Sing for Their Supper V | communnityconcerts

The Fifth Annual

"Sing For Their Supper"

On Saturday, March 16th at 7pm the Fifth Annual “Sing For Their Supper” free benefit concert will feature a new set of ten local opera singers who are donating their time and talents to raise money for the Milton Food Pantry and the Milton Residents Fund. They will be performing a variety of songs, arias, and musical theater selections.

Admission to this concert is free; an offering will be taken. (Snow date: March 23)

THIS YEAR'S PERFORMERS

Jennifer Caraluzzi

Hailed by Opera Today as a “polished, soaring soprano,” Jennifer Caraluzzi is an award-winning and
critically-acclaimed singer from Connecticut, who began her career singing the National Anthem for the
Mets at age ten. She received a master’s degree in vocal performance from the New England
Conservatory, and has since enjoyed a versatile and expansive career.
In Boston, Jennifer has had the opportunity to share the stage with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops
Orchestra, and regularly performs with the Boston Opera Collaborative, the Boston chapter of Opera on
Tap, and has performed and recorded with pop duo, The Barton Bros. Her stage highlights include:
Cunegonde in Candide, Stephanie in To Hell and Back, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Lucy in The
Telephone, and Gretel in Hansel and Gretel. In 2017, Centaur Records released a CD of Seymor Barab’s
children’s opera, Little Red Riding Hood, featuring Jennifer in the title role. The success of Little Red has
led to a new recording project: Engelbert Humperdink’s Hansel and Gretel, another children’s opera, on
which she will sing the role of Gretel. The project is expected to begin this fall.
Jennifer is also an accomplished educator, and serves on the voice faculties of the New England
Conservatory’s Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education, and is the Director of Programs
for the Boston chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She recently completed an
MBA in Music Business from the Berklee College of Music and Southern New Hampshire University.

Bizhou Chang

Bizhou Chang, Soprano, was born and raised in Mainland China, and now is based in
Boston, United States. As an international performer, Ms. Chang has attended festivals and
institutes in the United States, Italy, Germany, Austria and China. Ms. Chang was a finalist
of the prestigious Accademia Teatro all Scala and a member of Pi Kappa Lambda Honor
Society.
This season, Ms. Chang is scheduled to perform the role of Magda Sorel in The Consul with
Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she performed the role of Madama Lidoine in
Dialogues des Carmélites most recently.
Last season, Ms. Chang performed the title role in Madama Butterfly with Janiec Opera
Company at Brevard Music Center, the role of Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte and the role of
Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
Ms. Chang’s 2016-2017 season stage credits include performing the role of Countess
Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Miami Music Festival, the role of Donna Anna in Don
Giovanni with New York Lyric Opera Theatre, the title role in Alcina with Boston
Conservatory at Berklee, and the role of Michaëla in Carmen with Berlin Opera Academy.
She also covered the role of Mimì in MassOpera’s La Femme Bohème----an all-female cast
production of Puccini’s La Bohème. Ms. Chang also performed with Martina Arroyo
Foundation in the spring of 2017 and was selected to participate in OperaWorks Winter
Intensive Program in 2016.
Ms. Chang is currently pursuing Graduate Performance Diploma in Opera Performance at
Boston Conservatory, where she received her Master of Music in Vocal Performance as
well. Ms. Chang is also a graduate of Fudan University, Shanghai, China, where she
received her Bachelor of Science in Economics and Master of Economics. During her seven
years at Fudan University, she was seen as the soprano soloist with Fudan Univerisity
Choir and Echo Chamber Singers on the stages of the Shanghai Oriental Art Center,
Shanghai Concert Hall, Heluting Concert Hall and Shanghai Grand Theatre.

