Our Soloists For Beethoven's Missa Solemnis

Natalya Kraevsky ~ Soprano
A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, Natalya Kraevsky received her Masters Degree from the St. Petersburg Conservatory and Artist Diploma from Carnegie Mellon University.

Natalya made her National St. Petersburg Opera Theater debut in 1996 performing the role of Violetta in La Traviata, Adele in Die Fledermaus and Dorina in Tartuffe. In addition, she hosted a popular television program about young opera singers, shown in St. Petersburg, Moscow and across Russia.

2000-2001 seasons include Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen, La Voix Humaine with the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Verdi Requiem in the concert tour of the Robert Page Festival Singers with St. Petersburg State Orchestra in Europe, Creation by Haydn with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh conducted by Robert Page. She made her world premiere CD recording for Naxos label of Hangman, Hangman and The Town of Greed by L. Ballada.

Last season's highlights include Dona Anna in Don Giovanni with Lyric Opera Cleveland, the title role in the world premiere of the opera Hadassah by Pulitzer Prize-nominated composer Normand Pepin, Pamina in Magic Flute with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and Mass in C Minor by Mozart with The New York Metamorphoses Orchestra and The Hudson Valley Singers.

Natalya is a winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society auditions (1997, 1999 & 2001) and Regional finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council.

Concert appearances and chamber music performances in the U.S., Italy, Russia, Spain, France and Finland

Eudora Brown ~ Alto

Eudora Brown, mezzo soprano, most recently appeared as Beatrice in the Santa Fe Opera production of Beatrice and Benedict. Originally hired as the cover, she assumed the role at the dress rehearsal and performed the entire run to widespread critical acclaim. She sang the role of Zulma in L’Italiana in Algeri with the Boston Lyric Opera this fall and will be singing Maria Cleofe in Handel’s La Resurreczione with the Chicago Opera Theater under the direction of Jane Glover this winter.

In 2003, Ms. Brown appeared as Carmen, Dorabell, Prince Orlofsky, Octavian, and Maddalena, in opera excerpts performed in Italy, at Orvieto’s Teatro Mancinelli and Pallazzo dei Sette, and in Port Ercole. These performances were televised by R.A.I. Italian Television.

A member of the Phyllis Curtin Seminar at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1998, Ms. Brown performed the alto solo in Bach’s Cantata No. 45 under the direction of Maestro Seiji Ozawa. She was then invited to return as a Vocal Fellow in 2001 and 2002. Her most recent Tanglewood performances include Saariaho’s Chateau de L’Ame with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Robert Spano, and the role of Phædrus in Satie’s Socrate, broadcast live across the United States. In 2001, she performed the roles of The Cat and The Squirrel in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, also with Maestro Spano. Her Tanglewood triumph was the U.S. premiere of Jo Kondo’s opera, Hagoromo, written for mezzo-soprano soloist, narrator, dancer and orchestra. She received rave reviews fore her performance which was sung entirely in Japanese.

Ms. Brown received her Master of Music degree in voice from the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) and her Bachelor of Music degree in voice from the USC Thornton School of Music. While at MSM, she performed the roles of Dorabella, Cherubino, the title role in Handel’s Solomon, and Othniel in Handel’s Joshua. She also created the role of Barbara in the New York premiere of Robert Ward’s Roman Fever. With the MSM Contemporary Ensemble, she performed Ancient Voices of Children by George Crumb, in whose master class she participated. Her roles at USC include the mezzo role in Postcards from Morocco and Mrs. Herring in Albert Herring.

Daniel Clark Smith ~ Tenor

Tenor Daniel Clark Smith, a member of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, is also heard regularly as a concert soloist, and has performed such varied repertoire as Rachmaninoff's Vespers, Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, Mozart's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Elijah, Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle, Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzer, and Handel's oratorios, Messiah, Israel in Egypt and Alexander's Feast.

Mr. Smith recently made his debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra as tenor soloist in Bach's B Minor Mass. Mr. Smith has also appeared as the Evangelist in Bach's St John Passion with Johannes Somary and the AmorArtis Chamber Chorus & Orchestra in New York. Mr. Smith has appeared as soloist with Richard Westenburg's Musica Sacra, and with the Stamford (Connecticut) Symphony Orchestra.

A member of the American Guild of Musical Artists, Mr. Smith's operatic engagements have included the roles of Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff and the First Jew in Strauss' Salome with the New York Opera Project. In addition to his work at the Metropolitan Opera, he has also performed with the New York City Opera Chorus, and appeared on PBS' Live from Lincoln Center series with both companies, most recently in the broadcast of Verdi's La Forza del Destino at the Metropolitan Opera. He has also performed with the Center for Contemporary Opera and Cincinnati Opera.

