Musicians

SOLOISTS

NOVEMBER 2011, Beethoven and Haydn

DANA SCHNITZER, Soprano, is a sought-after performer of opera, oratorio, and art song.  Most recently she performed the Bach B Minor Mass Mass with Brookline Chorus and the Mozart Requiem with the Choral Art Society, sang the role of Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus with Riverside Theatre Works, understudied the role of Leonore in Fidelio with Opera Boston, and sang the role of Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte with Commonwealth Opera.  Prior operatic experience includes the role of Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore at the Caramoor International Music Festival, the title roles in Alcina, The Merry Widow, and Suor Angelica, Juliette in Romeo et Juliette, Madame Pompous in Too Many Sopranos, Noemie in Cendrillon and First Lady in The Magic Flute.

Highlights of Ms. Schnitzer’s oratorio solo and art song career include the Brahms Requiem with Brookline Chorus, the Mendelssohn St. Paul and the Bach Magnificat with the Choral Art Society, the Mahler Rückertlieder with the Arlington Philharmonic, Handel’s Messiah and the Fauré Requiem with Masterworks Chorale.  Ms. Schnitzer was recently a finalist in the Liederkranz Competition and has won first place in both the NATS Boston Competition and the Arlington Philharmonic Young Artist Competition. In 2006, she was a Boston District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition, and second place winner of the Peter Elvins Vocal Competition.

Ms. Schnitzer’s upcoming engagements include the soprano solos in the Vaughn Williams Sea Symphony, Handel’s Messiah and the Mozart Requiem.  She will also perform in the ensemble of Verdi’s Macbeth with Boston Lyric Opera, and enjoy a full season as choral concert artist with Kings Chapel, Boston.  Ms. Schnitzer is a native of Westchester, NY. She received her MM in Voice Performance from the New England Conservatory in 2005 and her BM in Voice Performance from UMASS Amherst in 2003.  She is currently pursuing a DMA in performance at Boston University, where she studies with Penelope Bitzas.

Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, mezzo-soprano ORIANA DUNLOP recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Vocal Performance at the New England Conservatory, where she also completed a Master of Music in 2010. Notable performance credits include: The Medium (Baba), The Consul (Mother), Werther (Charlotte), Suor Angelica (La Badessa), Hansel and Gretel (Witch), Cosi Fan Tutti (Dorabella), Falstaff (Dame Quickly), The Magic Flute (Third Lady), Little Women (Aunt Cecilia), Street Scene (Nursemaid #2), The Cunning Little Vixen (Dog, Innkeeper’s Wife), Dido and Aeneas (Second Witch), and Carmen (Cigarette Girl, Gypsy).

Prior to moving to Boston, Oriana earned a Bachelor of Music at the University of Western Ontario, in London. She has performed in numerous concerts and recitals, in London, Ottawa, and Boston. She has also performed in several masterclasses, including those with Brian Zeger, Martin Katz, and Nic Muni. 
Previous teachers include Karen Holvik, Kevin McMillan and Donna Klimoska. Ms. Dunlop currently studies with Karen Holvik in Boston, but is excited to be spending the summer at the Aspen Summer Music Festival, where she will be studying with W. Stephen Smith at the Aspen Opera Theatre Centre.

Since his arrival in Boston, ETHAN BREMNER has become one of the city’s most sought-after young tenors. He made his local debut with Boston Opera Collaborative in 2006 as Achilles in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Aulide, and then sang with the company as Rodolfo in Puccini’s LaBohème. Other recent engagements include: The title role in Mozart’s Idomeneo with OperaHub, Alfred in Die Fledermaus with both Longwood Opera and Opera Providence, Canio in I Pagliacci with Lakes Region Opera, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas with the Newport Baroque Festival, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen with the Paul Madore Chorale, and an auspicious debut as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca with Longwood Opera. In the 2010-2011 season, Mr. Bremner covered Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio and Don Ruiz di Padilla in Donizetti’s Maria Padilla.

Recent appearances on the concert platform include: Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin with First Church of Boston, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Brookline Chorus, Verdi’s Requiem with the Boston Civic Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale. Mr. Bremner was a Finalist in the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (New England Region) and earned his Master of Music in 2006 from the University of Wisconsin. www.ecbremner.com

Baritone DANA WHITESIDE’s solo engagements have included Alexander’s Feast by Handel, 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 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 as well as the baritone soloist roles in the Brahms Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major and his Missa Solemnis.

