2007-2008 Season Performers
Hailed as "a golden soprano" by the New York Times, Jolle Greenleaf has established herself as a leading specialist in repertoire from the 17th and 18th centuries. She has worked with illustrious period instrument conductors such as Martin Gester, Bernard LaBadie, Ton Koopman, Eric Milnes, Andrew Parrott, John Scott, and Jeannette Sorrell. In September 2005, she made her debut at Carnegie's Zankel Hall with Ton Koopman performing Bach's Trauerode. She is frequently heard in baroque masterworks including J.S. Bach's B Minor Mass, Christmas and Easter Oratorio, Magnificat and St. John Passion, John Blow's Venus and Adonis, Charpentier's Magnificat and Mass for 8 Voices, Handel's Jephtha and Messiah, Mozart's Vespers and Coronation Mass, Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Purcell's King Arthur and Fairy Queen and with many ensembles and orchestras such as Apollo's Fire, Concert Royale, Folger Consort, Harvard Collegium, New York Collegium, Parthenia, and Vox Vocal Ensemble. Known for her expressiveness on stage, she is often engaged as a recitalist and has performed a variety of roles including Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Amour and Céphise in Rameau's Pygmalion, Licori in Vivaldi's La Fida Ninfa, and the title role in Cavalli's La Calisto. The 2007–2008 season highlights include performances of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Jauchzet Gott, Mozart's Regina Coeli and Exsultate Jubilate, a program of Buxtehude, Bach and Handel at St. Thomas Church under John Scott, and recitals in Denver and New York. Ms. Greenleaf is the voice teacher to the boys of St. Thomas Choir in New York City.
Soprano Jennifer Ellis Kampani, who "offers a freshness of voice, fineness of timbre, and ease of production that place her in the front rank of early-music sopranos," (andante.com) is emerging as one of the leading interpreters of the Baroque repertoire. She recently made her debut with the Washington Bach Consort, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and the New York Collegium with Andrew Parrott conducting. This season she was featured artist in "Le Tournoi de Chauvency" a Medieval opera production with Francesca Lattuada and Ensemble Aziman which toured through Europe. She also performed with the Richmond Symphony, the Bach Sinfonia, and the Handel Choir of Baltimore. Her international career has included appearances with the period instrument groups American Bach Soloists, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Apollo's Fire, Musica Angelica, Magnificat, Washington Cathedral Choral Society Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Solamente (Budapest, Hungary), Ensemble Tourbillon (Prague, Czech Republic), and Musica Aeterna (Bratislava, Slovakia). In addition, Ms. Kampani has sung with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Charlotte Symphony. Opera highlights include leading roles in Handel's Acis and Galata, Blow's Venus and Adonis, Pergolesi's La Serva Padrona, Duron's zarzuela "Salir el Amor del Mundo", and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. A specialist in the music of Spain and Latin America, Jennifer has toured villancicos and zarzuela's extensively with Richard Savino and El Mundo and has performed on programs with Andrew Lawrence-King. She has been heard in many concert series and festivals including Aston Magna, Houston Early Music, Music Before 1800, Miami Tropical Baroque, Connecticut Early Music, Carmel Bach, and the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals. Ms Ellis has recorded Villancicos y Cantatas and The Essential Giuliani for Koch, the works of Cozzolani (Gramophone editors pick, August 2002) for Musica Omnia, and Carissimi Motets and Cantatas for Hungaroton. She was awarded finalist in the 2004 Early Music America Medieval/Renaissance Competition, first runner up at the 2000 Bethlehem Bach Vocal Competition, the Adam's Fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival, and performed at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan with Nicholas McGegan. Born in San Francisco and a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Guildhall School of Music in London, Jennifer currently lives in Washington DC.
Kate Mulvihill's versatile soprano enfolds rich, warm colors in a voice praised for its "crystalline" purity. Ms. Mulvihill sang her first plainsong chant - the pange lingua - in Philadelphia's Saint Malachy Catholic Church at the age of six. Since that first encounter, Ms. Mulvihill has pursued both early music and classical languages, first as a student at Yale and Columbia Universities, and now as a teacher of Latin at New York's Trinity School and a professional ensemble and solo singer. Her work in early music, with ensembles such as Vox Vocal Ensemble and Rebel Baroque Orchestra, and coaches such as Jacqueline Horner (Anonymous Four), Francis Steele (Tallis Scholars), and Linn Andrea Fuglseth (Trio Mediaeval), has led naturally to the performance of new music. Since moving to New York in 2001, she has recorded the music of Steve Reich with Alarm Will Sound, performed the music of MacArthur Award Winner John Zorn with the composer's "Sappho Quintet," sung Copland under Michael Tilson Thomas at Zankel Hall, and premiered numerous commissions by emerging composers with her treble trio Eos (who were finalists in Early Music America's 2006 Medieval and Renaissance Competition). This season, Ms. Mulvihill will premiere the work of up-and-coming composer Robinson McClellan with Trio Eos as well as a new piece by Zorn, again with the Sappho Quintet. She is thrilled to be singing with the Tiffany Consort.
