Welcome!
And thank you for joining us today.
Leaving the comfort of one's home, of one's couch, of one's warm socks, is an honor we don't take lightly. We will be joining in that soon after the reception ends. But until then, please receive our deepest thanks, and enjoy an afternoon of our favorite pieces, some thrilling musicality, laughs, tears, all in a truly stunning venue (did we mention Tiffany?) as we explore all types of romantic love. We are sopranos so fortunately, or unfortunately, most of our roles and music concerns romantic love. There's loss, envy, betrayal, joy, new love. All kinds, today!
Without further ado, please relax, take in the view, enjoy the music and feel free to follow along with the text.
There will be no intermission, but we promise, it will fly by. And there's food and drinks after.
Program
Cuatro Madrigales Amatorios
Joaquín Rodrigo (1901–1999)
Quatre Chansons de Jeunesse
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Jacquelynne Fontaine-Isaac
__
Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893)
Gabrielle DeMers
__
The Boys from Syracuse
Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) & Lorenz Hart (1895–1943)
Duet
__
Poems & Moon Songs, a song constellation
Will Reynolds (b. 1979)
The Girls of Summer
Stephen Sondheim (1930–2021)
Jacquelynne Fontaine-Isaac
__
Cinderella
Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) & Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960)
Duet
__
The House of Life
Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Three Songs
Roger Quilter (1877–1953)
Jacquelynne Fontaine-Isaac
__
Lyrics & Translations
Barcarolle (1881)
from Les Contes d'Hoffmann
Jacques Offenbach
Libretto by Jules Barbier
Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour,
Beautiful night, oh night of love,
Souris à nos ivresses,
Smile upon our joys!
Nuit plus douce que le jour,
Night sweeter than the day,
Ô belle nuit d'amour!
O, beautiful night of love!
Le temps fuit et sans retour
Time flees and never returns
Emporte nos tendresses,
Carrying away our endearments,
Loin de cet heureux séjour
Far from this happy stay,
Le temps fuit sans retour.
Time flees and never returns.
Zéphyrs embrasés,
Burning Zephyrs,
Versez-nous vos caresses,
Give us your caresses,
Zéphyrs embrasés,
Burning Zephyrs,
Donnez-nous vos baisers!
Give us your kisses!
Vos baisers! Vos baisers!
Ah! Your kisses! Your kisses!
Ah! Belle nuit, ô nuit d'amour,
Beautiful night, oh night of love,
Souris à nos ivresses,
Smile upon our joys!
Nuit plus douce que le jour,
Night sweeter than the day,
Ô belle nuit d'amour!
O, beautiful night of love!
Souris à nos ivresses,
Smile upon our joys!
Nuit d'amour, ô nuit d'amour!
Night of love, O, night of love!
Ah!
¿De dónde venís, amore? (1947)
from Cuatro Madrigales Amatorios
Joaquín Rodrigo
Text from a 16th-century anonymous Spanish poem
(Juan Vásquez's Recopilación)
¿De dónde venís, amore?
Where hast thou been, my love?
Bien sé yo de dónde.
I know well where.
¿De dónde venís, amigo?
Where hast thou been, my friend?
Fuere yo testigo,
Were I a witness,
¡ah! Bien sé yo de dónde.
Ah! I know well where!
Apparition (1884)
from Quatre Chansons de Jeunesse
Claude Debussy
Poem by Stéphane Mallarmé
La lune s'attristait. Des séraphins en pleurs
The moon grew sad. Weeping seraphim,
Rêvant, l'archet aux doigts, dans le calme des fleurs
Dreaming, bows in hand, in the calm of hazy
Vaporeuses, tiraient de mourantes violes
Flowers, drew from dying viols
De blancs sanglots glissant sur l'azur des corolles.
white sobs that glided over the corollas' blue.
—C'était le jour béni de ton premier baiser.
—It was the blessed day of your first kiss.
Ma songerie aimant à me martyriser
My dreaming, glad to torment me,
S'enivrait savamment du parfum de tristesse
Grew skilfully drunk on the perfumed sadness
Que même sans regret et sans déboire laisse
That—without regret or bitter after-taste—
La cueillaison d'un Rêve au cœur qui l'a cueilli.
The harvest of a Dream leaves in the reaper's heart.
J'errais donc, l'œil rivé sur le pavé vieilli,
And so I wandered, my eyes fixed on the old paving stones,
Quand avec du soleil aux cheveux, dans la rue
When with sun-flecked hair, in the street
Et dans le soir, tu m'es en riant apparue
And in the evening, you appeared laughing before me
Et j'ai cru voir la fée au chapeau de clarté
And I thought I glimpsed the fairy with her cap of light
Qui jadis sur mes beaux sommeils d'enfant gâté
Who long ago crossed my lovely spoilt child's slumbers,
Passait, laissant toujours de ses mains mal fermées
Always allowing from her half-closed hands
Neiger de blancs bouquets d'étoiles parfumées.
White bouquets of perfumed flowers to snow.
Liza's Aria (1890)
from Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky, after Pushkin
(Russian, romanized)
Uzh polnoch’ blizitsya, a Germana vsyo net,
Already midnight is approaching, but German is still not here,
vsyo net.
is not here.
Ya znayu, on priydyot, rasseyet podozren’ye.
I know, he will come and disperse my suspicion.
On zhertva sluchaya i prestuplen’ya — ne mozhet sovershit’!
He is a victim of the circumstances and a crime — he is not able to commit!
Akh, istomilas’, issstradalas’ ya!..
Oh, I am exhausted, worn out with suffering. I am!..
Akh, istomilas’ ya gorem…
Oh, worn out I am with suffering.
Noch’yu li, dnyom, tol’ko o nyom,
Night and day, only about him,
Dumoy sebya isterzala
with thoughts myself have been torturing
Gde zhe ty, radost’ byvалaya?
Where are you, my happiness former?
Akh, istomilas’, ustala ya! Zhizn’ mne lish’ radost’ sulila,
Oh, worn out, tired I am! Life to me only happiness promised,
Tucha nashla, grom prinesla, vsyo, chto ya v mire lyubila,
A cloud came, a thunder brought, all, that I in this world loved,
Schast’ye, nadezhdy razbila! Akh, istomilas’, ustala ya!
Happiness, hopes destroyed! Oh, worn out, tired I am!
Noch’yu li, dnyom, tol’ko o nyom, akh, dumoy sebya isterzala ya…
Night and by day, only about him, oh, with thoughts I have been torturing myself…
Gde zhe ty, radost’ byvалaya? Tucha prishla i grozu prinesla,
Where are you, my joy former? A cloud came and a thunderstorm brought,
Schast’ye, nadezhdy razbila! Ya istomilas’! Ya issstradalas’!
Happiness, hopes destroyed! I am exhausted! I am worn out by anguish!
Toska gryzyot menya i gloghet…
Despair devours me and gnaws me…
Falling in Love with Love (1938)
from The Boys from Syracuse
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Adriana (Gabby)
I weave with brightly colored strings
To keep my mind off other things;
So, ladies, let your fingers dance,
And keep your hands out of romance.
Lovely witches,
Let the stitches
Keep your fingers under control.
Cut the thread but leave
Your whole heart whole.
Marry maids can sew and sleep.
Wives can only sew and weep!
Falling in love with love
Is falling for make believe.
Falling in love with love
Is playing the fool.
Caring too much is such
A juvenile fancy.
Learning to trust is just
For children in school.
I fell in love with love
One night when the moon was full.
I was unwise with eyes
Unable to see.
I fell in love with love
With love everlasting,
But love fell out with me.
Luciana (Jacque)
Falling in love with love
Is falling for make believe.
Falling in love with love Is playing the fool.
Both
I fell in love with love
One night when the moon was full.
I was unwise with eyes
Unable to see.
I fell in love with love
With love everlasting
But love fell out with me!
Hello, Young Lovers (1951)
from The King and I
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
When I think of Tom I think about a night
When the earth smelled of summer
And the sky was streaked with white.
And the soft mist of England
Was sleeping on a hill, I remember this
And I always will.
There are new lovers now on the same silent hill,
Looking on the same blue sea,
And I know Tom and I are a part of them all,
And they're all a part of Tom and me.
Hello young lovers,
Whoever you are,
I hope your troubles are few.
All my good wishes go with you tonight,
I've been in love like you.
Be brave, young lovers,
And follow your star,
Be brave and faithful and true.
Cling very close to each other tonight,
I've been in love like you.
I know how it feels
To have wings on your heels
And to fly down a street in a trance.
You fly down a street
On the chance that you'll meet,
And you meet not really by chance.
Don't cry, young lovers,
Whatever you do,
Don't cry because I'm alone.
All of my memories are happy tonight,
I've had a love of my own.
I've had a love of my own,
Like yours, I've had a love of my own.
Meadowlark (1976)
from The Baker's Wife
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz
When I was a girl I had a favorite story
Of the meadowlark who lived where the rivers wind
Her voice could match the angels' in its glory
But she was blind, the lark was blind.
An old king came and took her to his palace
Where the walls were burnished bronze and golden braid
And he fed her fruit and nuts from an ivory chalice
And he prayed:
"Sing for me, my meadowlark,
Sing for me of the silver morning,
Set me free, my meadowlark,
And I'll buy you a priceless jewel
And cloth of brocade and crewel
And I'll love you for life, if you will sing for me."
Then one day as the lark sang by the water
The god of the sun heard her in his flight.
And her singing moved him so he came and brought her
The gift of sight, he gave her sight!
And she opened her eyes to the shimmer and the splendor
Of this beautiful, young god, so proud and strong.
And he called to the lark in a voice both rough and tender,
"Come along. Fly with me, my meadowlark,
Fly with me on the silver morning,
Past the sea where the dolphins bark.
We will dance on the coral beaches,
Make a feast of the plums and peaches,
Just as far as your vision reaches, Fly with me."
But the meadowlark said no
For the old king loved her so
She couldn't bear to wound his pride
So the sun god flew away
And when the king came down that day
He found his meadowlark had died
Every time I heard that part I cried...
And now I stand here starry-eyed and stormy
Oh, just when I thought my heart was finally numb
A beautiful, young man appears before me, singing
"Come, oh, won't you come?"
And what can I do if finally for the first time
The one I'm burning for returns the glow?
If love has come at last it's picked the worst time
Still I know I've got to go
Fly away, meadowlark
Fly away in the silver morning,
If I stay, I'll grow to curse the dark
So it's off where the days won't bind me
I know I leave wounds behind me
But I won't let tomorrow find me
Back this way before my past once again can blind me
Fly away... And we won't wait to say good-bye
My beautiful young man and I.
Il est doux, il est bon (1881)
from Hérodiade
Jules Massenet
Libretto by Paul Milliet & Henri Grémont, after Flaubert
Celui dont la parole efface toutes peines,
The one whose words erase all grief,
Le Prophète est ici! C'est vers lui que je vais!
The Prophet is here! And it is he that I now seek!
Il est doux, il est bon, sa parole est sereine:
He is mild, he is good, his words are soothing:
Il parle… tout se tait… He speaks…all is quiet;
Plus léger sur la plaine, Gently over the plain,
L'air attentif passe sans bruit…
The wind listens without noise;
Il parle!
He is speaking!
Ah! quand reviendra-t-il? Quand pourrai-je l'entendre?
Ah, when will he return? When will I hear him again?
Je souffrais, j'étais seule et mon cœur s'est calmé
I was suffering, I was alone but my heart grew calm
En écoutant sa voix mélodieuse et tendre,
Upon listening to his melodious and tender voice,
Mon cœur s'est calmé!
My heart grows calm!
Prophète bien-aimé, puis-je vivre sans toi!
Beloved Prophet, how can I live without you?
C'est là! dans ce désert où la foule étonnée
I was there! In the desert that the crowds followed him,
Avait suivi ses pas, Qu'il m'accueillit un jour, enfant abandonnée!
There that he welcomed me too one day, a forsaken child!
Et qu'il m'ouvrit ses bras!
And opened his arms to me!
Si vous me suivez (c. 2010)
from Poems & Moon Songs, a song constellation
Music & Lyrics by Will Reynolds
(Bilingual English/French text as written)
There's a chateau for two, built for just me and you;
Si vous me suivez!
"If you follow me," cheri, you'll adore the view.
There's a bak'ry I know, makes a pastry just so;
Si vous me suivez! "If you follow me," cheri, that's where we will go.
Follow me fast where promises last, where future and past combine. Safe in that place of endless embrace, of only your face and mine.
As time ticks along you'll remember our song:
Si vous me suivez!
"If you follow me," cheri, you're where you belong.
And maybe, one day, to our children you'll say:
Si vous me suivez!
"If you follow me," cheri, love will lead the way.
So suivez moi, s'il vous plait.
The Girls of Summer (1956)
from Girls of Summer
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
The girls of summer
Get burned
They start the summer
Unconcerned
They get undone
By a touch of sun
In June
Plus a touch of the moon
The girls of summer
Get fooled
'Cause soon the summer
Heat has cooled
And come September
They can't remember
Why Things were hot in July
Not me! It's too easy to fall—
The moonlit sand
A faraway band
And that's all
Not me! I don't easily thrill
Never did, never will
The end of summer's
At hand.
I thought the summer
Was grand.
And here I am with the same undamaged heart.
That I had at the start.
The girls of summer forgot to run.
The girls of summer were bound to lose.
The girls of summer have all the fun.
I have nothing but blues.
Sull'aria (1786)
from Le nozze di Figaro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
SUSANNA (Jacque)
Sull’aria …
To the zephyr …
CONTESSA (Gabby) (dictating)
“Che soave zeffiretto …”
“How sweet the breeze …”
SUSANNA (repeating)
Zeffiretto …
The breeze …
CONTESSA
“Questa sera spirerà! …”
“Will be this evening …”
SUSANNA
Questa sera spirerà …
Will be this evening …
CONTESSA
“Sotto i pini del boschetto.”
“In the pine grove.”
SUSANNA (questioning)
Sotto i pini?
In the pine grove?
SUSANNA (writing)
Sotto i pini del boschetto.
In the pine grove.
CONTESSA
Ei già il resto capirà.
The rest he’ll understand.
SUSANNA
Certo, certo il capirà.
I’m sure he’ll understand.
Morgen! (1894)
from Vier Lieder, Op. 27
Richard Strauss
Poem by John Henry Mackay
Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen,
And tomorrow the sun will shine again,
Und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde,
And on the path that I shall take,
Wird uns, die Glücklichen, sie wieder einen
It will unite us, happy ones, again,
Inmitten dieser sonnenatmenden Erde…
Amid this same sun-breathing earth…
Und zu dem Strand, dem weiten, wogenblauen,
And to the shore, broad, blue-waved,
Werden wir still und langsam niedersteigen,
We shall quietly and slowly descend,
Stumm werden wir uns in die Augen schauen,
Speechless we shall gaze into each other's eyes,
Und auf uns sinkt des Glückes stummes Schweigen…
And the speechless silence of bliss shall fall on us…
Chi il bel sogno di Doretta (1917)
from La Rondine
Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Giuseppe Adami
Chi il bel sogno di Doretta poté indovinar?
Who could guess Doretta's beautiful dream?
Il suo mister come mai finì?
How did its mystery ever end?
Un giorno un giovin baciò la sua bocca
One day a youth kissed her mouth,
E quel bacio fu rivelazion!
And that kiss was a revelation!
Folle passione! Folle amore!
Mad passion! Crazy love!
Chi la carezza sublime, chi mai ridir potrà?
Who could ever describe that sublime caress?
Ah! mio sogno! Ah! vita mia!
Ah! My dream! Ah! My life!
Che importa la ricchezza se alfin rifiorì la felicità!
What does wealth matter if happiness finally blossoms!
Oh, sogno d'or! Poter amar così!
Oh, golden dream! To be able to love like this!
Stepsisters' Lament (1957)
from Cinderella
Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Joy (Gabby)
Why would a fellow want a girl like her,
A frail and fluffy beauty?
Why can't a fellow ever once prefer
A solid girl like me?
Portia (Jacque)
She's a frothy little bubble
With a flimsy kind of charm,
And with very little trouble
I could break her little arm!
Joy
Oh, oh, why would a fellow want a girl like her,
So obviously unusual?
