Three Performances
Friday, December 6 @ 7:30 PM
Saturday, December 7 @ 2:30 PM
Saturday, December 7 @ 7:30 PM
Join us at First Presbyterian Church of Lancaster for a magnificent performance of Handel's Messiah, featuring the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. This cherished seasonal tradition is your chance to experience the timeless story and glorious music in a perfect setting, guaranteed to lift your holiday spirit.
Featuring:
Dr. William Wright, conductor & chorus master
Amy Nicole Broadbent, soprano
Sylvia Leith, alto
Fran Daniel Laucerica, tenor
Edmund Milly, bass
Lancaster Symphony Chorus
Meet Our Soloists
Amy Broadbent—Soprano
“With consummate poise, limpid clarity, and faultless intonation” (Washington Classical Review), soprano Amy Nicole Broadbent has garnered recognition as a dynamic and versatile musical force. Amy has performed as a soloist for the Oregon Bach Festival, Staunton Music Festival, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Washington National Cathedral, Washington Bach Consort, The Thirteen, and the Folger Consort. She created and recorded the role of Sebastian in Scott Ordway’s opera, The Outer Edge of Youth, acclaimed by Opera News (Critic’s Choice), Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine. Other stage roles include Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Bastienne (Bastien und Bastienne), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Johanna (Sweeney Todd), La Statue Animée (Pygmalion), Josephine (H.M.S. Pinafore) and Elsie (The Yeoman of the Guard). Amy won first-place in the Audrey Rooney Bach Competition (Kentucky Bach Choir) and the National Society of Arts and Letters’ Winston Voice Competition. She is a soprano vocalist and the Assistant Conductor of the U.S. Navy Band Sea Chanters, the official chorus of the U.S. Navy, as well as a founding member of vocal quartet The Polyphonists. Amy holds degrees in both voice and conducting from the University of Maryland. amy-broadbent.com
Sylvia Leith—Mezzo Soprano
Sylvia Leith, is a soloist and consort singer. She has appeared as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Washington Bach Consort, the Oregon Bach Festival, St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, American Classical Orchestra, Riverside Choral Society, Cantata Collective, and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, among others. Known primarily for her performances of the high baroque works of Bach and Handel, she is equally at home singing repertoire of the Romantic era including Mahler, Elgar, and Brahms, as well as 20th-century and newly composed works. Her ensemble credits include TENET, Lorelei, Bach Collegium San Diego, Ekmeles, the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, Ensemble Altera, the Crossing, Skylark, and the Choir of Trinity Wall Street. She is a founding member of the Polyphonists. Sylvia won first prize in the 2024 Bethlehem Bach Aria Competition, and was a 2024 Virginia Best Adams vocal fellow at the Carmel Bach Festival. www.sylvialeith.com
Fran Daniel Laucerica—Tenor
Hailed by Opera News as “a very promising high tenor,” Cuban-American, Fran Daniel Laucerica has been praised for his clarity, agility and musical versatility as a rising star on the operatic and concert stages. This season, Mr. Laucerica returns to Pittsburgh Opera as a Resident Artist, where he reprises the role of Beppe/Pagliacci, as well as performs the roles of Spoletta/Tosca, Rinaldo/Armida, and Thomas in the world premiere of Higdon’s Woman With Eyes Closed. Also in the 2024/25 season, Laucerica debuts with Pittsburgh Festival Opera as Poisson/Adriana Lecouvreur, reprises the role of Conte d’Almaviva/Il barbiere di Siviglia with First Coast Opera and returns as a Tenor Soloist in St. Matthew Passion with Madison Bach Musicians. On the concert stage, Mr. Laucerica has been the tenor soloist in varied works including Orff’s Carmina Burana with Lexington Symphony, Handel’s Messiah with the Lancaster Symphony Orhcestra and the Callipygian Players, Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes with Glencoe Union Church, as well as Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria as a guest soloist with the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. A passionate advocate for new music, Mr. Laucerica has premiered several works including Samuel Carl Adams’ Light Readings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNOW initiative and David Lang’s a house with the Bienen Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. Mr. Laucerica is a recent Encouragement Award Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, as well as the Third-Prize Winner in the 2023 Handel Aria Competition, and semi-finalist in the SAS Performing Arts, Camerata Bardi and Music International Grand Prix competitions. He graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a Master’s in Opera Performance and a Bachelor’s from Northwestern University. www.frandaniellaucerica.com
Edmund Milly—Bass Baritone
Bass-Baritone Edmund Milly is sought after for his “annunciatory power” (New York Times), “perfect diction” (Los Angeles Times), and distinctive “delicacy and personal warmth” (Boston Classical Review). This season brings solo debuts with the Baltimore and Lancaster Symphonies. Recent solo engagements include Britten’s War Requiem with the Yale Symphony, Haydn’s Creation with the Washington Bach Consort, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor at the Oregon Bach Festival, and world premieres by Benedict Sheehan and Luna Pearl Woolf. An “authoritative and confident” interpreter of Bach (Seen and Heard International) who has sung over 100 cantatas, Edmund made his Bachfest Leipzig debut in 2024. Edmund sings with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Seraphic Fire, Ensemble Altera, the Thirteen, and his quartet, the Polyphonists. He is a graduate of the American Boychoir School, McGill University, and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, and a veteran of the U.S. Army Band “Pershing’s Own.” www.edmundmilly.com