Fall 2018 Concert Soloists

Julia Metzler, soprano

Julia Metzler, soprano, BCCO January 2019 concertLos Angeles–based soprano Julia Metzler is an active up-and-coming opera singer and concert soloist. Her recent and upcoming roles include Vitellia in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Mrs. P in Nyman's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen, and the title role in Holst's Savitri. 
 
As a roster member of the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Julia can frequently be heard at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. She has performed as a soloist with both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and with the Chorale, most recently in Bach’s Magnificat. Other solo credits include Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in B minor, and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy.
 
A frequent opera competitor, Julia was a 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Awards semifinalist. She has also won awards from the Pasadena Opera Guild (second place), the Pacific Musical Society (first place), James Toland Vocal Arts (third place), the Mondavi Center (grand prize), and the Palm Springs Opera Guild (finalist).
 
In June, Julia returned to Music Academy of the West for her second consecutive summer, covering the role of the Countess in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, under the baton of James Conlon.
 
In 2011, Julia participated in the I Sing International Festival, a summer program designed to introduce Western singers to Mandarin as a lyric language. Julia has subsequently performed in China many times and has sung in concerts of Chinese music in venues across the United States—including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall—in Paris, and on Chinese television for the Lunar New Year Gala, the most watched television broadcast in the world.
 
Julia has appeared on the NPR radio show "From the Top" and was featured in the HBO miniseries "Masterclass," coaching with Plácido Domingo.

For more information, see www.juliaheronmetzler.com.
 

Christian Ketter, tenor

Christian Ketter, tenor, BCCO January 2019 concert

Tenor Christian Ketter made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2014 as part of “The Song Continues,” with mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. The 2013 winner of the Friedrich Schorr American Prize in Voice, Christian has appeared as the tenor soloist with the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Bruckner’s Te Deum, making his Symphony Center debut with the orchestra again in 2015 at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. In 2017 he performed under conductor and Chicago Symphony principal trombonist Jay Friedman with The Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest as Tristan in Act II of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, as well as the tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. He has also performed the Symphony No. 9 with the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

A frequent recitalist, Christian has given solo recitals on behalf of the Chicago chapters of The Wagner Society of America and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He has appeared as a guest lecturer and recitalist at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. The winner of the 2013 Chicago Oratorio Award and the 2012 National Grand Prize Winner of the Shirley Rabb Winston Voice Scholarships, he has sung Mozart’s Missa brevis with the Chicago Bar Association Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. Past solo performances include DuBois’s Les sept paroles du Christ, Handel’s Messiah, and Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël.

Christian was privileged to be musically coached and staged by American composer Carlisle Floyd in a 2011 concert celebrating his operatic works. Other stage performances include “Something Wonderful, the Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein” with the CBA Symphony, and Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra's 2014 Holiday Concert. A 2013 International Finalist in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Competition, he has sung Che in Evita with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra; Cavaradossi in scenes from Puccini's Tosca with the Calumet City Chamber Ensemble; Radamès in scenes from Verdi’s Aida with Music by the Lake; Willy Loman in Rizzer’s adaptation of Death of a Salesman; Edgar Linton in a televised concert marking the Chicago premiere of scenes from Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights; and Gaylord Ravenal in Show Boat.

Christian served as the host of the World Golden Memories International Tour, an orchestral concert tour with Star Gate Music Productions, for which he has been a recording artist. At Ravinia, in 2010, he gave a benefit recital on behalf of the Misericordia Foundation. In 2007, he performed at Walt Disney World on behalf of Sherrill Milnes’s VOICExperience, and in 2008 he performed for the International Center on Deafness and the Arts with Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin and Dancing with the Stars’s Fabian Sanchez.

Christian co-wrote a musical stage adaptation of The Great Gatsby and is a featured orchestrator on Canadian tenor Riccardo Iannello’s 2015 recording. Christian's new music video of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” with violinist Cara Schlecker and pianist Cole Anderson is available online. The winner of the 2015 American Prize in Art Song, Christian's debut classical recording “Beloved” is available at iTunes & Amazon.

For more information, see www.christianketter.com.

 

André Chiang, baritone

André Chiang, baritone, BCCO January 2019 concert

Touted by The Oregonian as “vocally commanding,” baritone André Chiang brings his lyrical voice to repertoire spanning from Handel to Glass. André’s recent engagements include Opéra Louisiane as King Melchior (Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors), Mobile Opera as Schaunard (Puccini’s La bohème), Opera Birmingham as Belcore (Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore), and Pensacola Opera as Yamadori/Commissioner (Puccini’s Madama Butterfly). Previous credits include Young Galileo/Salviati (Glass’s Galileo Galilei), Argante (Handel’s Rinaldo), Falke (Strauss’s Die Fledermaus), and Ford (Verdi’s Falstaff), all with Portland Opera; Anthony Hope (Sweeney Todd) with Virginia Opera; Masetto (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), El Gallo (The Fantasticks), Moralès/Le Dancaïre (Bizet’s Carmen), and Motorcycle Cop/First Prison Guard (Heggie’s Dead Man Walking) with Shreveport Opera; Marco (Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi) with Mobile Opera; and Lancelot in the Young Artist Matinee of Camelot at the Glimmerglass Festival.

Competition honors include Regional Finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, finalist in the Liederkranz Art Song/Lieder competition, winner of the Grand Concours de Chant for French song, winner of the 59th National Federation of Music Clubs’ Biennial Young Artist Award, and winner of the 45th National Association of Teachers of Singing’s Artist Awards Competition. André was the baritone soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra and the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, and the bass soloist in Haydn’s Mass in D minor with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra.

He is a doctor of musical arts candidate at Louisiana State University, studying under Dennis Jesse, where he has been seen as Falstaff (Verdi’s Falstaff)and the Gamekeeper (Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen).

For more information, see www.andrechiangbaritone.com.