- About The Festival
- Concerts & Schedule
- Milton Cross
Young Artist Series - Symphonic Chorus
- Staff
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2013 Festival Finale Repertoire Announced!
Minuetto Festival Finale Concert with orchestra
– Repertoire includes selections from Rossini’s Il
Barbiere di Siviglia and Vaughn Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem
2013 Festival Brochure Click Here
2013 Young Artist Applications Click Here
2013 Festival Dates: June 24 - 29
Location: Central Presbyterian Church, 70 Maple Street, Summit
NJ
The Minuetto Music Festival is dedicated to promoting Opera & Classical music with particular emphasis on new and emerging artists, professional mentorship, the involvement of community singers and collaboration with other outstanding organizations.
Click here for 2012 Promo Video
Click Here for Young Artist Showcase Photos Click Here for Concert Photos of Judy Kang
Click Here for Festival Finale Concert Photos
Minuetto Festival on Kadmus Arts
Location: Central Presbyterian Church, 70 Maple Street, Summit NJ
The Minuetto Music Festival proudly presents three outstanding concerts to launch our inaugural season!
Click Here for Festival Brochure
Click Here for 2012 Festival
Promo Video
Date: June 25
Location: Central Presbyterian Church, Summit
NJ
Performance Time: 7:30 p.m.
Milton Cross & Rising Artist Young Artist Winners present a delightful evening of music to agents, managers, directors and concert goers.
Click Here for Young Artist Winners
Date: June 27
Location: Central Presbyterian Church, Summit
NJ
Performance Time: 7:30 p.m.
Canada's sensational DESTINO in Concert!
Date: June 29
Location: Central Presbyterian Church, Summit
NJ
Performance Time: 7:30 p.m.
The Minuetto Music Festival Finale Concert will feature:
Concert Opera selections from Rossini’s "Il Barbiere di
Siviglia"
and the Vaughn Williams "Dona Nobis
Pacem"
Click Here for 2012 Concert Photos
2013 Young Artist Poster Click Here
Named for the famous 'voice of the Metropolitan Opera' Milton Cross, the Young Artist Series is designed to expose and promote outstanding young artists from around the world. Click Here for Milton Cross Bio
“The Continuo Arts Foundation has created a program where the level of artistry is exemplary, the music is inspiring and the level of dedication to the singers extends way beyond the program itself. Through contacts made at the Minuetto Music Festival, I was able to take the next step in my career and accepted a position at the university level. I would recommend this program to all singers; it will enrich you as a musician and performer at any level.”
Hope Osborn, 2012 Grant Recipient, The Wagner Society of New York
2012 Milton Cross Rising Star Award Winner“Experiencing the kindness of the Continuo Arts Foundation family was a highlight of my summer. Working with Dr. Candace Wicke and winning the Milton Cross Award will continue to be one of the highlights of my career.”
Judy Marchman, 2012 Milton Cross Award Winner“The Minuetto Festival was a great experience for me! I had opportunities to perform with fabulous pianists and a great orchestra. I really appreciated working with Corbin Abernathy on acting skills. He helped me characterize "The Doll's Song" and I have been able to use the techniques he taught to bring out other characters. Conductors Dr. Candace Wicke and Dr. Beverly Coulter supported and coached me, giving me new insights on my arias.”
Shannon Elizabeth Hunt, 2012 Rising Star Award Winner"My experience at Minuetto this summer was eye opening. I was honored to join such talent on stage. I learned so much about the business side of singing- how to better promote and represent myself. I loved working with Beverly and Candace, picking their brains and listening to their stories and experiences. It doesn't hurt that I met some incredible people who are now some of my best friends!"
Jami Leonard, 2012 Milton Cross Emerging Artist Award Winner
Named for the famed Metropolitan Opera Announcer, the Milton Cross winners will be featured on:
Featured on:
Click Here for 2012 Photo Album
Featured Performer:
Click Here for Sharon Byrne's Minuetto Festival Young Artist Performance
Sharon Byrne has been the mezzo-soprano soloist and alto section leader at Calvary Episcopal Church in Summit, NJ for sixteen seasons. She has actively participated in Calvary’s concert series over the years. Her many oratorio performances as a soloist with Calvary and with several local concert series include Brahms' Alto Rhapsody, as well as Handel's Messiah, Bach's Magnificat, Bach's Mass in B-Minor, Bach's St. John Passion, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mozart's Requiem, and Verdi's Requiem.
Sharon has completed her graduate studies at Shenandoah Conservatory where she earned her Master of Music Education degree. While studying for her undergraduate degree at Westminster Choir College, she sang with the Westminster Symphonic Choir in performance of Britten's War Requiem, Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au Boucher and Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem (recorded with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Kurt Masur). Sharon can be heard on two other recordings (Singing for Pleasure and Westminster Choir at Spoleto Festival, U.S.A.) and she toured Europe and the Far East with the critically acclaimed Westminster Choir and under the direction of Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt.
She has performed in the opera choruses of Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier, Verdi's Falstaff and Janáček's The Excursions of Brouček to the Moon and to the Fifteenth Century at the Spoleto Festival, U.S.A. Her solo musical theatre roles include Katisha in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Mikado and Mrs. Ott in Floyd’s opera Susannah. Sharon also enjoyed her seven years singing with the award winning young professional group The Antioch Choral Ensemble and can be heard on their first album Winter Songs.
Sharon is currently studying voice with Dr. Christopher Arneson of Westminster Choir College and coaches with Ms. Pamela Gilmore of Rutgers University.
Featured Performer:
Click Here for Erica Papillion-Posey's Minuetto Young Artist Performance
“....Purely exciting and rich! ....great delivery of text....” ~Arte & Musica Magazine
“....Gorgeous, powerful
voice!....” ~Dr. Juliana Bishop-Hoch, Loveland Opera
Theatre
March 2012, mezzo soprano,
Erica Papillion-Posey launched the
first program in a three recital series entitled: An Evening of
Classical Treasures. “….incredibly beautiful, engaging
and warm….” were but some of the terms used by ~Dr.
Arthur Jones, Founder & Chair Emeritus of The Spirituals Project,
to describe her preparation and interpretation of the text.
Reared in Lake Charles, Louisiana,
Ms. Papillion-Posey is an impressive singing actress
with an emerging national and international resume. On the opera stage
or in recital— she is not to be missed. Her memorable 2010 performance
with the Tusica Opera Festival inspired a return invitation
for the 2011 season as the 3rd lady in Mozart's Die
Zauberflöte and praised performances in Tarquinia, Civita di
Bagnoregio, Castilione, Capranica and Ronciglione, Italy of the
Pergolesi sacred beauty, Stabat Mater at the direction of
Timothy Leon. Additionally, in 2011, she sang the role of Bizet’s
Carmen and Annina from Verdi’s La Traviata in Bari, Italy.
July, 2010, Ms. Papillion-Posey made her international
debut as the Darth Vader of female operatic characters, La zia
Principessa from Puccini’s Suor Angelica at the Tuscia
Opera Festival, under the baton of maestro Stefano Vignati in
Viterbo and Rome, Italy. In March 2010, she premiered the role of
Lucretia in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia. In December 2009,
Ms. Papillion-Posey was the featured alto soloist in
Faith Lutheran’s production of Handel’s Messiah. In April
2008, she secured the title role of the alluring seductress Carmen with
the Lamont School of Music at the Newman Center for the
Performing Arts, Denver, CO. Ms. Papillion-Posey’s
early career roles include: her 2007 debut of Princess Akara, from
Cherise Leiter and Leanna Kirchoff’s world premier of The Lady or
the Tiger, an adaptation of the beloved short story by Franck
Stockton; her 2006 -few fries short of a happy meal- rendering of Madam
Flora, “Baba” from Giancarlo Menotti’s The Medium, and
Mozart’s man-swapping sister, Dorabella.
Ms. Papillion-Posey is most at home in 19th century, Romantic literature with celebrated composers Giuseppe Verdi, Georges Bizet, Camille Saint-Saens and Gaetano Donizetti. Her operatic specialty roles include: Carmen (Carmen), Dalila (Samson et Dalila), Amneris (Aida), Azucena (Il Trovatore), Suzuki (Madam Butterfly) Charlotte (Werther) and Adalgisa (Norma) and Dorabella (Così fan tutte) with concert repertoire including: Messiah, Verdi Requiem, Alto Rhapsody, Mahler Symphony No. 2 & No. 8, Cinco Canciones Negras, Beethoven's Symphony No.9 and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.
Ms. Papillion-Posey has been selected for masterclass appointments and coaching sessions with: distinguished opera and art song bass-baritone Simon Estes of the University of Iowa; character mezzo, Judith Christin; accomplished tenor, Donald Kaasch and Michael Capasso, founder and general director of DiCapo Opera. Summer 2012 she will be working and coaching with renowned mezzo soprano, Grace Bumbry at the Bumbry Vocal and Opera Academy, Universität der Künste Berlin, Germany.
