Elizabeth bishop

American mezzo Elizabeth Bishop begins the 2016-17 season in an appearance with her home company, Washington National Opera, in a role she sings there often, Marcellina Le Nozze di Figaro. She returns to the Metropolitan Opera of New York for the role of Kostelnicka (cover)/Mayor’s Wife Jenufa alongside Karita Mattila in her role debut as the stepmother, then joins Portland Symphony for the role of Judith Bluebeard’s Castle.  Further appearances during the season include Cantaloube’s Songs of the Auvergne with Memphis Symphony, and Berlioz’s Te Deum with Winston Salem Symphony.  

Recent successes include Mere Marie Dialogues of the Carmelites and Fricka Das Rheingold and Die Walküre at Washington National Opera; concert performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the New Jersey Symphony and at the Grand Teton Music Festival, Verdi’s Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and her debut as Herodias Salome at Cincinnati Conservatoire.

Other highlights include her journey to Scotland for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Donald Runnicles, and her Brangäne to Jay Hunter Morris and Heidi Melton’s Tristan und Isolde in concert at North Carolina Opera.

Ms. Bishop continues to enjoy a long relationship with the Metropolitan Opera of New York, which began with her win at the National Council Auditions in 1993; since then, she has returned many times, most recently as Teresa La sonnambula and Enrichetta  I Puritani, and prior to that in such roles as Fenena Nabucco, Venus Tannhäuser, Mère Marie, Second Norn Götterdämmerung, in the title role of Iphigenie in Iphigenie en Tauride and for its productions of War and Peace.  She also appeared as Didon Les Troyens and Fricka Das Rheingold.

At home in Washington DC, Ms. Bishop has many appearances to her credit, both with Washington Concert Opera, where she sang Principessa Adriana Lecouvreur, Santuzza Cavalleria Rusticana and Sara Roberto Devereux, and at Washington National Opera where she has a regular presence and appeared as Mère Marie, Sieglinde Die Walküre,  Brangäne Tristan und Isolde, Second Norn Götterdämmerung, Meg Page Falstaff, Gertrude Hamlet, Fricka Das Rheingold, Eboli Don Carlo, the leading role of the Marquise de Merteuil in Conrad Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons, Suzuki Madama Butterfly, and Emilia Otello, among other appearances.

jennifer casey cabot

In a stellar career which includes many of the heroines of Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, as well as concert and recital performances all over the world, soprano Jennifer Casey Cabot continues to perform closer to home to rave reviews. Her recent success include singing Giulietta in Casanova's Homecoming by Dominick Argento, with Minnesota Opera; appearing as soloist in Messiah with the Nashville Symphony, Verdi's Requiem with New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with Oberlin Conservatory of Music; returning to the Metropolitan Opera roster, and to San Diego Opera as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes; her debut with Minnesota Opera as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus den Serail, and singing soloist in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. In the 2011-2012 season she sang as a soloist in Messiah with the National Philharmonic , Stan Engebretson conducting, and as soloist in many evenings of Russian music for the Russian Chamber Art Society of Washington, DC, from 2011-2017. She also performed as Rosina with Opera Lafayette, in a semi-staged production of Paisiello's Il barbiere di Sivigilia and has presented concerts with the Post Classical Ensemble and Capital City Symphony. Ms. Cabot performs steadily with the Bay Atlantic Symphony and the Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Jed Gaylin. 

In Europe, Ms. Cabot was a resident soloist at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Staatstheater Braunschweig. She returned to Germany for a concert of arias and duets with Placido Domingo, the success of which led to a gala concert with Mr. Domingo in Japan. A New York native, Jennifer Casey Cabot holds both Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts degrees from Oberlin College, as well as a master's degree from the Yale School of Music. She studied voice with Richard Miller and Doris Yarick-Cross. 

arianna zukerman

Arianna Zukerman, (B.M. The Juilliard School) graduate studies, Manhattan School of Music, studies in Theatre Arts, Brown University, Chautauqua Institution Voice Program, Junges Ensemble, Bavarian State Opera, Sullivan Foundation Award Winner.  Teaches private voice lessons with expertise in Italian, German, French and English diction and Musical Theatre.

Renowned for her pure, luminous, rich soprano, persuasive performances and dramatic ability, Arianna Zukerman is considered one of the premiere vocal artists of her generation. An artist in demand internationally for concert and opera performances, Ms. Zukerman is also an avid chamber musician, and regularly collaborates with some of today’s foremost chamber players. The Washington Post says “Arianna Zukerman possesses a remarkable voice that combines the range, warmth and facility of a Rossini mezzo with shimmering, round high notes and exquisite pianissimos that would make any soprano jealous.”

Ms. Zukerman is the featured soloist on the critically acclaimed, GRAMMY nominated 2013 Naxos recording of James Whitbourn’s oratorio, Annelies: the first major choral setting the Diary of Anne Frank. The Guardian (UK) praised her performance on the CD ̧ stating, “Arianna Zukerman sings with subdued beauty.” She sings the work often including recent performances in Dallas, TX, Cleveland, OH and in Switzerland and Austria as well as notably, the New York City premiere of the work at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.

Ms. Zukerman’s extensive career includes performances with an impressive group of conductors including James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Lorin Maazel, Ivor Bolton, Constantine Orbelian, Julian Wachner, Jane Glover, Lawrence Foster, Rossen Milanov, Marin Alsop, Jose Luis Gomez and Andrew Litton. She has worked with major orchestras worldwide, including the Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Colorado, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, the Philadelphia, Minnesota, Rochester Philharmonic and National Arts Centre Orchestras in North America, and with the English String Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic (UK), the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra (Portugal) and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra abroad, to name a few. Among the opera companies with which she has performed are such venerated organizations as the New York City Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Arizona Opera, and the Castleton Festival. In her chamber music collaborations, she has worked with such esteemed artists as violinist Daniel Hope; pianists Benjamin Hochman, Ken Noda, and Navah Perlman; clarinetists Bharat Chandra, and Anthony McGill; flutist Eugenia Zukerman; the Miami String Quartet, and The Lincoln Trio.

Arianna Zukerman was born in New York City into a musical family. Her father is violinist/violist/ conductor Pinchas Zukerman, her mother is flutist, writer and arts broadcaster, Eugenia Zukerman, and her sister Natalia Zukerman is an accomplished singer/songwriter.

She has  taught master classes at UCLA, University of Arizona, Gonzaga University (WA), Kent State (OH), University of Southern Missouri, University of Montevallo (AL), St. Alban’s School (DC) and was on the jury (semifinals) of the Maryland Lyric Opera Competition (2016) and was a member of the Jury of the American Traditions Competition, in Savannah, GA (2005). Her students have won first prize in some prestigious competitions including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation International Vocal Competition and the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra's Masters Concerto and Aria Competition (Minneapolis, Mn.)

Some of the programs her students have been accepted to include the following graduate and summer music programs: Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University, UCLA, Oberlin in Italy, the Chautauqua Institution Voice Program, the Miami Music Festival, Castleton Young Artist Training Program, Opera Studio Weimar, Music Academy International, OperaWorks, Opera Singing and New York, and Prague Summer Nights.  

Ms. Zukerman is the Chair of Vocal Studies at the Wintergreen Music Festival and Academy and is the Festival’s Advisor for Vocal Programming.  She also serves on the faculty of the Potomac Vocal Institute and the faculty of Bel Canto in Tuscany in Greve in Chianti. She served on the faculty at the Catholic University of America teaching Vocal Performance and Musical Theatre from 2008 – 2017 and on the faculty of the University of Maryland for the fall semester of 2016 for Delores Ziegler who was on sabbatical.  Ms. Zukerman has taught private voice lessons in New York City and Washington, DC since 2001.