RINALDO ALESSANDRINI
Rinaldo Alessandrini returns to Handel and Haydn Society after an appearance in 2001. Alessandrini is founder of the Concerto Italiano ensemble and for over twenty years has specialized in Italian repertoire, trying to restore expressiveness and the cantabile Italian style of the 17th and 18th centuries. With Concerto Italiano, he has led acclaimed performances in Utrecht, London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Brussels, Madrid, Oslo, Paris, Rome, New York, and Washington, DC.

Alessandrini is a frequent guest conductor of the world’s great orchestras, such as the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Freiburg Baroque. In January 2007, he was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of Norske National Opera in Oslo.

His recent opera engagements include Handel’s Semele (Festival di Spoleto), Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Welsh National Opera, Frankfurt Oper, Teatro Valli di Reggio Emilia, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Opera du Rhin), Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona (Freiburg Konzerthaus), Handel’s Alcina (Liceu di Barcellona), Le nozze di Figaro (Welsh National Opera), and Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Teatro Real in Madrid, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Norske National Opera).

In the 2009–10 Season, Alessandrini conducted Orfeo on the podium of the Teatro alla Scala, followed by Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Appearances in 2010–2011 included Handel’s Messiah at the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Den Norske Opera of Oslo, and National Symphony Orchestra in Washingon. He also led the Concerto Italiano in performances in France and Spain.

His discography, which includes Italian and German repertoire, has won numerous awards, such as the Grand Prix du Disque and three Gramophone Awards. His recording of Monteverdi’s Orfeo (Naïve) has won the Diapason d’or prize and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. In 2003, Alessandrini was named “Chevalier” in the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic, and he has won the “Premio Abbiati” for his outstanding activity with Concerto Italiano.

Rinaldo Alessandrini is the editor of the critical edition of Claudio Monteverdi’s main works, L'Orfeo, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, L'incoronazione di Poppea, and Vespro della Beata Vergine (1610) for Bärenreiter. His book, Monteverdiana, is published in France by Actes Sud editon (2004) and in Italy by L’Epos edition (2006).

LIESBETH DEVOS
Soprano Liesbeth Devos, making her Handel and Haydn Society debut, studied at the music academy of Beveren-Waas where she graduated with degrees in theatre, diction, and oboe. She studied voice with Lieve Suys and with Stephanie Friede at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp, where she also attended the Lied courses of Lucienne Van Deyck and Jozef De Beenhouwer as well as the opera course of Guy Joosten.

Past opera performances have included Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring with Operastudio Flanders, Dido and Æneas at the Flanders Festival in Brussels, and her debut at La Monnaie (Brussels) as Despina in Così fan tutte. In 2007, La Monnaie invited her to return in the world premiere of Frühlings Erwachen (Ilse) by Benoît Mernier and in Die Zauberflöte (Papagena). Recent concert performances include Carmina Burana at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and Nelsonmesse with the Academy of Ancient Music in Beijing and at the Royal Flemish Opera in Antwerp. In 2007, she sang Bach’s St. John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music.

Future engagements include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Brussels and Antwerp, Lully’s Atys (Melpomène) with Les Arts Florissants in Versailles and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Guillaume Tell at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie de Liège.

EMILY RIGHTER
Mezzo-soprano Emily Righter, making her Handel and Haydn Society debut, studied at Carnegie Mellon University (BFA) and Yale University (Master’s degree). Upon graduation from Yale she was awarded the Phyllis Curtin Career Prize. The winner of several vocal competitions, Righter’s operatic repertory includes the roles Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Larina (Eugene Onegin), Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette), Ruggiero (Alcina), Concepción (L’heure éspagnole), Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Sesto (Giulio Cesare), Erika (Vanessa), and Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi).

In 2008, she performed the role of Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Glimmerglass Opera Festival. In 2009, Righter repeated the role with Opera Circle Cleveland and also took part in the “Apprentice Program” at the Santa Fe Opera Festival. In summer 2010, Righter was a Resident Artist at the Salzburg Summer Opera Festival and covered the roles of Stephano in Romeo et Juliette and Die Garderobiere/Der Gymnasiast in Lulu. Later in 2010, she was chosen to sing in the Marcello Giordani Fundraising Gala Concert in New York City.

Future plans include a production of Eugene Onegin (Olga) at the Opera Carolina in Charlotte.

TERESA NEFF
Teresa Neff received her PhD in Musicology from Boston University. Her research interests center around Gottfried van Swieten, a late 18th-century Viennese patron and composer. Neff’s edition of Swieten’s symphonies will be published by Artaria later this year. She has presented papers at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, the New England Chapter of the American Musicological Society, and the Architecture/Music/Acoustics Conference. She presents concert preview lectures for Elderhostel and Boston Lyric Opera, and also teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The Boston Conservatory.

HARRY CHRISTOPHERS
Harry Christophers enters his third season as Artistic Director of the Handel and Haydn Society with the 2011–2012 Season. Since September 2006, when he led a sold-out performance in the Esterházy Palace at the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, he has conducted Handel and Haydn each season and, following his appointment in 2008, Christophers’ tenure as Artistic Director began with the 2009-2010 season. Christophers and Handel and Haydn have since embarked on an ambitious artistic journey with a showcase of works premiered in the United States by the Handel and Haydn Society over the last 195 years, and the release of the first of a series of recordings on CORO leading to the 2015 Bicentennial. Christophers is founder and conductor of the UK-based choir and period instrument ensemble The Sixteen. He has directed The Sixteen throughout Europe, America, and the Far East, gaining a distinguished reputation for his work in Renaissance, Baroque, and 20th-century music. In 2000, he instituted The Sixteen’s “Choral Pilgrimage,” a tour of British cathedrals from York to Canterbury. With that ensemble, he has recorded close to 100 titles for which he has won numerous awards, including a Grand Prix du Disque for Handel Messiah, numerous Preise der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics Awards), the coveted Gramophone Award for Early Music, and the prestigious Classical Brit Award (2005) for his disc entitled Renaissance. In 2009, he received one of classical music’s highest accolades, the Classic FM Gramophone Awards Artist of the Year Award, and The Sixteen won the Baroque Vocal Award for Handel Coronation Anthems, a CD that also received a 2010 Grammy Award nomination. Harry Christophers is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Granada Symphony Orchestra and a regular guest conductor with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and the Orquestra de la Comunidad de Madrid. In October 2008, Christophers was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Leicester. Most recently, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford and also of the Royal Welsh Academy for Music and Drama.