2011-12 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 2012 are Mezzo-Sopranos Kate Jackman and Sarah Mesko. They will be accompanied at the piano by Dr. R. Timothy McReynolds. Their bios are below.

Kate Jackman, mezzo-soprano, is a multifaceted musician and actress who is as comfortable on the concert stage as she is in operatic repertoire. A few of her previous roles include Hansel in Maryland Concert Opera's production of Hansel and Gretel, Prince Orlofsky in Peabody Opera's production of Die Fledermaus, La Ciesca in Bel Cantanti Opera's production of Gianni Schicchi, Hippolyta in North Texas Opera's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Dinah in Peabody Opera's production of Trouble in Tahiti -- a role she "sang with considerable nuance and communicative weight." (Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun) In 2009, Ms. Jackman performed the alto solos from Handel's Messiah over internationally televised programming with The Basilica of the National Shrine in Washington, D.C., where she currently sings as a soloist and chorister. In 2008, Ms. Jackman was a featured soloist in a televised memorial commemorating the 2008 floods in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In competition, Kate won third-prize in the Maryland Opera Society, Marie E. Crump Vocal Competition in 2010 and was selected as a winner for the Vocal Arts Society Young Artist Competition, 2011. This season, she will be performing the roles of Third Lady in Maryland Concert Opera's production of The Magic Flute and Annina in Opera AACC's production of La Traviata. She will also be making her professional recital debut in the 2012 Vocal Arts Society Discovery Recital Series. Ms. Jackman holds a Master of Music Degree from the Peabody Institute in Vocal Performance and a Bachelor of Music Degree (Cum Laude) from the University of North Texas. She will begin an Opera Graduate Performance Diploma program at the Peabody Institute in 2011, in the studio of Phyllis Bryn-Julson.

Praised by The Washington Post for her "consistently beautiful sound," American mezzo-soprano Sarah Mesko is poised to begin her second season with the Washington National Opera Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. In the 2010-2011 season, Ms. Mesko made both her European debut in Paris (in Lully's Armide with Mercury Baroque and the Théatre de Gennevilliers), and also her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall. She was also heard in Bach's Mass in B Minor with the American Bach Soloists Academy, as the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Maestra Marin Alsop, and as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly (family performance) with the Washington National Opera under Maestro Plácido Domingo. Ms. Mesko rounds out the 2010-2011 season as the Second Priestess in Iphigénie en Tauride with the Washington National Opera. Highlights of previous seasons include Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos with Rice University Opera Theater, the title role in Rinaldo (family performance) with Central City Opera, and Dorothée in Cendrillon and Mercedes in Carmen with the Aspen Opera Theater Center. A frequent concert artist, Sarah Mesko has appeared as a soloist with Mercury Baroque, the Fort Smith and North Arkansas Symphonies, the Sinfonia of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Hot Springs Music Festival, Arkansas, Arkansas Youth, and University of Arkansas Symphony Orchestras. Her diverse concert repertoire includes Bach's Johannes-passion and Mass in B Minor, Mahler's Symphony No. 3, Mozart's Requiem and Missa Brevis in F, and the World Premiere at the Aspen Music Festival of Richard Wernick's "A Song for Phil," written in memory of Philip West and Jan DeGaetani.

Ms. Mesko recently won First Prize in Virginia Opera's Bravissimo Society Competition and the Arthur and Mae Orvis Foundation Prize in the Liederkranz Competition. She is also among the few singers who have won the Richard F. Gold Career Grant more than once (both in 2011 and in 2009). In 2010 Ms. Mesko was the Grand Prize Winner of the Young Texas Artists Competition, and in 2009 she was a national finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She won first prizes in 2008 in the National Society of Arts and Letters Vocal Competition and the Franco-American Vocal Academy Grand Concours de Chant.

Ms. Mesko holds a master of music degree in vocal performance from Rice University, and a bachelor of music degree in vocal and flute performance from the University of Arkansas. This summer Ms. Mesko joins the Santa Fe Opera as an apprentice artist, performing in Apprentice Scenes programs and covering Costanza in Vivaldi's Griselda.

R. Timothy McReynolds
Pursuing a career that embraces art song, opera, chamber music, and cabaret, pianist R. Timothy McReynolds is also active as a teacher and vocal coach. He is a member of the Voice/Opera faculty of the University of Maryland, School of Music, and the former Music Director of Towson University’s Music for the Stage. He has participated as vocal coach/pianist for the Washington National Opera’s Opera Institute and the Aspen Music Festival. He was Instructor of Piano at American University in Washington, D.C. and Loyola College of Maryland, where he remains as pianist for the Vocal Masterclass Series.

He has toured internationally in concerts, cabarets, and masterclasses in Mexico, Germany, and Austria, as well as across the United States. He also performed in recital with acclaimed bass-baritone, the late William Warfield. He has been heard with, among others, Linda Mabbs, Isabel Leonard, Timothy Mix, and Colleen Daly. The Washington Post hails him as the, “perceptive accompanist”, the Baltimore Sun, an “excellent pianist”, while the website Classical Journal proclaims him as the “brilliant accompanist” in a recital with mezzo-soprano, Delores Ziegler. He continues his close association with the Washington (D.C.) Vocal Arts Society and their Discovery Recital Series. Recent concert venues include the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater and the Embassy of the Netherlands in Washington, D.C., the Maryland Arts Festival in Baltimore, a state tour of Maryland with the Annapolis Symphony, the Egyptian Embassy Concert Series in Vienna, Austria, the Washington Arts Club, and the Gala Opening Recital at the Clayton Center for the Arts in Maryville, Tennessee.

Dr. McReynolds received his B.M. from Indiana University, M.M. from the University of Michigan, and completed his D.M.A. at the University of Maryland. His teachers have included Edward Auer, Martin Katz, Robert McCoy and Rita Sloan. He has participated or served as pianist for the masterclasses of John Wustman, Margo Garret, Steven Blier, Brian Zeger, Suzanne Mentzer, Vinson Cole, Vivica Genaux, William Bolcom, John Musto and Richard Hundley.

He recently recorded a CD to be released in August, 2011 of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin with tenor Bryce Westervelt. Another CD recording with the chamber music group, Greenbrook Ensemble will be released in 2012. His recent concert schedule includes venues in Tennessee, Florida, Texas, Vermont, and Pennsylvania.

Past Winners
Previously presented in this series:
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