2008-2009 Soloists

September 20, 2008 - Erin Keefe, violinist
September 20, 2008 - William Perry, guest composer
October 25, 2008 - Kathryne Jennings, soprano
October 25, 2008 - Jane Hanson, mezzo-soprano
October 25, 2008 - Bradford Logan, tenor
October 25, 2008 - Thomas O'Toole, bass
December 13, 2008 - Maria Ferrante, soprano
February 28, 2009 - Tara Alterman, harp
February 28, 2009 - David Amram, guest composer
May 16, 2009 - Diana McVey, soprano
May 16, 2009 - Rockland Osgood, tenor
May 16, 2009 - Anton Belov, baritone
May 16, 2009 - Nikki Stoia, coach/accompanist

September 20, 2008
Erin Keefe

Winner of the 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant, American violinist Erin Keefe is quickly establishing a reputation and earning praise as a compelling artist who combines exhilarating temperament and fierce integrity. A top prize winner of several international competitions, she recently took the Grand Prizes in the 2007 Torun International Violin Competition (Poland), the 2006 Schadt Competition, and the Corpus Christi International String Competition. She was the Silver Medalist in the Carl Nielsen, Sendai (Japan) and Gyeongnam (Korea) International Violin Competitions, resulting in performances and immediate re-engagements in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Ms. Keefe has appeared in recent seasons with orchestras such as the New Mexico Symphony, the New York City Ballet Orchestra, the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, the Allentown Symphony, the Sendai Philharmonic, the Suwon Philharmonic, the Torun Symphony Orchestra, and the Odense Symphony Orchestra; and has given recitals in the US, Austria, Germany, Korea, Poland, Japan, and Denmark.  During the 2008-09 season, she will make her concerto and recital debuts in cities throughout Poland, Germany, and Japan.

Ms. Keefe has collaborated with many leading artists including the Emerson String Quartet, Roberto and Andres Diaz, Edgar Meyer, Gary Graffman, Richard Goode, David Soyer, Colin Carr, Menahem Pressler, Leon Fleisher, and William Preucil.  She performed in a program with Michael Tilson Thomas which premiered his own chamber music at Carnegie's Zankel Hall. Her recording credits include Schoenberg's Second String Quartet with Ida Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Fred Sherry, and Jennifer Welch-Babidge for Robert Craft and the Naxos Label, recordings of the Dvorak Terzetto and the Dvorak Piano Quartet in E-flat with David Finckel and Wu Han for the CMS Studio Recording label; live performances of the Bartok Contrasts, Dvorak Piano Quintet, and Mozart E-flat Piano Quartet recorded for Deutsche Gramophone. Ms. Keefe's festival appearances have included the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music from Angel Fire, Ravinia, Seattle, Aspen, Oklahoma Mozart, Mimir, Music in the Vineyards, and Bridgehampton Chamber Music. 

As a member of Lincoln Center's prestigious Chamber Music Society Two program for the 2006-09 seasons, Ms. Keefe will appear in numerous programs at Lincoln Center as well as on tour throughout the US.  In January of 2008, she and other artist members were featured on “Live from Lincoln Center” playing Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht.  She has performed with the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society and appears regularly with the Boston Chamber Music Society.

Ms. Keefe earned a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music Degree from The Curtis Institute. Her teachers included Ronald Copes, Ida Kavafian, Arnold Steinhardt, Philip Setzer, Philipp Naegele, Teri Einfeldt, and Rose Lander.

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September 20, 2008
William Perry

William Perry was born in Elmira, New York. He began composing and conducting in his teen-age years, producing a full-length musical at the age of sixteen. This led to musical study at Harvard University where his teachers included Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson. Perry organized his own student orchestra and chorus, specializing in 18th century music.

During post-graduate military service in Germany, Perry wrote a musical theatre piece called Xanadu that touredEurope for more than five years. When the job of musical director and silent film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art in New York became available, Perry was selected for the post and over the next twelve years composed more than a hundred film scores for such silent screen classics as The Gold Rush, The General, Orphans of the Storm, Blood and Sand, and others. His subsequent television series, The Silent Years, hosted by Orson Welles and Lillian Gish, won an Emmy Award and introduced silent film classics to two new generations of film-goers.

