Jamie-Rose Guarrine, Seth Keeton, Karl Knapp, Lara Bolton
Biographie Jamie-Rose Guarrine, Seth Keeton, Karl Knapp, Lara Bolton
Jamie-Rose Guarrine
Soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine is acclaimed for her “utterly thrilling, agile voice” and praised for bringing “pathos, beauty, and heartbreaking skill” to her performances. She has performed on the stages of Los Angeles Opera, Minnesota Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Austin Opera, Utah Opera, Fort Worth Opera, the Madison Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, The National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, and the Santa Fe Symphony, among many others.
In recent seasons, Guarrine has been seen at the Austin, Utah, and Florentine Operas in her signature role of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, and Opera Omaha as Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina. She “traversed the Fiakermilli’s coloratura flights with ease and clarity” in Richard’s Strauss’ Arabella for the Minnesota Opera, and delivered “a lovely Pamina, singing with warmth, depth, and relaxed power” in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.
A native of Peoria IL, Guarrine holds a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Illinois Wesleyan University, and received her M.M. and D.M.A. from University of Wisconsin-Madison as a Distinguished Collins Fellow. She is an alumna of some of the country’s most prestigious young artist programs: the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, and Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist. Guarrine has presented masterclasses to young singers throughout the United States, and proudly serves as Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Seth Keeton
Bass-baritone Seth Keeton’s performances have been described by The New York Times as “driven” and “emotionally pointed,” and “stentorian” by Opera News. He has performed roles on opera stages throughout the country and Europe. In art song and in recital, Keeton’s creative expression takes many forms, and he delights in creating unusual song recitals for himself and his students. As a scholar Keeton has created an online song index, SongHelix, that makes it easy to find related song repertoire. This index is becoming an essential reference, helping singers and pianists find forgotten song repertoire and discover new vocal works, and can be found at songhelix.com. Keeton received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Vocal Performance from the University of Minnesota and is an Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Utah School of Music. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Angie and son, Miles.
Lara Bolton
is a pianist, vocal coach, conductor, and arranger. Her work spans many different genres, including classical, rock, jazz, and musical theater. In addition to maintaining an active concert and recording career, she serves on the faculty at the University of Minnesota. She has created an innovative aria/soul/jazz synthesis project called Voxspex, which has been produced in Minneapolis and New York and was remounted in February 2020. Other opera and theater affiliations include Mill City Summer Opera, where she was Head of Music, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, San Diego Opera, Seattle Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Quad Cities Symphony, Minnesota Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Out of the Box Opera, West Bay Opera, Opera Colorado, and Amarillo Opera, and the Jungle and Guthrie theaters.
Bolton is a former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and has been a Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist for the Washington National Opera. She also helped develop a Young Artist Program for Opera Santa Barbara. In addition to having been a pianist for the Merola Opera Program, she has also worked at the Music Academy of the West, Brevard Music Festival, and Interlochen Arts Camp. As an alumna of Interlochen Arts Academy, she received a Bachelor of Music Theory degree from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano from the University of Maryland-College Park.
Karl Knapp
is known not only as a devoted Suzuki educator but also for his solo and chamber music performances. He recently served as Principal Cellist with the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, the Arctic Chamber Orchestra, and the Juneau Symphony Orchestra. Knapp performs extensively with his band 1200 Horsehairs: A Band of Cellos.
As an active Suzuki educator in Alaska, Knapp helped found the Alaska Cello Intensive. ACI is a two-week summer program which combines intense music study with the similarly intense experience of Alaska’s midnight sun and landscapes. He currently serves as Program Coordinator for Sonido Musica, a music partnership program between the Springfield Public Schools and Community Music School of Springfield MA. Sonido Musica aims to reduce high school drop-out rates through student engagement, leadership, and performance opportunities.
Knapp graduated with his Master and Doctorate of Music degrees from University of Wisconsin - Madison where he was a member of the Hunt Quartet, an educational ensemble which brought classical music into elementary schools in the area. He has performed in the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Madison Opera Orchestra, and Minnesota Opera Orchestra. His primary teachers have been Karl Lavine, Stefan Kartman, Nina Gordon, Uri Vardi, Parry Karp, and the members of the Pro Arte Quartet.
Scott Gendel
is a composer, vocal coach, pianist, theatrical music director, singer, keyboardist, composition instructor, and general musical polymath living in Madison WI. As a composer, his music has a wide-ranging scope, but Gendel is particularly obsessed with the artistry of the human voice in all its forms, including opera, art song, choral music, musical theatre, pop songs, and more. As a performing musician, Gendel collaborates on vocal and instrumental recitals around the country, plays in four different hard-to-categorize rock and electronic bands, coaches professional opera singers from around the country, and is the official pianist and principal vocal coach for Madison Opera.
In 2005, Gendel received his D.M.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also designed and taught an undergraduate composition curriculum as part of the faculty for two years. In 2014, Gendel recorded his piece “At Last” with soprano Camille Zamora and cellist Yo-Yo Ma as part of “An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing For Hope,” a recording released on Naxos Records and GPR, benefiting amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research. More recently, his song cycle “Grandma’s Kitchen” was premiered as part of the 2019 SongSLAM Festival in New York, co-sponsored by Sparks & Wiry Cries and the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, and his opera “Super Storm!” was performed in nearly 200 schools and concert venues around the midwest for about 65,000 audience members by Opera for the Young. His art songs are published by Classical Vocal Reprints, and have been recorded on numerous record labels.
In addition to his activities as a composer and collaborative pianist, Gendel sings tenor professionally with the Madison Choral Project; has been Musical Director for theatrical productions at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Endstation Theatre Company, and others; and plays keyboards and sings with The Tapestry (an opera-rock fusion band), The Landed Gentry (a local rock band co-founded by Gendel), The Parlour Trick (a blend of classical style and experimental music), and The Furious Bongos (a Frank Zappa tribute project).