Mr. Smith has also performed with such groups as the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Connecticut Early Music Festival, and Voices of Ascension, where he can be heard on their most recent Delos recordings, The Duruflé Album and Berlioz' Te Deum. He spent two years with The Gregg Smith Singers as soloist and assistant conductor, touring the United States and Italy, and recording Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, Perséphone, Canticum Sacrum and Les Noces as part of Music Masters' Stravinsky series.

A graduate of both University of Cincinnati/College-Conservatory of Music and SUNY at Fredonia, Mr. Smith holds degrees in Vocal Music Education and Choral Conducting, and currently studies voice with Fredrick Martell.

Nicolai Janitzky ~ Bass

In the 2003-2004 Nicolai Janitzky made his debut with the San Diego Opera in both Katya Kabanova and in La Traviata , and will return to that company to sing role of Tchelkalov in Boris Godunov in 2007. He also sang a duo recital with soprano Sondra Radvanovsky for the George London Foundation. Additionally, he has performed at the prestigious Art Song Festival in Cleveland under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation, which also presented Mr. Janitzky in recital both in Texas and in New York . In the 2004-2005 season, the baritone's association with the Marilyn Horne Foundation continues with another recital in Brownville , NE , as well as his Carnegie Hall debut in a solo recital at Weill Hall, in February, with pianist Eric Trudel. He will also perform a program based on texts by Russian Poets with Steven Blier's New York Festival of Song.

Mr. Janitzky is a recent graduate of the Yale Opera Program where he sang the role of Papageno in The Magic Flute .   In the summer of 2002, as an apprentice artist with the Santa Fe Opera, Mr. Janitzky took over the title role of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin on short notice to high critical acclaim. For Yale Opera he also sang Valentin in Faust , Marcello in La Bohème , and Junius in The Rape of Lucretia .  His other roles include Pelléas in Marius Constant's Impressions de Pelléas for the Music Academy of the West, Virgil T. in The Mother of Us All for both Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera, and Ben in The Telephone at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. 

Mr. Janitzky is the winner of several competitions, including, in the fall of 2002, a Sullivan Foundation Award. Additionally, he has also won awards from the George London and the Marilyn Horne Foundations, and an Opera Index Award for 2002. In the summer of 2003, he was a finalist in the Placido Domingo Operalia competition.

Daniel Gross ~ Bass

Young American bass-baritone Daniel Gross is currently in his first year with the Juilliard Opera Center. He was most recently seen as Der Tod in Viktor Ullman's Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The past two seasons with the Pittsburgh Opera Center, he performed the title role in Don Pasquale, Escamillo in La Tragédie de Carmen, Seneca in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Frank in Die Fledermaus, Don Alfonso in Così fan Tutte, and A Man with a Cornet Case & A Puppet Maker in Postcard from Morocco. With the Wolf Trap Opera, he appeared as Buff in Impresario, Poeta in Viva la Mamma, Snug in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro.

Mr. Gross has also portrayed Harry Easter in Street Scene, the Imperial Commissioner in Madame Butterfly, Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Second Soldier in Salome for the Pittsburgh Opera. With the Chautauqua Opera, he appeared as the Wig Master in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. A graduate and Merit Scholarship recipient at the Manhattan School of Music, his credits there include Colline in La Bohème, Il Signor Geronimo in Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto, Le Gouverneur in Rossini's Le Comte Ory, and John Henry Follet in the New York premiere of William Mayer's A Death in the Family. He made his Town Hall debut as La Voce in Mozart's Idomeneo with the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia.

As an oratorio soloist, Mr. Gross has performed Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Grand Mass in C Minor, Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem, Beethoven's Fantasia for Piano, Chorus, and Orchestra, Purcell's Welcome, Welcome Glorious Morn, and Bach's St. Mathew Passion. He has appeared with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Manhattan School of Music Philharmonia.

Mr. Gross recently narrated Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw with the Juilliard Symphony under the baton of Reinbert de Leeuw. In March of 2000, he was a chosen finalist for the St. Louis Symphony's "Search for a Star" Competition. An avid recitalist, Mr. Gross has concertized throughout New York, St. Louis, and Pennsylvania.

At the end of April, Mr. Gross will be seen as Leporello in the Juilliard Opera Center's production of Don Giovanni.