The Downtown Singers are pleased to announce our soloists for this year's performance of Handel's Messiah.  An abbreviated biography for each soloist appears below.  You will find their full biographies in the program at our concert.

Martha Guth – Soprano Soloist - Juno nominated soprano Martha Guth’s recital and concert highlights include Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, The National Cathedral, St. John Smith Square, Oxford Song, Leeds Lieder, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Philharmonic, Voices of Ascension, and many more. Her longtime recital and touring partners include Graham Johnson and Erika Switzer. Her recitals have been recorded and broadcast for the CBC Radio/Radio Canada, the BBC Radio in the U.K and the WDR in Germany and she is proud to have worked under the batons of Maestro’s Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Helmut Rilling, John Nelson, Richard Bradshaw, and Alan Gilbert among many others.

Dawn Pierce -  Mezzo-soprano Soloist - Dawn is a native of Olean, New York, and currently an associate professor of voice at Ithaca College. She was recently a featured recitalist in the Middlebury Song Festival, and has performed Verdi Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth and Messiah with symphonies throughout the country. On the operatic stage, she’s performed Béatrice in Beatrice et Bénédict with Asheville Lyric Opera, Charlotte in Werther with Mobile Opera, and Carmen in Carmen with Opera Ithaca. She is internationally recognized for her top-selling course, How to Sing with The Great Courses.

Vale Rideout - Tenor Soloist  - Val enjoys a career on the opera and concert stage. He has sung major roles with San Francisco Opera (Alfred in Die Fledermaus), Palm Beach Opera (Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni), Boston Lyric Opera (Quint in The Turn of the Screw), Kentucky Opera (Roméo in Roméo et Juliette), Central City Opera (Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor),
Tulsa Opera (Tamino in The Magic Flute), and Nashville Opera (Frank Shallard in Elmer Gantry). He has sung with major symphonies including the New York Philharmonic (Maazel/War Requiem), Los Angeles Philharmonic (War Requiem), Seattle Symphony (Messiah), Jacksonville Symphony (War Requiem), Nashville Symphony (Messiah), Detroit Symphony (Beethoven 9), Washington Chorus (Missa Solemnis), New Orleans Philharmonic (Messiah, Christmas Oratorio), Trinity Church Wall Street (Britten - Serenade, Stravinsky - Les Noces) and Toledo Symphony (Verdi Requiem). 

Steven Stull - Baritone Soloist -  Steven has lived and performed in Ithaca since 1986 and appears regularly with Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Society for New Music, Rochester Philharmonic, and Opera Ithaca. He has been a soloist in sixty performances with Symphoria, Syracuse Symphony, and Syracuse Opera, and has sung nearly eighty performances with the West Virginia Symphony. In Binghamton, Steven appeared as Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Danilo in The Merry Widow, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, and the Captain in HMS Pinafore with Tri-Cities Opera, and as Lancelot in Camelot with BC Pops. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music and Oberlin College Conservatory, he has also appeared with Glimmerglass Opera, Artpark, BAM, Kyrgyz State Opera, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, American Modern Ensemble, Oswego Opera, Anchorage Festival of Music, Fredonia Bach and Beyond Festival, and orchestras in Buffalo, Erie, and Jacksonville.