2011 soloists

Melissa Solomon, soprano

Melissa Solomon is a graduate from Arizona State University where she received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance. She has been a soprano soloist for works including Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem and Vivaldi’s Gloria. Her operatic roles at ASU include Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare, Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Servillia in scenes from La Clemenza di Tito. She also performed the role of Cleopatra in Nova Scotia, Canada with Halifax Summer Opera. In addition to classical singing, Melissa has participated in musicals with roles such as Marian Paroo in The Music Man and Lily in The Secret Garden, and has been a lead vocalist for a small jazz band. An award winning soprano, Ms. Solomon has been an Arizona District Winner at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has twice taken first place in her division at NATS. In 2009 she won the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Young Artist Competition and was a featured soloist with the symphony later that year. Melissa currently performs with the Arizona Opera Chorus, teaches voice and sings professionally around the Phoenix area.

David Parks, tenor

An educator and active performer, Parks has sung all of the major oratorio roles in the United States, Eastern Europe, with the Spoleto Festival in Italy, and at the National Art Festival in South Africa.  In early November 2001 he sang the tenor solos in the Mozart Requiem with the Sarajevo Philharmonic in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in October 2001 he soloed with the Syracuse Symphony in Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings.    In both 1990 and 1992 he was awarded fellowships with the Bach Aria Group, and in 1989 made his Carnegie hall debut as tenor soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah.  In 1995 he returned to Carnegie hall as tenor soloist in a program of Schubert and Mozart masses.
On the operatic stage Parks has sung roles with Syracuse Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Chautauqua Opera, Virginia Opera, Piedmont Opera, Arizona Opera, Ithaca Opera, Oswego Opera Theater, and Opera Delaware.  Parks’ appearances in more that 50 productions reflect a familiarity with a wide range of repertoire from Baroque opera to twentieth-century literature.

In the late spring and summer of 1991, parks made his performing debut in South Africa.  During the three-month residency in South Africa, he performed leading tenor roles in Puccini’s La Bohème and Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte.  In addition to fifteen operatic performances in Cape Town and Bloemfontein, Parks was heard at the South African National Arts Festival in both opera and oratorio, appearing as the tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem Mass, the first American tenor to do so in several years.   During summer festivals, Parks has been a guest artist at the Mauerbach Music Festival in Vienna, Austria, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, the Anchorage Music Festival (AK) and the Skaneateles Festival (NY), and the Ash Lawn Festival (VA).

Donald Wilkinson, baritone

Bass-Baritone Donald Wilkinson enjoys a distinguished career in concert, opera, oratorio, recital and contemporary music, and has appeared throughout the United States and Canada. He made his European debut performing the role of Dionysos in the World premiere of Theodore Antoniou’s opera, The Bacchae, at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Since that debut, he has appeared in Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, England and Holland. Mr. Wilkinson has performed as soloist with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Christopher Hogwood and the Handel and Haydn Society (a U.S. tour of Bach’s Missa Brevis in G Minor) and the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Evansville, Jacksonville, Springfield (MA), Portland (ME), and Vermont. Since 1984, he has been a soloist in Emmanuel Music’s famed Bach Cantata Series, under the direction of the late Craig Smith and presently under the direction of John Harbison. 

He celebrated his 25th Anniversary with  Emmanuel Music in 2009.  Highly sought after for his interpretations of Bach, in 2003 he made his debut at the Northwest Bach Festival (Spokane) in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Mozart’s Requiem under the direction of Gunther Schuller. He has also appeared at the Bach Festivals of Carmel and Philadelphia, and is featured on Emmanuel Music’s recordings (Koch International Classics) of Bach’s Christmas Cantatas, St. John Passion (1725 version) and Cantatas for the 1st and 2nd Sundays after Trinity. His Discography also includes the role of President Abraham Lincoln in the World Premiere recording of Eric Sawyer’s Our American Cousin on BMOP Sound, the title role on the internationally acclaimed Johnny Johnson by Kurt Weill on Erato Disques, Angels with the Boston Camerata (Erato), John Harbison’s Recordare on Koch International Classics, David Patterson’s song cycle Last Words on Albany Records and the recently released The Jesuit Operas with Ensemble Abendmusik on Dorian Recordings. In 1990 he was awarded a fellowship to Tanglewood. Mr. Wilkinson teaches voice at Harvard University and Phillips Academy, Andover.

He also maintains a private studio at his residence in Nahant, Massachusetts.