Why can't a fellow ever once prefer
A usual girl like me?
Portia
Her cheeks are a pretty shade of pink,
But not any pinker than a rose is.
Joy
Her skin may be delicate and soft,
But not any softer than a doe's is.
Portia
Her neck is no whiter than a swan's.
Joy
She's only as dainty as a daisy.
Portia
She's only as graceful as a bird.
Both
So why is the fellow going crazy?
Oh, why would a fellow want a girl like her,
A girl who's merely lovely?
Why can't a fellow ever once prefer
A girl who's merely me?
What's the matter with the man?
What's the matter with the man?
What's the matter with the man?
Animal Passion (1997)
from Natural Selection
Jake Heggie
Poem by Gini Savage
(Original text in English)
Fierce as a bobcat's spring with start-up speeds of sixty miles per hour I want a lover to sweep me off my feet and slide me into the gutter without the niceties of small-talk roses or champagne. I mean business. I want whiskey I want to be swallowed whole, I want tiles to spring off the walls when we enter hotel rooms or afternoon apartments I won't pussy-foot around responsibility "shoulds" and "oughts" are out for good. And I don't want to be a fat domestic cat I want to be frantic, yowls and growls to sound like the lion house at feeding time I don't give a damn who hears, I don't give a damn! no discreet eavesdroppers' coughs can stop us in our frenzy. Let the voyeurs voient and let the great cats come.
Alas! Alack! (1997)
from Natural Selection
Jake Heggie
Poem by Gini Savage
(Original text in English)
Alas! Alack!
I have a knack for falling for the wrong man
Cavaradossi or Don Ottavio
were just too tame
I never seem to want to stick to my own script
It's the chain-smoking bad guy in leather
the one who'll ruffle my feathers
the most who gets me I fear it's a lack
Alas!
As Tosca I lost it over Scarpia
not such a bad fella he had the power
and a steady job the better tune
so when they asked me to pick up the knife
and dispatch him I demurred
perhaps it was his theme song I preferred
I know there's a lack
Alas!
If I were Oberon, I'd choose Puck,
for Pamina, it's Papagena
If I'm Brünnhilde it's bound to be Wotan on whom I'm stuck
If Isolde were smitten by King Mark
or Melot would it make her a zealot?
Damn! I know there's a lack
Alas!
Silent Noon (1903)
from The House of Life
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Sonnet by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(Original text in English)
Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace.
The pasture gleams and glooms
'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn hedge.
'Tis visible silence, still as the hour glass.
Deep in the sunsearched growths the dragon-fly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:
So this winged hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.
Love's Philosophy (1905)
from Three Songs, Op. 3
Roger Quilter
Poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(Original text in English)
The fountains mingle with the River
And the Rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle.
Why not I with thine?
See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?
Song to the Moon (1900)
from Rusalka
Antonín Dvořák
Libretto by Jaroslav Kvapil
Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém,
Moon, high and deep in the sky,
Světlo tvé daleko vidí,
Your light sees far,
Po světě bloudíš širokém,
You travel around the wide world,
Díváš se v příbytky lidí.
And see into people's homes.
Měsíčku, postůj chvíli,
Moon, stand still a while
Řekni mi, kde je můj milý!
And tell me where is my beloved.
Řekni mu, stříbrný měsíčku,
Tell him, silvery moon,
Mé že jej objímá rámě,
That I am embracing him.
Aby si alespoň chviličku
For at least momentarily
Vzpomenul ve snění na mne.
Let him recall of dreaming of me.
Zasvěť mu do daleka,
Illuminate him far away,
Řekni mu, řekni, kdo tu naň čeká!
And tell him, tell him who is waiting for him!
O mně-li duše lidská sní,
If his human soul is, in fact, dreaming of me,
Ať se tou vzpomínkou vzbudí!
May the memory awaken him!
Měsíčku, nezhasni, nezhasni!
Moonlight, don't disappear, disappear!
'Til There Was You (1957)
from The Music Man
Music & Lyrics by Meredith Willson
There were bells on a hill
But I never heard them ringing.
No I never heard them at all
Till there was you.
There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging.
No I never saw them at all
Till there was you.
