Praised for her “radiant soprano”, Dana Lynne Varga is a dynamic interpreter of a wide variety of repertoire on opera and concert stages. Dana frequently solos at Carnegie Hall, most recently singing the Fauré Requiem and Mozart Requiem with the New York City Chamber Orchestra as well as the Brahms Requiem and Haydn Lord Nelson Mass with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. Last season she performed as Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola and covered leading lady Léontine in Bologne’s The Anonymous Lover with Boston Lyric Opera. Highlights of Dana’s busy concert career have included Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Cantata Singers, Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony with the Metropolitan Chorale, Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor with Coro Allegro, Beethoven’s Mass in C at Tanglewood and countless performances of Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony across the eastern seaboard. Favorite opera roles include Pallas Athene in Paride ed Elena, Micaëla in Carmen, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Alcina in Alcina and Musetta in La bohème. Dana was the first place winner of the 2016 Classical Singer National Vocal Competition. An accomplished voice teacher and career coach, Dana is a fierce advocate for singers, devoted to progressive change in the classical vocal industry.
Clare McNamara • Mezzo-Soprano
Mezzo-soprano Clare McNamara’s ensemble affiliations have included Skylark, Handel + Haydn, Boston’s Emmanuel Music, Blue Heron, Lorelei Ensemble, The Washington Bach Consort, Tapestry, the Staunton Music Festival, and The Boston Camerata. MusicWeb International hailed her as “pure-toned” and “as good as they come” for her solo Hildegard chant on Skylark’s “Seven” (2018), one of the ensemble’s four GRAMMY-nominated albums. Clare appears on eight other albums with Skylark, most notably as a credited soloist on the twice GRAMMY-nominated “Clear Voices in the Dark” (2024)— the first U.S. recording of Francis Poulenc’s tour-deforce cycle Figure Humaine. Clare’s “astonishing” voice is featured in the 2020 “pathbreaking” release of Cut Circle’s compendium of the works of Johannes Ockeghem (Gramophone Magazine); she has joined the group for numerous European festivals. She joined Emmanuel for Bachfest in Leipzig (2024), and continues honing her craft as a Bach interpreter. Clare has appeared as the alto soloist in Bach’s Mass in B minor and his Missa Brevis in G major (Handel + Haydn, Harry Christophers), where she was labeled a “vocal highlight” and praised for her “rich timbre and expressive phrasing.” Clare holds an A.B. in Music from Princeton University and an M.M. in Early Music Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She resides in the Greater Boston area with her husband, mother, and son.
Jonas Budris • Tenor
Tenor Jonas Budris is a versatile soloist and ensemble musician, engaging new works and early music with equal passion. He performs and tours frequently with Cut Circle, and can be heard in their new recording, Johannes Ockeghem: The Songs. He also appears with Cut Circle in the short documentary, Sounds of Renaissance Florence. He has also enjoyed performing, touring, and recording with such groups as the Handel and Haydn Society, Blue Heron, Boston Baroque, The Thirteen, and the Skylark Vocal Ensemble. Mr. Budris is a featured soloist in multiple GRAMMY-nominated recordings, including It’s a Long Way with Skylark Vocal Ensemble and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Boston Baroque. He can also be heard in Blue Heron’s recording Music from the Peterhouse Partbooks, which received the 2018 Gramophone Award for Early Music. On the opera stage, he has performed principal and supporting roles with Opera Boston, OperaHub, Guerilla Opera, and Odyssey Opera, originating such roles as John in Giver of Light and the title role of Chrononhotonthologos. Mr. Budris recently made his debut at the Carmel Bach Festival, where he was the 2018 Tenor Vocal Fellow for the Virginia Best Adams Vocal Masterclass. He is a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow with Emmanuel Music, where he has performed regularly in their Bach Cantata and evening concert series. Originally from Martha’s Vineyard, Mr. Budris holds a degree in Environmental Sciences & Engineering from Harvard College.
Ron Williams • Baritone
Singer, lecturer and voice teacher, recognized nationwide for his artistry in the field of opera and oratorio, Ron Williams continues to gather acclaim for his work onstage and in the concert hall. He has performed leading roles with several opera companies nationally, including San Francisco Spring Opera, Detroit Opera (formerly Michigan Opera Theater) and Opera San Jose. In New England, Williams debuted with Boston Lyric Opera in the revival of Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars, receiving critical acclaim from The New York Times. Ron made his European debut with the Düsseldorf Chamber Orchestra in Germany. His stage debut was in Saint Gallen, Switzerland and has performed on the European stage in several other countries. Mr. Williams maintains a busy concert schedule, having performed with Cantata Singers, Chorus North Shore, Symphony Pro Musica. Ron was seen in the one-man opera of Domenico Cimarosa, Il Maestro di Cappella with Boston Civic Symphony. formed the title role in the comic opera Gianni Schicchi with Opera Susquehanna in Pennsylvania. Mr. Williams was a regional finalist in the San Francisco Opera National Auditions. An artist committed to works of 20th century American composers, he performed with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in a new recording of The Life and Times of Malcolm X by Anthony Davis, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for best opera recording in 2022. or more information, please visit www.RonSings.com.
Pei-Yeh Tsai • Accompanist
Born in Taiwan, pianist Pei-yeh Tsai has played with esteemed ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She has served as the principal pianist for the Peoria Symphony Orchestra and the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra. Currently, she is a faculty pianist for the Handel and Haydn Society Education Department and the Middlebury College Italian Language Summer Vocal Program and Wellesley College Chamber Singers. Tsai has won several international solo and chamber competitions, and her performances have been featured on platforms like PBS, BBC Radio 4, WGBH, WFMT, WTVP, and WCTV. As an orchestral musician, her recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Pixar’s film “Philharmonia Fantastique” won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Engineered Classical Album. Additionally, she has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, which was showcased in PBS’s Great Performances series. Throughout her career, Tsai has had the privilege of performing with renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Marin Alsop, Edward Gardner, Ken-David Masur, Edwin Outwater, and Nicholas Kraemer and musicians such as YoYo Ma and Andrea Bocelli. Her major teachers include Boris Slutsky at Yale University, Jerome Lowenthal at The Juilliard School, and Mary Sauer, the Keyboard Principal of the Chicago Symphony for 57 years.
Kenneth Fuchs • Composer
Kenneth Fuchs, who will today be receiving Coro Allegro’s Daniel Pinkham Award, is the first living American composer recorded by the virtuoso Sinfonia of London and its brilliant conductor, John Wilson. In June 2024, Chandos Records released Light Year, Orchestral Works, Volume 2. Chandos Records released Cloud Slant, Orchestral Works, Volume 1, which includes two works for full orchestra, an exuberant composition for strings, and a concerto for C and alto flute. Fuchs recorded for Naxos five albums with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta, the last of which won the 2018 GRAMMY® Award for “Best Classical Compendium.” Fuchs has composed music for orchestra, band, voice, chorus, soloists, and various chamber ensembles. With Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lanford Wilson, Fuchs created three chamber musicals. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum presented Fuchs’s operatic monodrama Falling Man (text by Don DeLillo, adapted by J. D. McClatchy) in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of 9/11. His music has achieved significant global recognition through performances, media exposure, and digital streaming and downloading. Fuchs serves as Professor of Music Composition at the University of Connecticut. He is a graduate of the University of Miami and received master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from The Juilliard School. His composition teachers include Milton Babbitt, David Diamond, and Vincent Persichetti. His music is published by Bill Holab Music, Hal Leonard LLC, Edward B. Marks Music Company, and Theodore Presser Company, and it has been recorded by Albany, Chandos, and Naxos.
