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Hailed as “powerfully expressive” (Boston Classical Review) and an “effervescent” conductor of “finesse” (Boston Globe) Ryan Turner stands alone for his masterful interpretations of Bach, Britten, Mendelssohn, and Harbison. Now in his 16th season as Artistic Director of Emmanuel Music in Boston, Mr. Turner has established himself as a sterling conductor and innovative programmer. Passionate and assiduously fluent in the music of Bach, Mr. Turner has conducted the complete cycle of 200 sacred Bach cantatas, as well as the complete masterworks of Bach: St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, his own reconstruction of the St. Mark Passion, Mass in B minor and Christmas Oratorio, the complete Orchestral Suites and performances at the Bachfest in Leipzig. In addition, he has led major works by Stravinsky, Mozart, Handel, Britten and Harbison. A champion of new music, Turner has programmed and premiered the works of composers John Harbison, Errollyn Wallen, Matthew Aucoin, James Primosch, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Kati Agócs, Julian Grant, Damien Geter, Zanaida Robles, Elena Ruehr, and Omar Najmi, including 20 commissions for Emmanuel Music. Ryan Turner is Director of Vocal Ensembles at MIT where he is conductor of the Concert Choir and Chamber Chorus. Raised in El Paso, Texas, Mr. Turner holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and Boston Conservatory. He lives north of Boston with his wife, soprano Susan Consoli, and their two children, Aidan and Caroline.

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). Recent performances include Handel’s Messiah with Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra; the role of Belmonte in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio with Emmanuel Music; Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, Vespers of 1610, L’Orfeo, and assorted madrigals with Boston Early Music Festival; Bach’s B minor Mass with the American Classical Orchestra (NYC) at Lincoln Center; and St. Matthew Passion with the American Bach Soloists (SF, CA). He is a regular in Emmanuel’s Bach ongoing cantata series. With them he has also appeared in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby; as the Evangelist in the Bach Passions; and in Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress, Mozart’s Magic Flute, and Handel’s Ariodante. In recent years he has also sung with the Portland Baroque Orchestra; the National Chorale, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Exsultemus, Charlotte Symphony, Berkshire Choral Festival, Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque. He is adept in contemporary music: He appeared in the world premiere of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar starring Dawn Upshaw; premiered Rodney Lister’s chamber song cycle Friendly Fire with Collage New Music; appeared with Boston Modern Orchestra Project in Thomson’s Four Saints in Three Acts; and is on a Naxos CD of Scott Wheeler’s Construction of Boston. His studies have been at Tanglewood, Indiana University, and Oberlin College. He is originally from Troy NY

American mezzo-soprano Deborah Rentz-Moore has been called “captivating” (ClassicsToday.com) and is known for her “deep, radiant clear tone” (Early Music America) and “burnished low tones” (Boston Classical Review). She enjoys frequent solo collaborations with Emmanuel Music, The Boston Camerata and Aston Magna and has been featured with celebrated ensembles such as The Boston Early Music Festival, Handel+Haydn Society, The Bach Sinfonia, Magnificat Baroque, Voices of Music, Tapestry Boston and El Mundo. She has appeared at Lincoln Center, Boston Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Hill Auditorium, The Paris Philharmonie, the Finnish Opera, The Utrecht Early Music Festival, Prague Spring Festival and Tanglewood. A member of Emmanuel Music’s famed weekly Bach cantata series since 1999, Ms. Rentz-Moore has consistently earned critical acclaim for operatic and oratorio roles in Emmanuel’s performances of Bach, Mozart, Handel, Purcell, Stravinsky and Harbison. Ms. Rentz-Moore’s recordings on the Musica Omnia, Centaur, Meridian and Harmonia Mundi labels span styles from medieval chant to 21st-century compositions.  Her two recent recordings with The Camerata, “Free America” and “Hodie Christus Natus Est” have met with critical and popular success, with the later debuting at #11 on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart.  She appears on video with Voices of Music, Emmanuel Music, and The Boston Camerata. Holding a Master of Music in Voice performance from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Arts in Music (voice) and Environmental Science from Skidmore College, Ms. Rentz-Moore has taught on the voice faculty of the University of Rhode Island and the Seacoast Academy of Music, and is Resident Artist in Voice at the University of New Hampshire.

