Soprano Desirée Soteres is equally at home in concert, musical theater and on the operatic stage and has been praised for her superb characterization and powerful vocal ability. Desirée's love for music has taken her across the U.S. and around the world. She comes to Pittsburgh via Memphis, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Portland, New York City, ports around the globe through Cunard Cruise Lines, San José, and Chattanooga.
She's played many venues both traditional and unorthodox. Currently, she can be seen performing once a month with Aria412 at Wallace's at Hotel Indigo. Desirée especially enjoys new music and has premiered new works with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Alia Musica and the New Dischord Festival. The most exciting premiere was the title role in Eve Apart by composer Tim Hinck and husband Kip Soteres, which was produced both in Chattanooga and Pittsburgh. Desirée's favorite operatic role is Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. She has had the pleasure. of singing it with Undercroft opera, Opera San Jose, West Bay Opera, Stockton Opera, Pocket Opera and as a Resident Artist at Portland Opera. Desirée premiered the role of Flora Dart in A New Kind of Fallout by composer Gilda Lyons and playwright Tammy Ryan with the Pittsburgh Festival Opera. That same season she portrayed Joe Boyd in PFO's gender bending Damn Yankees. Other theatrical performances include Roselinda in Die Fledermaus with Undercroft Opera, Despina in Cosi fan tutte with Mission City Opera, Blonde in Abduction from the Seraglio with Pocket Opera, Cunegonde in Candide with Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and Rosa Bud in The Mystery of Edwin Drood with Chattanooga Theater Center. Desirée has appeared as Abigail in The Crucible, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Lucy in Threepenny Opera and Celeste #1 in Sunday in the Park with George. As a soloist with Pittsburgh's new music ensemble Alia Musica, she premiered Kierkegaard's Pantoum by composer David Lidov, was soprano soloist in Shadow in the Hot Sun by Paris-based composer Nissim Schaul and Al Vacio by composer Federico Garcia, a work she premiered at the inaugural New Dischord Festival in Chattanooga. Desirée created the role of Eve in Eve Apart at the Chattanooga Theater Center and created the role of Pamela in the premier of TOOWHOPERA by composer Sorrel Hays in Rome, GA. On the concert stage, she recently performed at Chatham University in a Mozart Birthday Celebration, Classical Salon, Salon on Emerson in a Kurt Weill Salon, the 40th anniversary for Opera Volunteers International in NYC, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Orchestra, Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, Chattanooga Bach Choir and CreateHere’s Hops and Opera. She was a featured performer in a series of concerts in Europe, South America, and Australia aboard Cunard’s Vistafjord and Royal Viking Sun. Desirée received her MM in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, her BA in music from Rhodes College in Memphis and studied in Austria. |
Soprano Kelly Fiona Lynch has performed across the east coast of the United States, Italy and Central America. Ms. Lynch's early performing career was as a dramatic coloratura. As such, she performed the roles of Violetta in La Traviata, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Micaela in Carmen, both Adele and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, both Madame Goldentrill and Miss Silverpeal in The Impresario, both The Queen of the Night and Pamina in The Magic Flute, Amor in L'incoronazione di Poppea, Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, and Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte. Upon studying and performing the role of Norma, Ms. Lynch decided to take time from performing to switch fachs, reconditioning the voice to re-emerge as a spinto soprano. Some of her most recent roles include Desdemona from Otello, Aïda, Elisabeth from Don Carlo, Leonore from La forza del destino, Amelia from Un ballo in maschera, Leonore from Il trovatore, Santuzza from Cavalleria Rusticana, and Cio Cio San from Madama Butterfly.
For Undercroft Opera, Kelly Fiona Lynch has been heard as Madame Larina and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, as well as the title roles in Verdi’s Aida, Bellini’s Norma, Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Giorgetta in Il Tabarro. She has also sung the title roles of Lucia di Lammermoor and La Traviata for Erie Opera Theater. Ms. Lynch has performed in Italy and Central America, and has conducted master classes in San Jose, Costa Rica for the University of Costa Rica. As a soloist, she has sung with the Erie Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Philharmonic, Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, Westmoreland Philharmonic Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble (Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire), and the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra, where she sang Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and the title role in Bizet’s Carmen. Oratorio repertoire she has performed includes the soprano solos in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Verdi’s Requiem and Strauss’ Vier Letzte Lieder. Kelly recently covered the title roles in Opera Theater of Pittsburgh's production of Strauss' Ariadne on Naxos, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, as well as Lizbeth, by Thomas Albert for Microscopic Opera. Her most recent performances include the orchestral songs of Richard Strauss with the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra, and for Chatham Concert Opera, Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera and Chrysostemis in Strauss’s Elektra. Dr. Lynch received her Bachelor of Music degree from Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania, majoring in vocal performance and minoring in piano. Her Master of Music degree is from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and her Doctor of Music degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she majored in vocal performance and minored in musicology. Dr. Lynch has also trained as a martial artist in Tae Kwon Do, and worked extensively as a massage therapist. Based in Pittsburgh, Dr. Kelly Fiona Lynch is the Founder and Artistic Director of Chatham Concert Opera at Chatham University, which promotes local opera singers from the larger Pittsburgh area. She is currently on the music faculty at Seton Hill and Chatham Universities. |
