Emmanuel Music Vocalists' Biographies

Gail Abbey, soprano, has performed regularly with many of Boston’s renowned music organizations since coming to the area 25 years ago.  She has been a member of Emmanuel Music’s soprano section since 1986, and has appeared as soloist in their performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion,. John Passion, and B Minor Mass, Handel’s Brockes Passion and Israel in Egypt, and Mozart’s Magic Flute, as well as Bach Cantatas and Schütz and Buxtehude motets.  She is a founding member of Trium, a soprano trio which had its debut at Emmanuel in 1997.  With Trium she was featured in Emmanuel Music’s Schumann Chamber Series in 2006 and has given concerts at Trinity College, Brandeis University and Phillips Exeter Academy.  Ms. Abbey has also soloed, toured and recorded with the Handel & Haydn Society and Boston Baroque.  She has performed as a guest soloist with Spectrum Singers, Jubal’s Lyre, the Cambridge Bach Ensemble and Musicians of the Old Post Road.  Ms. Abbey is a graduate of Westminster Choir College.  She currently teaches voice at Pine Manor College and in her home in Holliston, MA.

Matthew Anderson has been praised for his warm tenor voice and polished musicality he brings to the repertoire of oratorio, opera, and musical theater.

An accomplished interpreter of Baroque and early music, Anderson has twice been a national finalist and prizewinner in the American Bach Society Vocal Competition.  He has appeared as a soloist in Emmanuel Music’s Bach Cantata Series, the Handel & Haydn Society, Back Bay Chorale, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Williamstown Early Music, Musica Maris, and Concord Chorus. Anderson was heard at the Carmel Bach Festival in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and in the title role of Matthew Locke’s The Mask of Orpheus. 

In 2007, Anderson made his Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood Festival debuts as Enoch Snow in Carousel with the Boston Pops conducted by Keith Lockhart. The Berkshire Eagle declared him “vocally stunning” in the production, and the Boston Phoenix praised his “impressive singing” and “lively comic timing.”

Anderson has appeared as a James Collier Apprentice Artist at Des Moines Metro Opera and a member of the Cincinnati Opera Resident Ensemble. Past performances of opera and musical theater include The Music Shop, The Bartered Bride, Orfeo, H.M.S. Pinafore, Sweeney Todd, and Into the Woods. 

Anderson studied Classics at Harvard University and voice at the New England Conservatory.  A native of Kansas, he currently resides in Boston.

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Soprano Roberta Anderson is privileged to have sung for twenty years with Emmanuel Music and Craig Smith. In addition to being a frequent soloist in the Bach Cantata series, she has performed in both the Brahms and Schumann chamber series, and in many of the group’s collaborations with the Mark Morris Dance Company. In addition to her work with Emmanuel Music, she has appeared as soloist with Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Early Music Festival, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Music from Aston Magna, Back Bay Chorale, North Shore Philharmonic, Masterworks Chorale, Cantata Singers, Coro Allegro, Boston Camerata, Ensemble Abendmusik, Musicians of the Old Post Road, and Foundling. Her solo oratorio credits include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion, Magnificat, B Minor Mass, Handel’s Messiah and Israel in Egypt, Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Requiem, and Mass in C Minor, Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers, Faure’s Requiem, Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, Carissimi’s Jephthe, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Stravinsky’s Mass, and Respighi’s Laud to the Nativity. Opera performances have included Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and King Arthur, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Coronation of Poppea.

Charles Blandy is a versatile lyric tenor, equally at home in Mozart and Bach as in the most challenging contemporary music. Opera News and the Boston Globe praised his performances at Tanglewood in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, starring Dawn Upshaw and conducted by Robert Spano. He reprised the latter role at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. With Emmanuel Music, he has sung Tamino in Mozart’s Magic Flute and Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante. In recent years he appeared in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Handel & Haydn Society, and in Offenbach’s La Vie Parisienne and Glück’s Alceste with Opera Boston. Other roles include Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera.

Blandy is a regular performer of works of Bach.  Both the Boston Globe and Phoenix praised his performance as the Evangelist in St. John Passion with Emmanuel Music. In April 2009 he sung the Evangelist in Emmanuel Music’s performance of the St. Matthew Passion. Recently he performed with the Bethlehem Bach Choir in a performance of Bach’s Cantata 131, Aus der Tiefe.

In oratorio, he was a finalist in the 2005 Oratorio Society of New York solo competition, singing in Weill Recital Hall in New York City. He has sung Handel’s Messiah with the Charlotte Symphony and Handel Choir of Baltimore. Other notable performances include Britten’s St. Nicolas, conducted by Raymond Leppard; Britten’s Cantata Misericordium, also with the Charlotte Symphony; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, performed outdoors on the Esplanade in Boston.

He is adept in contemporary music: On four days notice he took over a tricky tenor part in Berio’s Sinfonia under conductor Robert Spano at Tanglewood. His performance of Jorge Liderman’s Song of Songs with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (now a Bridge Records CD) was called “sterling” by the San Francisco Chronicle.  Last year he gave the US premiere of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s song cycle for voice and strings Die Liebenden with Chameleon Arts Ensemble, in a performance the Boston Globe called “marvelous.” He appears on a critically praised Naxos CD of Scott Wheeler’s opera Construction of Boston.