For three years (1976-78), he produced a poetry series for PBS called "Anyone for Tennyson?" starring Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Claire Bloom, William Shatner, and Vincent Price among others. He later developed and produced the four-part series, "The Poetry Hall of Fame", which he also hosted. He produced and composed the scores for the Peabody Award-winning "Mark Twain Series" of feature films on PBS (1980-85), and his Broadway musical, "Wind in the Willows", starring Nathan Lane, won him Tony nominations for both music and lyrics (1986).

Throughout his more recent career, Perry has alternated the writing of film and stage music with orchestral compositions. His music has been performed by the Chicago Symphony, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, and the symphonic orchestras of Minnesota, Montreal and Hartford as well as the Vienna Symphony and other orchestras in Europe. His most recent symphonic compositions include the Jamestown Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (2007), written to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the first permanent colony in America in Jamestown, Virginia. It was recorded and released in August of this year by Naxos Records with Yehuda Hanani as soloist.

Perry’s music is richly tonal with broad-based melodies and a frequent use of modality that often reminds one of the pastoral music school of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst.  Dance forms, both period and contemporary, are a dominant element in the rhythmic structuring of much of his music.

He splits his time between New York City and Great Barrington.

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October 25, 2008
Kathryne Jennings

Kathryne Jennings, an award-winning soprano, has performed in opera, oratorio, and recital throughout the United States. She has sung over twenty major opera roles, including Musetta, Adele, Micaela, Gretel, Susanna, Pamina, Konstanze, Donna Elvira, and Despina with companies that include San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theatre, Opera Boston, Pittsburgh Opera Theatre, Opera Carolina, Piedmont Opera Theatre, and Greensboro Opera.

As a concert soloist, Ms. Jennings’ performances include Bach’s Mass in B minor, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Brahms’ Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Mahler’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 4, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Poulenc’s Gloria, Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5, and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony with the Savannah Symphony, Masterworks Chorale, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Manchester Choral Society, National Chamber Orchestra, Pioneer Valley Symphony, Prince William Symphony Orchestra, Eastern Philharmonic Orchestra at Eastern Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Jennings was a prize-winner in the Fourth International Vocal Competition of the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York.

She has studied with Ileana Cotrubas, Italo Tajo, Robert and Lucile Evans, Wesley Balk, and Richard Hughes. She holds degrees from Queens College in Charlotte (B.M.) and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (M.M.).

From 1998-2004, Ms. Jennings served as Artistic Director for Opera Providence, Rhode Island’s professional opera company, for whom she produced major operatic productions and concerts. She was honored by the Providence Tourism Council with the 2002 Celebration of Women Achievement in Music Award.

Currently, Ms. Jennings is a Teaching Associate in the Music Department at Brown University, a position she has held since 1990. In addition, she teaches voice to graduate students in the Brown University/Trinity Repertory Consortium. Many of her award-winning students have been accepted into prestigious graduate programs at some of the top music conservatories, summer programs, and festivals throughout the world. In addition, many of her musical theatre students have appeared on Broadway, in national theatre tours, and in major theatres throughout the United States.

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October 25, 2008
Jane Hanson

Jane Hanson, mezzo-soprano, holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Voice from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a Master of Music Degree in Choral Conducting from Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music.  While at CCM, Ms. Hanson served as conductor in residence and vocal soloist in the Music ’97 and Music ’98 international composition festivals and the CCM Grandin Festival. From 1999-2001, she served on the faculty of the UMass Department of Music and Dance.

As founder and director of Jane Hanson Productions, LLC , Ms. Hanson has but one mission for the organization: joy and excellence through the performing arts, providing an ideal balance of passion and technique. (www.JaneHansonProductions.com). The Proficient Musician, founded in 2001, is a division of Jane Hanson Productions, LLC dedicated to providing exceptional skills-based professional development opportunities to music educators and performers. These skills act as a catalyst for the integration of innate musical ability and newfound proficiency, fostering a greater self-knowledge and a deeper enjoyment of music. Ms. Hanson also offers private voice instruction and coaching, master classes, professional development seminars, and residencies.

Ms. Hanson directs two summer performing arts programs for teens: the Summer Musical Theater Intensive for ages 12 to 18 and the Summer Vocal Music Academy for ages 14 to 18, held at the Academy of Music in Northampton.

Ms. Hanson has been fortunate to work with many different arts organizations on varied and interesting projects. In 2006, she directed and conducted Old Deerfield Productions’ presentation of New York-based composer Paula Kimper’s opera The Captivation of Eunice Williams at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.  In fall of 2007, Ms. Hanson directed a workshop premier performance of another of Kimper’s operas, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. In spring 2008, she was music director and conductor of PACE Theater’s hip-hop-inflected version of West Side Story, and the Keene Chorale’s Earth Day Celebration, featuring the New Hampshire premiere of Missa Gaia/Earth Mass.

Ms. Hanson studied voice and vocal pedagogy for more than a decade with the internationally renowned Dr. Oren Brown. She has been a featured mezzo-soprano soloist with Commonwealth Opera, The Keene Chorale, The Tuesday Morning Music Club of Springfield, the Chamber Music Series at Wistariahurst Museum, and with her own concert series. She resides in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

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October 25, 2008
Bradford Logan

Bradford Logan, entertainer and vocal coach, performs in a variety of media, including opera, oratorio, musical theater, clubs, and day programs. He has appeared in solo vocal performances throughout New England, Colorado, Indiana, Mississippi, and London, England. In Oxford, Mississippi, he appeared in two sessions of the International Faulkner Conference and in recital at Mississippi State University. As a result, he premiered an opera based on William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying by Worcester composer David McKay. In London, he has performed at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Concert Series.

As an oratorio specialist, Mr. Logan has sung the tenor solo parts in Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae solennes de confessore, Bach’s St. John Passion (both as the Evangelist and tenor soloist), Schubert’s Mass in G major and Haydn’s Harmonienmesse, and in many a performance of Handel’s Messiah, with Paul Phillips and the Pioneer Valley Symphony, Edward Markward and the RI Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Jonathan Babbitt and the Swanhurst Chorus and the Litchfield County Choral Union, Joan Cooke and the Mystic River Chorale, and Edward Bradley of the First Congregational Church of Woodstock. His concert repertoire also includes Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solenelle and the Verdi Requiem.

Mr. Logan has become noted for singing the works of Enrico Garzilli, having created the leading roles in world premieres of his musicals Rage of the Heart in Providence and Michelangelo at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. He was featured in a concert of Garzilli’s works with soprano Maria Spacagna in Denver. Mr. Logan has also become part of Providence’s own Ocean State Lyric Opera, having performed in its productions of Puccini’s La Bohème as Parpignol and Bizet’s Carmen as Remendado, and Opera to Broadway.

Mr. Logan plays guitar and sings with the Three Amigos who sing gospel and music with a harmonic twist. He also directs the JONAH Community Center and the Whal’in Coffee House in Warwick, Rhode Island.

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October 25, 2008
Thomas O'Toole

Tom O'Toole has been noted for his "deep, resonating sound" by OperaOnlineUS, for his “wonderful voice” and “smashing acting” by New Hampshire Seacoast, and for demonstrating that "modern opera can be just as musical as Mozart" by San Francisco Classical Voice.  Recent appearances include Escamillo in Carmen for Granite State Opera, the roles of Alaska Wolf Joe in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Jago in Ernani, Gazella in Lucrezia Borgia, and Kuno in Der Freischutz for Opera Boston, and Alcindoro/Benoit in La Bohème for Sarasota Opera and Boston Lyric Opera. Following his November 2007 debut as Rigoletto for Commonwealth Opera, The Springfield Republican announced: “O'Toole has the vocal equipment for Verdi, grandly present and full-throttle from his rich, commanding low- and mid-range, to ringing, heroic high notes.”

Mr. O'Toole's previous roles include Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Friedrich Bhaer in Little Women, Father in Hänsel und Gretel, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, and, as a member of the Sarasota Opera Studio, he covered multiple principal roles in Le nozze di Figaro and Verdi's I Masnadieri. With conductor Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Mr. O’Toole recently created the role of John Wilkes Booth on the premiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s Our American Cousin - a new opera about events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln now available on BMOP Sound/Albany Records.

A native of Newport Beach, California, Mr. O'Toole holds a BA in Drama and an MFA in Vocal Performance from the University of California-Irvine. His primary teachers and coaches have included Susan Ormont, Mahlon Schanzenbach, Oren Brown, Stephen Steiner, and Michael Philip Davis. He currently resides in South Hadley, MA.

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December 13, 2008
Maria Ferrante

“Maria Ferrante broke my heart Sunday night. Or, through her, Puccini's Madama Butterfly did,” wrote Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe in January 2003.  Her “combination of delicacy and intensity ...  brought tears to my eyes ... . In her honesty, imagination, and investment, she was infinitely superior to the last Butterfly I saw at the Met.” The petite soprano’s operatic roles ;from the great stage heroines (Violetta  in Verdi’s La Traviata, Pamina in Mozart’s Magic Flute, Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello, Liù in Puccini’s Turandot, Rosalinda in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, and Mimì in Puccini’s La Bohème) to serving girls (Despina in Mozart’s  Cosi Fan Tutte,  Barbarina in Mozart’s Marriage of  Figaro, Serpina in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, and in Englebert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel).

