Guest Artists

Sherezade Panthaki

Soprano Sherezade Panthaki’s international success has been fueled by superbly honed musicianship; “shimmering sensitivity” (Cleveland Plain Dealer); a “radiant” voice (The Washington Post); and vividly passionate interpretations, “mining deep emotion from the subtle shaping of the lines” (The New York Times). An acknowledged star in the early-music field, Ms. Panthaki has ongoing collaborations with leading early music interpreters including Nicholas McGegan, Simon Carrington, the late John Scott, Matthew Halls, and Masaaki Suzuki, with whom she made her New York Philharmonic debut.

Highlights of her past and current seasons include Messiah with Bach Collegium Japan, the National Symphony Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, and the Nashville and San Antonio Symphonies; Saul with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra; Belinda in Dido and Aeneas and Galatea in Acis and Galatea with the Mark Morris Dance Group; Solomon with the Radio Kamer Filharmonie; Handel at Carnegie Hall with William Christie; Christmas Oratorio with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s; Mozart’s Exsultate jubilate and Requiem, with the Washington Bach Consort; and St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, and Brahms Requiem with St. Thomas Fifth Avenue.

Ms. Panthaki’s repertoire extends well beyond the music of the Renaissance and Baroque to Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Houston Symphony, Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise and Strauss lieder at the Bari International Music Festival, Britten’s War Requiem with Louisville Choral Arts Society, as well as solos in Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Poulenc’s Stabat Mater and Gloria.

Ms. Panthaki holds an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music.

Sara Couden

Praised for her "unusually rich and resonant voice" (Opera News), contralto Sara Couden is a premiere interpreter of operatic, chamber, and song repertoire. In 2020 she will sing for the first time with the Philadelphia Orchestra as the Mother, Cup, and Dragonfly in L’enfant et les sortileges, as well as Dritte Magd in Elektra. She will be making her debut at San Francisco Opera as Rita in The Handmaid's Tale, and Seattle Symphony as the alto soloist in their Messiah. She will sing her first Elijah with the Yale Camerata, and will perform Grieg's Haugtussa cycle with the Brooklyn Art Song Society. In 2021, she will be singing Stravinsky’s Three Songs from William Shakespeare as part of a Musicians from Marlboro 2021 tour.


Highlights of 2019 included a return to Carnegie Hall as the alto soloist in Sir Karl Jenkins' Stabat Mater, Dejainira in Handel's Hercules at the Staunton Music Festival, Testo in Stradella's La Susanna with Heartbeat Opera / Opera Lafayette, Israelitish Man in Philharmonia Baroque’s Judas Maccabaeus, Shostakovich's From Jewish Folk Poetry with the Chamber Music Series at Lincoln Center, Bach's St. Matthew Passion with True Concord Voices and Orchestra, and a return to the Met to cover Marta / Pantalis in Mefistofele.

​In previous seasons, Ms. Couden made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Albine in Thais and covered Erste Magd in Elektra. She toured Japan with Maestro Masaaki Suzuki in Bach's B Minor Mass, sang Third Lady in Die Zauberflote with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos and Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria with West Edge Opera, and sang "Urlicht" as the alto soloist in Mahler's Second Symphony with the Santa Cruz Symphony. She completed the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera, and has been a fellow at the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Music Academy of the West, and the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Ms. Couden holds a Master of Music with Honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and an AD in Early Music, Chamber Music, and Oratorio from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

David Kurtenbach

DAVID KURTENBACH, tenor, described in “warm and intimate” performances as having a voice “lined with silver,” enjoys an active choral and solo career, having appeared as soloist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Bach Collegium San Diego, American Bach Soloists, Oregon Bach Festival, Ensemble VIII, Apollo’s Fire, Magnificat, Volti, and the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys. Also a devoted fan of new music, Kurtenbach has premiered works by James MacMillan, Meredith Monk, David Lang, Dave Brubeck, Kirke Mechem, Eric Banks, and Moses Hogan. His recordings may be heard on Innova/Naxos, Koch International, Tonehammer, Pro Organo, and Soli Deo Gloria.

Mr Kurtenbach is also an experienced conductor, having served as Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor at Opera San Jose and Festival Opera, as well as preparing and conducting symphony choruses in Oakland and across the country. As a teacher and lecturer, he taught master classes in voice, choral conducting, and vocal accompanying at Oberlin Conservatory and San Francisco Choral Society, and for the last nine years, was appointed Instructor of Voice and Music Theory at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, serving as chief music educator for boy choristers and clergy. Exploring a ministry to sacred music, he often serves as Conductor, Organist, Cantor, and Officiant for Cathedral services, including conducting a recent performance of 220 voices for the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Paul Max Tipton

Described by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a dignified and beautiful singer, bass-baritone Paul Max Tipton enjoys an active career in opera, oratorio, and chamber music throughout North America, Europe, China, and Korea. He has recently appeared with the symphonies of San Antonio and Grand Rapids, with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and with the New York Philharmonic as part of their first-ever Bach Festival. He has sung with Bach Collegium Japan, Tenet (NYC), Blue Heron (Boston), and the Washington Bach Consort; in 2015 he debuted at Spoleto Festival USA and has appeared with Cut Circle (Palo Alto) at early music festivals in Maastricht, Antwerp, and Utrecht (2018). He has collaborated with Matthias Pintscher, Ton Koopman, Kenneth Slowik, Leonard Slatkin, Simon Carrington, Helmuth Rilling, Rubén Dubrovsky, Nicholas McGegan, and Ricky Ian Gordon; soloed for Grant Llewellyn with the Handel and Haydn Society; and performed the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Martin Katz conducting. He recently recorded Nicolaus Bruhns’s solo cantatas for bass for the BIS label, and has appeared in recital with Masaaki Suzuki. Current operatic credits include the role of Archibald Grosvenor in Patience with Odyssey Opera and Plutone in Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Göteborg Baroque in Sweden (2018). Mr. Tipton trained on full fellowship at the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor, being mentored by mezzo-soprano Luretta Bybee and tenor George Shirley. He is a graduate of the Yale University School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, having studied with tenor James Taylor. Based in Boston, he was made a Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow at Emmanuel Music in 2012. www.paulmaxtipton.com