Mr. Blandy possesses a wide repertoire in art song. He has sung works of Francis Poulenc with the Florestan Recital Project, and this year gave a recital of songs by Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Szymanowski at Tufts University.

He teaches in Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program and at Tufts University. He was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was awarded the Grace B. Jackson prize. He received his Master’s Degree from Indiana University, and has studied at the Britten-Pears School in Aldeburgh, England. He is a native of Troy, NY, and graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in religion.

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American soprano Kendra Colton “carried herself like a goddess and sang radiantly and vividly,” according to a New York Times review. Trained in the United States and Europe, she appears regularly in solo recital, with symphony orchestras, and often at major music festivals on both continents.  She has developed a niche for herself in the oratorios and sacred works of Bach, Brahms, Haydn, Handel, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Schubert.  Acclaimed not only for her performances of Handel and Mozart operas, she is also recognized for her skill as an interpreter of contemporary music and has given several premieres.

Ms. Colton has been a featured soloist with such organizations as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Indianapolis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Tanglewood Music Festival, Göttingen Handel Festival, Internationale Bach Akademie Stuttgart, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bach Aria Group, Carmel Bach Festival, Opera Boston, and Boston Lyric Opera.  Among the conductors with whom Ms. Colton has sung are Helmuth Rilling, Bernard Haitink, Sir Neville Marriner, Seiji Ozawa, John Nelson, Christopher Hogwood, Nicholas McGegan, Harry Bicket, Pinchas Zukerman, and Bruno Weil.

Kendra Colton is a graduate of Oberlin College where she currently teaches and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with Master of Music degrees in singing and piano.  Ms. Colton's discography includes recordings for Koch, Chandos, Boston Records, and Stereophile labels. She also recorded two solo CD's - Le Charme, a collection of French art songs and He Brought Me Roses, 25 Lieder by Joseph Marx.  The opera, Griffelkin, by Lukas Foss features Ms. Colton singing the title role.

Soprano, Susan Consoli’s active career in oratorio, opera and recital have led her throughout the United States and abroad.  She has worked under such notable conductors as Craig Smith, John Harbison, Bruno Weil, Grant Llewellyn, Laurence Cummings, John Finney, William Jon Gray, Tom Hall and Ryan Turner as well as director/choreographer Chen Shi-Zheng and choreographer Tero Saarinen.  She has been a soloist in Emmanuel Music’s Bach Cantata Series since 2005 as well as soloist with the Carmel Bach Festival since 2004. 

This season’s solo engagements include: the role of Vera Mater in Charpentier’s Judicium Salomonis with Ensemble Abendmusik, Bach Magnificat and Purcell The Masque from Dioclesian with the Handel & Haydn Society, Handel Salve Regina at Harvard University’s Busch Hall with James David Christie, Handel Dixit Dominus and Jonathan Dove Koethener Messe with Chorus Pro Musica,  Haydn Lord Nelson Mass and Handel Dettigen Te Deum with the Concord Chorale, Bach BWV 14, 21, 23, 99 with Emmanuel Music.  Additionally she will premiere John Harbison’s A Clear Midnight this spring and is a featured soloist with the Handel & Haydn Society next season performing Novello Thy Mighty Force and Schubert Die Forelle.  Susan can be heard on the Handel & Haydn Society recording of All is Bright for Avie Records.  Ms. Consoli is a member of the voice faculty at both Phillips Exeter Academy and Phillips Academy of Andover.

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Mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal is an acclaimed soloist and recitalist whose singing has been praised for her "exquisite vocal color," "musical sensitivity," and "eloquent phrasing" (The Boston Globe). Her repertoire encompasses an astonishing range from 12th century monody through Renaissance songs, Baroque cantatas and oratorios, 18th-20th century art songs and operas, and premieres of new works. She has been a regular soloist in the renowned Bach Cantata series presented by Emmanuel Music since 1984, having performed almost all 200 of Bach's sacred cantatas, as well as appearances in numerous concerts and productions with the organization. She has performed under other acclaimed conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Christopher Hogwood, Paul McCreesh, Bernard Labadie and Roger Norrington. Operatic appearances include leading roles in the operas Albert Herring, Dido and Aeneas, La Clemenza di Tito, Così Fan Tutte, Vanessa, The Rape of Lucretia, and A Winter’s Tale. She has toured the U.S. and Japan in solo recitals and with ensembles such as Tokyo Oratorio Society, Opera Company of Boston, National Chamber Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and the Dallas Bach Society. As a member and Acting Director of Sequentia's women's ensemble Vox Feminae, Ms. Dellal has made numerous recordings of the music of Hildegard von Bingen, and has toured the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Passionate about chamber music, early music, and contemporary music, she performs frequently with Dinosaur Annex, Boston Musica Viva, Ensemble Chaconne, Blue Heron Renaissance Choir, and the Musicians of the Old Post Road. She has recorded for Arabesque Records, Artona, BMG, CRI, Dorian, Meridian, and KOCH International.

Acclaimed for his “exemplary diction and rich baritone voice,” Aaron Engebreth maintains an active solo career in opera, oratorio and recital, and has devoted considerable energy and time to the performance of new music, often collaborating with composers.  He has been featured as a soloist in performances from Sapporo Japan's Kitara Hall to Boston's Symphony Hallto Le Theatre de la Ville in Paris. He gave his debut in Washinton DC's Kennedy Center in 2008 as soloist in Faure's Requiem and Carlyle Sharpe's Proud Music of the Storm.  He has been a guest of the Tanglewood and Ravinia Music Festivals as well as the Portland, San Diego and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras.  Mr. Engebreth has received significant recognition for his interpretation of early music and is a frequent soloist with many of the country’s finest early music organizations including the American Bach Soloists, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Early Music Festival, Miami Bach Society, Boston Baroque, Boston Camerata, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and Musicians of the Old Post Road .  Mr. Engebreth also appeared as a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music from 2002-2008.  Increasingly sought-after as a recording artist, Mr. Engebreth is featured on two operatic recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival and Radio Bremen, both of which have been nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Operatic Recording: the 2007 release of Jean Baptise Lully's Thesee (which is also in nomination for a 2008 Gramophone Award), as well as the 2008 release of Lully's Psyche.  He is featured in recordings of John Deak's The Passion of Scrooge with the Firebird Chamber Ensemble, Lukas Foss' oratorio The Prarie with Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Providence Singers, and he created the role of Jack Matthews in the premiere recording of Eric Sawyer's opera Our American Cousin, again with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.  In addition, Mr. Engebreth can be heard as the Policeman in Lukas Foss' opera Griffelkin on Chandos records, and as a soloist in Conrad Susa's Carols and Lullabyes on the Arsis Label.  He began a multi-disc project this year recording the Complete Songs of Daniel Pinkham with the Florestan Recital Project on Florestan Records.  While on the music faculty of Tufts University, he was twice awarded faculty development grants to study music of the French baroque in Paris.  Mr. Engebreth has also served on the music faculty of the Boston Conservatory and is an artistic director of the Florestan Recital Project.  He lives with his wife, Katherine and their two daughters, in Portland, Maine.

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Mezzo-soprano Katherine Growdon began singing with Emmanuel Music after relocating from San Franicsco to Boston in 2008.  A skilled performer in opera, song, and oratorio, Katherine has appeared with companies on both coasts including the Mark Morris Dance Group, the American Bach Soloists, the Boston Pops, the San Francisco Bach Choir, San Francisco Lyric Opera, Portland Opera, and Berkeley Opera.  The NY Times praised her recent performance as Dido and Sorceress with the Mark Morris Dance Group as “incisively authoritative.” She has been described as a “fiery singing actress,” possessing a “rich, caramel tone” (San Francisco Classical Voice). She has been granted fellowships to Tanglewood, the Carmel Bach Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival.  Katherine received her MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and holds a BA in Comparative Literature from Oberlin College.

Paul Guttry, bass-baritone, has sung at Emmanuel since 1995. He enjoys the variety of opera, oratorio, and a specialization in early music. He has concertized throughout the US and internationally with Sequentia, the Boston Camerata, Chanticleer, and the Ensemble for Early Music. In Boston, he has appeared as soloist with Handel & Haydn, Boston Early Music Festival, Cantata Singers, Boston Cecilia, Cambridge Bach Ensemble, Prism Opera, and Collage. He is a member of Blue Heron, a new Renaissance choir. Paul can be heard on recordings of Medieval music by Sequentia, Kurt Weill’s Johnny Johnson, and French airs de cour with the Boston Camerata, and on recordings of Bach by Emmanuel Music.

Herman Hildebrand, baritone, has performed in opera, concert, and recital throughout Europe and the United States. He has recorded and filmed two controversial operas directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Craig Smith: Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Handel’s Julius Caesar in Egypt. Mr. Hildebrand has performed and recorded with many Boston-based organizations including the Boston Camerata, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, the Handel & Haydn Society, Opera Boston, Aston Magna Foundation, the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Mark Morris Dance Group (NYC). 

William Hite’s reputation as a engaging and expressive artist has led to engagements with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Dresdner Philharmonie, American Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Washington Bach Consort, New York City Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, New York Collegium, National Arts Center Orchestra (Ottawa), Charlotte Symphony, Boston Baroque, Toronto Consort. Emmanuel Music, Tafelmusik and Philharmonia Baroque under the direction of Bernard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, James Levine, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Nicholas McGegan, Christopher Hogwood, Jane Glover, Robert Spano, Grant Llewellyn, Leon Botstein, John Harbison, Craig Smith and Peter Schreier.

Mr. Hite’s upcoming engagements include Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Handel’s Acis and Galatea at the Theater an der Wien and Antiochus und Stratonica by Christoph Graupner at the Boston Early Music Festival.  Recent engagements include his Carnegie Hall debut with Music Sacra under the late Richard Westenburg and his Kennedy Center debut with the Washington Chorus in Haydn’s Paukenmesse as well as appearances with the Boston Symphony in Fidelio, the St. Matthew Passion and Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron, Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the Dresdner Philharmonie, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Vermont Symphony, Britten’s War Requiem at Duke University, King Arthur with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, Bernard Rands’ Canti del sole with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Mattheson’s Boris Goudenow with the Boston Early Music Festival.

