Bio Category: 2526 praetorius vespers

MATTHEW DEXTER

Matthew Dexter is a bass-baritone from McKinney, Texas. As an undergraduate at the University of North Texas, he performed the roles of Mícha in The Bartered Bride, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Zúñiga in Carmen and the conductor in Lisa DeSpain’s That Hellbound Train with UNT Opera. As a vocal fellow at Spoleto Festival USA, Matthew has sung in multiple choral concerts, appeared in the world premiere of Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar in 2022, and covered the role of the old doctor in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa in 2023. In addition to receiving the audience favorite award, he placed third in the James Toland Vocal Arts competition and recently participated in Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy.

MICHAEL JONES

Born into a musical family, Michael Jones is a GRAMMY® award-winning international soloist, chamber musician and clinician. Noted as singing “particularly beautifully” by the Chestnut Hill Local (Philadelphia), Michael has appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Academy of Sacred Drama, Haverford University Choir and Orchestra, Disney’s All-American College Band and Peoria Area Civic Chorale, among several others. Michael has sung at the Finnish National Opera House, Lincoln Center’s Merkin Hall, Los Angeles’ Disney Hall, and Philadelphia’s Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, to name a few.

In addition to his extensive solo career, Michael also regularly performs with some of the nation’s finest choral ensembles. Most notably, Michael sings with two GRAMMY® award winning groups, The Crossing and Conspirare, as well as Santa Fe Desert Chorale, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Opera Philadelphia, Apollo’s Fire, Variant 6, ekmeles, Les Canards Chantants, Madison Choral Project, Music of the Baroque, William Ferris Chorale, Grant Park Opera Chorus, Constellation Men’s Ensemble, Bridge Ensemble, Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati, Alium Spiritum and Chorosynthesis. Michael has been a finalist in callbacks with Chanticleer and Cantus and was one of eight, internationally, selected to audition for Voces8 in spring of 2019.

Michael studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music for his bachelors in jazz trumpet. While there, he was under the tutelage of David Adams, Kim Pensyl, Dr. Scott Belck, and Rick VanMatre. For his graduate degree, he attended Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music for a masters in jazz trumpet, studying with Victor Goines, Donald Nally, Brad Mason, and Keven Keys.

WEBSITE

REBECCA MYERS

Philadelphia-based soprano REBECCA MYERS is a soloist, vocal chamber singer, collaborator, recording artist, and creator in high demand. She has appeared on three GRAMMY®-winning albums, most notably as a soloist on The Crossing’s Born, winner of the 2023 GRAMMY® for Best Choral Performance. In recent seasons Rebecca has appeared as a soloist with The New World Symphony, Tempesta di Mare, Verità Baroque, Portland Baroque, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and TENET Vocal Artists. She appears regularly with Seraphic Fire, Lorelei Ensemble, Ensemble Altera, and The Crossing. Rebecca grew up in Cleveland, is a graduate of Orange High School, and is thrilled whenever she can come home to perform with Apollo’s Fire. She is proud to be the Artistic Director, and a founding soprano, for the cutting edge vocal chamber music ensemble, Variant 6.

WEBSITE

MOLLY NETTER

A versatile and joyous musician, Canadian-American soprano Molly Netter enlivens complex and beautiful music, both old and new, with “a natural warmth” (LA Times) and “clear, beautiful tone and vivacious personality” (NY Times). She can be heard on five GRAMMY-nominated albums since 2017 and has performed as a soloist with ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, the Boston Early Music Festival, Apollo’s Fire, Musica Angelica, Contemporaneous, Juilliard415, Heartbeat Opera, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. She has been a full-time member of the Choir at Trinity Wall Street since 2015.

Molly is an active performer, curator, educator and advocate of new music, regularly commissioning new works by living composers. Recent collaborators include David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Amy Beth Kirsten, Doug Balliett, Katherine Balch, Molly Joyce, and Jessica Meyer, among others. Notable chamber performance highlights include inaugural casts of Pulitzer-winning operas Angel’s Bone (Du Yun, 2015) and PRISM (Ellen Reid, 2017). She was a featured curator/performer on Trinity Wall Street’s 2018 acclaimed “Time’s Arrow Festival,” programming an eclectic evening of Barbara Strozzi paired with newly commissioned contemporary works. In 2020 she began commissioning an entirely new repertoire for self-accompanied singer and clavicytherium, emphasizing the florid voice, early music vocal techniques and improvisation as a bridge between style and genre.

Molly holds a BM in composition and contemporary voice from Oberlin Conservatory and an MM in early music voice from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. She is currently on voice faculty at the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute.