And there was music
And there were wonderful roses
They tell me in sweet fragrant meadows of dawn and dew.
There was love all around
But I never heard it singing.
No I never heard it at all
Till there was you.
Meet the Artists
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Gabrielle DeMers, soprano
Soprano Gabrielle DeMers performs regularly around the DMV. She performed with Young Victorian Theatre Company where she starred as Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore (2x), Phyllis in Iolanthe, and Casilda and Gianetta in The Gondoliers, where The Baltimore Sun singled her out as “a dynamo as Gianetta, with her bright, hearty soprano."
She has sung with Maryland Opera and with Lyric Opera Baltimore where made her role debut as Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly under the baton of Steven White and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. With Opera AACC, Gabrielle sang Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte.
For her Mimi in La Bohème with HUBOpera, DC Metro Arts wrote that she was “sweetly demure as ingénue seamstress Mimi...'Donde Lieta'...was heart-breaking and left most of the audience in tears." She has sung many concerts with orchestras including Bachianas Brasileiras with the Howard County Concert Orchestra.
Gabrielle received her Master of Music in Opera Performance from the University of Maryland, College Park. As a member of the Maryland Opera Studio, she sang the title role of Sandrina in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera and Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from University of Southern California where she sang Betty in the west-coast premiere of Lowell Liebermann and J.D. McClatchy’s Miss Lonelyhearts and Nerone in Handel’s Agrippina. www.gabrielle-demers.com
Jacquelynne Fontaine-Isaac, soprano
Jacquelynne Fontaine-Isaac, soprano, is an award-winning performer whose work spans opera, musical theater, and concert performance in the United States and abroad. She is best known for her portrayal of Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera National Tour, performed more than 1,000 times across North America.
Her operatic roles include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Viterbo, Italy); Violetta in La Traviata (Tacoma and Rogue Opera); Anna in The King & I (Opera North); and Musetta in La Bohème (Los Angeles), with additional performances at The Old Globe in San Diego and the Indiana Repertory Theatre.
As a concert artist, Ms. Fontaine-Isaac made her Washington, D.C. debut headlining An Evening of Broadway with Jacque with the American Contemporary Classical Orchestra, featuring her acclaimed program with the Rome Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared with the Redlands Symphony, Virginia Chamber Orchestra, Marina del Rey Orchestra, Orchestra del Lazio in Italy, and at the Chautauqua Institution, and has performed in Florida with Gulfshore Opera in Opera Meets Broadway. She also presented a full-hour solo recital on KUSC Classical Radio.
She is honored to collaborate with Ms. DeMers and Maestro Harp in her new hometown.
Ms. Fontaine-Isaac holds a Master of Music from the University of Southern California and completed two years of doctoral study in vocal performance. She was also Miss California 2006, and placed in the top ten at Miss America, winning the talent award for her performance of "Vissi d'arte".
Her debut album, safe & sound, with the label Tonsehen, will be released this winter. www.jfontainestudio.com/album
James Harp, piano
James Harp is the Artistic Director of Maryland Opera, where he is building a comprehensive and innovative opera and opera education/outreach program to serve the entire state of Maryland. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. He has had major association with virtually every musical entity in the Maryland area, including Baltimore Concert Opera, Baltimore Choral Arts, The Handel Choir, The Young Victorian Theatre, Opera AACC, the Wagner Society of Washington, DC. He is organist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Cantor (Organist/Choirmaster) at Baltimore’s historic St. Mark’s Lutheran Church. Academic associations include the Peabody Conservatory, Towson University, The University of Maryland, and Morgan State University. He was the Music Director of the Baltimore Men’s Chorus from 1989-1995 and has returned as their accompanist since 2019.
He has been featured as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in works ranging from Saint-Saens ORGAN SYMPHONY to Lloyd Webber’s THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. He has appeared as continuo soloist with many local orchestral and choral groups, where his informed and histrionic realizations of baroque figured bass have won acclaim. He has also accompanied such artists as Elizabeth Futral, Stephen Costello, Leontyne Price, Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes, Licia Albanese, Anna Moffo, Chris Merritt, Lucine Amara, and Paul Plishka including performances in Europe and at the Kennedy Center.