<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578149164925.jpeg" alt="Some of the many performers in the 2019 Messiah performance. Photo by Jim Turner courtesy Bethany College" />
 <figcaption>Some of the many performers in the 2019 Messiah performance. Photo by Jim Turner courtesy Bethany College</figcaption>
 </figure>LINDSBORG -- Continuing its tradition of hosting high-caliber operatic
performers, the Bethany Oratorio Society is pleased to announce tickets are now
on sale for the&nbsp; Messiah Festival of the
Arts, 2020: Celebrating Women in the Arts. The Bethany Oratorio Society will perform its historic and rich
performances of J.S. Bach’s “Passion According to St. Matthew”&nbsp;on
Good Friday, April 10, and G. F. Handel’s&nbsp;“Messiah”&nbsp;on Easter
Sunday, April 12.Tickets are on sale now at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.messiahfestival.org/">www.messiahfestival.org</a>&nbsp;or by calling the festival office at (785) 227-3380, ext. 8219, or for purchase in Presser Hall on Bethany College campus, office located in Presser Hall, room 116B. Ticket sales will be Monday-Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in January and February and 8-9:30 a.m. and 4:30-6:30 p.m. in March and April (including Good Friday and April 11).&nbsp;&nbsp;The Bethany Oratorio Society has been performing
Handel’s&nbsp;“Messiah”&nbsp;since 1882, and Bach’s&nbsp;“Passion…”&nbsp;since
1929.&nbsp; During Holy Week each year in Lindsborg, the more than 300-member
community chorus and orchestra are joined by five professional operatic guest
soloists.&nbsp; Guest soloists for this year’s concerts include: James Reese, tenor,
Elisa Sutherland, mezzo-soprano, Anna Christofaro, soprano and Brian Mextorf
bass. Brad Vogel will be the guest conductor for the Bach performance. Stephen
Klaassen will also have solos for the Bach performance.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578149299937.jpeg" alt="James Reese" />
 <figcaption>James Reese</figcaption>
 </figure>James Reese is a frequently sought soloist and collaborative
musician whose singing has been praised for its “intensity and
sensitivity...spirituality and eloquence." His 2019-20 season includes
return appearances with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Lyric Fest, and TENET
Vocal Artists, as well as his debuts with the American Bach Soloists, the
Harrisburg Symphony, Tempesta di Mare, and the Gamut Bach Ensemble. Recent
performances include Bourbon Baroque Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic
Orchestra, about which the&nbsp;Calgary Heraldwrote, "tenor James
Reese was the newcomer, and without doubt he will be remembered and welcomed
back in the future. He sang with remarkable clarity of diction and vocal
focus….a very strong impression.” A frequent interpreter of Bach, James made
his Carnegie Hall solo debut in 2018 with the New York Choral Society in
the&nbsp;B Minor Mass.&nbsp;The&nbsp;New York Classical Review&nbsp;wrote
of that performance, "the high, easy tenor of James Reese...floated
beautifully on its own over the long, gentle lines of the Benedictus."
James is an advocate for new music, and is a founding member of Philadelphia
vocal sextet Variant 6. He has premiered works by&nbsp;Caroline Shaw, Ted
Hearne, John Luther Adams, Joanne Metcalf, Reena Esmail, and others.&nbsp;He
has performed with leading ensembles, including The Crossing and Seraphic Fire,
in addition to guest appearances with Gallicantus and Calmus. He is the winner
of the Margot Fassler Award for the Performance of Music, and is the 2019
recipient of the Career Advancement Grant from the Musical Fund Society of
Philadelphia.&nbsp; James is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Bienen
School of Music, and holds a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music,
where he studied with James Taylor as part of the Yale Voxtet. He lives in
Philadelphia.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578149416514.jpeg" alt="Elisa Sutherland" />
 <figcaption>Elisa Sutherland</figcaption>
 </figure>Elisa Sutherland is a mezzo-soprano known for her detailed,
stylistic interpretations of both early and new music. This upcoming season,
she will perform with Philadelphia's The Crossing, New York ensembles Ekmeles,
TENET Vocal Artists, Clarion Choir and New Chamber Ballet, Roomful of Teeth,
Cleveland's Apollo's Fire, Miami’s Seraphic Fire, and her own early and new
music sextet, Variant 6.&nbsp;

Elisa has performed as a soloist with TENET
Vocal Artists, Apollo’s Fire, American Bach Soloists, Apollo Chorus of Chicago,
and Quicksilver Baroque, singing Bach's Mass in b minor, Handel's Messiah, and
Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri. In the realm of contemporary music, she has
premiered works for voice and chamber orchestra for university and professional
ensembles. Elisa has a special love for art song, and has sung with LyricFest,
Philadelphia's premiere art song concert series, and the Brooklyn Art Song
Society.&nbsp;

In addition to winning the Philadelphia District
of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 2015, Elisa is the 2014 winner of the
Lynne Harvey Cooper Award, and was the first-place winner of the inaugural
Handel Aria Competition at the Madison Early Music Festival in 2013. Recent
opera roles include Hera in Chris Cerrone’s All Wounds Bleed, Ensemble in
Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta with the Prototype Festival, Dido in Dido and
Aeneas, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Meg in Little Women, Ottavia in
L'incoronazione di Poppea, and Nancy in Albert Herring. Elisa is also
remembered for her Blazing Saddles - Madeline Kahn impression in a production
of Die Fledermaus.

Elisa graduated from Northwestern University
with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing, a Bachelor of Music in Vocal
Performance, and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance. She lives in
Brooklyn.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578149489272.jpeg" alt="Anna Christofaro" />
 <figcaption>Anna Christofaro</figcaption>
 </figure>Praised
for her vocal agility and clear tone,&nbsp;Minneapolis based soprano, Anna
Christofaro, is&nbsp;gaining recognition as an interpreter of a wide range of
repertoire from early&nbsp;to contemporary&nbsp;music. &nbsp;She
performed&nbsp;on the 2018 Grammy nominated&nbsp;album, Tyberg Masses, with the
South Dakota Chorale. &nbsp;Other highlights include&nbsp;performing at the
Olavsfestagene Festival in Trondheim, Norway, with the Grammy award-winning&nbsp;ensemble, Conspirare, and performed on their national tour
of Considering Matthew Shepard by
Craig Hella Johnson.&nbsp; She’s also performed&nbsp;under the baton of
Bach-scholars, Helmuth Rilling and Hans-Christoph Rademann,&nbsp;at the Weimar
Bach Academy and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart in Germany.Anna has made her soloist debuts of Bach's
St. Johns Passion with the Minnesota Bach
Ensemble,&nbsp;Fauré's&nbsp;Requiem&nbsp;and Handel’s Messiah with the
Minnesota Chorale, Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor with the Grinnell Oratorio
Society, Vivaldi's&nbsp;Gloria with Consortium Carissimi, and Monteverdi's Vespers
of&nbsp;1610 and Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in&nbsp;the Lamb with the
University of North Texas. &nbsp;She's also been featured on
numerous&nbsp;Artist Series Recitals of music by local composers,&nbsp;Steve
Heitzeg, Libby Larsen, Abbie Betinis and&nbsp;Jocelyn Hagen.&nbsp; Other solo appearances
include Handel's&nbsp;Ulrecht Te Deum, and&nbsp;Mozart's&nbsp;Regina Coeli, as
well as Bach's B Minor Mass and numerous Bach cantatas with the Bach Roots
Festival.A
versatile performer,&nbsp;Anna has performed the role of First Lady in
Mozart's&nbsp;Die Zauberflöte&nbsp;at the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts
Festival in Italy. &nbsp;Other opera credits include the role of Maguellone in
Viardot's&nbsp;Cendrillon,&nbsp;Serpina in Pergolesi's&nbsp;La Serva
Perdona, Zerlina in&nbsp;Don Giovanni&nbsp;and&nbsp;Gianetta
in&nbsp;The Gondoliers.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Anna holds a Master of Music degree from the University of North
Texas and a Bachelor of Music degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.
