The Grand Tour Orchestra

The Grand Tour Orchestra, founded in 2006 by flutist Charles Brink, takes its name from the 18th-century traveler's quest for cultural enlightenment. This period-instrument ensemble, comprised of outstanding instrumentalists from all over North America, engages New York audiences with arresting programming - including masterpieces never heard in America's concert halls – and vigorous interpretations. The Grand Tour Orchestra, whom the New York Times called "willing and energetic, playing with an involved enthusiasm," offers audiences the whole spectrum of late 18th century music; from Galuppi to Jommelli, from the sons of J. S. Bach to Haydn and from Myslivecek to Mozart.

The Grand Tour Orchestra performed Bach's Saint John and Saint Matthew Passions and Handel's Resurrection in the series of Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music. BFCM welcomes the orchestra in Brooklyn for the fourth consecutive year.

Charles Brink

Charles Brink, conductor, began his flute studies with Jacob Berg in St. Louis, Missouri. After receiving his Bachelor's degree at the San Francisco Conservatory he studied with Fenwick Smith at the New England Conservatory and received his Master's of Music in modern flute performance in 1993. That summer he was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival. In 1995 he received a Fulbright to study at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, The Netherlands. He frequently performs with period instruments ensembles such as his own Bouts Ensemble, the Four Nations Ensemble, the New York Collegium and others. Charles founded The Grand Tour Orchestra in 2006.

Conflitti di Voci

Conflitti di Voci is a New York City based professional vocal ensemble varying in size from quartet, to 24 voice double choir. Members of Conflitti di Voci all have Master's degrees in Vocal Performance, and are accomplished solo performers in their own right. Two seasons performing with The Grand Tour Orchestra have helped launch side engagements for the choir, such as for weddings and special events.

Anne-Carolyn Bird

Recipient of a 2008 Sullivan Foundation Award, soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird is rapidly gaining attention by major companies in her young career. Of a recent performance, the Seattle Times says “no one shone brighter than Anne-Carolyn Bird...her stage presence [is] nothing short of magnetic.”

Ms. Bird opened the current 2008-2009 season with two role and company debuts: Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Nashville Opera and Yum-Yum in The Mikado at Arizona Opera. Completing the season, she performs at Opera Carolina as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, at Opera New Jersey as Yum-Yum in the Mikado, and at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A., where she will perform Camille in Louise and Mozart’s Requiem. Three recital collaborations with Jocelyn Dueck round out the season, including one at her alma mater, the University of Georgia. In the 2009-2010 season, engagements include a her role debuts as Micaela in Carmen at Opera Carolina and Marguerite in Faust at Dayton Opera, as well as a return to the MET for Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Trittico and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos. In concert, she will perform CPE Bach's Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu with Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music.

After making her Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2006-2007 season, singing two roles in a new production of Il Trittico, Ms. Bird returned there in the 2007-2008 season to sing Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro. Also that season she performed Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Grand Rapids and Rosina in Dayton Opera’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. The summer of 2008, she returned to Wolf Trap Opera for a second summer to perform Cunegonde in Candide with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stephen Lord and starring Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander as Pangloss.

Recent concert appearances include A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Cleveland Orchestra, “An Evening of Musical Shakespeare” with the Atlanta Symphony, both conducted by Nicholas McGegan, and her Carnegie Hall debut in Evan Chamber’s oratorio The Old Burying Ground. Past performance highlights include Celia in John Musto’s comedic masterpiece Volpone at Wolf Trap Opera, Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Magnificat with Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Noémie in Laurent Pelly’s highly-acclaimed production of Cendrillon at Santa Fe Opera. She has been seen in staged and concert versions of Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar and can be heard on the Grammy award-winning recording. In 2006, she toured internationally with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to perform Golijov’s La Pasion de segun San Marcos (“luminous” -The New York Times).

The Bhakti Project, Ms. Bird’s on-going recital project with Ms. Dueck included a world premiere last season: Hillula by Judd Greenstein. Steve Smith from Time Out New York wrote of the performance: "Bird proved herself a singer capable of ... getting under the skin of a piece, touching its inner passions and revealing them to a listener."

Ms. Bird has been a recipient of grants and awards from many organizations, including the Santa Fe Opera, the Oratorio Society of New York, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Twice a Young Artist with the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers and twice a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, she holds degrees from New England Conservatory and the University of Georgia. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, bass-baritone Matthew Burns.

Matthew Garrett

The tenor Matthew Garrett is a 2005 graduate of the prestigious Juilliard Opera Center in New York City. The 2008-2009 season’s engagements include Paolino (Il Matrimonio Segreto) with Scottish Opera, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) with Eugene Opera and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) with the Ann Arbor Symphony, and as tenor soloist in: Messiah with the Virginia Symphony, Das Lied von der Erde with the Brooklyn Symphony, Handel’s La Resurrezione with the Grand Tour Orchestra, Handel’s Solomon with the Berkshire Choral Festival, and St. Matthew Passion with the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola.

