Michele Baron began her musical journey performing “Thumbelina” in the musical Hans Christian Anderson at age four, and has never looked back. Ms. Baron has sung in concert halls in the US, Europe, Asia and Africa, on opera and theater stages, and diverse performance platforms – erected in rice paddies, in bombed-out theaters being rebuilt by the labor of local music-lovers, on the roof-tops of sky-scrapers, in parks, at First Nations gatherings, and even on a stage built in the middle of a pond. Equally happy as a solo artist, a leading lady, or a collaborative partner with musicians from around the world, Ms. Baron seeks to portray a universality and truth embracing the roots of human experience when she sings, and views music as a bridge which can enable understanding and appreciation among and between cultures.

Ms. Baron made her professional operatic debut as Roberta Peters’ grand-daughter “Dolly” in the Orlando Opera revival of Bitter Sweet (Donald Saddler directing). Other roles include Mimi (La Boheme) and Maddelena (Andrea Chenier), as well as concert performances of the arias of Verdi, Puccini, and Wagnerian heroines with the San Francisco Lyric Opera. Her orchestral credits include solo concerts with the Penang State Symphony and Chorus, the Royal Thai Navy Orchestra, the Orchestre Nationale du Senegal, the San Francisco Concert Orchestra, and various local orchestras and chamber ensembles around the world.

Her television credits include a series of “Seaside Concerts” of classical music; several Christmas specials; a performance of classical and sacred music with the Orchestre Nationale du Senegal; an annual re-broadcast of “American Genesis: The George Washington Bicentennial Opera” and nationally-televised concerts for “Music No. 5” with the Royal Thai Navy Orchestra in Bangkok.

Performances in light opera include the roles of Yum-yum (The Mikado), Rose May Bud (Ruddigore), Gretchen (The Red Mill), and Cunegonde (Candide). And, on the music theatre stage, Ms. Baron has appeared as Rosabella (The Most Happy Fella) and Eliza Doolittle (My Fair Lady) at the Salt City Center for Performing Arts, Syracuse, NY (recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts as “an institution of national significance”); as Kim (Bye, Bye, Birdie), Lili (Carnival), Maria (West Side Story), Maria (The Sound of Music), and Christine (The Phantom of the Opera), among other leading roles.

Always on the lookout for unique performance opportunities, Ms. Baron has jammed back-stage with BB King and “Lucille,” with Billie Idol (where he loaned her his black-velvet Elvis Presley portrait jacket), and sung a duet of “Danny Boy” with Beverly Sills following the opening of the revival of Bitter Sweet with Orlando Opera. She has sung with Stan Free at jazz venues in New York, improvised comic-operas with the “Greaseman” on WWDC FM in Washington, DC, and sung back-up for performances of “The Breakfast Band,” hosted by the “Wigmaster” from WPLR in CT, at venues including the historic “Toad’s Place.”

Ms. Baron has sung in solo recitals and concert performances with piano and chamber ensembles for the US Embassy in Thailand, the US Embassy in Senegal, the French Embassy in Canada, the Russian Cultural Centers in San Francisco and Washington, DC, the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Montreal, Canada, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Washington National Cathedral in DC, the National Cathedral in Senegal, and at other official and historical sites.

Concert Program - An American Christmas

Winter Wonderland                                Felix Bernard/Dick Smith
White Christmas                                    Irving Berlin
Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer         Johnny Marks
Let it Snow!
The Christmas Waltz                             Jule Styne/Sammy Cahn
Frosty the Snow Man                            Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins

Christmas Spirituals:
Mary’s Little Boy Child                            Jester Hairston
Mary Had a Baby                                    African-American Spiritual
Sweet Little Jesus Boy                            Robert MacGimsey

Christmas in the Appalachians:
Jessye’s Carol (This Christmastide)        Donald Fraser
The Holy Infant’s Lullaby                        Norman Dello Joio
The Carol of the Birds                             Arr. John Jacob Niles
I Wonder as I Wander
                 
Jazz Christmas:
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas     Hugh Martin/Ralph Blane
I’ll be Home for Christmas                        Walter Kent/Kim Gannon
Pechika                                                     Japanese, arr. Kosuke Yamada
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire        Mel Torme/Robert Wells

Traditional Christmas:
Away in a Manger                                    William James Kirkpatrick
Away in a Manger                                    J.R. Murray
O Holy Night                                             Adolphe Adams
Silent Night                                               Franz Gruber