Equally at home on the concert stage, Ms. Ferrante has sung Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Poulenc’s Gloria, Fauré’s Requiem, Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Verdi’s Requiem, and Handel’s  Messiah.  She has appeared in concert with such world-renowned artists as Lincoln Mayorga, Gilbert Kalish, Richard Stoltzman, and others. American composers Seymour Barab and Sheldon Harnick (who wrote Fiddler on the Roof) have collaborated in performance with her, as has the late Arnold Black, founder of the Mohawk Trail Concerts.

This season Ms. Ferrante will tour widely, including appearances at The Fredonia Opera House, NY, in concert with The Newtown Symphony, CT, with the Cape Cod Choral, with The Worcester Chamber Music Society, and with The Collegium singing Britten's Les Illuminations at Mechanics Hall, Worcester.

She has recorded extensively, most recently released: Best Kept Secrets “A Treasury of Passionate American Song” with Lincoln Mayorga, piano, which includes songs from the Civil War and other 19th century pieces researched for The American Antiquarian Society.  Ms. Ferrante’s  CD, Sea Tides and Time with pianist Alys Terrien-Queen,  received rave reviews. She lives in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Please refer to Ms. Ferrante’s website www.mariaferrante.com for more information. 

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February 28, 2009
Tara Alterman

Growing up in a household of musicians, it was only natural that Tara Alterman should begin her musical training at a tender age.  Before discovering the harp at age 10, she studied both the violin and piano.  At age 11, Ms. Alterman began her formal training as a harpist under the guidance of Nancy Brennand and later under Kathleen Bride.  In 1986, she was awarded a full college scholarship to The Manhattan School of Music, where she studied harp with Gloria Agostini, beloved student of the great harpist, Marcel Grandjany, and studied orchestra repertoire with now Chicago Symphony harpist, Sarah Bullen. 

In 1992, she graduated from Yale University with a Master's Degree in performance.  In the years that followed, she taught at Wilkes College, Illinois State University, and Illinois Wesleyan University. As an orchestral performer, Ms. Alterman has played with an ever-increasing number of orchestras, including the PVS, Springfield, Waterbury, New Britain, Meridan, Vermont, Peoria, and Milliken-Decator Symphonies, as well as Northeastern Pennsylvania and Long Island Philharmonics. She has performed with Liza Minelli's orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center and with the Irish Tenors at Mohegan Sun.

In addition to her performance and teaching endeavors, Tara is a recording artist and an arranger of many harp music titles. She is featured on the CD Reflection, music composed by her father, jazz pianist, arranger, and producer, Michael Alterman.  Tara is professor of harp at Mt. Holyoke College and maintains a private studio at her home in Granby, MA (feel free to visit her website at www.heavenlyelegance.com).

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February 28, 2009
David Amram

David Amram has composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works, written many scores for Broadway theater and film, including the classic scores for the films Splendor in The Grass and The Manchurian Candidate; two operas, including the ground-breaking Holocaust opera The Final Ingredient; and the score for the landmark 1959 documentary Pull My Daisy, narrated by novelist Jack Kerouac.  He is also the author of three books, Vibrations, an autobiography, Offbeat: Collaborating With Kerouac, a memoir, and Upbeat: Nine Lives of a Musical Cat published this fall by Paradigm Publishers.

A pioneer player of jazz French horn, he is also a virtuoso on piano, numerous flutes and whistles, percussion, and dozens of folkloric instruments from 25 countries, as well as an inventive, funny improvisational lyricist.  He has collaborated with Leonard Bernstein, who chose him as the New York Philharmonic's first composer-in-residence in 1966, Langston Hughes, Dizzy Gillespie, Dustin Hoffman, Willie Nelson, Thelonious Monk, Odetta, Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, Charles Mingus, Lionel Hampton, E. G. Marshall, and Tito Puente.  Amram's most recent work Giants of the Night is a flute concerto dedicated to the memory Charlie Parker, Jack Kerouac, and Dizzy Gillespie, three American artists Amram knew and worked with.
It was commissioned and premiered by Sir James Galway.

