Singer • Model • Scholar • Actress • Producer

Music, Acting & Scholarship

Said to be 'a wonderful artist' with a 'velvety and smooth' voice, and a 'lovely, burnished sound', I'm Italian-American Contralto living in York, England, where I'm studying historical performance practice, having worked with Grammy-winning John Potter, Peter Seymour, Richard Vendome, and world famous soprano Lynne Dawson. I've been praised highly for my very expansive range and dramatic skills, singing from Bass I to Soprano II; I perform professionally as a Bass in the famous 'Vivaldi's Women' choir (Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi, SPAV), as seen on the BBC and Sky Arts TV. While I specialize in musical performance of the 16th and 17th centuries, my other research and teaching fields include Medieval History (in which I got a MA from Harvard), Gender Studies, Ethnomusicology, Ritual Studies, 20th/21st century Music, and Buddhism. Likewise, my performance and research interests range from the Medieval to the Baroque era, 21st century new music and folk musics of the world. Currently, I'm researching lower women's voices, and teach voice lessons to female tenors and basses. From time to time I teach university classes, and work as a freelance editor.

I've studied Vocal Performance and Musicology at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Eastman School of Music with Paul O'Dette, and the University of York. I hold a BA with honors in Musicology from Oberlin where I was the main Tutor and Teaching Assistant for Music History, and undertook doctoral studies in Historical Performance Practice at Eastman and York. In addition, I have a Masters in Medieval Studies and Religion from Harvard University, where I won a university-wide Teaching Award of Distinction as well as a Graduate Writing Fellowship. Serving as Teaching, Research, Personal and Editorial Assistant to Kay Kaufman Shelemay, the Head of the Harvard Music Department was a very rich experience. Courses I've taught include "Soundscapes: Music in a changing world" for Dr. Shelemay and "Jazz: Music of the Swing era" for Robert Levin {Harvard - Music}; "Zen and the Meditative Tradition" and "Sacred Musics of the World" {Canisius - Religion, Music}.

As an Alto, I sang professionally with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus & Chamber Singers, serving as the Section Leader with the Grammy-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under EGOT winner Marvin Hamlisch, and Maestra JoAnn Falletta. Other principal voice teachers include Yvonne Seymour, Robert Vehar, Pamela Dellal, Gerald Crawford, Daune Mahy, and Genia Las. I've had great coachings with the Grammy-winning Tallis Scholars, Robert Hollingworth, Black Hair Ensemble, Fran Steele, Juice, Anna Maria Friman, and Philip Thorby.

I've given a paper entitlted “Subversion, Suffering and Gender Fluidity in the Mystical Writings of Francis of Assisi and Angela of Foligno" at the Gender and Medieval Studies Conference at King’s College London, and the Medieval Religion Research Group at the York Centre for Medieval Studies. In 2010, I co-presented a Lecture-Performance with Emily Kalies at the RMA conference Collaborations in Practice Led Research in Leeds. In early 2010, I sat on the RMA Student Research Consortium for York, successfully chairing a panel on "Ownership of the Musical Work?: Whose Music Is It Anyway?" which included Gavin Bryars.

I've been lucky enough to perform in top venues in the US, England, Scotland, France, Malta, Italy, Germany, and the Czech Republic. As a conductor and director, I've directed scenes from Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro for The Operagasmic Project, conducted YoMAMA in York Minster, served as co-conductor with Graham Coatman for the North Eastern Early Music Forum's Venetian Christmas Music workshop, and was a mentor, rehearsal director and vocal coach for Vivaldi's Women Summer School. For 4 summers, I was a music instructor who lead voice lessons, vocal performance class, jazz choir, chamber choir, music history & theory at Camp Encore/ Coda in Maine.

Collaborating with composer Emily Kalies on a theatrical work, in early 2010 I gave the world-premiere of one-woman piece Reflection noitcelfeR, at Sensorium - York. My female consort Juniper, which experiments with repertoire from across the Western canon, debuted as Young Artists in Residence at the Harrogate International Festival in 2009.

Some of my favorite pieces are Monteverdi Vespers 1610, Bartok Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, Berg Wozzeck, Messiaen Quatour pour la fin du temps, Tallis Lamentations of Jeremiah, and most of Byrd's Gradualia.

Roles, solos and premieres

Lead operatic roles include Consiglio (baritone) in Cavalieri Il Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo, Testo (tenor) in Monteverdi Il Combattimento di Tancredi & Clorinda, Mary Magdalene in various Medieval music-dramas (contralto), Celestial Love (alto) in Hildegard Ordo Virtutum, Sancho Panza (baritone) in Boismortier Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse and Telemann Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Comacho, Prince Hilarion (pants part) in W. S. Gilbert The Princess, and the title characters (mezzo) in scenes from Carmen and Dido & Aeneas. I've sung in the choruses for Grieg Olav Trygvason, Puccini Suor Angelica and Handel's oratorio Semele.

In world-premiere operas, I originated the lead roles of The Emperor (tenor) in Hilary Nicholls The Emperor's New Clothes, and Isemene and Eurydice (mezzo, alto) in Jon Hughes Antigone. FL Dunkin Wedd's song "Ultime mie speranze" (bass-baritone) which was commissioned by and dedicated to me, premiered at the Festival Mediterranea in Malta, 2009.

I've sung Soprano solos in Brahms Neue Liebeslieder, Carissimi Usquequo peccatores, Schütz Musicalische Exequien, Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor, Carissimi Jepthe, and Barber Hermit Songs; as well as the Alto solos in Pergolesi Stabat Mater, Carissimi Jepthe, Mazzocchi Lamento di David, and Handel Messiah. My recent Tenor and Contralto solos in Monteverdi Vespers on the 400th anniversary of the work in Venice under Philip Thorby, and in the modern premiere of Isabella Leonarda's Magnificat with SPAV, were given to great acclaim.

Dramatic roles include The Angel in HIDden Theatre's debut of Kings all Comely of Kind at the British Museum, John the Apostle in the 2010 York Mystery Plays, the lead role of a 1950 Bettie Page-type character in the short indie film Bananana, and The Player in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Performances available for purchase

I can be heard on the DVD and CD Vivaldi - Gloria by Schola Pietatis Antonio Vivaldi (Vivaldi's Women), which is available as a CD (Mp3) from iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, and from distributors across the UK. The DVD, which was made by Colonial Pictures for Sky Arts TV, can be purchased directly from SPAV. You can purchase the Sky Arts documentary Peter Ackroyd: Venice Revealed here, in which Vivaldi’s Women is showcased in ‘Episode Three: The City as Music.’ Sky Arts rebroadcasts our appearance in Peter Ackroyd’s Venice, check their listings for future viewings.

You can purchase a copy of the famous York Mystery Plays 2010 DVD here, I star as John the Apostle in 'The Transfiguration' in this production by the Lords of Misrule, which was performed for Dame Judi Dench.

I appear as an interviewee in La Terra Promessa, which can be purchased from the Federations of Italian-American Societies of Western New York.

In addition, I feature as a soloist on Quem Queritis, the forthcoming CD of Medieval music-dramas produced by David Rose and Mary E. Larew for Viriditas Opera. David and I are co-producing the next CD of experimental Medieval music through Trinacria Productions.