Meet The Soloists, Accompanist, and Orchestra Coordinator
The glorious season of Messiah is upon us. A favorite season for many of us. This year we feel an extra amount of joy since it will be the first time in two years that we will sing together, in person. We have greatly missed seeing everyone and joining our voices together in song. We can’t wait to see familiar choir friends and meet new ones too. Speaking of meeting choir friends, let’s meet our soloists, accompanist, and our orchestra coordinator. These talented individuals lift this performance to a higher level.
Jennifer Seiger, alto
Praised for her “sonorous voice and superlative singing,” mezzo-soprano Jennifer Seiger performs frequently across the state of NC. A NC native, Ms. Seiger received a BM in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy at ECU and a MM in Opera from the Hartt School. She has appeared with NC Opera (Rigoletto, Approaching Ali, Carmen), NC Symphony (Pops Concert Series), NC Ballet (Monet Impressions singing Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer, Pulcinella, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Messiah), NC Master Chorale (Dido and Aeneas, Fern Hill, In the Beginning), Concert Singers of Cary (Fern Hill, Dixit Dominus, Messiah), Tar River Orchestra and Chorus (Rossini Stabat Mater, Mozart Requiem, Beethoven Choral Symphony and Mass in C) Capital Opera (Hansel and Gretel) and Long Leaf Opera (Trouble in Tahiti). Ms. Seiger toured extensively across the southeast with FBN Opera for Kids and was coordinator and performer with the arts outreach programs of Capital Opera and NC Opera. Ms. Seiger is also a sought after choral collaborator working with professional chamber ensembles including the Raleigh Bach Soloists and the Duke Evensong Singers.
Susannah Stewart, soprano
Susannah Stewart received her Master’s degree in May of 2021 from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied voice with Kathryn Cowdrick. Most recently, Susannah opened the Smedes Parlor concert series at the St. Mary’s School in Raleigh, NC (September 2021) with a solo recital. This past year, she performed the role of Aveline Mortimer in Elizabeth Cree by Kevin Puts, and The Lady with the Cake Box in Postcard from Morocco by Dominic Argento, both mainstage productions with Eastman Opera Theater, and both music directed by her primary coach, Timothy Long. In 2020, Susannah was asked by Eastman’s Dean Marie Rolf to perform in her “Debussy Premieres” lecture recital, presented in Hatch Hall at Eastman and at the J.P. Morgan Library in New York City alongside Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor and Randall Scarlata, baritone.She graduated in May of 2019 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Music in Voice and Political Science. At UNC, Susannah performed the title role in Alcina (Handel), Dido in Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), and Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Mozart). Other credits with orchestra include Handel’s cantata “Crudel tiranno amor”, Schubert’s Rosamunde, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, Bach’s Magnificat, Handel’s Utrecht Te Deum and Messiah, Haydn’s Theresienmesse, and Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard.
Marc Callahan, bass
A native of Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, bass-baritone Marc Callahan (Assistant Professor UNC) received his Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin College where he studied with the renowned pedagogue Richard Miller. He holds a Master of Music degree from the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts in vocal performance and opera direction from the same institution. Dr. Callahan was also the recipient of the Rotary Scholarship from the Cincinnati Chapter, which allowed him to travel to France, where he earned a Diplôme Supérieur d’Exécution de Chant from the École Normale de Musique de Paris and a Diplôme d’Artiste Lyrique from the Schola Cantorum. He studied French at the Institut de Touraine and French art song with mentor François Le Roux at the Académie Françis Poulenc. He was winner of the Prix Lili Boulanger at the Concours International d’Interprétation de la Mélodie Française and has sung a duo recital of French song alongside the legendary soprano June Anderson and pianists Noël Lee and Jeff Cohen. While at university, he apprenticed with the Central City Opera (where he was awarded the Studio Artist Award), Des Moines Metro Opera, Sarasota Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Britten-Pears Academy and the Centre National d’Insertion Professionelle des Artistes Lyriques.
Dr. Callahan’s performance career has taken him around the world, singing at opera houses such as: The Royal Opera House, Santa Fe Opera, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Théâtre du Capitole, Opéra National de Lyon, Opéra de Montpellier, Opéra Comique, Théâtre Royale de Versailles, Opéra de Marseille, Central City Opera, Dayton Opera, the Ohio Light Opera and Opera North (UK), among others. His repertoire includes: Don Giovanni, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte), il Conte di Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Belcore (L’Elisir d’amore), Count Arnheim (The Bohemian Girl), Zar Peter (Zar und Zimmerman), Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), Ramiro (L’Heure Espagnole), Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Sid (Albert Herring), Morales (Carmen), Pish-Tush (The Mikado), Samuel (Pirates of Penzance), Frédéric (Lakmé), Escamillo (Carmen), Passagallo (Opera Seria), Le Carnival (Le Carnival et la Folie), Artemidore (Armide), Bobinet (La Vie Parisienne), and Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). As a concert performer, he has sung Charpentier’s Leçons et Ténèbres with Les Arts Florissants, an evening of mélodie française with the London Song Festival, Haydn’s The Creation, Götterdämmerung with Midsummer Opera (London), a program of Henri Dutilleux mélodies (Radio France), Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 5, and as bass soloist in The Tempest with Les Ombres and the Opéra de Marseille. Opera magazine has reviewed him as “a powerful baritone, providing wickedly glamorous tone.” He has recorded with Virgin Classics, FRA Productions, Passavant, Radio France, and Newport Classics.
As an opera director, Dr. Callahan has received critical acclaim for his production of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes, saying it was “designed and directed with jaw-dropping invention.” He has also assisted on Martin Duncan’s productions at the Royal Opera House, the Aldeburgh Festival and the Holland Festival (The Cure/The Corridor), acted as collaborateur artistique on Les Fiançailles au Couvent at the Théâtre du Capitole, provided research for Thomas de Mallet Burgess’s La Vestale for the Wexford Festival and observed Bijan Sheibani on The Virtue of Things for the Royal Opera House. Recent productions include Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Louis Aubert’s The Blue Forest (National Opera Association Prize Winner 2017) for Oregon State University’s opera program, where he was a Visiting Professor in Opera and Voice.
Timothy W. Sparks, tenor
Timothy W. Sparks has appeared with opera companies in Europe and the United States, including The Israel Vocal Arts Institute, Operafestival di Roma, International Young Artists Project (Italy), Jacksonville Lyric Opera, First Coast Opera, North Carolina Opera, Greensboro Opera Company, Triangle Opera, A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute, Brevard Music Center, Capital Opera-Raleigh, and Durham Savoyards, Limited. With a commitment to contemporary music, Mr. Sparks has participated in the premiere of several new stage works by Joel Feigin, Benton Hess, Tom Lohr, D.J. Sparr, and Zachary Wadsworth. The tenor’s 2002 performance in Starbird, a children’s opera by Henry Mollicone, with North Carolina Opera was captured on videotape and rebroadcast on PBS in April of 2005. His concert appearances include the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin, Canton Symphony Orchestra, Statesboro-Georgia Southern Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Eastern Music Festival, Belleayre Music Festival, Breckenridge Music Institute and Festival, University of Notre Dame, and numerous choral organizations. In January 2011, his recording of the Arnold Schönberg chamber orchestra transcription of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde was released by Centaur Records, Inc. Mr. Sparks currently serves as a Lecturer in Voice and Diction at UNC-Chapel Hill and is an active adjudicator. As a member of N.A.T.S., Inc., he served as both a state district officer and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Governor, and is a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. Mr. Sparks received his BM in Vocal Performance from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and MM with the Performer’s Certificate in Voice from the Eastman School of Music.
Rev. Patti Lingafelt, accompanist
Rev. Patti Lingafelt, accompanist, received the Bachelor of Music degree from James Madison University in Organ Performance and the Master of Divinity with Church Music degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, organ concentration. She and her husband Steven, an electrical engineer at IBM, have lived in Durham for 37 years. Rev. Lingafelt, an ordained Baptist minister, has served several churches in the Triangle area as Minister of Music/Organist and has accompanied middle school and high school choruses and numerous soloists and instrumentalists. This is her sixth appearance as organist for the annual Cary Community Choir performance of Messiah. She currently serves Trinity United Methodist Church in Durham as Minister of Music and Organist. Rev. Lingafelt is a member of the American Guild of Organists, Durham-Chapel Hill and Central NC Chapters; American Choral Directors Association; and Choristers Guild. The Lingafelts have two grown children.
Dana Friedli, orchestra coordinator
Dana Friedli studied at Eastman and Mannes, receiving her MM from Mannes in 1990. Teachers included Fredell Lack, Sally Thomas, Ani Kavafian, Felix Galimir and Stuart Canin. Dana lived and freelanced in New York for 12 years, playing music ranging from Bach to Xenakis and everything in between!
In 1998 Dana and her violin restorer husband Jerry Pasewicz relocated to Raleigh to open Triangle Strings.
Dana taught at Meredith College for 12 years and at UNC Chapel Hill for 7 years. She is a dedicated teacher of 30+ years with a thriving Suzuki Studio. Dana founded Suzuki of the Triangle 10 years ago, which sponsors TCI, a summer chamber music institute, and also a prep workshop for local youth orchestra auditions. As part of SoFT, she directs 2 pretwinkle programs at area Montessoris.
Dana has performed extensively with the North Carolina Symphony, Music-on-the-Hill series at UNC’s Memorial Hall, NC Opera, all things choral at Duke Chapel, and numerous other area groups. Triangle Strings presents a yearly instrument exhibition called ” Meritage”, in which Dana performs on fabulous instruments alongside her favorite colleagues.
Dana loves to run, paddleboard and make silver and dichroic glass jewelry in her “spare time”.