An innovative, collaborative music ensemble dedicated to empowering and inspiring women artists, and promote gender equity in classical music.
We are a group of professional musical artists that feel the antiquated ways of doing things in our classical music field have gone on too long, and it’s time to say ‘enough’. It’s time to tell the stories that represent us, our way.
Next public live event:
Tuesday, March 4, 2025 @ 7:30pm
The Ebell of Los Angeles
Sopranos Karen Hogle Brown and Tamara Bevard and pianist Jennie Jung.
For our latest event, sopranos Karen Hogle Brown and Tamara Bevard and pianist Jennie Jung will perform a recital of all female composers who lived and wrote music in our home sweet home, Los Angeles! We will be pairing 4 living composers: Dale Trumbore, Reena Esmail, Brooke DeRosa, and Zanaida Robles, with 4 historical women composers who also resided in LA: Alma Mahler, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Mary Carr Moore, and Margaret Bonds. Many of these composers will be in attendance to introduce these pieces and answer any questions. Come support our own home grown artists! For tickets and more information, click here.
Our Latest Project:
Reena Esmail’s The History of Red, with The Darshan Trio, Karen Hogle Brown and Kayla Aguila
About creating this staging of The History of Red, from the inaugural performance:
ABOUT US
Those of us in the industry have felt for a very long time that it seems like there are so many more women at classical voice auditions than men. If we’re lucky they hire 50/50 men to women, but often in opera, there are many more roles for men than women, and an appalling few number of roles that could be gender/fach(voice type) fluid. So more of us go home without jobs, leading to a seriously underutilized resource. We are constantly being called up by a director saying, “do you know a tenor who’s available,” while we sit at home, completely available. When we actually do get hired by a little company for a major leading role taking hours and hours to prepare, which we accept since we are desperate for the experience and role on our resume, we are offered little more than a gas stipend, and learn later that the leading man was offered several more hundreds of dollars just to show up. Yes, we understand supply and demand, but what about just equal pay for equal work?
We all knew a career in the arts would be competitive, but it has always felt like a complete uphill and insurmountable climb. Those of us who are teachers start to feel like we are peddling ‘snake oil’ when we encourage people to study for a career performing in the arts. Have we prepared them for the real statistics ahead?
Since we are very aware of how easy it is to replace us, we are hesitant to EVER speak up when talked to in a demeaning way, or outright abused. We start to feel like a disposable commodity. Is it a surprise that some #metoo scenarios have been happening in opera for years and years? But is it just in our heads?
A 2020 study from the Empowered Musician demonstrated that:
- Male opera singers are three and a half times as likely to be cast as women opera singers.
- Women receive fewer scholarships and take on more debt, in part due to this lopsided gender balance in the main-stage canon and universities.
- Women receive fewer opportunities to audition for and win star-making training apprenticeships; if they do, tend to perform in secondary roles.
- When they graduate from young artist apprenticeships, women performers are paid significantly less and offered fewer opportunities to build their careers.
- Women in opera are excluded, harassed, and in some cases, attacked. Women are severely penalized in the industry for middle-age and motherhood.
- Women leaders in opera show a significant pay gap based on the company’s size they are allowed to lead. Women are largely excluded from the top opera company administrative jobs that pay hundreds of thousands or, in the case of the Met, millions a year.
The Pacific Opera Project, a local Los Angeles based opera company, listed some audition statistics on their Facebook page in 2020. As you can see, women made up almost 300 of the little over 400 participants, outnumbering men by 3:1. Only 2 of the most sung arias are sung by men. The other 14 were all women competing against women for roles. In the case of the role of Susannah, people had a 1.6% chance of getting that role, where the 100 men that auditioned had a 30% chance of landing some role.
