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Committed to expanding the audience for great choral classics, Dessoff is excited to bring a new English translation of Bach’s masterpiece to Mother AME Zion Church in Central Harlem. This new English translation of St. John Passion is by Madeleine Marshall, commissioned by the Bach Society of Houston and their music Director, Rick Erickson. Merriweather sang the role of Jesus and the bass solos in the Bach Society of Houston premiere. By using this new, contemporary English translation, all audience members will be able to have an immediate understanding of the Passion story.
PROGRAM
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
St. John Passion
Accompanying the Dessoff Choirs will be a period orchestra organized by concertmaster Katie Hyun, and joining as soloists are tenor Noah Stewart as the Evangelist, bass Kenneth Overton as Jesus, Joe Damon Chappel as Pilate, soprano Sonya Headlam, tenor Elliott James-Ginn Encarnación, and mezzo-soprano Melisa Bonetti.
A note to our community regarding COVID-19
We are so excited to be able to welcome our audience back to in-person performances! The safety of our community is our number one priority and we have therefore implemented the following COVID-19 related safety protocols for all 22-23 Dessoff performances:
-Proof of vaccination is required for entry and will be confirmed at the door of the venue upon arrival, so please remember to bring your vaccination card or NY State Excelsior Pass.
-Masks are required for the entire duration of all Dessoff events for all members of the audience. Performers will not be masked.
There are absolutely NO exceptions to any of these rules.
Meet the Soloists
Tenor Noah Stewart has performed as a guest artist with many of the most distinguished opera companies, in the United States, The United Kingdom & Europe.
His repertoire includes: Cavaradossi, Don Alvaro (Indian Queen), Don José, Faust, Hoffmann, Luigi (Il tabarro), Nadir, Pinkerton, Radames, Rodolfo, Romeo, Samson, Tamino & Tony (West Side Story); and he has been engaged by: Atlanta Opera, the Bolshoi Opera, the Bregenzer Festspiele, English National Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Göteborg Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Nederlandse Reisopera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Holland Park, Opera Perm, the Royal Opera Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Scottish Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Festival International Clásico de Mérida and the Wexford Festival.
Recent performances include: Returning as guest artist with the RTÉ Orchestra, making his role and company debut as Otello, in Verdi’s Otello with Pacific Northwest Opera, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca with Portland Opera, returning to Northern Ireland Opera as Alfredo in La Traviata, guest artist with The Oakland Symphony, and making his role debut as Tony in Bernstein’s West Side Story with Opera San José.
Mr. Stewart trained at Julliard and the Academy of Vocal Arts and is an alumnus of the Merola Program at San Francisco Opera. He is a DECCA recording artist and appears on the Sony DVD of The Indian Queen. In 2012, his solo album “Noah”, topped the classical charts for 7 weeks and was nominated for 2 Classical Brit Awards. Off-stage, Noah has been featured on PBS’s Pinkalicious & Peteriffic, as the role of an opera singer.
Kenneth Overton is lauded for blending his opulent baritone with magnetic, varied portrayals that seemingly “emanate from deep within body and soul.” Kenneth Overton’s symphonious baritone voice has sent him around the globe, making him one of the most sought-after opera singers of his generation. Kenneth is a 2020 GRAMMY AWARD WINNER for Best Choral Performance in the title role of Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by JoAnn Falletta.
This season, Overton features largely at the Welsh National Opera, leading their production of Migrations and performing the role of Duncan in The Shoemaker, both being world premieres. Overton goes on to sing Porgy in Porgy and Bess, a co-production by Opera Carolina and North Carolina Opera. Concert engagements will include The Washington Chorus performances of Duruflé’s Requiem as a soloist, and Undine Smith Moore’s Scenes from the Life of a Martyr as the narrator; additionally, Overton will perform a concert staging of Porgy and Bess with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, Strauss’ Daphne with the American Symphony Orchestra, Bach’s St. John Passion with The Dessoff Choirs, Handel’s Messiah at the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Chapel, A Knee on the Neck and Dona Nobis Pacem with the New York Choral Society, the African American Music Festival at Pennsylvania State University, and concerts with the Howland Chamber Music Circle and Spartanburg Philharmonic.
Soprano Sonya Headlam enjoys a multi-faceted career as a vocalist of repertoire ranging from the Baroque period to the 21st century. Recent solo engagements include her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in Handel’s Messiah; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Handel’s Messiah with the North Carolina Symphony; Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Grand Rapids Symphony; a debut with the New World Symphony in Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, which was included in the South Florida Classical Review’s "Top Ten Performances of 2022;" and her Severance Hall debut singing Mozart and Bologne with Apollo’s Fire.
Dedicated to the performance of contemporary music, Sonya has worked closely with a number of dynamic living composers on projects such as Tyshawn Sorey’s Monochromatic Light (afterlight) directed by Peter Sellars; Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields, presented at Carnegie Hall; and Wolfe’s Steel Hammer, which was recorded for Cal Performances at Home during the pandemic, presented at Carnegie Hall, and at the MASS MOCA Loud Festival 2022.
An avid recitalist, Sonya is committed to performing music that has been overlooked in the traditional art song recital, including folk and popular styles and music by historically marginalized composers. She most recently collaborated with pianist Melinda Lee Masur and others on the music of Fanny Mendelssohn for the closing concert of the 2022 Chelsea Music Festival, and performed and lectured on the music of the 18th-century abolitionist writer and composer Ignatius Sancho with the Raritan Players in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Upcoming performances for 2023/24 include return appearances with Apollo’s Fire and TENET Vocal Artists, and debuts with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Washington Bach Consort, among others.
Sonya completed her doctorate of musical arts degree at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in 2021, where she has also held a visiting scholar appointment and has been a part-time lecturer in the music department.
Dominican-American Mezzo-Soprano, Melisa Bonetti, is a versatile singer whose experience encompasses a mix of new works, as well as traditional operas and concert works. Some of Melisa’s most exciting projects this season include mezzo soloist at Carnegie Hall for the Bach’s Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio with the Cecilia Chorus of NY, soloist at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and the Kimmel Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra in a concert of Ancient Tang Poems with the I Sing International Festival, the premiere of A Marvelous Order by Judd Greenstein and Tracy K. Smith, and leads in ongoing workshops of three new LatinX operas, On the Road to Arivaca by latin jazz composer Rosino Serrano, La Alcaldesa by Laura Jobin-Acosta, and Paraíso by Sokio, an experimental opera. This summer Melisa will premiere Paraíso at the National Sawdust. Melisa’s upcoming 2023-2024 season includes productions with Opera San Jose as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette, and Maddalena in Rigoletto. She will also perform as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana with the Helena Symphony. Melisa is committed to the importance of equality and diversity within the artistic world, which she feels can strongly be served through connecting with the youth. She has dived into work as an educator in various musical outreach and community programs throughout the NYC area including with the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Brooklyn School of Music, and the Bronx School of Music.
Melisa has been hailed by Opera today as “a warm, supple mezzo that struck all the right impressions” and as “commanding a wonderful presence in the lower middle voice but also easily soaring heavenward with a well-schooled top.” Previous seasons included Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Eva in An American Dream, Johanna in Breaking, and Autumn in Service Provider, all with Virginia Opera. Melisa revisited the role of Tyler in Three Way with Shreveport Opera which she premiered with Nashville Opera and American Opera Projects, the latter being at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and sung in the Grammy nominated original cast recording. Melisa's recent engagements prove her versatility including Anita in Bernstein's West Side Story with the Brott Music Festival in Ontario, a rock opera premiere; The Bradbury Tattoos with Concert: Nova, Marta in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta with Queen City Opera, and an arias concert tour in Bologna, Italy after being invited back from completing the International Voice Masterclass Ebe Stignani program.
Michigan native Elliott James-Ginn Encarnación is a composer and conductor of choral and operatic repertoire. As a self-taught tenor, he has appeared as a soloist with The San Francisco Symphony, The California Bach Society, The Long Island Symphony Choral Association, and CappellaSF. He can be heard frequently in choral contexts with the premiere choral ensembles in New York and the Bay Area, and has recorded under the Delos and Decca labels. He served as Artistic Director for the Opera Theater Unlimited, Prodigal Opera Theatre, and Composer in Residence for the International Orange Chorale in San Francisco.
Bass-baritone Joe Damon Chappel is a native of Nashville and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where he was a William Warfield Scholar. He has been a longtime member of the Early and liturgical music communities of NYC and has performed regularly with the Bard Music Festival, NY Collegium, Early Music New York, Vox Vocal Ensemble, Musica Sacra and was a founding member of the Grammy-nominated Tiffany Consort, now known as Tenet. He has performed internationally, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and as a member of the internationally acclaimed 2012-2016 world tour of Einstein on the Beach with creators Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, and Lucinda Childs. Recent credits include Fafner (Das Rheingold) and Sprecher (Magic Flute) with the Miami Music Festival, Fifth Jew (Salome) with Tulsa Opera, Officer (Flight) with Opera Omaha. Most recent projects include Seneca (Poppea) and Sorcerer/Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas) with Brooklyn College Opera Theater and the title character of Mendelssohn’s St. Paul with the orchestra and choir at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. A passionate believer in social justice and art as activism, Joe was recently involved as co-creator/co-director of the Open Gates Project, a concert series of Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS) created in the early days of the pandemic, dedicated to championing underrepresented artists and bringing Early music to underserved communities.