An extraordinary take on music education

Handel and Haydn Society’s Vocal Quartet and piano accompanist entertain and teach young audiences with their colorful interpretations of music from different composers and historical eras. Vocal Quartet performers engage students with humor and dialogue, vocal techniques and props, to offer an extraordinary take on music education.

An informal classroom setting encourages students to respond directly to the music, with opportunities to interact with musicians through an appealing quiz show format. Each Vocal Quartet program also features a Q&A session that allows artists to speak candidly about their backgrounds, training, and professional careers.

The Society offers these presentations to elementary and high schools at no cost, reaching more than 10,000 students annually in Boston, Brockton, Cambridge, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Medford, Quincy, and Woburn.

See images from a Vocal Quartet performance.

Rotating shows include:

Voices of History features music ranging from 1100 to 1994 with classical, folk and multi-cultural idioms.

Voices of the Stage incorporates the genres of opera, oratorio and musical theater and how a story can unfold through music and dialogue.

What’s an Oratorio? demonstrates what makes an oratorio come to life, featuring recitatives, arias, and choruses from the great classical and contemporary masters.

Meet the Vocal Quartet

• Teresa Wakim, soprano
  "With a voice of lambent beauty," soprano Teresa Wakim's performances in opera, oratorio and chamber music have garnered her wide acclaim. She has performed with such ensembles as Tragicomedia, Boston Baroque, Apollo's Fire, Emmanuel Music, the Boston Early Music Festival, Seraphic Fire, and the more intimate ensembles of Les Bostonades, La Donna Musicale, Exsultemus, Blue Heron, and Bourbon Baroque. She has appeared as soloist in oratorios with the Handel and Haydn Society, Masterworks Chorale, Boston Cecilia, Back Bay Chorale, and Coro Allegro, and has worked closely with conductors such as Roger Norrington, Harry Christophers, Joshua Rifkin, Laurence Cummings, and Paul Goodwin. She has premiered works by Paul Crabtree and Robert Stern, and sang the title role in the new opera Joan of Arc by Steven Jobe. Ms. Wakim is featured on two Grammy-nominated recordings of Lully operas with the Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF) for the CPO label, Psyché and Thésée. Also with BEMF she sang the role of Diane in a recording of Charpentier’s Actéon, to be released in November of 2010, and in spring of 2011 will portray a title role in Acis & Galatea at the American Handel Festival in Seattle. Other recent and future engagements include soloist with the San Antonio Symphony in Handel's Messiah, the role of Morgana in Handel's Alcina with Bourbon Baroque in Kentucky, and collaborative performances with both Piffaro and Blue Heron in Philadelphia. Ms. Wakim holds performance degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Boston University.
• Emily Marvosh, mezzo-soprano
  Emily Marvosh is active in opera and oratorio in the Boston area, regularly performing with the Handel and Haydn society, as well as Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, and L’Académie. As a soloist, she has performed with Opera Boston, Boston Lyric Opera, the Back Bay Chorale, Longwood Opera and Intermezzo Chamber Opera; she is also a frequent soloist with the Marsh Chapel Choir Bach Cantata Series. Forays into new music include the role of Meg in the New England premiere of Mark Adamo’s Little Women, the premiere of the song cycle In the Sky She Floats, and performances with the Lorelei ensemble. Additional recent performances include Der Rosenkavalier (Octavian) and The Barber of Seville (Rosina). In the summer of 2010 she performed at the Oregon Bach Festival under the direction of Helmut Rilling, the Berkshire Choral Festival, and the White Mountain Bach Festival. She holds degrees from Central Michigan University and Boston University.
• Christian Figueroa, tenor
  Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Christian has found much success in a wide range of vocal styles and characterizations. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and received his Masters in Opera Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. In the past few seasons Christian’s career has led him to play Ezekiel Cheever in The Crucible, Alphonse in La Vie Parisienne, Vitellozo in Lucrezia Borgia, Patacha in L’etoile and Toby Higgins in The Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny, all with Opera Boston. Christian was a Young Artist at the Opera North Company where he played El Remendado in Carmen and Count Almaviva in their outreach production of The Barber of Seville. Some musical theater roles include Che in Evita, Ike Skidmore in Oklahoma, Manny Muñoz in City of Angels, Lt. Peter Wright in The Secret Garden and Father Bernard in Candide. Christian’s passion for jazz has led him to performances at the Newport Jazz Festival and at Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is currently recording his debut album of original music with producer Damian Fernandez; for updates go to www.Christian-Figueroa.com.
• RaShaun Campbell, baritone
  RaShaun Campbell is a graduate of Oklahoma City University (B.M. Vocal Performance, Master’s candidate coursework in Opera Performance) and received his Artist Diploma in Opera Performance from the Longy School of Music in 2008. Mr. Campbell has performed title roles in UTA Opera Theatre productions of Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Falstaff. He has also appeared in ensemble casts and smaller roles with the Fort Worth Opera Company, OCU Opera Theatre, UTA Opera Theatre, and Boston Lyric Opera. RaShaun has sung in choral works such as Requiems by Faure, Durufle, and Mozart, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and Mozart’s Mass in D. He has also studied Meisner and Stanislavski acting techniques.
• David Calvin Robbins, pianist
  Pianist David Calvin Robbins began his musical career in his home-state of Virginia, and earned a strong reputation performing with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, as a keyboard section leader and soloist, working with musical director JoAnn Falletta and many others. He has also been the orchestral pianist in the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra since 2008. In addition, David is the music director and organist at the Unitarian Congregation of Mendon and Uxbridge, and has enjoyed success as a musical director for musical theater, recently at Turtle Lane Playhouse in Newton, and as a pit musician for Broadway Across America. He is an choral accompanist and coach for the Newton Public Schools and a ballet accompanist at Phillips Academy, Andover. Mr. Robbins holds degrees in piano performance from Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and New England Conservatory of Music.

If you would like to book the Vocal Quartet at your school, please call or email Young Audiences of Massachusetts at 617 577 0570, or at yamass@aol.com (Voices of the Stage program only). For other programs, please contact Robin Baker, Director of Education for the Handel and Haydn Society at 617 262 1815, x126 or email rbaker@handelandhaydn.org.