Beethoven's 9th Symphony: May 2026
Cantata Singers
Cantata Singers illuminates our shared humanity through choral music. At Cantata Singers, we raise our voices together in song, bringing artistry to an enduring tradition that has long cultivated relationships, shaped culture, and fostered mutual understanding. Through music making and community building, we create opportunities for people of all ages, cultures, and identities to engage with others in ways that uplift, inspire, and help them feel that their stories are being heard. Choral music offers the unique opportunity for musicians and audiences to explore together what it means to be human. Our programming honors the diverse perspectives and experiences that comprise our world, acknowledging that when we better understand our shared humanity, we develop deeper connections and amplify what unites us.
Noah Horn, Music Director, Cantata Singers
Noah Horn, whose work has been praised as "superb" (The New York Times), "well-prepared and joyful" (Detroit Free Press), "excellent," and "fluent and fresh" (Opera News), began his role as Music Director of Cantata Singers in 2022. He comes to the ensemble having directed choirs and orchestras at the professional, collegiate, and community levels. He has worked with ensembles in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Turkey, Greece, Canada, and the Philippines.
As a tenor, Noah has sung solo roles in much of the standard oratorio and concert repertoire. His singing has been featured on America's Got Talent, MLB.com, and YouTube's homepage. Also an organist, Noah has served as music director at a number of churches, and currently works in that capacity at St. Thomas's Episcopal Church in New Haven, CT. He recently won the nationally competitive AAGO and S. Lewis Elmer Prizes from the American Guild of Organists. In his younger years he enthusiastically pursued trumpet, and played principal trumpet for several orchestras, bands, and jazz ensembles, along with having the opportunity to play solo jazz trumpet for President Bill Clinton during his time in office.
Noah holds the D.M.A., M.M.A., and M.M. degrees from Yale University in choral conducting, and the M.M. and B.Mus. degrees from Yale and Oberlin College in organ performance. He lives in western Massachusetts with his wife and three children.
Holly Cameron, soprano
Soprano Holly Cameron, has been hailed a "marvelous femme fatale" (Boston Musical Intelligencer) with "rip-roaring high notes" (Boston Globe). Some of her favorite operatic roles include Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Musetta (La Bohème), and Abigail (The Crucible), among others. On the concert stage, Ms. Cameron has appeared as a soloist in works such as Strauss' Four Last Songs, Carmina Burana, Brahms' Requiem, Poulenc's Gloria, Mozart's Requiem, Fauré's Requiem, Verdi's Requiem, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, Dubois' The Seven Last Words of Christ, Saint-Saëns' Oratorio de Noël, Dan Forrest's Requiem and more.
A recipient of numerous honors, Ms. Cameron was a New England Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has won awards in the Shreveport Opera Competition, Sarasota Artist Series competition and the National Orpheus Vocal Competition, among others. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Voice Performance from New England Conservatory and a Master's Degree in Voice Performance from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Earlier this season Ms. Cameron enjoyed performances with Boston Ballet in their production of Dream, as well as soprano soloist in Rheinberger's Der Stern von Bethlehem. She looks forward to another performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony along with Amy Beach's lesser-known masterpiece, Jephthah's Daughter, in Marblehead on May 31, 2026.
Holly also has a growing reputation as a crossover artist and enjoys a variety of musical projects, straddling every genre from big band jazz, r&b and soul to pop, rock, and disco. She resides in Marblehead with her husband, Grammy Nominated Tenor, Matthew Arnold, and their fluffy cats. For more information please visit: www.hollycameronmusic.com and follow her on instagram at @hollycameronmusic
Annie Rosen, mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen's performances have been acclaimed as "fearless," "intensely present," and "soul-crushingly vulnerable." In the 2021-22 season, she debuted as the title role of The Maid of Orleans (Opera Company of Middlebury) and of L'enfant et les sortilèges (Florentine Opera), returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Ankhesenpaaten/Akhnaten and to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Taller Sister/Proving Up, and covered Guinevere/Le roi Arthus at Bard Summerscape. Some of her pandemic projects included full-length films of Hansel and Gretel (Opera Ithaca) and Taking Up Serpents (Chicago Opera Theater), as well as livestreaming recitals from balconies across Chicago.
An aficionado of new and experimental work, Rosen joined the Lyric Opera of Kansas City's Explorations series in 2019 to present a fully staged version of Sarah Kirkland Snider's one-woman song cycle Penelope. Other fringe work has included a collaboration with L.A.-based director Annie Saunders and the International Contemporary Ensemble to help create The Wreck, a site-specific devised opera based on the poetry of Anne Sexton and the compositions of Mariana Sadovska; a fully staged interpretation of Gyorgy Kurtag's Kafka Fragments for solo voice and solo violin in New York City, which OperaNews hailed as "a flat-out triumph for its two fearless performers"; and a collaboration with the Hong Kong Ballet in Kurt Weill's Die Sieben Todsünden.
