Seidel Artists Management

Jennifer Brennan-Hondorp, soprano, maintains an active performing schedule on the concert, opera and musical theatre stage. Recent highlights include Fauré Requiem at Carnegie Hall, Messiah performances in Tokyo and Osaka with the Osaka Telemann Chamber Orchestra, Cantata No. 147 with the Oregon Bach Festival Ensemble under the direction of Helmuth Rilling, Mahler Symphony No. 2 with the Nashville Symphony, Mozart Requiem, and Elijah with Grand Rapids Symphony under the direction of David Lockington, Der Messias with the San Luis Obispo Symphony Orchestra, Mozart Requiem with the Detroit Civic Symphony Orchestra, Messiah with the Duke Chapel Orchestra, and Dona Nobis Pacem with the Bowling Green-Western Symphony Orchestra.

“Brennan-Hondorp sang the title role with security and comic flare.” The Philadelphia Inquirer

Kishna Davis

Pamela Hinchman

As Adina in L’elisir d’amore:
“Hinchman was in full control of her character. Adina is frequently presented as a thoughtless valley girl with romance as her ruling passion, but as portrayed by Hinchman, she seemed to have learned a little compassion from those books she’s constantly reading. Her rejection of Nemorino was a study in sensibility colored with kindness. Her flirtation with Belcore was imbued with the knowing wink – this Adina was not falling in love with a uniform. And her reaction to Dr. Dulcamara’s story about the depth of Nemorino’s love was emotionally affecting. Hinchman was no chirpy canary – her voice was more spinto than purely lyric. And her singing was far less ornamental than usual – but she had no difficulty in reaching her high notes or in being heard over large ensembles.”
- Nashville Press

Steffanie Pearce

Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Steffanie Pearce grew up singing everything from folk to classical music. Her formal studies started at the Cleveland Institue of Music and finished at The U.of So. California "Opera Workshop". She has won the Pavarotti Competition, Montreal International, D’Angelo, Baltimore Opera and the American Traditions competition among others. On the opera stage she is most noted for distinctive portrayals of tragic heroines including: Tosca, Violetta, Leonora, Marguerite, Donna Anna, Mimi, and the Three Heroins of Tales of Hoffman.. She has been a guest artist with many opera companies including; Opera de Marseille, Opera Lisboa, Opera Colorado, The Opera Co. of Philadelphia , Pittsburgh Opera Theater, San Diego Opera, The Buxton Festival in England, Baltimore Opera, Opera Delaware, New Jersey Opera Festival and has been a featured artist in many European and US tours with Teatro Lyrico d’Europe.

Equally at home on the concert stage, she has performed the Strauss 4 Last Songs and Carmina Burana with The Montreal Symphony. Miss Pearce is a frequent guest of the Lexington Philharmonic and has sung Gorecki’s Symphony No.3, Villa-Lobos Bachiana No. 5 and this season, Mahler’s 4th Symphony with them. Her oratorio repertoire is extensive and she has appeared as a soloist at many famous theaters including: Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Hollywood Bowl, The Dorothy Chandler, The Academy of Music, Blossom Music Festival, Marlborough Music Festival and many others.

Now a resident of Naples, Florida, Miss Pearce is the Founding Director of Opera Naples, Southwest Florida’s first profession regional opera company.

Teresa Seidl

Throughout Europe and the United States, Teresa Seidl's performances have met with audience and critical acclaim. After a performance with the FRANKFURT OPERA, The Financial Times reported: "a Pamina of rich, noble tone and faultless voice production. 'Ach, ich fuehl's' was outstanding." Opern Welt printed . . sang ideally. Her voice possesses a necessary, silvery sheen; she is above all convincing with her floating piani and lyrical cantilena." And of her recent performance of Micaela a critic wrote, "The "float" of her soft singing repeatedly ravished the senses, and her exquisitely executed messa di voce,soft crescendo and decrescendo, at the end of her aria in Act 3 was breath-stopping, a lesson in superior vocalism."

Stella Zambalis

Stella Zambalis is a regular guest of leading opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera (Cherubino in The Ghosts of Versailles), New York City Opera (Magda in La Rondine, Micaela in Carmen, and Mimi in La Boheme), Houston Grand Opera (Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte, Musetta in La Boheme and Nedda in I Pagliacci), Seattle Opera (Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte and Sophie in Prokofieff’s War and Peace), Florida Grand Opera (Adalgisa in Norma), Austin Lyric Opera (Violetta in La Traviata and Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro), Baltimore Opera (Mimi in La Boheme), Florentine Opera (Angelina in La Cenerentola and Liu in Turandot), Michigan Opera (Mimi, Micaela), Minnesota Opera (Micaela and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Kentucky Opera (Hermia, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte), Opera Company of Philadelphia (Pamina in The Magic Flute, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, and Mimi in La Boheme and Nedda in I Pagliacci) Opera Pacific (Mimi), Portland Opera (a double-bill of Nedda in I Pagliacci and “soprano” in Carmina Burana and Marguerite in Faust), Arizona Opera (Nedda), Tulsa Opera (Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Micaela, Liu and Mimi) and New Orleans Opera (Nedda). In Europe, she has performed with the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Mimi) and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy (Countess).

It was wonderful to see and hear the dynamic, striking-voiced Stella Zambalis back in New York, painting the Stepmother in trenchantly limned phrasing but attractively dark-hued tone. (Why exactly aren't we still hearing this gifted, attractive artist at Lincoln Center's opera companies?)
David Shengold
Opera News 3/07
This is a very fine cast. Stella Zambalis, who is playing the role of Rosalinde, is arguably one of the best sopranos in the world today. She's a magnificent singer. She's a terrific actress.
Stephanie Blythe
Arizona Star Net, Nov. 2007

Mezzo-Sopranos

Buffy Baggott

California native Buffy Baggott is quickly gaining recognition around the United States as an accomplished and highly versatile lyric mezzo soprano. She began her music education by winning music scholarships to UCLA and San Francisco State University for vocal performance. She then went on to complete two apprenticeships with the Santa Fe Opera and the prestigious Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. She has appeared numerous times on the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s mainstage, most memorably as Stephano in Roméo et Juliette, Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos, Flower Maiden in Parsifal, Second Lady in Magic Flute, Siegrune in Die Walküre, Mrs. Hayes in Susannah and in title role for the matinees of Carmen. Recent performances include Schwertleite (Canadian Opera Company's Ring Cycle), Inez (Il Trovatore; Lyric Opera Chicago), Ellen Ermaine (Chrysalis;Berkeley Opera) and Sonyetka (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk; Canadian Opera Company).

Carmen

" In the title role, Buffy Baggott proved to be a wonderfully engaging example of a new generation of opera singers for whom the ability to act well is not just a career-enhancing accessory to a great voice but all of a piece with the art of opera. Her Carmen metaphorically smoked, wearing a bright yellow dress and bare feet on an orange stage. There was a punk swagger in the way she walked, jazz in the way she talked, and in the nuance of her melody, there was a lot of jab and tickle."

Jennifer Lane

“He (Rod Gilfrey) was ably matched by mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane, whose performance as Charmian combined volup-tuousness, vulnerability and rage in a potent blend.” [Larsen’s Everyman Jack]
Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, November 13, 2006

Michelle Wrighte

Chicago Tribune August 25, 2004 by Richard Covello
“Michelle Wrighte, by nature a Cherubino more like a strapping young man than the mincing page boy en travestie we usually see, sang both arias charmingly.”

Tenors

Robert Bracey

Bach: St

Bach: St. John Passion

Toledo Symphony Orchestra

The grandest and most dramatic voice of the evening belonged to tenor Robert Bracey . . . Bracey sang with authority. The effect of his opening aria, an anguished soliloquy from the apostle Peter after denying Jesus the third time, was chilling, even brutal, as he condemned the “wrong-doing evil deed abhorred.”

-The Toledo Blade

Handel: Messiah

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Bracey, opened “Every Valley Shall Be Exalted” with a voice as lyrical as it was powerful.

-The Grand Rapids Press

Benjamin Brecher

“.. agile warmth and exquisite beauty . . .”

James Doing

Vocally first rate" - Horst Koegler - Opern Welt

Mark Thomsen

In 2008-9 Mr. Thomsen will again be at the Metropolitan Opera in their productions of Mozart’s Entfurhrung aus dem Serail, Don Giovanni and Thais, sing Don Jose in Carmen with Amarillo Opera, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Imperial Symphony , and Honeggaer’s King David with Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Beethoven Ninth Symphony with Arkansas Symphony..

Thais
Most of the strength, clarity and charisma you craved came from secondary roles. As Nicias, Thais' lover of the week, tenor Mark Thomsen generated the most vocal and dramatic flair.
- Palm Beach Post

Bradley Williams

Bradley Williams is one of opera’s most sought after tenors in the bel canto repertoire

Bradley Williams is one of opera’s most sought after tenors in the bel canto repertoire. A regular guest of theaters around the world, he has appeared in Europe with the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona as Ramiro in La Cenerentola and Giannetto in La Gazza Ladra, Teatro Cervantes in Malaga, Spain as Arturo in I Puritan, Teatro Regio Torino as Tebaldo in I Capuleti i Montecchi and the Roasted Swan in Carmina Burana, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa as Ramiro, Opera de Bordeaux as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania as Salvini in Bellini’s Adelson e Salvini, Royal Danish Opera as Almavia in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Wexford Festival as Alphonse in Hérold’s rarely performed Zampa, Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg as Tonio in La Fille du Regiment, Opéra National de Lyon as Ramiro, and Garsington Opera Festival as Lindoro.

