Kelley O'Connor

Kelley O'Connor is a mezzo-soprano scheduled to appear as soloist with the New Jersey Symphony in Handel's Messiah and with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a New Year's program featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Listeners can expect a voice suited to both the intimate, text-driven arias of Handel's oratorio and the large-scale choral finale of Beethoven's symphony.

In Handel's Messiah, expect a mezzo-soprano voice bringing weight and clarity to arias like "He was despised," a moment often taken slowly and with restrained ornamentation to let the text's sorrow register. In the Baltimore program, she joins the vocal quartet in the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, where the solo voices emerge from the orchestra and chorus to introduce and thread through the "Ode to Joy" melody, a passage that asks for a voice able to cut through a full orchestral and choral texture without forcing. The Coleman and Beethoven curtain-raisers set a ceremonial, occasion-driven tone before the symphony's turn toward large-scale choral writing.