Featured Artists
Dana Varga • Soprano
An avid concert soloist, highlights of Dana Varga’s recent concert and oratorio performances include the Beethoven Mass in C in Tanglewood’s Ozawa Hall, the Dvořák Te Deum in NEC’s Jordan Hall, and the Fauré Requiem and Neilsen’s Symphony No. 3 with the Springfield Symphony. She has performed the Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony and Dona Nobis Pacem as well as the Brahms Requiem with the Metropolitan Chorale, Beethoven’s Mass in C and Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Newton Choral Society, the Vivaldi Gloria and Handel’s Messiah with the New England Classical Singers and the Bach Magnificat, Mozart Requiem and Mendelssohn St. Paul with the Choral Art Society.
In addition to her recent Classical Singer Competition win, Dana won second place in the 2016 Rochester Oratorio Society Classical Idol Competition and was a semifinalist in the 2016 Oratorio Society of New York Competition. Ms. Varga was awarded the 2012 St. Botolph Emerging Artist Grant for excellence in music.
Her recent engagements have included the solos in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra and Schubert’s Mirjam Siegesgesang with the Commonwealth Chorale, as well as professional ensemble in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with Boston Lyric Opera.
Jonas Burdis • Tenor
He is a featured soloist in Boston Baroque's Grammy-nominated recording of Monteverdi's opera Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. He appears frequently in concert with the Handel and Haydn Society as a soloist and choral singer. Mr. Budris also performs in more intimate musical settings; he particularly enjoys singing with such groups as Blue Heron, Cut Circle, Spire, and the Skylark Vocal Ensemble.
Mr. Budris is a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Felllow at Emmanuel Music, where he performs regularly in the Bach Cantata and evening concert series.
On the opera stage, he has performed principal and supporting roles with numerous musical organizations, including Opera Boston, OperaHub, Guerilla Opera, and Odyssey Opera, originating such roles as John in Giver of Light and the title role of Chrononhotonthologos.
Originally from Martha's Vineyard, Mr. Budris holds a degree in Environmental Sciences & Engineering from Harvard College.
Sumner Thompson • Baritone
praised for his “elegant style” (Boston Globe). He has appeared on operatic stages from Boston to Copenhagen, including the Boston Early Music Festival's productions of Conradi's Ariadne and Lully’s Psyché and in the title role of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo with Contemporary Opera Denmark. He has performed as a concert soloist with many leading ensembles, including the Handel and Haydn Society, Britten-Pears Orchestra, the National Symphony, the Boston Early Music Festival, Apollo's Fire, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Les Boréades de Montréal, Mercury Baroque, Les Voix Baroques, Boston Baroque, and Tafelmusik. A noted recitalist, Mr. Thompson has sung in Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Regensburg, and at London's famed Wigmore Hall.
Recent engagements included Handel's Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society (recorded on the CORO label), Bach's St. John Passion with Orchestra Iowa and Switzerland's Gli Angeli Genève, and a return to Early Music Vancouver's summer festival with Les Voix Baroques. Thompson can also be heard on the Boston Early Music Festival's Grammy-nominated recording of Lully's Psyché on the CPO label and with Les Voix Baroques on the ATMA label.
