The Lake Michigan College Visual & Performing Arts Department presents a faculty music concert featuring guitarist and composer Dr. Robert Lunn and baritone vocalist and composer Kristopher Zook at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20 in The Mendel Center’s Hanson Theatre on the Benton Harbor Campus, 2755 E. Napier Ave.
“We are kicking off a new series of annual recitals featuring our amazing music faculty and our distinguished alumni,” said Zook, LMC’s Chair of Visual & Performing Arts and Director of Music. “The hope is to inspire our students to new levels of excellence by seeing the outstanding talent, knowledge, and skills of those they get to work with daily. Rob and I are happy to be the first in a long line of recitals to come.”
Lunn, a full-time instructor at Lake Michigan College who teaches music theory, music technology, guitar, and directs the LMC Jazz Band, is performing a mix of original compositions and contemporary arrangements.
His portion of the program includes an opening guitar improvisation leading into the original, meditative composition, “A Beautiful Fight.” Lunn also will perform two new originals, “Fire Dance” and “Moroccan Nights,” as well as his arrangements of “The Godfather Love Theme,” “Over the Rainbow,” and the folk tune “Malaguena.”
Lunn received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Composition from Ohio State University in June of 2010. He won the 2008 Ruth Friscoe Award for his Sonata for Guitar and was a three-time recipient of the Donald and Marilyn Harris Scholarship at Ohio State. He received a bachelor’s degree from Hope College and a master’s in Music Theory and Composition from Pennsylvania State University.
Lunn also has taught at Ohio State, Grand Valley State, and Hope College. He was awarded the Graduate Teaching Award in Music Theory while at Ohio State.
Lunn has composed music for a variety of ensembles as well as solo instruments. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. He has released 17 albums that can be found on streaming services such as iTunes and Spotify and is a Signature Artist with the music publishing company, Musicnotes. For more information, visit robertlunn.com
Zook, meanwhile, is Chair of LMC’s Visual & Performing Arts, Director of Music, overseeing the LMC Concert Choir and Soundwaves, and is the Interim Dean of Arts & Sciences.
His portion of the program includes a mix of Broadway, classical and operatic repertoire, including “Di Provenza il mar,” from Giuseppe Verdi’s “La Traviata” and “Avant de quitter ces lieu,” from Charles Gounod’s “Faust.”
Other highlights include “Some Enchanted Evening,” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic “South Pacific,” “If I Can’t Love Her” from “Beauty and the Beast,” and “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables,” from “Les Miserables.” Zook also will perform the original work, “Box on a Throne,” from “Boxes,” a musical he has been creating and will join Lunn for “Little Red-Cap,” an original piece composed for guitar and narrator based on the “Little Red Riding Hood” story.
Zook maintains an active schedule as conductor, baritone soloist, composer, director, and music teacher. He holds a master’s degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, and two bachelor’s degrees from Westminster College in New Wilmington, Penn.
He has appeared as a professional soloist, chorister, and backup singer in various operatic, oratorio, choral, and musical theatre performances, with notable orchestras as the Pittsburgh Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Philadelphia Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic. He has worked in varying capacities with such notable celebrities as Rosemary Clooney, Maya Angelou, Ben E. King, Joe Piscopo, Deana Martin, Max Weinberg, Foreigner, Bryn Terfel, Thomas Hampson, Jerry Hadley, and more.
Zook was twice named best actor in Pennsylvania’s longest-running Shakespeare Festival, was a Count Basie Award recipient, and has appeared on NPR and PBS Live from Lincoln Center multiple times. He worked previously at Red Bank Regional High School, Monmouth University, and many church congregations.
Admission to this performance is free. To learn more about this event or Lake Michigan College’s Visual & Performing Arts program, call 269-927-8876 or visit lakemichigancollege.edu/arts.
