Canticum Scholare

JIN KRISTA KANG, Artistic Director, Conductor and Co-Founder of Canticum Scholare, has led a number of dynamic choral programs at various academic and parochial institutions in New York City, including programs with the Choir at New York University Holy Trinity Chapel, the Concordia College Preparatory Division Choir in Bronxville, Children's Aid Society Chorus, the YWCA Community Choir, and the Art Song Society of New York. She holds degrees in Organ and Harpsichord Performance with honors from the Manhattan School of Music and Anton Bruckner University of Performing Arts in Linz, Austria, where she was a full merit scholarship and Most Outstanding Performer Award recipient. Jin Krista has also studied choral conducting under Dennis Keene, and Bart Folse, a former Associate Conductor of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. She has received numerous awards and scholarships, including a second place award at the Brunnenthal International Early Music Competition for Soloists, directed by Ton Koopman of The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.

TOM JIM SOLON, Tenor and Co-Founder of Canticum Scholare, received his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied voice with the late Theodore Puffer who was the founder and artistic director of the Nevada Opera. Tom has performed with various prestigious choral programs in New York City, including the role of Ariel in Hayden's The Creation at Columbia University in 2003 under the direction of Gail Archer. Prior to St. Joseph's, Tom appeared as a soloist and section leader for choral programs and concert series at St. Vincent Ferrer, All Saints Church in New York City, First Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, and St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. The passion for early music and singing choral music drew Tom to collaborate with his long time colleague, Jin Krista Kang, in establishing Canticum Scholare.

SARAH MOGA, Mezzo-Soprano, is an experienced ensemble singer and liturgical musician. She has been a member of the Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village choir since 2013. She has previously sung with St. Stephen Martyr Catholic Church and Temple Sinai Synagogue in Washington, DC, as well as the George Washington University Singers and Chamber Choir. She holds a Master's Degree in History from New York University and a Bachelor's Degree in History and German Language and Literature from George Washington University. This is her third season with Canticum Scholare.

WOLFGANG KEIL, Tenor, is an experienced choral singer, jazz pianist, and physicist. He began taking piano lessons and singing in choirs in his hometown, Chemnitz, Germany, at the age of 5. Since then, he has performed a wide variety of music ranging from Gregorian chants to contemporary music. In 2001, his passion for Renaissance and Baroque music led him to form the eight-part early music ensemble, Convivoci. The ensemble premiered several rediscovered motets of forgotten Renaissance Masters from his hometown. In 2008, Wolfgang co-founded a vocal quartet in Göttingen, Byrd's Voices, an ensemble that specializes in the music of William Byrd and his contemporaries. In addition, he has frequently performed as a soloist for various choral repertoires, including Hugo Distler's Christmas Story, and Heinrich Schütz's Musikalische Exequien. Wolfgang has been with Canticum Scholare since its inception in 2012. Wolfgang Keil is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in Physics at Rockefeller University in New York City.

NATHAN RIEHL, Tenor, is a professional choir member of St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village in New York City. He has performed at the Bard College music festival, with the Mineola Choral Society, and with the professional ensemble Salvatones. In addition, he performs regularly with a local rock group, Shotgun Curly. He is also in the band, Sun Thief based in Brooklyn, New York. Nathan earned the Bachelor's degree in Biology at the University of Richmond. A lover of early music from a young age, he is thrilled to be performing with Canticum Scholare for his second season.

CLAIRE RAPHAELSON, Soprano, a professional choir member of St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village is a native New Yorker and an active recitalist and, soloist with wide-ranging musical pursuits. Praised for her "stylistically nuanced performances," and "charming sense of chutzpah,"(Boston Musical Intelligencer) Claire performs frequently throughout New York and New England. She has appeared as a guest artist at the 2013 New Brunswick Early Music Festival, and as a semi-finalist in the Concours International de Chant Baroque de Froville in France, the Canticum Gaudium competition in Poland, the Oratorio Society of New York Competition, and Classical Singer Competition. She received her MM in Historical Performance from Longy School of Music and her BM in Vocal Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and has recently joined the professional octet of Christ & Saint Stephens in NY.

