Judith Bettina, soprano

Soprano Judith Bettina, hailed for her proficiency in a wide range of musical styles, has appeared as guest soloist with such orchestras as the Houston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic. She has appeared with chamber groups throughout the United States and Europe, including appearances with the Bach Chamber Soloists, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Continuum, Bard Music Festival, New York Philmusica, Parnassus, Speculum Musicae, The Geneva Music Festival, Ensemble 21, Boston Musica Viva, San Francisco Contemporary Chamber players, the Monadnock Music Festival, and the Library of Congress.

Highly acclaimed for her performances of contemporary music, Ms. Bettina has had works written for her by Mel Powell, Tobias Picker, Christopher Berg, Chester Biscardi, David Rakowski, Richard Karpen, and David Olan. She has premiered works by Charles Wuorinen, Milton Babbitt, Lori Dobbins, Richard Danielpour, George Tsontakis, and Vivian Fine. Ms. Bettina’s recent performances have included Tobias Picker’s Symphony No. 2: Aussöhnung and the premiere of Trest sonetos de amor, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, and Edison Denisov’s La vie en rouge.

Her recordings with pianist James Goldsworthy of Chester Biscardi’s The Gift of Life, David Rakowski’s Three Songs on Poems of Louise Bogan, and a new release of songs by Otto Luening are on Composers Recordings, Inc. She has also recorded works by Milton Babbitt and Mel Powell on New World Records and Musicmasters, respectively. Ms. Bettina resides in Princeton Junction, New Jersey.

Amy Burton, soprano

A lyric soprano known for her electric stage presence, musical intelligence, and crystalline sound, Amy Burton enjoys an active career in opera and concert on stages across the world. A favorite of New York City Opera, Ms. Burton has performed most recently in Thor Steingraber’s new production of Don Giovanni, as Donna Elvira.

On the concert stage, Amy Burton has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Syphony, Israel Philharmonic, Berner Orchester, St. Louis Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and Philharmonia Baroque. She has appeared in recital with the New York Festival of Song, Lincoln Center Great Performers, and at the 92nd St. Y, where she made her New York recital debut in 1997.

Amy Burton has won critical praise for her acting ability as well as her comedic sense. Ms. Burton has a deep love for French music. She has performedLes Mammelles de Tiresias, with L’Opéra Français de New York, L’Amour Masqué with New York Festival of Song, and excerpts from Noel Coward’sConversation Piece, which was written for French operetta star Yvonne Printemps. Ms. Burton will star in an homage to Yvonne Printemps in the Fall of 2002.

Amy Burton is a graduate of Northwestern University and was one of three winners in the 1995 Marian Anderson International Vocal Arts Competition. Other awards include the George London Award and the New York City Opera’s 1998 Kolosvar Award. She can be heard on recording in Richard Wilson’s Persuasions, a cantata for soprano and chamber ensemble, released by Albany Records. She has also recorded Blue Monday, an early Gershwin opera, on the world premiere recording for Angel/EMI. She and her husband, composer John Musto, live in New York with their son, Joshua.

Margaret Lattimore, mezzo-soprano

With a repertoire that extends from the brilliant coloratura roles of Rossini’s Rosina and Cenerentola to the soaring sophistication of Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore is in demand by opera companies, orchestras and recital presenters worldwide.

Ms. Lattimore has become a leading interpreter of the works of composer John Harbison. In addition to her performances of the role of Jordan Baker in John Harbison’s opera The Great Gatsby, she gave the premiere of his Due Libri as part of the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. This past season, she performed the work with Collage New Music, and a recording is soon to be released on the Koch International label. Margaret Lattimore has been invited to give the world premiere of the composer’s Requiem with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall.

The mezzo-soprano first received acclaim in the 1993-1994 season when she joined Thomas Hampson in concert performances of Bernstein’s Arias and Barcarolles with the New World Symphony, and in October 1993, as a member of the Lindemann Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Program, made her house debut as Dorotea in Stiffelio. Ms. Lattimore was selected by Marilyn Horne as a recitalist on her prestigious “On Wings of Song” series at the Kosciuszko Foundation, marking her New York recital debut. She has also appeared in recital at the Library of Congress performing songs by Elinor Remick Warren with baritone, Thomas Hampson and pianist, Craig Rutenberg.

A graduate of the State University of New York at Potsdam where she studied with Pat Misslin, Ms. Margaret Lattimore is a 1997 recipient of the George London Award, and has received both the Eleanor McCallum Award from the Houston Grand Opera and a Jacobson Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. Margaret Lattimore currently resides in Colorado.