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,  Babson College, Boston University, and the University of Oregon as well the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and King’s Chapel 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 Emmanuel Music and the Cantata Singers.   Upcoming performances for 2011-2012 season include Missa Solemnis with Masterworks Chorale, a Boston University recital exploring music inspired by the poetry of William Shakespeare and the baritone soloist in Emmanuel Music’s offering of the ballet Pulcinella by Stravinsky.

MAY 2012, The Splendor of Bach

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.

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 Aston Magna, the Boston Early Music Festival, the Handel & Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, The Boston Camerata, New York Collegium and Magnificat.  She also works with esteemed Boston-area groups such as Chorus Pro Musica, the Newton Choral Society, Masterworks Chorale, Back Bay Chorale, 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 appearance with the Newton Choral Society this year, Ms. Rentz-Moore’s 2011-2012 performances include Puer Natus Est, Borrowed Light, and Patriots and Heroes with The Boston Camerata, Handel’s Jeptha and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Boston Cecilia, Messiah with the New Bedford Symphony, Bach’s solo cantata BWV #170, the role of Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress and Bach’s B Minor Mass with Emmanuel Music.

Her recordings include music of Cozzolani and Bach on the Musica Omnia label, Shaker songs (Glissando), Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Aston Magna (Centaur), Baroque holiday music on the Très. label and Spanish baroque holiday music (Meridian).  In 2010, she recorded The Rose of Sharon (early American music) for Harmonia Mundi.

Lyric tenor CHARLES BLANDY has performed a wide repertoire, from works of Mozart and Bach to the most challenging contemporary music. The Boston Globe praised his performance of Tom Rakewell 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.

In December 2011 he will sing with the American Bach Soloists in Handel’s Messiah. Last year he made his Lincoln Center debut in the Mozart Requiem and Haydn Paukenmesse with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, where he returned in November to sing Handel’s Alexander’s Feast. He recently performed as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John and St. Matthew Passions with Emmanuel Music, and with the Bethlehem Bach Choir in their Christmas concert of Bach and Haydn. He was a finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York solo competition, singing in Weill Recital Hall. He performed Handel’s Messiah and Britten’s Cantata Misericordium with the Charlotte Symphony; Britten’s St. Nicolas with conductor Raymond Leppard in Indianapolis; and Mozart’s Requiem with the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, performed outdoors on the Esplanade in Boston. He has appeared with the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Cantata Singers, Berkshire Choral Festival, Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque, and the Bloomington Early Music Festival.

On four days notice he took over a tricky tenor part in Berio’s Sinfonia under conductor Robert Spano at Tanglewood. He recently appeared with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in music of Ronald Perera and Scott Wheeler. His performance of Jorge Liderman’s Song of Songs with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (which became a Bridge Records CD) was called “sterling” by the San Francisco Chronicle, and he appears on a critically-praised Naxos CD of Scott Wheeler’s opera Construction of Boston. 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 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.

Praised by The New York Times for his “appealingly textured sound” and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for his “fine dramatic impact,” baritone DAVID McFERRIN has sung with some of the country’s leading opera companies and is a critically acclaimed performer of concert and recital repertoire. In 2010 he made what the Seattle Times called a “highly impressive company debut” with Seattle Opera as Paul in the world premiere production of Daron Hagen’s Amelia. Other recent operatic roles have included Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with Boston Midsummer Opera, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas with Seraphic Fire in Miami, and Taddeo in L’Italiana in Algeri, performed at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad, Germany. Last season he debuted with Boston Lyric Opera as Pallante in Handel’s Agrippina. Prior to this Mr. McFerrin’s concert engagements ranged from the Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice to the music of Cole Porter with the Boston Pops. Mr. McFerrin recently made his Carnegie Hall debut with Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and the Israel Philharmonic in Bernstein’s Concerto for Orchestra. He has also performed at the Caramoor, Ravinia, and Blossom Music Festivals, and with the New York Festival of Song. A native of western Massachusetts, Mr. McFerrin won 2nd place in the 2008 Metropolitan Opera National Council New England Region, and was recently awarded a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, given annually to promising young American opera singers.

ACCOMPANIST: Mark Feldhusen

Mark enjoys an active musical life in the Boston area.  Mark joined Newton Choral Society as Accompanist in the fall of 2009.  In addition to his work with NCS, he is accompanist at Temple Israel in Boston and pianist for Sheminiyah, an ensemble of Reform and Conservative cantors in the greater Boston area.  He has appeared in numerous concerts of secular and sacred Jewish music.

Currently studying with Kevin McGinty at All-Newton Music School, he has also studied with Darryl Rosenberg at New England Conservatory. While not playing the piano, Mark works at Commonwealth Financial Network, a broker/dealer in Waltham MA.