Sextet: A Love Story for Everyone

Mezzo-soprano Anne Maguire, whose voice is easily recognized for its “dark” and “opulent” timbre has distinguished herself in houses across the country as a powerful and compelling artist. In Fall 2018 audiences saw her as Dorabella in Opera in the Heights production of Cosi fan tutti where she was praised for her “velvet” tone. (Pin Lim/Houston Press)  During the summer of 2018 as a Merola Opera artist, Anne performed the role of Baba the Turk in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress in which she was noted for her “…imperious but good hearted…” Bab, which she sang with “musical luster.”(Joshua Kosman/San Francisco Chronicle) Ms. Maguire was honored to return to her alma mater in May 2018 as a guest artist, performing the role of Die Hexe in Yale Opera’s production of Hänsel und Gretel. Other operatic performances include Dulcinée (Don Quichotte), Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Elizabeth Proctor (The Crucible – Cover), Nancy (Albert Herring), Katisha (The Mikado), and Jo (Little Women). Ms. Maguire’s theatrical roles include Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd), and The Witch (Into the Woods). Earlier this year she returned as a guest artist in Yale Opera’s production of Eugene Onegin, and made her house and role debut with Utah Opera as Third Lady in Mozart’s Magic Flute. She also debuted as a soloist in Mahler’s 3rd Symphony with New Haven Symphony. This summer she will make her Wagnerian debut as Mary in Der fliegende Holländer with the Miami Wagner Festival.

Ms. Maguire has been awarded several competition prizes from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Jensen Foundation, the Opera Birmingham Competition, The Vero Beach/Deborah Voigt International Vocal Competition, and Vero Beach Opera’s Rising Stars Competition.

Mexican-American Soprano Celeste Morales is a recent master’s graduate of Manhattan School of Music majoring in vocal performance. She is currently studying under renowned dramatic soprano, Shirley Close. Before moving to the city, she graduated from Texas State University with her bachelor’s in music education. Before returning to graduate school, she was chosen to be a resident artist with Opera San Antonio for their upcoming 2016 season. Last Spring, she was invited to perform with her alma mater as a featured soloist under the direction of Dr. Joey Martin at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference. Previous credits include Dialogues of the Carmelites (Madame Lidoine), Don Giovanni (Donna Anna), Hansel and Gretel (Mother) and L’amico Fritz (Suzel) with Texas State University; scenes/roles with the Manhattan School of Music include Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira), and Le Nozze di Figaro (Countess), Britten’s Turn of the Screw (Mrs. Grose) and Verdi’s Falstaff (Alice Ford). She is a recipient of the Margaret Hoswell van Der Marck Scholarship and Alexandra Hunt Endowed Vocal Scholarship in Opera Studies. She recently returned from Oberaudorf, Germany where she performed opera scenes with the Musiktheater Bavaria Opera Summer Program.

Zachary is a recent graduate of Yale University where he received both his Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts in opera. With Yale Opera he has performed Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Sancho in Don Quichotte, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and most recently Papageno in Die Zauberflöte. He has also performed scenes from Hänsel und Gretel (Vater), The Maid of Orleans (Bertrand), Rodelinda (Garibaldo), and Don Giovanni (Masetto, 2015; Don Giovanni, 2017). Zachary has also performed with Opera Theatre of Connecticut performing the roles of Prince Yamadori and the Imperial Commisary in Madama Butterfly as well as Silvio in I Paglicacci this past April. Most recently, Zachary was an apprentice artist with Central City Opera where he performed the Messenger in Il Trovatore as well as Tom/John in The Face on the Barroom Floor. In Central City, Zachary was the recipient of the John and Ginny Starkey Award for showing promise and great potential in the field of opera performance.

Originally from Hudson, MA, Zachary holds his B.M. from the New England Conservatory in Boston where he made his opera debut as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and later performed Sid in Britten’s Albert Herring. Zachary will be performing the baritone solo in New Haven Symphony Orchestra’s Carmina Burana this upcoming November.