WEBSITE

MATTHEW NEWHOUSE

In short time, tenor, Matthew Newhouse, has established himself as a powerful storyteller in concert and historical performance.

A sought after soloist, Matthew is incredibly excited for his debuts with the Tucson Symphony and the Utah Symphony this season for their respective performances of Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem. In May, Matthew premiered to great acclaim in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium performing emmy-winner Jeff Beal’s reimagined film score to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Matthew’s evocative storytelling lends well to narratorial roles and has been heard as Evangelist in Heinrich Schütz’s Weihnnachtshistorie with Harmonia Stellarum and in J.S. Bach’s Weihnnachtsoratorium with Yale Schola Cantorum. Other recent soloist engagements include Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang (Norfolk Chamber Festival), Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 (Bach Akademie Charlotte) and J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (TENET Vocal Artists).

Equally accomplished as an ensemble singer, Matthew is a core member of The Leonids and 4th Wall Ensemble NYC. Matthew has ongoing collaborative relationships with Apollo’s Fire, Artefact Ensemble, Harmonia Stellarum, Clarion Choral Society, TENET Vocal Artists, Evergreen Ensemble, and The Thirteen. He attributes this chamber singing success partially to his time inaugurating the first cohort of US Voces8 Scholars, a training programme devised by British vocal sensations, Voces8.

Matthew’s accolades corroborate his musical prowess. He is the proud winner of the 2019 Semper Pro Music Competition where he gave his Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall. Matthew was honored to be a Fellow for the Virginia Best Adams Masterclass at the 2023 Carmel Bach Academy. He is the 1st prize winner of the 2019 TEXOMA NATS Regional competition. Matthew competed and successfully advanced to the second round of the International J.S. Bach Competition Leipzig to much acclaim.

A seasoned scholar, Matthew has devout interest in Nordic Art Song Literature (especially that of Iceland) and Margaret Bond’s extensive vocal repertoire. Matthew served as a research assistant in Song Helix’s efforts to creative a Nordic Song Compendium. He strives to incorporate Icelandic and Danish song into his own vocal exploits. Matthew has conducted extensive research on Margaret Bonds and her relationship with Langston Hughes and her recently resurfaced cantata Simon Bore the Cross.

Matthew holds a Master of Music in Early Music Voice from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Applied Music: Voice from Baylor University. When not singing, you can find Matthew baking bread, bubbling curries, or taking extensive hikes in nature.

WEBSITE

GABRIELA ESTEPHANIE SOLÍS

Mezzo-soprano GABRIELA ESTEPHANIE SOLÍS lends her “rich tone” and “moving expressiveness” (San Francisco Classical Voice) to an expansive range of repertoire spanning medieval through contemporary periods. As a passionate concert artist, her notable solo performances from recent seasons include Lili Boulanger’s Psaume 130 and Holst’s The Cloud Messenger (Georgetown Epiphany Festival), Copland’s In the Beginning (University of Notre Dame), Brahms’s Alto Rhapsody (Grace & St.Peter’s, Baltimore), and selections from Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder (Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra). An avid interpreter of Baroque repertoire, she has collaborated with preeminent early music organizations in performances of Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans (Tempesta di Mare), Bach’s B Minor Mass (American Bach Soloists), Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (Resonance Berkeley), and Handel’s Messiah (Seraphic Fire), as well as in the roles of Medoro in Handel’s Orlando (BEMF Young Artist Training Program), Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina, and Endimione in Cavalli’s La Calisto at San Francisco State University under the direction of Christine Brandes.

WEBSITE

ANDRÉA WALKER

A native of Texas, soprano ANDRÉA WALKER is pursuing her Doctorate in historical performance practice at Case Western Reserve University. She recently graduated with her Master’s in vocal performance from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music where she studied early music, oratorio, and art song. Before her time at Yale, Ms. Walker received her Bachelor’s from the University of Houston. Her recent performance highlights include her Lincoln Center debut in Telemann’s Der Tag des Gerichts with Masaaki Suzuki and Juilliard415, touring throughout Germany as a soloist in Haydn’s Schöpfungsmesse with Yale Schola Cantorum, performing the role of Venus is Daniel Purcell’s The Judgment of Paris with Amherst Early Music Festival, and being a guest artist at the Norfolk Chamber Choir Festival under the direction of Simon Carrington. As a new resident of Cleveland, she is thrilled to make both her Apollo’s Fire and CityMusic Cleveland solo debuts this 2023 season.

“The U.S.A.’s hottest baroque band.” –CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE (UK)