Not to mention how all our industry prizes youth, or this brand new young artist, or the certain way we are supposed to show up at auditions in our little dresses and heels. There is a great amount of ageism that happens more to women than men, not to mention the ages of characters assigned our specific fachs. Turning 40 doesn’t automatically make you a mezzo for all the old-lady-crone-witch roles, and why should 22 year old mezzos be forced to play those, or young boys, either. Where are those roles for women of all ages and fachs, or could be age or fach-fluid? Where are the scripts to operas that pass the Bechdel test?
My name is Karen Hogle Brown, soprano, and one of these statistics. As a singer and mother of a (then) 2 year old during the pandemic, it was so heart-breaking to lose all of my work as an artist, and be forced to take over all household and parenting duties, as so many women did, just to stay afloat and safe as a household during that time. We were so disproportionally relied upon to take up all the slack that a lack of childcare created.
Even before the pandemic, I was so discouraged by how hard I worked, how many songs I learned, and how many lessons I spent time and money on for an audition, to have anywhere from a 3-1% chance of landing a role. Not only that, I have a profound respect for my fellow sopranos, and how amazingly talented they are. It got me thinking, what could more of us together do? What kind of force would all these amazing women create by joining forces rather than always competing against each other. What kind of musical ensemble and community could be created by fostering a collaborative atmosphere where differing opinions are welcomed and included? What amazing art could we create when we partner with our sisters in different instruments or art forms?
Becoming aware of the actual statistics for my art for was eye opening, and I knew must be similar in other musical art forms, and I wanted to know more. Female composers were shown in a 2020-21 study to be represented in only 5% of programed music for the world’s top 100 orchestras, or female musicians that still make up less than half of most orchestras in Continental Europe and the USA.
I believe it is important to further this education, and ask more organizations to account for their gender hiring/programming practices. It is important to give women like myself a place to explore what happens when we join forces instead of compete – when one of us rises, we all rise. It is in this vein that I started HERS: to find out answers to my many questions, start conversations, learn more about our industry, and be able to share that with others, both as performers and as educators.
What We Have Done So Far
In October of 2023, HERS had it’s inaugural performance at Occidental College. Ms. Hogle Brown and Ms. Esmail partnered with Leslie Stevens to direct the world premiere of the staged versions of Esmail’s Quarantine Madrigals and the piano trio version of The History of Red, newly arranged for this setting by Esmail and Hogle Brown. These unique stagings were intended to show the raw beauty, power, and inspiration that can come from women supporting women.
The Quarantine Madrigals highlighted the sublime sounds of what four sopranos can sound like singing together, while telling the cathartic story of being a female singer during the recent pandemic, through nine Haiku by singer and poet Amy Fogerson. It was be performed a capella by 4 sopranos from the Grammy-winning LA Master Chorale – Caroline McKenzie, Alina Roitstein, Courtney Taylor and Karen Hogle Brown. Both pieces were choreographed by Leslie Stevens, who has choreographed for the LA Opera and LA Philharmonic and danced on Broadway herself.
In The History of Red, Ms. Hogle Brown and dancer Kayla Aguila further showcased deeper collaborations in performing arts as they portrayed all manner of female relationships throughout the history of humankind. In this piece, Linda Hogan’s poetry shows the inner voice of an adult woman, aware not only of her own current world, but of the entire, complex history of her ancestors. In the last lines of Hogan’s poem: “This life in the fire, I love it / I want it, / this life,” this woman craves a life of the deepest engagement with it and those around her. The singers and dancer were joined by piano trio from some of Los Angeles’ most consummate instrumentalists; Junko Ueno Garrent on piano, Aroussiak Baltaian on violin, and Berber Heerema on cello. Two stand alone excerpts by Esmail preceded the staged works: Dhire, Dhire – text by Kabir, Indian mystic poet, and “I do not know what I know”, from Say Your Name, text by Rebecca Gayle Howell
Quarantine Madrigals ***Staged premiere for 4 sopranos – text by Amy Fogerson
Ms. Hogle Brown will be joined by Caroline McKenzie, Alina Roitstein, and Courtney Taylor
The History of Red ***Staged and piano trio version premiere – text by Linda Hogan
Sung by Ms. Hogle Brown and joined by Kayla Aguila, dancer
Shortly after the creation of this staged version of Esmail’s The History of Red, the Darshan Trio made up of Vijay Gupta on violin, Yoshika Masuda on cello, and Domini Cheli on piano, collaborated with Esmail and Hogle Brown to record the new version both audio and video for release. The video debuted on YouTube in July 2024 and in only 1 month has had over 80,000+ views and counting, proving that these new forms of visual storytelling are both powerful and marketable. See the full performance and a video about the making of this piece on the LINKS above.
