Handel's Belshazzar

Aurora Martin  

Aurora Martin is quickly becoming known throughout New England for her colorful, warm soprano. Aurora Martin recently won 2nd place in The American Prize Frederick & Virginia Schorr Memorial Awards for Women in Opera. She was named a semi-finalist in the prestigious Partners for the

Arts 9th National Opera Competition in 2022. She joined the ensembles of Boston Baroque and Boston Lyric Opera in 2022. Aurora collaborates regularly with Odyssey Opera, The Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Sounds of Stow, the Arlington-Belmont

Chorale, Opera del West, and as performer and board member of Opera on Tap. She joined Opera Company of

Middlebury as a 2021 Young Artist, covering "Agnès Sorel" in The Maid of Orleans.

Following a love and aptitude for early music, Aurora can be found performing with some of Boston’s, and the nation’s, leading organizations. She performed the role of Dalila in Cambridge Chamber Ensemble’s September 2023 production of Handel’s Samson. The previous year, she joined them covering Venus and singing as a Grace, in John Blow’s Venus & Adonis. She had her debut with Boston Baroque in Bach’s B minor Mass in October 2022 and looks forward to singing in their exciting upcoming season. She sings with both Emmanuel Music and Marsh Chapel. December of 2020 Aurora performed and recorded two Bach Cantata’s (BWV 211 & 212) with the Lowell Chamber Orchestra.

Solo concert performances include Haydn’s Harmoniemesse Hob. XXII/14, Satie’s Socrates, Mahler’s Das Knaben Wunderhorn, Beethoven’s Mass in C

Major, Mozart's Coronation Mass, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas

Oratorio, and Fauré’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah. Operatic highlights include Dalila, Pamina, Micaëla, Miss Silvertone, Noèmie, Liesgen, and Mieke. Aurora holds a MM from The New England Conservatory and degrees in Music and Chemistry from Virginia Tech

Krista River

Mezzo-soprano Krista River has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, the Santa Fe Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society, the Florida Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony, Odyssey Opera, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and Boston Baroque. Winner of the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a Sullivan Foundation grant recipient, her opera roles include Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Anna in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring, and the title role in Handel’s Xerxes. Ms. River made her Tanglewood debut in the role of Jordan Baker in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. Other 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. For Ms. River’s solo recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the New York Times praised her "shimmering voice…with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress.” Ms. River appears on numerous recordings, including Wasting the Night: Songs (music of Scott Wheeler) and Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s recording of Tobias Picker’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, for which she won a Grammy award. 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.

Dr. Wee Kiat Chia  

Dr. Wee Kiat Chia is a Boston-based countertenor praised for his "rich and deep countertenor voice" with a "dramatic edge." His performances span across multiple countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Germany, Austria, Australia, and the United States. Dr. Chia is a regular guest artist of organizations such as Viva Bach Peterborough (USA), Bachfest Malaysia, and the International Christian Choral Conductor Society (Singapore).

As a soloist, Dr. Chia performed the US West Coast premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s The Orphic Moment at the Music Academy of the West and its Florida premiere with enSRQ, both conducted by the composer. He was also part of the premiere of Beth Morrison Projects’ Ouroboros Trilogy in Boston, where he covered the role of Xiao Qing in all three operas. Dr. Chia was a finalist in the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions New England Region.

Dr. Chia made his debut at the prestigious Bachfest Leipzig in Germany (summer 2024), where he was lauded as a "magnificent alto" by Leipziger Volkszeitung. An enthusiast in ensemble singing, Dr. Chia sings regularly with the Handel and Haydn Society Chorus, Schola Cantorum of Boston and Marsh Chapel at Boston University. He serves as a Music Associate at Colby College and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University. Additionally, he is the visiting conductor of the Ren Sing Choir in Malaysia.

Omar Najmi 

Grammy-nominated tenor Omar Najmi enjoys a dual career as a performer and composer. In the 2024-2025 season Omar debuted with LA Opera as Simon in Adoration, the Spoleto Festival as Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Seattle Symphony and Boston Baroque as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, and returned to Boston Lyric Opera as Enoch Snow in Carousel. His recent performance credits include Darius Shah in the workshop of The Many Deaths of Laila Starr at Minnesota Opera, Mr. Herz in Mozart in the Museum with Anchorage Opera, Valcour in The Anonymous Lover with Boston Lyric Opera, Enoch Snow in Carousel at First Coast Opera, and tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Tulsa Symphony. Additional credits include the role of Demler in Frederick Douglass with Opera Odyssey, a return to Boston Lyric Opera as Malcolm in Macbeth, a chamber music concert with Grace Note Farm and a concert with Commonwealth Chorale. 

In 2026, the busy singer joins hornist Radek Baborak to perform works by composer Joseph Summer at Carnegie Hall followed by a recording of the piece in Prague. Najmi joins the Tucson Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem, the Worcestershire Youth Symphony for Bruckner’s Te Deum, and Boston Baroque as Arbace in Idomeneo. He makes a role and company debut in Joseph Summer’s The Tempest with Teatro Grattacielo, and premieres The Many Deaths of Laila Starr at Minnesota Opera. Already a celebrated composer, his opera Mud Girl premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2025 as part of WNO's American Opera Initiative.

Najmi is a featured soloist on Danaë Xanthe Vlasse's album Mythologies II, which was nominated for Best Classical Compendium at the 2025 Grammy Awards. He premieres the work in 2026 with the Arkansas Symphony. He can also be heard as the title character in Hamlet and as a soloist in Who is Sylvia?, both with Navona Records, and in Centaur Records’ Enterprises of Great Pitch. He recently released his solo debut album Transformations, featuring a selection of romantic to modern classical songs including his own original song cycle More Than Our Own Caves.

In addition to his operatic performances, Najmi has appeared in concert as the tenor soloist in Mozart's Requiem with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak's Stabat Mater and Mendelssohn's Lobgesang with Greenwich Choral Society, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with Coro Allegro, Haydn's Mariazellermesse with Masterworks Chorale, and Bach's St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and Christmas Oratorio with Emmanuel Music. Najmi made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2018 as the tenor soloist in Mark Hayes' Gloria and has since returned as the soloist in Dan Forrest's Requiem for the Living and as a soloist in Talents of the World Inc's Caruso Tribute Concert..

Christopher Grundy  

Hailed by Opera News as “the likeable baritone,” Christopher Grundy is equally at home in opera, oratorio, and song recital. He received DM and MM degrees from Indiana University, studying with the celebrated German baritone Wolfgang Brendel. He completed his BA at Yale University, where he was the assistant conductor of the Yale Glee Club and the Yale Russian Chorus. A champion of new music, Christopher has premiered numerous works in collaboration with contemporary composers. He sang the role of Dr. Gachet in the premiere production of Bernard Rands’s Vincent. As a recording artist Christopher can be heard on the BIS Records, Naxos Records, and Parma Records labels. He is currently engaged to record an album of songs by Neely Bruce for Neuma Records.

Christopher is excited to return to the Falmouth Chorale, with whom he has performed the title role in Eleanor Remick Warren's The Passing of King Arthur and bass solos in Mozart's Requiem. He has performed as a soloist with Orchestra New England, New Haven Oratorio Choir, Charis Chamber Voices, Cappella Cantorum, Amor Artis, the Taconic Chorale, Bronx Opera, and Connecticut Lyric Opera, among others. Recently he performed Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Greenwich Choral Society, Duruflé's Requiem with the Fairfield County Chorale, Fauré's Requiem with the Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut, Handel's Messiah with the Danbury Concert Chorus, and Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore with Con Brio Choral Society. Last summer he performed the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Dulcamara in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Winter Harbor Music Festival.

This season Christopher performs solo recitals at the Dingle Summer Music Festival in Ireland, and at Iceland's renowned Harpa Hall in Reykjavík; the role of Taddeo in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algieri with the Winter Harbor Music Festival; Mozart's Per questa bella mano with the American Chamber Orchestra; Mozart's Requiem with the Stamford Chorale; Schubert's Winterreise at Wesleyan University; and Mozart's Coronation Mass with the Fairfield County Chorale.

Christopher is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Programs at Sacred Heart University's School of Performing Arts and Director of Music at the Unitarian Society of New Haven. In 2024 he made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut with renowned violinist Alexander Markov on the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. He is also a commercially licensed helicopter pilot and flight instructor.