Among her scholarly pursuits, Ms. Papillion-Posey holds a Master of Music degree and Advanced Certificate in vocal performance (both with honors and distinction) from the University of Denver, Lamont School of Music, a Bachelor of Music in voice from Metropolitan State College of Denver and a Diploma in Business Management from Platt Business and Technical College. She has been the recipient of many music awards and grants such as the: International Lyric Academy of Rome e Viterbo Award, AMICI of Denver Scholarship, Dante Alighieri Music Scholarship Competition, Jeff Bradley Music Scholarship Fund, E. Stoddard Young Endowment Scholarship, Stratton Faulhaber Scholarship, Coulter Norbloom Scholarship Grant and Joseph Docksey Career Development Fund Award and the 2005 first and 2006 second place, opera division winner of the Vocal Arts Competition of Colorado, to name a few. In 2010, Ms. Papillion-Posey, along with friends and fellow vocalist, Christie Connolley and Melissa Wimbish founded, directed and wrote extensively for www.Operagasm.com, a substantive, cutting-edge e-magazine focusing on current events, news, reviews, interviews, fashion and editorial contributions regarding opera and classical music.
Ms. Papillion-Posey currently serves as Director of Artistic Programs and liaison to Boettcher Boys and Girls Club of Aurora for Grand Design Inc., a cultural and performing arts group. She is also a member of the Italian Institute of Denver, L’Alliance Française de Denver, The Lamont Society and Friends of Music at Metro.
Featured Performer:
Click Here for Craig Sanphy's Minuetto Young Artist Performance
Craig Sanphy, a native of Concord, NH, is immensely enjoying a gap year before he begins his auditions for grad schools in the fall. In the past year alone he has appeared with multiple companies, including the Delaware Valley Opera Company (Don Ottavio understudy in Don Giovanni), Princeton Music Festival (Chorus in Francesca di Ramini), Opera MODO (Elder Hayes in Susannah) and the Westminster Opera Theatre (Chorus in Cosi Fan Tutte). He currently resides in Princeton where he studies voice with Dr. Sharon Sweet.
Featured Performer:
Click Here for Shannon Hunt's Minuetto Young Artist Performance
Shannon Elizabeth Hunt has performed many operas and musical theater roles including “Barbarina”(Le nozze di Figaro), “Belinda” (Dido and Aeneas), “Suor Genovieffa” (Suor Angelica), “Despina” (Così fan tutte), “Liza Dulin” (A.F.R.A.I.D.), “Célie” (Signor Deluso), “Alexandria” (Regina) and “Sharon Graham” (Master Class). She has performed as a soloist in oratorios and cantatas including Haydn’s Missa Brevis No.7, Fauré’s Requiem, Schubert’s Mass in G, Resphigi’s Lauda per la Natività, Poulenc’s Gloria, Duboise’s Seven Last Words of Christ, Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate, Hoiby’s Hymn of the Nativity, Handel’s Messiah and Bach Cantatas 58, 147, 150 and 197.
In addition to singing, Ms. Hunt enjoys playing the piano, violin and composing. She has won many awards and scholarships for vocal performance and composition from such institutions and organizations as Westminster Choir College, Classical Productions, Music Teachers National Association, Mobile Opera Guild, National Association of Teachers of Singing and Birmingham-Southern College.
Ms. Hunt has performed with Brooklyn Repertory Opera, The Herbert Mark Newman Theater, M4JP and Birmingham Opera Works. She currently performs with Opera Oggi NY and Follow the Drinking Gourd and is a section leader at Westfield Presbyterian Church in NJ.
Featured Performer:
Click Here for Hope Osborn's Minuetto Young Artist Performance
Featured Performer:
Click here for Jenne Carey's Minuetto Young Artist Performance
Featured Performer:
Click here for Stanley Wilson's Minuetto Young Artist Performance
Most of today’s outstanding artists started young; Stanley Wilson is no exception. His first solo performance was at age six, singing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” at a Christmas party, which kindled his interest in music leading him to pursue a life long study of singing and performance. He received his Master of Music from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts in Opera Performance and continues to learn by keeping up his studies in New York City with Anthony Laciura as well as William Hicks of the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Wilson has amassed an extensive list of oratorio and opera credits which include presentations of Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Schubert Mass in B-flat as well as Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte, Basilio and Don Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro, Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Bardolfo in Falstaff and Gastone in La Traviata and Lorenzo in I Capuleti e I Montecchi. As a recital soloist, Mr. Wilson has performed with pianist Malcolm Halliday the works of Elgar, Bridge, Quilter, Vaughan Williams, Schumann and many others. Mr. Wilson teaches voice privately from his home in Worcester, Massachusetts. His philosophy of singing is: “Whether one is singing classical, musical theatre, jazz, pop or rock, a sound technique must come first. From there, a singer can begin to develop the ability to communicate with the listener and to explore what music is truly about.”