How Can I Help?
Support new and innovative performances like these. We would love to further our cause by increasing awareness of what these stories should look like. We are currently running a 2024-25 campaign to be able to mount another amazing concert with new staged works telling stories about women, by women. You can be on the front lines by donating to our campaign right now with your tax deductible donation (we are fiscally sponsored by Mothers in Music, a 501c3 organization):
Becoming a patron of HERS will help all of the following:
- Help support us going forward with our next performances to showcase more
women, their music, stories, art, movement and more - Support research and data gathering into actual gender hiring practices in local and
national companies - support education of teachers about including more varied repertoire in for their
students, and how to help their students be better prepared to face challenges after school in
pursuing the arts so they meet the world eyes wide open
Come see upcoming performances. We are currently planning several private salon events and recitals to spread our word. Please CONTACT US if you would be interested in hosing such an event!
Our next public performance is:
Tuesday, March 5, 2025 at 7:30pm
The Ebell of Los Angeles
We will be featuring music by Reena Esmail, Zanaida Robles, and many other women composers, all from our own city of angels.
Education about the issues
- HERS on Facebook
- HERS on Instagram
- HERS on LinkedIn
- Systematic Discrimination in Opera
- Women in Classical Music
- Building a strong music community for gender equality
- Women climbing music charts is a slow process
- Gender pay gap in music companies, latest figures
- Our biggest orchestras are finally playing more music by women. What took so long?
- Women Still Vastly Underrepresented in Music Creation Process, New Study Finds
Are you a patron or audience member of the arts?
- Make sure to include new works by women in your subscriptions and not just the old war-horses. Let organizations know you’d like to see more of these as well.
- With your donation to arts organizations, ask what they are doing to promote more gender equity in their hiring/programming.
Donate now:
- Become a patron of HERS – donations will help all of the following:
- Help support us going forward with our next performances to showcase more women, their music, stories, art, movement and more.
- Support research and data gathering into actual gender hiring practices in local and national companies,
- Support talks to students about the challenges they face after school in pursuing the arts so they meet the world eyes wide open.
Are you a composer?
- Consider writing pieces and characters for women that don’t put our fach’s or ages in a pigeon hole.
- Consider writing characters that could be gender fluid depending on what amazing singers you get rather than writing for specific fach’s.
- Consider writing operas for 3 times more women roles than men. Almost every college on the planet does Dialogue of the Carmelites by Poulenc precisely because it has so many women roles, and they have way more women students than men. Could be a lucrative venture, no?
Do you work for a performing arts company or a school of music?
- Take our survey (to be live soon) to find out your gender hiring/acceptance/scholarship stats.
- Make your gender hiring/scholarship statistics public to inform our new generation of artists about what odds they will actually face.
- Consider how many works by women can be included in your seasons.
- Consider and encourage people to audition for your company with more than just “standard repertoire” which almost always means music by dead-white-guys.
