May 2, 2026 2:00pm
First Presbyterian Church - 520 Royal Palm Blvd, Vero Beach, FL 32960
BIZET “Habanera” from Carmen
BERLIOZ Les nuits d’été
MAHLER Rückert-Lieder
HAIRSTON (ARR.) “I Don’t Feel No Ways Tired”
HOWARD “Fly Me to the Moon”
GERSHWIN “Love Is Here to Stay”
KANDER “Funny Honey” from Chicago
GILKYSON “The Bare Necessities”
RUSSELL “Miss Celie’s Blues” from The Color Purple
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Renowned mezzo soprano Tesia Kwarteng and pianist Jacob Craig present From Paris to Broadway, a program that moves fluidly between the European art song tradition and the Great American Songbook. It opens with works of deep lyrical refinement — selections from Berlioz's Les nuits d'été and Mahler's Rückert-Lieder, two of the most searching and personal song cycles in the repertoire — alongside the seductive elegance of Bizet's Habanera. Together, Kwarteng and Craig bring out the intimacy and emotional precision that define the art song tradition at its best.
From there, the program crosses an ocean and shifts register without losing its footing. Spirituals, jazz standards, and musical theater fill the second half with equal conviction — from the wrenching gospel of I Don't Feel No Ways Tired to the cool swing of Fly Me to the Moon and the Gershwin standard Love Is Here to Stay, to fan favorites from Chicago, The Color Purple, and The Jungle Book. Kwarteng navigates all of it with dramatic authority and genuine warmth, finding the emotional core of each song regardless of genre or era.
Craig is a full creative partner throughout — responsive, expressive, and present in a way that shapes the entire evening. The program closes, rightly, with Somewhere Over the Rainbow: a song that has meant something different to every generation that has heard it, and that lands with particular resonance at the end of a program like this.
TICKET INFORMATION
Admission is free. A suggested donation of $25 helps cover the costs of bringing this program to you.
Artist Information
Tesia Kwarteng is a versatile and multi-faceted Ghanaian-American artist who is equally at home on the operatic stage, on screen, and in the studio. Upcoming and recent highlights for Ms. Kwarteng include Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance with Tulsa Opera, a concert appearance with Symphony of the Americas, a role and house debut as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Cincinnati Opera, creating the role of Ida Mae in the world premiere of Damien Geter’s American Apollo with Des Moines Metro Opera, Jenny in The Threepenny Opera with Opera Columbus, The Cartography Project with Washington National Opera, and creating the role of Annette Byrd in the world premiere of Damien Geter’s Loving v. Virginia with Virginia Opera.
Engagements of note for Ms. Kwarteng during the 2023-2024 season included a house and role debut in the title role of Carmen with Opera Columbus, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro for another house debut with Portland Opera, and a house debut with Virginia Opera in Damien Geter’s Sanctuary Road. Highlights of the 2022-2023 season included a Broadway debut as Lady Catherine in Lincoln Center Theater‘s new production of Lerner & Lowe’s Camelot, featuring a book by Academy and Emmy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin and directed by Bartlett Sher.
During the 2021-2022 season, Ms. Kwarteng made her principal debut at The Metropolitan Opera as a Pit Singer in Brett Dean’s Hamlet and also made her Off-Broadway debut at Lincoln Center Theater in Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s new opera Intimate Apparel, where she was seen as Mayme and in the ensemble. Tesia also covered the role of Ruby/Sinner Woman in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones at The Metropolitan Opera and sang the role of Woman 5 in Letters That You Will Not Get: Women’s Voices from The Great War with American Opera Projects and the role of Maurya in What Lies Beneath with On Site Opera. She also participated in a workshop for Written in Stone at Washington National Opera, where she sang the role of Laurel in Carlos Simon’s It All Falls Down and Victoria Wilson in Kamala Sankaram’s Rise.
In previous seasons, Ms. Kwarteng made her Austin Opera debut featured in recital as a part of the Live from Indy Terrace broadcast series and was also a featured soloist in the ensemble of the GRAMMY Award-winning production of Porgy and Bess at The Metropolitan Opera. As a Resident Artist at Tri-Cities Opera, she was seen as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica, Madeline Mitchell in Three Decembers and Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore. She has also participated in training programs at the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, The Glimmerglass Festival, Virginia Opera and Chautauqua Opera.
A champion of contemporary compositions, Tesia has performed in several world premieres and workshops of new works, including the role of Bertha in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones with Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Lee in Marie Begins, a soloist in Beyond Liberty with Thomas Hampson at The Glimmerglass Festival, Frances in a workshop performance of the new chamber opera The Flood at Opera Columbus, Melba Patillo in excerpts from Little Rock 9 by Kennedy Center Honoree Tania Leon at the MacDowell Colony National Benefit, the ensemble of Dear Erich at New York City Opera and Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom with American Opera Projects, Abigail in Sleepy Hollow: The Musical at the New York New Works Theater Festival, and the premiere of Jeremy Gill’s art song Rose (based on Ann Patchett’s book The Patron Saint of Liars, which was written for Ms. Kwarteng and performed at Chautauqua Opera).
In concert, Tesia has been seen at 54 Below, as Consuelo in West Side Story at The Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra, as a soloist in Laura Karpman’s GRAMMY Award-winning Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz at the Apollo Theater with Jessye Norman, and as Alto Soloist in Mozart’s Requiem at First Presbyterian Church in Stamford, Connecticut. Her regional theater credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Ronette) with Barn Arts Center for the Arts, Hairspray (Dynamite) and The Sound of Music (Nun) at Casa Mañana Theater and Ragtime (Sarah’s friend) at Manhattan School of Music. She also toured the Abyssinian Mass with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra as a member of Chorale le Chateau, and also toured with the American Spiritual Ensemble in 2017.
Ms. Kwarteng led and sang with the vocal ensemble Vox Noire on the recording of the original film score for The Woman King by Terence Blanchard, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and starring Viola Davis. Tesia’s first libretto commission (titled A Sable Jubilee) also premiered in 2022 at the Aspen Music Festival, with music composed by Jasmine Barnes and sung by Will Liverman.
Tesia was a finalist in the 2020 George London Foundation Competition, was selected as a 2019 Top 30 under 30 Pioneer by the Future of Ghana publication, has received a career grant from the Bagby Foundation for Musical Arts, was an Encouragement Award winner at the Houston district Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, was a 2016 recipient of an encouragement grant from the Career Bridges Foundation, was a fellow at the CoOPERAtive Program in 2015, and received the 2013 Legacy Award in the National Opera Association competition.
Dr. Jacob Craig is the Director of Music and Arts at First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach. He received his Bachelor of Music Education and Piano Performance degree from Shorter University in Rome, GA before moving on to Tallahassee, FL to receive his M.M. in Choral Conducting and Literature under Dr. Andre Thomas at Florida State University. As of 2019, Jacob completed his Doctorate of Sacred Music in Performance at the Graduate Theological Foundation and Oxford University. He is the Director of the Vero Beach Choral Society, ACTS Choristers, Sea Oaks Chorus, John’s Island Singers, and Silver Tones community choirs. Jacob is also a competitive highland bagpipe player and Pipe Major for the Vero Beach Pipes and Drums.