Today, as he has for over 50 years, Amram continues to compose music while traveling the world as a conductor, soloist, bandleader, visiting scholar, and narrator in five languages.  He is also currently working with author Frank McCourt on a new setting of the mass, Missa Manhattan.

Symphonic Variations on a Song by Woody Guthrie was commissioned by the Guthrie Foundation and premiered in 2007 by the Symphony Silicone Valley (San Jose, CA). The Guthrie Foundation has also comissioned him to compose a new piano concerto, to be premiered in January, 2009. He was the 2008 Democratic National Convention's composer-in-residence in Denver. Amram's webpage is www.davidamram.com.

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May 16, 2009
Diana McVey

The young, versatile soprano, Diana McVey, is an artist whose consummate skills as both a singer and an actress have made her highly visible in opera, oratorio and as soloist with symphony orchestras.  The beauty of her voice and intelligent artistry have also made her a much sought after artist for both the standard repertoire and new works.  She has sung leading roles with Opera Naples, Light Opera Oklahoma, Opera Columbus, Lake George Opera Festival, Ocean State Lyric Opera, the Salt Marsh Opera Company, Boston Academy of Music, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Opera Providence among others. Her many roles include Violetta in La Traviata, Musetta in La Bohème, Cunegonde in Candide, Elvira in L’Italiana in Algieri, Despina in Così fan tutte, Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Olympia in The Tales of Hoffman, and Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, to name a few.

She was an apprentice artist with both the Sarasota Opera Company, where she covered the role of Olympia in The Tales of Hoffman, and the Lake George Opera Festival where she covered the role of Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio. She has appeared as soloist with the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Longwood Symphony, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Albany Symphony, and the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, among others.  In 2003, Ms. McVey was a finalist in the New England Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was heard on WGBH, Boston. 

In June 2006, Ms. McVey made her Carnegie Hall debut singing Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, and traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for a production of Carmen.  Recent engagements include a performance of the rarely heard Villa Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras No.5 for soprano and eight cellos with the RI College Symphony Orchestra, Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the RI Civic Chorale & Orchestra, productions of Candide and Pirates of Penzance with Light Opera Oklahoma, Opera Galas with the Hartford Festival Orchestra and Assumption College, a concert appearance with Copley Chamber Players in Miami, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the RI College Chorus & Orchestra, and a production of La Cenerentola with Opera Columbus.  Upcoming 2009 engagements include Orff's Carmina Burana and Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 for soprano and eight cellos with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the New Bedford Symphony, an opera gala with Opera Naples, Messiah with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor with Salt Marsh Opera, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica with Opera Lakeland, and Liu in the Opera Columbus production of Turandot. Ms. McVey last performed selected Verdi and Puccini arias with the PVS in its May 2007 Brava Italia concert.

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May 16, 2009
Rockland Osgood

Tenor Rockland Osgood has distinguished himself in a wide variety of musical idioms from the baroque to contemporary compositions. Recent performances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pennsylvania Symphonia,  Messiah at Avery Fisher Hall with the Peniel Concert Choir and at Carnegie Hall with John Rutter conducting. He was also heard in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Northwest Bach Festival with Gunther Schuller conducting. Recently he has been heard in Britten’s Cantata Misericordium with Cantata Singers in Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Andover Choral Society, and at Trinity Church Boston in Janacek’s Our Father.

Previous seasons included an all Beethoven concert at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York and in Handel’s Ode to St. Cecilia in St. Ignatius Loyola’s Sacred Music in a Sacred  Place series. In Mendelssohn’s  Paulus, the New York Times stated that Mr. Osgood “proved to be a solid and expressive tenor” after appearing on one day’s notice.  He has also performed Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ with Chorus pro Musica, Verdi’s Requiem, Britten’s War Requiem, Carmina Burana at Mechanics Hall, and, at the Northwest Bach Festival,  Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Bach’s Mass in B minor.  He has appeared at New York’s Lincoln Center in Vivaldi's L'Olimpiad and Arsilda, Regina di Ponto, and Orff's Carmina Burana as well as Mozart's Mass in C minor.  Carnegie Hall performances have included Haydn's The Creation and Messiah.  

Mr. Osgood has been a featured soloist with the Monterey County Symphony, Berkshire Choral Festival, Spectrum Singers, Voices of Ascension, North Carolina Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Back Bay Chorale, West Virginia Symphony, Boston Cecilia, Sioux City Symphony, Fredonia Chamber Players, Jacksonville Symphony, New York Choral Society, Masterworks Choral, Oregon Symphony, Brevard Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, and the Spoleto Festival USA.  His operatic roles include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with opera companies including Anchorage, Mobile, and Syracuse. He lives in Bedford, MA.
             

