2025–2026 Season

CHRISTMAS WITH THE BAROQUE MASTERS

sopranos

Anna Joy Buegel

Soprano **Anna Joy Buegel** is a teacher and singer in the Chicagoland area, regularly joining such choirs as Grant Park Chorus, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Music of the Baroque, Chicago Bach Festival Chorus, Schola Laudis (of the Monastery of the Holy Cross), and Saint Romanos Capella. She has also joined and soloed with ensembles including Indiana Baroque Orchestra, Madison Bach Musicians, Voices of Madonna, Bella Voce, Stare at the Sun, Roots in the Sky, and The New Earth Ensemble. Buegel serves on staff as soprano section leader and director of Children’s Ministry at Glencoe Union Church, as voice faculty member at The Musical Offering in Evanston, and at Maine East (in Park Ridge) and Niles West (Skokie) high schools. She holds a Master’s of Music degree in Vocal Performance from North Park University and a Bachelor’s degree in Sacred Music from The Moody Bible Institute.

Kirsten Hedegaard

**Kirsten Hedegaard** has enjoyed a varied career as singer, conductor, and scholar. Having been described as a “seraphic soprano” (Chicago Tribune), who “glides angelically above the rest” (Austin 360), she has performed with many early music specialists, most notably Nicholas McGegan, Paul Hillier, Ivars Taurins, Mary Springfels, Kenneth Slowik, and John Butt. Hedegaard has also appeared as soloist and ensemble member with groups across the country, including Philharmonia Baroque, Mercury Baroque, Ensemble viii, Baroque Band, Schola Antiqua, Newberry Consort, Ars Antiqua, Rook Ensemble, Bella Voce, Callipygian Players, Elgin Symphony, Elgin Master Chorale, and eighth blackbird. She is Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Loyola University.

Ellie Walters

Soprano Ellie Walters is passionate about sharing early music with others. She is a member of Early Music America’s Emerging Professional Leadership Council, where she is working to provide resources to new early musicians. Ellie studied voice at Loyola University Chicago with Dr. Kirsten Hedegaard and recently completed her master's degree in early music performance at the University of Southern California under Jennie Kampani, Dr. Rotem Gilbert, and Dr. Adam Gilbert. She sings in ensembles around Chicago, including Bella Voce, La Caccina, and the St. James Cathedral Choir. Outside of her musical adventures, Ellie enjoys fiber arts, roller blading, and hanging out with her cat named Soprano.

altos

Nora Engonopoulos

A native Chicagoan, **Nora Engonopoulos** earned a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from DePaul University and a master’s degree in Opera/Voice from McGill University in Montreal. She has been a member of Bella Voce for ten years and has also sung with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and Grant Park Chorus. During the day, she works in non-profit fundraising.

Natalie Holz

**Natalie Holz** is the Director of Equity and Inclusion for Sacred Heart Schools. She is an educator, instructional coach, quilter, road trip planner, and mother of two teenage boys, and has sung with Bella Voce since 1998.

Amanda Koopman

Mezzo-soprano **Amanda Koopman** is a singer and soloist in the Chicago area. Solo highlights include Bach’s *B Minor Mass* with Bella Voce, Purcell anthems and Bach’s *Mass in F* with Music of the Baroque, *San Ignacio* (chamber opera) at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Mozart *Requiem* and Bach *Magnificat* with the Elgin Master Chorale, and a recital celebrating motherhood with the Musicians Club of Women and Northwestern University. She has had the opportunity to perform a recital series in China, the country in which she grew up, on two occasions, in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Yan Cheng. She regularly appears with well-known performing groups such as the Grant Park Chorus, Bella Voce, Music of the Baroque, and the Bach Cantata series at Grace Lutheran. She graduated with her master’s in vocal performance from Northwestern University.