The tenor’s operatic credits include the title roles in The Rake’s Progress, Acis and Galatea, Handel’s Jephtha and Belshazzar, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and Cavalli’s L’Ormindo, as well the role of Roderick Usher in the world premiere of the Philip Glass opera The Fall of the House of Usher at the American Repertory Theater and the Kentucky Opera. He performed the role of Orfeo in Peri’s Euridice with the Long Beach Opera and has been a regular at the Boston Early Music Festival in period stagings of Monteverdi and Rossi’s  Orfeo, Cavalli’s Ercole amante and King Arthur.  Additional operatic world premieres include the works of Theodore Antoniou, Ellen Ruehr and Lew Spratlan.

Mr. Hite’s extensive discography now contains over 35 recordings spanning a wide spectrum of musical idioms. He may be heard on recently released recordings in Messiah with Chicago’s Apollo Chorus on the Clarion label and Acis and Galatea on NCA.  On the Koch label he may be heard in the St. John Passion with Emmanuel Music.   He has also recorded the Mozart Requiem with Andrew Parrott for Denon and Handel’s The Triumph of Time and Truth on the Centaur label.  He is featured on numerous award-winning CDs with the Boston Camerata as well as with the medieval ensemble Sequentia.  William Hite has sung in music festivals at Tanglewood, Santa Fe, Monadnock, Banff and Vancouver as well as the Vermont Mozart Festival.  In Europe he has performed at the Athens Festival, Festival Mitte Europa, Academie Musicale in Sainte, Aix-en-Provence and the Holland Early Music Festival.  He is coordinator of the voice faculty at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

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A gifted baritone, Brett Johnson has been firmly established in the musical world of Boston for over twenty years. He appears regularly with the premier ensembles of the city, including Boston Baroque, the Handel & Haydn Society, and Emmanuel Music. Though comfortable in Boston’s rich early music world, he has also done extensive solo work in oratorio and recital. His warm baritone, interpretive maturity, and keen intellect have been appreciated throughout his performing career. Solo engagements have included the Requiems of Brahms, Fauré and Mozart, Charpentier’s In Nativitatem Domini, Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum, Haydn’s Theresienmesse, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Monteverdi’s Orfeo. He has recorded with several chamber ensembles on Telarc International, Harmonia Mundi, and Koch International. He began teaching at Phillips Academy, Andover and MIT, and then for ten years was the senior teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy. Throughout his teaching career, he has maintained a vibrant home studio.

Margaret Johnson has sung with several ensembles in the Boston area, including The Boston Camerata and Cantata Singers. Since 1978 she has sung with Emmanuel Music, which she considers her musical home. She has soloed in Emmanuel Music’s Debussy, Schumann, and Harbison chamber series, and has performed Webern’s Opus 15, 16, and 17 with Emmanuel musicians in Sunday services. She is a founding member of Trium, which had its first concert at Emmanuel in 1997. Margaret is a developmental psychologist.

Tenor Frank Kelley sings regularly with Emmanuel Music, both in the ongoing series which presents the complete Bach cantatas and in special projects, including the complete piano/vocal works of Schumann, Brahms, and Schubert lieder, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, The St. Matthew Passion, Israel in Egypt, and Handel’s Alcina in which he sang the role of Oronte.  He has performed many roles with the Boston Lyric Opera and the San Francisco Opera Company, has appeared at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, The Franfurt Opera and in the Peter Sellars productions of Die Sieben Todsunden, Das Kleine Mahagonny, Cosi fan tutte, and Le nozze di Figaro. In concert performances Mr. Kelley has sung with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's. He has performed medieval and renaissance music with Sequentia, the Boston Camerata, and the Waverly Consort, and he performs baroque music with the Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, Music of the Baroque, and Aston Magna. Mr. Kelley has participated in the Blossom Festival, the Tanglewood Festival, Ravinia Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Pepsico Summerfare, the Nakamichi Festival, the New England Bach Festival, Next Wave Festival, Wexford Festival Opera, and the Boston Early Music Festival. He has recorded for London, Decca, Erato, Harmonia Mundi France, Teldec, Telarc, Koch International, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Arabesque, and Northeastern. He is on the voice faculty of Boston University.

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Baritone David Kravitz has been widely praised for the “power, character” and “resonance and fluency” of his singing (Boston Globe; Opera News), his “brilliantly natural” acting and “perfect comic timing” (Boston Globe; St. Louis Post-Dispatch), his “eloquent” and “superb” diction (Boston Phoenix; Boston Herald), and his “drop-dead musicianship” (Boston Globe) on both the operatic and the concert stages.  Recently he has sung with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Les Troyens under James Levine, and in the St. Matthew Passion under Bernard Haitink.  He has performed as a featured soloist on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Boston's Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall, under conductors Seiji Ozawa, Roger Norrington, Grant Llewellyn, Martin Pearlman, Craig Smith, David Hoose, Gil Rose, and others.  Recent operatic roles range from the title role in Wozzeck to Ko-Ko in The Mikado.  He has appeared with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Boston, and elsewhere.  Mr. Kravitz has presented world and regional premieres of works by composers John Harbison, Andy Vores, Edward Cohen, and George Rochberg, among others, and has recorded for the Koch International Classics and New World labels. 

Mezzo-soprano Thea Lobo has appeared as a soloist under such conductors as Helmut Rilling, Martin Pearlman, Michael Beattie, and Stephen Stubbs, and with such musical organizations as Firebird Ensemble, New Gallery Concert Series, Boston Early Music Festival, Europäisches Musikfest Stuttgart, Brandeis New Music Concerts, Boston Classical Guitar Society, Callithumpian Consort, and Chorus pro Musica. Ms. Lobo is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at Boston University, where she performed the role of Third Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute. She was also recently seen as L'Enfant in MetroWest Opera's production of L'Enfant et les Sortilèges.  Her upcoming engagements include a solo-voice performance of Schütz's rarely heard St. Matthew Passion with Emmanuel Music under the direction of John Harbison for Good Friday, as well as alto soloist in J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion on tour in Japan with Cambridge Concentus, under the direction of Joshua Rifkin.

Miranda Loud, mezzo-soprano, performs as a soloist with several orchestras and choruses in New England, including Foundling in Providence, RI, the Concord Chorale in N.H. and Emmanuel Music led by Acting Director John Harbison.  Last season she made her Baltimore debut as a soloist with the Handel Choir of Baltimore in Messiah. She enjoys premiering and singing new works, and is increasingly sought after for her level of commitment to collaboration and performance. In November 2007 in Portland, Oregon, she premiered the song cycle The Wild Iris, dedicated to her by composer Forrest Pierce. She was awarded an “artist-in-residence” grant in 2006 at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada for her development of a multi-media concert Matins: Reconnecting to Nature and has been a participant in the Songfest program in Malibu, CA for two seasons, where she worked with composers Jake Heggie and Ricky Ian Gordon. She has recorded for the musica omnia label as alto soloist in the recent Publick Musick recording of Bach’s Four Lutheran Masses for which she received a glowing review.

Prior to starting vocal study, Ms. Loud has performed extensively as an organist, harpsichordist, pianist and choral conductor. Last summer she was pianist and Music Director as a member of the American Repertory Theater Company in the Cole Porter Revue in Cambridge, MA in 2008 and has worked as a professional organist for fifteen years in New York City and in suburban Boston. She received her M. Mus. Degree in organ performance and literature from the Eastman School School of Music.

Miranda’s passion for nature, environmental issues and music inspired her to found the Rialto Arts series in Boston (“where nature takes center stage”), which combines environmental stewardship with concert production. The Boston Globe called Rialto Arts “The birth of a new genre…reaching for the tree-tops.” Her latest multi-media performance, Buccaneers of Buzz: Celebrating the Honeybee for film, tap dance and marimba, won a Gold Star Award from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and will be touring in 2009-2010.

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Grammy nominated soloist, Jason McStoots, has performed around the world and throughout the US in the genres of opera, oratorio, recital, and musical theater.  He has been described by critics as “a natural, a believable actor and a first-rate singer,” “a born comic,” “light and bluff, but neither lightweight nor bland, and with exemplary enunciation” and as having “a silken tenor voice” and “sweet, appealing tone.”  Recent appearances include his Japanese solo debut in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion where he sang the part of the Evangelist and arias, the revival of William Kentridge’s production of Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses and for his performance in Handel's Acis and Galatea with the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF). For Acis and Galatea, he was singled out by Thomas Garvey of Hub Review as offering Boston one of it’s best acting performances of 2009 He has appeared with groups around the US including Boston Lyric Opera, Pacific MusicWorks, Boston Camerata, Handel Choir of Baltimore, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, OperaBoston, Tragicomedia, Tanglewood Music Center, Granite State Opera and OperaProvidence. He is a frequent interpreter of the works of J.S. Bach performing regularly as a part of Emmanuel Music’s weekly cantata cycle where he was honored to be the Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson Fellow for the 2007-2008 concert season. In addition to his solo career he is a respected teacher in the Boston area. In 2008 he joined the voice faculty at Brandeis University, in addition his is faculty at the Berkshire Choral Festival. He can be heard on recordings with Blue Heron on the Blue Heron Label and on BEMF's Grammy nominated recording of Lully's Pysché on the CPO label. In coming months he can be heard on recordings of Charpentier and Blow also on the CPO label.

Baritone Mark McSweeney has appeared as soloist with many of the area’s leading ensembles, including the Handel & Haydn Society, the Cantata Singers, Boston Baroque, Musicians of the Old Post Road, and the Boston Camerata. He has been a frequent guest of the New England Bach Festival, has appeared with the Bethlehem Bach Choir, and has had a long association with Emmanuel Music, appearing in the Bach Cantata series as well as in many performances of oratorio, recital, and opera. Mr. McSweeney has been heard in recital frequently in the Boston area, including engagements at the Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard University, and on public radio broadcasts. In the area of contemporary music, he has appeared as Chou en-Lai in Adams’ Nixon in China at Australia’s Adelaide Festival, has appeared with the Minnesota Contemporary Ensemble in Harbison’s Words from Paterson, and has given the Boston premieres of works by leading composers such as Lee Hyla and Peter Lieberson.

