Emmanuel Music Vocalists' Biographies

Gail Abbey, soprano, 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, St. John Passion, and Mass in B minor, 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’s 2006 Schumann Chamber Series in and has given concerts at Trinity College, Brandeis University, and Phillips Exeter Academy.  Ms. Abbey has also soloed, toured, and recorded with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, and Cappella Clausura.  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 where she toured with the Westminster Choir, sang in the Spoleto Festival, and soloed with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Zubin Mehta.  She currently teaches voice in her home in Holliston, MA. 

Matthew Anderson has been praised for the warm tenor voice and polished musicality he brings to oratorio, opera, and musical theater. He has appeared at the Aldeburgh Festival as a soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and at the Carmel Bach Festival, where he was featured as a 2010 Virginia Best Adams Fellow and a 2011 festival soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion.  Mr. Anderson has twice won prizes in the American Bach Society Competition, and received second prize in the Oratorio Society of New York Solo Competition.  Recent performances from his varied repertoire include Stravinsky’s Renard at Tanglewood and the Mostly Mozart Festival with the Mark Morris Dance Group; John Harbison’s Winter’s Tale with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project; Haydn’s Creation with Emmanuel Music; Bach’s St. John Passion (Evangelist) at Princeton University, Boston University, and the University of Chicago; several works by Benjamin Britten (Serenade, Saint Nicolas, and Cantata Misericordium); John Austin’s new opera Heloise and Abelard at Harvard University; and Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall. Also recognized as a gifted performer of the American songbook, Mr. Anderson has won high praise for his performances with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops in Carousel (as Mr. Snow), “A Richard Rogers Celebration”, and “An Evening of Cole Porter”.  Mr. Anderson spent two seasons as a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and was a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow with Emmanuel. He studied classics at Harvard and voice at the New England Conservatory.

Soprano Roberta Anderson is privileged to have sung for over 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 recital series, and in many of the group’s collaborations with the Mark Morris Dance Company. In addition to her work with Emmanuel, she has appeared as soloist with Boston Baroque, the Handel and 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, Mass in B minor, 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, and Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Coronation of Poppea.

Charles Blandy has been praised as “unfailingly, tirelessly lyrical” (Boston Globe);  “a versatile tenor with agility, endless breath, and vigorous high notes" (Goldberg Early Music Magazine); and for his “clear, focused, gorgeous tenor voice” (Worcester Telegram and Gazette). He sang the title role in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at Emmanuel Music in Boston, where he has also sung Tamino in Mozart’s Magic Flute and Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante. He recently performed the role of Almaviva in Boston Lyric Opera’s family performances of Barber of Seville. Opera News and the Boston Globe praised his performances as Francis Flute in Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. At Tanglewood, he appeared in the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, starring Dawn Upshaw and conducted by Robert Spano, later reprised at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. He has appeared at Lincoln Center in Mozart's Requiem and Handel's Alexander’s Feast with the National Chorale, and with Emmanuel (Evangelist) in Bach’s St. John Passion and St. Matthew Passion. He has performed Messiah with groups across the US; he has also performed with groups such as the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Cantata Singers, Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque, and the Bloomington Early Music Festival.  In contemporary music, he has performed Berio’s Sinfonia and in the premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, both under conductor Robert Spano at Tanglewood.  Recordings include Jorge Liderman’s Song of Songs with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (Bridge Records), and Scott Wheeler’s opera Construction of Boston (Naxos). He premiered Einojuhani Rautavaara’s song cycle Die Liebenden in the US, which performance the Boston Globe called “marvelous.”  The Globe also profiled his recital of Janacek’s Diary of One Who Disappeared. Reviewer Caldwell Titcomb called his Tufts University recital of works by Rachmaninoff, Liszt, and Szymanowski “one of the most engrossing concerts in ages.” Twice a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Blandy teaches in Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program and at Tufts University and earned a Master’s of Music degree from Indiana University.

Tenor Jonas Budris is a versatile young artist, active on opera and concert stages in Boston. He recently created the role of Brother William in the world premiere of John Austin's opera Heloise and Abelard, and was praised for his "incredible squillo" (Boston Classical Review). He performed as Bastien in Opera Boston's First Night production of Mozart's Bastien & Bastienne; in that company's mainstage productions, he understudied the roles of Fritz in Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, The Officer in Hindemith’s Cardillac, and Don Luigi in Donizetti’s Maria Padilla. He also sang the title role in Bernstein’s Candide with Lowell House Opera at Harvard.  On the concert stage, Mr. Budris was a featured soloist with the Boston University Baroque Orchestra in Handel's Chandos Anthems No. 8 under Martin Pearlman.He joined Boston Baroque for Handel's Messiah and the Handel and Haydn Society for Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Mozart's Coronation Mass. Mr. Budris is an Artist in Residence with the Metropolitan Chorale of Brookline. He sings regularly with Canto Armonico, and he has performed as a soloist and ensemble singer with Aston Magna.  Mr. Budris graduated from Harvard University, where he sang as a Choral Fellow with the University Choir at Memorial Church.

American soprano Kendra Colton “carried herself like a goddess and sang radiantly and vividly,” according to a review in the New York Times.  She has been soloist with major orchestras, ensembles and festivals including the Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Houston Symphony, the National Symphony (Kennedy Center), and many others. She has appeared at the festivals of Tanglewood, Banff, and Ravinia, the Casals Festival, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the Carmel Bach Festival.  Her operatic credits include Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Early Music Festival, International Handel Festival in Göttingen, and four centuries of music in numerous productions for Milwaukee’s Skylight Opera.  Ms. Colton’s solo CDs include Le Charme, a collection of French of songs, and He Brought Me Roses, 25 lieder by Joseph Marx. She has also recorded the title role in Griffelkin by Lukas Foss with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Bach’s St. John Passion and Cantata BWV 133 with Emmanuel Music, where she performs regularly in recitals, oratorios and their weekly Cantata Series.  In addition to her singing career, Ms. Colton teaches at Oberlin College in Ohio.

Soprano Susan Consoli’s active career in oratorio, opera, and recital has taken her throughout the United States and abroad. She has worked under conductors such as Bruno Weil, Grant Llewellyn, Paul Goodwin, Harry Christophers, Laurence Cummings, Odaline (Chachi) de la Martinez, Craig Smith, William Jon Gray, Tom Hall, John Finney and Ryan Turner; as well as with director/choreographer Chen Shi-Zheng and Tero Saarinen. She performed in the Boston premier of John Harbison’s A Clear Midnight.  She has been a soloist with Emmanuel Music since 2004.  Her performances with Boston Camerata together with the Tero Saarinen Dance Company include “Borrowed Light”in Berlin, Hamburg, and Wolfsburg.  Performances in Paris with Boston Camerata include The American Vocalist and Saw ye my hero.  This season’s solo engagements include Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito,  Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Servilia, and Bach’s Mass in B minor with Emmanuel Music, and with the Dessoff Choirs, Mozart’s Coronation Mass with the Handel and Haydn Society, Bach’s BWV 51 Jauchzet Gott with the Newton Choral Society, Willcock’s Anastasis at Boston College under John Finney, and numerous others.  Ms. Consoli was the 2009-2010 Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel.  She appears on the Handel and Haydn Society recording All is Bright (Avie Records).  She is a member of the voice faculty at both Phillips Exeter Academy and Phillips Academy of Andover.

Pamela Dellal, mezzo-soprano, acclaimed soloist and recitalist, has been praised for her "exquisite vocal color," "musical sensitivity," and "eloquent phrasing." She sang the premiere of Harbison’s The Seven Ages in New York, San Francisco, Boston, and London; she debuted at the Kennedy Center under Julian Wachner in Bach’s Mass in B minor, and at Lincoln Center under William Christie in Handel’s Messiah. She has performed under Seiji Ozawa, Christopher Hogwood, Paul McCreesh, Bernard Labadie, and Roger Norrington. She has performed leading roles in Handel’s Alcina, Britten’s Albert Herring and Rape of Lucretia,Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito and Così Fan Tutte,Barber’s Vanessa, and Harbison’s Winter’s Tale. She has performed with the Handel and Haydn Society, Aston Magna, Boston Early Music Festival, Tokyo Oratorio Society, Opera Company of Boston, the National Chamber Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and the Dallas Bach Society, and has appeared in concert in major cities in Europe, the Ut, Australia and Japan.  With Sequentia, Ms. Dellal has made numerous recordings of the music of Hildegard von Bingen, and has toured the US, 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, and the Musicians of the Old Post Road. She has been a regular soloist in Emmanuel’s Bach Cantata Series since 1984, having performed almost all 200 of Bach's sacred cantatas. Ms. Dellal has made over 25 recordings on various labels.

