Susanna Phillips, soprano & Craig Terry piano
Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:30 pm

Susanna Phillips

Alabama native Susanna Phillips has attracted special recognition for a voice of striking beauty and sophistication. In the banner year of 2005, she was the winner of four of the world's leading vocal competitions - Operalia (both First Place and the Audience Prize), the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the MacAllister Awards and the George London Foundation. She completed the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2007.
In the 2007/08 season, Susanna Phillips will return to Santa Fe Opera as Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro in a new production by Jonathan Kent. She will perform the notoriously difficult role of Elmira in a Tim Albery production of Reinhard Keiser's The Fortunes of King Croesus in her debut with Minnesota Opera conducted by Harry Bicket. She will sing another role debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in her first performances with Utah Opera. She will also sing Musetta in La Bohème at Madison Opera and Blanche de la Force in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites at Kentucky Opera. Both are role and company debuts. Concert engagements include Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, Handel's Messiah with the Pacific Symphony, and Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York.
In the summer of 2006, Susanna Phillips made her Santa Fe Opera debut as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in a new Tim Albery production conducted by William Lacey. During the 2006/7 season, she sang Diana in a new Robert Carsen production of Iphigenie en Tauride at Lyric Opera of Chicago opposite Susan Graham. She performed Juliette in Romeo et Juliette and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. In the summer of 2007, she returned to Santa Fe Opera as Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte again conducted by Lacey in a production by James Robinson. She also sang her first performances of the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor in a concert version in her native Huntsville, Alabama.
Her busy 2006/7 concert season included a performance with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic as part of their annual "Composer's Festival" under Alan Gilbert. She also sang Beethoven's Mass in C and Choral Fantasy for her Mostly Mozart Festival debut at Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York under Kent Tritle. She sang Mozart's Mass in c with the Huntsville Symphony, Dvorak's Stabat Mater with the Santa Fe Symphony and Brahms' Deutsches Requiem with the Santa Barbara Symphony. She also appeared opposite baritone Wolfgang Holzmair in Wolf's Spanisches Liederbuch at New York's Weill Recital Hall and under the auspices of the Vocal Arts Society of Washington, DC.
As a 2005-2006 member of the Ryan Opera Center, Ms. Phillips sang Frasquita (Carmen), Pamina and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) as well as Countess Ceprano (Rigoletto). She covered First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Micaela (Carmen) and Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice).
Recent concert and oratorio engagements include Carmina Burana, Mahler's Fourth Symphony, Mozart's Coronation Mass, the Fauré and Mozart Requiems, and Handel's Messiah. In April 2004, Ms. Phillips made her Carnegie Hall debut with Skitch Henderson and Rob Fisher with the New York Pops. Ms. Phillips' recent operatic roles include Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Ermione (Oreste), Countess Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Juliette (Romeo et Juliette).
Ms. Phillips has sung in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, and Alice Tully Hall under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, Wednesdays at One, Sacred Music in a Sacred Place, and The Mozart-Haydn Festival in Mexico City.
Ms. Phillips is also the winner of the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, and was awarded grants from the Santa Fe Opera and the Sullivan Foundation. Most recently, Ms. Phillips was the first prize winner of the American Opera Society Competition and the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago.

Craig Terry

A native of Tullahoma, Tennessee, pianist Craig Terry has launched an international career performing with some of the world's leading singers and instrumentalists.  Currently Mr. Terry is in his fourth season as assistant conductor at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Previously, he served as assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera after joining its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.  Mr. Terry has performed with such esteemed vocalists as Sir Thomas Allen, Christine Brewer, Eric Cutler, Joyce DiDonato, Susanna Phillips, Patricia Racette, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Hugh Russell, and Garrett Sorenson.  He has collaborated as a chamber musician with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchester, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Pro Arte String Quartet.

Mr. Terry made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2000 and has also performed in Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Recent engagements include his conducting debut with the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra leading a production of Lucia di Lammermoor and performances of both the Ravel Concerto in G Major and Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra in Adrian, Michigan under the baton of John Dodson. In 2008, Mr. Terry performed both the Chopin Concerto No. 1 in e minor and the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto in g minor with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. Upcoming engagements include recitals with Patricia Racette and Susanna Phillips, concerts with the Adrian Symphony Orchestra in which Mr. Terry will conduct Mozart's Concerto No. 19 in F Major from the piano, and a conducting debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago, leading student matinee performances of L'Elisir d'Amore.

Mr. Terry received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Tennessee Technological University, continued his studies at Florida State University and received his Masters of Music in Piano Performance/Accompanying from the Manhattan School of Music where he was a student of pianist Warren Jones.