Concert Soloists

Jennifer Ashworth, Soprano

Jennifer Ashworth is a native of Southern California, but moved to the Bay Area to attend the University of California, Berkeley in 1992. She received her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from Holy Names College. She has been active as a soloist with numerous choral groups, including the Philharmonia (Baroque) Chorale, San Francisco Chamber Singers, VOCI, and the University of California, Berkeley, Chamber Chorus, as well as singing with local opera companies including the Lamplighters, Berkeley Opera, Teatro Bacchino, Pocket Opera, Golden Gate Opera, and the San Francisco Opera Guild. She was the soprano soloist for our Fall 2007 performance of Francis Poulenc’s Gloria.

Daniel Cromeenes, Countertenor

Countertenor Daniel Cromeenes hails from sunny southern California where he studied piano and voice at Biola University and sang with the William Hall Master Chorale. He went on to achieve a master's degree in Accompanying at East Carolina University, where he studied voice and vocal repertoire in conjunction with his performance on piano. In North Carolina he sang with Capella Antiqua and made his alto solo debut in Purcell's Te Deum Laudamus and Jubilate Deo. After spending three years at Biola as Staff Accompanist, he joined Chanticleer for their 2005-06 season, singing concerts throughout Europe, Japan, and the United States. Recently, Dan has performed throughout the Bay area, both as an accompanist and as a singer with various ensembles. He currently plays for the Santa Clara Chorale, the music and theater departments at Santa Clara University, and as a freelance accompanist and coach. As a singer he has performed with various ensembles, including American Bach Soloists, Artists' Vocal Ensemble (AVE), Bay Area Classical Harmonies, Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, and the Chancel Choir at St. Paul's in Burlingame. When not onstage or behind a piano, Dan can usually be found either on a hike in the mountains or at home baking gourmet goodies.

Kevin Baum, Tenor

Kevin Baum currently is a cantor at St. Ignatius Church, and a member of the ensembles Clerestory, Schola Cantorum SF, AVE and the Philharmonia Chorale. In addition, he is an auxiliary member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. He is a 16-year veteran of the ensemble Chanticleer. Mr. Baum has been the tenor soloist in the San Francisco Lyric Chorus performances of Marc Antoine Charpentier’s In nativitatem Domini canticum, H314, Joseph Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, Michael Haydn’s Requiem, Anton Bruckner’s Mass No. 1 in D minor, Thomas Tallis’ Missa puer natus est nobis, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas carols, Ludwig Altman’s Choral Meditation, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Missa Solemnis, K. 337, Gaspar Fernandes’ Xicochi, Xicochi and Tleicantimo Choquiliya, J. David Moore’s Annua Gaudia, Chen Yi’s Arirang; Zhou Long’s Words of the Sun, Se Enkhbayar’s Naiman Sharag, John Blow’s Begin the Song, the World Premiere of Lee R. Kesselman’s This Grand Show Is Eternal, the West Coast Premiere of Robert Train Adams’ It Will Be Summer—Eventually, and J. David Moore’s How Can I Keep From Singing.

William Neely, Baritone

Bill has performed with many groups around the Bay Area, most recently with Midsummer Mozart’s production of Abduction From the Seraglio, Cinnabar Opera in Petaluma as John Sorel in Menotti’s The Consul; also with Cinnabar: Tonio (Pagliacci), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana), Jack Rance (La Fanciulla del West), the Forester (Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen), Ford (Falstaff), Count Almaviva (Marriage of Figaro), the Emperor (The Nightingale); with Santa Rosa Players as Don Quixote (Man of La Mancha); with North Bay Opera as Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd in conjunction with Solano College), as the four villains (Tales of Hoffmann) and Scarpia (Tosca); with Livermore Valley Opera in the title role of Don Giovanni; with West Bay Opera as Scarpia (Tosca), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Dr. Malatesta (Don Pasquale), and Falke (Die Fledermaus); with Pocket Opera as Rambaldo (La Rondine), Taddeo in Italian Girl in Algiers and The Treasurer in Verdi’s King for a Day; with Berkeley Opera as Marquis de la Force and the Jailer in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, and as Papageno (The Magic Flute, cond. by George Cleve); with Berkeley Contemporary Opera as the Traveler (7 roles in Benjamin Britten’s Death in Venice), and Blazes (Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Lighthouse); with Peninsula Civic Light Opera in the title role of Yeston and Kopit’s Phantom; with San Francisco Lyric Opera as Escamillo (Carmen), Scarpia (Tosca), Germont (La Traviata), and Albert (Werther). For thirty years, he has sung with the Lamplighters, performing most of the baritone roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire as well as Danilo (The Merry Widow) and Carl-Magnus (A Little Night Music). He has also performed with the Berkeley Symphony, Pocket Opera, San Francisco Bach Choir, Cabrillo Festival, Diablo Symphony, Valley Choral Society and San Jose Symphonic Choir. He holds a Bachelor in Music degree from the University of Massachusetts and a Masters in Music degree from the University of Colorado. Bill is on the Music faculty of Santa Rosa Junior College and teaches voice in his studio in San Francisco.

Allen Biggs, Timpani

Allen Biggs has a Bachelor's degree from San Francisco State University, where he is now an instructor, and a Master's degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He is the principal percussionist with the Santa Rosa Symphony. He performs with the San Francisco Opera, the Bay Area Jazz Composers Orchestra, and the California, Marin and Napa Symphony Orchestras. Legally Blonde,Matthew Bourne's Edward Scissorhands and Swan Lake are Broadway shows Mr. Biggs has worked on in the past year. Recent recordings include the cast albums of A Chorus Line and Happy End. Mr. Biggs is a founding member of Orient Express, an exciting four-piece ensemble that performs music of the gypsy diaspora. He performed with Dave Brubeck in March 2007. He previously performed with the San Francisco Lyric Chorus in our presentations of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Stephen Hatfield’s Nukapianguaq, Lee R. Kesselman’s Shona Mass, Juan Pérez Bocanegra’s Hanacpachap Cusicuinnin, Gaspar Fernandes’ Xicochi, Xicochi and Tleicantimo Choquiliya, J. David Moore’s Annua Gaudia and Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem.