Vocalists

Aram Barsamian   Baritone

Aram Barsamian, originally from Plovdiv, Bulgaria, made his San Francisco Opera debut in Britten’s Death in Venice following his participation in the Merola Opera Program, in which he sang the role of Dandini in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, a role he reprised last November at Sacramento Opera, where he has performed in 11 productions since his debut in 1996. He has also performed at the Nevada Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, and the Pacific Repertory Opera. He has performed at the Ventura Chamber Musica Festival and the Carmel Bach Festival, as well as several times here in Corona del Mar.

Barsamian is a two-time district winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and was a U.S. finalist in the Veronica Dunne International Singing Competition. He is currently on the voice faculty of Pasadena City College and Cypress College, and is the opera director at La Sierra University. We welcome his return to our Festival.

Christopher Lindbloom    Baritone

Christopher Lindbloom completed undergraduate studies at Boston University, received his doctorate in vocal performance at the University of Southern California, and served for some years on the music faculties of Point Loma College in San Diego and North Texas State University in Denton. He has been active in Orange County as a musical editor, church musician and voice teacher. He has appeared as a soloist with the San Diego Symphony and the Santa Monica Symphony and in many recitals throughout the country.

Now residing in Richmond, Virginia, Lindbloom is a financial advisor with Legg Mason, a Baltimore-based investment brokerage firm. He remains active as a singer — most recently in the James River Singers, a new chamber music group based at the University of Richmond — and performs often throughout the mid-Atlantic states. He has been a baritone soloist regularly in our Festivals since our first season in 1981.

Jonathan Mack   Tenor

Jonathan Mack earned degrees in both French horn and vocal performance at the University of Southern California. His recital, opera and concert career as a lyric tenor has taken him throughout the United States, Germany, France and Australia. American opera engagements have included Kentucky Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera Utah, Vancouver Opera, Portland Opera, and 17 seasons with the Los Angeles Opera, where he has performed more than 50 roles. His concert work includes engagements with Chautauqua Festivals, Carmel Bach Festival, Ojai Festival, Hollywood Bowl, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Minnesota Orchestra under conductors Giulini, Mehta, Previn, Boulez, Rattle, Hogwood and Tilson Thomas. He more recently appeared with Festival Miami and toured the Province of Quebec with the Montreal Metropolitan.

In demand as a studio singer, he has sung in more than 100 films, radio and television productions. He is on the voice faculty of the University of Southern California and Chapman University. This is his seventh season in Corona del Mar.

Susan Montgomery   Soprano

Susan Montgomery earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Chapman University and Master of Music at California State University, Fullerton. While still a student she was a first-place winner in the Metropolitan Regional Auditions in Orange County. She has gone on to a very busy and successful solo career, both locally and in New York. In the summer of 2007 she appeared in China with the Beijing Symphony in Carmina Burana under the baton of William Hall. She has recently soloed in the Mozart Requiem with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and the Brahms German Requiem and Bach Mass in B Minor with the Palisades Symphony.

A member of the Screen Actors Guild, Montgomery has performed in recordings and movie soundtracks, including Galaxy Quest and Snow Falling on Cedars. She was the principal soloist with the London Symphony in a new work entitled Orfeo: Opera for a New Age. She also recorded for the album “The Birthday of the World: A Compendium of High Holy Day Music,” narrated by Leonard Nimoy, and the enchanting “Hotel Luna,” a new-age jazz album composed and performed by pianist Suzanne Ciani.

Daniel Roihl    Countertenor

Daniel Roihl, a native of south Florida, has been active in the New England musical scene as a singer, conductor, and composer since 1990. As an undergraduate at Harvard, he studied choral and orchestral conducting, composition, and voice, graduating with highest honors in music. He founded and spent two years directing the Concordia Society, a chamber choir of 24 voices specializing in challenging a cappella repertoire in a variety of styles. He received his master’s degree in choral conducting from the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded a full merit scholarship by Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music.

As a singer he has performed extensively in opera, oratorio, and musical theater as both a baritone and a countertenor. He has been featured as a soloist with the Harvard University Choir, the Harvard Glee Club, the Yale Camerata, the Yale Pro Musica, and the Yale Collegium Musicum, and was selected as a finalist in auditions for the professional vocal ensemble Chanticleer. His current appointments include music director of the United Methodist Church in Lexington, Massachusetts, co-conductor of the Elm City Girls’ Choirs in New Haven, and Choral Conducting Intern for Chorus Angelicus in Torrington, Connecticut.