Jennifer Blades, mezzo-soprano

Hailed as having a "juicy" and "colorful" tone as well as a "flair for comic mugging," mezzo-soprano Jennifer Blades is a versatile performer, equally at home in opera, cabaret, oratorio and art song. Opera credits include Rosanna (The Barber of Baltimore), Julia Child (Bon Appetit), Alisa (Lucia di Lammermoor), Second Lady (The Magic Flute), Mrs. Herring (Albert Herring), Public Opinion (Orpheus in the Underworld), Arminda (La finta giardiniera), the Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Bianca (The Rape of Lucretia), the Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas), Narciso (Agrippina), Second Nursemaid (Street Scene), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Valencienne (The Merry Widow) for companies such as Opera Vivente, Lyric Opera Baltimore, Wolf Trap Opera, Baltimore's Artscape, and Opera AACC. Ms. Blades has also performed Ruth in Pirates of Penzance, Tessa in The Gondoliers, and Mad Margaret in Ruddigore with the Young Victorian Theatre. An avid cabaret singer, Ms. Blades has performed her original show My Funny Valentine at Don't Tell Mama in New York with Rick Jensen on piano and Lina Koutrakos as director. She has performed several shows at An die Musik and the Cabaret at Germano's in Baltimore: Desire, Despair, Deceit and Delight: A Holiday Cabaret; A Promised Kiss: Songs of Spring; My Funny Valentine, and Life, Love & Laughter. Additionally, Ms. Blades has also performed at the Atlas in Washington, DC and the Julie Harris Theatre in Steamboat Springs, CO. Ms. Blades has been a featured soloist with the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Harford Choral Society, the Bach Concert Series, Anne Arundel Community College's Chorus and Orchestra, and Howard Community College's Chorus and Orchestra. Oratorio credits include Mozart's Grand Mass in C and Requiem, the Bach Magnificat, Handel's Messiah, Vivaldi's Gloria, the Duruflé Requiem, the Kodaly Missa Brevis, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, Handel's Hospital Foundling Anthem, and several Bach Cantatas.

Ms. Blades received a Masters of Music and Graduate Performance Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory where she is a faculty member and stage director with the Opera Department. She teaches Cabaret Styles and Acting for Opera, and directs the Outreach Program's touring productions of Ariel's Tempest, Papageno, Hansel & Gretel, and Little Red Riding Hood. For the Peabody Opera she has directed Argento's Postcard from Morocco, Hoiby's This Is the Rill Speaking, Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges, and Conrad Susa's Transformations, as well as several of the Opera Etudes productions. Other directing credits include The Mikado, Orpheus in the Underworld, and a double bill of The Telephone and The Medium for Opera AACC. Ms. Blades is also artist-manager of the Mt. Vernon Voices, a holiday caroling quartet.

December 7, 2013

Previous Performances with the Hopkins Symphony Orchestra:
October 16, 2010