Messiah Artists
Twenty-year-old soprano Jennifer Robinson, a native of Florida, is currently studying voice at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. A resident of New York City since the fall of 2021, she has blossomed as a young professional. Working with renowned conductors Kent Tritle on Mozart’s Requiem and Fauré’s Requiem, Thomas Muraco on select scenes from Verdi’s Rigoletto, and George Manahan on Holst’s ethereal The Planets, she has taken every opportunity to learn and grow as a young artist. Last Spring, she excitedly signed her first professional contract with Ars Musica Chorale, based in Ridgewood, New Jersey, as their concert season's Encore Young Artist soprano soloist.
She was thrilled to sing Mozart’s Requiem again and is looking forward to expanding her repertoire with G.F. Handel's Messiah and a Brahms literature concert in May. She recently joined pianist and friend Barbara Podgurski and Tenor Evan Katsefasfor for an evening of song as a part of the Música Reginae season in Queens, New York. As she tackles the current conservatory semester, she can’t wait to expand her repertoire and further develop her musicianship and artistic abilities.
Mary Rice is a charismatic and “striking” mezzo-soprano (OperaWire) known for her "polished vocalism" (Voce di Meche) and "elegant interpretation" (Broadway World). In the 2021/22 season, Mary made her principal debut with City Lyric Opera in New York as the Queen of Hearts in the American premiere of The Garden of Alice by Elizabeth Raum . She joined Opera Fayetteville for their production of Matthew Aucoin’s Second Nature and was presented in concert at the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Rome, Italy in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons. She joined the fifth annual Recital for Refugees at Opera America, made her debut with the Moab Music Festival in recital in Salt Lake City, and performed a concert of Lieder and the Brahms Zwei Gesänge with Lune di Fiori in Rome, Italy.
Her 2022/23 season features her debut as an Encore Young Artist mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with Ars Musica, a recital of English song with the Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, and performances with Berlin Opernfest as Orolofsky in Die Fledermaus and Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel . Find her online @coloratura_runs and www.mary-rice.com
Tenor Mike Williams has made himself known as an in-demand church musician and choral singer in the greater New York and Philadelphia areas. He recently made his debut as the Evangelist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Illinois Bach Academy under the direction of Dr. Andrew Megill. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, he has performed a wide range of concert works including Haydn’s “Die Jahreszeiten” (Choir) with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bach’s “Johannes passion” (solo) with the Illinois Bach Festival and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9” (solo), with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra as well as Bernstein’s Candide (choir), where he shared the stage with narrators Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan. He has performed under the batons of Yannick Nezet Seguin, Sir Simon Rattle, Dame Jane Glover, Nathalie Stutzmann, and Christian Macelaru. He was featured as a soloist on Westminster Kantorei’s new disc “Lumina,” conducted by Dr. Amanda Quist.
Gabriel Lukijaniuk, baritone, recently completed the voice performance program at Rutgers University, where he studied under Eduardo Chama. At Rutgers, he sang with the Glee Club and Kirkpatrick Choir, where he was featured as a soloist in Joseph Haydn’s Creation Mass. He also performed with the Opera Theatre at Rutgers in productions of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Pastore IV) and Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Snug). In 2017, Gabriel was selected to sing in the high school honor choir at the ACDA National Conference in Minneapolis, which was workshopped and conducted by Eric Whitacre. He is currently a member of the Philadelphia Symphonic Chorus led by Joe Miller and performs with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin.