PERFORMING artists

  • Described by the New York Times as having a “clear, bright soprano,” and hailed as “the most versatile performer in the Baltimore-Washington area” (The Baltimore City Paper), soprano, Rebecca Duren is often praised for the ability to incorporate her multi-faceted background with the operatic stage. Highlights in her performing career include engagements with Ente Concerti in Sardinia, Italy performing Purcell’s Dido and Aneas; numerous appearances with American Opera Theater, including the role of Jonathas in M.A. Charpentier’s David et Jonathas (Brooklyn Academy of Music), and as Galatea in Acis + Galatea: A Circus Opera. A versatile performer, Ms. Duren has premiered many cutting edge concept-operas, most notably Songspiel - a production of Kurt Weill's music starring Sylvia McNair, premiered in Baltimore and Washington DC. As a concert soloist, Ms. Duren has appeared with the Firebird Orchestra, The Grand Tour Orchestra in New York City, Barefoot Baroque, The Miami Bach Society, The Miami Symphony, Musica Nova, and has appeared as a guest artist with the Indiana University New Music Ensemble. Major works include Mozart Requiem, Monteverdi Vespers of 1610, and Bach’s St Matthew Passion. An avid recitalist, Ms. Duren has been featured on the American Composers Association Festival Concert Series at Symphony Space in New York City, premiering Lansing McLoskey’s song cycle, Sudden Music; and featured with Musica Nova in Dallas premiering Robert Xavier Rodriguez’ Six Songs of E. E. Cummings. Rebecca has performed as a professional choral singer with Simon Carrington Chamber Singers, Tucson Chamber Artists, Spire, Skylark and was a member of Seraphic Fire for 6 seasons.

    Ms. Duren can be heard on numerous professionally recorded albums with Seraphic Fire, True Concord, Simon Carringon Chamber Singers, and premiering new music of Lansing McClosky on Albany Records and Robert Xavier Rodriguez on The OPERA America Songbook.

    Ms. Duren is Director of Choral Activities and on the voice faculty at Agnes Scott College.

    rebecca-duren.com

  • Caroline LeGrand, soprano, originally from Durham, North Carolina, lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Furman University and a Master of Divinity from Mercer University. She is a PhD candidate at the International Baptist Theological Studies Centre in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is the Missions Communications Specialist at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as well as a staff and substitute choral singer at several churches around Atlanta.

    Caroline is passionate about ensemble singing and has been honored to be frequently featured as a soloist in various spaces. She has been featured often at All Saints Episcopal in Atlanta, most notably in their performance of Bach Cantata BWV 61, where she was the soprano soloist. She was a participant in the 2022-2023 US VOCES8 Scholars program, where she was featured as a soloist in the Minnesota Public Radio's recordings of "Coventry Carol" and Vivanco's "Veni, Dilecte Mi." Caroline was honored to perform the world premiere of Christopher Tin’s The Lost Birds with the VOCES8 ensemble in 2023. Caroline has also gained considerable training at the programs of Duke Chapel, including the Chorworks Early Music program and the Duke Bach Cantata Series, where she appeared as a soloist in their performance of BWV 192.

    Other professional vocal ensembles she has enjoyed performing with are Servire Chorus, Chicora Voices, Kinnara, Coro Vocati, and the SC Bach Choir. Caroline has been a member of the service ensemble, Servire Chorus, since its inception in 2019, performing benefit concerts around the east coast and featured multiple times as a soloist. Servire recently released its very first recorded single in 2024, “Only in Sleep”, where Caroline is the featured soloist.

  • Sylvia Ware has been singing since she joined the school chorus in fifth grade. In college, Sylvia worked as a Staff Singer at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church, was the President of Emory Concert Choir, and was the Music Director of Dooley Noted A Cappella, Emory's only coed service-oriented a cappella group. She continues to sing at GMUMC and is also a member of the Atlanta Master Chorale, Kinnara, and EarlyBird. By day, Sylvia is a medical social worker specializing in gerontology and palliative care.

  • Wanda Yang Temko is a respected singer, voice teacher, and arts advocate. She holds a doctorate in voice performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana along with degrees from Georgia State University and Emory University. She is featured on New Trinity Baroque's recording of Christmas Cantatas and Concertos on Édition Lilac. She also performs and records with the Meridian Chorale and the Grammy-Award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Choruses. Dr. Yang Temko maintains an active private voice studio in Atlanta and serves on the Board of Directors of Atlanta Early Music Alliance, ATL Symphony Musicians Foundation, and Kinnara.

    https://www.yangtemko.com/wanda/

  • Mezzo-soprano Meghan Stoll enjoys a multifaceted career as a concert soloist, ensemble musician, and conductor. As an ensemble singer, she has performed with Ensemble Altera, Kinnara, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Servire, The Thirteen, the Yale Choral Artists, New Muses Project, and Yale Schola Cantorum. In concert, Meghan has sung solos from Handel’s Messiah, Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vespers and Vivaldi’s Gloria. She is a chorister at the Basilica of the National Shrine and can also be seen singing with the choir of the Washington National Cathedral.

