With orchestra and soloists
Saturday, March 16, 2024 – 4PM
Sunday, March 17, 2024 – 3PM
Simon Center for the Arts, Falmouth Academy
Described as “sunny”, “supple” and “soaring,” soprano Carley DeFranco is known for her committed dramatic portrayals. Highlights of her 2022-23 season include Britten’s Les Illuminations and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (Emmanuel Music), Mozart’s Requiem (Symphony New Hampshire), Debussy Sirénes (Lorelei Ensemble and Boston Ballet) and Christopher Tin’s Lost Birds with VOCES 8.
Carley has sung 80 cantatas with Emmanuel Music in their Bach Cantata Series and has been a featured soloist in Harbison’s Chorale Cantata, St. John Passion, Magnificat, Mass in B Minor and Christmas Oratorio. She was Angelo in Emmanuel’s staged recording of La Resurrezione and Lucy Lockit in Britten's The Beggar’s Opera. This season, she sings in concert with Handel & Haydn Society,, Boston Baroque, True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus, Con Brio Choral Society, the American Soloists Ensemble and the National Chorus of Korea.
Carley’s operatic credits include Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) with Boston Opera Collaborative, The Rose (The Little Prince) with NEMPAC Opera Project, the title role in Alcina with Opera del West and many premieres in Boston Opera Collaborative’s critically-acclaimed festival of ten-minute operas: Opera Bites. Carley is a current soprano scholar with VOCES 8 and a former Lorraine Hunt Lieberman fellow with Emmanuel Music. She is the Director of After School Music at Dexter Southfield, Instructor of Voice with the Holden Voice Program at Harvard University, and teaches voice and piano out of her home in Somerville, MA. www.carleydefranco.com
Contralto Katherine Growdon’s performances have been praised as “incisively authoritative” (New York Times) and demonstrating “heart-rending emotion, and excellent control” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Her voice is described as ranging from “sweet and creamy-toned” (Boston Classical Review) to “full of dusky colors and pathos” (Boston Globe). In concert, she has made solo appearances with, among others, the Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Emmanuel Music, Upper Valley Baroque, Mark Morris Dance Group, Boston Pops, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Albany Symphony, Northwest Bach Festival, American Bach Soloists and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Notable operatic performances include Myrtle Wilson in the Boston première of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby and Dido and the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Mark Morris Dance Group. Katherine has received fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, and the Carmel Bach Festival. She holds a M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Oberlin College, and teaches voice at Phillips Academy Andover. Upcoming performances include alto soloist/ensemble in Bach’s Johannes-Passion with Upper Valley Baroque and a recital featuring songs by Hanns Eisler and Margaret Bonds.
Tenor Brendan Buckley recently Brendan made his Boston Symphony Hall debut as Giuseppe in Verdi’s La Traviata with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Brendan also made his Seiji Ozawa Hall debut in 2019 performing Schubert’s Mass in G with the Berkshire Lyric Chorus. Brendan played George Gibbs in Monadnock Music’s production of Ned Rorem’s Our Town, the premiere recording of which was released on New World Records. He can also be heard in Cape Ann Opera’s Global Music Award winning recording of Robert J. Bradshaw’s steampunk opera Deus Ex Machina. Brendan has also often worked with Guerilla Opera, most recently playing the role of the Nurse in Hannah Lash’s Beowulf.
Operatic role highlights include Fenton in Falstaff, Laurie in Little Women, (Boston Opera Collaborative) and Candide (Manchester Choral Society). Concert performances include engagements with the Amherst College Symphony, Nashua Symphony, Greater New Bedford Choral Society, Choral Art Society of the South Shore, and MIT Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Buckley is currently Visiting Lecturer of Voice at Plymouth State University, is a faculty member of the New England Conservatory’s School of Continuing Education, and is the former Massachusetts District Governor of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Brendan also runs his own private studio out of his home in North Reading, MA. Students of Mr. Buckley are NATS competition winners and have gone on to perform and teach throughout New England. Former students have also continued studies at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, King’s College London, and Molloy/CAP21 Theatre Arts Conservatory, among others.
Brendan received a Master’s degree in Voice Performance and Pedagogy from The Pennsylvania State University and his Bachelor’s degree in Music at The University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Brendan studies with Elisabeth Phinney. For more information, visit www.brendanpbuckley.com
Hailed by Opera News as “the likeable baritone,” Christopher Grundy is equally at home in opera, oratorio, and song recital. His opera credits include title roles in Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, where he “made an impact in the role, vocally and dramatically” (Herald Tribune), as well as such diverse roles as Baron Ochs (Der Rosenkavalier); Count Danilo (The Merry Widow); Vicar Gedge (Albert Herring); Mr. Alfieri (View from the Bridge); and Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus).
Christopher received his Doctor of Music from Indiana University, studying with the celebrated German baritone Wolfgang Brendel. He completed his B.A. 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 original production of Bernard Rands’s Vincent. On one week’s notice he learned the lead baritone role for the world premiere of Decameron with the International Opera Theatre of Philadelphia, to critical acclaim.
As a recording artist Christopher can be heard on the Naxos Records and Parma Records labels. He is currently engaged in recording the songs of the enigmatic English composer Kaikhosru Sorabji for BIS Records.
In his home state of Connecticut, Christopher has often performed as a soloist with ensembles such as Orchestra New England, Connecticut Lyric Opera, Fairfield County Chorale, Stamford Chorale, Con Brio, Cappella Cantorum, Wall Street Chamber Players, Hartford Women Composers Festival, Cuatro Puntos Ensemble, Opera Theatre of Yale College, and others.
Christopher is Director of Choral Programs at Sacred Heart University, where he leads the university’s Concert Choir, as well as 4 Heart Harmony, the select SATB Chamber Choir. He is the Director of Music at the Unitarian Society of New Haven. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Club of Stamford. Recently he was honored to become a founding board member of the Neely Bruce Music Foundation. He is a commercially-licensed helicopter pilot and flight instructor.
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