Pamela Dellal, mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal is an acclaimed soloist and recitalist whose singing has been praised for her "exquisite vocal color," "musical sensitivity," and "eloquent phrasing" (The Boston Globe). Her repertoire encompasses an astonishing range from 12th-century monody through Renaissance songs, Baroque cantatas and oratorios, 18th - 21st-century art songs and operas, and premieres of new works. Recent appearances include the premiere of a new John Harbison work, The Seven Ages, with the New York New Music Ensemble at Merkin Concert Hall this past April. The work will also be performed by Ms. Dellal in San Francisco, and in Boston and London with Boston Musica Viva. Ms. Dellal made her Lincoln Center debut under renowned conductor William Christie, singing Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society at Avery Fischer Hall. She has performed under other acclaimed conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Christopher Hogwood, Paul McCreesh, Bernard Labadie and Roger Norrington. Operatic appearances include leading roles in the operas Albert Herring, Dido and Aeneas, La Clemenza di Tito, Così Fan Tutte, Vanessa, The Rape of Lucretia, and Winter’s Tale. She has toured the U.S. and Japan in solo recitals and with ensembles such as Tokyo Oratorio Society, Opera Company of Boston, National Chamber Orchestra, Boston Baroque, Baltimore Choral Arts Society, and the Dallas Bach Society. As a member and Acting Director of Sequentia's women's ensemble Vox Feminae, Ms. Dellal has made numerous recordings of the music of Hildegard von Bingen, and has toured the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Known for her work with Renaissance and Baroque chamber music, Ms. Dellal has appeared multiple times with the Boston Early Music Festival, is a frequent guest artist with Ensemble Chaconne, the Musicians of the Old Post Road and a current member of the Blue Heron Renaissance Choir. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, she is a regular guest with the Boston ensembles Dinosaur Annex and Boston Musica Viva, and has also appeared with the Lumen Ensemble and Collage, performing works by contemporary composers such as Martin Boykan, Martin Brody, Edward Cohen, John Harbison, Ruth Lomon, Shulamit Ran, Judith Shatin, Fabio Vacchi, Judith Weir, Scott Wheeler, and others. She has been a regular soloist in the renowned Bach Cantata series presented by Emmanuel Music for twenty-five years, having performed almost all 200 of Bach's sacred cantatas. She has recorded for Arabesque Records, Artona, BMG, CRI, Dorian, Meridian, and KOCH International.
Krista River, mezzo-soprano
Praised by The New York Times for possessing a “shimmering voice…with the virtuosity of a violinist and the expressivity of an actress,” mezzo-soprano Krista River is a winner of the 2004 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and is also a 2007 grant recipient from the Sullivan Foundation. In the 2009-2010 season, she will perform Copland’s Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Messiah with the Cambridge Community Chorus, and Julius Röntgen’s Lyrische Gänge with the Boston Chamber Music Society. Ms. River will appear in recitals across the country at venues such as Symphony Space’s Thalia Theater in New York, the Breckinridge Music Festival in Breckinridge, CO, and McCray Recital Hall in Pittsburg, KS. In January, she will perform Brahms’ Zwei Gesänge at Jordan Hall in Boston with violist Roger Tapping and pianist Judith Gordon.
Recent opera roles include Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Mercury Baroque in Houston, Cherubino in a semi-staged production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro with the North Carolina Symphony, Annio in La clemenza di Tito with Opera Boston (about which the Boston Herald said “…River offered perhaps the most purely delightful singing of the evening”), Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Opera Aperta, the Mother in Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Santa Fe Symphony, Rosina in The Barber of Seville at the Crested Butte Music Festival, Nancy in Albert Herring with Red House Opera, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with Opera Southwest and Anna I in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with Intermezzo Opera. She has also performed concert versions of Handel’s Orlando (Medoro) with Boston's Emmanuel Music and Berg’s Wozzeck (Margret) with the New England Philharmonic.
Krista River began her musical career as a cellist, earning her music degree at St. Olaf College. She resides in Boston and is a regular soloist with Emmanuel Music’s renowned Bach Cantata Series.
Zorana Sadiq, soprano
Recently praised for her "vivacity and strong communicative instinct" (Globe and Mail) soprano Zorana Sadiq has performed extensively throughout Canada and the U.S. Some of her most recent work includes, a Music Toronto recital with pianist Peter Tiefenbach, The Harp of Fire with Talisker players, Four Last Songs with the PSO, Poulenc’s Gloria with Toronto Choral Society, Margaret Trudeau inTrudeau: Long Path,Shining March for the World Stage Festival, Lauretta in Opera York’s Gianni Schicchi, Ariane in R. Murray Schafer’s opera The Enchanted Forest, Susanna in the Banff Festival’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro, and the title role in Shirish Korde’s Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen, premiered by Boston Musica Viva in April 2010.
For her excellence in contemporary recital repertoire, Zorana was one of three finalists in the prestigious Eckhardt Gramatté Competition for Voice in 2005, and is the recipient of three Canada Council Arts Grants to professional musicians.
