MSO “Messiah” Florentine soloists

For several Christmas seasons, now, the Milwaukee Symphony has employed the Florentine Opera’s resident artists for its hometown holiday tour of Handel’s “Messiah.”

The tour opens tonight (Wed., Dec. 12) at St. Mary’s Faith Community in Hales Corners. So it’s fitting to revive a getting-to-know-you  interview, which originally appeared Nov. 28.  So if you haven’t already, meet soprano Alisa Suzanne Jordheim, mezzo Kristen DiNinno, tenor Kevin Newell and baritone Carl Frank.

The Florentine Opera’s Studio Artists practically never stop singing. If they’re not practicing and learning new repertoire, they’re performing in run-out school shows (Little Red’s Most Unusual Day) or supporting roles in Florentine main stage productions. They give joint recitals and sing countless outreach concerts and otherwise represent the company at all manner of public events. And when they have a rare day off from their Milwaukee duties, these young singers audition elsewhere and build their careers.

“You spend your days off in a car or a plane,” said Newell, who was just back from Texas. Newell spoke at a joint interview with his fellow studio artists. “You fly to Houston, sing for nine minutes, then fly back.”

“When you have a job, you’re looking for the ne xt job,” said DiNinno, who is in her second year as a Florentine Studio Artist,and so sang in last year’s MSO Messiah. Her three colleagues are in their first year. These jobs are stepping stones and a training grounds for singers. More often than not, they move on after one season. But sometimes a second year benefits both the Florentine and the singer.

“And if you’re not auditioning, you’re frantically learning music,” Jordheim said.

The Florentine, under general director Bill Florescu, has gone to some lengths to make the Studio Artists more visible, in fact the public face of the company. Their joint recital, That’s Amore (coming Feb. 8-10), for example, stands at the top of the front page of the Florentine website, between Carmen and Albert Herring. Still, most of their work is below the threshold of public awareness.

Jordheim, DiNinno, Newell and Frank will be very much in public earshot through the holiday season. It began on Black Friday, when they sang at the Bayshore tree-lighting event. It continues at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29. Under Florescu’s direction, the four will sing scenes from operas by Britten, Handel, Moore and Mozart at the Florentine’s production center in Riverwest. This showcase is open to the public, in a gracious rehearsal space that seats about 100. They’ll sing carols and Christmas pop tunes at two Alterra Coffee locations and a piano store. And the big thing: They’ll be the featured soloists with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in eight performances of Handel’s Messiah in four different venues.

“You learn a lot about your own stamina in this job,” Frank said.

“As much as I complain about it, it’s good to be in this groove of learning things very quickly,” Jordheim said.

Scott Stewart, the Florentine’s chorus master and associate conductor, spends a lot of time with the Studio Artists.

“Scott looks at your rep and sees what’s lacking,” Newell said. “I have lots of English songs and little Italian, so he’s helping me to bolster that.”

DiNinno said that the hardest thing about the job is learning so much repertoire and keeping it current, and doing all that without wrecking your voice.

“It’s good to learn how to learn without using your voice,” she said. “And all that learning is fueled by Alterra.”

Alterra Humboldt, two blocks away, is the natural hangout for the singers and most of the Florentine staff. The coffee roasters have also become a frequent venue for the singers. Their outdoor summer concerts at Alterra Lake draw big crowds, and their caroling gigs there and at Humboldt should be a lot of fun. And it’s sure to get the singers and the Florentine in front of people who might be just dimly aware of the company. “Jingle Bell Rock” in four-part harmony is great public relations for the company.

Three of the four are Midwesterners, and Newell and Jordheim are Wisconsinites. Newell grew up on a dairy farm near Edgar, Wis.

“My school was K-12, so I had the same music teacher all the way through,” Newell said. “He had wanted to be an opera singer, but came back to the area for family reasons, and that was the job he found. My plan for me was high school then the dairy farm. His plan for me was college and singing. He got me an audition at UW-Eau Claire, then I went to Michigan for my master’s. And now I’m here.”

Jordheim‘s mother taught flute and her father taught saxophone at Lawrence University, in Appleton. Alisa studied ballet, piano, cello and flute. At 10, she started voice lessons with Patrice Michaels, a faculty member at Lawrence and a very fine singer. Jordheim attended Lawrence for two years, then transferred the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, where she worked straight through to her doctorate (she’s just finishing up her DMA course work). Oh – she’s also a qualified nursing assistant.

“In case anyone keels over, I’m there,” Jordheim said.

DiNinno was born in New Mexico and grew up in Pittsburgh. She got into show business when her third grade teacher told her mother that little Kristen was shy. Mom – also a teacher, and later a school principal – shipped daughter off to theater camp to get her out of her shell.

“I fell in love right there,” DiNinno said. “I wanted to be a musical theater singer.”

She started voice lessons in high school and sang in the school musicals. Her teacher kept pointing her toward opera and art songs, but DiNinno wasn’t going for it. She entered Otterbein College as a voice major and dance minor – on Broadway, you have to dance.

“I eventually realized that I love opera and my voice is more suitable for it,” she said. “And I love the complexity and diversity of it.”

DiNinno did her masters’ at the Manhattan School of Music, loved New York, got into the Shreveport Opera young artist program and then the one at Des Moines opera before landing in Milwaukee.

Carl Frank comes from Normal, Ill., where his father is a high school band director and motheris a grade school teacher and cellist. Carl sang in choirs and played trombone as a youngster.

“I loved everything about doing music in public school,” he said. “I was never very good at trombone, but I got into singing. It seemed like the thing to do.”

Frank doubled in political science and music at DePauw University, the got his master’s at the University of Michigan. Newell also went to grad school at Michigan; they sang a couple of operas together there and were even roommates for a year.

All four singers value their Florentine experience. In addition to their work with Stewart, they get coaching from Florescu and legendary Milwaukee voice teacher Connie Haas. Though their work load is heavy, it’s not all grunt work. They are involved in all the main productions, which gives them experience and puts them in front of conductors and directors who might hire them elsewhere.

And right now, they get to be the Florentine’s Christmas Stars in the premiere holiday showcase, the Milwaukee Symphony “Messiah.”

James Judd, music director emeritus of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, will conduct throughout the run. The Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, prepared as always by chorus master Lee Erickson, will be featured.

The Florentine Studio Artists’ Holiday Events

Sandwich and a Steinway: Noon Dec. 19 Steinway Piano Gallery, 11550 W. North Ave. Wauwatosa. For kids from 1 to 92 and beyond. Call 414 727-5995.

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus present Handel’s Messiah at four locations. Tickets for all performances are available at the MSO’s website and ticket line, 414 291-7605.

7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, at St. Mary’s Faith Community, 9520 W. Forest Home Ave., Hales Corners.

7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 13, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16, at the Basilica of St. Josaphat, 601 W. Lincoln Ave, Milwaukee.

7:30 p.m. Dec. 14 and 15, Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, 802 N. Jackson St.

7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dec 21-22, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 23, Sharon Lynne Wilson Center, 19805 W. Capitol Dr., Brookfield.