Mezzo-soprano Mary Gerbi is a versatile soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble member whose repertoire ranges from medieval chant to new music premieres. She has been praised for "unleashing superb virtuosic brimstone" (Boston Globe) and for her "earthy tone and crisp diction" (Boston Musical Intelligencer). As an oratorio soloist, her recent performances include Haydn’s Salve Regina and Britten’s Ceremony of Carols with Boston Cecilia, Corigliano’s Fern Hill with the Maryland Choral Society, and Handel’s Judas Maccabeus with the Berkshire Bach Society; this season she makes her solo debuts with both Emmanuel Music and the Handel and Haydn Society. As a performer of baroque opera, she played the title role in Amherst Early Music’s production of Scarlatti’s La Principessa Fedele, and portrayed Elisa in Maria Teresa Agnesi’s Sofonisba with La Donna Musicale. Last season she appeared on the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s concert series performing David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion "with outstanding sensitivity and skill" (Boston Classical Review) as one of "four exquisitely timbred and compatibly voiced singers" (Boston Musical Intelligencer). In high demand as an ensemble member, she sings regularly with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, Yale Choral Artists, and numerous other groups. A skilled interpreter of renaissance and medieval music, Ms. Gerbi is a founding member of Cut Circle, which recently released a double CD of Franco-Flemish polyphony entitled "De Orto and Josquin: Music in the Sistine Chapel around 1490." She has toured internationally with the Liber Ensemble for Early Music and received fellowships from the Fondazione Giorgio Cini and the Vancouver Early Music Programme. Raised in Millbrook, NY, she studied at Boston University and has resided in the Boston area ever since.

Baritone Bradford Gleim enjoys an active singing career devoted to opera, oratorio, song and choral music. Hailed as “someone to watch,” “Gleim’s rich, expressive voice” has been described as “consistently impressive, his restraint only reinforced [by] his vocal charisma.” Gleim has appeared in concert throughout North America and Europe with such ensembles and organizations as The Handel and Haydn Society, Opera Boston, The Hereford Three Choirs Festival, Boston Baroque, The Princeton Singers, Cut Circle, The Connecticut Early Music Festival, The Bermuda Festival, Conspirare, The Santa Fe Desert Chorale, The Boston Secession and the Borromeo String Quartet. When not performing, Bradford Gleim teaches vocal performance at Berklee College of Music.

Bass-baritone Paul Guttry enjoys the variety of opera, oratorio, and a specialization in early music. Paul has performed throughout the USA and internationally with Chanticleer, Sequentia, the Boston Camerata, and New York’s Ensemble for Early Music. Paul has been a member of Emmanuel music since 1996. A founding member of the Renaissance choir Blue Heron, locally he has also appeared as soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, Cantata Singers, Boston Cecilia, Prism Opera, Intermezzo, Boston Revels, Collage, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. This spring he appeared as the Father in Britten's The Prodigal Son with Intermezzo. In addition to Emmanuel's Bach CDs, 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 all the recordings of the Renaissance choir Blue Heron.

Baritone Brett Johnson has been established in Boston’s musical world for over twenty-five years.  He has appeared regularly with Boston’s premiere ensembles, including Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music and the Handel and Haydn Society.  Comfortable in the rich early music world of the city, 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 Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Brahms’s Requiem, Charpentier’s Missa Assumpta est Maria, In Nativitatem Domini, Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum, Haydn’s Theresienmesse, Mozart’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Monteverdi’s Orfeo.  Mr. Johnson has recorded with chamber ensembles on Telarc International, Harmonia Mundi, and Koch International.  He recently completed a recording project of David Walther’s new opera, Edward II.  In addition to performing, Mr. Johnson is a respected teacher of voice, and composer of a cappella works for chorus.  He has a large studio in the Boston area, and has taught at several of the area’s finest institutions. Mr. Johnson's compositions have been performed by Emmanuel Music and The Orpheus Singers.  Mr. Johnson also served for six years as the Chair of the North Reading Cultural Council.

Soprano Margaret Johnson has sung with several ensembles in the Boston area as both a soloist and chorister, including The Boston Camerata, Cantata Singers, and Orpheus Singers. Since 1978 she has sung with Emmanuel Music, which she considers her musical home. She has soloed in Emmanuel’s Debussy, Schumann, and Harbison chamber series,  performed Webern’s Op. 15, 16, and 17 with Emmanuel musicians in Sunday services, and has twice appeared as one of the three boys in Emmanuel’s  performances of Mozart’s Magic Flute. She is a founding member of Trium, a soprano trio which held its first concert at Emmanuel in 1997. Margaret is a developmental psychologist.

