Dio, Clemenza e Rigore, ("ELYON, MELITS U-MASTIN" "God, Defender and Accuser”) a Baroque musical ceremony for Hoshana Rabbah with Chicago Syntagma Musicum; Cantio Sacra: An Early Music Lenten Vespers at Rockefeller Chapel with a program featuring the Baroque gem for solo alto voice and violin, Johann Christoph Bach's "Ach, daß ich Wassers g'nug hätte," and Purcell's Saul and the Witch at Endor; Univeristy of Chicago presents: JS Bach's B-Minor Mass at Rockefeller Chapel, which brought rave reviews for both the "Qui sedes" and "Agnus Dei." Live at the Chazen (hosted by Lori Skelton) in Madison with the Sotto Voce Tuba Quartet broadcast live on Wisconsin Public Radio; "St Nick and Beelzebub," a Mummer's Play with Syntagma Musicum; Food of Love, a masque/pastiche of music by Purcell produced by The Opera Company (Oliver is great!); "Praying by Number" with the Schola Antiqua of Chicago featuring music of Obrecht, Dunstaple, and Josquin; Bach St Matthew Passion with the Madison Bach Musicians; Handel Messiah at Rockefeller Chapel; Vivaldi Gloria at St Benedict's (produced by Luciano Laurentiu) with Stephen Alltop conducting; the Lord Hayes Masque at the Chicago Humanities Festival; and the amazing 'roasted swan' in theCarmina Burana of Carl Orff with the West Suburban Symphony, Peter Lipari conducting.
Also Bach B-Minor Mass with the Madison Bach Musicians, Trevor Stephenson, director, which received broad acclaim and inspired the poem "The Countertenor and the Platypus" by Katrin Talbot; Handel Dettinger Te Deum at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel with the RMC Choir and Baroque Band, conducted by James Kallembach. (rockefeller.uchicago.edu).
Lon Ellenberger appeared in the role of the "Spirit" in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Chicago Opera Theater's 2006 season, Raymond Leppard conducting, garnering great reviews from the Chicago Tribune, Opera News and other publications.
Additional solo credits include Bach's Johannes-Passion and Handel's Messiah at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago; “Live from Studio One” on WFMT in Monteverdi’s Scherzi Musicali; Bernstein’s Missa Brevis with the Chicago Choral Artists; a recital performance of Vivaldi’s Nisi Dominus (a solo-cantata setting of Psalm 126); Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus at Northwestern’s Dunbar Early Music Festival which garnered glowing reviews; a recital of seventeenth century consort works by Heinrich Bach, Franz Tunder, Heinrich Schütz, and Dietrich Buxtehude in Vail Chapel; Purcell’s Bell Anthem with the Mozart Sinfonia; and additional doctoral recital work featuring Ich habe genug - Schlummert ein (BWV 82), arias from Bach’s B-Minor Mass, Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Glass’s Akhnaten, Handel's Partenope, and the premier of Five Romantic Songs by Chicago composer Michael Gustav Miller.
Lon has also appeared in operetta and music theater with Light Opera Works, and Handbag Productions; most notably in Queen of the Roundup in the role of the "ghost of Marlene Dietrich," (she was a baritone) singing "Illusions" from the Billy Wilder film A Foreign Affair, which the Sun-Times noted to be the funniest performance of the night.
Dr. Ellenberger began voice training in the boys choir school tradition with the Kantorei of Rockford under Linden Lundstrom, singing soprano solos in the Bach Magnificat and Vivaldi Gloria. He earned a B.A. in German Language and Literature from Beloit College, and an M.A. in Vocal Pedagogy from Northeastern Illinois University with a baritone recital of Schubert, Wolf, Strauss, Berg, Weill, and Chicago composer John Giles. He sang baritone and tenor with the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the Light Opera Works, and in recital in Hungary. Lon earned his Doctor of Music in Voice and Opera in the countertenor Fach from Northwestern University.