Jamie Man - CURATOR AND COMPOSER
JAMIE MAN 文珮玲 was born in London in 1987 and is an artist and composer currently based in Berlin. Using the forms of opera and live performance installation, her works are primarily concerned with the poetic nature of what we are. Regularly recuring themes in her work include masochism, the violence of the voyeuristic gaze, and the ways that darkness allows us to see.
Ms. Man’s work has been commissioned and presented by Holland festival, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, LOD Muziektheater in Ghent, London Symphony Orchestra, Xenon ensemble in Berlin, Festival d’aix-en-Provence, Royal Opera House, Theater- und Musikgesellschaft in Zug, deSingel International Arts Campus in Antwerp, Palau de les Arts Reine Sofia in Valencia, Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg, and Asko|Schönberg Ensemble in Amsterdam. In 2020, her installation-performance work for l’Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Théatre du Châtelet was supported by the Franco-British fund Diaphonique.
After receiving the Britten-Pears Conductors Bursary in 2010, Jamie worked as assistant conductor to Oliver Knussen and later at the Dutch National Opera for Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus. Since then, her conducting work has included re-invitations to the Aldeburgh Music festival in concerts with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the UK premiere of Philip Glass’s Les Enfants Terribles, and recordings for the independent record label Another Timbre.
Natalia Salemmo - VOCALIST
Natalie Salemmo joined the San Francisco Symphony as an AGMA Soprano Chorus Member in 2019 and recently worked on several digital projects for the Symphony. She has appeared in Handel’s Messiah and as Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the South Dakota Symphony and has also performed with RenegadeEnsemble in the Twin Cities. Ms. Salemmo is a graduate of Mannes College and went on to perform with Opera Saratoga as part of their Young Artist Program.
Michele Kennedy - VOCALIST
Soprano MICHELE KENNEDY is a versatile specialist in early classical and new music and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Bard Summerscape, the Getty Museum, Lincoln Center, and Washington National Cathedral.
Her recent highlights include J.S. Bach’s Magnificat and St. John Passion with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, George Frideric Handel’s Messiah with Trinity Wall Street, Poulenc’s Gloria with the Bach Society of Saint Louis, and Undine Smith Moore’s Scenes from the Life of a Martyr at UC Berkeley. She has presented Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers with Dark Horse Consort and Voices of Ascension, Bach Cantatas and Saint John Passion with American Classical Orchestra, and Felix Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with The San Francisco Ballet. Her recent debut with Agave Baroque celebrating female voices from the seventeenth century through the present day will soon be made into an album.
Leandra Ramm - VOCALIST
Mezzo-soprano LEANDRA RAMM has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the United Nations, and Symphony Space. She debuted in Weill's The Endless Road as soloist with The American Symphony Orchestra, performed the title role for San Francisco Opera Guild’s tour of La Cenerentola, and was a soloist with the SF Symphony in Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and J.S. Bach's Magnificat. She was a national finalist in the Women in Opera Division and semi-finalist in the Art Song Division from the American Prize, and is a grant recipient of the Opera America Career Blueprints for Singers. Ms. Ramm was selected by the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music in the COVID-19 Response Pairings and debuted a song cycle by Grey Grant specifically composed for her voice. She has also appeared with San Francisco Opera Guild, sang the title role in L'enfant et les sortilèges in a co-production by Opera on Tap and Air Operatique, and sang Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Silicon Valley Philharmonic.
Silvie Jensen - VOCALIST
Mezzo soprano Silvie Jensen appeared with the San Francisco Symphony as the Nurse in Boris Godunov and as alto soloist in J.S. Bach’s Saint John Passion and Magnificat. She is also a member of the San Francisco Opera Regular Chorus, where she made her solo debut in the role as Lehrbuben in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. She has performed as soloist at the Barbican, the Ostrava Days Festival in Czech Republic, Mendocino Music Festival, and in the Lyric Opera Chorus. Ms. Jensen made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall singing J.S. Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion and later appeared there in Handel's Messiah.
Ben Zamora - LIGHT ARTIST
Ben Zamora is an American artist whose work is primarily based in light and sculpture. He has created large-scale installations and sculptures for the Park Avenue Armory in New York, The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Amsterdam Light Festival, Art Basel/Design Miami, Kunsthalle Krems in Austria, The Frye Art Museum, Suyama Space, as well as a number of other galleries, museums, private art collections, and public art projects.
Mr. Zamora’s work moves seamlessly between performance and visual art, where he creates light-based sculptures and art installations for performance-based work, including projects with Kronos Quartet, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Barbican, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, London Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.