Frank Kelley sings throughout North America and Europe.  He has performed with the Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Florentine Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, and the San Francisco Opera Company. He has appeared at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), the Theatre de la Monnaie (Brussels), The Frankfurt Opera, Opera de Monte Carlo, and in the Peter Sellars productions of Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünden, Das Kleine Mahagonny, and Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro. The Mozart operas, broadcast on PBS's "Great Performances,” are available on London DVD, as is Die Sieben Todsünden.  Mr.Kelley performed the role of Eddie Fislinger in Robert Aldridge’s Grammy-winning recording of Elmer Gantry.  In concert performances, Mr. Kelley has sung with the Boston Symphony, Cleveland, Chicago Symphony,  and St. Paul Chamber orchestras as well as the National Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's.  He has performed medieval and Renaissance music with Sequentia, the Boston Camerata, and the Waverly Consort, and with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, Music of the Baroque, and Aston Magna.  Mr. Kelley has participated in numerous festivals, including the Tanglewood, Ravinia, Marlboro Music, Nakamichi, Next Wave, and Boston Early Music as well as the Wexford Festival Opera and Pepsico Summerfare.  He has recorded for various prominent classical labels.  Mr. Kelley sings regularly with Emmanuel, both in the Bach Canata Series and in special projects, including Schumann, Brahms, and Schubert lieder series, and many operas. Most recently, Mr. Kelley performed  with pianist Russell Sherman the song cycles Die Schöne Müllerin (Schubert) and Dichterliebe (Schumann).

Baritone David Kravitz has been hailed for his "large, multi-layered" and "sumptuously flexible" voice, his "power and eloquence," his "deeply considered acting" and "confident stage presence," his "drop-dead musicianship," and his "deep understanding of the text."  He has sung with numerous operas, including New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera Boston, and the Chicago Opera Theater.  Opera engagements in 2012-13 include the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol, Boston Lyric Opera in MacMillan’s Clemency, Boston Baroque in Pergolesi’s La serva padrona, and Emmanuel Music as Nick Carraway in Harbison’s The Great Gatsby.  A versatile concert artist, Mr. Kravitz received raves for his "resolute power and total connection" (Opera News) in Bach's St. Matthew Passion with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.  Recent concert engagements included the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, Boston Baroque, and many appearances in Emmanuel’s Bach Cantata Series. Concert engagements in 2012-13 include Ravel’s Chansons Madécasses and Poulenc’s Le Bal Masqué with the Boston Chamber Music Society. New music engagements have included performances with the Collage New Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Orchestra 2001, Boston Musica Viva, and the Borromeo String Quartet.  Four of Mr. Kravitz’s performances are scheduled for release on CD.  Before devoting himself full-time to a career in music, Mr. Kravitz had a career in the law that included clerkships with US Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer. He later served as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Governor of Massachusetts.

Dubbed "excellent", "impeccable", "limpidly beautiful", "stunning," and "Boston's best", mezzo-soprano Thea Lobo has appeared under conductors Harry Christophers, Simon Carrington, Martin Pearlman and Helmut Rilling, and has been featured by the Handel & Haydn Society, Carmel Bach Festival, Firebird Ensemble, Boston Cecilia, The Bermuda Festival, and Europäisches Musikfest Stuttgart.  In 2009 Ms. Lobo toured Japan performing Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Cambridge Concentus under the direction of Joshua Rifkin.  She performed the roles of Orgando in Handel's Amadigi with Boston Baroque, Third Lady in The Magic Flute with the Boston University Opera Institute, L'Enfant in L'Enfant et les Sortilèges with MetroWest Opera, and covered the role of narrator, Xiao Qing, for the world premiere of Zhou Long's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera, Madame White Snake, with Opera Boston.  A proponent of new music, she has worked as a soloist under the direction of composers Steve Reich, Howard Frazin, Fred Lerdahl and Christian Wolff.  Ms. Lobo was a prizewinner at the Bach Vocal Competition for American Singers, a grant-recipient of the Julian Autrey Song Foundation, a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow for Emmanuel Music, an Adams Fellow for the Carmel Bach Festival, and a featured recitalist at the Boston Portuguese Festival with tenor Zachary Wilder.  During the 2012-13 season, Thea Lobo appears with Emmanuel Music, Callithumpian Consort, Tucson Chamber Artists, Boston Baroque, Musica Sacra, Cambridge Concentus, and the Boston Early Music Festival.

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Henry Lussier has been a freelance singer in the Boston area for over three decades.  He has sung with Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, Schola Cantorum, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. He has performed as a solo artist in opera, oratorio, and recital. Mr. Lussier is also a seasoned arts marketing professional, currently at The Lyric Stage Company of Boston and previously with the American Repertory Theatre.