MICHAEL MALIAKEL, Baritone, is quickly gaining recognition for his refined singing in repertoire spanning opera, art song, and musical theater. He was praised by the Baltimore Sun for his “smooth singing” as De Brétigny in Massenet's Manon with the Peabody Opera Theatre. Other opera credits include Monsieur Presto in Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias, the Shoe Salesman in Argento's Postcard from Morocco, Raimondo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and the baritone in Philip Glass' Hydrogen Jukebox. Michael's concert appearances have included the baritone solos in Handel's Messiah, Vaughan Williams' Five Mystical Songs, Fauré's Requiem, Rossini's Petite messe solennelle, Bach's Magnificat, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Michael recently took first place in the National Music Theater Competition and was a finalist in the Philadelphia Orchestra Albert M. Greenfield Competition. A native of New Jersey, Michael received his earliest vocal training as a treble in the American Boychoir before pursuing a BM from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. In addition to his solo pursuits, Michael enjoys teaching voice privately and performing regularly with some of New York City's finest vocal ensembles.

CORRINE BYRNE, Hailed for her "beautiful vocal timbre" (Classical Singer Magazine Competition), "infectious enthusiasm" (Westchester Oratorio Society), and versatility, Corrine Byrne has quickly become a celebrated soprano. In 2013 she sang Gretel in Hansel and Gretel where she was praised for giving a "delightful performance" (BBC Music Magazine). Other recent roles include ensemble/cover for the title role in the North American premiere of Handel's Almira with Boston Early Music Festival, and Anima in Hildegard von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum. She has been a featured soloist with One World Symphony, the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, the Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra and Baroque Orchestra, the REBEL Baroque Ensemble, the University of Massachusetts Amherst Symphony Orchestra, and Route 9 Ensemble. She was a finalist for the 2012 Career Bridges Grant Awards, and a National Online Round winner in the 2013 Classical Singer Magazine Competition. This past summer she joined the Lucerne Festival Academy in Berio's Coro under Sir Simon Rattle. More recently she was "captivating onstage" (Stony Brook Online) performing Cathy in The Last Five Years in a well-received run in New York City and Long Island, and sang with the Tallis Scholars as part of Carnegie Hall's Before Bach concert series. She holds a B.M from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst , an M.M from Manhattan School of Music, and she is currently on scholarship as a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University.

MARTHA CARGO, Alto, is an experienced choral singer and contemporary flutist. She began playing recorder at an early age, and performed as part of the Peabody Children's Chorus and in numerous church choirs in the Baltimore area. Martha studied flute and chemistry at Oberlin and was a long-standing member of the Collegium Musicum there. Her love for early music led her, upon moving to New York City in 2009, to join Music Divine, and she has since performed with Amuse under the baton of Stephen Black, Phillip Cheah, and Renee Louprette. Martha holds Masters degrees in Flute Performance from SUNY-Purchase and Manhattan School of Music, and currently works as Social Media Coordinator for I CARE IF YOU LISTEN and is Assistant to the Music Director at the Americas Society in Manhattan while freelancing as a flutist.

ROMAN A. LABA, Bass, is a graduate of the Purchase Conservatory of Music where he earned his Masters Degree in Voice/Opera studies. While there he appeared as Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Frosch in Die Fledermaus; Pandolfe in Cendrillon; Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, and Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors. Other opera credits include Buff in Der Schauspieldirektor for Apollo opera, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with OperaOggi, Pistola in Verdi's Falstaff, Haly in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri and Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos all with Utopia Opera. In addition to operatic music, Mr. Laba has sung in numerous choirs and performed a vast repertoire of secular and sacred music both as a soloist and ensemble singer. Oratorio performances include the Faure and Verdi Requiem, Mozart Coronation Mass and Schubert's Mass in G to name a few.