Baritone Dana Whiteside has appeared as soloist in numerous oratorios and orchestral works including the Boston premiere of Kurt Weill’s “The Prophets” from The Eternal Road, Bach’s St. John Passion and Mass in B Minor, and the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s Supper at Emmaus. In addition, Mr. Whiteside has been soloist in Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem; Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and cantatas BWV 4, Christ lag in Todesbanden, and BWV 82, Ich habe genug; Beethoven’s Missa Solemins, Mass in C Major and the Ninth Symphony; Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana; Benjamin Britten’s Cantata Misericordium; and Stravinsky’s Pulcinella as well as the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s Winter’s Tale with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

A product of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Whiteside is an avid recitalist, and has performed a wide range of programs with groups like Musicians of the Old Post Road and the Florestan Recital Project. He has given recitals at Boston’s French Library/Société Française, the University of Oregon and Boston University in offerings that include 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, Ernest Chausson’s Serres Chaudes, Francis Poulenc’s Banalites, Aaron Copland’s Songs on Texts of Emily Dickinson, and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of the Wayfarer) with orchestra. Recognized for singing with “dignity and sensitive phrasing” (Boston Classical Review) and possessing a voice of “noble clarity both powerful and resonant” (The Washington Post), Mr. Whiteside also enjoys affiliation with Cantata Singers and Skylark Vocal Ensemble.

Mezzo-soprano and contemporary vocalist Carrie Cheron has been celebrated internationally for her “unfeigned expression,” “lush but simple tone,” and for having “the voice of an angel.” A regular soloist with Emmanuel Music and Skylark Vocal Ensemble, Carrie also performs regularly with Boston Baroque, Lorelei Ensemble, and folk/baroque collective Floyds Row. She is a featured soloist on all four of Skylark’s Grammy-nominated recordings, and Lorelei Ensemble’s recording of David Lang’s love fail. A specialist of early and contemporary music, some of Carrie’s recent and upcoming solo performances include Vivaldi’s Gloria,

Stabat Mater, and Juditha triumphans, (role: Juditha), Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea (roles: Amore, Valletto), Bach’s St. John Passion, B Minor Mass, Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew Passion, countless Bach cantatas with Emmanuel Music; Wolf’s Spanisches Liederbuch, Britten’s A Charm of Lullabies, Reema Esmail’s This Love Between Us, Caroline Shaw’s The Listeners, Francine Trester’s Eshet Chayil, and more. She has been presented recently by Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Monadnock Music Festival, Portland Bach Experience, Musicians of the Old Post Road, Plymouth Philharmonic, and the Holiday Pops in Boston. Last June, she returned to Europe as a soloist with Emmanuel Music at BachFest Leipzig. Ms. Cheron is particularly proud to be a long-time performer with Shelter Music Boston. As a nationally recognized performing singer/songwriter, Ms. Cheron’s original compositions and singing have been celebrated by the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, Great Waters Folk Festival, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, and the Connecticut Folk Festival Songwriting Contest. She has shared the stage with such acclaimed artists as Sweet Honey In The Rock and Anaïs Mitchell. A dedicated educator, Carrie is an Associate Professor of Voice at Berklee College of Music.

Mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara’s ensemble affiliations have included Skylark, Handel and Haydn, Blue Heron, Lorelei Ensemble, The Washington Bach Consort, Tapestry, the Staunton Music Festival, and The Boston Camerata. MusicWeb International hailed her as “pure toned” and “as good as they come” for her solo Hildegard chant on Skylark’s “Seven” (2018), one of the ensemble’s four GRAMMY nominated albums. Clare appears on eight other albums with Skylark, most notably as a credited soloist on the twice GRAMMY nominated “Clear Voices in the Dark” (2024)— the first US recording of Francis Poulenc’s tour-de-force cycle Figure Humaine. Clare’s “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine); she has joined the group for numerous European festivals. She joined Emmanuel for Bachfest in Leipzig (2024), and continues honing her craft as a Bach interpreter. Clare has appeared as the alto soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor and his Missa Brevis in G major (Handel and Haydn, Harry Christophers), where she was labeled a “vocal highlight” and praised for her “rich timbre and expressive phrasing.” Clare holds an A.B. in Music from Princeton University and an M.M. in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and son.

