Magnificat

Jennifer Paulino and Jennifer Ellis Kampani

A year ago, Magnificat performed Alessandro Scarlatti’s serenata Amore, Venere, e Ragione with “3 Jennifers“. For the final concerts of our 2009-2010 season, Magnificat is pleased to feature two of the Jennifers for the two soprano parts – Jennifer Paulino and Jennifer Ellis Kampani – as our sopranos. (Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Lane will be joining us for our performance at the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition in June.)

Jennifer Paulino has appeared frequently with Magnificat since singing the role of Daniele in Stradella’s La Susanna in February 2007, a production that we also performed at the Tropical Baroque Festival in Miami that Spring. She has been a prat of several productions since then, including earlier this season when she sang several roles – notably the seductive Siren) in Francesca Caccini’s La Liberatione di Ruggiero.

Jennifer is a founding member of the Baroque ensemble Les grâces, who appeared in earlier this season on the San Francisco Early Music Society series and toured in Europe last Fall. As an ensemble singer, Jennifer has performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Cathedral of Notre Dame, and the Arts Center in Seoul, Korea, and on recordings contracted by the Spoleto Festival USA and The Washington National Cathedral. She was a member of The Choral Scholars, a vocal ensemble dedicated to the study and performance of early music and new works from 1999-2004. Her tenure with the ensemble culminated in a recording and concert in collaboration with Trio Mediæval and the Washington National Cathedral girls choir.

Jennifer studied Baroque singing with Julianne Baird, Jill Feldman, and Michael Chance, and holds performance degrees from The Royal Conservatory of The Hague, Netherlands and Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, NJ. She now resides in Oakland and teaches voice in her home studio.

Jennifer Ellis Kampani has been a core member of Magnificat since her debut in the role of Gelosia for Magnificat’s modern premiere production of Marrazoli’s Il Cappricio in 1997. She has performed with Magnificat over fifty times since then and features prominently in our recodings of Cozzolani’s complete works. Magnificat recently released our recording Cozzolani’s setting of Laudate Dominum, a work for solo soprano, violins and continuo.

Jennifer recently made her debut with the Washington Bach Consort, the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, and the New York Collegium with Andrew Parrott conducting and was  featured artist in “Le Tournoi de Chauvency” a Medieval opera production with Francesca Lattuada and Ensemble Aziman which toured through Europe. Her international career has included appearances with the period instrument groups American Bach Soloists, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Apollo’s Fire, Musica Angelica, Washington Catherdral Choral Society, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Solamente (Budapest, Hungary), Ensemble Tourbillon (Prague, Czech Republic), and Musica Aeterna (Bratislava, Slovakia). In addition, Ms. Kampani has sung with the Mark Morris Dance Group and the Charlotte Symphony. Opera highlights include leading roles in Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Blow’s Venus and Adonis, Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, Duron’s zarzuela Salir el Amor del Mundo, Handel’s Semele, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

A specialist in the music of Spain and Latin America, Jennifer has toured villancicos and zarzuela’s extensively with Richard Savino and El Mundo and has performed on programs with Andrew Lawrence-King. She has been heard in many concert series and festivals including Aston Magna, Houston Early Music, Music Before 1800, Miami Tropical Baroque, Connecticut Early Music, Carmel Bach, and the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals. Ms. Kampani has recorded Villancicos y Cantadas and The Essential Giuliani for Koch, the works of Cozzolani (Gramophone editors pick, August 2002) for Musica Omnia, and Carissimi Motets and Cantatas for Hungaroton. She was awarded finalist in the 2004 Early Music America Medieval/Renaissance Competition, first runner up at the 2000 Bethlehem Bach Vocal Competition, the Adam’s Fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival, and performed at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan with Nicholas McGegan. Born in San Francisco and a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Guildhall School of Music in London, Jennifer currently lives in Detroit.