Carina Digianfilippo

Soprano, Carina DiGianfilippo, praised by The Boston Globe for her “winsome” voice and hailed
a “vision” by the Theatre Times, received her M.M. from Manhattan School of Music and her
B.M. from Syracuse University, where she was the recipient of the Anna Freeland Berry Prize,
the Music Faculty Award and the Award for Vocal Excellence. She was most recently seen in
concert as a finalist in the Vermont Vocal Competition and as Donna in a new opera
commissioned for the Boston Opera Collaborative entitled The Battle of Bull Run.
Miss DiGianfilippo has worked as a young artist with the Natchez Festival of Music, where she
performed as Queen Guinevere in Camelot, and with Opera Maine, where she portrayed the
first trio member in Trouble in Tahiti. She made her debut in Asia this past summer as a young
artist with the I Sing! International Young Artist Festival, performing in concerts throughout China
at venues including the Beijing National Opera. She returns to China in March to perform
Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra. Following her
performance in Xi’an, Miss DiGianfilippo will return to Boston to make her debut as Adele in
Strauss’ Die Fledermaus with MassOpera. Previous performances in the Boston area include
Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème with Boston Opera Collaborative and Zerlina in Mozart’s Don
Giovanni with Nempac Opera. For more credits, please see www.carinadigianfilippo.com.

Christopher Eaglin

Christopher Eaglin, praised for his “emotional vocalism” most recently sang Faust in Opera51’s
eponymous production and Florestan in North End Music Project’s production of Fidelio. He has
also sung Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with Lowell House Opera, Vaudemont in Iolanta with
Opera Slavica, Pinkerton with the Martina Arroyo Foundation. A lover of art song, Christopher
was a resident artist of the Art Song Society of New York and the International Vocal Arts Festival
performing Brahms Liebeslieder, Dichterliebe, and other song cycles. He is the winner of the
Metropolitan International Music Festival and a finalist for Joy in Singing. He is part of an ongoing
project to presenting a series of concerts and lectures in Boston, London, Oxford, and New York
around war and remembrance for the centennial of the First World War.

Maggie Finnegan

Hailed by Opera News her “clear, poised and defiant soprano” and The Washington Post
for her “silvery, pitch-perfect voice,” Maggie Finnegan is a versatile soprano, singing
repertoire spanning from medieval to contemporary. Awards include the S&R Foundation's
2017 Washington Award, First Place in the Washington International Competition for
Voice and second place in The American Prize for Women in Opera. Specializing in new
music, she has sung premieres with White Snake Projects, the {Re}Happening Festival, the
Juventas New Music Ensemble, The American Chamber Opera Company, Vital Opera,
Sparks & Wiry Cries SongSLAM and the Center for Contemporary Opera. Career
highlights include The Sound of Music with Paper Mill Playhouse, The Metropolitan Opera
Guild's School Touring Program and performing as a soloist in the revival of the play
Extraordinary Measures, in which she worked with tony award winning playwright/activist
Eve Ensler.
An avid concert performer and recitalist, Maggie made her international concert debut at
the PyeongChang Winter Music Festival in South Korea. Recent concert appearances
include performances with Beth Morrison Projects, the Avanti Orchestra, the Capital
Fringe Festival Chamber Series, The New Dominion Chorale, the City Choir of
Washington, Boston Lyric Opera Signature Series, the Handel and Haydn Society and the
Halcyon Stage in Washington, DC. She is a core member of the critically acclaimed
chamber ensemble The Broken Consort. Last season The Broken Consort presented the
world premiere of Movement 12 from Maggie's new work Reassemble With Care, a
composed and devised song cycle for amplified soprano and chamber ensemble.
This season includes Maggie's European Operatic debut in L'Enfant et les Sortileges with
the Belgian National Orchestra at BOZAR, her Amsterdam and Rotterdam debuts in Louis
Andriessien's Odysseus' Women / Anais Nin, the world premiere of Dan Visconti’s
PermaDeath: A Video Game Opera, her Boston Baroque debut (L'incoronazione di
Poppea) and a duo recital with Mezzo-Soprano Stephanie Blythe.
Maggie earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music, her Master
of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory and honed her opera improvisation skills at
the Opera Works Advanced Artist Program in Los Angeles. She currently splits her time
between New York City and Boston, where she shares a home with her partner and three
step-kids.

