Samson

Ray Bauwens is well known to audiences in the New England area. His musicianship, acting and vocal skills have drawn praise from audiences and critics alike. Some of Mr. Bauwens’ operatic performances have included such roles as Jean in Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre Dame, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Enzo in La Gioconda and Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. He is equally at home in oratorio and concert works as his performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Verdi’s Requiem and Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem among others will attest.

Mr. Bauwens has performed with the National Symphony of the Ukraine, the Mexico State Symphony Orchestra, Boston Academy of Music, Connecticut Concert Opera, Opera Providence, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Warren Symphony, the New Bedford Symphony, the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Symphony, Boston Civic Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, the Concord Orchestra, the New Philharmonia Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, Symphony Pro Musica and even the Boston Ballet in Lila York’s staging of the final movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Other operatic roles have also included Anatol in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Matteo in Strauss’ Arabella, the title role in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, Canio in I Pagliacci, Don Alvaro in Giuseppe Verdi’s original St. Petersburg version of La Forza Del Destino, Leicester in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Pollione in Norma, Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte and Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen.

Mr. Bauwens’ concert and oratorio performances include Elijah, Messiah, the Petite Messe Solennelle of Rossini, J.S. Bach’s B-Minor Mass, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, Requiem, and Mass in C, La Vida Breve by Manuel de Falla, Hector Berlioz’ Romeo et Juliette, St. Paul by Felix Mendelssohn, and the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion.

Mr. Bauwens has recorded Samuel Barber’s Vanessa with the National Symphony of the Ukraine in Kiev, which has been released by Naxos Records.
 

Ms. Callinan is noted for her exciting portrayals of Frasquita in Carmen in her Michigan Opera Theatre and Opera New Jersey debut; Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute with the Boston Lyric Opera tour; Valencienne in The Merry Widow at Cape Code Opera; Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Adele in Die Fledermaus with both Mississippi Opera and Salt Marsh Opera; Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Opera Theatre of Connecticut; and Lakmé with the Connecticut Concert Opera.

Additional previous engagements include Yum-Yum in the Mikado with the Gilbert & Sullivan Society; Josephine in H.M.S Pinafore with Simsbury Light Opera; Adele in Die Fledermaus with Intermezzo Young Artist Program; and multiple performances with the former Connecticut Opera including Frasquita in Carmen, Gianetta in L’Elisir d’Amore, Elvira in L’Italiana in Algeri, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, Despina in Così Fan Tutte, Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni.

On the concert stage, she has recently performed Carmina Burana with the Falmouth Chorale, Monica/Girl in The Medium/Trouble in Tahiti with Connecticut Concert Opera, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore with the Farmington Valley Chorale, and has appeared in several concert events with the Hartford Symphony and the Sanibel Music Festival.

Ms. Callinan made her first international appearance winning the Jenny Lind Competition, which resulted in a recital tour in Sweden. She is a 2009 and 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition Regional Finalist and was also awarded first prize in the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, first prize winner and winner of the “Most Promising Coloratura” award in the Amici Competition, a finalist in the Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Competition and most recently, won second prize at the Peter Elvins Vocal Competition.

Ms. Callinan, a native of Worcester, MA, attended the Hartt School of Music, graduated Magna cum laude from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music and a Performer’s Certificate in Voice.
 

Mezzo-soprano Kara Cornell is a classically trained stage and concert performer, possessing a voice that is “impeccably focused, bright but rich in color, and with phrasing that is a marvel of taste and an intuitive sense of form.” (Berkshire Review, 4/09) Her fine acting has made her quite a busy and versatile performer, portraying roles ranging from a “totally endearing” Cinderella in Into the Woods (St. Petersburg Times) to a “seductive, wounded, damaged and dangerous” Carmen in The Tragedy of Carmen. (The Troy Record) Ms. Cornell has recently performed leading roles (ranging from evil witches to pubescent boys) with Union Avenue Opera, Center City Opera (Philadelphia), St. Petersburg Opera (Florida) Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and in New York with Mosaic-Arts, Capital Opera, Stony Brook Opera, Musaic Concert Series, Northport Opera and Hubbard Hall Opera Theater. This summer Ms. Cornell will be returning to Pittsburgh to sing the title role in Carmen.

Equally comfortable on the concert stage, Ms. Cornell has been a concert and recital soloist with numerous orchestras and choirs, including The US Naval Academy, Aspen Opera, The California Music Festival, The Pittsburgh Camerata, and in New York with Lake George Opera, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Long Island Fringe Fesitval, Sembrich Opera Museum, The Octavo Singers, Burnt Hills Oratorio Society and Albany Pro Musica.

A fan of collaboration and cross-over, Ms. Cornell often works with composers and has premiered many songs and operas. (She can be heard as the female soloist on the recording of Sacred Songs and Interludes, an oratorio written by Nancy Galbraith in 2007.) Ms. Cornell also collaborates with jazz bands, dance troupes and performs “opera electronica” with DJ mix accompaniment. Most recently, Ms. Cornell is beginning to perform in venues across the country as a member of Bella Diva, a stylish operatic-pop trio.

Ms. Cornell earned her bachelors degree from Carnegie Mellon University and her masters from Stony Brook University. She is a Long Island native who currently lives in Albany, NY. In addition to performing, Ms. Cornell teaches voice lessons at The Emma Willard School, in the musical theater department at Russell Sage College, and maintains a private studio.

 

In recent seasons he has sung a wide array of challenging operatic roles including Johann Mattes, the protagonist in Weill’s monumental Die Bürgschaft at the international Kurt Weill Festival in Dessau, Germany; Trinity Moses in Opera Boston’s production of Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny; Cadmus in Handel’s Semele under the direction of Christopher Hogwood for the Handel & Haydn Society; and both John Proctor in The Crucible and Alidoro in La Cenerentola at Lyric Opera Cleveland.

For Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, he was featured in the title role of Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis, as well as in the world premiere of JAZZ OPERA - Just Above My Head, based on James Baldwin’s last novel. He performed the Speaker in a live New England PBS broadcast of The Magic Flute; the world premiere of Vanqui by Leslie Burrs-John Williams with Opera Columbus; the High Priest in El Paso Opera’s production of Samson et Dalila; the title character in The Mikado with The Bostonians, Boston Academy of Music (now, Opera Boston) and Cape Cod Opera; Tonio in Pagliacci, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, all for Granite State Opera; and Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia with Boston’s Prism Opera.

Highlights of recent concert engagements include performances of Bach’s St. John Passion, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, major excerpts from Bernstein’s Mass, the Requiem of both Brahms and Fauré, Dvorák’s Te Deum, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation, the New York premiere of Mendelssohn’s Grosse Festmusik zum Dürerfest, Orff’s Carmina Burana, the Sea Symphony and Dona Nobis Pacem of Vaughan Williams, and Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast which he sang in Boston with the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus and in Korea with the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra.

Philip Lima has been a guest artist with numerous organizations, including Amor Artis of New York; Boston Ballet; Boston Baroque; Canterbury Choral Society (Oklahoma); Handel & Haydn Society; Harvard University Collegium Musicum; Memphis Symphony; New Hampshire Music Festival; ensembles in North Carolina, including the Eastern Music Festival, Music for a Great Space, and the Ashville Choral Society; Oklahoma City Philharmonic; Portland (Maine) Ballet; San Diego Chamber Orchestra; Winter Park (Florida) Bach Festival; and the orchestras of Champaign-Urbana and Rockford (Illinois), Monterey and Santa Rosa (California), Lancaster (Pennsylvania), Springfield and New Bedford (Massachusetts); and Richmond (Virginia).

As a solo recitalist, Mr. Lima debuted in Rome with a concert of spirituals in 2000, and at Boston’s historic Jordan Hall singing music of Joaquin Rodrigo in 2001. His 2005 performance of Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Beverly Orlove was described by The Boston Phoenix as one of Boston’s “Unforgettable Classical Events of 2005.”

A native of New Bedford, MA, and a graduate of Yale University in literary theory, he is an alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center, and did graduate work at Boston University where he received the Vocal Achievement Award.