Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor, is a Minnesota native whose "beautiful vocalism" (San Francisco Chronicle) and "pliant tenor” (Chicago Classical Review) have afforded him an expanding career as a concert and oratorio soloist. Strand most recently was a featured soloist performing BWV 48, Ich elender Mensch, wer wird mich erlösen. Along with being thrilled to return to Bach Cantata Vespers in River Forest, highlights of the 2022-2023 season include solo performances with Nicholas Kramer & Music of the Baroque in November, performances of Handel’s Messiah with Apollo Chorus and the Illinois Philharmonic in December, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Chicago Choral Artists in March, and performances with Constellation Men’s Ensemble throughout the year.

Strand made his professional Chicago opera debut in Haymarket Opera Company’s production of Alessandro Scarlatti’s Gli equivoci nel sembiante (Armindo). In the fall of 2020, he premiered Acis & Galatea in HD (Chorus, Acis Cover) with HOC as part of “a sparkling group of singers,” (Hyde Park Herald). He returned to Haymarket for their production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in September 2022 as Primo Soldato. Other operatic productions include Handel’s Beauty’s Truth (Pleasure) & Così fan tutte (Ferrando) with Transgressive Theater-Opera & Elmhurst Symphony; Mark Adamo’s Little Women (Laurie), Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Nero), and Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath (Al Joad) with Northwestern Opera Theater. With Chicago Opera Theater, Strand most recently performed Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick and has sung other chorus roles in productions of Philip Glass’ The Perfect American, Mozart’s Lucio Silla, and Bloch’s Macbeth. He would have made his onstage debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung prior to COVID-19. 

Strand has sung with the Grammy award-winning contemporary vocal ensemble The Crossing in Philadelphia under the direction of Donald Nally. Locally, he performs with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Music of the Baroque, Stare at the Sun, Bella Voce, William Ferris Chorale, and the Grant Park Festival Chorus. Strand is a founding member and executive director of Constellation Men’s Ensemble in Chicago.

Karina Kontorovitch, piano, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. At the age of five, she started attending the Music School for Gifted Children, where she continued to study piano with Olga Manukyan until the family immigrated to the United States in 1991. Ms. Kontorovitch earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from Northwestern University, taking a special interest in chamber music and collaborative piano. Her teachers there included Sylvia Wang, Alan Chow, Laurence Davis, Richard Boldrey and Elizabeth Buccheri.

Ms. Kontorovitch has taught at the Music Arts School in Highland Park and has been on the faculty of the Merit School of Music in Chicago from 2001-2017. She was on the Voice Faculty as a Coach/Accompanistfor the National High School Music Institute at Northwestern University from 2005 until 2010. Since 2001, she’s been serving as a collaborative pianist, vocal coach and Russian diction coach at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where she collaborates with Voice and Opera Department students across all studios, preparing and accompanying recitals and other performances, co-teaching Russian Repertoire, and Oratorio classes. Ms. Kontorovitch is a member of the Chicago Piano Vocal Score Ensemble and Tresillo, whose performances have taken her from Chattanooga to Buenos Aires. She's very active as a collaborative pianist throughout the Chicagoland area. She was on the coaching staff of the Castleton Music Festival in Virginia where she worked with the festival’s founder, the late Maestro Lorin Maazel. Ms. Kontorovitch was most recently heard as a soloist with the Waukegan Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Stephen Blackwelder in a performance of Mozart's A Major Piano Concerto, K 488.