Heather holmquest, soprano

Dr. Heather Holmquest is based in Rochester, NY and is an active soprano soloist in the Western NY region known for her dynamic range and colorful vocal timbre. Primarily a concert artist, her recent solo appearances include Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël with Avanti; Poulenc’s Gloria and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Eastman Summer Community Sing; Brahm’s Requiem with First Inversion and Eastman Summer Conducting Institute; Handel’s Messiah and Michael Haydn’s Requiem with First Presbyterian Church in Pittsford; Bach’s St. John Passion and Mass in Bm with Voices; and Vivaldi’s Gloria, Fauré’s Requiem, and Bach’s BWV 140 “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” with Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester.

Heather has also performed roles in a number of operas, including Sister Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Alcina in Alcina, Lucy in The Telephone, Serpina in La serva padrona, and the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte. She is also an active member of the Rochester choral community and has sung with many local ensembles including Voices, Vox Lusciniae, Musica Spei, and First Inversion.

In addition to performing, Heather is an instructor of music theory at Nazareth University and director of Scivias Medieval Ensemble, a treble ensemble that engages audiences through informative early music programs. She received her Ph.D. in music theory from the University of Oregon with a secondary area in vocal performance. At her home, she teaches voice lessons and lives with her wife, her cat Thea, and her two extremely cute dogs Cricket and Cashew.

Brian Alvarado, Baritone

Brian J. Alvarado “sings with "a liquid baritone of great charm," "a highly attractive legato," and "precise patter elocution" (Parterre Box). His portrayals have ranged from “vulnerable” (Opera News), “most moving” (Oberon’s Grove), and “one to fall in love with” (Petoskey News Review), to “sardonic” (Indie Opera Podcast), “the perfect foil” (Voce di Meche), and “the quintessential self-adoring snob” (Parterre Box).

He has recently sung Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana and Simeon in L’Enfant Prodigue (Sotto Voce), Colline in La bohéme and Angelotti in Tosca (Opera Vermont), Peter in Hansel and Gretel (Bronx Opera, Prelude Opera), Guglielmo in Così fan tutte (Bronx Opera), Moralès/Dancaïre in Carmen (Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra), The Four Note Opera’s Baritone and Falke in La Chauve-Souris (Festival d’art vocal de Montréal), and Eugene Johnson in Blind Injustice (Opera Theatre of the Rockies). Other roles include Leporello (Don Giovanni), Papageno and Sprecher (The Magic Flute), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Schaunard (La bohème), and the titles in The Sorcerer, Venus and Adonis, and Sweeney Todd.

His solo concert work includes Handel's Messiah, Bach’s BWV 147, Keiser's Markuspassion, Haydn’s Nicolaimesse and Nelsonmesse, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Pastoralmesse, Spatzenmesse, and Kleine Credomesse, Schubert's Mass in G, Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass, and covering the world premiere of Thea Musgrave's La Vida es Sueño for her 90th birthday. The Bronx native has appeared in recital at the Montpelier Arts Center and with the Shivers Fund, and chorally at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Madison Square Garden, National Sawdust, and elsewhere. Brianalvarado.com