FREE Courtroom Concert: “The Silver Fox” by Libby Larsen

Hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, our popular Courtroom Concerts take place at noon most Thursdays in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. This series features accomplished musicians and composers from the Twin Cities and surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These one-hour concerts are free and open to the public.

The Silver Fox: Family Opera in One Act is based on the bayou legend of a young girl who transforms into a silver fox to use her magical powers! Larsen’s music weaves Cajun folk tunes into a lyrical, lilting fable.

CAST

Siena Forest, Titine, coloratura soprano: a young woman
Kathryn Rupp, Carrie Mae, soprano: a young woman
Clara Osowski, Tante Marie, mezzo-soprano: a timeless woman
Juan Carlos Mendoza, T-Boy, tenor: a young man
Scott Brunscheen, La Fourche, character tenor
Anthony Potts, Squire, bass-baritone: filthy rich

MUSICIANS

Stephanie Arado, violin
Immanuel Davis, flute
Casey Rafn, piano/music direction
Gary Briggle, stage direction

About the Artists:

Libby Larsen, born December 24, 1950 in Wilmington, Delaware, is one of America’s most performed living composers.

She has created a catalogue of over 500 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral works and over 15 operas. Grammy award-winning and widely recorded, including over 50 CDs of her work, she is constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles, and orchestras around the world, and has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory.

John Olive is a widely produced and award-winning playwright, the author of Minnesota Moon, Standing On My Knees, The Voice of the Prairie, Careless Love, Killers, The Summer Moon, Evelyn and the Polka King, God Fire, Into the Moonlight Valley, and many others. Producing theaters include: the Guthrie Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Steppenwolf, Actors Theatre of Louisville, South Coast Rep, the Old Globe, ACT/Seattle, and the Royal Theatre Copenhagen. Awards include: McKnight Fellowships, Bush Fellowships, a National Endowment For The Arts fellowship, Kennedy Center Award For New Plays (The Summer Moon). Recently John has focused on plays for young audiences: Sideways Stories From Wayside School, Jason & The Golden Fleece, Water Babies, The Magic Bicycle, Pharaoh Serket And The Lost Stone Of Fire, others. Producing theaters include: Seattle Childrens, First Stage Milwaukee, the Arden, People’s Light & Theatre Co., etc. Mr. Olive is also a screenwriter, a novelist, and a popular teacher of creative writing. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Mary and their son Michael.

Praised for her “mesmerizing sound… (which) would rival Homer’s sirens,” Siena Forest, a lyric coloratura soprano, “steals scenes” with her arresting portrayals, “spunkiness and feisty vocalism.” Siena enjoys a career in opera, oratorio, chamber music, and recital. Originally from Massachusetts, Siena relocated to the Twin Cities to join Minnesota Opera’s prestigious Resident Artist Program. Since then, Siena has taken the music scene by snowstorm performing with Minnesota Opera, Theater Latté Da, Lyric Opera of the North, Out of the Box Opera, New Music New Haven at Yale University, Wagner Society of the Upper Midwest, Mill City Summer Opera, Skylark Opera Theatre, LOFTrecital, Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, Opera Reading Project, OK Mozart International Music Festival, South Dakota Symphony, Central City Opera, Schubert Club, Source Song Festival, Twin Cities Opera Guild, Classica Chamber Players (formerly Hill House Chamber Players), Really Spicy Opera, St. Cloud Symphony, Opera on Tap, and Lakes Area Music Festival.

Recent credits include a year long concert series that travels to elderly residences across the Twin Cities metro entitled Skylark for Seniors with Skylark Opera Theatre and Mimì in Theater Latté Da’s long anticipated La bohème: “Forest was an excellent Mimi, aside from her voice which was beautiful, she conveyed a sense of adoration for Rodolfo in a performance that began in her eyes and radiated outward from there” (The Stages of MN). Siena was also recently awarded a Music in Action Grant from the Wagner Society of the Upper Midwest and will produce a virtual recital in the summer of 2022 on the theme of mindfulness and meditation featuring songs by a variety of composers, including Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Claude Debussy, Jórunn Viðar, Paolo Tosti, Richard Strauss, Amy Aldrich Worth, and of course, Richard Wagner.

In addition to placing 1st in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Arkansas District, Siena has been recognized by multiple organizations including Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Minnesota District, Piccola Opera, Mildred Miller International Voice Competition, top 10 scene-stealing performances in the Twin Cities Arts Reader, Central City Opera (Patsy Rose Musser Award), and Indiana University (1st Place in the Wilfred C. Bain Opera Scholarship Competition, Schilling-Tourner Friends of Music Scholarship, Artistic Excellence Award and Music Faculty Award). She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Indiana University where she studied with Carol Vaness. She currently studies with George Smith.

