Meet Our Artists
St. Mark Passion | March 20, 2026 | 7:30PM
Hannah De Priest, soprano
Soprano Hannah De Priest is a fearless performer especially renowned for her “masterful” (Olyrix) performances of Baroque repertoire. Consistently described as a “standout” and praised for her “bright, ideally-focused sound, allied to a probing expressive intelligence” (Chicago Classical Review), the young soprano enjoys a fast-rising career in North America and Europe. Recent highlights include debuts with the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra (Bach’s Johannes-Passion), the Innsbruck Early Music Festival (Gilde, L’amazzone corsara), and her Kennedy Center debut with Opera Lafayette (Serpina, La servante maîtresse). With the storied Boston Early Music Festival, Hannah has performed lead roles across multiple productions. Her 2025-26 season includes three operatic tellings of the Orfeo myth; Gluck’s Orfeo (Amore, Music of the Baroque), Jacopo Peri’s Eurydice (Proserpina, Haymarket Opera), and Monteverdi’s Orfeo with Ars Lyrica Houston (Proserpina). She also returns to the Boston Early Music Festival for her first title role with the company in Provenzale’s La Stellidaura vendicante. Recent and upcoming concert engagements include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Washington Bach Consort, Handel’s Messiah with the St. Louis Bach Festival, and Handel’s Ode to St. Cecilia with the Baroque Festival of Corona del Mar. In April, she will headline a concert and tour of Handelian cantatas with Les Délices. Her debut solo album with the ensemble, Arcadian Dreams, will be released in March 2026. Hannah has earned acclaim at numerous international competitions, winning 2nd Prize at the Cesti Competition for Baroque Opera in 2021. She is also a laureate of the London Handel Competition, the Handel Aria Competition, Le Concours Corneille, the Bethlehem Bach Festival, and the Luminarts Cultural Foundation Competition. Though Hannah recently relocated to Philadelphia, she remains deeply connected to the Chicago music scene and is thrilled to perform with Bach in the City.
RYAN BELONGIE, ALTO
Countertenor Ryan Belongie has been praised for his “oft-astounding vocalism” (San Francisco Classical Voice), and “a remarkably warm, evenly produced voice whose supple phrasing included many an exquisite shade” (Opera News). Operatic engagements include Canadian Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Baroque, Chicago Opera Theater, Festival Napa Valley, Haymarket Opera Company, Long Beach Opera, Opera Bergen, Opéra de Montréal, St. Petersburg Opera, Tulsa Opera, West Edge Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. Concert appearances include Alabama Symphony, Apollo Chorus of Chicago, Dallas Opera Orchestra, Elmhurst Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, Grant Park Music Festival, Il Complesso Barocco, Kansas City Symphony, Leipzig Baroque Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Music of the Baroque, San Diego Symphony, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Utah Festival Opera, and Utah Symphony. He has been heard on Chicago’s WFMT in performances with Music of the Baroque in addition to a solo recital on the network’s series, “Live from WFMT,” and has appeared on PBS across the United States in A Renaissance Christmas. Recordings include Haymarket Opera Company’s production of Artaserse for Cedille Records. Born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, Mr. Belongie is a graduate of San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program and Adler Fellowship, and the Vocal Honors Program at Northwestern University. In addition to being a two-time national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, he was the first place winner of the Igor Gorin Memorial Award, the recipient of a career grant from the Metropolitan Opera, a Shouse Career Grant from Wolf Trap Opera, two Richard F. Gold Career Grants from the Shoshana Foundation, and the Lola Fletcher Award from the American Opera Society of Chicago.
OLIVER CAMACHO, TENOR
BIO
WEBSITE
DAVID McFERRIN, BASS
Praised by The Miami Herald for his “commanding stage presence and a voice of seductive beauty,” baritone David McFerrin is active in a wide variety of musical genres.
Mr. McFerrin’s solo concert engagements have ranged from Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice to various performances with Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops. He has received notable acclaim for performances of Baroque repertoire with ensembles including American Bach Soloists, Apollo’s Fire, Arion Baroque Orchestra, Emmanuel Music, Handel and Haydn Society, Seraphic Fire, and TENET. Mr. McFerrin has also sung with the Cleveland Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and North Carolina Symphony. He is a member of the renaissance vocal ensemble Blue Heron, a 2018 Gramophone award winner.
Mr. McFerrin is a mainstay of the Boston opera scene and has performed on many other leading stages in the US and Europe. A former Emerging Artist with Boston Lyric Opera, he has sung more than 15 roles with that company, including Junius in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, the Officer in Phillip Glass’ gripping two-character drama In the Penal Colony, and the title role of Britten’s Noye’s Fludde during the 2024-25 season. Mr. McFerrin also recently performed Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Boston Baroque, as well as the complete trilogy of Britten’s church parable operas with Enigma Chamber Opera. Additional opera credits include Florida Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, Odyssey Opera, and the Rossini Festival in Wildbad, Germany.
Mr. McFerrin holds degrees from Carleton College, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and the Juilliard School. He lives in Natick, Massachusetts with his wife Erin Doherty (an architectural historian and preservation planner), their seven-year-old daughter Fiona, and black lab Holly.
RICHARD WEBSTER, CONDUCTOR
Richard Webster is Music Director of Chicago's Bach in the City, a new endeavor at St. Vincent DePaul Church, and the successor to Bach Week Festival that he had directed for 50 years, based in Evanston. He is currently Lecturer in the Institute of Sacred Music (ISM) at Yale University, having retired in 2022 as Director of Music and Organist at Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston. During 2023-24 he served as Interim Director of Music at St. Paul's Choir School, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
As a composer he completes several commissioned works a year. His hymn arrangements for brass, percussion, organ and congregation are heard across the world, including the CBC's Christmas and Easter broadcasts and BBC's "Songs of Praise." Richard's works are published by six different houses, including Advent Press, that publishes his music exclusively.
While at Trinity, Boston, he cofounded the Trinity Choristers and led the choirs on five tours of England, with residencies at York Minster; Westminster Abbey; Durham, Ely, Lincoln, Chichester, Salisbury, Wells, Winchester and St. Paul’s Cathedrals. During his tenure, Trinity's 1926 Skinner nave organ was successfully renovated and a new 4-manual Skinner replica console added.
He is an honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music (FRSCM), and holds the Doctor of Music degree, honoris causa, from the University of the South at Sewanee.
Webster has performed and recorded as organist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is the Organist and Choirmaster Emeritus of St. Luke's Church in Evanston, where, from 1974 to 2003 he directed a widely respected choral program. The restoration of St. Luke's celebrated 1922 Ernest M. Skinner organ, Opus 327, was accomplished under his leadership.
A passionate runner, Richard has completed 47 marathons, including 21 Boston Marathons.
