Meet the Soloists: Choral Classics 2022

Erik Gustafson—Evangelist

Erik Gustafson, tenor, is highly active across the nation as an oratorio soloist and choral artist. A native of Portland, OR, he received his education from Arizona State University, and currently resides in Chattanooga, TN, where he is a voice instructor at Sewanee: The University of the South. Previously, he worked as a voice instructor at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO.

Erik has collaborated on two Grammy-winning recordings with the Phoenix Chorale, as well as albums with Skylark Vocal Ensemble (Boston, MA), Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Bach Collegium San Diego, Conspirare (Austin, TX), True Concord Voices and Orchestra (Tucson, AZ), Spire Chamber Ensemble (Kansas City, MO), and Sounding Light (Detroit, MI). He also currently performs with acclaimed ensembles such as Seraphic Fire (Miami, FL), Brevitas (Salt Lake City, UT) and Kinnara (Atlanta, GA). He was a founding member of the chamber ensembles Quadrivium (Durango, CO) and Helios (Phoenix, AZ).

As a soloist, Erik has performed as Evangelist for Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Oregon Bach Festival, Evangelist for the St. John Passion with True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Evangelist for the St. Matthew Passion with the Arizona Bach Festival, tenor soloist in Handel's Messiah with Tucson Symphony, and has been featured with many other organizations across the nation including the Phoenix Symphony, Idaho Falls Symphony, the Bach Vespers series at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New York City, Colorado Bach Ensemble, the Delaware Valley Chorale, Abendmusik (Lincoln, NE), Phoenix Opera, and Bach Society Houston.

Hannah De Priest—Soprano

Praised for her “impeccable” singing, soprano Hannah De Priest is quickly developing a reputation for “masterful” (Olyrix) performances on both sides of the Atlantic. The 2nd Prize Winner of the 2021 International Cesti Competition, she is especially known for “vivid portrayals” of music from the baroque, but performs an increasingly wide range of lyric repertoire. Opera credits include an “irresistible” (L’Opera) Belinda in Dido & Aeneas, Ïole (Handel’s Hercules), Drusilla (L'incoronazione di Poppea), and Oberto and Morgana in Alcina. Recent performances include Circé and Medée with Les Délices, being named a finalist in North America’s two major Bach Competitions, the Handel Aria Competition (2021), Le Concours Corneille (2019), attending the Carmel Bach Festival as a Virginia Best Adams Vocal Fellow, and covering the lead role in André Campra’s Le Carnaval de Venise as a Young Artist with the Boston Early Music Festival. Highlights of the 2021-2022 season include her European debut with the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, debuts with Oxford Lieder, Apollo Chorus & Elmhurst Symphony, Columbus Symphony, and Pegasus Early Music, and return engagements with, among others, Les Délices and Bella Voce. With duo partner Michael Pecak, she will perform several recitals, including a program inspired by the Classical-Era soprano Josepha Duschek.

Ryan Belongie—Countertenor

Countertenor Ryan Belongie has been praised for his “oft-astounding vocalism” (San Francisco Classical Voice), and “a remarkably warm, evenly produced voice whose supple phrasing included many an exquisite shade” (Opera News). He has recently made his debuts with Lyric Opera of Chicago in Rinaldo and Canadian Opera Company in Semele. Other engagements include A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Wolf Trap Opera, The Fairy Queen with Chicago Opera Theater and Long Beach Opera, L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Boston Baroque, Semele with St. Petersburg Opera, Agrippina, Xerxes, and L’Incoronazione di Poppea with West Edge Opera, Angel Heart opposite Frederica Von Stade with Napa Valley Festival, Theodora with Opera Bergen, Norway, La Circe with Ars Minerva, the world premiere of Abraham in Flames, and returning to the rosters of San Francisco Opera and Canadian Opera Company.

Concert appearances include Alabama Symphony, The Dallas Opera, Grand Rapids Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, Il Complesso Barocco, Kansas City Symphony, Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Music of the Baroque, San Diego Symphony, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Utah Festival Opera, and Utah Symphony. Mr. Belongie is a graduate of the Merola Opera Program and Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera and has been the recipient of numerous competition prizes and career grants from the Metropolitan Opera among others.

Ryan Townsend Strand—Tenor

Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor, is a Minnesota native whose "beautiful vocalism" (SF Chronicle) and "pliant tenor,” (Chicago Classical Review) have afforded him an expanding career as a concert and oratorio soloist. Strand most recently was a featured soloist with Bella Voce performing Mozart's Requiem in September and the Niles Metropolitan Chorus as the tenor for Handel’s Messiah in December.

In the fall of 2020, he premiered Acis & Galatea in HD (Chorus, Acis Cover) with Haymarket Opera as part of “a sparkling group of singers,” (Hyde Park Herald). He will return to Haymarket for their production of L’incoronazione di Poppea in September 2022. Along with being thrilled to return to the Apollo Chorus, highlights of the 2021-2022 season include Wally Gunn's The Ascendant with the William Ferris Chorale, J.S. Bach’s Easter Oratorio with Music of the Baroque, and Joby Talbot’s Path of Miracles with the new music choir Stare at the Sun.

Strand has sung with the Grammy award-winning contemporary vocal ensemble The Crossing in Philadelphia under the direction of Donald Nally. Locally, he performs with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Music of the Baroque, Stare at the Sun, and the Grant Park Festival Chorus. Strand is a founding member and executive director of Constellation Men’s Ensemble in Chicago.

Evan Bravos—Bass-Baritone

Evan Bravos, Greek-American baritone, has been praised by the Chicago Tribune for his “strong singing and acting” and marked as “a young talent to watch.” Most recently, Opera News touted his “lovely lyric baritone” as “charming and guileless,” concluding that he “sang winningly” in the premiere of Matthew Reccio and Royce Vavrek’s The Puppy Episode with Chicago Opera Theatre.

Engagements for the 2021-2022 season include Le Dancaïre in Carmen (Chicago Opera Theater) starring Jamie Barton and Stephanie Blythe, Handel: Messiah (Santa Fe Symphony), Hannah before in Laura Kaminsky’s As One (Opera Santa Barbara), Riff in West Side Story (New Philharmonic) and several performances of Patrice Michaels’ Notorious RBG in Song. During the 2020-2021 season, Mr. Bravos performed in two world premieres, first creating the role of Clay (The Puppy Episode, by Matthew Reccio Royce Vavrek) in his principal debut with Chicago Opera Theater, and second, as Claudius for Joseph Summer’s Hamlet in a unique co-production between Boston’s The Shakespeare Concerts and the Ruse Bulgarian State Opera.

Mr. Bravos made his professional debut in the summer of 2019 as Maximilian in Bernstein’s Candide at The Ravinia Festival. His operatic and concert experience has included appearances with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Central City Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Diego Opera, Aspen Music Festival and Music Academy of the West. In 2016, he made his European debut as baritone soloist with the Colorado Symphony Chorus Faure Requiem in Paris, Strasbourg and Munich.

Mr. Bravos is a native of St. Charles, IL. He studied at Lawrence Conservatory (BM) and Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music (MM). Learn more about this artist at www.evanbravos.com