Siena is an enthusiastic advocate for the arts and artists, and is an accomplished producer, fundraiser, consultant, and founder of OOPS MN: Opera-Oriented Project Sponsorships in Minnesota, a nonprofit whose mission is to support singers through co-productions and entrepreneurial education. In its first year and a half of operating, OOPS MN produced and funded 10 projects, which put $40,000 into the hands of 50 artists. Siena serves on the board of LOFTrecital and formerly on the board of Out of the Box Opera (2019-2021), where she also served as the artistic administrator.

When rehearsal ends, Siena spends her time hiking, camping, reading, cooking, baking (and eating) bread, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, taking pictures of her cats, and laughing with her friends while sharing a bottle of wine.

Kathryn Rupp is a Minnesota-based Soprano whose vocal versatility, skilled technique, and intimate artistic expression bring a fresh feel to the stage. In recent years she has performed locally with Source Song Festival, Edvard Grieg Society of Minnesota voice competition, and has had the pleasure of performing as a guest soloist with the Southwest Minnesota Orchestra and Prior Lake High School’s Annual Master Works Concert.

Prior to this, Kathryn performed various roles such as Teofane in Handel’s Ottone as well as Rosalinda in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus both with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Other notable roles include Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Savannah Voice Festival, Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos with Berlin Opera Academy, and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro at Prague Summer Nights.

Kathryn finds great joy in collaborating with musicians across many different styles and has a deep love for new music. When she is not performing as a soloist, Kathryn performs with VocalEssence Ensemble Singers and is the soprano soloist at Plymouth Congregational Choir under the direction of Philip Brunelle.

Kathryn earned a Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Simpson College

Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski, who sings “from inside the music with unaffected purity and sincerity” (UK Telegraph), is an active soloist and chamber musician hailed for her “rich and radiant voice” (UrbanDial Milwaukee). She was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Upper-Midwest Regional Finalist, the winner of several competitions including Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artists Competition of Milwaukee, the Houston Saengerbund Competition, several time runner-up in The Schubert Club Bruce P. Carlson Scholarship Competition, and third place in the Madison Handel Aria Competition. Recognized for her excellence in Minnesota, Clara was a recipient of the prestigious 2018-2019 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Musicians administered by MacPhail Center for Music.

In international competition with pianist Tyler Wottrich, in March of 2017, Clara became the first ever American prize winner when she placed second at Thomas Quasthoff’s International Das Lied Competition in Heidelberg, Germany. Later that year, the duo was also one of four to reach the finals in the very prestigious Wigmore Hall/Kohn Foundation Song Competition in London, and Clara was awarded the Richard Tauber Prize for the best interpretation of Schubert Lieder. She recently won the Radio-Canada People’s Choice Award and third place in the song division at the 2018 Concours Musical International de Montréal.

Recent performance highlights include her debut with Minnesota Opera as Mrs. Herring in Britten’s Albert Herring, and active as a recitalist, she stepped in for Susanna Philips in The Schubert Club International Artist Series Recital with Eric Owens. She has also been a feature recitalist at the Enlightenment Festival of Seraphic Fire, The Pablo Center of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, The Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, and several universities. She has collaborated with many chamber musicians, including pianist Wu Han, The Lydian String Quartet, VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, the Minneapolis Guitar Quartet, Accordo, and Dark Horse Consort. Clara’s passion for contemporary music is exhibited in the song-cycles and chamber music she has premiered or commissioned by numerous composers including James Kallembach, Libby Larsen, David Evan Thomas, Linda Kachelmeier, Reinaldo Moya, Carol Barnett, and Juliana Hall.

Orchestral performance highlights include her soloist debuts of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Bel Canto Chorus of Milwaukee, B Minor Mass with the Back Bay Chorale of Boston, Christmas Oratorio with Bach Society of Minnesota, Mozart’s Requiem with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with Tulsa Signature Symphony, Bernstein’s Jeremiah with Mid-Columbia Symphony, and Dominick Argento’s orchestral song cycles Casa Guidi and A few words about Chekhov with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of Minneapolis.

Active also as an educator, Clara has enjoyed giving masterclasses and convocations at several universities, including Syracuse University, Muhlenberg College, Seattle University, Concordia College (Moorhead), and North Dakota State University. She was also the guest artist in residence at Indiana State University’s 50th Contemporary Music Festival celebrating the music of Libby Larsen. Clara also served on the faculty at the Aspen Music Festival’s Professional Choral Institute in partnership with Seraphic Fire, and has been a panelist for SongFest and the Lakes Area Music Festival.

Previous season highlights include her Wigmore Hall debut recital with Julius Drake, debuts with Kansas City Symphony and Handel and Haydn Society, a premiere oratorio with the National Lutheran Choir by Steve Heitzig, and a premiere orchestral song cycle by Carol Barnett with the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. Please visit the schedule for more information.

In addition to performing, Clara serves as the Artistic Director of Source Song Festival, a week-long art song festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This festival strives to create and perform new art song, and cultivate an educational environment for students of song, including composers, vocalists, and collaborative pianists. In addition to her solo work, she participates in a number of ensembles, including Lumina Women’s Ensemble, Lorelei Ensemble, and Seraphic Fire.

A native of Muscatine, IA, Juan Carlos Mendoza has made a name for himself as a soloist, choral singer, and educator over the past decade.

He has been seen on stage in the dual roles of Aarón/Javier in the world premiere of Tienda (Moya/Vincent) produced by The Schubert Club, Freddy in My Fair Lady with the Muscatine Symphony Orchestra, and Tigranes in the North American premiere of La Doriclea (Cavalli) at The Juilliard School. His concert works include The Messiah (Handel) with the Des Moines Community Orchestra, Magnificat (Bach), Ascension Oratorio (Bach) Requiem (Mozart), and Passio (Pärt) with the Chamber Singers of Iowa City, Bolts of Melody (Ford) with the Grinnell Symphony Orchestra, and a featured soloist in El Mesias (Handel/Ramirez) with Border CrosSing/Minnesota Orchestra.

As an ensemble singer, Mendoza has sung with Transept, Lyric Opera of Chicago Chorus, Grant Park Music Festival Chorus, and Border CrosSing. As a recitalist, he regularly performs throughout the Midwest, programming the Spanish-language vocal music of Latin America, including composers such as Manuel M. Ponce, Salvador Moreno, and Carlos Guastavino. His research of this repertoire led to the production of his debut album with pianist Jessica Monnier, Finding A Voice: Mexican Song Cycles After 1920 (MSR Classics MS 1772), which highlights song cycles from México following the Mexican Revolution. He also premiered Masefield Songs, a song cycle for Tenor and Piano on poems of John Masefield by Thomas F. Savoy, which he also recorded for the composer’s album, Songs by Me- for You: A Selection of Art Songs by Thomas F. Savoy.

As an educator, Mendoza has served on the voice faculties of Augustana College, Drake University, Kirkwood Community College, Knox College, and Monmouth College. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera at the University of South Dakota where he teaches applied voice, diction, song literature, and directs and produces the fall operas. He has also presented/co-presented at USD’s Choral Directors Institute and the NATS Central Region Conference. He serves as the Education Director of Source Song Festival, a week-long art song festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Mendoza received a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Arts degree from The University of Iowa, a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and attended the Aspen Music Festival and School in 2010 and 2012. He is also a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).

Scott J. Brunscheen’s “sweet and substantial lyric tenor” (Chicago Tribune) has garnered acclaim throughout the country in operatic and oratorio repertoire of the baroque, classical, and contemporary eras. A frequent guest soloist with Haymarket Opera, his recent performances there of Handel’s Il resurrezione, Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina​, Haydn’s L’isola disabitata, Marais’ Ariane et Bachus, and Cesti’s L’Orontea received praise from Opera News, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Classical Review, and many others. In spring of 2024, he made his Kennedy Center debut under the baton of Christophe Rousset in Mouret’s Les Fêtes de Thalie with Opera Lafayette.

Other concert and operatic engagements have included the world premiere of Stewart Copeland’s The Invention of Morel at Chicago Opera Theater, Mozart’s Die Zauberflote with Madison Opera, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Long Beach Opera, Mozart’s Requiem with Chicago Chorale and Haydn’s The Creation at DuPage University. He has also performed in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at Chicago Opera Theater, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and Donizetti’s La Favorite at the Caramoor Festival, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and The Rape of Lucretia with Chicago Fringe Opera, and Rossini’s La Cenerentola with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited program.

As a young artist, Mr. Brunscheen understudied and performed in Donizetti’s La Fille du Regiment, Puccini’s Tosca, and Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (Madison Opera); Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher, Mose in Egitto, Giasone, and Die Zauberflote (Chicago Opera Theater); Chin’s Alice in Wonderland and Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd (Opera Theater of St. Louis); Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and La Favorite (Caramoor Bel Canto Festival); Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Candid Concert Opera); and Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Opera New Jersey.

