WINTER FIREWORKS
Sunday, January 6 at 4 p.m.
Towson United Methodist Church, 501 Hampton Lane, Towson, MD 21286
This concert was part of Bach in Baltimore’s 2018-2019 Season. View the full season in our Archives.
FULL PROGRAM:
Bach’s Cantata 171: Gott, wie dein Name, so ist auch dein Ruhm
Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks
Gott, dem der Erden kreis zu klein from Bach’s Cantata 91
FEATURED SOLOISTS:
Jana Critz, Alto *
Dr. Min Jin, Tenor
STUDENT VOICE EXCHANGE:
Bella Voce from John Carroll High School
* The alto soloist for this concert is endowed in perpetuity in honor of Dr. Martha Connolly
Learn more about our Permanent Endowment Fund HERE
Janna Critz, alto
Janna Critz, mezzo soprana, is a rising artist in the early music, operatic, and concert arena, and is acclaimed for having “summoned up sonorities that were rich, warm, dark, and comforting” (San Francisco Examiner) and for her “elegance of technique” and “vivid vocalism” (Baltimore Sun). Miss Critz appears regularly as a soloist with groups like Mountainside Baroque, performing works like Beggar’s Opera, the Vivaldi Magnificat, and Dido and Aeneas. She also appears with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem and was the winner of The Biannual Bethlehem Bach Vocal Competition in 2014. In 2015, Critz was one of four recipients of the Virginia Best Adams Fellowship with the Carmel Bach Festival, and a joint recipient of the 2015 American Prize in Chamber Music with vocal ensemble, New Consort. Critz holds a double master’s degree in early music and vocal performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Dr. Min Jin, tenor
Tenor Dr. Min Jin has a versatile and wide-ranging career as a leading operatic tenor, recitalist, conductor, and voice professor. Praised for his easy lyricism, emotional intensity, and extraordinary top notes, Dr. Jin has delighted audiences throughout the world. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center as a recitalist, opera performer, and oratorio soloist with choral societies. His past opera performances include leading roles in La Boheme, Lucia di Lammermoor, Romeo et Juliette, Carmen, L’elisir d’amore, The Magic Flute, La Rondine, La Traviata, Tosca, Manon, Werther, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and La Vera Costanza. He has performed with the New Jersey State Opera, Ann Arbor Opera, Aspen Opera, Rochester Mercury Opera, Dicapo Opera, Academic Opera, Mannes Opera, Eastman Opera, Grand Valley State University, Kwang Ju City Opera, and Po Hang City Opera.
As an oratorio and chamber music soloist, he has been featured in Carmina Burana and Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings with the Finger Lake Music Festival and the Grand Valley State University. Other featured solo engagements have included Haydn’s Creation and The Seasons, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Dubois’ The Seven Last Word of Christ, Mendelssohn’s St. Paul and Elijah, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Mass in C Major and Symphony No. 9, Frank’s Mass in A Op. 12, and Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G and Mass in A flat with orchestras in the U.S. and around the world.
He was a first prize winner of the Artist International Music Competition, Korean Music Association Competition, and a winner of the Heida Hermann International Voice Competition, the Oratorio Society Voice Competition, and a finalist in the Caruso International Voice Competition.
Dr. Jin holds a D.Mus.A. degree in vocal performance from the Eastman School of Music. He served as a principal conductor for the Tedeum Choir in Chicago and as the orchestra conductor at the Central Wesleyan Church in Holland. As a studio voice teacher, many of Dr. Jin’s students are awarded at voice competitions, festivals, and young artist programs at the national and international levels. He currently works as an assistant professor of voice at Towson University.