On the concert stage, Rosen's repertoire spans medieval to contemporary and everything in between. Her recital repertoire, often staged, has included chants of Hildegard von Bingen; Handel solo cantatas; song cycles by Berlioz, Berio, and Shostakovich; and world premieres of Hindi and Farsi songs by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail. She was a 2021 semifinalist in the postponed Naumburg Vocal Competition for recitalists.
Rosen is also an eager participant in the wide world of video game music. Her voice has appeared on numerous arrangements of game soundtracks across platforms and as a featured soloist on the original games Ambition: A Minuet In Power, 12 Labors, and Plateau Melody. She periodically livestreams classical and game music on Twitch ( twitch.tv/mezzocarattere, and has performed live video game opera with Bonus Stage Vancouver and vgmtogether.
Rosen is a 2022 Grammy award winner for Akhnaten. She was a 2012 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions semifinalist. She holds additional awards from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Santa Fe Opera and Central City Opera, and the Connecticut Opera Guild. She is a recipient of the Shoshana Foundation's Richard F. Gold Career Grant and the Louis Sudler Prize in the Performing and Creative Arts from Yale College. Her apprenticeships included the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Lyric Opera of Chicago. A New Haven, CT native, Rosen earned degrees in musicology and performance from Yale University and Mannes College.
Matthew Arnold, tenor
2023 Grammy Nominated Tenor Matthew Arnold has been hailed by Classical Voice of North Carolina as "a golden voice, strong, rich, and surprisingly mature for his age." A Finalist in the 2024 Lauritz Melchior International Singing Competition and a two-time Finalist in the Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition, Matthew has spent the last 15 years working in the world of professional opera. Recent awards include Third Place in the Charlotte Opera Guild Competition, the Encouragement Award at the 2015-2017 Heafner-Williams Competition, The Encouragement Award in 2015 from Chautauqua Opera and in April 2014, he won the Verdi Award from the Orpheus National Vocal Competition.
Mr. Arnold has sung throughout the United States and Europe with many opera companies including the Castleton Festival as Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly under the baton of the late Maestro Lorin Maazel, AJ Fletcher Opera Institute, Piedmont Opera, Opera Roanoke, North Carolina Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Odyssey Opera. Recent role performances include Senator Matthew Arnold Fulton in Of Thee I Sing and Let 'Em Eat Cake with Odyssey Opera, Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly and The Ring Announcer in Champion with Boston Lyric Opera, Policeman/Reporter in X: The Life and Times of Malcom X with Odyssey Opera, Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos with Miami Music Festival and the Fletcher Opera Institute, Don José in Carmen and Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Miami Music Festival Wagner Institute.
Mr. Arnold holds the BM in Voice with a Minor in Sacred Music from the University of Delaware, the Master of Music degree in Voice from the UNC Greensboro and the Artist Diploma from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts Fletcher Opera Institute. When not on the opera stage or the organ bench, Mr. Arnold is a passionate advocate for promoting, preserving, and performing vintage Jazz and Dance Band music from the 1920s and 30s, with a special focus on the music of Rudy Vallée. Mr. Arnold leads a 12-piece band, The New England Yankees, and can be seen performing across the greater Boston Area in various venues. Mr. Arnold resides in Marblehead with his wife, soprano Holly Cameron, and their four kitties: Pixie, Tilly and Rudy and Benny.
Ron Williams, baritone
Ron Williams is a nationally recognized singer, lecturer, and voice teacher, acclaimed for his artistry in opera and oratorio and musical theater. He has performed leading roles with major opera companies, including San Francisco Spring Opera, Detroit Opera, and Opera San Jose, where he originated the role of Edward in Alva Henderson's The Last Leaf. In New England, Williams debuted with Boston Lyric Opera in Kurt Weill's Lost in the Stars, earning praise from The New York Times. His notable performances include Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress at MIT, Figaro in The Barber of Seville with Opera New England, and title roles in Rigoletto and Don Giovanni.
Williams made his European debut with the Düsseldorf Chamber Orchestra and has appeared on stages across Switzerland and other countries. His concert engagements include appearances with Cantata Singers, Chorus North Shore, and Symphony Pro Musica. He has performed as the biblical narrator in Honneger's King David with The Masterworks Chorale, starred in Cimarosa's Il Maestro di Cappella with Boston Civic Symphony, and debuted with Boston Cecilia in Britten's Cantata Misericordium. Additional roles include Christus in Bach's Saint Matthew Passion, Gianni Schicchi with Opera Susquehanna, and Narrator in Copland's Lincoln Portrait with the Plymouth Philharmonic.
A regional finalist in the San Francisco Opera National Auditions, Williams is particularly dedicated to 20th-century American repertoire. He performed in the Grammy-nominated recording of Anthony Davis's The Life and Times of Malcolm X with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. In 2023, he appeared in the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels.
For more information, visit www.RonSings.com.