Outside of his work in opera, Scott has been the tenor soloist for Orff’s Carmina Burana, Handel’s The Messiah and Judas Maccabaeus, Pergolesi’s Magnificat, Bach’s Magnificat, Resphigi’s Lauda per la Nativita, Donizetti’s Miserere, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Britten’s Serenade and Canticles, and cantatas of Bach, Buxtehude, and Rameau. He has been a finalist and prize winner in the Oratorio Society of New York, Handel Aria Competition, Grand Rapids Keller Bach Award, and American Prize in Opera.

Baritone Tony Potts is carving out his space as a singing actor. Described as a “born thespian” he has twice been at finalist at the international Lotte Lenya Competition. He is grateful to be making his debut with the Minnesota Opera this season singing in La Rondine, Silent Night, The Italian Straw Hat, and La Traviata.

Most recently he completed his master’s in music at the University of North Texas where he performed the roles of Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Frederik in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, and Valentin in Gounod’s Faust. While there he also worked with the Dallas Opera in their outreach program performing the role of Vertigo in Offenbach’s Pépito. Other roles have included Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème, Mr. Gedge in Britten’s Albert Herring, Peter in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, the Watchman/Umpire/Manager in William Schuman’s The Mighty Casey, Curly in Oklahoma, and Harold Hill in The Music Man. Tony is a student of Dr. Stephen Morscheck.

Violinist Stephanie Arado’s career encompasses a wide range of performance and teaching experience. Ms. Arado began her violin studies at the age of five and played her first solo recital when she was eight. Since her debut with the Chicago Symphony as a 12 year old, Ms. Arado has performed as soloist with symphony orchestras throughout the United States, including the Detroit, St. Louis, and Minnesota Orchestras. Ms. Arado spent 22 years as Assistant Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra and also served as Concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony. In 2012, Ms. Arado resigned from her position with the Minnesota Orchestra to devote more time to teaching and chamber music. Ms Arado has participated in chamber music festivals both nationally and internationally and has had the privilege to perform with such masters as Paul Tortelier, Joseph Silverstein, and Yuri Bashmet. A recipient of a McKnight Foundation Grant for Performing Artists, Ms. Arado maintains a private teaching studio in Minneapolis and is an Artistic Director of the Bakken Trio, a chamber music consortium she has performed with since 1991.

Immanuel Davis is one of the most versatile flautists of his generation. Equally at home on modern and Baroque flutes, Davis has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the US and abroad. In 2005 he received a Fulbright Fellowship to study Baroque flute with Wilbert Hazelzet at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague. Since then he has performed as a soloist and chamber player with Early Music ensembles such as Early Music New York, ARTEK, Lyra Baroque Orchestra, REBEL, Bach Society of Minnesota and Mercury Orchestra of Houston. Davis has been the flute professor at the University of Minnesota since 2001. He is also an AmSAT-certified teacher of the Alexander Technique.

Pianist Casey Rafn enjoys a varied career as a collaborative pianist both in the United States and abroad, in Europe and Latin America. He is a member of ‘Trés’, whose saxophone-piano trio was just nominated for a Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental Album for their new album “Romance al Campesino Porteño.” Casey often collaborates in concert or recordings with members of the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and University of Minnesota School of Music faculty. As a piano soloist he took top prizes at the International Liszt-Garrison Competition in Baltimore, has appeared with the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, and has taught at both the University of Minnesota School of Music and the St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Arts.

Gary Briggle, Stage Director, is a nationally-renowned expert in the “Savoy Operas” of Gilbert & Sullivan. Inspired to become a singer-actor by these enduring works while a mere teenager, Gary has performed and directed 15 productions of The Pirates of Penzance alone, appearing as the Major General in a dozen of them! His endearing and hilarious Koko in The Mikado, with Skylight Opera Theater in Milwaukee, was featured on PBS-TV.

Gary studied the traditional style of these classic works with John Reed, O.B.E., star of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, and was chosen by Mr. Reed to play Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard with Seaside Music Theater. His repertoire also includes witty, energetic stagings of H.M.S. Pinafore (in which he often appears as Sir Joseph Porter), The Duke of Plaza-Toro in The Gondoliers, Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe and Bunthorne in Patience, for which he recieved the esteemed Carbonell Award for Best Actor and Best Production.

He has brought comic operas, including those by Offenbach and J. Strauss, to vivid life for The Arizona Theatre Company, Virginia Opera, Dayton Opera, Sacramento Opera, Anchorage Opera, Nevada Opera, Opera Carolina, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Skylark Opera, The University of Iowa, and Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory, among others. Gary recently directed Peter Brook’s The Tragedy of Carmen and tackles Sondheim’s Into the Woods next month.