Soprano Martha Cluver has been setting high standards for her role as soloist and chamber musician. As a specialist in new music, she has performed with ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, So Percussion and the Vox Vocal Ensemble. In 2005, Cluver performed the US premiere of John Zorn's Evocation of a Neophyte for soprano and ensemble (Vox Vocal Ensemble) in New York, and later performed the piece at UC-Berkeley and was praised by the San Francisco Classical Voice for her "ethereal soprano loveliness." Cluver recently traveled to the Czech Republic for the Ostrava Days New Music Festival 2007 where she performed the opera Neither by Morton Feldman for solo soprano and large orchestra. She "mastered the extremely difficult part with elegance and lightness and delivered an astonishing performance" and "brought the house to a tumultuous applause" (2007 Ostrava Days Festival News Letter). As a frequent guest with new music band Alarm Will Sound, she has performed works by Caleb Burhans, Steve Reich, Cenk Ergun and Aphex Twin. Cluver received her Bachelors degree in 2003 from the Eastman School of Music where she studied viola performance. During her years at Eastman, Cluver became involved in the new music scene and began singing in many concerts. As soloist and chamber musician, she had the chance to perform Iannis Xenakis' Akanthos, Louis Andriessen's De Staat, Steve Reich's The Desert Music, Luciano Berio's Sinfornia, and George Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children where she was praised for being "endowed with a flexible voice and angelic tone, bringing a sense of radiant warmth and urgency to every note she sang" (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle). As a chamber musician, Cluver has premiered works by John Zorn, Bruce Odland, Ike Sturm and Brad Lubman. She sings regularly with the Vox Vocal Ensemble, Trinity Wall Street choir, Antioch, Clarion, and Holy Trinity Bach Choir. Cluver's discography includes Reich's Music for Large Ensemble for Nonesuch Records, Reich's The Desert Music for Cantaloupe Records, Reich at the Roxy for Sweet Spot DVD, Acoustica w/ Alarm Will Sound for Cantaloupe Records, Zorn's Frammenti del Sappho for Tzadik, Zorn's Six Litanies for Heliogabalus for Tzadik, and Noah Creshevsky's Once for Tzadik.
Elizabeth Baber, soprano, a native of Kentucky, studied voice at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and now lives in New York City. Notable performances have included Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum, Charpentier's Les Arts Florissants, and the New York Continuo Collective's revival of the 17th-century Italian opera Psiche. She is a busy recitalist with her duo partner, lutenist Charles Weaver, exploring a wide range of Renaissance and baroque vocal repertoire. As a soloist and ensemble member with New York Polyphony, she was heard last Christmas on Public Radio International's "Footprints to Paradise," and this summer as part of the installation "Breath" at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. The New York Times has called Baber's singing "truly lovely," and the Washington Post described her voice as "incredibly pure and...nearly effortless," combining "angelic brightness and dedication" with "an ability to seduce."
Born on St. Cecilia's Day, Ryland Angel trained in the UK with David mason and is now based between New York, USA and Paris, France. He enjoys a flourishing international career spanning opera, oratory and the recital repertoire. He has performed with William Christie, Nicholas McGegan, Rene Jacobs, Ivor Bolton, Roy Goodman, Christophe Rousset, Philippe Herreweghe, Christophe Coin, Jane Glover, Herve Niquet, Graeme Jenkins, Le parlement de Musique, the Ensemble of early Music of New York, St Paul Chamber orchestra and Philharmonia baroque. For English National Opera, Ryland Angel has performed in Monteverdi's Orfeo, Fritz in the world premiere of Gavind Bryars' Doctor Ox's Experiment and Buggen in Purcell's the Fairy Queen, a part he has also sung for the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona. Other opera engagements include the title role in Gluck's Orfeo in Koblenz, Amadigi in Karlsruhe, Venus and Adonis at Flanders Opera, Dido and Aeneas at the Opera Comique in Paris, King Arthur and Acis and Galatea with Deller Consort, Peri's Euridice with Opera Normandie, The Play of Daniel in Paris and Tokyo, Jupiter in Ballet Comique de La Royne in Geneva and Love Divine in a staged version of Caldara's Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin at Le Louvre, Paris. His recordings include discs of Charpentier, Scarlatti, Lorenzani, Peri, Handel, Beaujoyeux, Purcell, and the film soundtracks of Le Petit Prince and La Peau and Vivaldi's Stabat Mater for French television. Recent engagements include the world premiere of Doux Mensonges at the Opera National de Paris (Palais Garnier) with William Christie and Jiri Kylian, the title role in Radamisto for opera theatre of St. Louis and a recording of The Cecilian Vespers by Scarlatti with Nicholas McGegan. He sang Agrippina with New York City Opera, Tolomeo with Muziektheater Transparant in Antwerp, Semele with Cologne opera, Rodelinda with Il Combattimento in Holland and Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Florentine Opera (with Steuart Bedford) and Kansas City Lyric Opera. He played Tolomeo in Handel's Julius Caesar with Utah Symphony and Opera, Boston Baroque and Opera Colorado and perfromed Messiah with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston and with Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall. Ryland is signed to EMI (Manhattan) records.