MATTHEW VITTI, Bass, is an educator, singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist with several accolades to his name, and has been performing and recording with various ensembles and bands around the world for the past 12 years. Based in Connecticut, Matthew owns and operates a recording studio called Mother Brother Studios, catering to all types of styles and artists, with special services accommodating classical musicians. Matthew's compositions, ranging from traditional ensemble writing to improvised electroacoustic pieces, have been featured in competition, for Sector 9 Productions, as well as for NBC, MODKAT, and Patagonia.

PAUL A. RHODES, Baritone, began his musical career as a French Horn Player in the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Later, he attended The Indiana University School of Music where he received a Master's Degeree in Vocal Performance. While there he performed the title roles in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Berg's Wozzeck. Pursuing a career in opera, he performed the roles of Monterone in Rigoletto multiple times both in the United States and in France. With the Southern Opera Theater touring company and with the Memphis Opera Theater his roles included Ping in Turandot, Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale and numerous children's operas. In addition to the traditional opera repertoire, he performed the role of Tevye in A Fiddler on a Roof at the Wagon Wheel Playhouse. Pursuing a passion for liturgical drama, he toured for nearly two decades with the Ensemble for Early Music throughout the United States and Italy. His affinity for Gregorian Chant led him to transcribe the Gregorian Missal into modern notation; to serve as a learning guide for small choirs everywhere. At present he has just begun a career as a writer with his novel The Voice of the Angel (Amazon.com.) His association with the choir at Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in the Village has spanned nearly twelve years.

CARLA BOND, Mezzo Soprano Carla Bond holds a Master's Degree in Musicology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick New Jersey and a Bachelor's Degree in Vocal Performance from Georgia State University in Atlanta Georgia. She specializes in both early and contemporary liturgical repertoire, and for many years has sung professionally at various churches in New York City, including St. Joseph's Church in Greenwich Village, Grace Church, The Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Luke in the Fields, and St. Ignatius of Antioch. She has also performed with Early Music New York, Parthenia, and the New York Choral Artists. She has recorded with Vox, CRI, and Prospect Classics.

ERIC GOLDIN, Bass, received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Technology from NYU's Steinhardt School of Education, where he performed in the NYU's Choral Arts Society, Chamber Orchestra, Concert Band, was music director/arranger for a cappella group Mass Transit, and recorded various sized performance groups and recitals. He was a cast member in the Broadway touring company of The Will Rogers Follies at age 9, participated in All-State and All-Eastern choirs, traveled through Europe playing tuba with the Long Island Youth Orchestra and its brass quintet, sang at the Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village for nine years and most recently performed two seasons with the New England chamber choir Ensemble Companio. Upon graduation, Eric spent the next five years archiving the Sesame Street music and video libraries, assisted within the Sesame Street Music department, worked in Media Relations for Sesame Workshop's The Electric Company (2009), and is now working in the Advanced Platforms department at AMC Networks for AMC, IFC, SundanceTV and WEtv.

LIZ HANNA, Soprano, received her bachelor's degree in Music Therapy from Berklee College of Music and is studying for additional certification in Hospice & Palliative Care Music Therapy. She serves as administrative assistant to the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble, whose renowned workshops in ensemble singing teach the power of choral music in building community. A multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and choral composer, Liz also sings with the Brooklyn-based group Choral Chameleon, the new music ensemble C4, and is a soprano section leader with the choir at the Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York City. Equally at home in the worlds of jazz, new music, and early music, Liz is happy to be joining Canticum Scholare for its 2014 season.

BIRAJ BARKAKATY, Countertenor, holds a Bachelor's degree in History from the University of Manchester, a Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Advanced Diploma both with Distinction from Trinity College of Music in London. He graduated Magna cum Laude from the Manhattan School of Music in 2008 with a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance. Biraj spent 4 years from 2002-06 in the full-time professional choir at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle where he performed in many royal events, tours and recordings. He now sings regularly with many of the nation's leading professional ensembles including Musica Sacra, the Concert series at St Ignatius Loyola, The New York Virtuoso Singers, the St. Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, the Choir of St. John the Divine Cathedral, Marble Collegiate Church, the Bard Music Festival, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, ARTEK (2008-09) and the Yale Choral Artists. Future engagements include the role of Mopsa in The Fairy Queen at the Amherst Early Music Festival and The Bard Music Festival in August.

