Voice Faculty Classical • Jazz • Pop • Musical Theater
Sara Bielanski; Voice “Resplendent” mezzo-soprano Sara Bielanski has collaborated with Opera Boston, Boston Ballet, Commonwealth Opera, MetroWest Opera, the Tuscia Opera Festival in Rome, Holyoke Civic Symphony, Newton Symphony, Masterworks Chorale, Chorus Pro Musica, Fine Arts Chorale, Newburyport Choral Society, Quincy Choral Society, Tanglewood Festival Chorus, and Boston Pops Chorus. Opera highlights include Madame de la Haltičre (Cendrillon) Mercedes (Carmen), Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), La Zelatrice and Badessa (Suor Angelica), Sherry in Salvatore Macchia’s atonal opera Insectaphobia!, Cinderella in the crossover masterpiece Into the Woods, and Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas). Concert solo highlights include Elgar’s Sea Pictures, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mozart’s Requiem, Stravinsky’s Cantata, and Handel’s Messiah. In 2008, Ms. Bielanski was 1st place winner of the Boston NATS competition in the professional division. Last season, she was honored to cover Stephanie Blythe in the title role of La Grande Duchesse in Offenbach’s operetta with Opera Boston. Ms. Bielanski is also a devout fan of new music, and has collaborated with many emerging composers, including Delvin Case, Heather Gilligan, Vartan Aghababian, Matt Waugh, Matthew Whittall, Liam Wade, Justin Casingino, and Tor Somlo. Recording projects include a demo of opera choruses for BOSE, and a Bob Dylan project for WICN radio. Ms. Bielanski is a founding member of the Boston-based classical improvisation group The Meltdown Incentive and also collaborates with THE VORTEX (a classical improvisation series for new and improvised music); in addition, she is an avid jazz musician, having performed and worked with legends Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Rufus Reid, Charlie Banacos, and Peter Cassino.
Wendy Parker; Voice Wendy received her M.M. in voice performance from San Francisco Conservatory of Music and her B.A in voice performance from the University of Massachusetts. She completed professional operatic training programs at OperaWorks in Los Angeles, BASOTI in San Francisco and the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Wendy has professional voice teaching certifications in the Somatic VoiceworkTM and Northwest Institute of Voice methods.
Wendy is an active performer in opera, oratorio, recital and musical theater as well as experimental rock, bluegrass, folk and her own original pop-folk songs. Operatic engagements includes the title role in Rossini's La Cenerentola (Portland Opera, POGO Tour), Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (Rogue Opera), and Lady Billos in Albert Herring (Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute). Her musical theater roles include Maria in West Side Story, Josephine in HMS Pinafore, and Rapunzel in Into the Woods. She has appeared as a concert soloist in the Yuletide Spectacular (Oregon Symphony), Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass (Redding Symphony), Beethoven's Mass in C, Bach's Magnificat, and Vivaldi's Gloria (University of Portland Orchestra), and Handel's Messiah (San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra).
Wendy's teaching fosters student creativity and independence by incorporating strong technical skill-building, improvisation and theater/musical play.
Anita Suhanin; Voice BM, Berklee College of Music. Studies with Susan Lincoln, April Arabian, Maggie Scott, Bob Stoloff. Performs “Torch and Twang” mix of country, jazz, blues and original music in local clubs. Performed with Vox One, Peter Mulvey, Bruce Millard, the Gin House Heroes, and Groovasaurus which won two Boston Music Awards and Boston Magazine’s Best Rock Band. Faculty, Brookline Music School.
Patrice Williamson; Voice Jazz Times magazine states that “Patrice Williamson isn’t a singer, she’s a one-woman jazz sampler. – She is a woman of many voices, each distinctly intriguing all distinctly her own.” Williamson is a favorite fixture of both Boston and Singapore's live music scene. Her sensitive interpretations and fluent scat style have earned her a coveted Best of Boston accolade and several Kahula Boston Music award nominations. She's also been heard at both the Tanglewood and Marblehead Jazz Festivals. Both of her independent recordings My Shining Hour and Free to Dream have received high praises from jazz critics around the country. Patrice is an active member of the vocal trio E.S.P. The trio released their first recording, 1st Cut in December 2008. Patrice received her M.M. degree and the Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music where she studied with Dominique Eade and Susan Clickner. Her B.M. is in Classical Flute performance from the Univeristy of Tennessee, Knoxville.