CantaLyrica

A Chamber Chorus

About our guest artists

Mitchell Vines, pianist, a native of Portland, Oregon, has performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America and East Asia as a soloist and collaborative pianist.
His extensive experience includes positions with the Aspen Music Festival, Mannes School of Music, Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, Opera Theater of Rochester, and The Riverside Piano Trio.

Mr. Vines is a pianist on the CD “American Music for Trumpet and Piano” on Capstone Records and is featured on a CD of chamber music by North German composers. “The sensitive playing of American pianist Mitchell Vines captivated the audience. He performed with virtuosity and bravura” wrote the Hessiche-Niederaechische Allgemeine.

Mr. Vines holds a bachelor of arts degree from Portland State University and a master of music degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he held a fellowship in accompanying and was awarded the Performer's Certificate.

He is currently music and choir director at the Unitarian Church in Summit, New Jersey.

Linda Sweetman-Waters, pianist, organist, has had a multi-faceted career as piano soloist, chamber musician, accompanist and organist. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium, and WQXR’s  “Listening Room.” She also has been heard in Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art and the White House.

Ms. Sweetman-Waters performed Saint Saens’ “Carnival of Animals” with Bob Sherman, narrator, at the Manchester Music Festival in Vermont. She was guest artist with the Ridgewood Symphony and premiered the “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra,” composed by the late Richard Lane. She has also performed as guest soloist with the North Jersey Philharmonic and the Ramapo Wind Symphony.

As an international musician, Ms. Sweetman-Waters toured with the New Jersey Choral Society in the summer of 2005. She performed on organs in Dvorak Hall at the Rudolfinum, in Prague and in the Gedachtnis Kirche  (Memorial Church), Berlin.

In her role as accompanist for NJCS, she toured throughout Italy. She has performed in Vienna, Copenhagen, London, Brussels, Zurich and Rome.

The summer of 2006 found Ms. Sweetman-Waters working as accompanist for the “Voices in the House” International Music Festival in Sydney, Australia, with performances in the Sidney Opera House and Town Hall. 

As an accompanist, she has collaborated with conductors Lenora Thom of the Asheville Choral Society, Joshua Greene of CantaLyrica and Eric Knapp of the New Jersey Choral Society. As an accompanist for MidAmerica Productions in New York City, she has worked under the baton of John Rutter. She also appeared in concert with Ani Kafavian and Richard Woitach.

As a chamber musician, Ms. Sweetman-Waters has been a member of Trio Classique since 1996, when she, Susan Heerema and Gretchen Gonzales founded the ensemble. She also has performed regularly with the Kean College Chamber Orchestra.   

A magna cum laude graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, she has served as an adjunct faculty member at William Paterson University and as vice president of the Professional Music Teachers Guild of New Jersey. She also maintains a music studio for piano instruction.

Ms. Sweetman-Waters is an alumna of the Vienna State Academy of Music in Vienna, Austria, where her teachers were Alois Forer and Hans Schwertmann. Locally, Linda began her musical training with Walter Schoeder and when she returned home from Europe she studied organ with the late Jack Rodland.

Kirstin Chávez, mezzo-soprano,  is one of the most important emerging young American artists today. She is known for a luscious and velvety tone that transcends classification with its rich evenness in the lower registers and the easy ripeness at the top.

Her striking presence on the stage is enhanced by a natural physical beauty and by a dramatic intensity and sincerity seldom achieved on the operatic stage. Because of this, she is gaining acclaim as one of the definitive Carmens of the day (New York City Opera, Tokyo City Opera, Grazer Oper, Minnesota Opera, as well as in Beijing, China, Omaha, Kentucky, Arizona ), but her natural sensuality also lends itself remarkably well to a host of pants roles, including her favorites: Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, (Florentine Opera); the Composer, in Ariadne auf Naxos; and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro (New York City Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia).

      Other roles through which she has earned marked success include Jo in Adamo’s Little Women (Opera Pacific); Dorabella in Cosi fan Tutte (Orlando Opera, Utah Opera); Rosina in Barbiere di Siviglia (Santa Fe Opera, Orlando Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Connecticut Opera); Cenerentola in La Cenerentola (Kentucky Opera, Fresno Grand Opera); Thérèse, in Tobias Picker’s opera, Therese Raquin, (San Diego Opera); and an important new role, Sondra Finchley in Picker's new opera for the Metropolitan Opera, An American Tragedy.

Ms. Chavez is also singing the title role of Carmen with Graz Opera in Austria in the 2006-2007 season, and will follow that with Cenerentola in Fresno, California. 

      In the 2007-2008 season, Ms. Chavez will make debuts with the Central City Opera, as Desideria in The Saint of Bleaker Street, with the Atlanta Opera as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, and with Opera Australia as Carmen.

      Born in Albuquerque, N.M., Ms. Chávez spent her childhood in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she graduated from the high school where her parents worked as teachers of English and Music. She then went on to receive a bachelor of music degree, with honors, from New Mexico State University, a master of music degree in performance and the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music.

      After beginning an artistic residency with the Orlando Opera, Ms. Chávez went on to become a winner in several major international competitions, including The Sullivan Foundation, The George London Foundation, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, the Opera Index Foundation, The Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Jensen Foundation, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (National Finalist).