Current Season Artists

Wendy Baker, soprano, has a Master in Music Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music.  In 2006, she sang the World Premiere of Laura Karpman’s Heebie Jeebies, commissioned by the Julliard Choral Union, at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.  Ms. Baker has sung the roles of Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Giuletta (Capuletti e I Montecchi), Gilda (Rigoletto), Madame Heartthrob (The Impresario), and Countess (Le nozze di Figaro).  Ms. Baker was a semi-finalist in the International Concert Alliance Mozart Competition (2007), a Jensen Foundation National Finalist (2007, 2006, 2003) and Oratorio Society Semi-Finalist (2008, 2007, 2006, 2005).  In 2005, Ms. Baker was named a Gerda Lissner National Finalist and Grant Winner.  Prior to this, she was a prize-winner in the Met District and Regional competitions (2002, 2000), an Orpheus National Vocal Competition Prize Winner, and a Mobile Opera Guild Competition Prize Winner both in 2002.  Upcoming performances include Micaela in Carmen.

- NYMVAE Credits:10th Anniversary Gala

Baritone Dennis Blackwell’s recent New York and regional opera credits include New York City Opera, New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, Gulf Coast Symphony, Caramoor Opera, Commonwealth Opera of Massachusetts, Little Opera Theatre of New York, and Empire Opera. As a concert soloist, Mr. Blackwell has collaborated with the Princeton Pro Musica (Bach’s Johannes-Passion), the Bach Sinfonia (Bach’s Kaffee-Kantate and Bauern-Kantate), the New York Choral Society (Vaughan Williams’ Mass in g minor), the Stonewall Chorale (Messiah), and has enjoyed return engagements with the Allentown (PA) and Norwalk (CT) Symphony Orchestras in performances of Messiah. Appearances in 2009-10 included return engagements with LOTNY (A Feast in the Time of Plague), Empire Opera (La clemenza di Tito), and débuts with the New York Philharmonic (Le Grand Macabre), and with Light Opera Company of Salisbury as the title role in Le nozze di Figaro. Mr. Blackwell is a proud member of AGMA and Actors’ Equity Association. For more information, please visit www.dennisblackwell.com.

- NYMVAE Debut

Christine Cornell, soprano, is thrilled to be making her NYMVAE debut in Lependorf’s The Art of Eating.  She is a first year Master’s student at the Manhattan School of Music who is currently studying with Maitland Peters.  Before her move to New York, she received her Bachelor’s degree from the Jacob’s School of Music at Indiana University with Professor Mary Ann Hart.  Cornell has appeared in operas and scenes as Ozia in (La Giuditta), Fairy in (Cendrillon), Buffy in the collegiate premiere of William Bolcom’s A Wedding, Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), Despina (Così fan tutte), and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte).  Chorus credits include Susannah!, L’elisir d’amore, and Carmen.

- NYMVAE Debut

Joseph Goodrich, librettist, is an alumnus of New Dramatists and an active member of the Mystery Writers of America. His plays have been performed across the United States and in Australia, and are published by Samuel French, Playscripts, Applause Books, Back Stage Books and others.

Jeffrey Lependorf, composer, has written a bunch of operas, including “American Lit: the Hawthorne/Melville Correspondence,” “Say It With Flowers (an opera in waiting),” “If I Could Stand, If I Could Sit, or, Oh, Bill, Oh, Susan,” and “Tim Gunn’s Podcast (a reality chamber opera).” He is also a certified master of the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute, and has helped create a new repertoire of music for this ancient instrument.  His music has been performed around the globe (literally, in fact—a recording of his “Night Pond” was launched into space when the shuttle Atlantis took off on May 15, 1997 and remained for a year aboard the Russian space station Mir). His “Masterpieces of Western Music” audiocourse can be downloaded at Audible.com. He is currently at work on “American Terror,” an opera of the 1969 Crossfire debate on Vietnam between Noam Chomsky and William F. Buckley.

Adam Menninga, baritone, is pleased to be involved in his second production with NYMVAE.  He performed in last year’s production of The Old Maid and the Thief.  He also performed in The Medium with OperaOggi in New York.  Mr. Menninga is a graduate of Indiana University and the New England Conservatory in Boston.  While in Boston, he worked with Opera Boston as well as the NEC Opera Theatre singing lead roles in Cosi fan Tutte, Little Women, and Les Mamelle de Tirésias.  In addition, Mr. Menninga has performed several new music concerts at Boston’s Jordan Hall, notably, Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon.