Our Roster of Amazing Artists
Karen Hogle Brown
Karen Hogle Brown (Soprano/Music Director/Producer) has been featured with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Opera Project, Long Beach Opera, Opera San Luis Obispo, Opera a la Carte, Millenium Consort,and Los Angeles Chamber Singers, and is a member of the LA Opera Chorus. Her recent roles include Mme Herz (The Impresario), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), Marfa (The Tsar’s Bride), Susanna/Sinopa in LA Opera’s education adaptation The Marriage of Figueroa, The Queen of the Night for Redlands Opera Theatre, and Sybilla in a new opera The Spell of Tradition by Peter Wing Healy. Solo concert performances include Schnittke’s Symphony No. 4 with the LA Phil, The Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat, and Grant Gershon’s Annual Maestro dinner at Walt Disney Concert Hall. She is a winner of the Beverly Hills recital competition and has presented numerous recitals, including world premieres of composer Shawn Kirchner’s music on prestigious recital series for Music in the Mansion and Pomona College. She is also featured on several classical and movie soundtrack recordings, including the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s Little Match Girl Passion/National Anthems by David Lang, A Good Understanding by Nico Muhly, Daniel Variations by Steve Reich, the e.e. cummings cycle of JAC Redford for his latest album, and on the soundtrack for the movie Avatar and the TV show The 100. She is also a faculty member at Occidental College and a teaching artist for LA Opera, and has her own private vocal studio.
Reena Esmail
Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces. She was profiled on Season 3 of PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This, as well as Frame of Mind, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Esmail divides her attention evenly between orchestral, chamber and choral work. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Kronos Quartet, and her music has featured on multiple Grammy-nominated albums, including The Singing Guitar by Conspirare, BRUITS by Imani Winds, and Healing Modes by Brooklyn Rider. Many of her choral works are published by Oxford University Press. Esmail is the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and was Seattle Symphony’s 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. She also holds awards/fellowships from United States Artists, the S&R Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Kennedy Center. She holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM’05) and the Yale School of Music (MM’11, MMA’14, DMA’18). Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Rouse and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazumdar, and she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers. Esmail was Composer-in-Residence for Street Symphony (2016-18) and is currently an Artistic Director of Shastra, a non-profit organization that promotes cross-cultural music connecting music traditions of India and the West.
Zanaida Robles
Dr. Zanaida Stewart Robles is an award-winning Black American female composer, vocalist, conductor and teacher. She is a fierce advocate for diversity and inclusion in music education and performance. Authentic interpersonal connection and relationship-building are core principles of her teaching and performance methods. Born, raised, and educated in Southern California on the occupied lands of the Gabrielino-Tongva people, she is in demand as a composer, vocalist, clinician and adjudicator for competitions, festivals, and conferences related to choral and solo vocal music.Dr. Robles’s original music has been performed by professional ensembles, community choirs, educational institutions, churches, and individuals world wide.
Her works are published by Stewart Robles Music, Music Spoke, E.B. Marks Music, Pavane Publishing, and Stainer and Bell. Her compositional style can be described as energized, soulful, contrapuntal, harmonically colorful, rhythmically driven, heavily modal, occasionally with African elements and touches of progressive rock. As a concert soprano soloist, studio vocalist for film and television, and professional ensemble singer, Dr. Robles has sung throughout the United States, and in parts of Europe, New Zealand, and Australia. Dr. Robles holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the USC Thornton School of Music, a Master of Music degree from
CSU Northridge, a Bachelor of Music degree from CSU Long Beach, and she is a graduate of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.
Tamara Bevard
Soprano Tamara Bevard has been singing professionally for 30 years in a variety of styles from the opera stage to studio film work. She has appeared in both the United States and Europe as a soloist with organizations such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Chorale bel Canto, Santa Barbara Choral Society, Junge Kammerphilharmonie Freiburg, Nova Amadeau Orchestra, and Seuddeutsche Kammer Philharmonie. Some of her favorite works as a soloist include the Verdi Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Mass in b minor, Brahms Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Choral Fantasie, and
Ninth Symphony, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Haydn’s Creation, Paukenmesse, and Therienmesse, Handel’s Messiah, Stravinsky’s Mass, and Vaughan Williams’ Sea Symphony and Dona Nobis Pacem. In addition to frequent solo work, Ms. Bevard has sung with the Los Angeles Master Chorale since 2007, and numerous local professional choirs. She is also an active studio singer, and can be heard on numerous film and television soundtracks, including Wreck it Ralph, Big Hero 6, X-Men Apocolypse, Frozen 2, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and she is the featured
soloist in Carlo Carlei’s film adaptation of “Romeo and Julie”, scored by Abel Korzeniowski.
As a voice teacher, Ms. Bevard has maintained a private studio since 2000, and has been on faculty with the Pasadena Conservatory since 2011, and at Pomona College since 2017.
Jennie Jung
Pianist Jennie Jung made her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the age of eleven and has since been active as a pianist in North America. Dr. Jung performed as soloist with the Republic of Tatarstan, Korean Philharmonic, Taejon, Korean-Canadian, University of Toronto, Hart House, and Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestras. She also attended festivals including the Banff Centre for the Arts and the Music Academy of the West. As a collaborative pianist, Dr. Jung has performed in North America, Asia, Europe, and Africa, and has been on staff at the Mozarteum (Austria), Aspen Summer Music Festival, Gregor Piatigorsky Seminar for Cellists, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Dr. Jung participated in masterclasses and studied with artists such as Claude Frank, Jonathan Feldman, Marietta Orlov, Marina Geringas, Dalton Baldwin, Anne Epperson, Peter Frankl, Margo Garrett, Martin Katz, Anton Kuerti, Robert MacDonald, Karl Ulrich-Schnabel, and Arie Vardi. The Jung Trio, formed by Dr. Jung and her sisters Ellen (violin) and Julie (cello), has won numerous awards, and In addition to recital tours throughout the United States, the trio presented recitals and collaborations in Canada, Korea, Germany, Austria, Kenya, and Mauritius, Russia, Korea, Toronto, and Los Angeles. Their recording of Dvorak’s Piano Trio in F Minor was released by the Groovenote Label. Dr. Jung is active as a chamber musician and performs regularly throughout the SoCal area, including on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Chamber Music Series in Walt Disney Concert Hall. She has collaborated with artists including the Calidore String Quartet, Paul Katz, Steven Dann, Joaquin Valdepenas, and many others. Dr. Jung has degrees from the University of Toronto, Yale School of Music, and the Juilliard School. She taught piano and chamber music at the Colburn School of Performing Arts and at Center Stage Strings (U of Michigan). Dr. Jung is currently on the faculty of Pomona and Scripps Colleges as well as the Claremont Community School of Music.
Leslie Stevens
Leslie Stevens (director/choreographer) Leslie enjoys performing in plays, musicals, and on film, as well as collaborating as a director/choreographer, screenwriter, and librettist. Most recently she was at the Geffen Playhouse as understudy for the one person show Every Brilliant Thing. In 2017, she choreographed the LA Phil production of NIXON IN CHINA. She is the author or original stories and librettos for FRIEDL, THE WHITE BIRD OF POSTON & THEN I STOOD UP – social justice themed short operas commissioned & performed by LA Opera young artist programs Some favorite theatre roles: Madame Baurel in An American in Paris, Ariel (Ann-Margret role) in the US Premiere & West Coast Premiere (La Mirada Theatre) of Grumpy Old Men, Diana in Lend Me a Tenor, Masha in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (International City Theatre), Roxie in Chicago, Sally Slaton in Parade (3-D Theatricals). On Broadway, she originated the role of Anne in La Cage aux Folles and appeared in Victor/Victoria with Julie Andrews. Leslie danced as a soloist with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Dayton Ballet, and many mainstage productions with LA Opera. On-camera work is on imdb.com and www.lesliestevens.net. She is a lifelong lover of poetry, pie, and hamsters. Much appreciation for her husband, Forrest. Much appreciation for Karen Hogle Brown and the female artists she has assembled here.