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May 16, 2009
Anton Belov

Baritone Anton Belov is quickly earning recognition from audiences and critics alike. His voice has been called that of an emerging star by the Philadelphia Enquirer and rich and mellifluous by the New York Times, while the Opera News describes his performance as of great emotional honesty; singing straight from the heart. 

Mr. Belov’s recent operatic appearance include Count di Luna with the Anchorage Opera, title role in Delaware Opera’s production of Don Giovanni,  John Sorel in The Consul (Menotti) with Opera Boston and Chamber Opera of Chicago, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Ping in Turandot with the Opera New Jersey and with the Connecticut Grand Opera, Malatesta in Don Pasquale with Opera Providence, Silvio with the Belleayre Festival, as well as recital appearances at Carnegie Recital Hall and the Kennedy Center.

In the upcoming season, Mr. Belov returns to Anchorage Opera as Escamillo in Carmen, appears in the roles of Conte di Luna with Westfield Symphony, Figaro with Helena Symphony, Gryaznoy in Rimsky-Korsakov's Tsar's Bride with Opera Orchestra of New York, as well as numerous orchestras around the country.  Mr. Belov is the first-place winner of eight vocal competitions including the George London Competition, Licia Albanese—Puccini Foundation International Competition, and Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Eastern Regional Winner).   

As the winner of Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Belov has appeared in over 40 recitals throughout the United States. A native of Moscow, Anton Belov holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from The New England Conserv-atory, an Artist’s Diploma, and a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School.  A specialist in Russian lyric diction, he is the author of Russian Opera Libretti in Word-to-Word Translation and IPA Transcription  and the Anthology of Russian Arias (Leyerle Publications 2004-06). Last PVS season, Mr. Below pleased concertgoers with his performance in our October 27, 2007, performance of Puccini's Messa a 4 Voci.

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May 16, 2009
Nikki Stoia

Coach/accompanist, piano soloist, singer and conductor Nikki Stoia is known for her musical versatility, with repertoire that encompasses traditional and contemporary classical and popular music. Her concert work has taken her to many U.S. cities, including New York, Washington, San Francisco and Honolulu. As accompanist for the Smith College Chamber Singers, she appeared in concert in London, Paris, Berlin, and Stockholm, among other cities. Ms. Stoia's performance as piano soloist with the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra of Gerhswin's Rhapsody in Blue and her duo-piano recital with conductor Raymond Harvey (Kalamazoo Symphony) have been aired by National Public Radio. She has also appeared in performances at various U.S. and Canadian venues as a member of the "Bob Becker Ensemble" and has performed in concerts at International Tuba and Euphonium, International Trumpet Guild, and Percussive Arts Society conferences.

Ms. Stoia is presently a Senior Lecturer in the University of Massachusetts/ Amherst Department of Music and Dance and Co-Director of its Opera Workshop, Music Chief Undergraduate Advisor, and Associate Dean of Advising for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. She is also a four-time Distinguished Teacher Award nominee and a 2006 Outstanding Academic Advisor Award winner at the University. From fall 2003 through March 2005 she was the Music Director, conductor and pianist for all the premieres and subsequent performances of the opera  The Captivation of Eunice Williams (music by Paula Kimper, libretto by Harley Erdman, conceived with Linda McInerney, Stage Director). Having served as accompanist for the Springfield Symphony Chorus for nineteen years, Ms. Stoia is now in her third year as Music Director/Conductor of this ensemble. In the summer of 2008, Ms. Stoia served as Head Vocal Coach and Chorus Master for the opera program, Italian Operatic Experience, in Urbania, Italy. She holds a Master of Music degree in Vocal Accompanying and Chamber Music from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, acknowledged as a Phi Kappa Phi graduate, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Smith College, where she majored in Music and German.

The Springfield Symphony Chorus was founded in the 1944-45 concert season to join the one-year-old Springfield Symphony Orchestra in its performance of Brahms' Schicksalslied on April 22, 1945. The Chorus has performed continuously since then with the SSO Orchestra as well as in its own performances. The chorus was under the directorship of Harold Alexander Leslie, who founded the SSO five years after starting the PVSO in Greenfield. Today, under the baton of Chorus Director Nikki Stoia, the 120-member chorus continues its collaboration with the SSO, as well as presenting choral recitals in the greater Springfield area and other venues.

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