Sunday, April 27, 2025
3:00 PM EST

Japanese-American conductor Ken Yanagisawa is the Music Director of the Boston Opera Collaborative and the Boston Annex Players, the Associate Conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony, the Assistant Conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra, and an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music. He made his Japanese debut conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Kansai Nikikai and the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra in February 2023 and will return in Fall 2026 to conduct Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito. A 2024 Aspen Conducting Academy Fellow and James Conlon Conductor Prize recipient, Ken has previously served as a Conducting Apprentice with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and has assisted/covered the National Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Berlin Academy of American Music, and Berlin Opernfest, among others.

Ken recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting at Boston University under the guidance of James Burton and also holds graduate degrees in conducting from the Manhattan School of Music and a B.A. in music from Yale University. Prior to Yale he attended the New England Conservatory as an Undergraduate Diploma candidate for Oboe Performance under the tutelage of John Ferrillo. His other teachers include George Manahan, William Lumpkin, Bernard Labadie, and Tatsuya Shimono. In masterclasses and festivals, he has been taught by renowned artists and pedagogues such as Robert Spano, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Stringer, Dame Jane Glover, Gerard Schwarz, and Jorma Panula. He is deeply grateful for all the excellent guidance and mentorship he has received thus far in his life as a musician.

Ms. Tiedemann’s performance highlights include appearing as a soloist with the Boston Pops for their Holiday Concerts, with Boston Lyric Opera as The Water in the East Coast premiere of The Little Prince, Hansel & Gretel with the Rhode Island Philharmonic, with the Pioneer Valley Symphony as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus with Opera Providence and Cape Cod Opera.

In recent seasons, she has appeared as a soloist for Holiday Pops with the Cape Symphony and the New Bedford Symphony and as Dido in Dido & Aeneas with the Woods Hole Cantata Consort. Other notable engagements include Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music with New Bedford Festival Theatre and Theatre by the Sea, the Verdi Requiem with the Boston Civic Symphony, and Dubois’ Seven Last Words of Christ and Beethoven 9th Symphony with the University Chorale of Boston College, as well as appearances across the US in classical, sacred and theatrical repertoire. Other notable engagements include Otello with Indianapolis Opera, the Foreign Woman in The Consul with Opera Boston, Mozart’s Requiem with the New Bedford Symphony and Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Mahler’s 4th Symphony with both the New Bedford Symphony and the Rhode Island College Symphony, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the North Shore Philharmonic, Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with the Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra, and excerpts from Tosca and Madama Butterfly with Symphony by the Sea. This seaon’s engagements include Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem with the Andover Choral Society, Beethoven 9th Symphony with the Boston Civic Symphony, and Goodall’s Unconditional Love in Stuttgart, Germany.

As the Artistic Director of Seaglass Theater Company, she produces creatively staged performances of classic vocal repertoire for the Southern New England area. In 2021, she served as the dramaturg and sang the role of Eliza Brock for the world premiere of Jodi Goble’s Whaling Women. She previously was the Artistic Director of Charleston Chamber Opera in South Carolina from 2008-2014.

She is a graduate of Rhode Island College and received her master’s degree in vocal performance from Indiana University and received further training as a young artist with Central City Opera and Indianapolis Opera.

Emily Harmon is an operatic mezzo-soprano and crossover artist who has been praised for her “velvety mezzo-soprano voice” (Pittsburgh in the Round), “scene-stealing performances” (Schmopera and bachtrack.com), and “sharp [comedic] timing” (Boston Classical Review). She has performed with the Glimmerglass Festival, Virginia Opera, Central City Opera, Winter Opera St. Louis, and with many organizations in the Greater Boston Area. She won Third Place in the 2020 Mildred Miller International Voice Competition and was a semifinalist in both the 2022 Annapolis Opera Vocal Competition and the 2021 James Toland Vocal Arts Competition. Among Emily’s noted past operatic and musical theater roles are Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd), the Old Lady (Candide), Little Buttercup (H.M.S. Pinafore), the Marquise de Merteuil (The Dangerous Liaisons), Amastre (Xerxes), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and Suzuki (Madama Butterfly).

An enthusiast of the great concert repertoire, Emily has sung the alto solos in Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Purcell’s Come, Ye Sons of Art, Z.323, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and both Pergolesi’s and Arvo Pärt’s settings of Stabat Mater.

Passionate about the arts in every form, Emily is quickly garnering attention as a highly versatile crossover artist. She has performed in musicals and straight plays, and she has sung solos and backup vocals for touring artists including Josh Groban, Natalie Merchant, and Sarah Brightman.

Emily received both her M.M. and her B.M. (magna cum laude) in Voice Performance from Boston University. She currently studies with Dr. Rebecca Folsom and is represented by Atwater Reed Artists.

Neal Ferreira is a nationally recognized lyric tenor known for his dynamic stage presence and cultivated vocalism. Dubbed a “Boston mainstay” by the Boston Globe, he recently appeared with Odyssey Opera at Jordan Hall as Alpheus/Ares in Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata, and with Boston Lyric Opera as Loud Stone in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, conducted by the composer. The tenor regularly sings with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and returned to Symphony Hall in January as Gaston in Die tote Stadt. This summer Ferreira will sing Spoletta in Tosca with the BSO at Tanglewood under the baton of Maestro Andris Nelsons, as well as the role of Aubrey in the Boston premiere & first commercial recording of Ulysses Kay’s Frederick Douglass with Odyssey Opera/BMOP.

Mr. Ferreira’s theatrical engagements in the 2024-25 season have included Fezziwig in A Christmas Carol with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, French Ambassador/Kruger in Of Thee I Sing/Let ‘Em Eat Cake with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Il Conte di Lerma in Don Carlo with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. On the concert stage this spring, he has sung the tenor solos in Elijah with the Assabet Valley Mastersingers, Carmina Burana with Portsmouth Pro Musica & Claflin Hill Symphony, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Boston Civic Symphony.

A much sought-after interpreter of new music, Mr. Ferreira can be heard on the premiere recordings of numerous operas, including Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories (BMOP/Sound), James MacMillan’s Clemency (BIS), Joseph Summer’s Hamlet (Parma) and The Tempest (Albany), and Mario Castenuovo Tedesco’s The Importance of Being Earnest (Odyssey Opera).

In a professional career spanning two decades, Ferreira has notably performed with Florida Grand Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Colorado, Virginia Opera, Anchorage Opera, Syracuse Opera, American Repertory Theatre, Handel and Haydn Society, Emmanuel Music, and Guerilla Opera. He is a proud student of internationally renowned tenor, Frank Lopardo. In addition to performing, Ferreira serves on the Voice faculty at Berklee College of Music.

International baritone Paul La Rosa’s “dark hued baritone [has] brought vocal glamour” (Opera News) to both sides of the Atlantic while continuing to earn critical praise for his “strong and beautiful voice.”  Recent season highlights include a role debut as the title character of Verdi’s Rigoletto, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Lionel in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans, Germont in Verdi’s La traviata and The Four Villains in Offenbach’s Le contes d’Hoffmann. He has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Diego Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Palacio de la Ópera de A Coruña.  Mr. La Rosa is Co-Director of the Williams Opera Workshop at Williams College where he is an Artist Associate teaching voice.  He has taught Masterclasses at colleges around the country and has been guest faculty at the Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival in Caltagirone, Sicily.