Friday, October 12, 2018, at 7:30 pm at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 25 N. Las Posas Road, Camarillo.
Sunday, October 14, 2018, 3:00 pm, at First United Methodist Church of Ventura, 1338 East Santa Clara Street, Ventura.
LOUISE LOFQUIST, pianist and mezzo soprano, has had an unorthodox musical career. She made her pianistic debut with the National Symphony at the age of 18 but initially pursued a liberal arts education and received degrees in European History from Duke and Stanford. After finally deciding she belonged in music, Louise was pursuing a master’s degree in voice when a severe injury to her vocal cord cut short her singing career. She then returned to her pianistic studies, earning a master’s degree in Accompanying from UC/Santa Barbara and a doctorate in Keyboard Collaborative Arts from USC.
Since that time Louise has become one of Southern California’s most sought-after collaborative pianists, vocal coaches, and voice teachers. In 2001, she joined the music faculty of Pepperdine University, where she teaches voice, diction, and vocal accompanying and serves as Director of the Pepperdine Summer Music Program in Heidelberg, Germany. As a pianist, she has performed with such artists as violinist Gilles Apap, baritone Rod Gilfry, cellist Zuill Bailey, and clarinetist Fred Ormand. Her voice students have appeared with the Houston Grand Opera, the San Antonio Opera, the Heidelberg Opera, Hessisches Staatstheater /Wiesbaden, Meiningen Staatstheater, Virginia Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and at Carnegie Hall.
Louise lives in Camarillo, CA with her husband, Grant Specht, an attorney, and their two sons, Dylan and Shane.