Praised by the Boston Musical Intelligencer for his “clear, powerful burnished tenor, resonant and easy even in the highest reaches of his voice,” the lyric tenor Fausto Miro is known for his “thrilling dramatic impact” (South Florida Sun Sentinel) on the stages of some of the country’s leading ensembles. This includes the New York Opera Studio, Boston Opera Collective, Opera Tampa, St. Petersburg Opera Company, The Florida Orchestra, Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, and the Opera Festival of San Luis Potosi, where he succeeded as a finalist in the Linus Lerner International Vocal Competition.

A resident of Boston, Mr. Miro performs throughout New England as a featured soloist in collaboration with Central Reform Temple of Boston, Cappella Clausura, The Copley Singers, Labyrinth Choir, Polymnia Choral Society, The Old North Marblehead Festival Chorus, Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra, and Renaissance Men. He’s thrilled to be joining Emmanuel Music.

Praised as “splendidly declamatory” (Opera Today) and for his “powerful baritone and impressive vocal range” (Boston Music Intelligencer), bass-baritone Andrew Padgett is an accomplished interpreter of early music from medieval to baroque repertoire. He has worked with several early music luminaries including Masaaki Suzuki, Benjamin Bagby, and Paul O’Dette, and has been featured as a soloist in concert venues worldwide, such as Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, NYC, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Esplanade Concert Hall in his hometown, Singapore. He is a frequent collaborator with ensembles such as TENET, Bach Collegium San Diego, Pegasus Early Music, and Piffaro, both as an ensemble artist and a soloist.

Andrew has been a featured soloist on a number of recently-released recordings, including Fortuna Antiqua et Ultra and Medieval Song from Aristotle to Opera with Concordian Dawn, and The Music of Gerre Hancock with The Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys. Andrew holds a B.S. in physics, an M.M. in voice from UC Santa Barbara, and an M.M. in Early Music, Oratorio, and Chamber Ensemble from Yale University’s Institute of Sacred Music. In his free time, Andrew enjoys miniature painting and homebrewing.

Tenor Jonas Budris is a versatile soloist and small ensemble singer, engaging new works and early music with equal passion. He is a 2013-2014 Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music, and he sings in the weekly Bach Cantata Series. Mr. Budris performs frequently with the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Baroque, both as a soloist and ensemble singer, and is a featured soloist in Boston Baroque’s Grammy-nominated recording of Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. He also enjoys performing in more intimate musical settings, and has toured with such ensembles as Cut Circle, Spire, Skylark, and Blue Heron. On the opera stage, he has performed a variety of principal and supporting roles with numerous musical organizations, including Guerilla Opera, Opera Boston, OperaHub, and Odyssey Opera. Favorite roles include Giovanni (La Hija de Rappaccini, OperaHub), Acis (Acis and Galatea, Blue Hill Bach Festival), and Henrik (A Little Night Music, Emmanuel Music). Originally from Martha’s Vineyard, Mr. Budris holds a degree in Environmental Sciences & Engineering from Harvard University.

Hailed for “a voice of seductive beauty” (Miami Herald) and as an “unfailingly versatile” performer (Boston Globe), baritone David McFerrin has won critical acclaim in a variety of repertoire. His opera credits include Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, the Rossini Festival in Germany, and numerous roles with Boston Lyric Opera and other local companies. As concert soloist he has sung with the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Handel and Haydn Society, and in recital at the Caramoor, Ravinia, and Marlboro Festivals. He was runner-up in the Oratorio Society of New York’s 2016 Lyndon Woodside Solo Competition, the premier US contest for this repertoire. David is also a member of the Gramophone award-winning renaissance vocal ensemble Blue Heron. Recent performance highlights have included Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Emmanuel Music, Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Boston Baroque, and Britten’s church opera trilogy with Enigma Chamber Opera. David lives in Natick, Massachusetts with his wife Erin Doherty, an architectural historian and preservation planner; their daughter Fiona; and black lab Holly.

