Handel’s Messiah and C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat

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.

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.

Gregory Zavracky

Praised for his “musically deployed light tenor voice,” (Opera News), “strong comic singing,” (Boston Globe) “clarion tone,” and “glowing intensity,” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), tenor Gregory Zavracky is a frequent performer on opera, concert and recital stages.

Gregory has recently sung Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène with Odyssey Opera, Handel’s Messiah with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Matt Aucoin’s Crossing with the American Repertory Theater, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville with Townsend Opera, Britten’s Les Illuminations with the Aurea Ensemble, Tamino in Boston Lyric Opera’s family production of The Magic Flute, Purcell’s Tempest with the Henry Purcell Society of Boston, Bach’s Magnificat with Back Bay Chorale, Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi and Buoso’s Ghost with Opera Saratoga, Ernesto in Don Pasquale with Opera in the Heights, Ferrando in Così Fan Tutte with Cape Cod Opera, Prince Dauntless in Once Upon a Mattress with Chautauqua Opera, and in opera and pops concerts with both the Chautauqua and Utah Symphony. 

A frequent soloist with such groups as the Providence Singers, Commonwealth Chorale, Coro Allegro, Chorus Pro Musica, the Masterworks Chorale, Nashoba Valley Chorale, Falmouth Chorale and Orchestra and the Harvard Radcliffe Society, his most frequently performed works include Carmina Burana, Messiah, Haydn Lord Nelson Mass, Mozart Requiem, and Bach Magnificat. 

He has sung in the world premieres of Five Boroughs Music Festival’s Five Borough Songbook, David Wolfson’s Faith Operas, Ketty Nez’s The Fiddler and the Old Woman of Rumelia, James Yannatos’ Rocket’s Red Blare, Anthony DeRitis’ Three American Songs, Steven Sametz’ A Child’s Requiem, and Dan Shore’s Works of Mercy. 

Gregory has recently given recitals at the Highland Center for the Arts, Highfield Hall, the Cotuit Center for the Arts, University of Connecticut, and Brown University. He is a frequent performer in the Handel and Haydn Society ensemble. He was an award winner in the Gerda Lissner Foundation competition and a finalist in the Liederkranz and Connecticut Opera Guild competitions.

Gregory is in his seventh year as a voice instructor at the University of Connecticut and fourth year as a teaching associate at Brown University. He has spent nine summers on faculty at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He is a board member and the American art song editor for the website, SongHelix. Scholarly writings include his dissertation, “Libby Larsen’s My Ántonia: The Song Cycle and the Tonal Landscape of the American Prairie,” and two articles: “A Guide to Libby Larsen’s My Ántonia,” published in the March/April 2018 issue of the Journal of Singing and “A Guide to Tom Cipullo’s Captivating Song Cycle, Late Summer,” slated for publication in the May/June 2020 Journal of Singing.

As a composer, he has received commissions and awards for his music, which may be heard on his Soundcloud page: soundcloud.com/greg-zavracky/sets.  His music has recently been programmed by various concert series including Calliope’s Call (MA), Music of Norway Pond (NH), Virginia Tech, and the Cotuit Center for the Arts (MA). Gregory has twice been a finalist for the NATS Art Song Award for his song cycles Sea Garden and Slabs of the Sunburnt West. 

Gregory received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University. Previous degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in music from Emory University, followed by two Master of Music degrees from New England Conservatory in voice performance and opera studies as a student of Edward Zambara.

Richard Giarusso is a teacher, performer, speaker, and writer who seeks to build meaning, relationship, and understanding through the study, contemplation, and performance of music. With practical and scholarly experience in a wide range of repertoire, he seeks to engage audiences of diverse backgrounds and interests in dynamic conversations about music and its relationship to history, culture, and creativity. He has a particular interest in inter-disciplinary dialogues about music and the arts and takes great pleasure in crafting experiences that stimulate creative thinking and critical awareness among participants. An award-winning teacher and visionary academic leader, he is Dean of Academic Affairs at the New England Conservatory and was previously Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Musicology at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Also active as a conductor and singer, he served as music director of the Georgetown Chorale (DC), the Voce Chamber Singers (VA), and the Maryland Choral Society, and he maintains a career as a soloist and ensemble musician throughout the Atlantic corridor. Trained at Williams and Harvard, Richard is a life-long learner shaped by the guidance and inspiration of exceptional mentors who modeled the patterns of inquiry and exploration that he seeks to uphold in his life and work. His non-musical interests include architecture and interior design, traditional French cookery, woodworking, Anglican spirituality, and the beauties of the natural world. He resides in Acton, Massachusetts, with his wife, Allison, three very curious cats, and his seven-year old son, Adrian.