Easy to Love: Broadway’s Romance

Michelle Evans Jarrell, a recent finalist in the American Prize for Voice Performance, is an up and coming “professional singer of a high order, in demand by orchestra conductors, who especially like her for her work ethic and accurate preparation.  She has a beautiful, well-placed soprano voice with an especially lovely middle register, a fine sense of legato, and good audience communication.

Upcoming engagements for 2016 include soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Southern Wesleyan University Concert Choir and Orchestra, soprano soloist on the annual gala with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra of Atlanta, soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah in Savannah, GA, as well as additional recitals and concerts around Atlanta.

Other recent concert and oratorio engagements include soprano soloist on the annual Holiday Pops Concert in the Cathedral with the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra in 2010, 2011, and 2013, soprano soloist with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra in December 2014 in excerpts from Handel’s Messiah and Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, and soprano soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the GAMAC Chorale and Orchestra in South Carolina. Additional concert engagements include Vivaldi’s Gloria, DuBois’ Seven Last Words of Christ, Requiems by Rutter and Fauré, Bach’s solo cantata for soprano and orchestra Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, and Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate.Michelle made her professional debut with Opera Carolina where she also served as Resident Artist performing the role of “Lucy” The Billy Goats Gruff.  Her operatic roles include “Pamina” in The Magic Flute as well as “Papagena,”  "First Lady," and the “Queen of the Night,”  “Miss Silverpeal” in Mozart’s The Impresario, “Cinderella” in The True Story of Cinderella, “Gilda” in Milton Granger’s Talk Opera, and “Lucia” in a scene from Lucia di Lammermoor with the Converse Symphony Orchestra. Additional stage credits include roles in Carmen, Suor Angelica, Hansel and Gretel, and Die Fledermaus, and Julie in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel.

Michelle received a Bachelor of Arts in Music and her Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Petrie School of Music at Converse College where she was awarded the Daniel Music Scholarship and a Graduate Teaching Assistantship. Other awards include the National Association of Teachers of Singing and first place in the Petrie School of Music Concerto Competition. While a student at the Petrie School of Music, she also had the distinct privilege of representing her studio in master classes with the legendary Metropolitan Opera star Marilyn Horne and the distinguished coach John Wustman.

Michael John Foster, Baritone is a Central Florida artist with an international career who divides his time between performing, directing and teaching. Michael, an Actor's Equity Association (AEA) artist, has a Bachelors degree in music from Liberty University and a Masters degree in voice from Florida State University and a doctorate in voice performance from the University of Illinois where he was a 2011 Krannert Center Debut artist nominee and studied with Grammy award winner and Metropolitan Opera artist Nathan Gunn. He has previously appeared in many productions including the Baker in Into the Woods, Tony in West Side Story, Kodaly in She Loves Me, and Smudge in the touring company of Forever Plaid to name a few. Michael has recently been seen with the U of I opera as Sid in Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring and as Don Giovanni, Leporello and Ben Franklin in the U of I opera studio course led by Dawn Harris and Ricardo Herrera. In concert, Michael has been featured soloist for works such as Steiner Requiem, Messiah, Haydn's Creation, and Handel's Saul appearing with groups such as the Skaneatles Choral Society in New York and The Nashville Chamber Singers at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville.

He is also an accomplished stage director having most recently directed Into The Woods, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, The Magic Flute, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Light in the Piazza, Sondheim's Company, and Steel Magnolias. He has spent several summers performing and teaching at the Scuola Italia Summer Program for Young Opera Singers in Urbania, Italy and currently heads their newest program for singing actors, which he developed, called The Program for Lyric Theatre. Michael has been featured as the lead in several commercials, as Gaston in Beauty and the Beast Live at Disney's Hollywood Studios and is known as convention speaker specializing in acting methods for singers. Michael also leads the Arts and Culture Committee of North Brevard, a team which specializes in creating opportunities for artists to excel while enriching the lives in the community of Florida's Space Coast. More about Michael John Foster is available on his website at www.drmichaeljohnfoster.com.

Matthew Coules is a graduate of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. In recent years, he worked with some of the world’s finest conductors and orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the West-East Divan Orchestra. At Westminster Choir College, Matthew was a member of The Westminster Williamson Voices under the direction of Dr. James Jordan. During his time in Williamson Voices, they were nominated for a Grammy Award for best choral performance for their Naxos recording of