 

 

Jason McStoots, tenor, has performed around the world and throughout the US in opera, oratorio, and recital.  He has been described by critics as “a natural, a believable actor and a first-rate singer,” “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 a Japanese tour of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and his European debut in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Bach Ensemble in Belgium, both under the direction of Joshua Rifkin; Monteverdi’s The Return of Ulysses and 1610 Vespers in Seattle under Stephen Stubbs’ direction; and Handel's Acis and Galatea with the Boston Early Music Festival.  He has appeared with groups such as the Boston Lyric Opera, Pacific MusicWorks, Boston Camerata, the Handel Choir of Baltimore, the New Haven Symphony, Tragicomedia, and the Tanglewood Music Center. He can be heard on recordings with Blue Heron, Cut Circle, and, the Handel and Haydn Society,  as well as on the Boston Early Music Festival’s Grammy-nominated recording of Lully's Pysché and on its release of works of Charpentier and John Blow on the CPO label. McStoots is also a voice teacher and up-and-coming stage director.  He teaches at Brandeis University where he recently revitalized the dormant opera workshop project.  He has staged productions of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Jaylyn Olivo, soprano, can hardly remember a time when she did not sing with some church choir or other. She has sung with Emmanuel Music and Cantata Singers since 1984 and has recently become a member of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus. She served on the Vestry of Emmanuel Church, as both a member and clerk; was clerk and vice president of the Emmanuel Music board for many years; and was the founding editor of Voices.  She has recently retired as a medical editor and co-founder of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Editorial Service. 

 

Hailed for her "deep, radiant, clear tone" (Early Music America) and "lustrous" singing (The Boston Globe), mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore performs with some of the most celebrated ensembles in North America, including Emmanuel Music, Aston Magna, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel & Haydn Society, The Boston Camerata, New York Collegium and Magnificat.  She has also worked with esteemed Boston-area groups such as Chorus Pro Musica, the Newton Choral Society, Masterworks Chorale, Back Bay Chorale, Coro Allegro, New Bedford Symphony, Harvard University Choir, Pro Arte Orchestra, Ensemble Très. and Boston Cecilia. Specializing in early music, Ms. Rentz-Moore also performs opera, oratorio, and chamber music of various eras.  In addition to her appearances with the Emmanuel Music this year, Ms. Rentz-Moore’s recent performances include Puer Natus Est, The Harvest and Borrowed Light with The Boston Camerata, Dvorak’s Mass in D with the Candlelight Choir,  Mozart’s Requiem with Berkshire Concert Choir and Harvard University Choirs, Messiah with the New Bedford Symphony, BWV 182 with the Newton Choral Society, Jeptha with the Sounds of Stow and Beethoven’s Mass in C with Gunther Schuller and the Northwest Bach Festival. Her recordings include music of Cozzolani and Bach on the Musica Omnia label, Shaker songs (Glissando), Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Aston Magna (Centaur) and Spanish baroque holiday music (Meridian).  In 2010, she recorded the critically-acclaimed The Rose of Sharon (early American music with Ensemble Phoenix Munich) for Harmonia Mundi.

Mezzo-soprano Krista River has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, the Handel and 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, her opera roles include Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas; a number of Mozart roles including Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Annio in La clemenza di Tito, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni; Rosina in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Anna in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, and Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring. The New York Times, in its review of her Carnegie Hall debut, praised her "shimmering voice…with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress.”  Recent performances include appearances with Boston Musica Viva, Serenata of Santa Fe, Boston Chamber Music Society, and Respighi’s Il Tramonto with the Ciompi Quartet in Durham, NC.  Ms. River began her musical career as a cellist, earning her music degree at St. Olaf College.  She resides in Cambridge, MA and is a regular soloist with Emmanuel’s Bach Cantata Series.

Margot Rood, hailed for her vocal "luminosity" by The New York Times, can be heard performing a wide range of repertoire. Most recently, Ms. Rood performed Johanna in Sweeney Todd with St. Petersburg Opera, Ramiro in Helios Early Opera’s production of Cavalli’s Artemisia, and performed as soloist in Purcell’s The Indian Queen with Handel and Haydn Society. Other recent appeareances included her debut with Boston Modern Orchestra Project performing as soloist in Kati Agocs' Vessel and as soprano evangelist in Arvo Pärt's Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem, as Despina in Cosi fan tutte with Green Mountain Opera and singing the world premiere of Christopher Trapani’s Past All Deceiving in New York City with Argento Ensemble. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in the world premiere of Shawn Jaeger’s Letters Made with Gold, under the direction of Dawn Upshaw, and her Boston Symphony Hall debut as soloist in Handel’s Israel in Egypt with conductor Harry Christophers. In addition to her solo work, Ms. Rood performs regularly with top ensembles around the country including Miami-based ensemble Seraphic Fire, Tucson Chamber Artists, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Handel and Haydn Society, and Lorelei Ensemble. Engagements in 2013-2014 include singing the role of Emily in Rorem's Our Town at Monadnock Music Festival in New Hampshire, as soloist in Mozart's C Minor Mass with Tucson Chamber Artists, and as soloist in Bach's B Minor Mass and Vivaldi's Gloria with Handel and Haydn Society.

