Isabel Celata, soprano
Madison Barrett, mezzo-soprano
Isabel Celata, soprano
Madison Barrett, mezzo-soprano
Thomas Kasdorf, piano
Christopher Ramaekers, conductor
Beethoven: Overture “Leonore” No. 3 in C Major, Op. 72b (1805)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat Major, Op. 19 (1787-1789), featuring Thomas Kasdorf
Yeston: December Songs (1991), featuring Isabel Celata and Madison Barrett
Madison Barrett is a mezzo-soprano currently based in Madison, Wi. She has performed in venues across the United States and is an active performer in both the operatic and musical theatre fields. Ms. Barrett was most recently seen performing with companies including Four Seasons Theatre, Middleton Player’s Theatre, and the Ohio Light Opera where she performed the roles of Smitty (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) and Flora (No No Nanette). Madison made her Middlteon Player’s Theatre debut with their production of Sondheim on Sondheim, and was featured as a mezzo-soprano soloist for the Four Seasons Theatre concert “An Evening with Rodgers and Hammerstein”. Ms. Barrett has performed extensively with UW Opera, and her performance credits include Endimione (La Calisto), Flora (La Traviata), Nancy (Albert Herring), and The Beggar Woman (Sweeney Todd).
Madison is passionate about working with contemporary composers, and recently premiered the mezzo-soprano version of Juliana Hall’s song cycle Winter Windows during her solo recital at Collins Recital Hall. Ms. Barrett also performed as Clara in excerpts from Bill Banfield’s new opera Edmonia with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and premiered the role of Devorah in Paul Richards’ opera The Golem of Prague with UF Opera Theatre. Other UF Opera Theatre credits include Hansel (Hansel and Gretel). Madison will be seen performing next as Margaret in The Light in the Piazza with the UW-Madison Opera and she will return to the Ohio Light Opera for their 2024 season as Lady Jacqueline in Me and My Girl and Ilene in The Arcadians.
Madison is a recipient of the prestigious Collins Fellowship and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship in Italian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2023, Madison was named a finalist in the Patricia Crump Vocal Competition. She has also received a second place award from the Grady-Rayam Sacred Music Competition as well as first place awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) for the Florida division, and a second place award for the Wisconsin division. Madison currently holds a Masters of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor of Arts in Voice Performance with a minor in Business Administration from the University of Florida.
A classical soprano with a foundation in musical theatre, Isabel Celata is passionate about using musical performance to communicate relevant and important messages to her audience.
As a musical theatre performer, Celata has been seen in a wide variety of roles, including Sophie Sheridan in Mamma Mia!, Heather Chandler in Heathers the Musical, and Marcy Park in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. In each role, Celata strives to emphasize the truth, hoping to lead the audience to identify with and learn from her characters. Specifically, as Heather Chandler in Heathers the Musical, Celata and her cast utilized current sociological scholarship to analyze underlying themes and present them clearly to their audience.
Equally at home on the opera stage, Celata has been recently seen as Krysia in Heggie's Two Remain: Out of Darkness, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and as the Second Spirit in Die Zauberflöte at the Prague Summer Nights Young Artist Program. Celata has also frequently performed opera scenes, appearing as Adele in Die Fledermaus, Lakmé in Lakmé, Frasquita in Carmen, and Adele in L’elisir d’amore. Celata seeks to bring her love of communication, originally developed in musical theatre, to opera, helping to demonstrate its continued necessity and relevance as an art form.
Celata hopes to use her voice to better the community around her. In affirmation of her efforts towards this goal, in 2019, she won the Louise Mercer Award at her undergraduate institution, Rhodes College. This award is given to the student who has most devoted themselves to their music department. Other awards and honors Celata has won include the Ruth Sherman Hyde Study Abroad Award, the “Without Music Life Would B-Flat” Fellowship for Study Abroad, and the Gladys Cauthen Concerto and Aria Competition. Both study abroad awards were used to fund her study at the Prague Summer Nights Young Artist Festival.
Celata has performed multiple solo recitals and won a solo with the Rhodes College Orchestra, where she performed “Deh vieni non tardar” from The Marriage of Figaro and “Stizzoso, mio stizzoso” from La Serva Padrona.
Celata is a first-year Doctorate of Musical Arts student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying under Dr. Julia Rottmayer. She is a recent Masters of Music in Vocal Performance graduate from the University of Memphis, and graduated magna cum laude from Rhodes College in 2019, where she studied both music and political science.
Thomas Kasdorf is a collaborative pianist inspired by connections through various art forms merging through the piano. Active in the fields of chamber music, art song recital, opera, and musical theatre, he has concertized throughout the US and Canada. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in May 2020 at the Mead Witter School of Music at University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a Paul Collins Distinguished Fellow. He currently serves on the faculty as the music director and opera coach for UW Opera’s productions.
Thomas has long held an interest in musical theatre. He has performed in over 200 productions as an actor, pianist, musical director, stage director, and conductor. With a special interest in the works of Stephen Sondheim, he has been called upon to prepare productions or perform in reduced orchestrations in Company, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, Into the Woods, Putting it Together, Side by Side by Sondheim and Sweeney Todd. He is currently Artistic Director of Middleton Players Theatre (MPT) in Middleton, Wisconsin, where he resides.
Thomas has performed a major piano concerto annually with the Middleton Community Orchestra (MCO) since its inception in 2010 and has also engaged the orchestra to collaborate in staged productions of Carousel and Sweeney Todd with MPT.