Quince Ensemble
Quince Ensemble is a treble voice quartet dedicated to changing the paradigm for contemporary vocal chamber music. Described as "the Anonymous 4 of new music" by Opera News, Quince continually pushes the boundaries of vocal ensemble literature. By performing almost exclusively the music of living composers, and actively commissioning works with a broad and curious aesthetic ear, we seek to create a landscape of contemporary vocal music that is embodied, complex, and expressive, with the musical boldness and virtuosity that is often reserved for instrumental groups.
As dedicated advocates of new music, Quince regularly commissions new works for voices, providing wider exposure for the music of living composers. In 2019, they launched the Quince New Music Commissioning Fund, a fund to grow the repertoire for women and treble voices. Through educational activities, Quince works to bring this music to a larger community of singers and listeners, offering new and empowering pathways to vocal excellence. Quince has released four studio albums, Realign the Time, Hushers, Motherland, and David Lang's love fail, all available on iTunes, CD Baby, Spotify, Bandcamp, and Amazon.
Quince has been featured on many festivals and series like KODY Festival in Lublin, Poland in collaboration with David Lang and Beth Morrison Projects, the Outpost Concert Series, the Philip Glass: Music with Friends concert at Issue Project Room, University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium, and the SONiC Festival in New York, to name a few.
Comprised of vocalists Liz Pearse (soprano), Kayleigh Butcher (mezzo soprano), Amanda DeBoer Bartlett (soprano), and Carrie Henneman Shaw (soprano), Quince thrives on unique musical challenges and genre-bending contemporary repertoire.
Kayleigh Butcher
Executive Director; Mezzo soprano
Described as a singer with "commanding interpretive depth” (New York Times) as well as having a "pure vocal talent" (Opera Wire Magazine), Kayleigh Butcher (mezzo soprano) has gained critical and audience acclaim as a soloist and contemporary chamber musician.
Kayleigh received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where she studied with Dr. Anne DeLaunay and Dr. Denise Knowlton. She was a graduate teaching assistant to Dr. Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers at Bowling Green State University, where she earned her Master of Music. She currently resides in Kensington, Brooklyn with her fat cat, Cherubino.
www.kayleighbutcher.com
Photo by Flaminia Fanale
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett
Soprano
Amanda DeBoer Bartlett is an Omaha-based soprano who specializes in the work of living composers. Along with Quince Ensemble and her solo career, she is a member of Ensemble Dal Niente and Hasco Duo.
Ms. DeBoer Bartlett is also the founder and director of an experimental performance festival called Omaha Under the Radar, which has presented nearly 200 individual artists from around North America during its first three seasons.
Born and raised in Omaha, NE, Ms. DeBoer Bartlett moved to Chicago to study at DePaul University where she received a Bachelor of Music. She received a Masters degree from the University at Buffalo, where she studied with acclaimed contemporary interpreter Tony Arnold, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Bowling Green State University.
Liz Pearse
Soprano
Finding joy in variety, Liz Pearse is a musician of many pursuits. After a childhood spent playing every instrument she could lay hands upon, Liz began exploring the endless possibilities of the voice. Hers is an instrument of unusual range, color, and versatility. She has performed a range of repertoire, from medieval to modern, on stages around the world including Italy (soundSCAPE Festival), Switzerland (Lucerne Festival) and Poland (KODY Festiwal).
Liz has a special affinity for music post 1900. As a soloist, her recent projects include multiple performances of Pierrot Lunaire, touring Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi, electroacoustic programming including Philomel, and on-going commissions dedicated to the creation of works for self-accompanying soprano. She researched contemporary vocal pedagogy as part of a DMA in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University (Ohio).
Photo by Matt DeBoer
Carrie Henneman Shaw
Soprano
Soprano Carrie Henneman Shaw is known across the US as a singer who weaves style and emotion into vivid performances of Baroque and contemporary classical music. Praised in the New York Times “as graceful vocally as she was in her movements”, “consistently stylish” (Boston Globe), and as a “cool, precise soprano” (Chicago Tribune), Shaw is a member of Quince Ensemble, Chicago’s Ensemble Dal Niente, Pesedjet, and also appears with the Bach Society of Minnesota, Haymarket Opera Company, Newberry Consort, and Boston Early Music Festival. Carrie was a 2010 and 2017 McKnight Fellow for Performing Musicians and has earned arts entrepreneurship awards in her role as co-director of St. Paul’s Glorious Revolution Baroque.
Shaw seeks opportunities to bring rare performances of new works by American and international composers to an eclectic variety of venues – bars, churches, galleries, and concert halls - with collaborators around the country. In the Minnesota composer community, she has been privileged to commission and premiere works by such composers as Jocelyn Hagen, Noah Keesecker, and Abbie Betinis, whose annual Christmas carols are annually recorded for broadcast by Minnesota Public Radio. Shaw has also performed in a gala holiday concert at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Shaw earned degrees in English and Voice Performance from Lawrence University and completed a doctorate at the University of Minnesota. She currently teaches at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Board of Directors
Board President: Christopher Burns
Board Officers:
Mary Francis
Denise Knowlton
Katelyn Simon
Tom Welsh
Musician Representatives:
Liz Pearse, Secretary
Kayleigh Butcher, Executive Director
Advisory Board:
Augusta Read Thomas
Chaya Czernowin
David Lang