Highlights of last year’s season include Ernesto (Don Pasquale) with Syracuse Opera, Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) with Connecticut Opera, Apollo (Orfeo) with Glimmerglass Opera, Zen (What Next?) with Miller Theater at Columbia University, the Evangelist (St. Matthew Passion) with the Grand Tour Orchestra, tenor soloist (Verdi Requiem) with the Ashland Symphony, tenor soloist with the AXIOM Ensemble under James Conlon, and participation in the Jours des Arts Music Festival in Montreux, Switzerland.

Additional past engagements for the New Jersey native include performances with Houston Grand Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Cincinnati May Festival, Opera Omaha, Merola Opera Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Opera Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Basel Festival Orchestra, Arion Ensemble in Montreal, National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall, and at New York’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue. He has presented solo recitals in Merkin Hall and Paul Hall in New York, including a complete Die Schöne Müllerin of Schubert.

Mr. Garrett was recently a World Finalist in the Montreal International Musical Competition. Other awards include 2nd Prize in the Young Concert Artists International Competition, 2nd Prize in the Eastern Regional Finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, 2nd Prize in the Dupont Voice Competion at Opera at Florham, and encouragement prizes from Opera Index, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, and the Giulio Gari Foundation.

Operatic performances include Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Belmonte and Pedrillo (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Don Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Jenik (The Bartered Bride), Imeneo (Imeneo), Soldat (Der Kaiser von Atlantis), Sam Sharkey (Paul Bunyan), Le Petit Vieillard (L’Enfant et les Sortilèges), Harry (La Fanciulla del West), the Prologue (Turn of the Screw), the wistful John Styx (Orphée aux Enfers), Little Bat (Susannah), Gomatz (Zaide), and Lysander and Flute (A Midsummer Night’s Dream).

Past teaching engagements include three years as a Teaching Fellow in the Ear Training Department at the Juilliard School, and at the Metropolitan Opera as a music theory teacher to the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Originally trained as an orchestral conductor, he received a Bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1999, as well as the coveted Madeira Prize and Ron Nelson Prize for musical excellence. He earned a Masters degree in Voice from the Juilliard School in 2003.

Randall Scarlata

Baritone Randall Scarlata enjoys a lively career encompassing opera, recital, chamber music and works for voice and orchestra. Career highlights include the world premiere of Thea Musgrave’s one man opera, The Mocking-Bird in Boston, recitals in the US and Europe with pianist Richard Goode, soloist with the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, and with the Pittsburgh, San Francisco, American, Ulster, Tonkünstler, National and BBC Symphonies, and the early music groups Wiener Akademie Orchester, Musica Angelica among others. With Great Performers at Lincoln Center, he portrayed Siskov in Janacek’s From the House of the Dead. He has appeared in many of the world’s great music festivals, including the Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Vienna, Salzburg, Aspen and Spoleto (Italy) festivals.

Known for his versatility and consummate musicianship, Mr. Scarlata’s repertoire spans four centuries and fifteen languages. A sought-after interpreter of new music, he has given world premieres of works by George Crumb, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, Lori Laitman, Thea Musgrave, Samuel Adler, Daron Hagen, Wolfram Wagner and Christopher Theofanidis. His performances of Songs of Tin Pan Alley with soprano Jennifer Aylmer and pianist Laura Ward are favorites of both Art Song aficionados and lovers of popular music. He regularly performs the Schubert song cycles with pianist Jeremy Denk throughout the United States. In addition, Mr. Scarlata has recorded for the Chandos, Naxos, CRI, Gasparo, Arabesque and Albany labels.

Randall Scarlata’s awards include First Prize at the 1999 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize at the 1997 Das Schubert Lied International Competition in Vienna, First Prize at the 1997 Joy in Singing Competition in New York, and the 1998 Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital Award. Mr. Scarlata received a Fulbright Grant to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna and holds a masters degree from the Juilliard School. In addition, Mr. Scarlata spent several summers studying with the great French baritone, Gérard Souzay in Nice and in Salzburg. He is a Sing for Hope artist, having been involved with the foundation for over 10 years. Mr. Scarlata serves on the faculty of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at West Chester University.

“It is impossible to imagine Randall Scarlata singing a mechanical or thoughtless phrase. One has the wonderful sense that Scarlata searches out the Platonic essence of what he plans to sing and then uses every attribute at his disposal to create the most appropriate and fully dimensional realization possible.”
The Washington Post