2013-14 Season

Art Song Discovery Series
This informal series of free concerts features the winners of our Young Artist Competition. The concerts take place in neighborhoods throughout Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland. They serve to introduce families and other members of the community to the art of the voice recital. With spoken commentary throughout the recital, these programs make art song interesting and accessible to audiences that may otherwise not have the chance to attend a performance.

The artists chosen in competition for performance in concerts in the spring of 2014 are Soprano Natalie Conte and Baritone Matthew Morris. The artists' bios are below.

Do not be surprised if you feel transported to another time and place when listening to Natalie Conte. This exciting young soprano channels a rich family history in opera, as her maternal grandparents met as singers in Rome. Embracing a passion that be"ts her talent as well as her legacy, Ms. Conte has studied vocal performance and immersed herself in the world of opera since childhood. Her devotion to the art shines through in her passionate performances. Currently based in Baltimore, Natalie is in high demand as a soloist in the Mid-Atlantic. She most frequently appears as a soloist in Outreach programs for the Lyric Opera of Baltimore. Other local engagements include performances as a soloist at the Russian Embassy, with the Baltimore Vocal Arts Foundation, the Young Victorian Theatre Company, Live Arts Maryland, and at the State Department.

Outside of the Mid-Atlantic, Ms. Conte debuted internationally in 2005, playing the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro with the Operafestival di Roma. She was also a participant in the 2005 St. Petersburg Conservatory's Convention of Conservatories. While in Russia, she performed programs of Russian romances and American art song throughout both St. Petersburg and Moscow. In addition to numerous recitals, Natalie has brought her talents to numerous productions, building her repertoire to include the roles of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Live Arts Maryland, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Center Stage Opera, Musetta in La Bohème with the Repertory Opera Theatre of Washington, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Loudoun Lyric Opera, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Opera Anne Arundel Community College, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Casilda in The Gondoliers, Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff, Countess d'Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Noémie in Massenet's Cendrillon, and Suor Genovieffa in Puccini's opera Suor Angelica, among others.

Along with her performance credits, Natalie teaches voice privately and at Shepherd University, where she has held an adjunct voice faculty position since September of 2008. Ms. Conte is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University where she earned a Master and Bachelor of Music. While there, she won awards for excellence in both performance and academics, and studied with John Shirley-Quirk and Phyllis Bryn-Julson. In April, 2011 she won second prize in the Russell C. Wonderlic Memorial Competition. She currently studies with Barbara Dever. For more information, please visit www.natalieconte.com.

Baritone Matthew Morris is quickly garnering international recognition for the depth and versatility of his artistry as an actor and singer. He is as equally at home on the opera, concert, and Broadway stages as he is on film and television. As Le Monde declared, "you really want to hear him in either an opera or a musical. He has a big presence, a warm baritone voice, immense humanity, and the gift of an actor."

In the past few years Morris has debuted on The West End, at the Bouffes du Nord in Paris, the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, with the Boston, American, and London Symphony orchestras, starred in the National Tour of A Christmas Carol, and appeared on Law & Order and in the movie The Producers! In the 2013-24 season, Morris will make several important debuts. He will sing in Gotham Chamber Opera's production of Cavalli's Eliogabalo and cover the role of Don Pedro in Offenbach's La Périchole with New York City Opera. In addition, he will debut as the baritone soloist in Brahm's Ein deutsches Requiem with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and reprise his roles in Candide with the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of his theater career already include King Charles in Candide at the Barbican in London, Young Scrooge in the National Tour of A Christmas Carol, Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, George in Our Town, Gus in The Dumb Waiter, Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Soldier in Hello Again, The Prince in Cinderella, and Alan in Babes in Toyland.

Recent opera roles include an exclusive return engagement to the role of Papageno in legendary director Peter Brook's Moliére Award-winning adaptation of Mozart's Magic Flute (Une Flûte Enchantée) in Paris and Milan. The East Anglian Daily Times raved about his performance of "Le Mari" in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias at the Aldeburgh Music Festival, declaring it a "thoroughly commanding and effortless performance that thrilled a packed house."

An avid activist for equal rights Morris has produced and performed in the concert series You Are Not Alone alongside Betty Buckley, Lea DeLaria, Aaron Lazar, Ricky Ian Gordon, John Tartaglia, Jeanine Tesori, and many more. The concerts have raised tens of thousands of dollars for The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention hotline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.

Morris trained at the Juilliard School, at Bard College Conservatory under the direction of world-renown soprano Dawn Upshaw, and with Peter Brook. He was an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera and Tanglewood Music Festival and a finalist of the Metropolitan National Council Middle Atlantic Region Auditions and Liederkranz Song Competition. For more information, please visit www.matthewmorrisonline.com.

Past Winners
Previously presented in this series:
2013 Heather Bingham, soprano and Jeffrey Grayson Gates, baritone
2012 Kate Jackman, mezzo-soprano and Sarah Mesko, mezzo-soprano
2011 Laura Strickling, soprano and Melissa Wimbish, soprano
2010 Aundi Marie Moore, soprano and Jennifer Edwards, soprano
2009 Laura Stuart, soprano Steven Combs, baritone
2008 Brooke Evers, soprano Michael Gallant, tenor
2007 Lisa Eden, soprano Danielle Talamantes, soprano
2006 Randa Rouweyha, soprano Jeffrey Tarr, bass
2005 Sarah Wolfson, soprano Lee Poulis, baritone
2004 Lorriana Markovic, soprano Stacey Mastrian, soprano
2003 Amanda Gosier, soprano Joshua Saxon, baritone