Kayla Aguila
Kayla Aguila (dancer) is a Filipino-American dancer and choreographer who seeks her cultural identity through researching and creating movement tasks involving language, narrative, quality and fantasy. By furthering this work in the studio, she continues to learn about her heritage. Aguila began her dance training in the Philippines, learning the Philippine National Ballet Syllabus. In 2011, she moved to Los Angeles and expanded her dance training with a full scholarship at Burbank School of the Ballet. Kayla received her BFA in dance at California Institute of the Arts in 2019. Since then, she has worked with artists such as Aszure Barton, Julie Bour, Dimitri Chamblas, Bret Easterling, Stephen Galloway, Marjani Forte-Saunders, Jermaine Spivey, and Spenser Theberge. Kayla has performed and presented works at California Polytechnic State University, REDCAT, Hauser & Wirth, LA Dance Project, The Hammer Museum, The Hollywood Bowl, Jacob’s Pillow, MOCA, and the Paris Opera.
Aroussiak Baltaian
“Emerging as if a highly burnished and glowing ruby”, violinist Aroussiak Baltaian has gained an international attention through her extensive appearances as a prominent recitalist, soloist, chamber musician and recording artist.
Ms. Baltaian is a Grand and top prize winner of numerous national and international competitions including the MTNA Collegiate Competition (USA), the “Aram Khachaturyan “ International Competition (USA), the “Rudolfo Lipizer Prize” International Competition ( Italy), the “ MauriceWarshaw Prize” Competition in Great Britain and the “Yaroslav Kotzian” International Violin Competition in the Czech Republic where she was also awarded the honorary citizenship of the city.
As a soloist and recitalist, Ms. Baltaian has performed in major cities throughout the United States, Great Britain, Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Her festival appearances include The International Festival-Institute at Round Top (USA), Ojai Music Festival (USA), Mainly Mozart Festival (USA), Manchester Music Festival (USA), Spoleto Music Festival (Italy), Colorado Springs Music Festival (USA), Sierra Summer Festival (USA), Plovdiv and Varna International Music Festivals (Bulgaria). Ms. Baltaian’s recording experience is marked by the 1993 recording of the Aram Khachaturian Violin Concerto, released on compact disc in Holland.
She has taught at the Master’s College and has also acted as a string coach for the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra, as a music mentor for the Pasadena Unified School District and as a chamber music coach for the Junior Chamber Music Series in Los Angeles.
Currently, Ms. Baltaian serves on the faculty of the Music Department at Occidental College. She is also a member of the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra and performs regularly with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Berber Heerema
Berber Heerema (cello) Berber Heerema is a Dutch cellist from the Hague. She holds a BA from the Royal Conservatory and continued with her MA at the Musikakademie in Basel. Following her studies, she started working professionally in various contemporary music ensembles, freelancing in many orchestras and recorded multiple albums. She is a member of the prestigious and award winning interdisciplinary NITE ensemble. Besides performing Berber has her private teaching studio and she taught and organized her own annual summer course in France. In January of 2023 she moved to Los Angeles. Soon she started playing with the LA Opera, AyseDeniz Gökçin, Richard Danielpour and more. Berber is co-founder and producer of Under The Oaks: Classical, a new multidisciplinary concert series at Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga.
