LMC Opera: Famous Mothers to be performed at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Friday, May 11 at 7:30pm in Kirkland (click for details and directions) and again on Sunday, May 13 at 3:00pm in Seatac (click for details and directions).
“Nur eine Mutter weiß allein, Was lieben heißt und glücklich sein.” (Only a mother knows what it means to love and be happy)
– from Robert Schumann’s Woman’s love and life
About the performers
Lin Chen keeps herself busy singing and playing the violin as a freelance musician in the Greater Seattle area. Her vocal adventures started at the age of 16 when she started taking singing lessons out of her love for Musical Theatre. It wasn’t long before she started to discover a new interest for Opera and has been singing and learning the classical repertoires ever since. Growing up in Australia, she was fortunate to study with a number of teachers from the Griffith and the Sydney Conservatoriums and was an active participant in the local performance scene. Lin is excited to be a part of LMC and look forward to sharing her music with the LMC community!
Soprano Meg Daly’s most memorable performance came when she stepped in minutes before curtain to sing the Queen of the Night in a Seattle Opera production of Die Zauberflöte. Other roles include Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus, Kitsap Opera), Noëmie (Cendrillon, Puget Sound Concert Opera), soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah (Peninsula Community Chorus), and Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Tacoma Community College Orchestra). She was a featured musician in Bainbridge Performing Arts’ award-winning production of Amadeus. Ms. Daly received her M.M. in voice from the University of Washington.
Soprano Ki-Jung Jun completed her Masters’ degree at New York University and was in the emerging artist program at Pacific Opera in New York City. Her operatic roles there included Nora (Riders to the Sea), First Knitter (A Game of Chance), Princess (L’enfant et les sortileges) and the role of Hyangdan in Chun-Hyang-Jeon, an opera celebrating the 100th anniversary of Korean immigration in America. In the Northwest, her most recent opera role is Giulietta (Cover) in Bellini’s I Capuletti ed i Montecchi and Caterina in Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz with Puget Sound Concert Opera.
Joan Lundquist has served as a collaborative pianist for Seattle area musicians and organizations for 30 years. Since moving to the area from Humboldt State University in northern California, where she was staff accompanist, Joan has worked with the Northwest Boychoir, Seattle Choral Company, has taught at Seattle University and Northwest University, and has worked with several area private music teachers. Currently, Ms. Lundquist is the Director of Music at Immanuel Lutheran Church in downtown Seattle and rehearsal accompanist for the Seattle Choral Company.
Mele Santos earned her Masters’ Degree in Vocal Performance at The University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University. As Magda Sorel in Menotti’s The Consul, the review in The Arizona Daily Star stated: “[Mele Santos] is very intense dramatically. She inhabits the role.” She has performed in Verdi’s La Traviata and Rigoletto, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Bizet’s Carmen, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and numerous opera scenes. She premiered the roles of Agath in Abinadi and Elisa in The Wanderer, both contemporary works by living composers. Mele is an accomplished teacher as well; she currently maintains a voice studio and has served as a guest vocal technique clinician for high school and middle school choral programs in Washington and Arizona.
An outstanding member of the Northwest Musical community for over 20 years, Regina Thomas has performed with a variety of companies including Kitsap Opera, Willamette Concert Opera, Bellevue Opera, Puget Sound Concert Opera, Seattle Opera and the Seattle Opera Guild. Currently, LMC’s trustee of concerts and Artistic Director of Puget Sound Concert Opera, Regina has served as Seattle Opera Guild’s VP of Education and is a past President of LMC. Favorite operatic roles include Adriana Lecouvreur, Suor Angelica, Tosca and Judith (Bluebeard’s Castle). Concert work includes Schumann’s Frauenleibe und-leben, Elgar’s Sea Pictures and Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, soprano solos in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Fauré Requiem and Berio’s Folk Songs for voice and chamber ensemble.
Gwen Trussler, mezzo-soprano, holds Performance degrees from Florida State University (BM/MM) as well as ARRT Certification in Radiography, Computed Tomography, and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. She has appeared with Tacoma Musical Playhouse, Heavier Than Air Theatre, Evergreen Performers, TMP Family Theater, Amici Opera, Operesque, South Georgia Opera, and Florida State Opera. A Wagner enthusiast, she was chosen to perform in the inaugural year of the Baldwin-Wallace Wagner Intensive where she coached with Jane Eaglen, Timothy Mussard, and Nancy Maultsby. Gwen works with MultiCare and Franciscan Health as an MRI Technologist and is also a Voice Over artist specializing in audiobook narration.