Richard Clement, tenor

Recognized as one of the world’s leading young American lyric tenors, Richard Clement is hailed for the tonal beauty, innate musicality, and sense of style in his operatic, concert, and recital performances.

A sought-after and versatile concert performer, Mr. Clement began the 2001-2002 season at Opera Theatre of St. Louis with performances as To-No-Chujo inTale of the Genji in both St. Louis and Japan. The season brought many appearances on the concert stage, including Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis with the DeKalb Symphony, Sir Michael Tippett’s Child of our Time with the Santa Rosa Symphony, Aaron Jay Kernis’ Millennium Symphony with the Minnesota Orchestra, and Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 5 in Indianapolis. Mr. Clement also recorded Toch’s Cantata of the Bitter with the Czech Philharmonic, and returned to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a repeat of Jonathan Miller’s acclaimed, staged-version of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

Highlights from previous seasons include appearances with the orchestras of Cleveland, Philadelphia, Houston, Montreal, Boston, San Francisco, and Colorado, and with such conductors as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Christopher Hogwood, Charles Dutoit, James Conlon, and Neeme Järvi. His operatic roles have included Ferrando in Cosí fan tutte, Little Bat McLean in Susannah, Fenton in Falstaff, and Ernesto in Don Pasquale.

Mr. Clement studied voice at Georgia State University and at the Cincinnati Conservatory, where he received his Master of Music degree. He was a Tanglewood Music Festival Fellow in 1990 and 1991, a member of the Houston grand Opera Studio in the 1991-1992 season, and winner of a 1994 Richard Tucker Music Foundation Jacobson Study Grant.

John Hancock, baritone

Baritone John Hancock has sung in world premieres of three American operas. He created the role of Lord Henry in Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray; he took on three roles in the one-act trilogy Central Park; and played Abelard in Stephen Paulus’ Heloise and Abelard. Mr. Hancock has received international acclaim for his interpretations of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Oreste in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride. He has also performed Dr. John Buchanan in Lee Hoiby’s Summer and Smoke, Valentin in Faust, le Duc de Rothsay in La Jolie Fille de Perth, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Falke in Die Fledermaus. Upcoming engagements include his debut at the San Francisco Opera as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and his debut at the Saito Kinen Festival where he will perform the role of Ramiro in Ravel’s l’Heure Espagnole.

Performances on the concert stage include Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Carmina Burana with l’Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, and L’Enfant du Christ with the Canadian Opera Orchestra. He has also appeared in concert with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, NOS Dutch National Radio Orchestra, and the Israeli Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Hancock enjoys frequent collaborations in recital with the New York Festival of Song, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and the Collegiate Chorale in Carmina Burana.

A native New Yorker, Mr. Hancock studied French Literature at Occidental College and the Sorbonne before pursuing his musical education at the Juilliard School. He is the recipient of awards and grants from the Metropolitan Opera National Council, the Sullivan Foundation and the Shoshana Foundation.

New York Virtuoso Singers, Harold Rosenbaum, artistic director

Founded in 1988, The New York Virtuoso Singers (NYVS), under founder and artistic director Harold Rosenbaum, has become this country’s leading exponent of contemporary choral music. NYVS is a professional choral ensemble dedicated to presenting both seldom-heard works by past and contemporary masters, as well as commissioning, performing, and recording works by today’s composers.

From its early days in 1998, as an offshoot of a chorus-in-residence created expressly for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, until the present day, with self-produced concerts, recordings, commissions, and tours, NYVS has carved a unique niche for itself in the musical world. NYVS has been featured twice on Channel 2 WCBS-TV and Channel 11 WPIX-TV, performed 16 radio broadcasts, and been featured on two Voice of American worldwide broadcasts. In 1993, the group appeared as the first-ever guest chorus at Tanglewood Music Center’s annual festival of Contemporary Music. NYVS has twice received the ASCAP-Chorus America “Award for Adventuresome Programming,” and has been given Chorus America’s “American Choral Works Performance Award.” Among the composers NYVS has commissioned are Michael Gordon, David Winkler, George Tsontakis, and Tristan Keuris.

Through his wide range of conducting activities, Harold Rosenbaum remains a vital and influential force on the American choral music scene. In this country, Mr. Rosenbaum and his choirs have collaborated with the American Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Mr. Rosenbaum has conducted over 1200 concerts worldwide, half of them with the Canticum Novum Singers, a volunteer chorus he founded in 1973. Mr. Rosenbaum is Professor of Music and Director of Choirs at Suny Buffalo and founder/conductor of the Westchester Oratorio Society. Mr. Rosenbaum makes his residence in South Salem, NY.