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Baritone Nikolas Nackley has been praised by the Boston Globe for his ability to “continually impress with his beautiful voice and acting.”  Equally regarded for his concert and operatic work, Mr. Nackley has enjoyed a thriving young career on stages throughout New England as well as California and abroad.  A proponent of new music, he was recently heard as the Postman in Lee Hoiby’s The Scarf with The New England Chamber Opera Series and was featured as Joe Pitt in the North American Premier of Peter Eötvös’s opera, Angels in America, a joint production of Opera Boston and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. His most recent operatic credits include the role of Demetrius in Festival Opera’s highly praised production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream under Maestro Michael Morgan, the role of Deus in a staging of Charpentier’s dramatic Jesuit Motet, Judicium Salomonis, as well as his Opera Providence debut as Frank in Die Fledermaus.  In 2004 he premiered the role of Andy in Roger Rudenstein’s Grace with the orchestra of Emanuel Music, with whom he also performed the title role in Don Giovanni under the late Craig Smith.  Stage engagements in New England include Granite State Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Intermezzo Opera, The Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and Opera Aperta. Other roles include Papageno, Pangloss, Assan, the Count, Antonio, and Aeneas. 

Mr. Nackley’s solo concert appearances include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Monteverdi’s Vespers with the Carmel Bach Festival, Bach’s St. John Passion with the New Hampshire Master Chorale, Duruflé, Fauré, the Lord Nelson Mass, and Mozart and Michael Haydn Requiems with the Newton Choral Society, Dartmouth Handel Society and the Fine Arts Chorale as well as numerous Messiah’s with orchestras and choruses throughout New England. He was recently heard as the baritone soloist in the Haydn’s Harmonie Messe with the Heritage Chorale under John Finney and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Orchestra of Emanuel Music at Harvard Memorial Church. He has appeared on numerous occasions as a featured soloist with the Handel & Haydn Society at Boston’s Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall.  In 2007 he was selected as the baritone soloist for the Virginia Best Adams vocal fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival.

Gloria Raymond has extensive experience in a broad range of oratorio, opera, song recital, and contemporary music performances in which she has premiered works by John Harbison, Peter Child, Earl Kim, Donald Sur, Charles Fussell, Robert Kyr, and Stephen Paulus. Her music degrees are from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the University of Maine, and she was the winner of the first Maine NATS vocal competition.  She has been a soloist with many ensembles throughout New England, including the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, the Cantata Singers, Collage Contemporary Music Ensemble, Boston Musica Viva, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Bangor Symphony, Portland Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Indian Hill Music, Music Worcester, and the Boston Aria Guild.   She has participated in music festivals with the L.A. Philharmonic Institute, the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, the North Conway Bach Festival, the Saco River Festival, the Berkshire Choral Institute, and the Northwest Bach Festival in Washington. For many years Ms. Raymond has been a member of Emmanuel Music, performing in the weekly Bach Cantata, the Brahms and Schubert chamber series, and in concert performances of operas and oratorios by Schütz, Bach, Handel, Mozart, and Schubert. 

Recent performances include Schubert’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust and Stravinsky’s Les Noces with the Cantata Singers, and Honeggar’s King David with the Masterworks Chorale.

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Hailed for her "deep, honeyed voice" (Graham Watts, Ballet.com Magazine), mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore performs with some of the most celebrated ensembles in North America, including the Handel & Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, The Boston Camerata, Ensemble Très., The Boston Early Music Festival, Aston Magna, New York Collegium, Magnificat and the Mark Morris Dance Group.

A specialist in early music, she also performs opera, oratorio, chamber music and contemporary music.   Solo appearances include Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, alto solos of Messiah with Worcester Chorus, Spanish chamber music with Musicians of the Old Post Road, Shaker music with The Boston Camerata and Tero Saarinen Dance Company, baroque holiday music with Très., and alto solos of Israel in Egypt with The Newton Choral Society, St. John Passion with Masterworks Chorale and Mass in Time of War with Berkshire Concert Choir.  This month, Aston Magna Chamber Series will feature Ms. Rentz-Moore in a chamber music program of Purcell and Handel.

Her recordings include music of J. S. Bach and Cozzolani on the Musica Omnia label, Shaker songs on the Glissando label, baroque holiday selections with Très., Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Aston Magna and choral masterpieces with Handel & Haydn Society on Arie Records.   A recording of Spanish baroque holiday music is forthcoming in late 2008.

Mezzo-soprano Krista River has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society, the Florida Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, Emmanuel Music, the North Carolina Symphony andthe Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque Ensemble. Winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a 2007 Sullivan Foundation grant recipient, her opera roles include Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Annio in La clemenza di Tito, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Anna in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, and Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring. For Ms. River’s New York Recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the New York Times praised her "shimmering voice…with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress.”  Upcoming engagements include the role of Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Harrisburg Symphony and the role of Dido in Dido and Aeneas with Mercury Baroque in Houston. Ms. River began her musical career as a cellist, earning her music degree at St. Olaf College.  She resides in Boston and is a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music’s renowned Bach Cantata Series.

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Hailed as “the real thing” (Cleveland Plain Dealer) and praised for his “elegant style” (Boston Globe), Sumner Thompson is one of today’s most sought-after young baritones. His appearances on the operatic stage include roles in productions from Boston to Copenhagen, including the Boston Early Music Festival’s productions of
Conradi’s Ariadne (2005) and Lully’s Psyché (2007) and several European tours with Contemporary Opera Denmark as Orfeo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. He has performed across North America as a soloist with Concerto Palatino, Tafelmusik, Apollo’s Fire, Les Boreades de Montréal, Les Voix Baroques, and many other ensembles and orchestras of both conventional and early music inclinations. Also a noted recitalist, Mr. Thompson has sung in Stuttgart, Amsterdam, and Regensburg, and at London’s famed Wigmore Hall.