Caroline McKenzie
Caroline McKenzie (soprano) has toured the United States and Europe with the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers and has sung with Vox Femina Los Angeles, for whom she is a frequent soloist. She toured with the Los Angeles Master Chorale as an original company member of John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary (Los Angeles Philharmonic, 2013). Her recent solo work includes the 2019 premiere of Rachel Fuller’s Animal Requiem at Royce Hall; a Kronos Quartet tribute to Pete Seeger during the 2020 CAP UCLA Tune-in Festival, the role of Ida B. Wells in Andrea Ramsey’s Suffrage Cantata; and a reprisal of the trio “Baby Boy” (Frances Pollock, Stinney) for Tonality. McKenzie sings “Glory, Glory, Glory to the Newborn King” on LAMC’s Christmas album, Festival of Carols. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Romance Languages from Princeton University and has taught English for eons. Recording work includes session work for film and television. Her freshman CD, Christmas with Caroline, is available (free, free, free!) at YouTube. She is working on a second CD, an offering of sacred jazz. Caroline lives in Los Angeles with her indulgent percussionist husband, Ken Robinson, and two grey cats, Smokey Joe and Amazin’ Grace. She is thrilled to premiere the staged performance of Reena Esmail and Amy Fogerson’s Quarantine Madrigals with her amazing colleagues.
Alina Roitstein
Alina Roitstein (soprano) Los Angeles native Alina Roitstein is known for her “beautiful voice and equally beautiful presence” (El Nuevo Herald). Her career spanning opera and art song, jazz and Latin music, chamber music and contemporary works, and choral music has taken her to venues all over the world, including Japan’s Symphony Hall in Osaka, South Korea’s Seoul Arts Centre Concert Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Scotland’s Royal Conservatoire, Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Concert Series, Chicago’s Poetry Foundation, and Los Angeles’ REDCAT, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and Hollywood Bowl. One of Alina’s passions is performing new works, and she has premiered pieces by Juhi Bansal, Jordan Nelson, Thomas Kotcheff, Dale Trumbore, Reena Esmail, Diana Syrse, Trevor Anderies, David Roitstein, and others. She also premiered the role of Emily in The Discord Altar, the first of OperaWorks’ Arts for Social Awareness Project, a groundbreaking musically improvised opera created to bring awareness to current social issues. Roitstein is also a member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, with whom she is often a featured soloist on their home stage at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Roitstein is an active studio singer in Los Angeles, most recently singing for the Black Panther: Wakanda Foreversoundtrack. She also sang with Los Angeles Master Chorale on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s recording of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which earned the Grammy award for Best Choral Performance. Other recording credits include Trevor Anderies Quintet’s Promise of a Tree (Orenda Records), River Song Quintet’s Monarchs, and Toomai String Quintet’s Cuerdas Cubanas.A committed educator, Roitstein is on the voice faculty at Pomona College and has performed workshops and master classes at universities throughout the United States.
Courtney Raine Taylor
Courtney Raine Taylor (soprano) performs regularly with Los Angeles Opera and the Los Angeles Master Chorale both as a preference/roster soprano chorister and soloist. Professor Taylor is thrilled to have recently begun working as an artist with LA Opera Connects. She made her Kennedy Center Debut in November 2019 singing a new work, The Three Paderesky’s. Professor Taylor received her post Graduate Certificate in Vocal Performance from USC, her M.M. Manhattan School of Music, NY and her B.M. from Chapman University. Professor Taylor has performed extensively internationally, singing the title role of Suor Angelica in Viterbo Italy with the Tuscia Music Festival ILAR as well as various concert work in Salzburg and Vienna Austria. She has received wide acclaim in such roles as Pat Nixon: Adams, Pamina, Donna Anna, Suor Angelica, Adina, Violetta, Susannah, Musetta and Countess. Notable Oratorio performances include Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart C Minor Mass (soprano I and II) and the Beethoven 9. As a guest artist at the Aspen Opera Theater Center Professor Taylor had the honor of singing the role of Marie alongside Deborah Voigt in Rufus Wainwright’s opera Prima Donna. She has won several prestigious vocal competitions and scholarships among them semi finalist for the Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition. Professor Taylor is a member of SAG-AFTRA and AGMA and has an active career singing on many film and TV scores including DC Super Pets, Call of the Wild, Disney’s Mulan, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Alita Battle Angel, Transformers, Venom and a featured character on Helluva Boss ep 4. She also currently teaches voice and diction at University of Laverne, and Mount San Antonio College.