Felix Jarrar's Summer Salon

With music described as “dreamlike” by the Boston Globe, composer/pianist Felix Jarrar’s list of accomplishments includes performances at (le) poisson rouge, the BAM! Fisher Hillman Studio, Feinstein's/54 Below, and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall. Amongst his approximately 220 works, he’s written over 191 art songs, 12 operas, 2 string quartets, 2 cantatas, and an oratorio. He is the assistant music director for BARN OPERA in Brandon, Vermont and a vocal coach at Mannes School of Music. He completed his Bachelor of Arts at Marlboro Collegeand his Master’s of Music degree at Brooklyn College.

Jarrar's righthand collaborator is librettist/lyricist/stage director Bea Goodwin. He ​frequently works with Whitney George’s The Curiosity Cabinet. Jarrar is a vocal coach at Mannes College and serves as the Assistant Music Director for BARN OPERA in Brandon, Vermont.

Natalie Polito
Praised for her “note perfect and thrilling” performances (Saratoga Times Union) as well as her
“captivating” (Pittsburgh in the Round) and “exquisitely plush” voice (Boston Performing Arts
Examiner), rising star soprano Natalie Polito is enjoying a busy career on the country’s finest opera
and concert stages. In 2021, Ms. Polito made her highly acclaimed role debut as Leonora in Verdi’s
Il Trovatore with Houston’s Opera in the Heights. She was scheduled to make several other exciting
debuts during the 2020 season (canceled due to Covid-19), including her role and company debut as
Fiordiligi in Pacific Opera Project's new production of Cosi fan tutte in North Hollywood. In future
seasons, she is honored to return to Resonance Works Pittsburgh to perform the roles of the
Mother/Gangster/Prosecutor in White Snake Projects' poignant new immigration opera, I Am A
Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams by Jorge Sosa and Cerise Lim Jacobs.
Ms. Polito made her Carnegie Hall debut as Soprano Soloist in the Beethoven Choral Fantasy,
presented by Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY). She has been heard in her
signature, show stopping role of the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute with Opera Saratoga,
Houston’s Opera in the Heights, the Erie Chamber Orchestra, and under the baton of Martin Katz
with the Master Players Concert Series in Delaware. Past performance highlights include
engagements at the Santa Fe Opera, Virginia Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera
Fayetteville, the Colorado Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, and the National Academy of Music in
Hanoi, Vietnam. Ms. Polito holds degrees from The Boston Conservatory and Northwestern
University. www.nataliepolito.com

Caroline Spaeth
Coloratura soprano Caroline Spaeth possesses an ease with exciting vocal pyrotechnics. An advocate of contemporary classical works, she appeared as Madeline in a virtual concert production of rising composer Felix Jarrar's The Fall of the House of Usher in March 2021 and as Jehudiel in Jarrar’s cantata The Unsleeping Ones. In December 2021, she debuted as the soprano soloist with The Assabet Valley Mastersingers in The Messiah and performed Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre at Providence College and AS220. She later performed Jenny in Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters at the Contemporary Theater Company in Wakefield, RI. Notable operatic appearances include Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, and Lucy in The Telephone. Previously, she was recognized as a Regional Winner in the 2019 Classical Singer Competition and as a 2018 BroadwayWorld nominee for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Lili Vanessi in Kiss Me, Kate with the MIT Gilbert and Sullivan Society.

Andrew Jurden
Kansas native, Andrew Jurden sings in a number of musical mediums, from the bass solo in Mozart's Requiem with the Manhattan School of Music Symphonic Chorus to backing up Madonna at the Met Gala music performance with Clarion Choral Society. He sang and shot the virtual, world-premiere of The Oval Portrait, a new micro-opera by Felix Jarrar for Opera Elect’s New Works Concert Series. In 2019, he was the recipient of the Pro Art Chorale Young Singers Award; he sang the baritone solo for Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem with EnsembleNYC; sang Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte along with other recitals of only Mozart with Mountain Opera; the bass solo in Schubert’s Mass no. 6 in E flat major with the Manhattan School of Music Symphonic Chorus; and at The Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Masterly Singing Series: Don Giovanni Masterclass with Jane Marsh. He is a Choral Scholar at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York and recently performed Caleidoscópio! with Rose of the Compass in an exploration of rarely heard sacred and secular Portuguese music on May 23, 2022.

Adam von Housen
Originally from Atlanta, Adam von Housen currently resides in NYC, where he regularly performs as an orchestral musician, chamber musician, and soloist in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Chelsea Symphony, New Westchester Symphony, New York Session Symphony, Richmond County Orchestra, the Kennesaw State University (KSU) Symphony, and the KSU Philharmonic. He received his BM from KSU and MM from Brooklyn College, studying with Helen Kim and Masao Kawasaki. Adam is currently a substitute violinist with Symphoria of Syracuse, a member of the contemporary ensemble The Curiousity Cabinet, and very active in the NYC contemporary music scene, regularly performing works by living composers.