Notorious for her steely brilliance with balanced richness, soprano Valerie Beck thrills audiences around North America. Valerie attended Grand Valley State University for her Bachelor’s in Music. Valerie was a crucial part of the Opera Theater department at GVSU with highlight roles of Dido (Purcell) and Third Lady (Mozart). While there, she worked with Opera Grand Rapids as an Emerging Artist and Chorus Member. Valerie moved to Chicago to earn her Masters in Music from Roosevelt University CCPA. Valerie is currently a member of the Nightingale Ensemble in Chicago, consisting of voice, harp, flute, and two guitars. Nightingale is a new music ensemble that commissions new works from a diverse group representing the breadth and depth of classical composers with unique voices that reflect our world today.
Valerie frequently performs around the Chicago area, including concerts with LeAnne Bennion, “Comedian Cabaret's", and storefront opera. These performances incorporate music from a plethora of genres; jazz, pop, Disney, opera and classical music. She competed with a composer-pianist-vocalist team to create and perform a new work for Chicago’s SongSLAM in 2022, winning second place. Recent highlight roles for Valerie include Dvořák’s “Rusalka”, Jo from Adamo’s “Little Women”, The Knowledge of God from Hildegard von Bingen’s “Ordo Virtutum”, Marcellina and covering Countess in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro”. Upcoming performances for Valerie include "Suor Angelica" presented by The Valkyrie Ensemble where Valerie will be covering the title role.
Nightingale Ensemble
Nightingale Ensemble uses music as a tool for social change by commissioning new works from a diverse group that represent the breadth and depth of classical composers in the modern world. In addition, its eclectic instrumentation allows composers to explore new musical landscapes that are seldom heard in the world today.
The ensemble partners with composers and other musicians to develop works for trios, duets, and even for soloists to broaden the repertoire for these instruments and push the pairing of instruments to find new music colors. It also uses its unusual instrumentation to its advantage in order to perform lesser known works by major composers, such as those by Stravinsky, Takemitsu, and many others.
Nightingale Ensemble emphasizes finding contemporary composers who will bring a unique voice to their compositions through a range of backgrounds that are as diverse as our world is today, and welcome hearing from composers who have an idea for an exciting new composition that involves an instrumental ensemble not often seen on stages!Upcoming Concerts
No concerts are planned at this time. Please check back later.
Learn more about Nightingale Ensemble at https://www.nightingaleensemble.org/