Saturday, December 1, 2018 - 8:00 pm - Mechanics Hall
PROGRAM
J. S. Bach
Magnificat (BWV 243)
Cantatas:
Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (BWV 1)
Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen (BWV 51)
ABOUT THE SOLOISTS
American Soprano, Susan Consoli has led an active and versatile career throughout the United States and abroad with repertoire ranging from Bach to Harbison to Gershwin. She has worked under such notable conductors as Grant Llewellyn, Paul Goodwin, Harry Christophers, Bruno Weil, Laurence Cummings, Odaline (Chachi) de la Martinez, Craig Smith, John Finney, James David Christie and Ryan Turner. Additional collaborations include director/choreographer Chen Shi-Zheng and Tero Saarinen, as composers Peter Child, David Patterson and John Harbison of whom she premiered (Boston) his work A Clear Midnight and Vocalism . Festivals include: Festival CLASSIQUE au vert, Boston Early Music Festival, Movimentos Internationales, TanzFestiva l, LAOKOON Festival , Ribeauvillé Festival de Musique Ancienne, and the Carmel Bach Festival. Appearances with Boston Camerata & Tero Saarinen Dance Company include: Borrowed Light in Paris at the Théâtre National de Chaillot, Berlin, Hamburg, Wolfsburg, Oulu and Tampere, An American Vocalist & Saw ye my hero in Paris and Travellin’ Home in Ribeauvillé. This is Ms. Consoli’s 11th season as a soloist with Emmanuel Music. Highlights include Beethoven Ah perfido! , Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito , Handel Apollo e Dafne , Bach Mass in B Minor , Handel Alexander's Feast and over thirty Bach cantatas. Ms. Consoli was the Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow for the 2010-2011 season. Upcoming solo engagements include, Handel Messiah with Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey for her debut performance at Carnegie Hall, Bach Phoebus and Pan with Emmanuel Music, Carson Cooman The Revelations of Divine Love with the newly named Commonwealth Chorale, Haydn Lord Nelson Mass with Emmanuel Music under the direction of David Angus. Ms. Consoli’s recordings include Handel & Haydn Society All is Bright for Avie Records and David Patterson Loon’s Tail Flashing for Albany Records. She is a soloist with Voices of Hope, a non-profit organization supporting cancer research. Ms. Consoli resides north of Boston with her husband, Ryan Turner and their two children.
Hailed by Opera News for her “lovely clarity and golden color,” mezzo-soprano Krista Riveris a versatile performer who is at home in repertoire ranging from the Baroque period to the 21st century. She was a winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a 2007 grant recipient from the Sullivan Foundation. Recent 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. The New York Times praised her debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, lauding “her shimmering voice...with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress."
Recent opera appearances include the title role in Carmen at Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito with Emmanuel Music, Mrs. Fox in Tobias Picker’s Fantastic Mr. Fox with Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Mercury Baroque (Houston) and the Connecticut Early Music Festival, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with the North Carolina Symphony, Annio in La clemenza di Tito with Opera Boston, Narcissus in Boston Baroque’s Agrippina , Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the title role in Handel’s Xerxes with Arcadia Players. Ms. River made her Tanglewood debut in the role of Jordan Baker in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby .
Ms. River’s orchestral engagements have included appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, York Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Pittsburgh Bach and Baroque Ensemble, the Cape Cod Symphony, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. She has performed as a guest artist at music festivals including John Harbison’s Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Monadnock Music, Music from Salem, Saco River Festival, Meeting House Music Festival on Cape Cod, and the Portland Chamber Music Festival in Maine.
A contemporary music advocate, Ms. River has premiered works by numerous composers including Tom Cipullo, Howard Frazin, Thomas Schnauber and Herschel Garfein. She created the role of Genevieve in Brian Hulse’s chamber opera The Game at the Kennedy Center, as part of its Millennium Stage series. She sang the world premiere of Scott Wheeler’s Turning Back at her 2008 solo recital at Weill Recital Hall, and is featured on two of Wheeler’s CDs — The Construction of Boston , recorded live with Boston Cecilia, and Wasting the Night: Songs — both released on Naxos Records.
Ms. River began her musical career as a cellist, earning her music degree at St. Olaf College. She resides in Boston and is a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music’s renowned Bach Cantata Series.
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. charlesblandy.com
Stephan P. Barnicle, a Worcester native, taught choruses, orchestra and music technology in Connecticut High Schools from 1970 to 2004 when he retired and moved to Fayetteville, NC where he served as Director of Music Ministry at St. Patrick Catholic Church and the Artistic Director of the CANTATE Chamber Choir and the St. Patrick Music for Charity concert series for nine years.
Mr. Barnicle has appeared as guest soloist and conductor throughout the U.S. and in Europe. His solo roles have included several Operas, Oratorios and recitals here and abroad. His compositions and arrangements are often programmed by all-state and festival choirs here and abroad, including the Worcester Chorus in 2011 and in the recent Armenian Genocide Centennial concert at Mechanics Hall. Another composition, a setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Bells” was premiered here in Mechanics Hall by the Master Singers of Worcester, the Salisbury Singers and Handbell Choir of First Congregational Church of Shrewsbury in the Spring of 2017. He was the Music Director of the Visit Canada International Polychoral Festival in Montreal and Quebec for a decade.
During the summer of 2013 Steve returned to Worcester and accepted the position of Director of Music Ministry at the First Congregational Church of Paxton, and has joined the faculty of the Joy of Music Program as a Recorder and Voice teacher.
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