Featured Performer:
Click here for Sara Noble's Minuetto Young Artist Performance
Featured Performer:
Michelle Repella is an active choral and opera singer in the greater Tri-State area. Her love for these two genres in particular are what propelled her to attend Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ for voice and music education studies. While at Westminster, she studied under Faith Esham privately, and while a member of the prestigious Symphonic choir, sang under the batons of Maestros Joseph Flummerfelt, Neeme Jarvi, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos. Ms. Repella also sang on the national tour of A Royal Christmas, starring Andrea Bocelli and Denyce Graves. Ms. Repella also held post in the professional choir of St. Bartholomew's Church, NYC, and was fortunate enough to do several recordings and many concerts while there. She also is a member of Anam Cara, based out of Philadelphia, PA, which has recorded three albums under the GIA label, focused in premiering new choral works. Ms. Repella continues to study and sing operatically, most recently having sung La Zia Principessa in Puccini's Suor Angelica with Trinity Opera, NYC. In 2009, Ms. Repella was accepted into the Intermezzo's Elardo Young Artist Program, which was held in Bruges, Belgium. For a month, she studied with Marishka Wierzbicki and Patricia McCaffrey, and coached under J. David Jackson, Andrew Wise, and John Lidal. She sang in the European Premiere of Marc Adamo's opera "Little Women" as Cecelia March. The premiere was held in Bruges' Stadsschouwburg theater in the heart of the city. Ms. Repella has also sung chorus for the Princeton festival for several seasons, as well as New Jersey Opera Theater and Regina Opera. Ms. Repella continues to study and love the field, and works hard to maintain a good balance between her love of choirs and solo work.
Featured Performer:
A native Hoosier, Jami was honored to attend Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, completing her Bachelor of Music in 2009 and Master of Music in 2011 as a student of Patricia Wise. Favorite roles with IU Opera include originating the role of Marguerite Gashet in Bernard Rands’ World Premiere of “Vincent”, Maria (West Side Story) and Clara Johnson (The Light in the Piazza). Workshop Performances under the tutelage of Silvia McNair include Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro)and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte); under Carol Vaness, Blanche (Diologues des Carmelites) and Manon (Manon).
As an undergraduate, Jami won the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale competition (2008). She originated the role of Juliet in Dr. Don Freund’s (IU Composition Dept. Head) “Romeo and Juliet: A Musical Drama” at the Bloomington Playwrights Project. Subsequently, she sang the role of Jenny in Kurt Weil’s “Down in the Valley” at the Waldron Arts Center.
Jami continued on to complete her masters degree as a Merit Scholarship winner. During her graduate work, she attended the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute in San Francisco where she performed the role of Giunone in “La Calisto”, along with scene performances as Meg (Falstaff), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice) and Manon (Manon). While in San Francisco, Jami was honored to participate in a Master Class given by Patricia Racette.
This Spring, Jami has had the privilege to work for the Center for Contemporary Opera(CCO) in New York City, singing in the Atelier Premiere of Eric Salzman’s “Big Jim and the Small Time Investors”. She also traveled with the company to Avignon Opera Theater as the company’s manager for their production of “The Secret Agent”. This Fall, Jami looks forward continuing her work as Company Manager for CCO’s production of “A Death in the Family” to be performed in NYC and Szegad, Hungary.
Featured Performer:
Laura Ann Heckmann debuted with the Northern Westchester Symphony in 2009. With degrees in both music and business, she has worked as the soprano soloist and section leader for the Presbyterian Church of New Rochelle. Her performing credits include Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Siebel in Faust with rave reviews for the Hudson Lyric Opera. She also has appeared as Lady Ella in Patience with Einstein Symphony Orchestra and a young artist with Connecticut Lyric Opera. Summer performing engagements include the Plaintiff in Trial By Jury with Connecticut Gilbert and Sullivan Society and Cinderella in Into the Woods with Theater West.
Become a part of the Minuetto Music Festival Symphonic Chorus today! Complete and return the registration form below with your directors recommendation. Your membership in the Symphonic Chorus includes admission to all Festival Concerts!
Dates: May 14, 21, 28
Location: Historic Twin Maples, Summit NJ
Rehearsal Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
For local symphonic chorus members accepted and registered for Minuetto Music Festival.
Dates: June 6, 13, 20
Location: Historic Twin Maples, Summit NJ
Rehearsal Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
For local symphonic chorus members accepted and registered for Minuetto Music Festival.
Dates: June 24, 26, 28
Location: Central Presbyterian Church, Summit
NJ
Rehearsal
Times: Symphonic Chorus: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Dress Rehearsal June 29:
2:00 – 3:30 Orchestra & Soloists
3:30 – 4:00 Break
4:00 – 6:00 Full Dress Choir & Orchestra
6:00 – 7:00 Dinner Break
7:00 – Doors open
7:30 – 9:00 Concert
Concert Attire: Ladies-Full Length Concert
Black
Men: Tuxedo or Concert Black suit with black
bowtie
The Continuo Arts Foundation would like to thank the following sponsors for their support of the Inaugural season of the Minuetto Music Festival. Please patronize our sponsors and be sure to thank them for their support!
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Joan Kozlik
Vice President - Branch Manager
Festival Co-Chairs:
Festival Committee:
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