Recent Soloists for the Fall 2011 Performance
Petite Messe Solenelle by Gioacchino Rossini
Esther Heidi Hickman
Mezzo-Soprano Esther Heidi Hickman has most recently portrayed the roles of Dorabella (Cosi fan Tutte) (Der Rosenkavalier) with the New York Opera Forum. Other recent performances include Sesto (Giulio Cesare) with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) with the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, and Cherubino (Nozze di Figaro) with Amato Opera. Other roles performed include Carmen (Carmen), Angelina (La Cenerentola), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Siebel (Faust), Meg (Falstaff) and Second Lady (Die Zauberflote) in addition to oratorio as the Alto Soloist for both Handel's Messiah and Mendelssohn's Elijah.
Awards and Honors include vocal scholarships from the Long Beach Mozart Festival, Kiwanis International, Southern California Women's Chorus Association, Glenn Katz Foundation, Opera Guild of Southern California, and the Los Angeles Music Center Spotlight awards. She has also participated in the Blanche Thebom Young Artists Opera Apprentice Program in San Francisco; the inaugural season of Martina Arroyo Foundation's Prelude to performance and has been an Apprentice Artist with Sarasota Opera. Esther Heidi Hickman was born in Los Angeles, California to an Austrian father and Ecuadorian mother. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance at the University of California, Los Angeles. She most recently performed the Alto Soloist in Beethoven's Choral Fantasy and Haydn's Nelson Mass with the Putnam Chorale and was the Mother in Amahland the Night Visitors with the NY Evangelical Opera Company for the benefit of the homeless and family support ministries.
Alison Davy
Lyric coloratura soprano Alison Davy has appeared in opera and oratorio both nationally and internationally. Praised by Opera Orchestra of New York conductor Eve Queler for her "beautiful expression and style," Ms. Davy has performed as a soloist with The Washington Opera, Handel Choir of Baltimore, Centro Musica Antica in Italy, Parma Symphony Orchestra, Newark-Granville Symphony, New York City's Downtown Symphony Orchestra and the Choral Arts Society of Washington, D.C. outreach program. Her opera roles include Pamina, Susanna, Musetta, Manon, and Baby Doe. Her concert repertoire includes Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Messiah, Mozart's Mass in C Minor , and the Brahms Requiem.
Ms. Davy has sung as a featured soloist in the Holders International Music Festival in Barbados, at the Mann Center in Philadelphia, and has participated in the Caramoor Festival with Maestro William Crutchfield. Among her awards are finalist in the Vera Scammon Competition and New Jersey Alliance for Performing Artists Competition, semi-finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York Competition and recipient of the Todd Duncan Award from the Annapolis Opera and the George Woodhead Prize from Peabody Conservatory. Ms. Davy has been heard on Southern Oregon Public Radio.
Eapen Leubner, Tenor
Eapen recently returned from Fairbanks, Alaska where he sang the role of Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore. In 2010, Eapen was praised for his "tender and insightful" performance of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni by the Fairbanks News-Miner. He has been seen on stage in New York as Don Gaston in Mahler's Die Drei Pintos (Bronx Opera), Younger Thompson in Cipullo's Glory Denied (Chelsea Opera) and Beppe in I Pagliacci .Eapen's oratorio roles include Carmina Burana(with the Putnam Chorale), Handel's Messiah Mozart's Requiem . Eapen has sung with Seattle Opera, Opera Colorado, Tri-Cities, the Downtown Symphony and Capital City Opera (Atlanta). His favorite roles include Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte), Alfred (Die Fledermaus) and Don Ramiro (La Cenerentola). Eapen is thrilled to return to sing with his friends at the Putnam Chorale.
Follow Eapen's career at www.eapenleubner.com and www.facebook.com/eapenleubner.
Peter Kendall Clark, Baritone
Peter is pleased to join the Putnam Chorale again, having sung many concerts under the baton of Doug Anderson, including Elijah and Carmina Burana. In the past season he sang Count for Chelsea Opera's LeNozze di Figaro, Sonner in Liederkranz Opera's Das Rheingold, Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte at Milwaukee's Skylight Opera, the title role of Eugene Onegin with Opera Slavica and the High Priest in Samson et Dalila with Hudson Opera Theater. Previously, with Elysium: between two continents, he was Edwin in the Italian premiere of Ernst Krenek's What Price Confidence? at the Teatro dell'opera di Roma and Ezzelin in the world premiere of Egon Lustgarten's Dante im Exil at Carnegie's Weill Hall. A favorite at Ashlawn Opera, he has appeared there as Frank Butler, Henry Higgins, and King Arthur in Camelot. He was singled out by the New York Times as "a rascally and irrepressible Top" in Bronx Opera's The Tender Land and as "stentorian and styleist" in the role of Jehovah in the world premiere of Marc Blitzstein's Cain. Next year Mr. Clark debuts with Dicapo Opera as Joe in The most happy fella, appears with Orchestra Kentucky as Arthur in Camelot and returns to Skylight Opera for Sunday in the Park with George. For more information, please visit: www.peterkendallclark.com
The Putnam Chorale is a not-for-profit 501c3 organization. Sponsors and Patrons are welcome as are non-singing volunteers to help with operations and production. YOU are welcome! Come and enjoy fine music at area venues.