A “soaring soprano soloist” (Boston Classical Review), Gina Marie Falk is a Boston-based singer specializing in early and contemporary chamber music. Some of Gina Marie’s most recent engagements include joining Emmanuel Music in their weekly Cantata Series and yearly concert programs, participating as a soloist at the Portland Bach Experience, and collaborating with pianist Clémentine Dubost to bring exciting, varied recitals to the Middlebury College School of French. Regularly performing and touring with The Pandora Consort, Gina Marie and colleagues Kendra Comstock and Angie Tyler are champions of music by Hildegard von Bingen. In October of 2025, the trio were in residence at In Situ Polyculture and recorded their debut album, Hildegard Reanimated: Vision in Vision, at Epsilon Spires. The album will be released in 2026. The ensemble has been featured by organizations and series such as Pegasus Early Music/New York State Baroque, Salon avec moi, Otter Creek Music Festival, Vermont Public Classical, SoHIP Boston, the Saint James World & Early Music Series, and King’s Chapel Concert Series. Concerts scheduled with GEMS and Nightingale Vocal Ensemble await in the 2025-2026 season, as well as the premiere of Pandora’s original folk opera, The Fire Within Her.

Gina Marie’s love of new music is at the forefront of her budding career. She continues her collaboration with contemporary composers, premiering their works in both chamber and solo settings; most recently with Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, Emmanuel Music, DREAMGLOW, and collaborator John Secunde. Gina Marie and John’s duo, Saint Boneface, dedicates itself to fusing indie aesthetics with classical repertoire. Their award-winning covers of Debussy’s Green and Hildegard von Bingen’s Karitas can be heard below. Gina Marie received an MM in Vocal Performance from the Longy School of Music and a BM in Vocal Performance from East Carolina University. In addition to performing, Gina Marie teaches French language and diction courses to undergraduate and graduate students at the Longy School of Music and New England Conservatory.

Soprano Janet Ross sings mostly with the Handel and Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, Cantata Singers, the Indictus Project, Church of the Redeemer-Chestnut Hill. In 2021, she participated in the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute and was excited to be a vocal fellow with the American Bach Soloists until the program was canceled due to COVID in both 2020 and 2021. Pre-pandemic, she performed with the Skylark Vocal Ensemble and was a soloist in Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with Musica Sacra.

Originally an instrumentalist, Janet earned undergraduate degrees in piano, flute, and pedagogy and a master’s in piano performance from Indiana University where she was named Chancellor’s Scholar, an award recognizing academic achievement and service. She also has a master’s in elementary education from UMass-Amherst. As a pianist, Janet won several solo and concerto competitions, including the concerto competition, Schubert/Brahms Category, and Grand Prize in the Eastman School of Music’s Young Artists International Competition. She performed in recital at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, as the recipient of the VSAArts Panasonic Young Soloists Award.

Mezzo-soprano Krista River has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society, the Florida Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, Odyssey Opera, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and Boston Baroque. Winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a 2007 Sullivan Foundation grant recipient, her opera roles include Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Anna in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring, and the title role in Handel’s Xerxes.

‍Other notable performances include the International Water and Life Festival in Qinghai, China, and recitals at Jordan Hall in Boston and the Asociación Nacional de Conciertos in Panama City, Panama. 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.”  She resides in Boston and is a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music’s renowned Bach Cantata Series.

Previous seasons’ highlights include Handel’s Messiah with Worcester Music and Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 and the Magic Flute with Boston Baroque, the role of Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion and  Count Carl Magnus in “A Little Night Music” with Emmanuel Music, aria soloist in the St. Matthew Passion with Masterworks Chorale as well as the Boston premiere of Robert Kapilow’s Elijah’s Angel with the New England Philharmonic; the Verdi Requiem with Nashoba Valley Choral Society; and Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony for his soloist debut at Washington DC’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Possessing a “resonant, beautiful” sound and heralded for his “expressive, florid” singing, Baritone Will Prapestis performs frequently as a soloist and ensemble member in the U.S. and Europe, and is the 2019-2020 Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow. He has had the pleasure of singing as a soloist and chorister with Emmanuel Music, Renaissance Men—of which he is a founding member—Boston Baroque, the Orpheus Singers, Exsultemus, BEMF, Cappella Clausura, Labyrinth Choir, Cantata Singers, Sound Icon, Monadnock Music Festival, Augmented, Copley Singers, Oriana Consort, Boston University Chamber Chorus, and the Fredonia College Choir. Recent highlights include the 2019 Carmel Bach Festival, where he was featured as a Virginia Best Adams Fellow, Ben Budge in Britten’s The Beggar’s Opera with Emmanuel Music, Baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with Seaglass Chorale in Kennebunk, Maine, and King Charlemagne in Pippin with Music on Norway Pond, New Hampshire. Will is also a very busy bass player, thoroughly active in the Boston and New York City Pop Music scenes, performing with as many as five bands as a bass guitarist, vocalist, writer, and arranger. He is also a highly-sought session artist. Will is a native of Elmira, NY, and he earned his Bachelor of Music in Performance at SUNY Fredonia.

