Jennifer Torrance, soprano
is well known in Downeast Maine for her performances under her unmarried name,
Jennifer Stanton Smith. She has held leading roles in a variety of opera and
musical theater productions around the country, including The Magic Flute (First
Lady), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Mother), Dido and Aeneas (Belinda), Hansel
and Gretel (Dew Fairy), and My Fair Lady (Eliza Doolittle). Additionally, Ms.
Torrance has been a featured soloist in many recitals and oratorio performances,
with works including Bach's St. John Passion, Fauré's Requiem, Walton's Three
Songs from Façade, and Barber's Knoxville: Summer 1915.
Ms. Torrance is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music and the
Aspen Music School Opera Theater Center. She is the winner of numerous National
Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) awards, including first place finishes in
Maine and in the Great Lakes Region, and has been heard on Maine Public Radio and WERU.
This is her first solo appearance with the Mount Summer Chorale.
Valerie Eaton, alto
is a former resident of Maine and is thrilled to be singing again with the Mount
Desert Summer Chorale. In the past eight years she has been involved in several
musical and acting roles. One of the first solo opportunities in Maine was with
the Bagaduce Chorale in Blue Hill. In the realm of musical theater Valerie has
portrayed Katisha in The Mikado and the title role in Princess Ida, both with the
Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Ellsworth, Maine. Other characters in the Boston
area include the Widow Begbick from The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by
Kurt Weill and Mrs. Peachum in Benjamin Britten's Beggar's Opera.
Jason McStoots, tenor
has been described by critics as "outstanding, with a perfect light-opera voice and the ability to put a song over."
He received critical acclaim for his creation of the part of the Butler in New England Light Opera’s new review,
The (In)complete Works of Gilbert and Sullivan. For his portrayal of the title role in Benjamin Britten’s Albert
Herring with the Red House Opera Group he was described as “particularly outstanding…projecting the
greengrocer’s shyness, sense of duty, and longing to cut loose with sweet, appealing tone and real acting ability.
Mr. McStoots’ other recent roles include El Remendado in Carmen with Granite State Opera, Don Ottavio in
Don Giovanni with Longwood Opera, Lt. Buzz Adams in South Pacific with Opera Boston and the Lyric Tenor in
Argento’s Postcard from Morocco as a returning guest artist with the Boston University Opera Department.
He is a frequent concert singer appearing as Judas Maccabaeus (Handel) and Saint Nicholas (Britten) with the
Newburyport Choral Society, The Centurion in Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ with Chorus Pro Musica, soloist
in the Lord Nelson Mass (Haydn) and the Berlioz Requiem with the Paul Madore Chorale, the Litaniae de venerabili
altaris sacramentum (Mozart) with the Concord Chorale as well as the Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats with the
Dedham Choral Society. His repertoire of concert works is broad and includes Orff’s Carmina Burana,
Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s B-Minor Mass, St. John and St. Matthew Passions and Christmas Oratorio,
Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Creation (Performed under Robert Shaw).
An accomplished recitalist, in the last few seasons Mr. McStoots performed a number of recitals including
Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, songs by Poulenc, Honegger, and Tailleferre with Floristan Recital
Project celebrating “Les Six”, Ned Rorem’s quartet song-cycle Evidence of Things Not Seen also with
Floristan Recital Project and Red House Opera Group, excerpts from Britten’s Sonnets of Michelangelo,
Vaughan Williams’s Four Hymns as well as a recital of Pre-Word War I British works including Vaughan
Williams’s On Wenlock Edge and Liza Lehmann’s In a Persian Garden. He has appeared in recital as
a fellow with the Tanglewood Music Center as well as with the Boston Vocal Artists, Music at the Cloud
Concert Series and the Old South Church Concert Series.
Known as an interpreter of new music, Mr. McStoots has performed a number of world and local premieres,
the most recent being the world premiere of Storm, a work for orchestra, chorus, and soloists by Tufts
composer Don Schecter and the world premiere of Brian Hulse’s opera The Blue Hotel, in which he sang
the role of Mr. Blanc.
His upcoming solo engagements include productions of the world premiere of Charles Shadle's A Question of
Love, Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with Intermezzo Chamber Opera, the
Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion and Damon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea with Vox Consort, Little
Bat in Floyd’s Susannah with Heartwood Regional Theater in Darmiscotta, ME, and Monteverdi’s Vespers
of 1610 with the Newton Choral Society. Mr. McStoots holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University
and a Master’s in Voice Performance from Boston University and is a member of the voice faculty at Walnut
Hill School.
Donald Wilkinson, baritone
enjoys a distinguished career in concert, opera, oratorio, recital and contemporary music and has appeared
throughout the United States and Canada. In 1995 he made his European debut performing the role of Dionysos
in the World premiere of Theodore Antoniou’s opera, The Bacchae, at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece.
Since that debut he has appeared in Germany (Kassel), France (Paris, Strasbourg, Saintes, Clisson, Ribeauvillé),
and Holland (Utrecht). Mr. Wilkinson has performed as soloist with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony
Orchestra, Christopher Hogwood and the Handel and Haydn Society (a U.S. tour of Bach’s Missa Brevis in
G Minor) and the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, Springfield (MA), Portland (ME), and Vermont.
Since 1984 he has been a soloist in Emmanuel Music’s famed Bach Cantata Series under the direction of
Craig Smith. Highly sought after for his interpretations of Bach, in 2003 he made his debut at the Northwest
Bach Festival (Spokane) in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Mozart’s Requiem under the direction of Gunther
Schuller. He has also appeared at the Bach Festivals of Carmel and Philadelphia, and is featured on Emmanuel
Music’s recordings (Koch International Classics) of Bach’s Christmas cantatas, St. John Passion (1725
version), and cantatas for the first and second Sundays after Trinity. His discography also includes the title
role on the internationally acclaimed Johnny Johnson by Kurt Weill on Erato Disques, Angels with the Boston
Camerata (Erato), John Harbison’s Recordare on Koch International Classics, David Patterson’s song cycle
Last Words on Albany Records, and The Jesuit Operas with Ensemble Abendmusik recently released on Dorian
Recordings. In 1990 he was awarded a fellowship to Tanglewood. Mr. Wilkinson teaches voice at Phillips
Academy Andover and maintains a private studio at his residence in Nahant, MA.
|
