Sunday, November 10, 2024
3:00 PM EST

Diana McVey is an artist whose consummate skills as both singer and actress have made her highly visible in opera, oratorio, and as soloist with symphony orchestras. She is known for her riveting and moving portrayals of Countess Madeleine in Capriccio, Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro and Lucia in Lucia Di Lammermoor. She has sung leading roles with Florentine Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Opera Omaha, Opera Dubai, Opera Tampa, Opera Columbus, Lake George Opera Festival, Opera Naples, Light Opera Oklahoma, Ocean State Lyric Opera, Salt Marsh Opera Company, RI Philharmonic and Opera Providence, among others. Recent engagements include Puccini’s La Bohème and Verdi’s Requiem with Helena Symphony, Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Idaho, the US premiere of Patrick Hawes’s The Great War Symphony at Carnegie Hall, and Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with Great Falls Symphony, A Night in Italy gala with Helena Symphony and Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Helena Symphony, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Chamber Orchestra of Barrington at St. John’s, and the world premiere of the one-act opera Whaling Women with Seaglass Theater Company. Upcoming engagements include Mozart’s Requiem, a spring performance of Handel’s Messiah, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

Maggie Kinabrew is a soprano originally from West Hartford, CT. Recently, she was named a semifinalist in the Young Concert Artists 2024 Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. This season, Maggie will make her company debut with Winter Opera St. Louis in their Fall Gala and as Die Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, and her debut with the Boston Civic Symphony as Sophie in the Trio from Der Rosenkavalier. She will also join Palm Beach Opera for a second season as a Cornelia T. Bailey Apprentice Artist, where she will cover Susanna and Barbarina and perform as a Peasant Girl in Le nozze di Figaro.

In Palm Beach Opera’s 2023-24 season, Maggie covered Clotilde in Norma and study covered the four heroines in Les contes d’Hoffmann. Also in the 2023-24 season, Maggie made her company debut as The Woman in Boston Opera Collaborative’s immersive opera experience, Whispers: Echoes from the Hall and made her debut as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea.

In the summer of 2023, Maggie attended the Studio Artist Program at Wolf Trap Opera, where she covered the title role in Semele, and in 2022, she joined the Merola Opera Program, where her performance of Die Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte was lauded for its “steel-hot precision”.

Maggie received the Second Place prize at the 2024 Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera Competition in the Junior Division, was a finalist in the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle’s 2024 Frances Walton Competition, and was a semifinalist in both the 2024 Annapolis Opera Competition and the 2024 Camille Coloratura Awards. She is the recipient of encouragement and district winner awards from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

An avid performer of contemporary music, Maggie has performed as the soprano soloist in Unsuk Chin’s Puzzles and Games and the soprano soloist in the world premiere of Younje Cho’s For All We Took, both with the IU New Music Ensemble. Maggie holds a M.M. in voice from Indiana University and a B.M. in voice and B.A. in mathematics from Oberlin College and Conservatory.

American mezzo-soprano Vera Savage has earned praise from critics for her “thrilling power” and “rich, mellifluous, mezzo voice.” Vera’s singing has been described as “a dream; supple and powerful with a deep velvet shimmer” and “heart-stoppingly gorgeous.”

Vera’s recent seasons included a “cold and gleaming” (Opera News) portrayal of handmaid New Ofglen in Boston Lyric Opera’s highly acclaimed production of The Handmaid’s Tale, Salieri’s Requiem with the Commonwealth Chorale, Leonard Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony and Arias and Barcarolles with the Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, and the Verdi Requiem with the Metropolitan Chorale in Boston’s Jordan Hall.   Vera has performed with numerous opera companies, festivals,  and orchestras across the United States, including Opera Saratoga, Florentine Opera, the Spoleto Festival USA, Opera on the James, and Seiji Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Institute.

Vera’s recent engagements include performances with White Snake Projects, Boston Lyric Opera, and American Lyric Theatre.  Vera is featured on the albums Music to Hear and Who is Sylvia by the Shakespeare Projects.  Upcoming engagements include performances with the Shakespeare Project, Boston Lyric Opera, and Commonwealth Chorale.

Please visit www.verasavage.com for more information.

Japanese-American conductor Ken Yanagisawa is the Assistant Conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting at Boston University under the guidance of James Burton. He will be making his Japanese debut as a guest conductor for a production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Kansai Nikikai and the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Japan in February 2023, and most recently served as assistant conductor for the BU Opera Institute productions of Ned Rorem’s Our Town and Mozart’s Così fan tutte as well as for the BU Symphony Orchestra & Symphonic Chorus performance of Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem at Boston Symphony Hall.

Previously, Ken completed a research residency at the Kyoto City University of Arts and received a Master of Music and Professional Studies Certificate in Orchestral Conducting from the Manhattan School of Music. While a student at MSM, he was selected to participate in the Manhattan School of Music / Leonard Slatkin Conductors Project and was subsequently invited to work with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as a Conducting Fellow in March 2020. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Yale University where he received the Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award and the Stanton Wheeler Award, and prior to Yale he attended the New England Conservatory as an Undergraduate Diploma candidate for Oboe Performance under the tutelage of John Ferrillo.