Lynn Torgove, mezzo-soprano, has had an international career as a soloist in many genres of classical music. In addition to being a frequent soloist with the Cantata Singers, Ms. Torgove’s singing engagements have included solo performances with the Boston Camerata, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Opera Boston, the American Repertory Theater, the Saint Louis Symphony, Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Berkshire Choral Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, Masterworks Chorale, Back Bay Chorale and Emmanuel Music. Recently Ms. Torgove sang in ‘Shining Through the Broken Glass’ a concert commemorating the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht in Providence, and with the Zamir Chorale of Boston, the Nigun Ensemble and Koleinu. Increasingly known as a stage director, Ms. Torgove has staged performances with many regional opera companies, choral organizations and music conservatories, including ‘Rake’s Progress’ and this season, Benjmain Britten’s ‘Noye’s Fludde’ for the Cantata Singers and John Harbison’s ‘Full Moon in March’ with Opera Boston. She has been on the opera faculty at New England Conservatory, Boston University Opera Institute, and the Boston Conservatory Vocal and Choral Institute. She is currently on the faculty of the Longy School of Music as well as Hebrew College. Ms. Torgove is finishing her fourth year in the Cantorial Program at Hebrew College.

Susan Trout is known for her versatility in a wide range of repertoire.  She has appeared as an oratorio soloist with the baroque orchestras of Emmanuel Music, Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Cecelia Society, and the Washington Bach Consort, in such works as Handel’s Samson and Saul, Copland’s In the Beginning, Bach’s cantata Gottes Zeit ist die Aller Beste Zeit, the B Minor Mass, and his St. John, and St. Matthew Passions.

Opera engagements include appearances with Red House Opera as Lady Billows in Britten’s Albert Herring, Boston Lyric Opera as Sarah in The Ballad of Baby Doe, and as Mrs. Baines in Boston Lyric’s workshop production of Elmer Gantry.  Ms. Trout has also appeared with Prism Opera, as Vitellia in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, as Miss Jessel in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, and also in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, in the title role.

Ms Trout has been featured with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic performing the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss and the Liebestod of Richard Wagner, and will perform Wagner’s Wesendonk Lieder with them next season.  Ms. Trout has been a member of Emmanuel’s choir since 1987.

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Ryan Turner, tenor, has been a soloist at Emmanuel Music since 1998. He has performed to critical acclaim in oratorio, opera, and recital throughout the U.S. and Europe. Recent seasons have featured solo appearances with the Handel & Haydn Society, Mark Morris Dance Group, Seattle Baroque, Apollo’s Fire, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Boston Baroque, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Baltimore Choral Arts, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Opera Aperta, Ensemble Abendmusik, Boston Camerata, Boston Cecilia, Coro Allegro, and the Handel Society of Dartmouth College.  He has sung under such renowned conductors as Craig Smith, Christopher Hogwood, Jane Glover, Grant Llewellyn, Paul McCreesh, Rinaldo Allessandrini, Bruno Weil, Benjamin Zander, Jeannette Sorrell, John Harbison, Thomas Hall and John Finney.  Mr. Turner’s festival appearances include Tanglewood, Holland Festival Oude Muzieke, the Boston Early Music Festival and the Carmel Bach Festival. Mr. Turner’s discography includes Bach BWV 76 with Emmanuel Music for KOCH, the role of Metagenes in Kapsberger’s Apotheosis with Ensemble Abendmusik for DORIAN and works by Praetorius with Apollo’s Fire on ARSIS.

In addition to his work as a singer, Ryan is an active conductor. He is Director of Choral Activitis at Phillips Exeter Academy and Music Director of the Concord Chorale and Chamber Orchestra. Recent guest conducting engagements include Emmanuel Music, Granite State Symphony, Boston Conservatory, Boston College, Plymouth State University, and the New Hampshire All-State Festival.   He has held voice and conducting faculty positions at Boston College, URI, Plymouth State University, UMass Boston, and the New England Conservatory.

Soprano Kristen Watson, hailed by critics for her “blithe and silvery” tone and “winning stage presence”, performs regularly with Emmanuel Music on their weekly Bach cantata series, and recently appeared in Dido and Aeneas (2nd Woman/2nd Witch) in collaboration with the Mark Morris Dance Group.  She has soloed repeatedly with such groups as the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque, with whom she has made debuts at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Ravinia, and Tanglewood. Last season she made her New York City debut with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, in a program of Bach cantatas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Opera audiences have heard Ms. Watson in productions with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera New England, the Boston University Opera Institute, and Opera Boston, with whom she performed last season in Osvaldo Golijov’s acclaimed new opera Ainadamar (Voice of the Fountain), directed by Peter Sellars.  Other solo performances include the Carmel Bach Festival, Aston Magna Festival, Cactus Pear Music Festival, and the White Mountain Bach Festival; as well as the Boston Pops, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Evansville Philharmonic, New Bedford Symphony, Topeka Symphony, Music Worcester, Pittsburgh Camerata, and Columbus Bach Ensemble.

