Kurtz, Heidi

Mezzo-soprano and soprano from Pocomoke City, Maryland, who graduated from Eastern Mennonite University in 1989 and furthered her education at Temple University.

On 5^th November 1989, she portrayed the sorceress in the Temple University Concert Choir’s performance of Dido and Aeneas. She played Zita in Temple University’s production of Gianni Schicchi on 1^st May 1990 at Thomas Hall Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On 5^th December 1991, she embodied Linetta in the Temple University Opera Theatre’s mounting of Sergei Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges.

She became soprano soloist for All Saints Episcopal Church, which is located in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, in 1995, and has served in the same capacity for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia. In 1999, she became a guest vocalist in concert with Chester County Christian Chorale and its renditions of George Frideric Handel’s Messiah. She also participated in a Messiahsing-along on 10^th April 2004, which was held in Westminster Presbyterian Church.

On 21^st June 2005, she was a featured soloist at Lehman Auditorium on the campus of EMU for a presentation of Beethoven’s 9^th, in tandem with the Bach Festival Orchestra, under the baton of Kenneth J. Nafziger. She also sang “Cantata No. 45” by J.S. Bach and “Les Nuits d’Ete, Op. 7” of Hector Berlioz at the festival, whose theme that year was composers whose surnames began with the second letter of the alphabet.

In 2007, she appeared on Michael Udow’s Footprints CD as the token soprano in “The Shattered Mirror Suite for Baritone, Soprano, Tenor, Chorus, Piano, Synthesizer and Eight Percussionists”.

She helped The Philadelphia Singers commemorate their 35^th anniversary on 12^th April 2008 in a program that included Haydn’s “Missa in Angustiis” and Mozart’s “Vesperae Solennes di Confessore”.

On 22th May 2009, she participated in The Crossing’s second Month of Moderns concert, a mixed bag that comprised works by composers such as Kirsten Broberg, Petr Eben, Thierry Escaich, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Bo Holten, James MacMillan, Peter McGarr , and Steven Stucky.

She returned to familiar territory on 14^th June 2009 in Handel’s Messiah at the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival at EMU in Harrisonburg, Pennsylvania. The festival ran a week and also featured Heidi in Bach’s “Cantata BWV 146” and Handel’s Samsonoratorio.

On 3^rd January 2010, she reunited with The Crossing in another eclectic potpourri of works, Eriks Esenvald’s “Legend of the Walled-in Woman” and “The Sun Dogs”, and “The Little Match Girl Passion” by David Lang. No less interesting was her appearance with Due Solisti on 15^th May 2010 in a recital of modern music by Lionel Rogg, Lynn Job, Michal Macourek, and Pamela Decker, at All Hallows.

In addition to her busy concert schedule, Heidi has also been on the faculty of Roberto Clemente Middle School in Philadelphia.

Sources:

Kurtz, Heidi

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