- NYMVAE Credits:The Old Maid and the Thief

Bass-baritone C. David Morrow has been praised by OPERA NEWS for the warmth and power of his voice as well as his winning stage presence. Recent engagements include Benoit/Alcindoro (La Boheme) with Amore Opera, Don Annibale (Il Campanello) for Garden State Opera, Leporello (Don Giovanni) with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, St. Peter (Too Many Sopranos) as a guest artist of the Hunter College Opera Theatre, Dr Spinelloccio/ Notary(Gianni Schicchi) for Chelsea Opera, Angelotti (Tosca ) for Raylynmor Opera and King Melchior( Amahl and the Night Visitors) also for Chelsea Opera.

- NYMVAE Debut

Elizabeth Munn, soprano, created the role of Martha in The Making of Americans at the Walker Art Center, composed by Anthony Gatto and directed by Jay Scheib. She appeared in the world premiere of Scarlet Fever with Collective Opera Company at Mount Tremper Arts Festival, as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with NYMVAE,  and as First Witch in Dido and Aeneas with Empire Opera. Other performances range from Monteverdi to Reich, including appearances with Nautilus Music-Theater, Regina Opera, North Star Opera, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, Theatrical Music Company, St. Mark's Choral Society & Orchestra, Virgin Ground, The Rose Ensemble and The Festival Dancing in Your Head Orchestra.

- NYMVAE Credits - 10th Anniversary Gala, Le nozze di Figaro, The Magic Flute, Gypsy Princess

Christine Reimer, Asst. Music Director, is on the faculty at New York University, the Steinhardt School as a coach/pianist and a private voice teacher.  She also music directs and accompanies various workshops and classes there, including a three-week musical theater seminar held every summer.  Ms. Reimer has music directed a number of shows for the Brooklyn Montessori School and with the TADA! Youth Theater outreach program, and has taught classes and private voice lessons at the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy and the Bronxville School.  Ms. Reimer, a mezzo-soprano, has over 20 years of professional singing experience, performing both opera and musical theater in the U.S. and abroad.

- NYMVAE Credits - The Old Maid and the Thief

Aram Tchobanian, tenor, has premiered numerous operatic and chamber works by such composers as Thomas Cipullo, Yoav Gal, Martin Halpern, Jakov Jakoulov, Thomas Pasatieri, Marga Richter, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Ben Yarmolinsky. He has been featured soloist with the Columbus Symphony, Armenian Festival Orchestra,  Hamazkayin Armenian Chorus, Alliance Players, Bachanalia Festival Orchestra, the Lancaster Festival Orchestra, among many others, in such venues as Boston’s Symphony Hall; and New York’s Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, La MaMa E.T.C., and The Knitting Factory. Recordings include Gal’s Venus in Furs, Pasatieri’s Three Sisters, and Richter’s soon-to-be-released Riders to the Sea.

- NYMVAE Debut

Timothy Thomas, tenor, is pleased to be making his official NYMVAE debut!  Most recently, he appeared as Tribulation Wholesome in Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist directed by Michael Kahn at the Shakespeare Theater Company.  Other credits include the original Broadway production of Sondheim & Lapine’s Into the Woods, Mike Nichols’ film Wolf, and a broad range of regional theater gigs that include Kiss Me, Kate with the Minnesota Opera Company and All My Sons with Syracuse Stage.  He holds an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program, and he’s a proud alum of the Interlochen Arts Academy.   During the day, and frequently on the road, he works on sexual and reproductive health challenges in developing countries, currently with Women Deliver and the Maternal Health Task Force at EngenderHealth.

- NYMVAE Credits: 10th Anniversary Gala

Mary Thorne, soprano, Praised as an “engaging soloist, bright and agile,” soprano Mary Thorne began this season singing the title role of Alberto Gonzales in The Gonzales Cantata on the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Frequently heard in Mozart roles, Mary has sung Despina and Susanna with Amato Opera, Mademoiselle Silberklang and Papagena with New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble, Königin der Nacht with One World Symphony and Opera Company of Brooklyn, and Barbarina with Bronx Opera. This summer she will be an Apprentice Artist with Bel Canto at Caramoor. Mary holds degrees from Mannes College of Music (MM) and the City University of New York Graduate Center (DMA).

- NYMVAE Credits: Le nozze di Figaro, Die Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, Hansel & Gretel, The True Story of Cinderella, Der Schauspieldirektor