Salisbury Symphony Orchestra

American soprano Melissa Harvey’s impressive stylistic versatility can be heard in operatic and concert repertoire spanning over four centuries. Ms. Harvey begins her 2023-2024 season with a co-production of Nadia Boulanger’s only opera La Ville Morte (1909) in the role of Hébé with Greek National Opera in Athens, Greece and Catapult Opera in New York City (US Premiere). The season also holds a US concert as the soprano soloist with Catacoustic Consort, performing rarely heard 17th century French Baroque pardessus duets.

Ms. Harvey’s 2019-2020 was filled with several performances of music new and old, including the role of Siren 1 in The Night Falls with American Opera Project, Drusilla and Amore in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with Florentine Opera and Drusilla with Cincinnati Opera. She was also the featured soloist in the Salisbury Symphony’s Winter Holiday is in the Aire concert and notably debuted the role of Shatzi in the world premiere of The Flood (Korine Fujiwara) with Opera Columbus. Other 20th and 21st century works performed throughout her career include Alice in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland (NYCO) and Lucinda (cover) with Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Philadelphia for the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters .

Ms. Harvey’s prodigious activity in early music has made her invaluable to concert organizations such as Catacoustic Consort, Salisbury Symphony, The Bach Society, Collegium Cincinnati, Bourbon Baroque, Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, and the Findlay Orchestra. With these organizations, she has performed such works as Bach’s Cantatas BWV 04, 71, 106, 196, Magnificat, Weihnachtsoratorium , and Johannespassion ; Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri , Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus , Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass , Mozart’s Great Mass in c minor , and Poulenc’s Gloria . Ms. Harvey also performed two works of Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Le reniement de St. Pierre and the world premiere of a never-before-performed opera from 1685, La fête du Ruel , as well as recorded two albums with Catacoustic Consort.

Ms. Harvey received her BM and MM in Voice from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). At CCM, her operatic repertoire included Sister Constance ( Dialogues of the Carmelites ), Eurydice ( Orpheus in the Underworld ), Lucia ( The Rape of Lucretia ), Papagena ( Die Zauberflöte ), and Amore ( L’incoronazione di Poppea ).Ms. Harvey’s concert repertoire included Bach’s Cantatas BWV 78 & 79 , Fauré Requiem , Mendelssohn’s Elijah , Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai and Mass in Time of War , and Steve Reich’s Tehillim . Among the scholarships and awards she has received are the Dieterle Vocal Scholarship, the Baur/Powell Scholarship, the Mercer Scholarship for language study (Freiburg, Germany), and a 2009 Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Auditions.

Dylan Shelton is the founder of River City Puppets, a touring theatre that blends the arts of puppetry and storytelling to captivate children and family audiences.

Dylan holds a BA in Theatre from Wilmington College of Ohio and an MFA in Acting from Ohio University.

Recently, Dylan created and directed a puppet performance of "Pulcinella" for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and directed a puppet version of the opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors," also with the CCO. In 2022, he performed a solo puppetry piece, "Animist," conceived by Andy Gaukel. "Animist" was awarded a Henson Foundation grant and was showcased at Puppetopia at Here Arts Center in New York City.

Dylan is one of the lead puppeteers for "$martpath," an Emmy Award-winning web series for children. His puppetry has also been featured in performances with the Cincinnati Opera and numerous symphony orchestras, including those in Portland, Lincoln, Jacksonville, Winnipeg, Akron, Lima, Mississippi, and Cincinnati.

Lana Suran is a distinguished Swedish pianist, celebrated as one of the leading Scandinavian pianists of her generation. Recognized by the Augsburger Allgemeine as “simply an outstanding artist,” Lana’s performances are known for their deep emotional resonance and tonal nuance, demonstrating her profound understanding of music and ability to convey powerful emotions. Born in Stockholm in 1992 to Russian and Kurdish parents, Lana began piano lessons at five and studied at Stockholm’s Lilla Akademien. Her early talent led to her debut at the Gothenburg Concert Hall at eight, followed by numerous competition victories across Scandinavia. Lana’s education continued in the United States at Walnut Hills School for the Arts and the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Alexander Korsantia. She further honed her skills at the Mannes School of Music in New York and the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. Lana’s cosmopolitan outlook, fluency in six languages, and extensive repertoire reflect her broad artistic vision. Her repertoire includes works from Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ Variations and Chopin’s Ballades to 20th-century pieces like Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.2. She has collaborated with notable composers such as James MacMillan and Frederic Rzewski and regularly engages in chamber music, working with like-minded performers across diverse repertoire. Her performance history is rich with festival appearances, including the Art of the Piano festival, Yellow Barn Festival, and Musica Mundi Chamber Music Festival. Lana has also performed at esteemed venues such as Flagey in Brussels, where she made her solo debut in 2022 during its Schubert Days. In 2023, she performed Philip Glass’s Piano Concerto No.3 with the French Ars Nova Ensemble. Lana's accolades include first prizes at the Oxana Yablonskaya International Piano Competition and the Berlingske Tidendes Musikkonkurrence, among others. She has performed as a concerto soloist with orchestras such as the Orchestre Chambre Royal de Wallonie, Liége Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Ars Nova and Sweden’s Dalasinfoniettan, under conductors like Daniel Blendulf, Vahan Mardirossian and Alexei Ogrintchouk.