Although we are technically right in the middle of autumn, the recent blast of wintry weather is causing many of us to usher in the holiday season a bit earlier than usual. We at Caramoor think that is fabulous! Our Holiday Teas may be all sold out, but there are still plenty of seats available for the joyous Holiday Musicale concerts. The Music Room will bring the baroque era to life in an unparalleled atmosphere of authenticity.
The Holiday Musicales performers are:
Brenton Ryan, tenor. Hailed by Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times as an “appealing lyric tenor,” Brenton Ryan enjoys a career performing diverse vocal repertoire. Mr. Ryan was recently a part of two world-premieres in New York City: Anthony Davis’ opera, Lear on the Second Floor, and Vanraj Bhatia’s opera, Agni Varsha. A graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in 2011, his credits include ‘George Gibbs’ in Rorem’s Our Town, ‘Nerone’ in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea, and ‘Henrik’ in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.
Maureen Zoltek, piano. This 2012 winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition is in high demand as a collaborative artist and coach. She has also been a full-time keyboardist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and has performed as an orchestral pianist with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Zoltek enjoys both traditional and contemporary chamber music; most recently she participated in the 2010 Fischoff competition with her piano trio, Trio Sfacciato, as well as the Latino Music Festival in Chicago, Illinois.
Jonathan Estabrooks, baritone. Hailed by the New York Times as ‘a robust baritone’, and winner of the prestigious 35th Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition, Canadian baritone Jonathan Estabrooks continues to make a unique and rich contribution to the performing arts world. His vocalism and performance style have been called “commanding, rich, fresh and energetic”, his stage presence likened to that of a young Ron Howard. Mr. Estabrooks has garnered an impressive list of principal and lead roles for which he has received much acclaim along with the admiration and respect of his peers, including Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Shaunard in La Boheme, Belcore in L’elisir D’amore, Pelleas in L’impressions de Pelleas, Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia and Smirnov in The Bear.
Joel Harder, piano. A versatile and accomplished musician, Canadian pianist Joel Harder is much in demand as an accompanist, vocal coach and chamber musician and has performed in venues throughout Canada, the United States, England and Austria. Equally at home in performance of chamber music, song and operatic repertoire, Mr. Harder has worked with such diverse and renowned musicians as Stuart Hamilton, Stéphane Lemelin, Charles Owen, Robin Bowman, Iain Burnside and Graham Johnson. He is an alumnus of the Banff Centre for the Arts as well as recipient of the Johann Strauss Foundation Award for study at the Franz Schubert Institute. This past summer, he was engaged as a Piano Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Centre, where (among other projects) he was responsible for preparing Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos with Christoph von Dohnanyi.
Leave a Reply