    As a conductor, Meghan serves as Associate Director of Choirs at Georgia State University and Senior Associate Director of the GRAMMY® Award Winning National Children’s Chorus. In the 2023-2024 season, she joined the Richmond Symphony Chorus as guest conductor and served as Director of Choral Activities at the National Cathedral School and St. Alban’s School. Previous appointments include Director of Choral Activities at St. Catherine’s Episcopal School in Richmond, Virginia, Director of Music at the University Church at Yale, and Assistant Conductor of the Yale Camerata.

    Stoll recently received a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where she studied voice with soprano Sherezade Panthaki. There, she sang with the Yale Schola Cantorum and was featured as a soloist in Corigliano’s Fern Hill and Thompson’s The Caged Bird Sings. In 2019, she earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied voice with Timothy LeFebvre and appeared as Mère Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti.

    https://www.meghanstoll.com/

  • Elizabeth Johnson Knight, American mezzo soprano, is in demand as both a choral and solo artist. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2010 as alto soloist in Handel's Messiah with Andrew Megill and the Masterwork Chorus. She has appeared recently with Raleigh Bach Soloists, Ars Lyrica, Duke Vespers Ensemble, Sinfonia da Camera, and Winston-Salem Symphony, among others. Elizabeth regularly sings with professional choral ensembles across the US, including the Carmel Bach Festival Chorale, Kinnara Ensemble, and the GRAMMY-nominated South Dakota Chorale. Elizabeth can be heard as mezzo soloist in Duruflé's Requiem on SDC's debut recording In Paradisum (Gothic, 2012), and has also recorded for Naxos, Pentatone, MSR Classics, and Affetto Records.

    Elizabeth holds degrees in voice from the University of North Texas (DMA), Indiana University (MM), and the University of Mississippi (BM). She has been on the voice faculties of Southeastern Oklahoma State University, the University of Louisiana Monroe, Murray State University, and the University of North Texas. She currently teaches at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include the effects of posture on the acoustics of the singing voice, and she has presented at the New Voice Educators Symposium, the Texoma NATS Artist Series, and the Performing Arts Medicine Association. She has published research in the Journal of Voice. Elizabeth is also passionate about improving choral singing at all levels. She is a regular clinician for choral groups, and teaches choral conductors how to apply current voice science and pedagogy in their ensembles.

  • Ana Baida, a native Texan, resides in Atlanta, Georgia, where she enjoys simultaneous careers as a professional singer, a career consultant to artists, and as the leader for global Talent and Organizational Intelligence with Visa. In her role at Visa, she convenes various Visa teams to learn about and help to solve talent strategy problems and offers insights to the business to aid in talent-focused decision making. When not fulfilling her full-time responsibilities, Ana is delighted to sing with Conspirare and the Kinnara Ensemble, and recently as part of the American Soloists Ensemble, who completed a diplomatic tour through South Korea. She has served for the past 15 years as staff soloist and section leader at the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta and sings intermittently with various other groups in the southeast. Ana holds a Bachelors from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, a Masters from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, and a Doctorate from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

    www.anabaida.com

  • The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called mezzo-soprano Heather Witt “the kind of singer you hope to hear - talented, alert... a singer with a future.” Ms. Witt is known for her portrayal of a wide array of opera’s most notable mezzo-soprano characters, including: Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette, Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann (FIO, Brazil), Dryad in Ariadne Auf Naxos, Principessa in Suor Angelica, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Second Lady and Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Elmire in Tartuffe, Mauya in Riders to the Sea, Mrs. Nolan in The Medium, Mrs. Herring in Albert Herring, Meg in Falstaff, Sally in Hand of Bridge, and Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, among many others.Heather Witt is also an esteemed oratorio and concert soloist, and is a staff soloist at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. Ms. Witt completed her undergraduate studies in Music at Millikin University (Decatur, IL), and received a Masters in Voice from Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA).

    Heatherwittmezzo.com

  • Daniel Shafer serves as the Director of Music Ministries at Ashford Memorial Methodist Church in Watkinsville, GA, and as a Lecturer in Choral Conducting at the University of Georgia, where he is also completing his Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting.

    Originally from Florida, Daniel holds a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Bachelor of Music Education from Florida State University. Following his undergraduate studies, he led the choral program at Westminster Christian School in Miami, FL, where he directed ensembles on tours to London, Hawaii, the Cayman Islands, Walt Disney World, and Nashville.

