Maria Jette, Soprano
Maria Jette has appeared with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra: the Symphonies of Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Charlotte, Santa Rosa and Buffalo; Vocalessence (formerly The Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota), the Handel Choir of Baltimore, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, and Los Angeles Master Chorale; and with original instrument ensembles Angelica Cantanti, Portland Baroque Orchestra and The Lyra Baroque Orchestra. She has been a regular guest at the Oregon Bach, Victoria Bach andSan Luis Obispo Mozart Festivals, the Oregon Festival of American Music, and on Public Radio International's A Prairie Home Companion. With conductor Helmuth Rilling, she has sung Bach, Mozart and Monteverdi in Germany, Spain, Japan, and Canada, as well as in Minneapolis, New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. In a 20+ year association with conductor Philip Brunelle, she first appeared as the coloratura dog, Fido, in Britten’s Paul Bunyan; and has gone on to sing everything from fully-staged operas by Mozart opera and Virgil Thomson through oratorios by Handel, William Bolcom and Francis Grier, and most recently, Dominick Argento’s glorious Evensong (2009).
Her 45+ operatic roles range from Monteverdi's Poppea and Handel's Cleopatra through Mozart's Pamina, Countess and Fiordiligi, many of them with the late, lamented Ex Machina Antique Music Theatre in the Twin Cities. With The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, she starred as the Mrs. in the May 2002 premiere of Garrison Keillor's operatic excursion, Mr. and Mrs. Olson. She has performed her own production of Seuss/Kapilow’s Green Eggs & Ham for more than 50,000 kids, with symphonies and music festivals around the USA.
Her lengthy list of premieres includes song cycles by British composers Geoffrey Bush, John Gardner and Ian Kellam, and choral works with extended soprano solos by Judith Weir and John Gardner; and chamber works, songs and cycles by Dominick Argento, Randall Davidson, David Evan Thomas, Steve Heitzeg, David John Olsen, Russell Platt, Nancy Grundahl and Janika Vandervelde. For her service to new music in the Twin Cities, she was awarded a life membership with the American Composers Forum.
Ms. Jette's discography includes two recordings on the Centaur label: a selection of Benjamin Britten's Folksongs of the British Isles andMélodies of Gabriel Fauré, both with harpist Judith Kogan; and two recordings of oratorios by the 19th C composer Simon Mayr, Il Passione and Atalia, performed and recorded (for Guild Records) with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra (Ingolstadt, Germany) under the direction of Franz Hauk. She has been featured on several with Philip Brunelle and VocalEssence, including the world premiere recording (Virgin Classics) of Britten's "American" opera, Paul Bunyan (Fido); Mozart’s Requiem (on Avie) with Andreas Delfs, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and St. Olaf Choir; and Messiah with Stephen Alltop and Chicago’sApollo Chorus.