BILL HEIGEN, Tenor, is an accomplished composer, arranger, musical director, singer, vocal coach, and pianist. He is a recipient of numerous national awards in Brazil for his vocal arrangements and choral directing. He has composed many theatre shows, and has performed in several renowned professional vocal ensembles such as Polyhymnia, Sing We Enchanted, Underworld Productions Opera, Chameleonic, and Schola Cantorum of St. Agnes Church in New York City—singing many musical styles from bossa nova and Brazilian popular music, to Renaissance repertoire. Bill has been active as a musical director for various vocal groups in the U.S. and Brazil. As an experienced voice teacher and vocal coach, he has taught music theory courses at various conservatories and universities in Brazil. Bill Heigen holds degrees in Vocal Performance from University of Rio de Janeiro, and is currently in the process of completing his Master's degree in Composition at Hunter College in New York City.

JOHN IRVING, Bass, is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Choral Conducting degree at Westminster Choir College where he is also a chorister in the Westminster Choir, the Westminster Symphonic Choir, and the college's early music ensemble, Kantorei. In the Fall, Irving will be the graduate assistant conductor of the Symphonic Choir as they prepare Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Handel's Messiah, Rachmaninoff's The Bells, and Christopher Rouse's Requiem for performances in New York and Philadelphia. This summer, he will be performing Handel's Israel in Egypt with the Westminster Chamber Choir in Princeton. Prior to Westminster, Irving was the director of choral music at Fordham High School for the Arts in New York City, where he continues to sing at the Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village. Beginning as a treble in the Texas Boys Choir, he continued his studies at The University of Texas at Austin, earning a Bachelor of Music in Choral Music Studies. A native Texan, John currently resides in Princeton with his wife, Megan.

BRIAN MUMMERY, Baritone, is a recent graduate of Yale University, where favorite roles included Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas at the Institute of Sacred Music and Apollo in Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. He also served as the musical director of the Whiffenpoofs, America's oldest collegiate a cappella group, for their 2008-2009 Centennial year. Since moving to New York, Brian has appeared as a featured soloist with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall for two seasons and in the world premiere of Georgi Andreev's A Melancholy Beauty at Avery Fisher Hall and the Kennedy Center. Other recent credits include the inaugural concert of the Yale Choral Artists with William Christie and appearances with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Spire Chamber Ensemble, New York Choral Artists, and at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival under the direction of Simon Carrington. He looks forward to his upcoming debut with the American Bach Soloists in July and beginning his graduate studies this fall at the Peabody Institute in the studio of William Sharp.

TIMOTHY PARSONS, Countertenor, is an active soloist, ensemble member, and conductor in the New York City choral scene. He has performed with the Clarion Music Society, the Saint Thomas Fifth Avenue Choir of Men and Boys, the Choir of St. Ignatius Loyola, the Oratorio Society of New York, The Cathedral Choir of St. John the Divine, Canticum Scholare, and weekly with the Schola Cantorum of St. Agnes Church in New York City. This season, he has performed Bach's St. Matthew Passion at Saint Thomas Church, and Clarion's Russian Christmas program at Trinity Wall Street. He will make his Barge music debut with the Clarion Music Society, performing the music of Bach, Part, and Kurtag. Parsons holds a Bachelor's degree in Classical Voice from the Manhattan School of Music and is a candidate for the Master of Music in Choral Conducting in 2014, studying with Kent Tritle.

Lamentations | Jubilations — 4 June 2016

Hodie — 12 December 2015

Musica del Siglo de Oro — 19 June 2015

Noe, Noe! — 12 December 2014

Tallis & Byrd — 14 June 2014

Polyphony — 22 June 2013