Masterworks 6 Beethoven's Ninth

Joseph Giunta Conductor

One of America’s most distinguished, versatile and dynamic conductors, Joseph Giunta is a musician of international acclaim. He is recognized as an important American conductor for his innovative programming and for his compelling interpretations of traditional and new music. His musical depth combined with his boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm makes him one of the most respected and successful orchestra leaders in the United States.

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Janice Chandler-Eteme Soprano

American soprano Janice Chandler-Eteme’s astonishing range of concert literature includes Strauss' Four Last Songs with the orchestras of Reading, Baltimore, Syracuse, Harrisburg, Utah, Florida and Fort Wayne and at the Grand Teton and Texas Music Festivals; Philip Glass's Passion of Ramakrishna with the Pacific Symphony; Mahler's Second Symphony with the San Diego, Baltimore, Nashville, Cincinnati, Colorado and Pacific Symphonies and Rome's Santa Cecilia Orchestra; Haydn's Die Schöpfung with the Atlanta, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati Symphonies; Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang Symphony with the San Diego Symphony, Lokumbe's Dear Mrs. Parks with the Detroit Symphony and Can You Hear God Crying? with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia; the Brahms Requiem with the San Diego, Baltimore, and Colorado Symphonies; Mahler's Eighth Symphony with the Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, American and Montreal Symphonies; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Cleveland Orchestra, New Jersey and Houston Symphonies; Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Festival Miami and the Baltimore Symphony; Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Dallas and Santa Rosa Symphonies; and Britten’s War Requiem with the Lincoln and Santa Rosa Symphonies and the Evansville Philharmonic. She remains among the most in-demand sopranos for Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, in staged performances of the complete work at the Opera de Lyon and Dallas Opera, the Bennett concert version under Jeffrey Tyzik with the Milwaukee, Seattle, Detroit and Vancouver Symphonies, Florida Orchestra and at the Vail Music Festival, and in Andrew Litton’s version with the Colorado Symphony. Other forays into operatic literature have included a first-ever Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni with the National Philharmonic.

Ms. Chandler-Eteme first came to international prominence as a favorite of Robert Shaw and has in the years since collaborated with many renowned and respected conductors, among them Marin Alsop, James Conlon, Andreas Delfs, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Claus Peter Flor, Hans Graf, Jeffrey Kahane, Carlos Kalmar, Raymond Leppard, Jahja Ling, Andrew Litton, Keith Lockhart, David Lockington, Stuart Malina, Peter Oundjian, Christof Perick, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Stefan Sanderling, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, Edo de Waart and Hugh Wolff. She has been guest soloist with the Los Angeles and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras; Boston, NHK (Japan), Phoenix and Kansas City Symphonies; Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Rochester Philharmonics; and Philadelphia Orchestra. Festival invitations include Bard, Grant Park, Aspen, Prague Autumn and Blossom. Ms. Chandler-Eteme's recordings include an inspirational solo disc (Devotions), and the Dvořák Te Deum with Zdeněk Mácal and the New Jersey Symphony. She holds degrees from Oakwood College and Indiana University and has studied with Virginia Zeani, Margaret Harshaw, Ginger Beazley and Todd Duncan.

Mary Creswell Mezzo-Soprano

Mezzo-soprano Mary Creswell appears throughout the United States in opera, oratorio, and chamber music. Her active and varied performing schedule includes the operatic roles of Dorabella, Rosina, and Carmen. Her rich mezzo sound has been heard on the concert stage with the Detroit Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Manchester Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, Austin Symphony, South Carolina Philharmonic, Chattanooga Symphony and regularly with orchestras at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. The orchestrated songs of Mahler, Verdi's Requiem, and Jeremiah Symphony by Bernstein are gems in her repertoire. She is a frequent guest soloist with the American Chamber Players and is engaged with them in prestigious concert series spanning the country.

Lauded for her extremely versatile voice, Ms. Creswell effortlessly makes the transition from opera house and orchestra hall to chamber music and song recital. She has been described as having an inner pliability on stage, which transcends all boundaries. Her programs flow from Brahms and Ravel to folk songs and humor without missing a beat. She has also been a champion of new music and featured on several recordings under the Albany Label.

She received her early training at the University of Michigan where she was the recipient of the Elisabeth Schwarzkopf-Walter Legge Scholarship for graduate study. Her teachers at Michigan were Beverley Rinaldi and Eugene Bossart. The Metropolitan Opera chose her as a regional finalist, and she has been a guest performer in New York City's Avery Fisher Hall. Recent performances include the roles of Jade Boucher in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Rychtářka in Janáćek’s Jenůfa with the Des Moines Metro Opera and Brahms songs with the Front Range Chamber Players, Colorado.

An enthusiastic teacher of singing, Ms. Creswell served on the faculty of the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp for twenty seasons. She is now Associate Professor of Music at Iowa State University where she teaches voice and directs opera. Her students have been finalist in The Metropolitan Opera Auditions and are heard on Broadway stages and in opera houses throughout the country and Europe.

Charles Reid Tenor

Praised in Opernwelt for his “marvelous timbre, consistent throughout, well focused, excellently agile voice,” Charles Reid is being recognized as one of his generation’s leading lyric tenors. He has sung on many of the most famous international stages, including nine seasons with New York’s Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Theater an der Wien, Frankfurt Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the festivals of Bayreuth, Salzburg, Spoleto USA, and Glimmerglass. Upcoming events include Mr. Reid’s return to Theater an der Wien as Wolfgang Captio in Hindemith's Mathis der Maler, Theater Hagen as Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen, and concert debuts with National Orchestre de Lyon, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Buffalo Philharmonic.

Mr. Reid’s most recent performances include debuts as Rodolfo (La Boheme), Nadir (Les pecheurs de perles), Sam (Susannah), Claudio (Das Liebesverbot) and his return to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera where he covered Demetrius in Jeremy Sam's The Enchanted Island. In previous seasons, Charles earned acclaim for performances of Alfredo, Duca di Mantua, Macduff, Nemorino, Cassio, Tamino, and Don Ottavio with the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Stadttheater Gießen, and Theather Wintherthur. Beyond the Germanic countries, Mr. Reid has been heard as Tito under the baton of Adam Fischer in Barcelona and Madrid. Additionally, he performed the little known Mozart opera, Ascanio in Alba, in Mexico City. For his Alfredo, renowned critic Gabor Halasz writes, “Charles Reid gave a vocal and musical performance of Alfredo without any limitations or boundaries, with a shimmering tenor voice, flawless technique, extraordinary feeling for style, and very clear intonation.”

Equally at home on the concert stage, past appearances include Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Lisbon's Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Washington, D.C.'s National Symphony, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Nashville Symphony, Madison Symphony Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony, Berkshire Choral Festival, and the U.S. Naval Academy. Mr. Reid’s growing concert repertoire now includes over 35 masterwork compositions.

Mr. Reid’s recent recordings include Haydn’s The Seasons with Amor Artis Baroque Orchestra and a DVD release of Katharina Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with the Bayreuther Festspiele. In addition, Charles can be heard on the Deutsche Grammaphon DVD of Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba with the Salzburger Festspiele. Charles is also on Gothic Records singing the tenor solos in Alice Parker’s Melodious Accord with the Master Chorale of Washington.

In addition to his performance schedule, Mr. Reid has recently been appointed Director of Vocal Studies at Andrews University where he serves as Associate Professor and Artist in Residence. He also produces the podcast, This Opera Life, available through his website and iTunes. Charles is the recipient of prestigious awards from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition, Florida Grand Opera YPO Competition, Connecticut Opera Competition, and the Marjorie Lawrence International Vocal Competition.

Darren Stokes Baritone

American Bass-Baritone Darren K. Stokes is an artist of exceptional vocal ability. He possesses a voice of extraordinary richness with a broad vocal range, and he sings with a singular ease. Mr. Stokes has been in very high demand adding more than 50 roles to his repertoire since embarking on a singing career in 2002 and has had the pleasure of performing with prominent companies throughout the US. He has sung with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Music Festival, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati May Festival, Boston Lyric Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Washington National Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, San Francisco Opera, the Ravinia Festival, Opera Memphis, San Antonio Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Saratoga (Lake George Opera), Eugene Opera, and he made mainstage debuts with The Dallas Opera, Seattle Opera and the Cleveland Orchestra both in Cleveland and NYC at Carnegie Hall in recent seasons.

On the operatic mainstage, Mr. Stokes has performed Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Calkas (Troilus and Cressida), Ferrando (Il Trovatore),  General Groves (Dr. Atomic), Mèphistophélès (Faust),  Escamillo (Carmen and Le Tragedie de Carmen), Jake & Crown (Porgy and Bess), and Neptune (The Return of Ulysses), among many others. Important additions by way of principal role covers include Queequeg in the World Premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick for Dallas Opera and Crown (Porgy and Bess) for Seattle Opera. On the concert stage, he has performed Handel's Messiah, Rachmaninoff's Bells, Mozart’s Requiem and Salieri in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri with Buffalo Philharmonic. 

A highlight in Mr. Stokes’s 2^nd season at the Ryan Opera Center was his Lyric Opera main stage debut in the lead role of General Groves which he performed as replacement for an indisposed principal. Highlights in his first season with the company included Iphigénie en Tauride, Dialogues des Carmélites, and Salome with covers of Ferrando (Il Trovatore), the Duke of Verona (Roméo et Juliette), Mandarin (Turandot), and the Marquis (Dialogues des Carmélites). 

Mr. Stokes trained with distinguished young artists’ programs in addition to the Ryan Opera Center including Glimmerglass Opera and Sarasota Opera - where he was awarded the 2005 Leo M. Rogers Scholarship for Outstanding Apprentice.  He has also toured with Rick Benjamin’s Paragon Ragtime Orchestra – the world’s only year-round, professional organization performing ragtime-era music – and toured in New York State with various gospel groups. Mr. Stokes is an award recipient from the prestigious William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation.