Cantor Ben Ellerin became the cantor and music director at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in 2018. He holds a Master of Sacred Music and ordination from Hebrew Union College in New York and completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Vocal Performance and Choral Conducting at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. In addition to his work within the synagogue, Cantor Ellerin has appeared as a guest soloist in concerts throughout the wider Jewish community, featuring repertoire spanning a wide array of classical, Israeli, Jewish, Yiddish, American folk, and contemporary music, as well as his own original works. His compositions have been performed by the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial Choir and in Jewish communities and camps across North America, Europe, and Israel.

Carl DuPont is an artist, innovator, and educator dedicated to Transformational Inclusion and Care of the Professional Voice. His “rich, nuanced baritone” (Columbus Underground) has held center stage in performances at The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Carolina, Opera Columbus, First Coast Opera, Toledo Opera, Opera Saratoga, Sarasota Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, El Palacio de Bellas Artes, Opera Company of Brooklyn, The IN Series, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and Leipzig Opera. Recent roles include Hawkins Fuller in Fellow Travelers, Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, and Leporello in Don Giovanni. His articles can be found in The Laryngoscope and the Voice and Speech Review. DuPont can be heard on the world premiere recordings of the Caldara Mass in A Major, The Death of Webern, and his solo album, The Reaction. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music (BM), Indiana University (MM), and the University of Miami (DMA), he currently serves on the faculties of the Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute, the Carey School of Business executive education division, and the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival; he is the co-artistic lead for the Kennedy Center’s Washington National Opera Initiative. This season he makes a role and company debut as Stephen Kumalo in Lost in the Stars with the Annapolis Opera Company, returns to Bach in Baltimore as the bass soloist in St. John’s Passion, sings the baritone solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, and reprises the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah for the Baltimore Choral Society.

Soprano Elissa Edwards, hailed for her “pliant, seductive, free-ranging voice” (Gramophone) and “glistening tone” (Early Music America), is a distinguished interpreter of 17th- and 18th-century vocal chamber music. A specialist in sacred repertoire, she has been featured as a soloist in numerous oratorio and cantata performances in both the US and UK.

Performance highlights include appearances with the Washington National Cathedral, Washington Bach Consort, Bach in Baltimore, Harmonia Stellarum, the Barbara Strozzi Symposium at Princeton University, Gotham Early Music Series, Amherst Early Music Festival, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, and The National Centre for Early Music (UK). Ms. Edwards serves as artist-in-residence at the Hammond-Harwood House Museum and has taught on the voice faculties of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., and The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

She has received numerous awards and grants for her contributions to the field, including the Maryland State Individual Artist Award, support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and funding from the Winterthur Museum & Library for her scholarly music presentations. Ms. Edwards trained at the Royal College of Music in London and holds performance degrees from Boston University (BM) and the University of York, UK (MA).

Her critically acclaimed album Vago Desio, featuring cantatas and arias from Barbara Strozzi’s Opus 8 (Acis APL90277), is available online. (www.elissaedwards.com)