Bethany
Battafarano

Bethany Battafarano, whose voice Germany's Rheinische Post has heralded as simply "wonderful," is a soprano soloist and consort singer. A specialist in historical performance practices of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque vocal music, and a dedicated performer of new and experimental music, recent solo engagements include the title role in the U.S. premiere of Perti’s La beata Imelde, Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments, and selections of Luzzaschi’s Madrigali. As both soloist and consort singer, Bethany has recorded and toured nationally and internationally with such acclaimed groups as The Rose Ensemble, Schola Antiqua of Chicago, South Dakota Chorale, Quince Ensemble, and Apollo Master Chorale, among many others. Bethany currently serves as an Artist in Residence at Rockefeller Chapel in Chicago.

 

Bethany is co-founder of experimental vocal consort Artemis, whose improvisatory compositions have been commissioned by the Walker Art Center and Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) of New York, among others. Bethany's compositions have been featured by Artemis, SPNN Studios, Studio Z, and the Cedar Cultural Center, for which Bethany was awarded the 2017 Cedar Commission with instrumental collaborators Nicolas Muñoz and Vladimir Garrido-Biagetti. Her compositions include tonal choral music, experimental vocal technique, genre fusion, and structured vocal improvisation on multisensory embodiment.

 

Bethany also enjoys work in artistic directing, nonprofit leadership, and education. Bethany is a co-founder and nonprofit executive with award-winning professional choir Border CrosSing, which centers Latinx music and communities. With Border CrosSing colleagues, Bethany has spearheaded the development of equitable choral administration systems since 2017. Bethany has served as Director of Music and section leader in churches across the U.S., among them the 3,000-seat Cathedral of St. Paul. She was the co-founding Artistic Director of Sursum Corazón, a program of children's choir, youth schola, and adult voice classes in Latinx Catholic Twin Cities parishes. Bethany has taught undergraduate courses in ethnomusicology, Western music history, and vocal performance, and she regularly presents early music/choral workshops and lecture-concerts at conferences and universities. She maintains private voice and piano studios. (See "Contact" section below if you are interested in taking lessons with Bethany.)

 

Bethany holds M.A. Musicology and M.Mus. Voice Performance degrees from the University of Oregon, where she served as a Teaching Fellow, and undergraduate degrees in Music, Anthropology, and Psychology from Macalester College. Bethany is currently funded in the Ph.D. Ethnomusicology program at the University of Chicago. Her research interests center on voice studies, particularly related to early colonial Mexica (Aztec), contemporary Bobonaza Kichwa, post-Vatican II U.S. Catholic, and contemporary U.S. professional choir settings. The issue of ethics in research, performance, and administrative practice drives Bethany's work.

 

When she isn’t musicking, Bethany enjoys work as a Spanish-English medical interpreter, translator, and transcript editor. You might also run into her while bouldering, dancing cumbia, camping, or (gasp!) catching the latest Avengers movie.