Bobbie Steinbach is a longtime member of Boston’s very special theatre community, working as an actor, a director and a teacher.  During the 2012-13 season she appeared in Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s Pericles as the Bawd, Stoneham Theatre’s It’s A Wonderful Life as Mrs. Potter, in the Lionel Barry role, and CentaStage’s The Fakus: A Noir (IRNE award winner for Best New Play) as con woman extraordinaire Mrs. Joseph Patrick Paul Costello. She recently directed Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Macbeth for Shakespeare Now!. As an Actors’ Shakespeare Project Founding Member/Resident Actor, she has appeared in thirteen plays in the canon, including Richard III, Twelfth Night, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Othello, Timon of Athens, Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2, Julius Caesar and Troilus and Cressida. Regional performances include A Little Night Music with Michigan Opera Theatre; the Boston Pops at Boston Symphony Hall and Tanglewood; Huntington Theater Company’s Dead End, The Rose Tattoo and The Corn is Green; New Repertory Theater’sCollected Stories, (IRNE Award Best Actress/Elliot Norton Nomination-Outstanding Actress),The Clean House  (Elliot Norton Award- Best Production), Romeo and Juliet, A Girl’s War (IRNE Award-Best Actress), The Waverly Gallery and Stonewall Jackson’s House  (Elliot Norton Award-Outstanding Actress); Lyric Stage Company’s Follies, The Importance of Being Ernest, Arms and the Man, A Little Night Music, Spitfire Grill, Assassins, and Over the River and Through the Woods (Elliot Norton Award-Outstanding Actress); Boston Playwrights’ Theater’s Deported/a dream play, A Girl’s War and Sailing Down the Amazon (Elliot Norton Award-Outstanding Actress); Speakeasy Stage Company’s Anna in the Tropics;Stoneham Theatre’s Rimers of Eldritch, A Prayer For Owen Meany, and Much Ado About Broadway; Christmas Revels at Sanders Theatre; Boston TheatreWorks’ Our Town and Coyote on a Fence; and Merrimack Repertory’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Christmas Carol, and Ring Round the Moon. Bobbie will be co-directing Romeo and Juliet for Actors’ Shakespeare Project’s 10th anniversary season, opening October 2013 at the Strand Theatre. When she is not acting or directing, she offers private audition coaching. Her husband Bob is her best scene partner, always.  Bobbiesteinbach.com

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 Wigmore Hall.

Described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a dignified and beautiful singer, baritone Paul Max Tipton enjoys an active career in opera, oratorio, and chamber music and has performed and recorded throughout the United States. Mr. Tipton’s repertoire ranges from Schütz and Monteverdi to Britten and Bolcom, with his interpretations of the Bach Passions being acclaimed in particular for their strength and sensitivity. His strong commitment to lieder and the art of the song recital has led to his programming being lauded for its unique sense of story. Recent and upcoming performances include Britten’s War Requiem, Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610, the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Frank Martin’s Sechs Monologe aus Jedermann.  Mr. Tipton has enjoyed collaborations with artists and conductors including Masaaki Suzuki, Helmuth Rilling, Nicholas McGegan, Ton Koopman, Leonard Slatkin, Ted Taylor, Paul Hillier, Craig Hella Johnson, Ricky Ian Gordon, Simon Carrington, and Martin Katz. Recent engagements include performances with the symphonies of San Antonio, Grand Rapids, Lincoln, and Stamford, in addition to appearances with the Yale Camerata, New Trinity Baroque, the Rose Ensemble, Seraphic Fire, Ensemble Florilege, the Yale Collegium Players, Lyra Baroque, Conspirare, and Oregon Bach Festival. Mr. Tipton studied in the oratorio and early music program at the Yale University Institute of Sacred Music and was mentored by tenor James Taylor. He also studied at the University of Michigan School of Music under tenor George Shirley and mezzo-soprano Luretta Bybee. For more information, please visit:  paulmaxtipton.com