In North America, his extensive credits include appearances with the Anchorage Opera as Elvino in La Sonnambula, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Austin Lyric Opera as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Baltimore Opera as Ramiro, Connecticut Opera as Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Dayton Opera as Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Edmonton Opera as Ernesto, Eugene Opera in the title role of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, Florentine Opera of Milwaukee as Lindoro, Tebaldo, Ottavio, Belmonte, and Fenton in Falstaff, Houston Grand Opera as Scott in the world premiere of Harvey Milk, Lake George Opera as Ernesto and as Uberto in La Donna del Lago, Long Beach Opera as Fenton, New York City Opera as Lindoro, Scott in Harvey Milk, Deportes in Die Soldaten, and Beppe in I Pagliacci, Opera Grand Rapids as Ottavio, Opera Memphis as Belmonte, Opera de Quebec as Ernesto, Opera Orchestra of New York as Georges in Boildieu’s La Dame Blanche, Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, San Francisco Opera as Scott in Harvey Milk, and the San Diego Opera as Ramiro. He has also appeared with Opera Australia in Sidney as Tonio in La Fille du Regiment.

Baritones

Kenneth Overton

Baritone Kenneth Overton has consistently received accolades for his rich gleaming voice and his many layered, powerful interp

Baritone Kenneth Overton has consistently received accolades for his rich gleaming voice and his many layered, powerful interpretations. He recently toured the British Isles as Porgy in Living Arts’ Porgy and Bess and, in the same role, opened Opera Memphis' 51st season. He also makes his début this season with Stadttheater Klagenfurt as Jake (Porgy and Bess). He recently sang his first Escamillo (Carmen) with Missouri Symphony Society, and well as Leporello (Don Giovanni) with Opera Memphis, Ping (Turandot) with Sacramento Opera, Bello (La Fancuilla del West) with Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, as Bass soloist in Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, and as the Baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with the Oratorio Society of New Jersey.

In the role of the minister, Kenneth Overton offers a remarkably understated performance. In both his command of this complex character and his beautiful baritone voice, Overton is a magnetic presence.”

Frederick Reeder

“Reeder clearly is at the forefront of today’s interpreters of G&S’ near-impossible ‘patter roles.”
—Chicago Sun-Times

Gerard Sundberg

Gerard Sundberg’s compelling baritone voice is celebrated internationally for its beauty and clarity

Gerard Sundberg’s compelling baritone voice is celebrated internationally for its beauty and clarity. For the past eight seasons, he has captivated audiences with his performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Following another Messiah performance, a critic declares, “His recitatives and arias remained focused and filled with energy….he demonstrated excellent range, control and diction”, The Republic (Columbus, IN). “He sings with passion and conviction, giving thoughtful and heartfelt expression to the text”, Rodney Wynkoop (Duke University)

-- he was the highlight of the evening

-- he was the highlight of the evening. His work in the Vaughan Williams was extraordinary -- great tone, wonderful diction and compelling phrasing and presence.
North Carolina Symphony

Bass-Baritones

Basses

James Patterson

James Patterson, whose “beautifully expressive bass just keeps getting better and better” (San Francisco Examiner), has been praised by some of the most respected critics in the United States, including Andrew Porter, who called him “a bass to watch — sonorous and beautiful in timbre.” (New Yorker)

Since beginning his career as an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera in 1983, Mr. Patterson has given over 150 performances with that company, including the roles of Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Fafner in the widely acclaimed Ring cycle, and the King of Egypt in Aida with Leontyne Price. Canadian credits include leading roles with the opera companies of Montreal, Manitoba, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, and Ottawa. Mr. Patterson’s career has also taken him throughout the United States, with highlights including leading roles with Chicago Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, San Diego Opera, Miami Opera, and Michigan Opera Theatre.

International highlights include Punch and Judy with the Netherlands Opera, performances of Peter Sel-lars’ controversial Don Giovanni in France, and concerts in Madrid for the New York City Opera.

Concert highlights include engagements with the Boston Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the San Jose Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, and at Carnegie Hall in a concert performance of Handel’s Semele with Marilyn Horne and Kathleen Battle.

Wagner Ring Cycle, Seattle “In Rheingold, though, one was aware first that there were no weak links in this cast. And second, whenever James Patterson opened his mouth as Fafner, that there was only one voice that could be called exceptional.” The Seattle Weekly

Attractions

THE BEST OF GILBERT AND SULLIVAN

Long loud whistles, applause and cheers....a program that was sheer delight!

A GERSHWIN GALA

S'wonderful, s'marvelous, It's GERSHWIN! This program brings together two internationally acclaimed singers who have performed Porgy and Bess with major companies throughout the United States and Europe. Indulge your audiences with toe-tapping tunes such as I Got Rhythm, Nice Work if You Can Get it, Embraceable You.The second half of the show features the beloved Porgy and Bess Suite. This show, which can be adapted to suit your companies needs, was performed recently with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and Grand Rapids Symphony.
Soprano Kishna Davis and baritone Kenneth Overton are favorite performers with such companies as the New York City Opera, Cleveland Orchestra, Washington Symphony, Memphis Opera, Dallas Symphony, Baltimore Symphony among others, who have performed Porgy and Bess with major companies around the world. They will thrill your audiences with their sumptuous voices and dynamic delivery.

S'wonderful, S'marvelous! It's Gershwin!

Concert Quartets