Evanne Browne, soprano: Sensitive musicianship and a voice described as “clear” with “sweet highs” and “an impressive range” have brought soprano Evanne Browne engagements with many outstanding early music ensembles including the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Folger Consort, The Orchestra of the 17th Century, and the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt Ensemble. She is a frequent performer of Baroque, Renaissance and Medieval works with period instruments including staged versions of the medieval Play of Daniel, Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneus at the Kennedy Center, and a celebrated performance of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo virtutum at the Washington National Cathedral. Currently living in Colorado, she has also been soloist with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, the Boulder Bach Festival, and in 2011 founded Seicento Baroque Ensemble, Colorado’s premier choir specializing in performance of baroque music. This spring she sings French Baroque with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado and a concert of American music in Vienna, Austria, with Musikanten. Evanne previously performed with Armonia Nova for the Washington Early Music Festival and at DePauw University where they presented a Hildegard von Bingen as part of the Performing Arts Series. She holds a Master of Music degree from the Shepherd School of Music and studied Baroque performance practices with baritone Max van Egmond at the Sweelinck Conservatory while living in Amsterdam.
A critically-acclaimed oratorio and concert singer, Marjorie Bunday has been a featured soloist (both alto and mezzo-soprano roles) with many DC, Maryland, and Virginia based choral and chamber ensembles over the years, in US and European concerts, including Washington Bach Consort, Hesperus, Armonia Nova, Alexandria Choral Society, Cantate Chamber Singers, Musikanten, Cathedral Choral Society "Summer Sing," Washington Choral Ensemble, University of Virginia Glee Club, Woodley Ensemble, and Washington Men's Camerata. Outside of the Washington area, she has had solos with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, Magnificat, (with a Denver Bach Society B Minor Mass coming up in October 2007); and she is an artist-in-residence with Musikanten Montana's Helena Choral Week yearly since 2004, performing and teaching workshops on choral technique and madrigal singing. Ms. Bunday, a near-life-long resident of the DC area, can be heard in many venues across the city, as she is in great demand as a professional chorister, small ensemble singer, and church singer. Although best-known for her performances of the early and baroque music repertoire, she has added her voice to many U.S. and world premieres of choral music, art song, and chamber music.
Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano, has had career high points singing Bach at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Monteverdi at San Marco in Venice and the St. Matthew Passion one-to-a-part with Tafelmusik in Toronto. She has appeared with many of the East Coast's finest early music groups, including Chatham Baroque, the Four Nations Ensemble, The Washington Bach Consort, and The New York Collegium, and has sung under the baton of eminent conductors such as Christopher Hogwood and Andrew Parrott. She also performs extensively in Manhattan and its environs as a member of the NY-based chamber group ARTEK which received audience ovations and critical acclaim at its performance in the Regensburg (Germany) Festival for Early Music. Ms. Hollinshead began her vocal studies at her opera-singing mother's knee, and as an adult has studied with coaches in New York, Washington, and with Max Van Egmond in the Netherlands. Her discography includes recordings of solo lute songs with lutenist Howard Bass, Renaissance Spanish and Sephardic music with La Rondinella, and works by Mrs. H.H. Beach. Ms. Hollinshead rounds out her musical contributions with educational endeavors as professor of voice at American University, a leader of master classes on Renaissance and Baroque styles and a cast member of "Bach to School." When not performing, you can find her judging dive competitions and proudly listening to her sons sing at evensong services.
Dr. Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, mezzo-soprano, was a member of the world-renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4 from 2000 to 2015. She recorded twelve award-winning CDs with the group, including American Angels which twice topped Billboard’s classical music charts, and The Cherry Tree, one of the top-selling classical CDs of 2010. Anonymous 4’s performance of the Irish lament “Caoineadh” on Christopher Tin’s album Calling All Dawns, with Jacqueline as featured soloist, led to a Grammy for Best Classical Music Crossover Album. She is currently artistic and music director of ModernMedieval, a women’s ensemble dedicated to creating programs that combine early music with new commissions. The ensemble also gives residencies at universities, working with student composers on writing music for small vocal ensemble. She has been a guest soloist with many renowned ensembles and opera companies, including Carmel Bach Festival, English National Opera, Washington Bach Consort, Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Folger Consort, Armonia Nova, Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, and Ensemble InterContemporain Paris, performing at many of the world’s leading venues, including Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Disney Concert Hall. Dr. Horner-Kwiatek has a D.M.A. from the Juilliard School and is on the performance faculty at Princeton, where she teaches voice and works with Early Music Princeton. She teaches voice at Columbia University and Fordham University, where she also acts as music director and conductor of the Fordham Collegium. She is in demand as a clinician and gives master classes, ensemble technique workshops, and vocal pedagogy for composers’ seminars all over the USA. For more information, visit JacquelineHorner.com.