Lynn Torgove, a long time member of Emmanuel Music is well known to Boston audiences as a singer and director.  She has sung many of Mr. Harbison’s works, including his song cycle North and South, and as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Four Psalms on the Cantata Singers recording. Most recently she sang in Aston Magna’s 40th Anniversary Concert, performing the roles of the ‘Sorceress’ in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and ‘Truth’ in Handel’s oratorio The Triumph of Time and Truth in Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood. She has been a featured soloist with the Cantata Singers, Opera Boston, St. Louis Symphony, the Portland Symphony, and the Tallahassee Symphony.  Ms. Torgove has toured internationally with the Boston Camerata and can be heard on their recording The Sacred Bridge on the Erato label.  As a stage director, Ms. Torgove has directed Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors  for MIT,  Stravinsky’s  The Rake’s Progress, Britten’s The Little Sweep, Hans Krása’s  opera Brundibár, A Kurt Weill Cabaret, and Britten’s Noye’s Fludde  for the Cantata Singers, as well as John Harbison’s  Full Moon in March and Lucas Foss’ Griffelkin with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.   She has been on the faculty of the Opera Institute at Boston University, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, and the Walnut Hill School for the Arts. She currently teaches at the Longy School of Music and Hebrew College.  Ms. Torgove recently received her Masters in Jewish Studies and was ordained as a Cantor in June 2012 from Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts.

Soprano Teresa Wakim has enjoyed wide acclaim for her performances of opera, oratorio, and chamber music. Praised for her “gorgeous, profoundly expressive instrument” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), and possessing a voice of “extraordinary suppleness and beauty” (The New York Times), she enjoys an internationally successful career performing and recording music from the Renaissance to the freshly-composed, and is perhaps best known as “a fine baroque stylist” (The Miami Herald). Wakim has performed as soloist under many renowned early music specialists, including Ton Koopman, Harry Christophers, Nicolas McGegan, Roger Norrington, Laurence Cummings, Martin Pearlman, Alex Weimann, Paul O’Dette, Stephen Stubbs, and Jeannette Sorrell. A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Boston University's College of Fine Arts, she recently won first prize in the Internationaler Solistenwettbewerb für Alte Musik in Austria and was named Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music. Noted engagements include Bach’s Mass in B minor and St. John Passion with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra in the US and Europe, Bach’s Wedding Cantata and Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer with The Cleveland Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the San Antonio Symphony, Pamina in Mozart’s Magic Flute with Apollo’s Fire, his Coronation Mass with the Handel and Haydn Society, and a title role in Handel's Acis and Galatea with the Boston Early Music Festival.  Ms. Wakim can be heard as a featured soloist on four Grammy-nominated recordings with the Boston Early Music Festival and Seraphic Fire. More information at www.teresawakim.com

Soprano Kristen Watson, hailed by critics for her “blithe and silvery” tone and “winning stage presence”, has made solo appearances with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mark Morris Dance Group, American Classical Orchestra, Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque at such venues as Walt Disney Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Boston’s Symphony Hall. A former Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellowship recipient, Ms. Watson recently appeared as Anne Trulove in Emmanuel Music’s production of The Rake’s Progress. Praised for her “keen musicianship, agility and seamless control,” Ms. Watson has been recognized by the Concert Artists Guild, Oratorio Society of New York, Joy in Singing, American Bach Society, and Louisville Bach Society competitions. Opera audiences have heard her in productions with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Intermezzo Opera, Opera Providence, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh and the Boston University Opera Institute in such roles as Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Adele in Die Fledermaus. A versatile crossover artist, she has also performed frequently with the Boston Pops in programs ranging from Mozart to Richard Rodgers. Additional solo performances include the Boston Early Music Festival, Carmel Bach Festival, Aston Magna Festival, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic, Topeka Symphony, Gulf Coast Symphony, Pittsburgh Camerata, Walden Chamber Players, and Musicians of the Old Post Road. 

Soprano Brenna Wells is garnering attention for her "engaging" and “captivating” performances. Her operatic roles include La Poesie and La Paix in Les Arts Florissants, Galatea in Acis and Galatea, Venus in L’Europe Galante, and she was Première Nymphe de l’Acheron in the Boston Early Music Festival’s production and Grammy-nominated recording of Lully’s Psyché. Ms. Wells has sung and recorded with such acclaimed ensembles as the BEMF Orchestra, Blue Heron, Britten-Pears Baroque Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Opera Boston, L’Académie, and the Handel and Haydn Society. She has appeared in many festivals world-wide including the London Handel Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Amherst Early Music Festival, BBC Proms and in both 2008 and 2009, she was selected to perform in the Early Music Seminars at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy. Highlights from recent seasons include her soloist debut at Symphony Hall under the direction of Harry Christophers, appearances as the First Witch Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and La Musique in Charpentier's Les Plaisirs de Versailles. She performed in the Yale Choral Artists' inaugural season, under the direction of William Christie and as the soloist in Couperin’s Leçons de Ténèbres with the Austin based vocal group, Ensemble VIII.  The 2012-2013 season includes solo appearances with L'Academie, Exsultemus, Ensemble VIII, The Handel and Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, Musica Sacra, as well as soloist debuts with Boston Baroque and Boston Cecilia. Miss Wells returns as a BEMF Vocal Ensemble member in their Chamber Opera productions of Charpentier's La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers and La Couronne de Fleurs, reprising the roles of Enone and Amaranthe in the BEMF Festival and Exhibition and Rockport Music Festival in June, 2013.

