Cambridge, NY, March 28, 2024 After a five-year hiatus, opera is returning to Hubbard Hall. On May 19 at 3:00 p.m., singers from the Brandon, VT-based BARN OPERA will perform a concert of popular arias duets and ensembles from La Traviata, The Barber of Seville, Die Fledermaus, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, and more.
“People in our community have been asking us to bring opera back for several years,” said Margaret Surowka, Chair of the Hubbard Hall Board. “We’re so excited to be hosting BARN OPERA in delivering what’s going to be an exciting and much-anticipated afternoon.”
Joshua Collier, Artistic Director of BARN OPERA agrees. “This concert, in the jewel box theater of Hubbard Hall, will feature some of opera’s best-loved music, sung by some of our favorite artists. We’re going to fill the hall with some recognizable tunes like Libiamo from La Traviata, the Butterfly Trio from Madama Butterfly along with favorites from Carmen, and more. It’s going to be a thrilling afternoon for opera lovers, and for those who will be opera lovers after this concert.”
The performers include Soprano Emily Baker, Mezzo Soprano Rachel Deatherage, Tenor Chad Kranak and Baritone Wayne Hu. They will be accompanied on the piano by Eric Malson.
Tickets are $35 for adults, $10 special Student 21 and Under Price, made possible by a generous supporter. Tickets are available at hubbardhall.org
The Hubbard Hall Center for the Arts and Education is a thriving arts center dedicated to developing, promoting and sustaining the cultural life of the Cambridge, Washington County, and the Taconic Tri-state and Capital Region communities. Located on a bucolic rural campus featuring an historic opera hall built in 1878, Hubbard Hall has hosted performances and training for thousands of artists, students and audience members as a nonprofit organization since 1977. www.hubbardhall.org
Established in 2017, BARN OPERA is a non-profit opera company with the sole aim to make the operatic art form accessible and inviting to audiences across Vermont and the border counties of neighboring states. Housed in a restored 1840s barn outside of Brandon, VT, BARN OPERA has produced and performed 28 full-length operas, with the most recent being Puccini’s Tosca at the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro, VT, as part of their statewide outreach project OPERA VERMONT. The company is led by founder and artistic director Joshua Collier, and executive director, Tricia Welch. www.barnopera.com.
For further information, contact: info@hubbarhall.org
SHORT BIOS OF THE PERFORMERS
Emily Baker, Soprano
Praised for her “ample, gleaming soprano,” Emily Baker is an operatic soprano and passionate music educator in Massachusetts. In the summer of 2022, Ms. Baker performed the title role in Suor Angelica with Greater Worcester Opera. She also performed as Freia in Wagner’s Das Rhinegold and as Helmwige shadow in Die Walküre with TUNDI productions in Brattleboro, Vermont. Emily also made an appearance as Waldvogel in Siegfried and Helmwige shadow in Die Walküre at the Wagner in Vermont Festival. www.emilybakersoprano.com/
Rachel Deatherage, Mezzo Soprano
This October was her first production with Barn Opera and she was thrilled to bring one of her favorite roles (Angelina/La Cenerentola) to life in Vermont under the baton of Cailin Marcel Manson. Ms. Deatherage made her European debut singing the role of Cenerentola (Angelina) for the first time in Schloss Kirchstetten’s 2022 production of La Cenerentola where she “triumphed with a velvety sound” (Die Press). She then immediately reprised the role with her UK debut in Barefoot Opera’s touring production. racheldeatheragemezzo.com/
Chad Kranak, Tenor
An Armenian-American tenor, praised for his “lyrical eloquence and attractive lyric sound” by Opera News, Chad Kranak is known for the musicality and vulnerability he brings to the stage. He is a lirico spinto tenor who has sung such leading roles as Cavaradossi in Tosca, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, and Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos. 2022/23 projects include Cavaradossi in Tosca with both Heartbeat Opera and New Rochelle Opera, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with Barn Opera. On the concert stage, Chad has been the tenor soloist for the Rachmaninoff Vespers, the Saint-Saëns Requiem, Mozart Requiem, as well as the premiere of a new work by composer Trevor Weston titled American Lamentation with St Thomas Church and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. https://www.chadkranak.com
Wayne Hu, Baritone
Combining rich vocals, a magnetic stage presence, and precise attention to detail musically and dramatically, Taiwan-born actor and singer Wayne Hu is quickly establishing himself as a compelling, versatile artist for today’s modern audience. This summer, he made his role debut as Scarpia in New Rochelle Opera’s production of Tosca. He has appeared on the mainstage with some of the country’s most-respected opera and theatre companies, performing roles with New York City Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Tulsa Opera, Opera Memphis, Opera North, The Princeton Festival, Opera Theatre of the Rockies, Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, Gretna Theatre, Allenberry Playhouse, Porchlight Music Theatre, Tri-State Actors Theatre and Arkansas Repertory Theatre, and in concert at Ravinia with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Hollywood Bowl with LAPHIL. http://www.waynehu.com/
Eric Malson, Piano
Eric Malson is an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician whose activities have taken him throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. As soloist, he has appeared with the North Carolina Symphony, Columbus (Ohio) Symphony, Manhattan Mozart Orchestra, Orquestra da Fundação Gulbenkian, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Oak Ridge Symphony, and Prince William Symphony orchestras. As a collaborating pianist with the Steans Institute for Young Artists, he has appeared frequently at the Ravinia Festival, as well as the Tanglewood, Norfolk (Conn.), Wexford (Ireland), Caramoor (N.Y.), Scotia (Halifax), Chautauqua, Évora (Portugal), Semana Grande de Santander (Spain), and Verso il Millennio (Riva del Garda, Italy), and Mt. Angel (Oregon) Bach festivals. He has appeared in concert with members of the Hagen, Vogler, Alexander, Lark, Cavani, and Chester quartets, New York Philharmonic tubist Alan Baer, and trombonist Alain Trudel.
