Messiah Soloists - 2016
Esther Heideman, Soprano
The New York Times has described the silvery, pure, sweet tone of Esther Heideman’s voice as “angelic,” and has even compared her to a young Beverly Sills. In 2000, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a year later she made her Metropolitan Opera debut singing Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
Ms. Heideman was raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, and never took a voice lesson until she was 18. In college she discovered her true passion for performing, and has dedicated her life to it ever since. She has performed with major orchestras throughout the world, such as the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Boston Baroque, Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Orquestra del Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Rotterdam Philharmonic. She also spent a year living and performing in Beijing, with the Beijing New Music Ensemble.
In addition to performing traditional concert repertoire, Ms. Heideman has featured prominently in the premieres of some of today's most respected contemporary composers. These have included the role of Jenny Lind in Libby Larsen’s opera Barnum’s Bird, Sister Angelica in The Three Hermits by Stephen Paulus, The Revelation of St. John by Daniel Schnyder, as well as Deus Passus by Wolfgang Rihm.
Ms. Heideman is currently recording a CD to be released later this year. This is her second appearance with The Masterwork Chorus. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the chorus in 1998.
The New York Times has described the silvery, pure, sweet tone of Esther Heideman’s voice as “angelic,” and has even compared her to a young Beverly Sills. In 2000, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a year later she made her Metropolitan Opera debut singing Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
Ms. Heideman was raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, and never took a voice lesson until she was 18. In college she discovered her true passion for performing, and has dedicated her life to it ever since. She has performed with major orchestras throughout the world, such as the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Boston Baroque, Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Orquestra del Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Rotterdam Philharmonic. She also spent a year living and performing in Beijing, with the Beijing New Music Ensemble.
In addition to performing traditional concert repertoire, Ms. Heideman has featured prominently in the premieres of some of today's most respected contemporary composers. These have included the role of Jenny Lind in Libby Larsen’s opera Barnum’s Bird, Sister Angelica in The Three Hermits by Stephen Paulus, The Revelation of St. John by Daniel Schnyder, as well as Deus Passus by Wolfgang Rihm.
Ms. Heideman is currently recording a CD to be released later this year. This is her second appearance with The Masterwork Chorus. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the chorus in 1998.
Krista River, Mezzo-soprano
Winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a 2007 Sullivan Foundation grant recipient, mezzo-soprano Krista River is well respected on both the opera and concert stages. She was praised by The New York Times for her “shimmering voice…with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress” in her recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
Ms. 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. 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. 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.
Ms. River’s 2016-17 performances include a series of recitals with pianist Steven Porter, and appearances with Emmanuel Music, the Purcell Society, New England Philharmonic, and Arts Emerson. 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.
Winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a 2007 Sullivan Foundation grant recipient, mezzo-soprano Krista River is well respected on both the opera and concert stages. She was praised by The New York Times for her “shimmering voice…with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress” in her recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
Ms. 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. 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. 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.
Ms. River’s 2016-17 performances include a series of recitals with pianist Steven Porter, and appearances with Emmanuel Music, the Purcell Society, New England Philharmonic, and Arts Emerson. 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.
Ryan Turner, Tenor
Tenor Ryan Turner has performed to critical acclaim in oratorio, opera, and musical theatre throughout the United States and Europe. In recent seasons he has appeared with the Handel & Haydn Society, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Apollo’s Fire, Carmel Bach Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Emmanuel Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Seattle Baroque, Boston Camerata, Tero Saarinen Company (Dance), and Lyric Opera Cleveland. He has sung under the baton of noted conductors Christopher Hogwood, Jane Glover, Grant Llewellyn, Paul McCreesh, Rinaldo Allessandrini, Bruno Weil, Benjamin Zander, Jeannette Sorrell, Craig Smith and John Harbison. His discography includes Bach BWV 76 with Emmanuel Music, Praetorius’s Christmas Vespers with Apollo’s Fire and Kapsberger’s Apotheosis with Ensemble Abendmusik.
Mr. Turner is also active as a conductor and teacher. Now in his seventh season as Artistic Director of Boston’s Emmanuel Music, he has conducted over 150 Bach cantatas, the B Minor Mass, the Passions of John, Mark and Matthew and the Christmas Oratorio, in addition to major works by Stravinsky, Mozart, Handel and John Harbison. His operatic conducting repertoire ranges from Purcell to Mozart to Stravinsky, including recent guest engagements with the Boston Lyric Opera and Harbison’s The Great Gatsby at Tanglewood.