Hailed for her “inimitable delivery” and versatility, Boston and New York based soprano Corrine Byrne has quickly become a sought-after interpreter of repertoire from the Medieval to the Baroque era, and music by today’s most daring composers.  Byrne has made solo appearances with the American Classical Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players, New York Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, REBEL Baroque Ensemble, Symphony New Hampshire, Emmanuel Music, the Lake George Music Festival Orchestra, Mountainside Baroque, Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, Madison Bach Musicians, Westchester Oratorio Society, the Harvard Radcliff Collegium Musicum, and the Connecticut Early Music Festival. Byrne sings regularly with Lorelei Ensemble including on a recently GRAMMY® nominated recording of Chris Cerrone’s Beaufort Scales. Byrne sang alongside the Tallis Scholars with the Carnegie Hall Chamber Chorus, Boston Early Music Festival, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and sings regularly on Emmanuel Music’s Bach Cantata series. Byrne is a cofounder of Ensemble Musica Humana and The Byrne:Kozar:Duo, recently featured on NPR and a nationally broadcast episode of American Public Media’s Performance Today, and whose recording of  Bring Something Incomprehensible Into This World was featured in the New Yorker Magazine’s 2017 Notable Recordings. She is also a core member of ground-breaking ensemble Cut Circle, runner up for the 2024 Gramophone Award. Byrne’s recent roles include Miranda (The Onion by Eric Sawyer), Loralei (Mallory by Nathaniel Parks), Roya (We the Innumerable by Niloufar Nourbahksh), Filia (Jepthe), Anna (Die Todsünden), Doctor (The Scarlet Professor by Eric Sawyer), Cathy (The Last Five Years), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) and Anima (Ordo Virtutum). Byrne is a member of Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists that donate a percentage of their concert fee to organizations they care about. Byrne supports the Cares Foundation and South Shore Habitat for Humanity through her performances. She is currently serving as a faculty member at Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program and the Longy School of Music at Bard College.

Boston-based artist Omar Najmi splits his time between composition and performance, maintaining a busy schedule as an operatic tenor. Praised as “a world class voice in every respect,” Najmi recently made his international debut creating the title role in Joseph Summer’s operatic adaptation of Hamlet with Bulgaria’s State Opera Rousse. Other recent and upcoming engagements include Rodolfo in La Boheme with Opera Steamboat, Shakur in Thumbprint with Portland Opera, Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet with Boston Lyric Opera, Lord Byron in the world-premiere of The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage with Guerilla Opera, Alfredo in La Traviata with MassOpera, Gastone in La Traviata with Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, tenor soloist in St. John Passion with Emmanuel Music, Tito in La Clemenza di Tito with Opera Steamboat, Bilal in This Is Not That Dawn with Catalyst New Music, and featured soloist in Boston Lyric Opera’s virtual concert series B., highlighting works by Asian and AsianAmerican composers/poets. Najmi enjoys a long standing relationship with Boston Lyric Opera where he began his professional career as an Emerging Artist (2013-2015). He has performed over 15 productions at the company, and he served as their first ever Emerging Composer in the 2020/2021 season. His other operatic engagements have included Opera Colorado, Chautauqua Opera, Annapolis Opera, Opera Saratoga, Opera Maine, Opera Fayetteville, Opera NEO, Opera North, Odyssey Opera, American Lyric Theater, and more.