&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578149577427.jpeg" alt="Brian Mextorf" />
 <figcaption>Brian Mextorf</figcaption>
 </figure>Baritone&nbsp;Brian Mextorf’s 2018/19 season
included a role debut singing Raphael in&nbsp;Creation, a recital with
the Brooklyn Art Song Society singing Barber’s&nbsp;Despite and Still,
op. 41, four iterations of the bass solos in Mozart’s&nbsp;Requiem&nbsp;including
a performance at Alice Tully Hall, a return to Carnegie Hall as bass soloist in
Haydn's&nbsp;Missa in Tempore Belli,&nbsp;and additional performances with
the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony,
The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Sacred Music in a
Sacred Space, and Musica&nbsp;Viva NY. His 2017/18 season&nbsp;featured solo
debuts at Carnegie Hall (Schubert’s Mass No. 2, Lincoln Center (La traviata)
and National Sawdust (AIDS Quilt Songbook). Additional 2017/18 engagements
included baritone soloist in Brahms’&nbsp;Ein Deutsches Requiem,
recitals with pianists Seymour Bernstein and Brent Funderburk, and performances
with the Brooklyn Art Song Society, New York Philharmonic, Choir of Trinity
Wall Street, and New York City Ballet.&nbsp;Brian
has performed operatic roles such as&nbsp;Aeneas in Opera Saratoga’s innovative
outdoor production of&nbsp;Dido and Aeneas, Marcello in a Virginia
Opera’s production of&nbsp;La bohème&nbsp;performed in various
non-traditional venues, and the title role in a staged production of
Handel’s&nbsp;Saul&nbsp;in Russell, Kansas. Other recent highlights
include Giorgio Germont in&nbsp;La traviata,&nbsp;a concert with the
Richmond Symphony,&nbsp;and first prize in the Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions North Carolina District and second prize in the Southeast
Region. As a member of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Virginia Opera young
artist programs, Brian has sung performances of Captain Corcoran and Bill
Bobstay in HMS Pinafore, Anthony Hope (cover) in&nbsp;Sweeney Todd,
Paris in&nbsp;Roméo et Juliette, and three roles in the North American
Premiere of Unsuk Chin’s&nbsp;Alice in Wonderland.A
native of Williamsport, Penn., Brian is an alumnus of The Oberlin
Conservatory of Music and Westminster Choir College.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578149650507.jpeg" alt="Dr. Bradley Vogel" />
 <figcaption>Dr. Bradley Vogel</figcaption>
 </figure>Dr. Bradley Vogel has enjoyed more than 35 years
conducting both choral and instrumental ensembles. After a dozen years in
public school education and church music ministry, he embarked on a 22-year
career as Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Tabor
College. Recipient of the Clarence R. Hiebert Excellence in Teaching Award, Vogel served as chair of the Department of Music as well as the Division of Performing
and Visual Arts. During his tenure at Tabor College he conducted the Concert
Choir, Oratorio Chorus and Chamber Voices, including the annual Christmas Messiah
performance, and served as music director for music theater productions. Under
his leadership, the Concert Choir was selected to perform at the Kansas Music
Educators Association State Convention six times (2000, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2013,
2015). An active adjudicator and clinician, he has conducted over 30 choral
festivals in Kansas, New York, and South Carolina, and annually adjudicates
state festivals in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Additionally, Vogel has
a growing composition career, with works published by MusicSpoke and Imagine
Music Publishing. In 2018 he was awarded the Harry Robert Wilson Award by the
Kansas chapter of the American Choral Directors Association in recognition of
lifetime contributions to choral music in Kansas, and in 2019 he enjoyed his
Carnegie Hall debut, conducting Ola Gjeilo’s Sunrise Mass with three
combined choirs and the New England Symphonic Ensemble.Vogel graduated from Tabor College in 1985
with the Bachelor of Arts in Music Education. He received the Master of Music degree in Conducting from the
University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colo., and the DMA in Conducting
from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has been married to Beverly
(Just) for 34 years, and they have two married sons—David, married to Hanna,
and Nathan, married to Mallea. Brad and Bev are extremely proud grandparents of
four darling grandchildren, ages three years to three weeks!<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578149736307.jpeg" alt="Stephen Klaassen. Photo by Jim Turner" />
 <figcaption>Stephen Klaassen. Photo by Jim Turner</figcaption>
 </figure>Stephen Klaassen, a
tenor from Marquette, Kan., graduated from
Bethany College in 2019 with a degree in biology and pre-medicine.--------------------------------------Performer photos provided by Bethany College.

Soloists for Messiah 2020 announced, tickets on sale