Katie Beck Sings at Monument Arts & Cultural Center

Rising opera star and Bennington native Katie Beck and Grammy-award winning pianist Craig Terry perform a dazzling array of music, from opera to art song to Broadway and more.

KATHERINE BECK 

Hailed by the Boston Globe as “balmy-voiced” and for her “uniformly excellent” performances, rising opera talent and mezzo-soprano Katherine Beck has been garnering attention throughout the United States. In the coming season, she makes her house debut at Minnesota Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Last fall, she returned to Arizona Opera in the 2023-24 season to create the role of Elizabeth Lavenza in the world premiere of Kallor’s Frankenstein. She also joined the Saint Louis Symphony as Lola in Cavalleria rusticana with James Gaffigan conducting and the Lyric Opera of Chicago for its production of La Cenerentola. She also joined the Nashville Symphony and Florida Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah. Last season, she had her first performances of Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Florentine Opera. Also in Rossini repertoire, she returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for its production of Le comte Ory and joined Dallas Opera for Così fan tutte. She also partnered with Craig Terry in recital at her alma mater, the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, as well as at Florentine Opera for their Spotlight Recital.

In recent seasons, she made her first return to Arizona Opera for Dorabella in Così fan tutte and joined the Opera Festival of Chicago as Isabella in Rossini’s rarely-performed L’inganno felice. She also joined the Metropolitan Opera for its production of Akhnaten.

She made her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago whilst a member of the Ryan Opera Center as Wellgunde in Twilight: Gods, a reimagining of the final chapter of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. She also joined Music Director Enrique Mazzola for songs of Donizetti and Verdi on the “Sole e Amore” digital recital program, sang excerpts of Marquise Melibea in Il viaggio a Reims on the Rising Stars Concert and of the title role of Carmen at “Sunday in the Park” at Millennium Park, and performed repertoire from classical to jazz to Broadway on concerts online and via WFMT.

She is also an alumna of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio at Arizona Opera and has previously sung Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Mary Johnson in Spears’ Fellow Travelers, Flora in La traviata, Madeleine Audebert in Puts’ Silent Night, and Catherine Wright in Hagen’s Shining Brow with the company. Ms. Beck made her Santa Fe Opera debut as Karolka in Jenufa while an Apprentice Artist and sang her first performances of Sesto in Giulio Cesare with Pittsburgh Festival Opera. She recently joined Opera Buffs in Los Angeles as Angelina in La cenerentola following earlier performances of Mercedes in Carmen. With Opera Colorado, she created the role of Lisette in Cohen’s Steal a Pencil for Me with Opera Colorado and sang previous performances of La cenerentola in student performances.

She is a two-time Vocal Arts Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, at which she was able to indulge her love for art song and chamber music. In the summer of 2018, she premiered Gandolfi’s In America, composed in commemoration of Bernstein’s Songfest, with orchestra. Also there, she sang a recital of French chanson with Roger Vignoles and a concert celebrating humor in music with Stephanie Blythe and Dr. Alan Smith. Elsewhere on the concert stage, she has sung excerpts of La clemenza di Tito with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra on its Mozart and Schubert Chamber Festival, Mozart’s Requiem at Scripps College, Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Williams College, and Handel’s Messiah for many consecutive years in Arlington, Vermont. She has also been featured at the oldest church in New England in her hometown of Bennington, Vermont, singing Bach’s Geist und Seele wird verwirret, BWV 35 and Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust, BWV 170. In the crossover realm, she joined the Boston Pops both at Symphony Hall in Boston and at Tanglewood for the premiere of Sondheim and Lapine’s Sondheim on Sondheim.

Ms. Beck is a winner of the prestigious George London Foundation Award, the LuminArts Vocal Fellowship in Chicago, and the Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition at Shreveport Opera. She is also a former semi-finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She earned her Master of Music degree from the Thornton School of Music at the University of California, at which she sang Béatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict and Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, and her Bachelor of Music degree from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam.

CRAIG TERRY 

Grammy Award winning pianist and arranger Craig Terry enjoys an international career regularly performing with the world’s leading singers and instrumentalists. Currently Craig serves as Music Director of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago after having served for eleven seasons at Lyric as Assistant Conductor. Previously, he served as Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera after joining its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. 

Craig has performed with such esteemed vocalists as Jamie Barton, Stephanie Blythe, Christine Brewer, Janai Brugger, Lawrence Brownlee, Nicole Cabell, Sasha Cooke, Eric Cutler, Danielle de Niese, Joyce DiDonato, Giuseppe Filianoti, Renée Fleming, Christine Goerke, Susan Graham,Denyce Graves, Bryan Hymel, Brian Jagde, Joseph Kaiser, Quinn Kelsey, Kate Lindsey, Amanda Majeski, Ana María Martínez, Eric Owens, Ailyn Perez, Nicholas Phan, Susanna Phillips, Luca Pisaroni, Patricia Racette, Hugh Russell, Bo Skovhus, Garrett Sorenson, Heidi Stober, Christian Van Horn, Amber Wagner, Laura Wilde, and Catherine Wyn-Rogers. He has collaborated as a chamber musician with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchester, and the Pro Arte String Quartet. 

Craig’s upcoming and recent highlights include more than forty concerts in North America, Europe, and Asia with artists including Katherine Beck, Ben Bliss, Christine Brewer, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, Andriana Chuchman, Joyce DiDonato, Christine Goerke, Will Liverman, Ana María Martínez, Whitney Morrison, Richard Ollarsaba, Susanna Phillips, David Portillo, Patricia Racette, Hugh Russell, and Laura Wilde. 

He is Artistic Director of “Beyond the Aria,” a highly acclaimed recital series now in its ninth sold-out season, presented by the Harris Theater in collaboration with the Ryan Opera Center and Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Craig’s discography includes five recently released recordings: “Diva on Detour” with Patricia Racette, “As Long As There Are Songs” with Stephanie Blythe, “Chanson d’Avril” with Nicole Cabell, and “French Horn Recital from 24 Preludes, Op. 11 - Alexander Scriabin” with Lyric Opera principal horn Jonathan Boen. His latest recording project with Joyce DiDonato, “Songplay,” released by Warner Classics, received the 2020 Grammy award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. 

He has appeared on numerous television, radio, and streaming programs, including multiple appearances on both “Live from Lincoln Center” and “Great Performances” for PBS, as well as on many programs broadcast on NBC, ABC, and CBS. In May 2021, he was the pianist for the Metropolitan Opera’s “Wagnerian Stars Live in Concert,” transmitted from the Hessisches Staatstheater in Wiesbaden, Germany. Craig hails from Tullahoma, Tennessee, received a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Tennessee Technological University, continued his studies at Florida State University, and received a Masters of Music in Collaborative Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student of renowned pianist Warren Jones.