Trio Eos illuminates the profound beauty of the female voice and its full range of expression over the ages. Comprised of sopranos Jessica Beebe and Michele Kennedy and mezzo-soprano Maren Montalbano, the Trio performs music from the early Middle Ages through the Twenty-First Century, championing works by emerging composers. Eos’ recent performances include chants of Hildegard von Bingen with Sympho Orchestra, works by Matthew Schickele in the Five Boroughs Music Festival, and a program of Hildegard Chants alongside new works by Susan Botti, Shulamit Ran, and Kate Soper with The Folger Consort at Washington National Cathedral. Through a multiyear performance residency at the Museum of Biblical Art, Trio Eos commissioned new works by Robinson McClellan and performed pieces by Elizabeth Meade, Richard Einhorn, Rebecca Clarke, and Karen Siegel. Eos has performed medieval music programs at The Cloisters Branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Folger Shakespeare Library in DC, and at New York’s Corpus Christi Church, where they competed in the national finals for the Early Music America competition for emerging artists with the three original members of the trio: Jenna-Claire Kemper, Michele Kennedy, and Kate Mulvihill.
Jessica Beebe, soprano
Lauded as having a “honey-colored tone” and “the most radiant solo singing” from Opera News, soprano JESSICA BEEBE is an affecting interpreter of repertoire from the Renaissance to contemporary American opera. As a highly sought-after concert soloist, Ms. Beebe has performed with several major orchestras and organizations across the world including The New York Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, The English Concert at Carnegie Hall and The Barbican Theatre in London, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Omaha Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, The Folger Consort in D.C., The Washington Bach Consort at the National Cathedral, Piffaro The Renaissance Band, Gamut Bach Ensemble, Philadelphia Bach Collegium, Steamboat Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Princeton Festival Orchestra, and more.
Her solo operatic highlights include premiering multiple operas with Opera Philadelphia by Lembit Beecher, Jennifer Higdon, David Hertzberg and Missy Mazzoli, as well as commercially recording David Hertzberg’s The Wake World with Opera Philadelphia, covering at Bergen National Opera in Norway, and a Los Angeles Philharmonic role debut in Meredith Monk’s opera, Atlas. Ms. Beebe is also member of many professional chamber ensembles across the country including Seraphic Fire, The Crossing, Clarion Ensemble, Variant 6, Trio Eos, The Thirteen, Lorelei Ensemble, Choral Arts Philadelphia, and is on multiple GRAMMY nominated albums with The Crossing and Clarion Ensemble.
Ms. Beebe is on the voice faculty at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Ms. Beebe holds degrees from The University of Delaware, Indiana University, and The London College of Music. For more information, please visit www.jessicabeebesoprano.com
Michele Kennedy, soprano
Praised as “an excellent and impassioned” soprano possessing “a graceful tonal clarity that is a wonder to hear” (San Francisco Chronicle), MICHELE KENNEDY is a versatile specialist in early and new music. Her recent concert venues include Carnegie Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, The Getty Museum, Lincoln Center, and Washington National Cathedral.
In high demand across the country, Michele has been a featured soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Voices of Music and The San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Handel’s Messiah with New York City’s Trinity Wall Street Choir, Poulenc’s Gloria and Handel’s Messiah with The Bach Society of Saint Louis, Undine Smith Moore’s MLK Oratorio at U.C. Berkeley, and in her Carnegie Hall mainstage debut with The Hollywood Film Orchestra. Michele recently debuted with Portland Baroque Orchestra in the ‘Summer Fireworks’ of Handel and Purcell, with San Francisco Ballet in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, and is soon to debut with Miami’s Seraphic Fire, Cleveland’s Les Délices, and with Washington Bach Consort in Haydn’s Die Schöpfung. Her singing is highlighted on a new recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with The Thirteen and Dark Horse Consort, and in her solo debut album with AGAVE – called In Her Hands – showcasing an extraordinary range of female composers from over the ages, from Barbara Strozzi and Pauline Viardot to Florence Price and Margaret Bonds.
A lifelong advocate of new works, Michele has sung premieres with Experiments in Opera, Harlem Stage Opera, Cappella San Francisco, The Crossing Choir, and The New York Philharmonic. This year, she is traveling with Lorelei Ensemble in a world premiere tour of Julia Wolfe’s Her Story – an outspoken celebration of women’s civil rights – in concert with the Nashville, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. She is also a member of Kaleidoscope Vocal Ensemble: a group of early and contemporary music specialists that champions the voices of women and artists of color on the stage.
Michele completed her musical studies at Yale University, Yale School of Music, and New York University. A lover of Redwood groves and Bay vistas, she lives in Oakland with her husband, visual artist Benjamin Thorpe, and their daughter, Audra May. Please find more at www.michele-kennedy.com.
Maren Montalbano, mezzo-soprano
Maren Montalbano began her vocal career with the San Francisco Girls Chorus at age seven, and has been singing ever since. A graduate of both New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University, Ms. Montalbano can be heard on four GRAMMY Award-winning albums: Born (2023), Lansing McLoskey’s Zealot Canticles (2019), Gavin Bryars’ The Fifth Century (2018), and John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls (2005). She appears on over 30 commercial recordings, including Douglas Cuomo’s opera Arjuna’s Dilemma, Kile Smith’s Vespers, Lewis Spratlan’s Hesperus is Phosphorus, Edie Hill’s Evolutionary Spirits, Ted Hearne’s Sound from the Bench, and her debut solo album, Sea Tangle: Songs from the North.
Ms. Montalbano has been a guest artist with the Lancaster Symphony, the Folger Consort, Lyric Fest, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, Network for New Music, Tempesta di Mare, and Piffaro, the Renaissance Band. Her voice has been hailed as “pure, suave and sensuous” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “impeccable” (Broad Street Review).
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Ms. Montalbano turned to the digital world. She wrote, produced, and starred in an interactive digital one-woman show called The Bodice Ripper Project, which had its world premiere at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and she started a podcast of the same name. Other world premiere projects from 2020-2022, both live and digital, include Shara Nova’s Titration (The Crossing/Warren Miller Performing Arts Center), Pete Wyer’s Spring Street Opera (American Opera Projects), Jennifer Rosenfeld’s The White Rose (a podcast musical), and Lansing McLoskey’s One Book Called Ulysses (Network for New Music).
In the 2023-24 season, Ms. Montalbano continues to walk the line between the digital and live worlds, with performances ranging from a traditional recital with guitarist Thomas Schuttenhelm to creating and selling digital collectibles on the new platform StageYo.
Ms. Montalbano lives in New Jersey and sings professionally throughout a wide geographic area with such groups as Opera Philadelphia, Trio Eos, and The Crossing. She is passionate about elevating and amplifying new and diverse voices into the world.