- Mason Bates – The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs: Scene 7, That Can Also Be a Ticking Clock
- Pamela Z – Badagada
- Errollyn Wallen – Gun Gun Gun
- Judah Adashi – Rise
You can listen to these before or after the episode, or you can pause our podcast and go listen to each piece as we introduce them.
Panelists:
Bass Robert Ellsworth Feng is acclaimed for having a “commanding darkness and thickness to his tone,” and is a born collaborator who performs with artists of all mediums. Robert is the recipient of the George Woodhead Prize in Voice and the Peabody Career Development Award, placed second in the New York Classical Music Society International Voice Competition, and third in the Lyra Mozart International Voice Competition. Performance highlights include Don Giovanni (Il Commendatore) with Kor Productions, The Mikado (Ko-Ko) with Hawaii Opera Theatre, Tobias Picker’s Emmeline (Pastor Avery) with Manhattan School of Music, and more. Not limited to performing standard repertoire, Robert has premiered new works including Tony Small’s operetta Qadar, Nick Peros’ monodrama Lamentation of Ruin, and most recently with Christman Opera in their Voices Rising Voices series. During the months of quarantine, Robert has been involved with Social Distance Opera’s production of Street Scene as Henry Davis, Seagle Music Colony as an Emerging Artist, and has been honored to be a featured artist for Tony Small’s Virtual Masterclass series for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington. Robert received his Bachelors degree at Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of William Sharp, his Masters degree at Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Mark Oswald, and is an alumni of Seagle Music Colony. Robert is also a proud member of the Hawaii Opera Theatre Mae Z. Orvis Opera Studio.
Taylor-Alexis DuPont is a young and engaging Mezzo-Soprano from Orlando, Florida. Since graduating with her Masters in Voice from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University while studying with Denyce Graves, Taylor-Alexis has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the Ising International Young Artist Festival in Beijing and Suzhou, China, the Glimmerglass Festival, Prototype Festival, Sarasota Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, Opera Orlando, First Coast Opera, Christman Opera and City Lyric Opera. Performance highlights include Cendrillion (Prince Charmant), Così fan tutte (Dorabella), Ruslan and Ludmilla (Prince Ratmir), The Snow Maiden (Lel) and Pinocchio (Pinocchio). Earlier this year Taylor-Alexis performed as an ensemble member and soloist cover in the Metropolitan Opera’s wildly successful production of Porgy and Bess and made her debut with Heartbeat Opera in a new work titled Lady M. Taylor-Alexis is currently working with the Florentine Opera as a Baumgartner studio artist for the 2020-2021 season.
Praised for her “vocal control and exquisite refinement,” soprano Teresa Ferrara is dedicated to music’s power to transcend social divides and inspire people of all ages and backgrounds. She has performed as a solo vocalist at the Kennedy Center and her chorus work has allowed her to perform often with the National Symphony Orchestra. She has earned many awards for her singing, including the George Woodhead Prize in Voice from the Peabody Conservatory, the Award for Excellence in the Arts from the National Society of Arts and Letters, and The Washington Post Music and Dance Scholarship Award. Ms. Ferrara has performed repeatedly with Maryland Lyric Opera and Baltimore Musicales, and is a frequent artist with the IN Series opera company in Washington, D.C. Notable opera credits include Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Countess Almaviva) and Così fan tutte (Despina), as well as Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore (Giannetta), Massenet’s Chérubin (L’Ensoleillad), and Viva V.E.R.D.I. – The Promised End, (Soprano)— a staged, eight-singer adaptation of Verdi’s Requiem. A graduate of the Master of Music program at the Peabody Conservatory, she plans to continue to pursue musical endeavors that stretch the norms of classical music and seek to educate and serve the community.