BACH VOCAL ARTISTS BACH VOCAL ARTISTS

JACOB PERRY, tenor

Praised for his “gorgeous and stylish” interpretations of Renaissance and Baroque repertoire, Jacob Perry is a tenor based in the Washington metro area. He has been featured as a soloist with Apollo’s Fire, Les Délices, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Tempesta di Mare, Washington Bach Consort, and the Washington National Cathedral. Deeply immersed in vocal chamber music, Mr. Perry enjoys playing with Les Canards Chantants, a soloist-ensemble based in Philadelphia of which he is the core tenor, as well as engagements with ensembles such as the Art of Early Keyboard, Cathedra, New Consort, Seraphic Fire, and TENET Vocal Artists. As Co-Artistic Director of Bridge, a genre-defying vocal collective based in Washington, he draws on his instincts for theatricality and story-telling, as the group explores the connections between early masterpieces and ground-breaking new works. Jacob was the tenor Virginia Best Adams fellow at the 2022 Carmel Bach Festival.

CATHERINE PSARAKIS , soprano

Noted for her “precise and focused coloratura”, Catherine Psarakis has appeared with the Chicago Summer Opera and the New England Conservatory production of Bernstein’s Candide. As an advocate of intimate performance through art song and chamber music, Catherine has performed in NEC’s Liederabend Series and the Boston Art Song Society. Catherine made her oratorio debut in Handel’s Messiah with the Messiah Choral Society in Orlando, FL, conducted by Dr. John Sinclair. She recently performed with the European Orchestral and Choral Association in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle. She is a recipient of the Presser Award, and she was a first place winner of the Medici International Music Competition, the Toronto Mozart Vocal Competition, the London Classical Music Competition, and the Constantine the Great International Solo Singing Competition. She was a finalist in the Vienna Summer Music Festival Competition and the International Brahms Competition. Catherine received her BA from Rollins College on a full merit scholarship and her MM from the New England Conservatory of Music.

MARGOT ROOD , soprano

Margot Rood performs a wide range of repertoire that includes return appearances with Washington Bach Consort, Handel & Haydn Society, Seraphic Fire, True Concord, and Kinnara Ensemble. Solo appearances include Handel’s Messiah with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Bach Collegium San Diego. Margot has been featured in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Edinburgh’s Dunedin Consort, Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Handel and Haydn Society, and Vivaldi’s Gloria with Seraphic Fire. She has recorded with Boston Early Music and Blue Heron, whose recording of Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks Vol. 5 won the Gramophone Award for Early Music. She is a recent recipient of the St. Botolph Club Foundation's Emerging Artist Award for her work in new music as a core member of Boston’s Lorelei Ensemble, an all-female vocal ensemble dedicated to the performance of new music. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in the world premiere of Shawn Jaeger’s Letters Made with Gold Margot holds performance degrees from the University of Michigan and McGill University.

CLARA ROTTSOLK , soprano

Clara Rottsolk has been lauded by The New York Times for her “clear, appealing voice and expressive conviction.” With repertoire ranging from the Renaissance to the contemporary, her appearances have taken her across the United States, the Middle East, Japan, and South America. She specializes in historically informed performance practice, singing with ensembles that include American Bach Soloists, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Trinity Wall Street Choir, and Seraphic Fire. Clara’s Bach repertoire includes his Mass in B minor, St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, and the Easter, Ascension, and Christmas Oratorios along with Mozart’s Grand Mass and Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, and Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light She has performed at the Carmel Bach Festival, Philadelphia Bach Festival, Whidbey Island Music Festival, and Boston Early Music Festival. A native of Seattle, Ms. Rottsolk earned music degrees at Rice University and Westminster Choir College and was awarded recognition for musical excellence by the Metropolitan Opera National Council. Currently she is based in Philadelphia and teaches voice at Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr Colleges.

KUNYA ROWLEY, tenor

Director of Music Access, Arts, and Culture at The Miami Foundation, Kunya Rowley leads focused efforts on bringing access to music for all youth in Miami. Kunya holds a Bachelor of Music from The University of Florida and is an alum of the New World School of the Arts. A 2017 recipient of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge Grant for his performance series Hued Songs, which explores and celebrates black history through the lens of black music and artists, he serves on the National YoungArts Foundation’s voice program. Prior to joining the Miami Foundation, his experience in overseeing key strategic technologies and marketing and sales initiatives helped develop the skills needed to successfully increase access to the arts.

ANGELA YOUNG SMUCKER , mezzo-soprano

Bringing her “robust, burnished timbre” (Chicago Classical Revue) to the stage, arts administration, and education, Angela has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion and Chicago’s WFMT and WTTW. As a classical singer, Angela has soloed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Bach Festival, Bach Collegium San Diego, Carmel Bach Festival, Newberry Consort, and Haymarket Opera Company as well as professional vocal ensembles such as Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Conspirare, Seraphic Fire, and VocalEssence Ensemble Singers. Angela serves as executive director at Chicago’s Third Coast Baroque, and along with her co-founders uses 17th- and 18th-century repertoire as a tool to explore 21st-century lives. Angela received her BM from Valparaiso University and MM from the University of Minnesota. At Stetson University and Valparaiso University, she mentors students in developing their vocal technique and the skills needed to be an entrepreneurial artist. Angela is pursuing her doctorate at Northwestern University where she is currently working on a lecturerecital on Vivaldi’s rarely heard opera Orlando furioso.