tenors

Oliver Camacho

Tenor **Oliver Camacho** has been praised as “superbly stylish” by the *Chicago Tribune* and “emotionally generous” by the *Chicago Reader.* A proud graduate of Chicago’s Lane Technical High School, Camacho went on to study music at Northwestern University, and historically informed performance practice at Amherst Early Music Festival and Early Music Vancouver. He has been a soloist with Bella Voce, The Newberry Consort, Chicago Choral Artists, Bach Cantata Vespers, the Chicago Bach Ensemble, Vox 3 Collective, and Distant Worlds Philharmonic Orchestra. Oliver is co-host of the *Opera Box Score* podcast and is music director of Classical WFMT, where he hosts *Listening to Singers.*

Jesus Alfredo Jimenez

**Jesus Alfredo Jimenez** is a Latino tenor based in Chicago, IL. An avid chorister, Alfredo has performed in choruses for Chicago Opera Theater, Florentine Opera, and in the ensemble of West Side Story conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner for the Edinburgh International Festival. He sings with Camerata Chicago, Bella Voce, and Stare at the Sun. He was an Apprentice Artist at Sarasota Opera and a Project Inclusion Vocal Fellow at Grant Park Music Festival. Alfredo graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University, where he sang with the Bienen Contemporary/Early Ensemble under Donald Nally.

Keith M

Passionate about early music, contemporary repertoire, and everything in between, tenor Keith Andrew Murphy sings with Bella Voce, Schola Antiqua of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Music of the Baroque, the Oriana singers, and is a vocal artist-in-residence at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel. Trained as a composer, he holds a DMA from Yale University, and his compositions have been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, Opus 21, and Trio Eos, among many others. Dr. Murphy also teaches music theory, aural training, and composition at Loyola University Chicago, DePaul University, and North Park University.

basses

Ed Frazier Davis

Bass-baritone Ed Frazier Davis performs frequently with ensembles and organizations across the Chicagoland area, including Bella Voce, the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Consonance, the Grant Park Music Festival Chorus, and the choir of St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church where he sings almost every Sunday. In Kansas City, where he lived from 2016 to 2022, he sang five seasons with the Grammy-winning Kansas City Chorale. Outside of singing, Ed is an accomplished composer whose music, described as "at once deeply emotional and sublime" (KC Arts Beat), has been performed across seventeen states and six countries by the likes of the BBC Singers, Bella Voce, The Crossing, and the Symphony Orchestras of Melbourne and Toronto.

Mark Haddad

**Mark Haddad** is a basso profundo and professional classical singer active throughout the greater Chicago area. Originally from El Paso, Texas, Haddad earned his Bachelor of Music from Texas Tech University and his Master of Music from the University of Delaware, both in vocal performance. Since relocating to Chicago in 2015, he has performed with esteemed ensembles including the Grant Park Music Festival (Rachmaninoff’s *Vespers*), Ravinia Festival (*Lord of the Rings*), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Shostakovich’s *Babi Yar*), and the William Ferris Chorale (Talbot’s *Path of Miracles*). Mark is a current member of Bella Voce, William Ferris Chorale, Am Shalom Synagogue, and Rockefeller Chapel, contributing his rich, resonant bass to a wide range of sacred and contemporary repertoire. His musical artistry is grounded in deep vocal training and a passion for ensemble singing. Outside of his musical career, Haddad works as a consultant for a big-data company and resides in Libertyville. He finds joy in balancing his professional life with time spent with his son and fiancée. He is honored to share in the transformative power of choral music and is grateful to be part of Chicago’s vibrant musical community.

Eric Miranda

For three decades, **Eric Miranda** has performed throughout Chicago, gracing audiences with his “pliable, warm baritone” (*Chicago Classical Review*). Miranda has appeared as a soloist at Orchestra Hall and Millennium Park, and as a versatile and sought-after singer, he is a frequent collaborator with chamber ensembles including The Newberry Consort, New Earth Ensemble, and the newly formed Chroma, conceived by LaRob K.Rafael. In the realm of opera, he has appeared with Haymarket Opera Company, Chicago Opera Theater, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, and portrayed Aeneas in Bella Voce’s semistaged performance of Purcell’s *Dido and Aeneas* last spring. Miranda is also a member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Grant Park Chorus. Upcoming highlights include “A Flamenco Christmas” with The Newberry Consort, “A 17th-Century Christmas” with Bella Voce and Madison Bach Musicians, and the Schütz “Musikalisches Exequien” with Vox Madonna, led by Dr. Kirsten Hedegaard.

HANDEL’S MESSIAH

soprano soloists

Kimberly Jones

Lyric soprano **Kimberly E. Jones** is an alumna of the Ryan Opera Center with the prestigious Lyric Opera of Chicago. Performances there include Margru in the world's premiere of Anthony Davis' Amistad, which was released nationally on the New World recording label. She also performed as Olga in Fedora, Xenia in Boris Godunov, Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte. With the Ryan Opera Center, she performed Laetitia in the Old Maid and the Thief, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and Adele in Die Fledermaus. She was chosen to perform at the Chatelet in Paris with three other ensemble members. Maestro Bruno Bartoletti, Lyric's former Artistic Director, selected Kimberly to perform concerts in Italy (Knoxville: Summer of 1915).
With Houston Grand Opera, she graced the stages as Clara in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. She has performed in concert performances of Haydn Creation, Brahms Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Exultate Jubilate, Carmina Burana, and Verdi Requiem. She frequently performs Handel Messiah, as well as recently Mass in the Time of War (Haydn), The Ordering of Moses (Dett), Beethoven Mass in C, Beethoven 9, and several other musical favorites.
She frequently performs with Haymarket Opera (Tibrino in L'Orontea, Angelina in Orlando). With Chicago Opera Theater she has performed as the Fairy Queen and shows such as Freedom Ride and Quamino's Map and other operatic favorites .
Kimberly is on the faculties of Roosevelt University (CCPA), Columbia College, Old Town school of folk Music, and Merit School of Music.

Josefien Stoppelenburg

Dutch soprano **Josefien Stoppelenburg** is best known for her dazzling vocal agility and her passionate and insightful interpretations. Stoppelenburg has performed all over the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America as a concert singer. Stoppelenburg taught vocal masterclasses at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the University of Colorado, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Illinois State University and Michigan State University.She has performed for the Dutch Royal family on several occasions.

alto soloists

Orna Arania

**Orna Arania** performed extensively as a soloist with most of the leading orchestras in her native country of Israel, and toured with various Israeli ensembles in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, and the United States. Since arriving in the U.S., she has performed as soloist with orchestras such as Distinguished Concerts International Orchestra New York, The Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra (Wisconsin), Elgin Symphony, Lima Symphony (Ohio), Illinois Valley Symphony, Callipygian Players, Ars Antigua, and more. She sings with leading ensembles in Chicago, such as Bella Voce and Bella Voce Camerata, and was a singer and assistant conductor of The Lakeside Singers, with whom she performed in several productions at the Ravinia Festival, and sang on seven released recordings. In addition to performing the traditional Western classical repertoire, Arania researches, performs, and conducts Israeli and Jewish vocal and choral music. For the last ten years she has been the conductor in residence and cantorial soloist at Am Shalom Synagogue in Glencoe. She earned her Master’s and Doctor of Music degrees in Voice and Opera Performance from Northwestern University, and she is an associate professor of voice at Northern Illinois University, where she has been teaching since 2006.

Anna Rasmussen

Lauded by critic John von Rhein for her “expressive, velvet toned” performance, **Anna Rasmussen** is making her mark as an emerging and distinguished artist in her hometown of Chicago.Most recently, Rasmussen joined the Elgin Master Chorale as the alto soloist for Bach’s *St. John Passion*. Other performances with Elgin Master Chorale include *Messiah*, Part I and José Maurício Nunes Garcia's rarely performed *Matinas do Natal* as the mezzo-soprano soloist; and Handel’s *Dixit Dominus* in 2019. Rasmussen appeared with the Music Institute Chorale as the mezzo-soprano soloist for Mozart's *Requiem* in 2024, and previously appeared with the ensemble as a soloist for Vivaldi’s *Gloria* in 2023. As a *Messiah* soloist, she has been acclaimed for “buoyancy and crisp diction in her committed readings of ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive’ and ‘O thou that tellers good tidings to Zion,’ …[and] stood out in a particularly measured, poignant ‘He was despised’” (*Chicago Classical Review*). Other highlights include an appearance as mezzo-soprano soloist in Handel’s *Judas Maccabaeus* with the North Shore Choral Society, and performing Aaron Copland’s profound choral masterpiece, *In the Beginning*, with the Wicker Park Choral Singers. Rasmussen is a resident artist at University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel. She sings regularly with Bella Voce and the William Ferris Chorale.

countertenor soloist

Luke Lemmeier

Countertenor **Luke Lemmeier** is actively engaged as a singer in the Chicagoland area. He currently sings with Bella Voce and in the St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church choir in the Gold Coast. He has previously sung with Bach in the City, common pulse, Chicago Choral Artists, Chicago Bach Week Festival, Early Music at the Barn, and has been engaged as a cover soloist with the Grant Park Music Festival. Luke was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions District Winner. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music.

tenor soloists

Ryan Townsend Strand

Tenor **Ryan Townsend Strand** possesses a "beautiful vocalism" (*San Francisco Chronicle*) and "expressive poise” (*Chicago Classical Review*), which continue to bring this effective storyteller to the stage for opportunities in oratorio, ensemble, and operatic performances. The Minnesota-born singer most recently was a featured soloist performing BWV 42 “Am Abend aber desselbigen Sabbats” with the Bach Cantata Vespers. Highlights of the 2025-2026 season include touring performances of Handel’s *Messiah* with Dame Jane Glover in Aspen and New York, a featured EarTaxi concert with Constellation Ensemble, and rejoining the Lyric Opera Chorus for performances of Orff’s *Carmina Burana*.
Strand has been seen with Lyric Opera of Chicago in *Der fliegende Holländer* and *Aida*. He made his professional Chicago opera debut in Haymarket Opera Company’s production of Alessandro Scarlatti’s *Gli equivoci nel sembiante* (Armindo) and returned for Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in 2022 as Primo Soldato. Other operatic productions include Handel’s *Beauty’s Truth* (Pleasure) and Mozart’s *Così fan tutte* (Ferrando) with Transgressive Theater-Opera and Elmhurst Symphony; and Mark Adamo’s *Little Women* (Laurie), Monteverdi’s *L’incoronazione di Poppea* (Nero), and Ricky Ian Gordon’s *The Grapes of Wrath* (Al Joad) with Northwestern Opera Theater. With Chicago Opera Theater, he appeared in Jake Heggie’s *Moby Dick* and has sung other chorus roles in productions of Philip Glass’s *The Perfect American*, Mozart’s *Lucio Silla*, and Bloch’s *Macbeth*.
Strand has sung with the Grammy award-winning contemporary vocal ensemble The Crossing in Philadelphia under the direction of Donald Nally. He performs regularly with Music of the Baroque, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Stare at the Sun, Bella Voce, and the Grant Park Festival Chorus. He is a founding member and executive director of Constellation Ensemble, celebrating their twelfth season as Chicago’s premier tenor/bass ensemble.

Matthew Schlesinger

**Matthew Schlesinger** is a Chicago-based tenor known for his clear, expressive sound and stylistic versatility. His performances span concert, choral, and solo repertoire, with credits including the Grant Park Symphony Chorus, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Chicago Choral Artists, the Oriana Singers, and Bella Voce. As a soloist, he has appeared with Bella Voce and Harper College, and served as cover soloist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Berlioz’s *Romeo and Juliet*, Verdi’s Otello, and Britten’s *War Requiem*. The *Chicago Tribune* praised his singing as “light, clear, technically solid, and musically accomplished.”Beyond the stage, Schlesinger is deeply rooted in music education. Now in his eighteenth year as choral director at Hoffman Estates High School, he directs the school’s choirs, madrigals, and Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and serves as vocal director for the annual musical. He also directs the D211 Adult Chorus, providing community members an opportunity to continue singing in an engaging, educational environment.Schlesinger currently serves as the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) State Honors Choir Chair and the ILMEA District 7 Choral Representative. He remains dedicated to nurturing artistry at every level, bridging professional performance and community music-making with the next generation of singers.

bass soloists