Shari Wilson is among the new generation of singers specializing in early and modern music, demonstrating great versatility and stylistic sensitivity. The range of ensembles with which she has appeared as soloist is a testament to such virtuosity: Blue Heron, Exsultemus, La Donna Musicale, Lorelei Ensemble, Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, Piffaro, Church of the Advent, Schola Cantorum, Boston Secession, and the Festival of Two Worlds (Spoleto, Italy). Shari made her New York City solo debut in 2006 at Merkin Hall in a world premiere performance in Benjamin C.S. Boyle's Cantata: To One in Paradise; recent performances have also included a residency with the American Bach Soloists Academy under the direction of Jeffrey Thomas, Telemann cantatas from Harmonischer Gottesdienst with Exsultemus and Newton Baroque, Gabriel in Haydn's Creation with Marsh Chapel Collegium, and a program of Scottish music with Seven Times Salt for the SoHIP concert series. She currently sings with the acclaimed ensemble The Crossing, based in Philadelphia under the direction of Donald Nally, with whom she sang the regional premiere of David Lang's Little Match Girl Passion. Her work at the Festival of Two Worlds brought collaborations with some of the world's great artists, including Gian Carlo Menotti, Richard Hickox, Carlos Saura, and Gunther Kramer. She can be heard on the recent recording of Kile Smith's Vespers with Piffaro and The Crossing, with whom she will be recording music of David Lang and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. Of a recent Bach performance a Philadelphia critic wrote that she "sang with...tonal beauty, timbral clarity, lyrical phrasing and rhythmic vitality." She received her MM in choral conducting from Temple University and her BS in piano and voice from West Chester University.
To mark Good Friday, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project brought together two contemporary Passion settings: David Lang's "The Little Match Girl Passion" and Arvo Pärt's "Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem."
It did not look much like a BMOP concert – only a few instrumentalists were present. But it was an appropriately grave lineup for the darkest day of the Christian calendar.