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, the Handel and Haydn Society, and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under 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  the “Lorraine at Emmanuel” CD on Avie Records and in duet with Don Wilkinson on “Classic American Songs”. Ms. West is on the faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College, and is Community Connections Coordinator for Emmanuel Music.

Baritone Dana Whiteside’s engagements have included performances of Bach’s Cantata BWV 4 and Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum with the Salisbury Singers/Bach Consort; Handel’s Alexander’s Feast; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana; Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs; and Bach’s Mass in B minor and St. John Passion (under John Harbison). Additional roles have included Jeremiah in the Boston premier of Weill’s The Prophets from The Eternal Road with David Hoose and the Cantata Singers; the role of Time in the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s Winter’s Tale with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under Gil Rose; and soloist roles in the Brahms Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major and Missa Solemnis, and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with Emmanuel Music.  Passionate about art song, Mr. Whiteside enjoys performing an adventurous repertoire and has offered recitals in the Vox Humana Series; with the Cantata Singers Chamber Series; Boston’s French Library/Societe Francaise; Babson College; the University of Oregon; and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 39; Barber’s Despite & Still; Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte; Musto’s Shadow of the Blues: Songs to Texts of Langston Hughes; Chausson’s Serres Chaudes; and Copland’s Songs on Texts of Emily Dickinson.  Mr. Whiteside participated in the Florestan Recital Project’s exploration of music inspired by the poetry of A.E. Housman. Recent engagements have also included performances with the MIT Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and a recital of Shakepeare-inspired songs at Boston University.  An Emmanuel Music vocal ensemble member and frequent soloist in the its Bach Cantata Series, upcoming solo performances this season also include the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby with Emmanuel Music, Frank Martin’s Et La Vie L’Emporta with the Cantata Singers and a song recital celebrating Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc and Gabriel Faure for the French Historical Society.

Described as possessing a “remarkably clear, flexible lyric tenor,” and a “radiant tone, Zachary Wilder is a sought-after performer on the operatic and concert stage. He has performed with ensembles including Apollo’s Fire, Ars Lyrica Houston, Back Bay Chorale, Blue Heron, Boston Early Music Festival, Cappella Mediterranea, Ensemble Médical de Munich, Emmanuel Music, A Far Cry, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Les Ombres. He debuted in Europe with Mercury Baroque in Lully’s Armide at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers.  In 2011 he performed as Coridon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea at Festival D’Aix en Provence and at La Fenice in Venice.  Mr. Wilder was a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music, a Gerdine Young Artist at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Adams Vocal Masterclass Fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival, and a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow. He can be heard on BEMF’s Grammy-nominated recording of Lully's Psyché, and on their recordings of Charpentier's Actéon and John Blow's Venus and Adonis (CPO).  Performance highlights include many Handel roles: Grimoaldo in Rodelinda, San Giovanni in La Resurrezione,  and Mordecai in Esther. Other roles include Telemaco/Pisandro in Monteverdi's Il Ritorno D'Ulisse and Vespers of 1610; Haydn's Creation and Seasons, the Evangelist in Bach's St. John’s Passion and St. Matthew Passion, Charpentier's Te Deum, Mozart's Requiem, and Mercurio in Zamponi's Ulisse nell'Isola di Circé, to be released on Ricercar. He will be joining Le Jardin des Voix on tour in 2013, and will play Osman in BEMF’s production of Handel's Almira.  More information can be found at http://www.zacharywilder.com

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 and 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 famed Bach Cantata Series, under the direction of the late Craig Smith, John Harbison, and presently Ryan Turner.  He celebrated his 25th Anniversary with  Emmanuel Music in 2009.  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 and is now a frequent guest artist for the festival. 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 1st and 2nd Sundays after Trinity. His Discography also includes the role of President Abraham Lincoln in the World Premiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s Our American Cousin on BMOP Sound, the title role on 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 and Phillips Academy, Andover. He also maintains a private studio at his residence in Nahant, Massachusetts.