cast

Samarie Alicea // soprano
Alissa Anderson // mezzo soprano
Jourdan Epstein // dancer
Elliott Paige // tenor
John Taylor Ward // bass-baritone

…and special guest star Anthony Roth Costanzo

BAND

Jacob Ashworth // violin & conductor
Emilie-Anne Gendron // violin
Madeline Fayette // cello
Hsuan-Fong Chen // oboe
Evan Honse // trumpet
Daniel Schlosberg // piano & harpsichord
Hannah Levinson // viola

Samarie Alicea

Soprano

Praised by The New York Times for her "bright-voiced and endearing soprano", Puerto Rican soprano, Samarie Alicea has performed with Heartbeat Opera as as Zerlina in Don Giovanni in NYC and Oregon. With New York City Opera, Samarie sang the role of the Statue in Rameau's Pygmalion, as Aire in Literes' Los Elementos, and as Clorinda in La Cenerentola as part of NYCO's Park Series at Bryant Park. Samarie also performed as Frasquita in Carmen at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Long Island Opera and as Servilia in La Clemenza di Tito with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble in New York City.

Alissa Anderson

Mezzo Soprano

The 2021-2022 season sees contralto Alissa Anderson as Dame Quickly in Falstaff with Berkshire Opera Festival, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro with Austin Opera, Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress with Angers-Nantes Opera, Erda in Das Rheingold with Opera Santa Barbara, and as alto soloist in Heartbeat Opera’s Messy Messiah program. Past engagements include Princess Clarissa in The Love for Three Oranges (Opera Philadelphia), Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd (Royal Danish Opera), Maddalena in Rigoletto (San Diego Opera), Marthe in Faust (Opera San Antonio), and Mrs. Andrews/The Bird Woman in Mary Poppins (Utah Festival Opera).

Jourdan Epstein

Dancer

Jourdan Epstein is a professional performer and educator based in NYC. Classically trained, she enjoys exploring many worlds of dance whether on stage or screen. She has been a member of Complexions, The Metropolitan Opera, Company XIV, and Bad Boys of Dance, as well as being Dance Captain of The Prince Of Egypt and a contestant on SYTYCD. Jourdans film and TV credits include Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, The Flight Attendant and the In The Heights Movie. Jourdan is on faculty at The Joffrey Ballet School in NYC and enjoys guest teaching the next generation as well as performing whenever she gets the chance.

Elliott Paige

Tenor

Tenor, and Virginia native, Elliott Paige's recent credits include performances with the Metropolitan Opera in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Porgy and Bess. He previously performed as Luke Dixon in OnSite Opera's production of What Lies Beneath. Other credits include ‘Quartet Tenor’ - Today It Rains, Opera Parallèle; Parpignol - La Bohème, Santa Fé Opera; Giacomo de Wisants - L'assedio di Calais, Glimmerglass Festival; and Bombur Yambarzal - Shalimar the Clown with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In the 2022 season, Elliott will be making his Portland Opera debut as Bobby McCray in Anthony Davis’ The Central Park Five.

John Taylor Ward

Bass-baritone

John Taylor Ward’s performances have been praised for their “stylish abandon” by Alex Ross of the New Yorker and their “intense clarity and color” by the New York Times. Recent stage highlights include the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Heartbeat Opera, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress under the baton of Barbara Hannigan (recently released on DVD), and several roles in a world tour of Monteverdi’s operas with Sir John Eliot Gardiner. As a founder of the Lakes Area Music Festival, Taylor has helped to nurture a thriving arts hub in rural Minnesota. His work has developed the LAMF opera program into a destination for world-class artists, while fostering hundreds of new opera-lovers. Originally from southern Appalachia, he has an innate understanding of rural America, and his work is uniquely positioned to bring high art to small towns while bringing down-hominess to the world’s great stages.

Jacob Ashworth

Violin, Conductor, Music Director

Jacob Ashworth is the “impressive Artistic Director” (New York Times) of Heartbeat's sister company, the baroque and modern “crack ensemble” (New Yorker) Cantata Profana, which he founded in 2012 at the Yale School of Music. He has also been Co-Music Director of Heartbeat Opera since the beginning. His own performances as a violinist and conductor from early baroque to contemporary music have been called “exacting and sensitive” (Boston Globe), “richly detailed” (New York Times), and “a flat-out triumph” (Opera News). On period instruments, Jacob has performed as concertmaster for Mark Morris Dance Group and Opera Lafayette, and with Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Staunton Music Festival, the Yale Baroque Ensemble, and New York Baroque Incorporated.

DANIEL SCHLOSBERG

Piano, Harpsichord, New Arrangements

The music of Brooklyn-based composer-pianist Daniel Schlosberg has been performed by the Dover Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Nashville Symphony, and Lorelei Ensemble, at venues including Carnegie Hall, (le) poisson rouge, Royal Albert Hall, Beijing Modern Music Festival, and David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption, and has been featured in the New York Times and WNYC’s Soundcheck. Daniel has received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards. Recent projects include the release of A Demonstration on New Amsterdam Records, Canal Songs for the Albany Symphony’s Erie Canal bicentennial, a fantasy on Twin Peaks for the Dover Quartet, and music for Jeremy O’Harris’s A Boy’s Company Presents. Last spring, Daniel was the pianist for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film West Side Story. As a performer, Daniel has collaborated with such luminaries as David Shifrin and the Imani Winds. Daniel’s work has been described as “richly detailed yet delicate” by the New York Times and “witty” and “ingenious” by the Wall Street Journal. Daniel received his DMA in Composition from Yale University in 2018. www.danschlosberg.com

Hannah Levinson

Viola

Violist Hannah Levinson is an in-demand performer of contemporary and classical music based in New York City. She has recently been featured as a soloist and chamber musician at Carnegie Hall, The Stone, 92Y, Miller Theater, Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival, June in Buffalo, and the Andy Warhol Museum, and at international festivals including the Kroch Festival (Stockholm), Musikprotokol Festival (Graz), Projektgruppe Neue Musik (Bremen), and Festival Musica (Strasbourg). Dedicated to working with living composers, Hannah has commissioned and premiered over 40 chamber and solo works and is currently editing the solo viola works of Lucia Ronchetti. Hannah is a founding member and Executive Director of the violin/viola duo andPlay, described by I Care If You Listen as “enthusiastic champions for new music and collaboration.” Hannah is also a member of the Talea Ensemble (“a crucial part of the New York cultural ecosphere” New York Times), Fair Trade Trio, and the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and a former member of the Pittsburgh Opera Orchestra. Hannah is currently Music Artist Faculty at NYU Steinhardt and Viola Faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege. She earned her degrees at Oberlin College and Conservatory (BM in Viola Performance, BA in Russian East European Studies), Manhattan School of Music (MM in Contemporary Performance), and NYU Steinhardt (PhD in Performance). 

Hsuan-Fong Chen

Oboe

Oboist Hsuan-Fong Chen (pronounced “SHUan-fong”) has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia, enjoying a diverse career in orchestra, Broadway, and new music. Her career highlights range from a guest principal appearance with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, to sharing the stage with Rihanna at the Met Gala and performing in the hit Broadway production of Rocktopia as its lead oboist. Other groups Ms. Chen have performed with include NOVUS NY, the New York Philharmonic, and Talea Ensemble. Her album debut came in October 2019 on the Naxos label, when she recorded Beethoven’s Serenade for Winds alongside faculty from the Yale School of Music. Based in New York City, She is serving as an Oboe faculty at the Aaron Copeland School of Music at Queens College, and MAP at the Juilliard School. Hsuan-Fong holds education from The Juilliard School, The Yale School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music. 

Evan Honse

Trumpet

Trumpeter, Evan Honse, has performed with such groups as Talea Ensemble, New World Symphony, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Experiments in Opera and is a core member of new music ensembles Contemporaneous and Exceptet. He performed on Broadway shows such as Fiddler on the Roof, Anastasia, An American in Paris and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular and with pop/rock artists such as Belle and Sebastian, David Byrne, and Zola Jesus.

Evan holds a B.M. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a M.M. in Orchestral Performance from Manhattan School of Music. He lives in Washington Heights.