Joshua Collier, Founder and Artistic Director
American tenor, Joshua Collier, praised for his “thrilling high range” and “passionate commitment to character,” was hailed as “a great Italian tenor on the make” by Boston’s Classical Scene as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette.
A graduate of The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Bachelor of Music – Vocal Performance) The New England Conservatory (Masters in Music – Vocal Performance), he has performed throughout New England and beyond in roles including: Mario Cavaradossi (Tosca – BARN OPERA), Rodolfo (La Bohème – Opera Ithaca), Nemorino (L’Elisir D’Amore – Opera Company of Middlebury), Chevalier de La Force (Dialogues of the Carmelites – Sarasota Opera), Calaf (Turandot – Opera Company of Middlebury), Macduff (Macbeth – Raylynmor Opera) B. F. Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly – Opera West), Camille (The Merry Widow – Opera Wilmington), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte – Opera New Hampshire), Tony (West Side Story – Asheville Lyric Opera), Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Lowell House Opera), Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia – Opera Brittenica), Frederic (The Pirates of Penzance – Opera Providence), Fabrizio (The Light in the Piazza – Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre), among others.
In addition to the lyric stage, Mr. Collier has performed the tenor solos in much of the symphonic and oratorio repertoire including Requiem by both Verdi and Mozart, Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings (op.31), Rejoice in the Lamb, Abraham and Isaac – All by Benjamin Britten, Elijah and Paulus of Mendelssohn, Handel’s Messiah, as well as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and the Coronation Mass of Mozart. He was the tenor soloist for the New England premiere of Robert Aldridge’s Parables: An Interfaith Oratorio with Bennington Choral Society.
Throughout his career he has been fortunate to work with such conductors as James Albritten, Nicolas Giusti, Stephen Lord, Lidiya Yankovskaya, John Moriarty, Emmanuel Plasson, Andy Anderson, Michael Sakir, Francisco Noya, among many others.
Mr. Collier founded the Bostonian opera company, Opera Brittenica, championing the works of Benjamin Britten, in 2013, and is currently the founder and Artistic Director of BARN OPERA (www.barnopera.com) based in Brandon, Vermont. Mr. Collier is a professor of Voice at Castleton University and is represented world-wide by Berger Artist Management. for more information, please visit jrctenor.com
Cailin Marcel Manson, Music Director
Cailin Marcel Manson, baritone and conductor, a Philadelphia native, has toured as a soloist and master teacher at major concert venues throughout the United States, Europe and Asia with many organizations, including the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, SWR Sinfonieorchester, Taipei Philharmonic, Bayerische Staatsoper – Münchner Opernfestspiele, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro San Carlo, Konservatorium Oslo, and the Conservatoire de Luxembourg.
He has also been a guest cantor and soloist at some of the world’s most famous churches and cathedrals, including Notre Dame, Sacré-Coeur, and La Madeleine in Paris, San Marco in Venice, Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, San Salvatore in Montalcino, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche in Leipzig, and Wieskirche in Steingaden.
Cailin Marcel Manson is currently Associate Professor of Practice in Music and Director of Music Performance at Clark University, Music Director of The Keene Chorale, Music Director of Barn Opera, Artistic Consultant for MidAmerica Productions and MidAm International, and Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer of the New England Repertory Orchestra.
Cailin has held positions as Music Director of the Vorarlberger Musikfest, Music Director and Conductor Laureate of the Chamber Symphony of Atlantic City, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Montgomery County Youth Orchestra, Chair of Vocal Studies at the Hazleton Conservatory for the Performing Arts, Director of Music at The Putney School, and as Music Director of the Bennington County Choral Society. He has also served as a member of the faculty of the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts and the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary. He also founded and directed the Germantown Institute for the Vocal Arts and the Germantown Concert Chorus.
Cailin is a frequent guest conductor, clinician, presenter, panelist, and adjudicator for conventions, conferences, competitions, and music festivals. Cailin studied voice performance at Temple University, and opera performance and orchestral conducting at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg.