Vocalists

The Dodworth Saxhorn Band is fortunate to have five fine vocalists, Carol Ambrogio Wood, Leah Dexter, Lori Gould, Ted Badgerow, and Marcus LaPratt to help it bring the musical past to life. The DSB uses two vocalists, one female and one male, for a given concert. The vocalists sing, dance, and provide the stories throughout the concerts.

The DSB is very unique in that they teach about 19th century life and history while providing wonderful 19th century music on authentic period instruments. This is truly a one of a kind musical group. See below for more information about these five talented individuals.

Carol Ambrogio Wood

Soprano Carol Ambrogio Wood is thrilled to be a new member of the Dodworth Saxhorn Band.  She comes to the Band with a wealth of musical and theatrical experience including the title role in Seymor Barab’s Snow White, Sam in Green Eggs and Ham, (both with the Great Lakes Lyric Opera) and the role of Scent-of-Lilies in The Rose of Persia with the New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players (NYGASP).  In 2009, she was heard in recital as part of Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church’s Music Series and was a featured soloist in Detroit’s very own bal de Versailles, where she sang a varied Baroque repertoire for the L’Alliance de Francaise de Detroit.

During her years in New York City, Carol was heard on the radio, on the Internet, in the New York Film Festival, in recordings, and with the Trinity Wall Street Choir on Good Morning America.  She has been a featured soloist in many ensembles, singing music from Bach to Schöenberg.  Carol has also premiered new music written expressly for her by composer Matthew Pittsinger.  She can be heard on the Trinity Choir and Rebel Orchestra’s 8-disc compilation of Haydn’s Complete Masses and singing Ave Maria on Joshua Bell’s recording The Voice of the Violin.

Carol received her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Wayne State University and will pursue her Master’s degree in Vocal Performance at Oakland University this fall.  In addition, she is a professional member of Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian’s Chancel Choir and the Michigan Opera Theatre chorus.  Carol continues to be a freelance singer around the Metropolitan Detroit area and maintains a private voice and piano studio.

Leah Dexter

American mezzo-soprano Leah Dexter is a performer of broad musical experience.  Having spent years studying violin and ballet, she went on to earn a Bachelor and Master of Music from the University of Michigan, from which she received the Willis Patterson Diversity Award.  Leah has performed opera roles with companies including the Brevard Music Center, Toledo Opera, Motor City Lyric Opera, New Opera Festival of Rome, Michigan Opera Theatre, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis among others.  She performed the role of Annie in Porgy and Bess with New York Harlem Productions tour of Italy, Germany and Spain this past summer and will rejoin the company for further European performances in the spring.  Concert and oratorio engagements this season include Handel’s Messiah with First Presbyterian Church of Northville and Let My People Go with Rackham Symphony Choir.  An avid recitalist, Leah has performed at Christ Church Cranbrook, and several recitals, including “Songs and Sonnets of Americas,” a recital of American, Latin and South American music.  This program she performed at both Stanford University and Eastern Michigan University this past fall with her collaborator Kathryn Goodson.  Next, she will travel to Chicago in January to perform at the Cultural Arts Center’s Fazioli Salon Recital Series with a radio broadcast on WFMT.  Leah continues to perform often with Michigan Opera Theatre and has recently performed the roles of Handmaiden in Turandot and a Bridesmaid in Le nozze di Figaro.  In the spring of 2008, Leah will sing the roles of Suzy & Lolette in La Rondine and Annina in La Traviata.

Lori Gould

Lori Gould decided she wanted be a singer while walking home from school, sometime in her 6th year of life.  Performing all through junior and High School in a professional song and dance group, she went on to major in Music Theatre at ASU.  She was the Soprano Soloist at Paradise Valley Methodist Church in Arizona for six years and substitute Director of the choir for four. In college and out she was a member of tour choirs (and soloist) that traveled to England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Luxemburg and Brussels.    She has been involved in the University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society for over 16 years and, although she is a soprano, she has played many of the mezzo “funny old lady roles” including, Buttercup, Cousin Hebe,  Lady Sangazure, Lady Jane, Dame Hannah, and the Duchess of Plaza-Toro.  She sang as the Soprano Soloist in the First United Methodist Church of Ann Arbor Michigan for eight years.  She can be found on occasion singing in retirement homes and assisted living communities.  Lori is a member of Mu Phi Epsilon, a professional Musicians Fraternity. She has sung with the Dodworth Saxhorn band since the spring of 2007.

Lori’s “day job” is working as the Student Services Coordinator at the College of LS&A at the University of Michigan. She is also a jeweler, and accomplished cook (so say all those whom she has fed!) and sometime caterer.

Ted Badgerow

As vocalist for the DSB, Ted Badgerow has enjoyed a decade with the band -- especially the many unique experiences encountered in traveling to and from hundreds of concerts.  He performs frequently as the Stroller Extraordinaire, and with the popular duo Strolling Serenade.  Ted also sings with the River Raisin Ragtime Revue, and is vocal soloist on the ensemble’s acclaimed Ragtime Detroit CD as well as the DSB’s Home Sweet Home.  He considers himself blessed to sing with two of America’s finest period ensembles.  A trained classical guitarist, Ted directs a church choir and has acted in or directed countless theatrical productions.  He sings and plays the guitar, fife, harmonica, flute, banjo and pennywhistle for educational programs, workshops on 19th-century music, parties of all kinds, farmers’ markets, weddings, funerals, birthday parties, hayrides, and holiday celebrations.  A member of the Ann Arbor Federation of Musicians, Ted began singing in restaurants professionally in 1971.  You may hear him as the Caroler Extraordinaire in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti each December, or with his soprano partner Nancy J. Daly caroling in Greenfield Village.

After many years as a prizewinning designer and installer of ceramic tile and marble, Ted now works as a personal chef in Ann Arbor.  In 1981 he established Michigan’s first modern microbrewery, serving as president, CEO, brewmaster, and assistant bottlewasher.  Ted enjoys spending time with his wife Kathy and their children, pedaling to the end of the pavement wherever the DSB is touring, barbequing and baking pizzas for the band, and jumping into the Great Lakes every chance he gets.  

Marcus LaPratt

Marcus LaPratt has music degrees from Albion College and the University of Florida.  He has taught music in both private and public schools. And in 2002 he founded the non-profit organization "Singers Of United Lands" (www.singersofunitedlands.org) which he considers his full-time work. This organization combines Marcus' passion for intercultural relationship-building, vocal music, and education. Marcus has recently performed at Tipping Point Theatre (Northville), Michigan Opera Theatre (Detroit), and at Greenfield Village (Dearborn).  Since 2008 he has taught in the music department at Spring Arbor University.  And he is Minister of Music at Dearborn First United Methodist Church.  Marcus enjoys traveling internationally (he's been to 31 countries).  He and his wife Sylvia have one child, daughter Lina, born in May 2009.  You can find Marcus in the 2009 Guinness Book of World Records (tm) as the holder of the record "Longest Singing Marathon by an Individual"- 75 Hours!