Brett Umlauf
is an American soprano living in New York.
She has a degree in Classics from Dartmouth
College and has completed additional coursework
in languages, music and opera at Columbia
University and Mannes College of Music.
Since 2005, she has held the position of soloist
at 10th Church of Christ, Scientist. She
is a founding member of Charites, a female trio
which performs unique programs of medieval,
renaissance and baroque music with gesture and poetry.
Brett is also a principal artist and member
of the board of directors at Morningside Opera, where
she has performed as Edonide in Hasse's Alcide al
Bivio and T in a new Handel pastische entitled
Atra.
Brett has lectured on women and Bellman's music at
Columbia University and received grants from both the
Swedish Institute and the Swedish Women's Educational
Association in support of her Bellman research and
performances.
Staffan Liljas
is a Swedish bass who lived for almost a
decade in New York, where he performed as a
soloist and in a number of ensembles, including
New York Ensemble for Early Music, Vox Vocal
Ensemble and Prometheus. In 2007, he moved back
to Sweden, where he established himself as a
soloist in operas, oratorios and concerts and
as a singer in ensembles like the Eric Ericsson
Chamber Choir and Swedish Radio Choir.
In 2009 he was
Zaretskij-Gremin in OperaEtt's performance of
Tjajkowskij's Eugene Onegin. In the fall of 2010 he enrolled
in the master's program at the University College
of Opera in Stockholm. In the spring of 2011, he will
be Banquo in Verdi's Macbeth and in the summer he will
be Don Alfonso in Mozart's Così fan Tutte.
He has a special interest in early music and performs it
as a bass and a countertenor. Staffan is the chairman
of the Swedish Early Music Society since the spring 2010.
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