Messiah 2022 Soloist Bios

SOPRANO
Chelsea LaCourse, soprano

Chelsea LaCourse, soprano, is a professional singer and music educator. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Vocal Performance. She teaches private voice lessons and coachings, and also works as a teaching artist and music director at South Carolina Children’s Theatre. She has sung with the Greenville Chorale and presently sings as a section leader with the choir at First Presbyterian Greenville. Solo performances include Faure’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah. Some of her favorite roles include Gasparina (Haydn’s La Canterina), Ms. Potts (Beauty and the Beast, SCCT) and Mistress Manners (Ella Enchanted, SCCT). Chelsea loves to sing all styles of music - and to help others find or grow their love for music. She lives in Greenville with her husband John and dog Winnie.

ALTO
Pamela Williamson, alto

Italian-American mezzo-soprano Pamela Williamson, native of Snellville, GA, is currently the Alto Section Leader at First Presbyterian Church Greenville, SC. Miss Williamson received her Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from North Greenville University and her Master of Music from Converse College. Pamela has performed the roles Marcellina and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Carmen in Carmen, La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi, Prima Sorella Cercatrice and Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica with Asheville Lyric Opera, La Voix and Nicklausse in Le contes d’Hoffman, Auntie in Peter Grimes, Augusta in Ballad of Baby Doe, Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, and Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel. During Ms. Williamson’s undergraduate time, she sang the lead role, Zerbina, at North Greenville University’s first opera premier, La Serva Padrona. She has also performed as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Vivaldi’s Gloria and abroad as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah. Pamela’s awards include First Place winner of Converse College’s 2013 Young Artist Competition and in 2014, First Place South Carolina State as well as Mid-Atlantic Regional winner for her category in the NATS Competition.

TENOR
Seth Killen, tenor

Seth Killen, tenor, enjoys a varied career singing, conducting, and teaching. He holds a DMA in voice performance with a cognate in voice pedagogy from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music and is interested in researching pedagogy and the intersection of voice disorders and psychology. He strives to guide students to greater vocal freedom through functional voice pedagogy and to more expressive singing by empowering them through strong preparation, self-discovery and actualization. As a singer, Dr. Killen is most content performing art song, especially Lieder song cycles. He has performed the song cycles, Die Winterreise, An die ferne Geliebte, Dichterliebe, Die schöne Müllerin, and Liederkreis. On the opera stage, he appeared in the Illinois Opera theatre’s productions as Rodolfo in La Bohéme and Gonzalve in L’heure Espagnole, Scaramuccio in CCM’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos, and in the Greenville Light Opera Work’s productions as King Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Giles Corey in The Crucible. He spent three summers as a Corbett Young Artist at the Cincinnati Opera as a member of the core ensemble. He has appeared as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the orchestra Sinfonia da Camera, multiple Bach cantatas with the Bach Collegium Musicum of Cincinnati, as well as Orff’s Carminia Burana, the Oratorio de Noël with Eastern Symphony Orchestra and Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Missa Brevis. Dr. Killen can be heard on three opera recordings for children in which he created the role of José the Ferret. The most recent recording is, “Phinneas McBoof Crashes the Symphony,” and was recorded with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra alongside singers Nathan Gunn and Isabel Leonard. When he is not on the stage, he is either behind the piano in a musical theatre pit or on the podium conducting. Some of his favorite productions have been, Little Shop of Horrors, Three Penny Opera, Hansel and Gretel, and Beauty and the Beast. He is an Associate Professor of Music at Anderson University. He lives in Anderson, SC with his wife and three girls and enjoys biking and hiking.

BASS
Jordan Scott, bass

Jordan Scott graduated from the College of Charleston with a Bachelors of Vocal Performance. He has sung with many music organizations throughout the region. He is an accomplished singer of opera, lied, choral, and chant. He recently has performed in a number of revue shows as well as roles in productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, Hansel and Gretel, and the Southeastern premier of Stinney.