Opera After Dark: Christmas Cabaret

Jonathan Beyer is a baritone who has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Florida Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Dallas Opera, St. Louis Opera Theater, Austin Lyric Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opera Darmstadt, Fort Worth Opera, Hong Kong Opera, Teatro Petruzzelli, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera de Montreal, Royal Opera House in Oman, Chicago Lyric Opera, Opera Naples and others. He has also appeared with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Netherlands Radio Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Baton Rouge Symphony, Vermont Symphony, Lansing Symphony, Southwest Michigan Symphony, Detroit Symphony, the Erie Philharmonic and the Festival at Aix-en-Provence.

Mr. Beyer was a National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition. He was the 1 st Place Winner at the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical Artists. He has also won the Geroge London Foundation, Sullivan Foundation, McCammon Competition, Irma M. Cooper Competition, Violetta DuPont Competition, Rochester’s Classical Idol, New Jersey Verismo Competition, Philadelphia Orchestra Competition, Astral Artist Auditions, Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions, SAI Competition, American Opera Society Competition, the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Competition, and the Bel Canto Foundation. He has also received awards from the Lissner, Jensen, and Solti Foundations, Zachary, Dalis, Liederkranz, Orpheus, Liederkranz, Neue Stimmen, Palm Beach Opera, and Lynam
Competitions, Sosenko, Lanza, Iturbi, Gari and Puccini Foundations, National Opera Associations.

An avid recitalist, Mr. Beyer has performed in recital through the Vocal Arts Society, Marilyn Horne Foundation, Carnegie Hall Foundation, Chicago Cultural Center, Judith Raskin Foundation, Bertlesmann Foundation, Huntsville Chamber Music Guild, Pittsburgh Concert Society, Van Cliburn Foundation, Over the Rainbow Foundation, Astral Artists, and the Marian Anderson Foundation. He has degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University.

As a voice teacher, Jonathan was named the Director of the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory in 2024. He has taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of British Columbia, Montclair State Univeristy and others. Jonathan has also been seen on HGTV, the Food Network, is an official judge for the Miss America Program and is the co-host of The Skating Lesson YouTube channel.

Mezzo-soprano Amanda Crider has been recognized for her “gleaming vocalism” (Boston Globe), “star acting” (Urban Milwaukee), and “superbly clear diction and warmly burnished timbre” (South Florida Classical Review). In demand for performances of classical and contemporary opera alike, Ms. Crider created the role of Alma in Keeril Makan and Jay Scheib’s Persona in its world premiere with the Beth Morrison Projects and later at LA Opera, about which the New York Times remarked, “Amanda Crider made a winsome, vulnerable, and when the story turns dark, wildly volatile Alma,” and San Francisco Classical Voice declared, “Crider’s performance was a tour-de-force for its sustained vocal luster, dramatic variation, and sheer amount of singing.”

Performances in the 2024-2025 season include Mezzo Soloist with New World Symphony in music of Ravel, Delage and Copland, Mezzo Soloist with Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra in Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Mezzo Soloist with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park in Beethoven’s Mass in C, and multiple appearances with Bach Vocal Artists and the GRAMMY® nominated ensemble Seraphic Fire. 

Most recently, Crider performed as Mezzo soloist In Mozart’s Requiem with Amarillo Symphony, Elgin Symphony and Winter Park Bach Festival, in addition to appearances with White Snake Projects as Penelope in the world premiere of Mary Prescott’s opera, A Survivor’s Odyssey. In the 2020-21 season, she appeared with Apollo’s Fire in Allure: The Three Amandas with sopranos Amanda Forsythe and Amanda Powell. Additional recent appearances included a debut with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, soloist in Handel’s Messiah with Jacksonville Symphony and a duo recital with countertenor, Reginald Mobley.

Crider has been seen as the title character in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Florentine Opera, a role that she “wielded with beauty and charisma” (Voix des arts). Boston University News Service declared her “the true star” for her leading role in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Greek, and Opera News lauded her “beautiful work” and “agility” playing the English Teacher in Gregory Spears and Kathryn Walat’s 2019 recording of Paul’s Case, a role which Crider premiered with the Prototype Festival and Urban Arias in 2013.

A busy soloist and recitalist, Crider has appeared regularly with Seraphic Fire, Apollo’s Fire, the Bach Festival Society of Florida, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, the Symphony Orchestras of Eugene, Savannah, Charlotte, Syracuse, Charleston, Amarillo, Southwest Michigan and Jacksonville; and Philharmonic Orchestras of Louisiana, Carnegie Mellon and Greeley. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in the fall of 2007 singing as mezzo soloist in Messiah with the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and returned the following season as soloist in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. She has performed as a soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Bach’s B minor Mass, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C minor, Britten’s Phaedra, Bach’s St. John Passion, Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony and Ravel’s Chansons Madécasses, and has been a featured recitalist on the Trinity Church Concerts at One Series and with Five Boroughs Music Festival. Of her New World Symphony performance of de Falla’s El Amor Brujo in 2014, South Florida Classical Review wrote, “Amanda Crider’s smoky mezzo-soprano assayed the flamenco vocal solos with gutsy abandon.”