Brahms Requiem Brookline Chorus

Baritone Dana Whiteside’s solo engagements have included Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; Antonin Dvorak’s Te Deum, Opus 103; Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana; and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs as well as the Mass in Bminor and St. John Passion of J.S. Bach – John Harbison conducting – and the role of Jeremiah in the Boston premier of Kurt Weill’s The Prophets from The Eternal Road.

During the 2008-2009 season, he performed the role of Time in the Boston premiere of John Harbison’s Winter’s Tale with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project under the direction of Gil Rose; and was baritone soloist in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at
Sanders Theater as well as his Mass in C Major (Opus 86) with the Cantata Singers.

Other concert repertoire in which he has enjoyed great success include performances of the Requiems of Durufle, Faure and Mozart; Handel’s Messiah and Dettingen Te Deum Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass as well as Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem under the direction of Sir David Wilcox and with the David Hoose and the Cantata Singers in Boston’s Jordan Hall.

Honoring his passion for art song, he has participated in and offered programs of adventurous repertoire in the Vox Humana Series, at the Lyric Stage and Boston’s French Library/Societe Francaise, Boston University, Boston Conservatory and the University of Oregon as well the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Recent programs have included Robert Schumann’s Liederkreis Op. 39, Samuel Barber’s Despite & Still, Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte, John Musto’s Shadow of the Blues: Songs to Texts of Langston Hughes as well as the Serres Chaudes of Ernest Chausson, Francis Poulenc’s Banalites and Aaron Copland’s Songs of Emily Dickinson. He has also performed recitals with the acclaimed Florestan Recital Project in its exploration of the songs inspired by the texts of A.E. Housman.

A New England Conservatory of Music honors graduate, an alumnus of the Tanglewood Vocal Program and past winner of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition, Mr. Whiteside enjoys affiliation with the Handel & Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music.

Dana Schnitzer, hailed as a "sweet-voiced soprano" by the New York Times, is a sought-after performer of opera, oratorio and art song. Most recently she sang the role of Giannetta and covered Adina in L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti at the Caramoor International Music Festival in NY, where she was a member of the Bel Canto Young Artist Program. Before her work at Caramoor, Ms. Schnitzer sang the title role in Handel’s Alcina and the role of Suor Genovieffa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, both with Boston Opera Collaborative, and the role of La Princesse in L'enfant et les sortileges with MetroWest Opera. She completed the PORTopera Emerging Artist’s program in Maine in the summer of 2008, where she covered Juliette in Romeo et Juliette and sang Madame Pompous in Too Many Sopranos. In the winter of 2008 Ms. Schnitzer sang Dido in Dido and Aeneas, and Lola in Gallantry, both with MetroWest Opera. In 2007 she sang both the Mother and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel with the Boston Opera Collaborative. Other recent operatic experience includes the title role in The Merry Widow at the Quisisana Music Festival, the roles of Suor Angelica (cover) and the Nursing Sister with Mass Theatrica, Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Commonwealth Opera Company and the Janiec Opera Company/Brevard Music Center. At the New England Conservatory, she was featured in the roles of Noemie in Cendrillon and First Lady in The Magic Flute.

Highlights of her oratorio solo and art song career include the Mendelssohn St. Paul with the Braintree Choral Society, the Mahler Rückertlieder with the Philharmonic Society of Arlington, Schubert ‘s Mass in G, M. Haydn's Requiem, and the Mozart Vespers K. 321, all with the Concert Singers of Lynn, Handel’s Messiah and the Fauré Requiem with Masterworks Chorale, and the Bach B minor mass with the Belmont Orchestra.

In the summer of 2007, Ms. Schnitzer was a young artist at the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in England, and a Bel Canto Apprentice Artist with the Caramoor International Music Festival in New York. She has attended many other summer opera programs including the Quisisana Festival in 2006, the Brevard Music Center in 2005, The Atlantic Coast Opera Festival in 2004, and the Florence Voice Seminar in Italy in 2003. No stranger to vocal competitions, Ms. Schnitzer was a finalist in the lieder division of the 2009 Liederkranz Competition in NYC. She won first place in the Philharmonic Society of Arlington Young Artist Competition in April 2007. In 2006, she was a Boston District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition, and second place winner of the Peter Elvins Vocal Competition in Belmont, MA. She was a finalist in the Palm Beach Opera Competition in 2005, and won first place in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition, Boston, in both 2004 and 2005.

This upcoming fall, Ms. Schnitzer will sing the role of Fiordiligi in outreach performances of Cosi fan tutte with Commonwealth Opera, in addition to covering the role for the mainstage. Other exciting upcoming engagements include the soprano solo in Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem with the Brookline Chorus, and the role of First Lady in The Magic Flute with MetroWest Opera.

Ms. Schnitzer is a native of Westchester, NY. She received her MM in Voice Performance from the New England Conservatory in 2005 and her BM in Voice Performance from UMASS Amherst in 2003. She currently studies privately with Penelope Bitzas.