Kirsten Sollek made her Carnegie Hall debut in the spring of 2004 with André Thomas and the New York City Chamber Orchestra in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass. She has been heard as a soloist with Tafelmusik, Bach Collegium Japan, Ton Koopman, New York Collegium, Apollo's Fire, Rebel, Concerto Palatino, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Spiritus Collective, the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Boston Early Music Festival, Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music and the Carmel Bach Festival. For the past several years she has been heard as a soloist for WQXR's live broadcast performances of Handel's Messiah from Trinity Church, Wall Street. She has received praise from Goldberg Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Andante Magazine for her interpretations of Bach and Handel. Her discography includes recordings for the BIS, Hänssler, Ex Cathedra, New World Records, Cantaloupe and Opus Magica labels. Highlights of the 2006-2007 season include Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with Rebel, Handel's Messiah with Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue, Bach Leipzig Cantatas with the New York Collegium, a program of English Medieval Music with the Folger Consort, and Bach's Johannes Passion with Apollo's Fire. Ms. Sollek holds performance degrees from Indiana University (BM) and the Eastman School of Music (MM).
Hailed for his "voice of liquid warmth and easy stage presence" (The Journal, Albuquerque), Philip Anderson has been a soloist with Mark Morris Dance Group, Masterworks Chorus and Orchestra, The New York Collegium, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, and The Waterbury Symphony Orchestra. Recent engagements include the Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion at Swarthmore College, the role of Mozart in Rimsky-Korsakov's one-act opera Mozart and Salieri at the Paley Festival in Virginia, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle with the Choral Arts Society of Westchester, and performances with ARTEK at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. Much in demand among early music ensembles, Mr. Anderson has been a guest artist with Chatham Baroque, Lionheart, New York State Baroque, Piffaro, and The Queens Chamber Band. He has been a member of ARTEK since 1996, an ensemble that performs Italian Baroque music across the United States and in Europe. Mr. Anderson is a founding member of My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, an ensemble which specializes in Elizabethan lute songs. He received critical acclaim across the United States and Canada for his performance in the title role of The Play of Daniel with New York's Ensemble for Early Music.In Europe he has sung at the Tage Alter Musik Festival in Regensburg and in Scarlatti's first opera Gli Equivoci nel Sembiante at the Festival Scarlatti in Palermo. On CD Mr. Anderson can be heard singing British parlor songs on Jane's Hand: The Jane Austen Songbooks, madrigals of Monteverdi with ARTEK on I Don't Want to Love, John Dowland's First Book of Songs with My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, and O Magnum Mysterium, renaissance and contemporary Christmas music with the Tiffany Consort. Mr. Anderson holds degrees from The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Manhattan School of Music, and Queens College. When not singing, he can be found in North Salem, NY growing organic vegetables and raising chickens.
A flexible voice well matched to the music written before 1825, Oliver Brewer commands a faculty lauded by the New York Times as an "attractive round tenor." Since his move to New York almost six years ago after graduating from the Eastman School of Music, Kentucky- native Brewer has sought opportunity to sing with some of New York's finest music making. He currently sings with the Grammy-Nominated Tiffany Consort, Early Music New York (with whom he has toured and has made three recordings), and George Steel's Vox Vocal Ensemble. The tenor has also appeared with Publick Musick, Parthenia, Musica Antiqua New York, the New York Continuo Collective, and Polyhymnia. Mr. Brewer's exciting new endeavor is a project of his own called ComplineNYC, a unique approach to the ancient monastic rites of the Church. The project introduces a composition of modal chants for nighttime meditations at locations around New York City. As a student, Mr. Brewer was awarded the Gaines Fellowship in the Humanities, shaping his interest in the developments of human thought and culture and subsequently leading to his involvement in aspects of music in addition to its performance. From writing essays, the preparation of performing editions, or informing historic pronunciation, he is sought frequently. In 2003, he completed updates to a popular textbook, Making Music in Looking Glass Land, and wrote two new chapters on technology for young classical musicians. He is also a new member of Analog Arts Ensemble, a cutting-edge arts collective dedicated to advancing new music. This spring, Mr. Brewer premiered a composition for tenor and organ by composer Nico Muhly at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, a church where he sang previously as a Gentleman of the Choir for five years.