Ryan Turner is on the voice, conducting and early music faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. He lives north of Boston with his wife, soprano Susan Consoli and their two children, Aidan and Caroline. This is Mr. Turner’s second appearance with The Masterwork Chorus in Messiah.
Tenor Ryan Turner has performed to critical acclaim in oratorio, opera, and musical theatre throughout the United States and Europe. In recent seasons he has appeared with the Handel & Haydn Society, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Apollo’s Fire, Carmel Bach Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Emmanuel Music, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Seattle Baroque, Boston Camerata, Tero Saarinen Company (Dance), and Lyric Opera Cleveland. He has sung under the baton of noted conductors Christopher Hogwood, Jane Glover, Grant Llewellyn, Paul McCreesh, Rinaldo Allessandrini, Bruno Weil, Benjamin Zander, Jeannette Sorrell, Craig Smith and John Harbison. His discography includes Bach BWV 76 with Emmanuel Music, Praetorius’s Christmas Vespers with Apollo’s Fire and Kapsberger’s Apotheosis with Ensemble Abendmusik.
Mr. Turner is also active as a conductor and teacher. Now in his seventh season as Artistic Director of Boston’s Emmanuel Music, he has conducted over 150 Bach cantatas, the B Minor Mass, the Passions of John, Mark and Matthew and the Christmas Oratorio, in addition to major works by Stravinsky, Mozart, Handel and John Harbison. His operatic conducting repertoire ranges from Purcell to Mozart to Stravinsky, including recent guest engagements with the Boston Lyric Opera and Harbison’s The Great Gatsby at Tanglewood.
Ryan Turner is on the voice, conducting and early music faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. He lives north of Boston with his wife, soprano Susan Consoli and their two children, Aidan and Caroline. This is Mr. Turner’s second appearance with The Masterwork Chorus in Messiah.
Dimitrie Lazich, Baritone
The work of Dimitrie Lazich in opera and musical theatre has been met with critical and popular acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. His Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen for Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw was televised throughout The Netherlands, while his Pops Concerts sent Dutch audiences home singing the melodies of Rogers and Hammerstein. In June and July of 2016, he was featured in Pittsburgh Opera’s Summer Festival in both Richard Strauss’s Die Schweigsame Frau and Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate.
Mr. Lazich has also appeared as Schaunard in La Boheme, El Dancairo in Carmen, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Zurga in The Pearl Fishers, Dandini in La Cenerentola, as well as principal roles in Candide, Madama Butterfly, and A View From The Bridge with the opera companies of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Sarasota, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and in England with the opera companies in Dorset and Longborough. He made his European debut with Staatsoper Stuttgart in Busoni's Dr. Faustus.
A busy oratorio singer, Mr. Lazich recently appeared with The Masterwork Chorus as a soloist in Haydn’s Creation. He has also performed as a soloist in Carmina Burana, Messiah, Elijah, St. Matthew Passion, and in the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems. An alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University, Curtis Institute of Music, and Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of The West, he was a Young Artist at Santa Fe Opera. Mr. Lazich is represented by Kathy Olsen at Encompass Arts as both a singer and an actor. (Kathy@encompassarts.com)
The work of Dimitrie Lazich in opera and musical theatre has been met with critical and popular acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. His Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen for Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw was televised throughout The Netherlands, while his Pops Concerts sent Dutch audiences home singing the melodies of Rogers and Hammerstein. In June and July of 2016, he was featured in Pittsburgh Opera’s Summer Festival in both Richard Strauss’s Die Schweigsame Frau and Cole Porter’s Kiss Me, Kate.
Mr. Lazich has also appeared as Schaunard in La Boheme, El Dancairo in Carmen, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Zurga in The Pearl Fishers, Dandini in La Cenerentola, as well as principal roles in Candide, Madama Butterfly, and A View From The Bridge with the opera companies of Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Sarasota, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and in England with the opera companies in Dorset and Longborough. He made his European debut with Staatsoper Stuttgart in Busoni's Dr. Faustus.
A busy oratorio singer, Mr. Lazich recently appeared with The Masterwork Chorus as a soloist in Haydn’s Creation. He has also performed as a soloist in Carmina Burana, Messiah, Elijah, St. Matthew Passion, and in the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems. An alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University, Curtis Institute of Music, and Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of The West, he was a Young Artist at Santa Fe Opera. Mr. Lazich is represented by Kathy Olsen at Encompass Arts as both a singer and an actor. (Kathy@encompassarts.com)