Soprano Elissa Edwards is an exponent of Early Music and hailed for her ‘pliant, seductive, free-ranging voice’ (Gramophone) and her ‘glistening tone’ (Early Music America). She is also a sacred music specialist and has been a featured soloist in many oratorio and cantata performances in the US and UK. Performance highlights include featured appearances at the Washington National Cathedral, the Barbara Strozzi Symposium at Princeton University, Gotham Early Music Series, Bach in Baltimore, American Harp Society, Amherst Early Music Festival, Yorkshire Baroque Soloists and The National Center for Early Music, UK. Ms. Edwards is the artist-in-residence of the Hammond-Harwood House Museum and is on the voice faculty at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Edwards has won many awards and grants for her creative contributions to the field including the Maryland State Individual Artist’s Award, the National Endowment for the Humanities and Winterthur Museum & Library for her scholarly presentations of music. Her training includes studies at the Royal College of Music, London and performance degrees from Boston University (BM) and University of York, UK (MA). Her critically acclaimed album, Vago Desio, features cantatas and arias from Barbara Strozzi’s Opus 8 (Acis APL90277) is available to listen online. (www.elissaedwards.com) 

Edmund Milly, bass-baritone, is sought after for his “perfect diction” (Los Angeles Times), distinctive “delicacy and personal warmth” (Boston Classical Review), and “rich and resonant” (KC Metropolis) sound. Equally at home as a soloist or in ensembles of the highest caliber, he has recently performed with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, the U.S. Army Chorus, the Washington Bach Consort, Mark Morris Dance Group, Clarion Choir, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Oregon Bach Festival, New York Baroque Incorporated, and the Folger Consort. He has amassed solo credits on the BBC and CBC, and appears on several GRAMMY-nominated albums.

Edmund’s musical education began with cello lessons at age 3. As a student at the American Boychoir School, he amassed formative musical experiences under the batons of Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Mazur, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and André Previn. Edmund continued his education at McGill University and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, where he studied with James Taylor; as a soloist with Yale Schola Cantorum, he honed his craft under the direction of David Hill, Simon Carrington, and Masaaki Suzuki. In his Lincoln Center debut under Maestro Suzuki, Edmund portrayed an “authoritative and confident” Jesus in Bach’s St. John Passion (Seen and Heard International). Since then, he has sung the same role at Trinity Wall Street and the Oregon Bach Festival, among others. A dedicated interpreter of Bach, Edmund has performed over 70 of the cantatas, and returns to the Oregon Bach Festival this season to sing Jesus in the St. Matthew Passion.

Edmund often performs with his wife, mezzo-soprano Sylvia Leith, in their new vocal quartet, the Polyphonists. Recent and upcoming solo engagements include Carmina Burana with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, the Thirteen’s staged production of Brahms’ Requiem, Five Mystical Songs with the University of South Carolina Symphony, Carmina Burana with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, the Charlotte Bach Festival, and Handel’s Messiah with Ensemble Altera. While early music is the foundation of his repertoire, Edmund always enjoys the opportunity to expand his musical comfort zone, and has the rare distinction of having shared the stage with Madonna at the Met Gala, 50 Cent at Radio City Music Hall, and Terry Riley at National Sawdust.