
A word
from the Conductor
"We are thrilled to present Puccini’s Le Villi, a very special, yet rarely heard work, for the first time in New England. Le Villi is Puccini’s first opera as well as his first great success as a composer. It is a true gem of the repertoire with some of the most passionate and expressive melodies in all of Italian opera. The orchestration is exquisite. Our three award-winning soloists, Stephanie Pfundt, Robert Kleinertz and Asatur Baljyan, are some of the most exciting emerging stars."
~ Nathaniel Meyer

Performance Info
Sunday, May 18th
7pm start time
Dante Alighieri Society of Massachusetts
41 Hampshire St, Cambridge
Tickets $20 purchasable at the door.
Cast

Robert Kleinertz
Roberto

Stephanie Pfundt
Anna

Asatur Baljyan
Guglielmo

Nathaniel Meyer
Conductor
Robert Kleinertz
Robert Kleinertz is an up-and-coming tenor from Hopewell Junction, NY. Currently pursuing his master’s in opera performance at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, he recently made a role debut at Lincoln Center as Tebaldo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Teatro Nuovo. Mr. Kleinertz’s recent roles with Boston Conservatory Opera include Ferrando in Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte, Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Tenor in Petterson’s Voir Dire. He has sung as a soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra, and as the tenor soloist in Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra. Up next, Mr. Kleinertz will be performing with the Janiec Opera Company as Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. He currently resides in Boston with his cat Beef, who helps him prepare for all his roles.
Stephanie Pfundt
Stephanie Pfundt is a soprano, chamber musician, lyricist, and composer. Funding her musical education through work as a deckhand on a commercial fishing boats with her family in Alaska, she has garnered competition recognition as 1st place winner of the 2024 Seattle Opera Guild Competition, as well as numerous prizes in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and as a quarterfinalist in the 2023 Elizabeth Connell Prize. Past roles include Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte with and Ma Zegner in Mazzoli’s Proving Up with Boston University Opera Institute, Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro and Johanna in Sweeney Todd at Pacific Lutheran University, and Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte with the German Vocal Arts Institute. As a chamber musician, Ms. Pfundt was named the 2022 Ted Stevens Young Alaskan Artist and was the 2nd place winner of the Northwest NATS Artist Award. She is currently composing her first chamber opera.
Asatur Baljyan
Asatur Balyan has performed in concerts throughout Europe, including Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia, as well as in Dubai, India, Israel, and Armenia. He made his debut at the Armenian Opera House as Tatul in Almast where he later performed the title role in Rachmaninoff's Aleko. Other notable performances include Count Danilo in The Merry Widow in Tel Aviv, Israel. Mr. Balyan is the recipient of the First Prize from the Armenian President for Opera Singing, winner of the Annual Music Games in Wittenberg, Germany, and was honored as Best Artist of the Year in Chelyabinsk, Russia. He began his musical studies at the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan, Armenia, before furthering his education at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv, Israel, and the Lotte Lehmann Academy in Berlin/Perleberg, Germany. Mr. Balyan currently serves as Music Director and Conductor at St. James Armenian Church in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Nathaniel Meyer
Conductor Nathaniel Meyer has been hailed as a “talented and charismatic–a new, dynamic Leonard Bernstein”, for his electrifying performances of rarely heard works of classical music, brought to life with haunting virtuosity. Boston Globe critic emeritus Richard Dyer describes:
“the musical imagination and the physical gifts of a born conductor. He led…with power, passion and pertinence…The audience and the orchestra burst into applause and cheers.”
Meyer was the 1st prize winner at the LaGuardia Conducting Competition, and has gone on to conduct across Europe and the Americas. As the Music Director of the Du Bois Orchestra, he gave the premieres of long-lost works by African-American composers such as Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, and others. His journey includes studies at top institutions like Yale, where he was the recipient of the Wrexham Prize in Music, to masterclasses and apprenticeships with leading European conductors, and accolades as an award-winning trumpet soloist. He has performed in the United States, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, in venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, Smetana Hall in Prague, and the Sala São Paulo in Brazil. He has been an assistant for recording projects with the London Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as with the Orchestra of the Americas.
Meyer recently conducted the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra, the Bucharest Symphony, the Paris Mozart Orchestra, and the Prague Philharmonia. He has also conducted the Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach and the Brandenburger Symphoniker (Germany), the Camerata Antonio Soler (Spain), the Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), and across the United States, with orchestras ranging from the East Coast, to the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Chorus
In collaboration
with Coro-Dante
Soprano
Claire Burreson
Ericka Fox
Mezzo
Chihiro Asano
Sara Eakman
Tenor
Kartik Ayysola
Leo Balkovetz
Bass
Nathan Halbur
Marcus Schenck
Orchestra
Flute
Grace Helmke
April Showers
Oboe
Sachiko Murata
Mia Fasanello
Clarinet
Steve Umans
Iseliana Mendez
Bassoon
Bohdan Shevchenko
Brenda Herrera
Horn
Yeonjo Oh
Hannah Messenger
Trumpet
Reynolds Martin
George Goodwin
Trombone
Aaron Buede
Roger Hecht
Matthew Visconti
Violin I
Fiona Wood, concertmaster
Ari Umans, assistant concertmaster
Demi Fang
Francis Nimick
Matt Lamb
Enchi Chang
Richard Clark
Sarah McGuire
Violin II
Christina Junga
Yoko Nakatani
Brandon Enriquez
Toshi Motoyama
Ryan Urato
Jennifer Winiarski
Shu-hong Lin
Viola
Raymond Dineen
Mary Hecht
Chris Palmer
Nicole Micheroni
Cello
Seth MacLeod
Miles Edwards
Iverson Eliopoulos
Bass
Brett Sawka
Timpani/Percussion
Jeremy Lang
Eric Cortell
Ryan Chao