THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2018-2019 55
JANICE CHANDLER-ETEME
Soprano
American soprano
Janice Chandler-
Eteme’s astonishing
SUSAN PLATTS
Mezzo-Soprano
range of concert
literature includes
Strauss' Four Last
Songs, Philip Glass'
Passion of Ramakrishna,
Mahler's
Second Symphony,
Haydn's Die Schöpfung,
Mendelssohn’s
Lobgesang Symphony,
Lokumbe's Dear
Mrs. Parks and Can
You Hear God Crying?, Brahms’ Requiem, Mahler's
Eighth Symphony, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9,
Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Tippett’s A
Child of Our Time and Britten’s War Requiem. She
remains among the most in-demand sopranos for
Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Other forays into operatic
literature have included a first-ever Donna
Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni with the National
Philharmonic. Chandler-Eteme first came to international
prominence as a favorite of Robert Shaw.
She has collaborated with many renowned conductors,
among them Marin Alsop, James Conlon,
Andreas Delfs, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles
Dutoit, Claus Peter Flor, Hans Graf, Jeffrey Kahane,
Carlos Kalmar, Raymond Leppard, Jahja Ling, Andrew
Litton, Keith Lockhart, David Lockington, Stuart
Malina, Peter Oundjian, Christof Perick, Esa-Pekka
Salonen, Stefan Sanderling, Vladimir Spivakov,
Yuri Temirkanov, Edo de Waart and Hugh Wolff.
She has performed with the symphony orchestras
of Los Angeles, Boston, NHK (Japan), Hong Kong,
Philadelphia, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Seattle, Detroit,
Nashville, Cincinnati, and Vancouver along
with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Rochester
Philharmonic.
Festival invitations include Bard, Grant Park, Aspen,
Prague Autumn and Blossom. Her recordings
include an inspirational solo disc, Devotions, and
the Dvořák Te Deum with Zdeněk Mácal and the
New Jersey Symphony. She holds degrees from
Oakwood College and Indiana University and has
studied with Virginia Zeani, Margaret Harshaw, Ginger
Beazley and Todd Duncan.
B r i t i s h - b o r n
Canadian mezzosoprano
Susan
Platts brings a rich,
distinctive and
soulful voice to a
nearly all-inclusive
range of concert,
opera and recital
repertoire for alto
and mezzo-soprano.
She has performed
M e n d e l s s o h n ’s
Elijah, Argento’s Casa
guidi, Beethoven’s
Missa solemnis and Ninth Symphony, Händel’s
Messiah, and Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette and Les
nuits d’été, among others. She is most renowned
for her Mahler interpretations, and her recordings
include both the full and chamber versions of Das
Lied von der Erde, as well as Lieder eines fahrenden
Gesellen.
Increasingly active in opera, Platts has sung Erda in
Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Hippolyta in Britten’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream at Pacific Opera Victoria,
Florence Pike in Britten’s Albert Herring at the
Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria, Teresa
in Bellini’s La Sonnambula, and Susie in Bernstein’s
A Quiet Place with Kent Nagano and the Montreal
Symphony.
As part of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts
Initiative, world-renowned soprano Jessye Norman
chose Platts as her protégée and continues to
mentor her. With the support of Rolex, Platts
commissioned a work for mezzo-soprano and
orchestra from celebrated Canadian composer
Marjan Mozetich entitled Under the Watchful Sky,
comprised of three songs using ancient Chinese
texts from Shi Jing (The Book of Songs).
Platts has performed with the Philadelphia, CBC
Radio, Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras,
Detroit, Seattle, Harrisburg, Boston and Milwaukee
symphonies, Les Violons du Roy, Boston's Händel
and Haydn Society, and the Los Angeles and St.
Paul chamber orchestras, among others. She has
collaborated with many preeminent conductors
including Marin Alsop, Roberto Abbado, Leon
Botstein, Sir Andrew Davis, and Andreas Delfs,
among others.