LCC's Dr. Joseph Crabtree named
faculty member of the year

By Paul de la Peña-Franceschi

Dr. Joseph Crabtree was named Laredo Community College (LCC) faculty member of the year at its recent 18th annual LCC Employment Appreciation Day. Dr. Crabtree currently directs the mixed choir and opera workshop programs at LCC and is also involved in many other musical activities in the community. Recently tenured, Dr. Crabtree received service recognition for five years. He was recognized for his dedication to students and his creative teaching abilities. He was also the school's nominee for the Golden Apple award.
Of the recognition accorded him by his peers, Dr. Crabtree said, "I feel exceedingly honored and humbled by this achievement and am committed to offering the best job I can for the students,"
According to Dr. Crabtree, he would not have pursued music were it not for the urging of his sister to drop computer class and go into music. She recognized in him, he said, a talent that was often overlooked in his middle school years. He was told in 1991 that his voice was too small for the stage and had zero performance potential. He was told to look for another line of work. Ignoring this assessment, he continued in music, landing a chorus role in the musical Guys and Dolls in a high school production in Ohio. He has since studied piano, violin, flute, and voice and has performed in church choirs most of his life. Heeding his sister's advice, he has now made a name for himself for achievements on and off campus and in concert halls on two continents.
Dr. Crabtree is an acclaimed performer on both sides of the Atlantic in over 25 leading operatic roles and as a choral conductor. A native of Columbus, Ohio, Crabtree received his Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from Ohio State University. During his studies there, he worked with such noted composers and conductors as Maurice Casey, James Gallagher, Norman Luboff, Robert Shaw, Alice Parker, William Mathias, Jester Hairston, and John Rutter. His singing engagements in Ohio included performing with the Cantari Singers of Columbus and the Lancaster Chorale, where his chorale work, "A Benediction," was featured in their tenth anniversary concert. He was the baritone soloist in Columbus' first performance of Puccini's Messe di Gloria.
In 1992, Dr. Crabtree moved to Austin to pursue Masters and Doctorate degrees in Voice Performance at the University of Texas at Austin. He became recognized as a comic bass-baritone, and was featured in such roles as Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro, 80-year-old Simone in Gianni Schicchi, and Rapunzel's Prince/Wolf in Into the Woods. He credits William Lewis, an accomplished lifetime musician for at the New York Metropolitan Opera, for much of his training at the University of Texas. Lewis, also Artistic Director at the Austrian American Mozart Academy, directed Crabtree's stage presence and gave him numerous opportunities to perform and act. Voice coach Darlene Wiley to whom Crabtree refers to as "the goddess of voice," helped him master his voice through constant direction in master classes and vocal coaching.
While at UT Dr. Crabtree attended the Austrian American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, Austria, where he studied and performed the works of Mozart in Mozart's homeland. He excelled in Mozart's comedic roles -- Papageno, Leporello, Nardo, and Bartolo -- and performed these with the Amadeus Ensemble throughout Austria and Germany. He was also the bass soloist in performances of Mozart's C-Minor Mass and Requiem.
Adept at changing styles, Dr. Crabtree performed in early music productions of L'Ormindo by Cavalli with period instrumentation, as well as the 20th-century works of Leonard Bernstein and Dominic Argento. He was a featured soloist with the New Music Ensemble in Austin, where he performed John Harbison's Words from Patterson, with the composer in attendance. His broad range of musical work encompasses oratorio, art song, American musical theater, Viennese operetta, and opera, and he has even been featured in radio and TV commercials.
In 1997, Dr. Crabtree joined the faculty of Laredo Community College and now considers Laredo home. He spends his summers in Salzburg, where he serves on the faculty of the Austrian American Mozart Academy, and conducts the church music throughout the Salzkammergut area, performing both of Mozart's Litanies in B-flat, the Coronation Mass, and the Solemn Vespers. This summer he will make his conducting debut directing Mozart's first opera, Bastien und Bastienne and Der Schauspieldirektor.
Since his arrival in Laredo, Dr. Crabtree has supported the arts through recitals at the Center for the Arts, as well in his performances of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, and the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, both staged by Laredo Institute for Theatrical Education (L.I.T.E.) Productions. He has been a soloist with both the Laredo Philharmonic Chorale and the Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra. At LCC he has directed six full opera productions including The Magic Flute, The Empresario, The Fantastiks, Ol'Maid and the Thief, Little Shop of Horrors, and The Pirates of Penzance. The mixed choir has performed the Liebeslieder waltzes by Brahms and most recently performed an evening of Schubert singing his Mass in F and Hirtenchor (the Shepard's Chorus).
Dr. Crabtree completed his Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A). in the spring of 2001. The title of his dissertation was "An Investigation and Analysis of Ned Rorem's Fables-Five Very Short Operas." He was then immediately hired as the artistic director and conductor of the Laredo Philharmonic Chorale (LPC).
Under his direction the LPC has experienced tremendous growth and challenge during the past two years in which he has directed a series of Broadway music, show tunes, and American patriotic hymns and ballads. He has also conducted the Mozart Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Ralph Vaughn Williams Five Mystical Songs, and Fáure's Requiem. This May the LPC returns to New York City's Carnegie Hall to perform Mozart's Requiem under the direction of John Rutter. Additionally, in June the women's chorus has been invited to perform in Monterrey performing Gustav Holst's The Planets, along with the Monterrey Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Carrasco.
Dr. Crabtree spends many hours with his students preparing and designing sets for local productions. He makes himself available for tutorial sessions and additional rehearsal times. His dry, yet cunning sense of humor always seems to lighten conversation and ease tensions.
Dr. Crabtree is a member of the National Association of Teachers and the International Thespian Society. His beautiful companion, wife Dana, is also an accomplished professional vocalist and music instructor at LCC and adjunct professor at Texas A&M International University. Dr. Crabtree serves on the L.I.T.E. board and is the organist at the First Presbyterian Church.
For more information about the fine and performing arts at Laredo Community College, call Dr. Crabtree at 721-5330.