Kareem Roustom • Composer
crossing collaborations include music commissioned for the Kronos Quartet, conductor Daniel Barenboim & the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and others. Roustom's music has been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Grand Tetons Music Festival Orchestra (Jackson Hole, WY), the Grant Park Festival Orchestra (Chicago), the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Boston Children's Chours, and at the BBC Proms, the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festivals, the Verbier Festival, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, and from the Far East to the Near East. The Chicago Tribune wrote that Roustom is "a gifted and accomplished artist...one of the most prominent active Arab-American composers," BBC Radio 3 described Roustom's music as “among the most distinctive to have emerged from the Middle East," and The New York Times described it as "propulsive, colorful and immediately appealing." The Guardian (London) wrote that Roustom's Ramal for orchestra is "arrestingly quirky and postmodern...music with lots of personality." In addition to his numerous independent film scores Roustom has collaborated with pop-artists such as Shakira, Beyonce, Tina Turner and others. Upcoming projects include the world-premiere recording of his Clarinet Concerto: Adrift on the Wine-Dark Sea with the Deutsches Symphony Orchestra (Berlin). Roustom holds the position of Professor of the Practice at Tufts University's department of music. For more information please visit www.kr-music.com
Shawn Kirchner • Composer
Angeles whose choral works are performed throughout the world. In 2012, he was appointed Swan Family Composer in Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. His three-year term was marked by the premieres of Plath Songs (2013), Inscapes (2014), and Songs of Ascent (2015). The Los Angeles Master Chorale has often presented Kirchner's choral works in concerts at LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall, and first commissioned him in 2007 to write Tu voz, a setting of a Pablo Neruda sonnet. Other LAMC commissions include Memorare (2009) and Behold New Joy: Ancient Carols of Christmas (2011). The Master Chorale's final concert of the 2009/2010 season featured the world premiere of his "bluegrass triptych," Heavenly Home: Three American Songs, which received praise in the LA Times as "effectively" written works of "sophistication." He is best known world-wide for his setting of the Kenyan song Wana Baraka, which was featured in a performance by the Nairobi Chamber Choir in Diamond Jubilee celebration for Her Majesty Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle in 2012. Kirchner's pieces are published by Boosey & Hawkes, Oxford University Press, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and Shawn Kirchner Publishing.
In addition to composing, songwriting has become a career focus for Kirchner in recent years. His songs combine emotional warmth with carefully crafted lyrics, and are written in a range of styles including bluegrass, folk, country, gospel and jazz. Kirchner's bluegrass and country songs can be heard on the CD Meet Me on the Mountain, and his original jazz tunes are featured in club and concert performances of the Shawn Kirchner Quartet.
Kirchner also maintains an active performing career as a singer and pianist. A tenor with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, he sings regularly with the Chorale and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall and at the Hollywood Bowl in collaborations with the world's leading conductors and composers. In 2013, he was part of the LA Philharmonic's tour to London, Lucerne, Paris, and New York that presented John Adams' staged oratorio "The Gospel According to the Other Mary," conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and directed by Peter Sellars. Under the Master Chorale's music director Grant Gershon, he has sung in several Steve Reich projects, including two recordings for Nonesuch Records and a performance at Lincoln Center in honor of the composer's 70th birthday. Kirchner's solo work with the Master Chorale include singing in a small ensemble with Meredith Monk, as well as solo work in Ariel Ramirez' Missa Criolla, Arvo Part's Miserere and Perotin's Sederunt principes. Kirchner's work as a pianist includes many appearances with the Master Chorale at Disney Hall and on tour as well as free-lance work in recitals, concerts, and studio sessions. Before moving to the Los Angeles area, he was a vocal coach/pianist in Chicago, and played for Neil Rosenshein's studio at the Lyric Opera's Center for American Artists. Initially trained in classical music, his improvisational skills now encompass many styles.
Kirchner's growing list of TV/Film credits includes his work as music director/arranger for the 2004 CBS Christmas Eve special Enter the Light of Life, and his singing on more than two dozen recent feature film soundtracks, including Avatar, Frozen, The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, Lady in the Water, and License to Wed.
Long active as a church musician, Kirchner is pianist/organist/composer-in-residence at the La Verne Church of the Brethren in La Verne, CA where he shares music leadership of a thriving program with fellow LA Master Chorale singer, conductor, and music educator, Nike St. Clair. He has served as music coordinator for several National Youth Conferences as well as providing leadership for many other Church of the Brethren national and regional events.
Kirchner was raised with his triplet brother and sister in Cedar Falls, Iowa. His principal piano teachers were Joan Smalley and George Katz, and Susan Beasley and Graeme Cowen were his mentors in choral music. He studied at Manchester College, where he earned a BA in Peace Studies under Kenneth Brown, and was mentored in songwriting by the poet/songwriter Steve Kinzie. He spent his junior year abroad, studying Chinese language, literature, history and music at the Dalian Foreign Language Institute in Dalian, China. He earned an MA in Choral Conducting from the University of Iowa, where he studied with William Hatcher and Richard Bloesch. In recent years, Kirchner has been mentored in choral arranging and music philosophy by Alice Parker.