The 2022 Old West Organ Society Summer Series continues with a performance by Jonathan Schakel together with soprano Megan Sharp. Admission is free; donations are gratefully accepted in support of the Society.
Megan Sharp earned her undergraduate degree in music from the College of Wooster in Ohio and holds a master's degree in opera from the Boston Conservatory. Following graduation and a period of intense study of Baroque singing with Sally Sanford, Baroque dance with Ken Pierce, and French art song with Carole Bajac, her career has focused on performing, especially early music, and increasingly on choral conducting. She has sung with the Boston Early Music Festival, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, Ensemble Chanterelle, the Schola Cantorum, and Longwood Opera. Ms. Sharp often collaborates with organist and harpsichordist Jonathan Schakel, including concerts in Germany, the Netherlands, Boston, Michigan, North Carolina, and Virginia. In 2011 Ms. Sharp was named music director of the Charlottesville-based vocal ensemble Zephyrus. She has led Zephyrus in summer residencies at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh; Trinity Cathedral in Dublin; and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Ms. Sharp has directed choirs in churches and schools for over 20 years, and currently serves as director of fine arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville. In addition, she maintains a private voice studio and teaches T'ai Chi at the Charlottesville T'ai Chi Center.
Organist and harpsichordist Jonathan Schakel earned a doctoral degree in performance practice at Cornell University, where he studied with Annette Richards and David Yearsley. He holds a master’s degree in organ and early music from Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA, where he studied organ and harpsichord with Peter Sykes and continuo with Frances Conover Fitch. He has pursued additional studies with Lorenzo Ghielmi, Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, and Olivier Latry, and has participated in the summer organ academies in Smarano, Italy; in Haarlem, the Netherlands; and at McGill University in Montreal. He has given organ recitals in the Netherlands, Germany, Scotland, and many of the United States, including performances at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC; Harvard University; Princeton University; Trinity Church, Boston; St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh; the Ludgerikirche, Norden, Germany; and de Engelse Kerk, Amsterdam. His editions of Renaissance vocal music have been performed in the US, England, and Germany, and he serves as artistic director for the early music vocal ensemble Zephyrus. He is currently organist at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, Virginia.