Artists

Katrina Montagna, Soprano

Katrina Montagna is a professional singer and organist working in the New York City and Long Island areas. She is Director of Music at Our Lady of Peace, Lynbrook, NY. Previously, she was Music Director at St. James of Jerusalem Episcopal Church, cantor/organist at St. Mary of the Isle in Long Beach and sang for several years in St. Ignatius of Antioch's professional octet in Manhattan. Katrina has also performed abroad as organist for St. John's University's tour of Italy and the Vatican and as soprano soloist for Saint Agnes Cathedral's Ireland and England tour. She first developed her love of choral singing at the Cathedral of the Incarnation's affiliate program of the Royal School of Church Music where she was appointed organ scholar during her tenure asa girl chorister and currently serves as cantor. Katrina graduated valedictorian, summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, CUNY. She also holds a Masters degree in Forensic Linguistics from Hofstra University.

Emily Klonowski, Alto

Known for her sensitive musicality and unique vocal range, Emily Klonowski is a professional mezzo-soprano performing in the New York and Tri-State area. She has most recently been featured as a young artist in the summer festival Songe d’ete en Musique in Lambton Quebec, where she sang various solo and chamber repertoire, notably Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder and Ravel’s Chanson Madecasses. Emily has appeared as a soloist in performances with various professional ensembles, including Mendelssohn’s Elijiah, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Missa Brevis, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, and Copland’s In the Beginning. Emily is the most recent member of the Vox Aquarum, a professional vocal quartet dedicated to the performance of classic vocal music from all style periods. She actively performs with skilled lutenist Harris Becker in local and international venues, focusing on programs based on the works of John Dowland. In 2014 she was semi-finalist in the Classical Singer Magazine competition and was the winner of the concerto competition at LIU Post in 2013, performing Berlioz’s Le nuit d’ete with the LIU Post Orchestra. In addition to her solo career, Emily is a music educator, church musician and conductor. Currently, she teaches music and choral studies in the Syosset Central School District. Emily is the cantor at multiple catholic parishes in the Long Island area, including St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Northport, and St. Boniface Martyrs in Sea Cliff.

Matthew Koraus, Tenor

Matthew is a composer of vocal and instrumental music active in the New York area. He has written an extensive amount of sacred music, and a number of his works are published by CanticaNOVA Publications, MorningStar Music Publishers, Oregon Catholic Press, and World Library Publications (GIA). Matthew is an accomplished organist, accompanist, and tenor, presently serving as the Director of Music Ministries for the Church of St. Patrick in Huntington, NY. He is also an adjunct professor of music at Hofstra University. Matthew holds the Master of Music degree in Composition from Manhattan School of Music, where he studied composition with Mark Stambaugh, and organ with Walter Hilse. Matthew also holds the Fellowship Certification from the American Guild of Organists, and was the 2013 winner of both the Fellowship Prize and the S. Lewis Elmer Award offered by the Guild. He also holds the Guild’s Choir Master Certification and was the 2015 winner of the Choir Master Prize.  Matthew was a finalist in the 2014 National Competition in Organ Improvisation, and won the First Prize of the 2015 University of Michigan Improvisation Competition.  More info at www.matthew-koraus.net.

Brian Goff, Bass

Brian began his musical studies with the violin. An All State violinist in High School, he performed at Carnegie Hall with the Gemini Youth Orchestra. Brian studied voice with Joel Fredericksen at Long Island University. He sang in the ensemble of the Caramoor Music Festival as a member of the Bel Canto Opera young artists program. He studied voice with Bruce Norris at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Brian sings as a bass soloist in churches and temples throughout Long Island and the New York metropolitan area.

Guest Artists

Christopher Morrongiello,

 Lutenist

Lutenist Christopher Morrongiello, a former British Marshall Scholar, is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music, the Royal College of Music, and the University of Oxford, where he earned a Ph.D. in musicology. As a recitalist, Christopher has performed to critical acclaim throughout Europe and the United States. In 1993 he was a prizewinner in the BBC Radio Two Young Musician of the Year Competition and in 1996 was awarded a Marco Fodella Foundation Scholarship for studies and research in Milan, Italy. In 2006, the Lute Society of America conferred upon him its first Patrick O’Brien LSA Seminar Lectureship.

Heralded as an innovative musical director and creator of large-scale dramatic works, Christopher has a gift for bringing the music of the Renaissance and Baroque to life in its literary and social context. His musical portrait of the Elizabethan muse and songstress Penelope Devereux, created for soprano Emily Van Evera (My Lady Rich, Avie Records 0045), has been described by Renaissance Magazine as “a presentation of unusual quality and beauty” and by the NY Times as “an inspired idea… a vivid and touching portrait.”

Christopher is a professor in music history at Hofstra University and teaches lute and related historical plucked instruments in his private studio in Long Island, New York.  He is a member of the Venere Lute Quartet and Alba Consort, performs regularly with soprano Marcia Young, and directs the New York-based Bacheler Consort.Recently, the Metropolitan Museum of Art produced several, beautiful video recordings of his playing on a gut-strung, sixteenth-century lute as well as on copies of lutes in their priceless musical instrument collection. Listening to a Four-Hundred-Year-Old Instrument.

Chelsea Laggan, Alto

Chelsea is a professional singer performing in New York and the Tri-State area. She enjoys an active life on the concert and operatic stages, performing a variety of leading and featured roles. At Hofstra University these included Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Bradamante in Alcina, and Lady Blanche in Princess Ida. More recently she has been seen with Capitol Opera Harrisburg as Flora in La Traviata, and with the New York Opera Exchange in their productions of Lucia di Lammermoor and Die Fledermaus as Alisa and Prince Orlofsky, respectively, where her voice was described as “velvety and her singing fluid and nuanced." On the concert stage, Ms. Laggan performs frequently as a soloist and section leader with various choral groups singing repertoire including Alto solos in Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil and Matthew Koraus’ Ubi Caritas. She also enjoys bringing contemporary works to the public eye, most recently in her performances of the song cycle Love’s Progress, also by Koraus.