“A master of his touching, and yet bold baritone” (Berkshire Fine Arts), Matthew Cossack was born in Brooklyn, New York and is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Music. During his time at Yale, he performed the title
role of Onegin (Eugene Onegin), Chamberlain (Le Rossignol), Peter (Hänsel und Gretel) and Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte). He received a Master of Music degree from Mannes College where he worked under the baton of Maestro Joseph Colaneri in roles such as Don Alfonso (Cosí Fan Tutte), Belcore (L’elisir D’amore), Old Doctor (Vanessa), and John Brooke (Little Women). Opera News reviewed his performance of John Brooke and considered it “excellently portrayed and sung,” and The New York Times praised his “strong” performance of the Old Doctor. Matthew has attended The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA, where he covered the role of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) and performed the role of Pluto (The Other Euridice), and will join Chautauqua Opera this summer to perform the role of Paul Conti (Figaro 90210) and cover Beaumarchais (The Ghosts of Versailles). He is a recipient of numerous awards including the Mannes College Career Grant (Mannes College), the David L. Kasdon Memorial Prize 2019 (Yale University), a finalist in The Opera Index Competition (2019), a regional winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (CT 2018) and was recently a winner of The Opera Foundation Scholarship Competition in 2019. He will be joining Deutsche Oper Berlin for their 2019/2020 season, singing several roles including Dancairo (Carmen), Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Fiorello (Il Barbiere di Siviglia).

A specialist in the oratorio repertoire, tenor Gene Stenger’s solo concert engagements include Handel’s Messiah with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra; Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Northeast Pennsylvania Bach Festival; Evangelist in both St. Matthew Passion, and St. John Passion with Bach Collegium at St. Peter’s (NYC); Evangelist, and tenor arias in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio (complete work) with Colorado Bach Ensemble; tenor arias in St. John Passion with Voices of Ascension, and the Yale Schola Cantorum led by Masaaki Suzuki at Lincoln Center; tenor arias in St. Matthew Passion with Helmuth Rilling’s Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart with performances in both Germany, and South America which were featured in a documentary about Rilling’s life entitled Ein Leben mit Bach (A Life with Bach); Uriel in Haydn’s Creation at Colgate University; C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat with the American Classical Orchestra; a solo quartet performance of David Lang’s The Little Match Girl Passion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Bernstein’s Mass with the Yale Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; the title role in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus with the Yale Schola Cantorum led by David Hill, for which he was interviewed by PBS for the “Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly” series.

Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, Gene holds degrees from Yale University’s School of Music, and the Institute of Sacred Music, Colorado State University, and Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music. He currently resides in New Haven, where he serves as instructor of voice at Yale University.

Composer Chad Hardin is also the founder and artistic director of the non-profit Shoreline Theatrical Arts, which in its first season presented the timeless classic Carousel at the new Guilford Performing Arts Center, using a 30-piece professional orchestra and artists from New York in the lead roles. Proceeds from the performances went to the Shoreline Arts Alliance’s Young Artists Scholarships.

Chad has been music director for a number of musicals in Connecticut and elsewhere, most recently conducting West Side Story at the legendary Shubert Theatre in New Haven. As a performer and piano soloist, he specializes in the music of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. Last year, he presented to the reunion classes of Yale (his alma mater) a lecture/recital on Beethoven’s Opus 110 piano sonata. His original compositions are featured on two CDs on the Waystation label: First Flight and The Open Door to Everything, recorded with cellist and Paul Winter Consort co-founder David Darling. His musical Two Cities, which he co-wrote with Dan Schillaci, received a full Equity production in 2004 at the Stamford Center for the Arts. Chad’s latest musical, Sextet, is currently in development in NYC. His other musicals include Soulmates (2005) and Brightling (2009).

Chad is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and The Connecticut Office of the Arts.