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The Dessoff Choirs and the Cathedral Choir of Abyssinian Baptist Church join forces to present this performance of Mendelssohn’s enduring masterpiece at Abyssinian’s landmark location in Central Harlem.

Felix Mendelssohn

PROGRAM

Elijah

Davóne Tines, Elijah
Patrice Eaton, Angel, Queen
Noah Stewart, Obadiah, Ahab
Marsha Thompson, Widow, Angel
Laura Virgina Pernas, Youth

The Dessoff Choirs & Orchestra
Cathedral Choir, The Abyssinian Baptist Church
Nathaniel Gumbs, Organ & Minister of Music and the Arts
Dr. Raschaad Hoggard, Executive Minister
Malcolm J. Merriweather, Conductor

Davóne Tines, heralded as an artist "changing what it means to be a classical singer (The New Yorker) and “[one] of the most powerful voices of our time” (Los Angeles Times), is a pathbreaking artist whose work encompasses a diverse repertoire, ranging from early music to new commissions by leading composers, while exploring the social issues of today.

This season, Tines makes his Metropolitan Opera debut performing in John Adams’ El Niño. He also performs the opera-oratorio with the Houston Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony where he also performs in Kaija Saariaho’s True Fire. As a member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC*), he tours El Niño: Nativity Reconsidered—an arrangement of the work—to Kansas City, Stanford, New Haven, and New York at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. He performs in Tod Machover’s VALIS at MIT and John Cage’s “middle operas” Europeras 3 & 4 directed by Yuval Sharon with Detroit Opera.

Tines is Musical America’s 2022 Vocalist of the Year. He is Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Artist-in-Residence and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale’s first-ever Creative Partner. He recently served as Artist-in-Residence at Detroit Opera—an appointment that culminated in his performance in the title role of Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X in the spring of 2022. Tines is featured on the world premiere recording of the opera with Odyssey Opera and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, released in October 2023 on BMOP/sound. He is a winner of the 2020 Sphinx Medal of Excellence; the recipient of the 2018 Emerging Artists Award from Lincoln Center; and is a member of Lincoln Center’s Collider, an innovation engine for new voices at the intersection of art, technology, and social justice. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Harvard University, where he also serves as guest lecturer.

Marsha Thompson studied voice at the University of Houston, Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and AIMZ in Graz, Austria, she has sung the roles of Tosca, Aida, Abigaille, Sieglinde, Violetta, and several other leading ladies. “Her voice in the role of Violetta is a warm agile soprano with a secure technique.” (The New York Times) Abigaille is a difficult role to cast, a big sing with a wide dramatic and vocal range; soprano Marsha Thompson was up to all the challenges the score threw at her. Her high pianissimo singing was exquisite.” (St. Louis Dispatch).

Ms. Thompson had a successful run of TOSCA with Charlottesville Opera this summer, where her performance was characterized as “enchanting, heartbreaking, and Herculean.” (Today y Mañana).

She has performed with New York City Opera, Opera Festival di Roma, Fondazione di Giuseppe Verdi, Union Avenue Opera, New York Grand Opera, and Opera Carolina, Teatro Municipal de São Paulo, and upcoming 2024 Fort Worth opera debut, as well as having won numerous prizes in national competitions with the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Gerda Lissner Foundation, Orlando Opera Competition, Ft. Worth Opera Competition, and many others. You may follow her on IG @marshathompsonofficial and www.MarshaThompson.com

Tenor Noah Stewart has performed as a guest artist with many of the most distinguished opera companies, in the United States, The United Kingdom & Europe.

His repertoire includes: Cavaradossi, Don Alvaro (Indian Queen), Don José, Faust, Hoffmann, Luigi (Il tabarro), Nadir, Pinkerton, Radames, Rodolfo, Romeo, Samson, Tamino & Tony (West Side Story); and he has been engaged by: Atlanta Opera, the Bolshoi Opera, the Bregenzer Festspiele, English National Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Göteborg Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Nederlandse Reisopera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Holland Park, Opera Perm, the Royal Opera Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Scottish Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Festival International Clásico de Mérida and the Wexford Festival.

Recent performances include: Returning as guest artist with the RTÉ Orchestra, making his role and company debut as Otello, in Verdi’s Otello with Pacific Northwest Opera, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca with Portland Opera, returning to Northern Ireland Opera as Alfredo in La Traviata, guest artist with The Oakland Symphony, and making his role debut as Tony in Bernstein’s West Side Story with Opera San José.

Mr. Stewart trained at Julliard and the Academy of Vocal Arts and is an alumnus of the Merola Program at San Francisco Opera. He is a DECCA recording artist and appears on the Sony DVD of The Indian Queen. In 2012, his solo album “Noah”, topped the classical charts for 7 weeks and was nominated for 2 Classical Brit Awards. Off-stage, Noah has been featured on PBS’s Pinkalicious & Peteriffic, as the role of an opera singer.

Patrice Pates Eaton, mezzo soprano is a versatile performer in various musical genres and is a frequent performer of premiere works. Patrice’s career in opera began as a member of the children's chorus of both the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera. Most recently Ms. Eaton has performed with; AOP/NYU Opera Lab, The Long Lake Music Festival, On Site Opera in Gianni Schicchi as Zita, Fort Worth Opera’s Virtual Concert “A Night of Black Excellence” and Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center at the White Light Festival. Ms. Eaton made her Carnegie Hall debut honoring the late Sylvia Olden Lee, followed by her debut with the National Philharmonic performing as a soloist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and The Morgan State Choir in Wynton Marsalis’ All Rise at The Strathmore.

Ms. Eaton's concert engagements have included performing as soloist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in the U.S. tour of Wynton Marsalis' Abyssinian Mass (Recorded live under the Blue Engine Records Label), Soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Ode to Joy with the Lehigh University, and Handel's Messiah with the Abyssinian Baptist Church Orchestra and Choir. She has sung at the Edinburgh International Festival, Athens Epidaurus Festival, and the Vienna Arts Festival. Patrice’s opera engagements include performing with Spoleto Opera, Opera Ebony, American Opera Projects, Hudson Opera Theater, Musica Bella Series, Syracuse Opera, Chelsea Opera, Bronx Opera and Amore Opera.

Patrice received her degrees from the University of Kentucky and The Conservatory at Brooklyn College. As a young artist, she was a member of Bel Canto at Caramoor International Music Festival in 2010 and 2011. She is a proud member of Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity, Advisory Board Member of The Concert Chorale, a Lifetime, National and Regional Board Member of the National Association of Negro Musicians (NANM) and the Artistic Director of Three on 3 Music.