Charles Humphries was born in the United Kingdom, graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, London and was honored with the letters ARAM (Associate Royal Academy of Music) for his services to music. Known for his intelligent interpretations of baroque and renaissance music, he has been one of the most sought after countertenors worldwide for the past twenty years in concert, recital and opera. With a discography of over forty recordings with all the world's specialist ensembles, both as a soloist and as a consort singer, he has been paired with a number of very distinguishes conductors and directors including Sir John Eilot Gardiner, the late Richard Hickox, Paul McCreesh, Rober King, Rinaldo Allessandrini, Nicholas McGegan, James O'Donnell, Trevor Pinnock and Lars Ulrik Mortensen. Charles left the UK and now resides in Washington DC where his career continues to flourish. While living on the East Coast, collaborations with major baroque ensembles has taken him as far afield as California (Bach Collegium San Diego), Texas (Ensemble viii) and New York (John Scott), to name just a few. In DC, he has worked with ensembles such as the Washington Bach Consort and the Bach Sinfonia. Charles is in high demand as a vocal consultant and has a highly successful private studio in Washington. He is a visiting professor at George Washington University and has held master classes at Catholic University, Washington.
Countertenor Corey McKnight studied vocal music at the University of Idaho, working privately with Soprano, Dorothy Barnes, and later studied with Tenor, William Miller, Professor Emeritus from the University of Illinois. In 1991, Corey was summoned by the two-time Grammy Award winning vocal ensemble, Chanticleer, touring several countries and all 50 states in the U.S. While with Chanticleer, he had the privilege of collaborating with the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Ensemble Alcatraz. Corey has had the fortune of singing on 12 Chanticleer recordings. Two of the songs from those recordings are also part of the movie soundtrack for the Jack Black film "Nacho Libre." Corey has also sung with The American Bach Soloists, The Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and The Schola Cantorum at the Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi, in San Francisco, the Boise Philharmonic, the Boise Baroque Orchestra, Opera Idaho, and the Langroise Trio. Since living in the DC area, Corey has sung the Alto solos from "Messiah" for the Saint Luke Catholic Church, and performed regularly with The Church of the Ascension and St. Agnes with Owen Burdick. Corey has recorded on the Chanticleer, Lyrichord, Koch, Swansea, Teldec and Warner-Elektra labels. He has also released two solo recordings, "My Solitude" and "Warm Christmas Morning," which can be found on cdbaby.com and with other retailers.
Craig Resta holds degrees from the University of Maryland College Park, Indiana University, and Baylor University. His principal violin teachers include Kevin Lawrence, Stanley Ritchie, and Davis Brooks; research and performance practice mentors are Marie McCarthy, Thomas Binkley, and Harry Elzinga. Performing opportunities have included programs at The Round Top Festival, The Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals, and The Bloomington and Washington Early Music Festivals; with concert and recital appearances in Texas, Indiana, California, Georgia, Washington DC, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Ohio, and abroad in Switzerland, Germany, and China. Instrumental experience includes the modern and baroque violin and viola, as well as the medieval vielle and rebec. Also a string pedagogue, Dr. Resta is currently Associate Professor of Instrumental Music Education at Kent State University where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in string pedagogy, pre-service music teacher education, and music education foundational studies.
Countertenor Jay White has enjoyed a variety of performing experiences ranging from the works of Bach to Britten appearing with major early music ensembles across the U.S. Sought after as an interpreter of medieval, renaissance and baroque repertoire, he has appeared at national and international early music festivals. Dr. White sang eight seasons with the internationally acclaimed ensemble, Chanticleer, with whom he traveled to over 40 states and nearly 20 foreign countries, appearing in major venues throughout the world and with whom he recorded 14 albums, including two GRAMMY® Award-winning recordings. No stranger to the airwaves, Dr. White has also been heard on National Public Radio and Public Radio International programs throughout the world. Having received his training at the Early Music Institute at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and the School of Music at the University of Maryland, Dr. White has taught at the University of Maryland, the University of Delaware, DePauw University (IN), and is currently an Associate Professor of Voice at Kent State University (OH).
|