Eya
Performance Details
Date:Friday, March 27, 2020 at 7:30pm
Location: Great Hall, Wren Building
Admission: $5, free with William & Mary ID
Eya is an award-winning vocal ensemble based in Washington, D.C. specializing in the interpretation of medieval music for women’s voices. Lauded as “remarkable” and “gorgeous” (The Washington Post), Eya is an early music ensemble of hauntingly beautiful vocal quality married with deep spirit. Eya crafts programs that interweave diverse repertories, forging new points of connection between contemporary audiences and medieval repertoire which underline our common humanity with early poets and composers. Eya has performed at a variety of notable venues including the National Gallery of Art, The Music Center at Strathmore, Washington National Cathedral, and Dumbarton Oaks, as well as numerous colleges, universities, and concert series across the East Coast. They have been featured on Voice of America radio and Millennium of Music on NPR and are the recipient of the 2013 Ovation Award for Best Specialty Group: Early Music, as well as a 2015 nominee for Most Creative Programming. They are also a 2018 nominee for Best New Recording following their latest album release, The Three Marys. Eya (pronounced “EH-yah”) is a Latin exclamation of joy. Learn
more at www.eyaensemble.com.
Praised for “her lovely limpid colors in good harmony with her musical intelligence” (Perform Arts Perugia), Crossley Hawn enjoys an engaging career in various styles of music in the D.C. area. She has served as a guest soloist with ensembles including Cathedra, Cathedral Choral Society, The City Choir of Washington, Maryland Choral Society, and The Reston Chorale. A summa cum laude graduate of the Catholic University of America with an M.M. in Vocal Performance and studies in Theology, Ms. Hawn enjoys both sacred and operatic repertoire. She has performed the roles of Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Susanna in Le Nozze di
Figaro, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica, Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Serpina in La Serva Padrona, for which she was an award recipient of DC Metro Theater Arts: Best of 2016. She has been a soloist on EWTN and WETA on numerous occasions and has been involved in a number of D.C. classical music recordings, including all of Gothic Catalog’s “New American Choral Music” series. Ms. Hawn enjoys employment as a chorister and cantor with the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Washington National Cathedral.
Allison Mondel is a highly versatile performing artist and teacher. She has been lauded by The Washington Post for her “ethereal soprano” and “spare, otherworldly radiance... a performance from across the centuries, full of distant and irresistible beauties.” She received her M.M. in Early Music Vocal Performance from the Longy School of Music where she studied with Laurie Monahan. Ms. Mondel is a notation and performance specialist of the chants of Hildegard von Bingen. She enjoyed the honor of singing Hildegard’s music at President Obama’s second Inaugural Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral. In addition to her medieval performance and scholarship, she has appeared as a soloist or ensemble singer with the Boston Early Music Festival and Tanglewood, Washington National Cathedral, Bach Sinfonia, Folger Consort, Georgetown University, Harvard University, and Cathedra. Highlights of this season include travel to the University of Limerick (Ireland) to teach and present a new solo chant program and launching a sheet music project devoted to the works of Hildegard von Bingen. Ms. Mondel takes the utmost joy in teaching, and has recently launched Sacred Voice Studios, borne from the belief that our Voice is worthy and capable. In addition to her private studio, she teaches voice in the National Cathedral’s prestigious chorister program and at Georgetown University.
Recognized for her “velvety legato and embracing warmth of sound” (Washington Classical Review), mezzo-soprano Kristen Dubenion-Smith enjoys an active performing career in oratorio and sacred vocal chamber music. Her December 2017 performance as Alto Soloist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with The Washington Bach Consort was praised by critics for its “graceful musicality” (The Washington Post). In the spring of 2019, Ms. Dubenion-Smith joined The English Concert and The Clarion Choir for an international tour of Handel’s Semele. Based in Washington D.C., she sings frequently with the ensembles of the Washington Bach Consort, Cathedra, The District Eight, and Chantry. In the fall of 2016, Ms. Dubenion-Smith became the fi rst woman to be offered a position in the Choir of Men and Boys/Girls at the Washington National Cathedral. With the Cathedral Choir, she has sung for the State Funerals of President George H. W. Bush and Senator John McCain. Ms. Dubenion-Smith has been involved in a number of commercial recordings with The Folger Consort, Apollo’s Fire, Cathedra, and Via Veritae. In February 2019, she participated in the premiere recording of The Prison by Ethel Smyth with The Clarion Choir and The Experiential Orchestra. Originally from Michigan, Ms. Dubenion-Smith attended Alma College before moving to Maryland to complete her studies at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.