Najmi made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2018 as the tenor soloist in Mark Hayes’ Gloria. He has since returned as the soloist in Dan Forrest’s Requiem for the Living, and as a soloist in Talents of the World Inc.’s Caruso Tribute Concert. He has performed several times as a soloist with the touring concert Video Games Live, including an appearance with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra at the Red Rocks Amphitheater. Najmi has been the recipient of the Harold Norblom Award from Opera Colorado, the Stephen Shrestinian Award from Boston Lyric Opera, 2nd place nationally in the Handel Aria Competition, 2nd prize from the Wilkinson Young Singers Fund, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellowship from Emmanuel Music, and he has been a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions.

Carley DeFranco, soprano, gives performances that are “sunny,” “supple,” and “soaring.” A passionate communicator and dynamic presence onstage, she brings emotional clarity and vocal nuance to repertoire ranging from Baroque oratorio to 21st-century opera. The 2024–25 Boston Lyric Opera Shrestinian Award Winner, Carley’s favorite projects reach beyond the assumed classical music experience. Memorable performances include Les Illuminations with Urbanity Dance and Emmanuel Music, choreographed by Shura Baryshnikov, La Mer with Boston Ballet and Lorelei Ensemble, a concert in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library with Boston Lyric Opera and the premiere of Lost Birds by Christopher Tin with VOCES8. A longtime member of Emmanuel Music and former Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow, Carley has sung more than 100 cantatas in the Sunday Bach Cantata Series. She has appeared as soloist and ensemble member in many concert and staged works. She was a soloist in Emmanuel Music’s performance at Bachfest Leipzig. More of Carley’s recent and upcoming performances include Mass in B Minor with Jos van Veldhoven and Considering Matthew Shepard with Craig Hella Johnson (Oregon Bach Festival), Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mahler 4 (Symphony NH), Messiah (Music Worcester), Beethoven 9 (Lexington Symphony) and Rossini’s Giunone (Back Bay Chorale). In the world of chamber music, she has performed multiple programs of lesser-known baroque music with Sarasa Ensemble, Musicians of the Old Post Road and Silentwoods Collective. She performs frequently with Monadnock Music and ALEA III. Carley is a chorister with Handel and Haydn Society, True Concord, Oregon Bach Festival, Upper Valley Baroque, and Boston Lyric Opera. She is the founder of DeFranco Music LLC and teaches voice at Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program.

Described as “radiant” by Opera Magazine, recent highlights for soprano Sonja DuToit Tengblad include Shostakovich Symphony No. 14 with A Far Cry, Mahler’s 2nd Symphony with the Boston Philharmonic, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra; Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Drusilla, Fortuna) and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria (La Fortuna, Giunone; Grammy-nominated recording with Linn Records), Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Boston Baroque; Bach’s St. John Passion and Purcell’s Fairy Queen and Dido and Aeneas with the Handel and Haydn Society; Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero with the Boston Early Music Festival; guest appearances with the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus and Minnesota’s Bach Roots Festival; and her Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center debuts, both with the New York City Chamber Orchestra. She was awarded 2nd place in the 2014 American Prize competition’s art song and oratorio division.

A champion of new music, Ms. Tengblad co-curated Modern Dickinson, a touring program featuring all 21st century settings of Emily Dickinson’s poetry that was named the #3 Best Arts Event in Austin, Texas 2015 and nominated for four Austin Critics Table Awards. She has premiered and recorded two works with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and in 2015 premiered Shirish Korde’s Questions for the Moon with members of the Silk Road Ensemble. A highlight for Ms. Tengblad was appearing in a concert celebrating the 80th birthday of composer Dominic Argento for which the Minnesota Star Tribune reported her to have given “the most affective performance of the evening”. In 2017 she co-founded the soprano/percussion duo Beat Song who will be featured in April 2023 with Celebrity Series.

Ms. Tengblad performs with the Lorelei Ensemble, Blue Heron, and the Grammy winning ensemble Conspirare and their national tours of Craig Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepard.

In 2019, Ms. Tengblad founded Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists that pledge a portion of their concert fees to organizations they care about. With every performance she supports the Eden Reforestation Project, Singers Of This Age, and Braver Angels, an institution that cultivates effective bipartisan conversation. She is the founder and coordinator of Mothers Out Front East Boston and the producer of Marc Hoffeditz’ “Mr. Twister and the Tale of Tornado Alley”, a touring children’s opera project promoting STEM concepts and climate change solutions to communities. She teaches at Wellesley College and Harvard University through the Holden Voice Program.Reforestation Project.