Press Release - October 18, 2005, Boston, MA

Back Bay Chorale Launches Pioneering

Emerging Artists in Residence Program

Andrea Coleman	Amanda Jellen	Stefan Reed

The Back Bay Chorale today announced the launch of its new Emerging Artists in Residence Program, designed to encourage and educate emerging talented musicians in the Greater Boston area. Through instructional and performance opportunities, the artists will enhance their knowledge of choral music performance and artistic leadership. In doing so, they will increase the musical proficiency of the Back Bay Chorale and help foster closer contact with the broader community.

Chorale Music Director Scott Allen Jarrett announced the appointment of Andrea Coleman (Mezzo-Soprano), Amanda Jellen (Soprano), and Stefan Reed (Tenor) as the vocal artists to be sponsored by the program in its first year. Biographies of these talented three singers are attached. All three soloists are recent graduates of New England Conservatory of Music.

According to Chorale Board President Craig Hughes, "Greater Boston is fortunate to have a number of well-regarded choral music and choral music education programs. However, our Music Director Scott Allen Jarrett has observed that the opportunities for talented emerging artists and educators to develop practical experience leading groups and performing solo work locally are somewhat limited. We would like to change that."

The Chorale believes that many of its core constituencies will benefit: the artists themselves will gain valuable experience that will be carried to choral groups they work with in the future. They will also gain performance exposure as their featured solo work will be a part of Back Bay Chorale concerts. The Chorale will benefit by adding high-caliber singers, instructors and community ambassadors to its organization. The Chorale plans to offer a chamber concert this concert season as a method of connecting with its audience in a more intimate setting. The Artists in Residence will feature prominently in that series, and in educational outreach to the public school system in the city of Boston.

The Emerging Artists in Residence program is funded in part by an Alfred Nash Patterson Grant from Choral Arts New England and generous donations by its supporters.

About the Emerging Artists in Residence

Andrea Coleman, mezzo soprano, is originally from Lincoln, Nebraska and earned her Bachelors of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Kansas. She came to Boston to study at New England Conservatory where she received her Masters of Music in Voice Performance last May, under the direction of voice teacher Pat Misslin. At New England Conservatory, Andrea has achieved much success in various roles including Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon; Mrs. Grose in Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw; and Third Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Andrea has also been seen on the Jordan Hall concert stage performing both well-known and innovative pieces. She has participated in a concert dedicated to the music of Charles Ives, performed György Ligeti’s Sippal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel (2000) with the NEC Percussion Ensemble, and was most recently a winner of NEC’s annual Commencement Concert Competition, performing two songs from Wagner’s song cycle Wesendonck Lieder. This summer Andrea was a Young American Artist with Glimmerglass Opera, covering the roles of the German and French Mothers in Britten’s Death In Venice.

Amanda Jellen, soprano, has performed throughout the U.S. and Europe to critical acclaim in both concert and opera. Operatic roles include First Lady in The Magic Flute, a role she reprised in 2004 at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, and Valencienne in The Merry Widow. An active performer of contemporary music, Amanda recently commissioned a work from David T. Little for soprano, violin and, clarinet entitled Songs of Love, Death, Friends and Government (2004) which received its partial premier in February 2005. She has appeared as soloist in Michael Daugherty’s What's That Spell, “a pop cantata for two Barbie-sopranos”, Patrick Long’s Astronomer, for soprano, amplified chamber ensemble and electronic percussion, (both performances with the Susquehanna University New Music Ensemble of which she is co-founder) and performance with John Heiss and the New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble. Amanda is currently a Chorale Scholar at Boston University’s Marsh Chapel under the direction of Scott Allen Jarrett. Ms. Jellen holds an MM in Voice Performance from New England Conservatory and a BA in Music from Susquehanna University (Selinsgrove, PA), with added studies at the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy and Operaworks (Los Angeles, CA). Originally from Willington, Connecticut, Amanda lives in Brookline, Massachusetts and studies with Carole Haber.

Stefan Reed, Tenor, is originally from Glasgow Virginia and has recently received his Master’s Degree in vocal performance from the New England Conservatory in Boston where he studied with Edward Zambara. He received his Bachelor of Music Degree from George Mason University in Virginia. Mr. Reed is an active tenor soloist in Boston and Washington, D.C., and their surrounding areas. Last year was his premiere performance with the Back Bay Chorale, singing the part of Jüngling in Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri under the direction of Mr. Scott Jarrett. Other solo performances include: Bach’s Cantata #201, Der Streit zwischen Phoebus und Pan with the Tanglewood Chamber Music Ensemble under the direction of Mr. Craig Smith; Mozart’s C Minor Mass with the Stow Festival Singers and Orchestra; the Lord Nelson Mass and Serenade to Music with the Mount Vernon Symphony; Carmina Burana with the Maryland Masterworks Chorale and Orchestra; Schubert’s Mass in G with the Boston Masterworks Chorale; John Cameron’s Missa Celtica, Handel’s Messiah, and Leonard Bernstein’s Mass with George Mason University’s symphony and chorus; and various other solo performances.

Mr. Reed has spent his last two summers making music at the Tanglewood Music Festival where he had the opportunity of working closely with such scholars and artists as Stefan Asbury, Phyllis Curtain, Kayo Iwama, James Levine, William Sharp, Lucy Shelton, Bright Sheng and Dawn Upshaw. Mr. Reed has participated in numerous recitals, oratorio performances and opera productions, working closely with notable faculty and guest musicians including Richard Aslanian, Christopher Larkin, Sylvia Olden Lee, Peter Mark, John Moriarty and Carlos Rodriguez. Complete and partial operatic roles performed include Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Alfred (Die Fledermaus), Jaquino (Fidelio), Voltaire (Candide), Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Linfea (La Callisto), Bill (A Hand of Bridge), Bardolfo (Falstaff), Lippo (Street Scene), Snout (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Pong (Turandot). In the spring of 2001 Mr. Reed was awarded the Best Overall Performer Award at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Regional Competition held in South Carolina.