Enjoy pre-concert lecture series related to our concert programs
Renaissance Splendor
Enjoy a complimentary on-demand video presentation by Desert Chorale Artist Edmund Connolly before attending Renaissance Splendor for an enhanced concert experience.
British-born baritone Edmund Connolly is a versatile musician and educator based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A multifaceted artist, he maintains an active career as a soloist, consort singer, keyboardist, and choral director. He currently serves on the performing arts faculty at Albuquerque Academy and as Assistant Organist at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John.
Born in London and raised in Oxford, Edmund studied music at Robinson College, Cambridge University, where he held an organ scholarship. He went on to earn a master’s degree in vocal performance from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. A year after graduating, he joined the Guildhall School faculty, teaching music history and theory.
During a decade based in London, he appeared as an opera soloist and chorus member with leading companies such as English Touring Opera and Glyndebourne Festival Opera, performing or covering more than 25 roles. He sang frequently with the BBC Singers and performed and recorded with elite ensembles including the Gabrieli Consort, The Dmitri Ensemble, and English Voices, under the baton of conductors such as Bob Chilcott, David Hill, Paul McCreesh, Graham Ross, and Donald Runnicles.
Since relocating to New Mexico, Edmund Connolly has appeared as a soloist with the New Mexico Philharmonic, the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, and Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico, in repertoire ranging from Bach’s St. John Passion and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem to James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross. As a professional choral artist, he has sung in multiple programs with both the Santa Fe Desert Chorale and Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico.
In partnership with his wife, pianist and organist Maxine Thévenot, he forms half of the duo Air & Hammers. The duo’s debut recording, Desire in Spring, is available on the Raven label. Beyond the stage, Mr. Connolly is a published composer—most recently featured in the Encore Publications organ anthology Born in a Stable—and a recording engineer specializing in concert, recital, and audition recordings.
Homecoming
Enjoy a complimentary on-demand video presentation by Desert Chorale Artist Dr. Bradley Naylor before attending Homecoming for an enhanced concert experience.
Sponsored by Carmen Paradis and Brian McGrath
Praised for his supple musicianship and expressive command of a wide range of repertoire spanning the Renaissance to the present day, tenor Bradley Naylor brings both scholarly depth and communicative warmth to every performance.
In the 2025–26 season, Bradley joins the Orpheus Chamber Singers for their May 2026 concerts in Dallas and Fort Worth, and serves as tenor section leader with the Fort Worth First United Methodist Church’s Choral Union and Adoramus Chamber Choir. Recent highlights include his appearance as tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Broadway Baptist Church and the Fort Worth Symphony in December 2025, and a faculty trio recital at Texas Wesleyan University featuring music for piano, cello, and tenor.
Among Bradley’s notable recent engagements are solo appearances with the Lancaster Chorale, the Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati under Craig Hella Johnson, and the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, where he has performed repertoire ranging from Handel’s Messiah to Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite. He has appeared as the evangelist and tenor soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion. A longtime member of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Bradley has appeared with the ensemble each summer since 2009, including performances of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers.
Bradley Naylor holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Musical Arts degrees in Choral Conducting from the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Marguerite Brooks, Simon Carrington, and Jeffrey Douma, and the Master of Music from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He received his Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in Music from Brown University. He currently serves as Director of Choral Studies at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth.
Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil
Enjoy a complimentary on-demand video presentation by Elena Sharkova before attending Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil for an enhanced concert experience.
Sponsored by Jose Piedra de la Portilla and Ernesto Roederer
Elena Sharkova has been Artistic Director of the Cantabile Youth Singers since 2004 and oversees all educational and performance aspects of the program, in addition to conducting the top choirs, Vocalise and Aria.
Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, Ms. Sharkova received a Bachelor’s Degree in music education and piano and subsequently a graduate degree in conducting from the world-renowned St. Petersburg Rimski-Korsakov State Conservatoire, alma mater to Tchaikovski, Prokofiev, Schostakovich and Balanchin. Upon graduation, Elena was appointed Chair of the Choral Department of the Preparatory Music School at the conservatory. There she developed a new curriculum based on the innovative Ogorodnov Method and directed four youth choirs (ages 3-18.) In 1993 Ms. Sharkova moved to the US and received her second graduate degree in conducting from Western Michigan University where she later served on the faculty. Elena arrived in the Bay Area in 1998 to join the music faculty at San Jose State University where she served as Director of Choral Studies, conducting three choirs and teaching classes in voice, choral conducting, and music education until spring 2006.
Equally comfortable working with professional musicians and very young children just beginning their musical explorations, Elena is thrilled to be starting her second decade as Cantabile’s Artistic Director. She believes that young people are the best ambassadors of music and culture, and that choral and ensemble singing is the most powerful art that brings people together no matter of their age, social differences, politics or religion.
A dedicated music educator, speaker and clinician, Elena Sharkova is one of the busiest festival and honor choir conductors in North America. Elena has conducted professional, university, youth and community choirs and orchestras in 17 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. In the US, Ms. Sharkova appeared as guest conductor at several prestigious venues such as New York City’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, Chicago Orchestra Hall, San Francisco’s Davies Hall, Washington DC Kennedy Center and Segestrom Concert Hall in Orange County.
Elena has conducted national, divisional and state honor choirs for American Choral Directors Association, National Association of Music Educators, Organization of American Kodàly Educators, and Association for Music in International Schools. Most recent and upcoming engagements include Texas, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Washington and Virginia All-State High School Honor Choirs as well as Southwest ACDA Division College Honor Choir and All-Eastern Honor Choir. Ms. Sharkova is looking forward to the profession’s highest honor – conducting one the National Honor Choirs at the ACDA National Convention in Salt Lake City in February 2015.
Artistic Director of Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale (formerly San Jose State University Chorale) since 1998, Ms. Sharkova has prepared and conducted the chorus in over 50 major choral-orchestral works such as Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Verdi’s Requiem and opera Aida (concert production) among many others.
As conductor and coach, Elena Sharkova regularly appears with professional artists. In 2014, she served as guest music director for the Grammy Award winning “Orchestra of Voices” — male choir Chanticleer in a genre- and time—spanning program entitled Russian Dreams that featured folk, spiritual, secular, and urban vocal heritage of the nation. With Cantabile, Elena’s other recent projects have been with Kronos Quartet, Symphony Silicon Valley, Stanford Symphony, Ballet San Jose, visual artist Nene Humphrey, and actor Ryan Gossling’s rock play “Deadman’s Bones, among others.
A passionate advocate for Russian choral music, Elena has lectured extensively on its repertoire and conducted several U.S. premiers of Russian contemporary compositions. Since 2013, she has been serving as the editor for “Elena Sharkova Choral Series” with Carl Fischer Music and has published with National Music Publishers as well.
As a soprano, Elena has performed and recorded with Lege Artis, one of Russia’s finest professional choirs, and appears on five studio CDs on SonyClassical label.
Thank You To Our Sponsors
Thank You To Our Sponsors
Santa Fe Desert Chorale is supported in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding is provided by the County of Santa Fe Lodgers’ Tax, and the City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department and the 1% Lodgers’ Tax.