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Soprano Jayne West has performed with many of the country's leading orchestras and chamber groups, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke, Handel & Haydn Society and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under notable conductors Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Trevor Pinnock, Neeme Järvi, Roberto Abbado, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Christopher Hogwood, Jane Glover, Grant Llewellyn and Keith Lockhart. She has sung at the Edinburgh Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Grant Park Series, Saito Kinen Festival, and with the Brussels National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv, and Boston Lyric Opera. Ms. West has been a member of Emmanuel Music since 1987. Ms. West has recorded for Hyperion, Decca/Argo, MusicMasters, CRI, Koch, Telarc, London Records and Newport Classics. She performs in duet with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson on “Lorraine at Emmanuel” CD on Avie Records and in duet with Don Wilkinson on “Classic American Songs” which is soon to be released. Ms. West is on the faculty at Longy School of Music.

Baritone Dana Whiteside’s solo engagements have included Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; Antonin Dvorak’s Te Deum, Opus 103; Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs as well as the Mass in B minor and St. John Passion of J.S. Bach – John Harbison conducting – and the role of Jeremiah in the Boston premier of Kurt Weill’s The Prophets from The Eternal Road with David Hoose and the Cantata Singers.  Other recent recent performances have included the role of Time in the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s Winter’s Tale with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under the direction of Gil Rose also Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Ryan Turner and the Concord Chorale as well as the baritone soloist roles in the Brahms Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major and his Missa Solemnis at Sanders Theater.

Honoring his passion for art song, he has participated in and offered programs of adventurous repertoire in the Vox Humana Series, as part of the Cantata Singers Chamber Series and at Boston’s French Library/Societe Francaise,  Boston University, and the University of Oregon as well the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in such works as Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39, Samuel Barber’s Despite & Still, Beethoven’s  An die ferne Geliebte, John Musto’s Shadow of the Blues: Songs to Texts of Langston Hughes as well as the Serres Chaudes of Ernest Chausson, and Aaron Copland’s Songs on Texts of Emily Dickinson.  He has also been a participant with the Florestan Recital Project in its exploration of music inspired by the poetry of A.E. Housman.

A New England Conservatory of Music honors graduate, an alumnus of the Tanglewood Vocal Program and past winner of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition, Mr. Whiteside enjoys affiliation with the Cantata Singers, Handel & Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music.   Upcoming performances for this season include Ralph Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs with the Choir of Trinity Church Copley Square and a recital at Boston University exploring music inspired by the poetry and works of William Shakespeare.

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Originally from Los Angeles, tenor Zachary Wilder, is an avid performer of both early music and modern music. In 2007, he made his debut in a trio of roles with the Boston Early Music Festival's production of Lully's Psyché.  Zachary has worked with a number of early music luminaries including Matthew Dirst, Ellen Hargis, Paul O'dette, Albert Ledoux, Antoine Plante and Steven Stubbs, and has performed with the Houston Bach Society, Mercury Baroque and Ars Lyrica Houston, and Ossia New Music Ensemble.

On stage, Mr. Wilder has been seen in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw (Peter Quint), Bolcom’s A Wedding (Donato), Corgliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (Leon), Händel’s Flavio (Ugone), Weill’s Street Scene (Mr. Buchanan), Cimarosa’s A Secret Marriage (Paolino), The Play of Daniel (Prince/Evil Counselor) and Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias (Lacouf).  He has worked with conductors such as Benton Hess, Keith Lockhart, and Brad Lubman.

Mr. Wilder received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in 2006 studying with John Maloy and Robert Swensen, and his Master of Music degree from the University of Houston in 2008 studying with Katherine Ciesinski. He is also a 2008 Tanglewood Vocal Fellow where he premiered  Mad Regales by Elliot Carter and performed the role of Toby Higgins in Weill’s Mahagonny.  Upcoming engagements includeTelemaco/Pisandro in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno D'Ulisse, Renaud in Lully's Armide, and Nutrice in Monteverdi's L'Incorinazione di Poppea.

Baritone Donald Wilkinson enjoys a distinguished career in concert, opera, oratorio, recital and contemporary music, and has appeared throughout the United States and Canada. He made his European debut performing the role of Dionysos in the World premiere of Theodore Antoniou's opera, The Bacchae, at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Since that debut he has appeared in Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, England and Holland. Mr. Wilkinson has performed as soloist with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Hogwood and the Handel & Haydn Society (a U.S. tour of Bach's Missa Brevis in G minor) and the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Evansville, Jacksonville, Springfield (MA), Portland (ME), and Vermont. Since 1984 he has been a soloist in Emmanuel Music's Bach Cantata Series under the direction of Craig Smith. Highly sought after for his interpretations of  Bach, in 2003 he made his debut at the Northwest Bach Festival (Spokane) in Bach's Christmas Oratorio, and Mozart's Requiem under the direction of Gunther Schuller. He has also appeared at the Bach Festivals of Carmel and Philadelphia, and is featured on Emmanuel Music's recordings (Koch International Classics) of Bach's Christmas Cantatas, St. John Passion (1725 version) and Cantatas for the First and Second Sundays After Trinity.  His discography also includes the title role in the internationally acclaimed Johnny Johnson by Kurt Weill on Erato Disques, Angels with the Boston Camerata (Erato), John Harbison's Recordare on Koch International Classics, David Patterson's song cycle Last Words on Albany Records and the recently released The Jesuit Operas with Ensemble Abendmusik on Dorian Recordings. In 1990 he was awarded a fellowship to Tanglewood. Mr. Wilkinson teaches voice at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Phillips Academy in Andover. He also maintains a private studio at his residence in Nahant, MA.

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