Bass-baritone Joe Damon Chappel is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester. At Eastman, he was a William Warfield Scholar and had many solo credits with the Eastman Chorale and the Eastman Opera Theater. His career has demonstrated proficiency in a wide range of musical genres, from early music to opera and musical theater. He is the principal bass soloist with Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity (NYC) and has performed with groups such as Bachworks, NY Collegium, Early Music New York, and Les Gouts-Reunis. Hailed by the New York Times as a "warm bass anchor..." he is a founding member of the Tiffany Consort. For two seasons, Mr. Chappel was a member of the Carolina Chamber Chorale at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, where he was bass soloist in world premieres by American composers Anthony Davis and Dan Locklair. In October 2004, he sang his first Verdi Requiem with the South Carolina Philharmonic, Nicholas Smith, conductor. The State of Columbia, SC wrote "Chappel's 'Mors Stupebit' kept the audience hanging on every breathy syllable, filling the hall with his strength even in the softest moments." Subsequently, Maestro Smith invited him to a repeat performance of the Requiem in Manchester, UK. Mr. Chappel also gave the New World premiere of a recently rediscovered Mass for solo bass by Kuhnau. Equally at home on the opera stage, Mr. Chappel has performed the roles of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Mustafa (L'Italiana in Algieri), Frere Laurent (Romeo et Juliette), Mr. Gobineau (The Medium), Giove (La Calisto), Angelotti (Tosca), Sparafucile and Monterone (Rigoletto) in productions by One World Symphony, Dicapo Opera, the American Singers' Opera Project, New Hampshire Opera, Connecticut Grand Opera, and the Bollington Festival, Manchester, UK. Future performances include Mr. Chappel's Lincoln Center/Avery Fisher Hall debut as bass soloist in the world premiere of Directions for Singing by American composer Andrew Fowler. This spring, Mr. Chappel also returns to the South Carolina Philharmonic as soloist in a performance of Sir William Walton's Belshazzar's Feast.
American bass Mark Risinger maintains an active schedule of performances in both opera and oratorio throughout the United States, Europe, and Mexico. In recent seasons, he has performed regularly with companies including New York City Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Baltimore Opera, Arizona Opera, Utah Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Connecticut Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and France's Lyrique-en-Mer festival, among others, in roles such as Leporello, Figaro, Sarastro, Raimondo, Frere Laurent, the Reverend Hale, and several roles in Strauss's Salome. His concert performances have included engagements with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Nashville Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, the New York Choral Society, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Boston Baroque, Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa, and the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, in repertoire ranging from the Passions and cantatas of J.S. Bach to Haydn's Die Schoepfung, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis, Rossini's Stabat Mater, and the Requiem masses of Verdi and Mozart. In the 2006-07 season, his appearances include Schoenberg's Moses und Aron with the Boston Symphony under the direction of James Levine, as well as Donizetti's Dom Sebastien and Cilea's L'Arlesiana with the Opera Orchestra of New York. In addition to two degrees in English literature, Mr. Risinger holds a Ph.D. in Musicology from Harvard University, where he completed a dissertation on compositional process in the music of G. F. Handel and where he was Lecturer on Music from 1996-2001. He currently serves on the American Committee of the Handel House Trust and is preparing the edition of Handel's Semele for the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe. He makes his home in New York City.
Baritone Scott Dispensa is very pleased to be singing for a second time with The Tiffany Consort. Scott is a graduate of Westminster Choir College and The Juilliard School. As a student at Westminster, he was a member of the acclaimed Westminster Choir, participating for three consecutive seasons in the chorus of Spoleto Festival USA. At The Juilliard School, Scott appeared as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with Juilliard Opera Theatre, and made his Alice Tully Hall debut in the annual Juilliard Vocal Honors Recital. Equally at home in musical theatre as in opera, Scott made his Weill Recital Hall debut in 2005 as part of a benefit concert honoring Hal Prince sponsored by the New York Festival of Song. He also appeared in the City Center Encores! production of Kismet. In recent seasons, Scott has toured with Glimmerglass Opera, appeared as Tommy in Brigadoon with Arizona Broadway Theatre, and performed extensively with a wide range of vocal ensembles including Clarion Music Society, Early Music New York, and Vox Vocal Ensemble. This fall, he makes his Metropolitan Opera debut in the chorus of Prokofiev's War and Peace. Upcoming engagements include Bach solos with Vox Vocal Ensemble and his solo debut with the St. Thomas Choir Fifth Avenue in a newly commissioned mass by English composer John Tavener. Scott is a member of the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys.