Camerata New York To Present MESSIAH

Camerata New York to present full Messiah with St. Jean Baptiste Festival Chorus and top soloists in St. Jean Baptiste Church, SATURDAY, DEC. 7, 7:30PM

Camerata New York, now in its 19th year, kicks off the holiday season with the glorious and eternal masterpiece, Handel's Messiah. "The audience is in for an exceptional presentation of all three segments of Handel's masterpiece; starting with the Annunciation, Passion, and concluding with the celebration of our Lord's resurrection. It is a great honor and glorious opportunity for the orchestra, myself, the singers and soloists to present this Beautiful work which celebrates our savior in selections from the Old and New Testament."

Tickets at Eventbrite.com, or CamerataNY.org, or by calling the Church Office (212.288.5082). Tickets are also available at the door before each of the performances.

Maestro Richard Owen combines a successful career as a conductor, entrepreneur, pianist and organist. Owen is currently music director of Camerata New York Orchestra, St. Jean Baptiste Church and the Adelphi Orchestra. He was formerly on the conducting staff of the NY Philharmonic (cover conductor) as well as the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. This season, Mr. Owen has a busy schedule which includes Nutcracker with the Donetsk State Ballet, Dvorak Symphony No. 7 with the Adelphi Orchestra and the Messiah with Camerata New York and the St. Jean Baptiste Festival Chorus.

In past seasons, Mo. Owen has conducted the Little Opera Theater of New York, Rioult Dance (M. Torke's Iphigenia) the Center for Contemporary Opera and Carmina Burana with the Montreal Symphony, conducting alongside Mo. Kent Nagano. Among others, Mr. Owen has conducted the Belgrade National Philharmonic, Europa Symphony, Camerata Internazionale, Monterrey Symphony (Mexico), the Rzeszow Philharmonic, and the New York Philharmonic (Reading). Owen graduated from Dartmouth College, where he was a winner of a competition piano scholarship, received his master's from the Manhattan School of Music and studied conducting at the University for Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna. Owen performs regularly with his wife, who is a cellist, singer, and organist and they have three musical sons with whom he also performs.

Camerata New York, which is resident orchestra of St. Jean Baptiste, promotes the finest young musicians. Under the baton of music director Richard Owen, Camerata has performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. Paul's Chapel, Merkin Hall and St. Patrick's Cathedral, among others. Critics have hailed Camerata New York's "lustrous tone-quality" and "near-definitive" performances and they have been featured in the New York Times, Newsday, Huffington Post, Opera News and Forbes.

With a release on Albany Records, Camerata New York's acclaimed recordings have been aired on three continents including on New York's WQXR (classical radio station of The New York Times), WMNR and SiriusXM.

St. Jean Baptiste Festival Chorus is devoted to celebrating the glory of God in concerts on the highest level. Comprised of passionate highly trained and professional singers, the festival chorus performs the great choral masterpieces of all time and seeks to engage and inspire audiences of all ages and backgrounds.

Katherine Henly, soprano, praised for her captivating and affecting portrayals in genres ranging from opera, to musical theater, jazz, and pop throughout the United States and abroad, soprno Katherine Henly is quickly becoming known as a crossover artist to watch. Based in New York, she has performed with LA Opera, Washington National Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Charlottesville Opera (formerly Ash Lawn Opera), Virginia Opera, in the New York Musical Theatre Festival, The New York International Fringe Festival, The O'Neill National Music Theater Conference, The Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman; and as a young artist with Utah Festival Opera and The Glimmerglass Festival.

Anna Viemeister, Mezzo-soprano, currently sings at St. Jean Baptiste as part of the professional quartet. Anna organizes Outreach concerts for rural communities in the Pacific Northwest and will embark on an Italian Music Festival, where she will be performing and teaching voice (Lunigiana International Festival). Recent NYC credits include Beethoven's 9th (Camerata NY) mezzo soloist, Don Carlo (Eboli) VPOpera, Suor Angelica (Principessa) NY Lyric, Die Walkrie (Fricka) NY Lyric Opera, Pagliacci (Nedda VPNYC), Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira/Anna), Dido and Aeneas (Dido/Sorceress), Tales of Hoffmann (Giulietta) VPNYC, Le Nozze di Figaro (Marcellina) LI Opera/NY Lyric Opera, Barber of Seville (Berta) VPOpera, Rigoletto (Giovanna) Amore Opera, Mozart Requiem (Mezzo) VPOpera, and Rossini Stabat Mater (Mezzo soloist VPNYC.).

Known for his silky, warm tone, American tenor John Ramseyer is an emerging young star residing in New York City. Well-versed in operatic repertoire spanning the musical eras, roles include Bill (Dove's Flight), Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Fenton (Sir John in Love), Lysander (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Fenton (Falstaff), and Chanon (Mandelbaum's The Dybbuk). Most recently, Ramseyer sang the role of Tamino in Mozart's The Magic Flute with Resonanz Opera in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Ramseyer has performed leading roles with The Bronx Opera Company, Resonanz Opera, LoftOpera, Apotheosis Opera, Christman Opera Company, The Midwest Institute of Opera, and others. In addition to opera, he is also a highly sought-after performer of concert music and sacred music.Mr. Ramseyer is a graduate of Mannes School of Music.

Andrew Cummings, Baritone, is consistently praised for his rich, flexible baritone and heart-wrenching expressiveness, as well as his stage presence and dramatic intensity. Past appearances include the title role in Verdi's Macbeth in Houston, TX, Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca, as well as the title role in Verdi's Rigoletto in Central Florida, Kurwenal in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde in Bogot, Colombia, and Count in Strauss' Capriccio in Pittsburgh, PA. Frequenting the concert stage, Mr. Cummings has appeared as baritone soloist for Britten's War Requiem, Brahm's Deutsches Requiem with the Flint Symphony, Mahler's Songs of the Wayfarer, and more, with ensembles all over the country. Andrew lives with his son in Riverdale, NY, and is a student of Arthur Levy.