Elizabeth Eschen
Supports: Sierra Club (environmental conservation), RAICES (immigrant rights), vday.org (women’s rights)
Elizabeth Eschen, mezzo-soprano, is her fifth year at Harvard, where she is the Director of the Holden Voice Program, Teaching Fellow with the Radcliffe Choral Society, and Instructor of the Skills for Singing course.
As a professional ensemble musician and soloist in the Boston area, Liz has found increasingly a home in early and Baroque music. She has been seen regularly as an ensemble member with Boston Baroque, and will make her debuts this year with Handel & Haydn Society and Emmanuel Music, soloing with the latter on BWV 106 in the Bach Cantata Series in November. She has been a regularly featured soloist with Cantata Singers and Music at Marsh Chapel, and has made appearances with Back Bay Chorale, Boston Choral Ensemble, Newburyport Chorale, Quincy Choral Society, and the Harvard Choruses. The 2019-2020 season will include Messiah with Rhode Island Civic Chorale, Bach Magnificat with Indian Hill Music, and Elijah in her return to Back Bay Chorale. Outside of Boston, Liz performs with Bach Akademie Charlotte, where she is a frequent soloist in the Charlotte Bach Festival and the Director of the Vocal Fellows Program. She is grateful to have sung under Helmuth Rilling in three projects, twice in Weimar and one time in Schwäbisch-gmünd, and she continues to honor his legacy by singing in the Oregon Bach Festival each summer.
Liz’s repertoire extends from Bach to Duruflé to Rachmaninoff and beyond; in the new music world, she was a founding member of Lorelei Ensemble and sang with Juventas! New Music Ensemble when it was brand new in Boston. She continues to sing this repertoire on recordings, and can be heard on several albums with Vox Futura (ensemble), the Studio Cast Album of Alan Menken’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (ensemble), and on James Kallembach’s Most Sacred Body (soloist.) Her opera credits include Carmen with Boston Lyric Opera (chorus), Die Zaubeflöte with NY Opera Exchange (Second Lady), Carmen with V.O.I.C.Experience (title role), and Suor Angelica with OperaTampa (Cercatrice.)
Closely integrated with her own voice journey is Liz’s vocation for building voice programs that support choral music, and creating opportunities for students to develop their own voices. Starting with her first job as the middle/high school choral director at a small independent school in Virginia, she increasingly found her home to be the intersection of choral music and vocal pedagogy. Her philosophy is based on the synthesis of fact-based, current vocal pedagogy with personal transformation. Singers should understand how the instrument functions, become comfortable with assessing and organizing their own voice, and connect to their individual gifts of artistry and emotion. Developing this healthy relationship with one’s voice takes time, practice, love, and appropriate repertoire; it is a worthwhile and important journey. Elizabeth works with students of all ages and meets them wherever they are on that journey. She has found success with this philosophy on the voice faculties of Gordon College, Regis College, Randolph-Macon College, Fredericksburg Academy, in her private studio, and now at Harvard. Her students have earned entrance into top voice programs and Honors choirs across the country, and perhaps more importantly, have been inspired to make singing an integral part of their lives. www.elizabetheschen.com
Liz belongs to Beyond Artists, a coalition of artists that donates a portion of their concert fee to organizations they care about. She supports RAICES, Sierra Club, and vday.org.