The Worcester Chorus: Handel Messiah On-Demand

With her “vivid, deeply satisfying sound” (Boston Music Intelligencer) and “rich, smooth mezzo soprano” (St. Louis Post), Kim Leeds engages audiences in her exploration of life’s essence through music. As a soloist, she has appeared with the GRAMMY® winning ensemble Apollo’s Fire, GRAMMY® nominated True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Gramophone award winning ensemble Blue Heron, Tafelmusik Baroque Chamber Orchestra and Choir, Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Cantata Collective, Bach Akademie Charlotte, Les Délices, Bach Society of St. Louis, the Oregon Bach Festival, Ad Astra Music Festival, Chicago Master Singers, and the Handel Society of Dartmouth. Over the years, Ms. Leeds has garnered multiple accolades including winning the Tafelmusik Vocal Competition in 2016, attending the Carmel Bach Festival as a Virginia Best Adams Fellow in 2017, worked with Philippe Herreweghe as a Britten-Pears Young Artist in their Bach Cantata programme in 2019, and was semi-finalist in the Oratorio Society of New York Vocal Competition in 2022.

Ms. Leeds enjoys performing a wide range of repertoire from Ockeghem and Dowland, to Rheinberger and Charles Ives as well as sung premieres of works by James MacMillan, Richard Danielpour, James Kallembach, and Julia Wolfe. As a choral artist, Ms. Leeds has toured with Helmuth Rilling in Eastern Germany as a member of the Weimar Bach Academy and toured Northern Italy and Southern Germany with the Junges Stuttgart Bach Ensemble under the direction of Hans Christoph Rademann. In the US, she has performed with GRAMMY® winning ensembles the Crossing and Apollo’s Fire; GRAMMY® nominated ensembles Seraphic Fire, True Concord, and Clarion Choir; as well as the Oregon Bach Festival, Musica Sacra, Handel and Haydn Society and Ensemble Altera. Ms. Leeds is also a co-founder of the New England based ensemble Filigree.

In her hometown of Boston, Ms. Leeds has appeared as a soloist with the Commonwealth Chorale, Cantata Singers, Music at Marsh Chapel, can be heard on the 2017 Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s recording of Jeremy Gill’s Before the Wresting Tides, and on Blue Heron’s Johannes Ockeghem: Complete Songs, vol. 1 and vol. 2.

Tenor Kirk Bobkowski, a Worcester Massachusetts native, graduated from Keene State College with a Bachelor of Music in Performance and Education and did his Masters work at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  He has collaborated with many ensembles including The Worcester Chorus, Worcester State Chorale, Keene Chorale, Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey, Gardner Singers, Connecticut Early Music Society, Quincy Choral Society, and Emmanuel Music. His recent opera roles include Tamino (The Magic Flute), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), and Frederic (The Pirates of Penzance).  Kirk is also on roster with CONCORA, Vellichor, and The Zenith Ensemble.  He is currently the Choir Director at Chocksett Middle School and leads an afternoon vocal studio at Wachusett High School.

Bass-baritone Jason Zacher is quickly gaining national attention as a rising new talent and versatile performer. Last season, Mr. Zacher joined the prestigious Glynn Studio Artist program at The Atlanta Opera, taking the stage in their productions of Frankenstein, Rigoletto, La bohème, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He also returned to Carnegie Hall with MidAmerica Productions in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and to The Glimmerglass Festival, where he took on the role of Uncle/Witness #9 in Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s modern masterpiece Elizabeth Cree and covered both Pirate King and Sergeant of Police in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. Mr. Zacher also advanced to the finals of the prestigious Lotte Lenya Competition, where he received the second-place prize. This season he returns to The Atlanta Opera studio for their productions of La bohème, The Magic Flute, Macbeth, Siegfried, and Semele. He also joins South Florida Symphony to sing Pangloss in Candide, Worcester Chorus for Messiah, and Tulsa Opera for a gala concert.

Mr. Zacher is a former member of the acclaimed Sandford Studio Artist Program at Kentucky Opera, where he impressed audiences with his roles as Colline in La bohème, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, and Henry in The Gift of the Magi. Following his time in Kentucky, he was highlighted as part of the Young Artist Program at The Glimmerglass Festival, most notably performing the role of Argante in Rinaldo and covering Pangloss/Voltaire in Candide. Mr. Zacher was also featured as a soloist in concert alongside award-winning singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant and Anthony Roth Costanzo. He spent several summers with Des Moines Metro Opera, most recently singing the role of Jimmy in the Midwest premiere of American Apollo (Geter/Palmer), as well as covering both Bottom and Theseus in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Equally at home on the concert stage, Mr. Zacher was recently featured as the bass soloist in Mozart’s Requiem alongside the Masterwork Chorus in the spring of 2023. He returned in December, making his Carnegie Hall début as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah. Other notable credits include bass soloist in Bach’s Hercules at the Crossroads (BWV213), Mendelssohn’s St. Paul, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel.

Also well regarded in the competition circuit, Mr. Zacher was named a New York District Winner for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (2023). He has received top accolades from various prestigious organizations, including the Kurt Weill Foundation, the Jensen Foundation, Annapolis Opera, James Toland Vocal Arts, Rochester Oratorio Society, Opera Birmingham, and National Opera Association, among others.