    A versatile musician and active performer, Daniel has appeared in stage productions of A Little Night Music, Don Giovanni, and Le Portrait de Manon. He has been featured as a soloist with Kinnara, Alarm Will Sound (in collaboration with Meredith Monk), the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, the University of Georgia’s University Chorus and Hodgson Singers, and the Festival Singers of Florida. In addition to performing, Daniel is an active clinician, regularly working with school and church choirs throughout the region.

    Daniel currently lives in Madison, GA, with his wife, Meghan, along with their dogs, Harry Truman and Lady Bird, and their cats, Big Kitty and Little Kitty.

  • Atlanta-based tenor, Ameya Gangal is in his fourth season with Kinnara. He is a staff singer at Glenn Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta and performs with the Atlanta Master Chorale. Ameya is also a dermatology resident at Emory, where he has developed interests in ethics, dermatologic surgery, histology, and care for migrant populations. Outside of music and medicine, Ameya enjoys playing basketball. He also loves spending time with family (including his wife, Sylvia, in the soprano section!), and eagerly ascribing meaning to the idiosyncrasies of their two cats, Mulan and Dumpling.

  • Ryan Koter, tenor, is a neurologic physical therapist with a long-standing passion for choral singing. He currently resides in Atlanta, GA and treats individuals primarily with brain and spinal cord injury at Shepherd Center. In addition to singing with Kinnara, Ryan sings regularly with Early Bird and Atlanta Master Chorale. He formerly sang with several early and sacred music ensembles affiliated with Duke Capel. Ryan received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Notre Dame and a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Duke University School of Medicine.

  • With singing described as “poignant...with sincerity and unforced beauty” (The Times, London), “elegant” (Cape Cod Times), and “emotionally devastating” (Boston Music Intelligencer), Cory Klose is a sought-after soloist and ensemble singer in the United States. Cory’s recent solo engagements feature appearances with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Dekalb Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Master Chorale, Colorado's Music in the Mountains Festival, and Washington DC's Orchestra of the Hills, performing works such as J.S. Bach’s Magnificat and St. John Passion, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, Schubert’s Mass in Eb, Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae solennes de confessore, and Handel’s Messiah. As a professional choral artist, Cory has appeared with many noted ensembles across the U.S., such as The Crossing, Kinnara, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Handel & Haydn Society, Bach Collegium San Diego, True Concord, Spire Chamber Ensemble, and The Thirteen. He can also be heard on many acclaimed choral recordings, including the GRAMMY® Award-winning “Songs of Ascension” with Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble and as a soloist on Skylark’s GRAMMY® Award-nominated album “Seven Words from the Cross.”

  • Charlie Wentz is an Atlanta-based baritone whose work spans opera and chamber music. He has performed with The Atlanta Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, and is glad to be joining Kinnara for second time.

  • Georgia native Dr. Jacob Augsten is Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music in the School of the Arts at Reinhardt University, where he conducts the Reinhardt choirs and teaches courses in Conducting, Aural Skills, and Choral Methods. Augsten holds graduate degrees in Choral Conducting from the University of North Texas and Georgia State University, and an undergraduate degree in Music Education from Clayton State University.


  • John Arnold is an Atlanta-based singer, actor, writer, podcast host, and multi-instrumentalist. This is second season singing with Kinnara. John has performed to great acclaim with opera companies and associated emerging and resident artist programs across the United States, including the Atlanta Opera, Boston Opera Collaborative, Des Moines Metro Opera, Detroit Opera, Kentucky Opera, Knoxville Opera, Madison Opera, the Merola Opera Program, and Opera New Jersey. He is also in demand as a concert and oratorio soloist and has built a reputation for delivering performances imbued with a unique combination of vocal clarity, elegant musicality, and dramatic sophistication. John lives in the Kirkwood neighborhood of Atlanta with his wife, the writer Drew Dotson (drewdotson.com), and their two perfect dogs.

  • Dr. Andrew Phillip Schmidt is a singer, conductor, and educator based in Atlanta, GA. Currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Oglethorpe University, he originally hails from rural Illinois, he began his musical journey as an oboist and pianist, earning state honors and performing in top regional and statewide ensembles. He transitioned to singing during his undergraduate studies, where he developed a lasting passion for vocal music education. Prof. Schmidt’s commitment to personal transformation through singing and vocal pedagogy has led to academic appointments in individual and group voice instruction, choral studies, and musical theater. These teaching experiences also shape his research, which explores multivocality—the embodied intersection of techniques and meanings that enables individuals to vocalize across genres and styles—as a framework for reimagining vocal music education. He has presented his work at conferences across state, regional, national, and international levels. His publications appear in The International Journal of Research in Choral Music, Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, and The Choral Journal.

    www.andrewphillipschmidt.com

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