Celeste Godin

Celeste is currently a roster artist with Boston Opera Collaborative, having
“owned the stage as diva house wife” Marissa in Solitro’s A Case of
Anxiety (Boston Globe).  This season she performed with Barn Opera
(Fiordiligi, Così fan tutti), Odyssey Opera, Boston Modern Orchestra Project,
and Hartford Opera (reprising a role she premiered, Joyce in
Solitro’sTriangle). Celeste also had the pleasure of collaborating with
MassOpera and WNO in the orchestral workshop of Taking Up Serpents,
covering the protagonist, Kayla.  Up next is Beethoven’s 9 th  Symphony with
Pioneer Valley Symphony in May.  Last season, she premiered two works with
Boston Opera Collaborative, and appeared in their Spring production as a
“wonderful singer-actress” (Schmopera) in the role of Mimi (La bohème).  In
the same season, she had the pleasure of singing her first Donna Anna (Don
Giovanni) with NEMPAC, gave “an exemplary performance” (NETheatreGeek)
of Miss Havisham (Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night) with MetroWest Opera,
and joined Teatro Nuovo as a Resident Artist for the summer (covering the
role of Creusa in Medea in Corinto). She was selected as a Boston District
Winner for MONC, and appeared as a chorister and soloist with Odyssey
Opera.  Other favorite roles include Ku (Gilgamesh), Echo (Ariadne auf
Naxos), Rodolfo (La Femme Bohème), Agrippina (Agrippina), and Blanche de
la Force (Dialogues of the Carmelites). She attended New England
Conservatory (MM, Vocal Pedagogy; GD, Vocal Performance) and studies
with Bradley Williams. Celeste is very excited to join the Commonwealth
Chorale for the first time!

Brian Landry

Brian Landry has a tenor voice that reminds people of the great tenors of yesteryear, though he
is poised to become a great tenor of his own generation.
Brian sang his first Radames in Tulsa Opera's 2013 production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida. He also
made other recent important debuts: Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca with Harvard-Radcliffe
Orchestra, MacDuff in Verdi's MacBeth with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, Canio in
Providence Opera's Pagliacci, and the tenor soloist in Beethoven's 9th Symphony with Harvard-
Radcliffe Orchestra. He recently also sang his favorite role of Verdi’s Otello (for the 3rd time!)
with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras.
Brian sang as a Young Artist at the 2010 Caramoor International Music Festival in Katonah, NY.
Under the baton of Will Crutchfield, he performed as Flavio in Bellini’s Norma, and covered the
role of Pollione in the same opera. He also sang in several concerts during the festival.
In the 2009- 2010 season, Brian sang as a studio artist for Tulsa Opera, where he sang
Normanno in Donizetti's Lucia Di Lammermoor, Borsa in Verdi's Rigoletto, And Rodriguez in
Massenet's Don Quichotte.
In March 2007, Brian returned from the prestigious Accademia Verdiana in Busseto, Italy,
where he was coaching with the great Maestro Carlo Bergonzi. Brian made his international
debut as a featured performer at a concert in the Teatro Verdi in Busseto, which was televised
on Italian National Television on the program Loggione.

Jennifer Sgroe

Soprano Jennifer Sgroe began her musical career in dance and musical theater before transitioning to
classical repertoire. Having performed across the US in opera, concert and musical theater and internationally
as a soloist at festivals in Finland, England and Austria, she specializes in contemporary American opera and
art song and repertoire of the Baroque and Classical eras.
Praised for her “patrician ease and polished vocal refinement” by the Boston Music Intelligencer, Ms. Sgroe
made her Jordan Hall debut in concert with The Shakespeare Concerts in April 2017 in works by Joseph
Summer, Schumann, Brahms and Pesestky for voice, harp and horn including World Premieres by Summer
and Pesestky. A commercial recording of this project is forthcoming including her performances of the rarely
heard Drei Gesänge, Op. 93 by Schumann for Soprano and Harp.
Also in April 2017 Ms. Sgroe reprised her performance of Jessica Rudman’s monodrama “Trigger”, about the
effects of domestic violence, for the Women Composer’s Festival of Hartford. Jennifer sang the US premiere
of Rudman’s “Trigger” with Hartford Opera Theatre in November 2016 and will repeat this performance for the
third time in April 2018 in a newly orchestrated version on a program of works by Jessica Rudman titled,
Speaking her Truth. Ms. Sgroe is also an active recitalist, having collaborated with pianists Cliff Jackson, James

Busby, Nan McSwain and Beverly Soll. Recent recitals have included a program which investigates the connection
between the human spirit and the natural world through song, poetry and photography, a survey of 20th
Century American song, an introduction to the art of the song recital and she is currently developing the
Refugee Voices project, a concert project of newly-commissioned song settings of refugee stories in
collaboration with UNHCR and USA for UNHCR.
In 2017-2018 she continues to offer performances of the original recital program, To the Sea, developed with
her collaborator, pianist Beverly Soll. Originally premiered in July 2016 for the Nahant Historical Society this
recital will be repeated in venues across New England through Summer/Fall 2018.
Other recent opera and concert performances include Soprano Soloist for Cambridge Symphony's Holiday
Pops Concert, Soloist for the 15th Anniversary Concert with Arbor Opera Theater, Miranda (cover) for Joseph
Summer’s premiere of The Tempest, Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) with Sinfonietta Nova, Susanna (Le nozze di
Figaro) with Arbor Opera Theater, Lula/Lightfoot McClendon cover (Cold Sassy Tree) & Curley’s Wife (Of
Mice & Men) with Sugar Creek Opera. Highlight concert performances include the Angel in Handel's Jephtha
with Graeme Jenkins, and soprano soloist in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with David Temple at The
Dartington Festival (United Kingdom), Handel’s Messiah, the Pergolesi Stabat Mater, and Schubert’s Mass in
A-flat Major in Graz, Austria with Cornelius Eberhardt.
She was the Soprano Soloist for Handel’s Messiah in Belmont, MA in December 2017 and she returned to
Jordan Hall in March 2018 to sing Poulenc’s Gloria as part the NEC’s 150th Anniversary concert series.
Originally from NY, Jennifer Sgroe resides in historic Salem, MA with her husband Matt where she maintains
a private voice studio and also teaches on the voice faculty of New England Conservatory of Music
Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal
Performance from the University of Kentucky, a Master of Music in Opera from The Boston Conservatory and
a Doctorate of Musical Arts, also from the University of Kentucky. For more about Jennifer Sgroe visit
www.jennifersgroe.com

Giovanni Spanu

Canadian baritone Giovanni Spanu performs Oratorio, Opera and Art Song in Massachusetts
and Canada. He was featured in concert at Massey Hall, the Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto),
Palais Montcalm (Quebec City) the Neptune Theatre (Halifax) and looks forward to future
opportunities to make music.

Operatic roles include Papageno (Magic Flute), Peter (Hansel and Gretel), Don Giovanni
and Leporello (Don Giovanni), the Hunter (Rusalka), Marquis de la Force (Dialogues
des Carmélites), Don Pasquale (Don Pasquale), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore), and
Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos). Contemporary pieces include Count Carl-Magnus in A Little Night
Music (Sondheim), Signor Naccarelli in The Light in the Piazza (Guettel), and Maximilian in
Candide (Bernstein).

Bingchuan Wan

Wan Bingchuan, tenor, was born in Xinghua City, Jiangsu Province, China, and obtained his
Graduate Diploma in Opera in Longy School of Music in 2018. He graduated from the Shanghai
Conservatory of Music with a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance in 2010. He entered into the
China National Opera House in 2010 and then worked as a teacher of musical theatre vocal music
in the Beijing Dance Academy from 2012 to 2016. He won many awards in different vocal
competitions.
In April 2018 he played the leading tenor role in Mozart’s opera The Impresario with the
symphony orchestra of the Longy School of Music. In April 2017 with the Longy Orchestra, he
played the leading role in “The Tales of Hoffmann by Offenbach. In December, 2016 Wan
Bingchuan was selected by Harvard Lowell House Opera to play the tenor role Scaramuccio in
Richard Strauss’s opera “Ariadne auf Naxos”.
During 2016-2017 his opera roles included Tonio in “La Fille Du Regiment”, Nadir in
Bizet's “Les Pêcheurs de Perles”, Martin in “The Tender Land”, Ferrando in Mozart’s “Cosi
fan tutte”, Jean in the opera “Sapho”, Ramatzin in “Azora”, Judith in George’s opera
“Judith”, and the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom of the Opera”.
During 2010-2015 he sang in “Die Fledermaus”, “Carmen”, “La Traviata”, “Macbeth”, “Xi Shi”,
“The King of Chu”, and “Tosca”.