Music Team

Hailing from New York State’s Catskill Mountain Region, Maria Whitcomb is new to Boston’s rich musical community. Locally, she performs with Lilith Vocal Ensemble and MetroWest Chamber Players and enjoys a close collaboration with local composer Bruno Faria. The title role in his 2019 chamber operaVoices Followed: The Illumination of Joan of Arc was written especially for her, and he later composed the Christina Rossetti song cycle, “Sing-Song” in memory of her late father, Benjamin Whitcomb III. This work received its world premiere in a sold-out recital at the Boston Athenaeum in December 2023. The latter part of Maria’s 2023-2024 season was spent in preparation to cover Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with the Hudson Valley Voice Festival. In the 2022-2023 season, she performed two works by Gian Carlo Menotti; the title role in Amahl and the Night Visitors, (Music On Site, Inc.) and Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief  (Queens Summer Vocal Institute).

 

Maria studied with Janet Brown at Syracuse University, where her operatic credits included Adele (Die Fledermaus), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), and Zerlina (Don Giovanni). She completed her postgraduate work in opera with Jayne West at Longy School of Music of Bard College and currently studies with Mark Lee in Arlington, MA. Learn more about Maria on her web site.

Laura Beth Couch is delighted to be returning for her third season with the Commonwealth Chorale. Originally from New Jersey, Laura recently completed her Performance Diploma at Boston University. She earned her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Rutgers University, and her Master of Music in Voice Performance at Shenandoah University. Laura has performed in operas, recitals, concerts, competitions, church services, and musicals. Most recently, she performed with The Bay Music Festival as La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi, La Zelatrice in Suor Angelica, and Babette in Beauty and the Beast. At Boston University, she performed as Friedrich Bhaer in Little Women and covered Bradamante in Alcina. Last year, she was the mezzo-soprano soloist for Commonwealth Chorale’s performance of Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Marianna Martines’s Dixit Dominus. She also was the soloist for Charles River Chorale’s performance of Vivaldi’s Gloria.

 

In addition to performing, Laura is a caring and dedicated music teacher. For over eight years, she has taught voice, musical theater, early childhood music, music theory, and piano. She teaches after-school music at Wellan Montessori School and voice lessons to Boston University undergraduates. Additionally, she maintains her own private voice studio. As a teacher, Laura strives to create life-long music lovers. She wants her students to feel that they are special, worthy, and capable of creating beauty through art.  For more information visither web site.

Matthew McGinnis is delighted to join the Commonwealth Chorale as a section leader! He is a music teacher by day and maintains an active performing calendar in classical music and musical theatre. He enjoys performing oratorio, musicals, and choral music, and has been performing professionally for almost ten years. He has performed with Zenith Ensemble and around New England as a soloist and choral singer. His performances as a  soloist include Schubert’s Mass in G, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, and Mozart’s Requiem. Outside of New England, he has performed a number of times with the St. Andrews Arts Council in New Brunswick, Canada as well as serving as a soloist and choral singer on tour in the Canadian Maritime region. When Matthew is not singing or teaching, he can often be found cooking and baking in his kitchen.

William Farrell has been singing with Commonwealth Chorale a section leader since 2016, and he is excited to be joining the group for another season. Since moving to the Greater Boston area in fall 2015, he has performed with various professional groups, including The Boston Camerata, The Tanglewood Festival Chorus for the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops, Capella Nova Mundi, Canto Armonico, and St. Paul's Choir School. In 2019, he had the unique opportunity to perform at the activation Bleed for the Throne by HBO, Game of Thrones, and the American Red Cross at SXSW.

 

William graduated with a Master of Music in Early Music from the Longy School of Music in 2017. He loves to explore all types of historical performance, especially Renaissance polyphony and Baroque opera. Over the past year he has been on an endeavor with a few other professional singers to present rarely performed or unperformed Franco-Flemish polyphonic choral settings—one on a part—for St. Clements Eucharistic Shrine. They approach settings with liturgically appropriate texts in an attempt to survey a large portion of the repertoire that gets ignored. Outside of singing, William is an avid cyclist and loves to take any opportunity to return to New Hampshire where he can cycle on the beautiful mountain roads.