Upcoming Performances

June 20, 21, 2026

Duke University Durham, NC

Chorworks 2026: Venetian Vespers: Music by Monteverdi & His Circle

Conducted and directed by Dr. Philip Cave, executive director of Chorworks and conductor-in-residence at Duke Chapel.

May 28-June 6, 2026

Charlotte, NC

Charlotte Bach Festival Soprano Vocal Fellow

Zoë will be featured as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Cantata “Es ist das Heil uns kommen her” (BWV 9) and Handel’s Chandos Anthem No. 7 (HWV 252). She will be also be performing in the Vivaldi Gloria & Handel Choruses, Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas, and Handel’s Theodora as an ensemble member.

May 19, 2026

Friedberg Concert Hall Baltimore, MD

Peabody Graduation Concert

An ensemble of oud, flute, voice, viola, and drums will be performing selections from their recent Jewish music program “The Golden Thread.“

May 14, 2026

Peabody Institute Baltimore, MD

Chamber Music Concert: Der Hirt auf dem Felsen

Chamber music concert at Peabody featuring pianist Tom Zalmanov, clarinetist Elias Gilbert, and soprano Zoë Chessa performing this work by Schubert, also known as “The Shepherd on the Rock”.

May 10, 2026

Beth Am Synagogue
Baltimore, MD

Concert Series: The Golden Thread

This concert series explores Jewish music by highlighting its origins in the Near East and outlining the ancient elements that define the Jewish sound-world. Join our ensemble of voice, oud, drums, flute, and viola for a lively program of piyyutim and folk song stemming from Jewish communities in the Levant, Andalusia, Babylonia, and Egypt. Tickets are free, with donations accepted.

May 11, 2026

Center Street Performance Studio
Baltimore, MD

Recent Performances

Left to Right: Kayleigh Sprouse, Joseph Kingsbury, Zoë Chessa

May 3, 2026

Church of the Redeemer, 4 pm
Baltimore, MD

May 7, 2026

Griswold Recital Hall, 7:30 pm
Baltimore, MD

Peabody Renaissance Ensemble: Caldo, Caldo!

In this end-of-semester concert, PRE will be under the direction of Niccolo Seligman, performing a program of late-15th- and early 16th-century Italian music!

May 2, 2026

Friedberg Concert Hall
Baltimore, MD

NEXT Ensemble/Peabody Concert Orchestra

Beth Willer, Conductor

Tate: Iholba' (The Vision) Bartók: Cantata profana, BB 100 Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67

April 24, 2026

Griswold Recital Hall
Baltimore, MD

Special Project 3: Chamber Ensembles

Will Meyers, Conductor

Messiaen: O sacrum convivium! Reger: Mein Odem ist schwach Op. 110, No 1 Poulenc: Soir de Neige Price: Resignation

April 19, 2026

Griswold Recital Hall
Baltimore, MD

Arianelle Arroyo: Composition Student Recital

Presenting two choral pieces: Deyanira, and The Other (commissioned & premiered by the Lorelei Ensemble)

March 31, 2026

Peabody Institute Baltimore, MD

Recital: Jake Landau, Trumpet

In this degree recital, Zoe will be joining Jake on the following pieces:

Handel: Let the Bright Seraphim (Samson) Handel: Eternal Source of Light Divine J.S. Bach: Cantata BWV51, Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen

March 14 & 15, 2026

Goucher College
Baltimore, MD

An Evening of Italian Opera

Semi-staged with Peabody Opera Conducted by Michael Christie Directed by Alison Moritz 

Verdi: La Traviata, Act 1 Puccini: La Boheme, Act 3 Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor, Wedding Scene and Sextet Verdi: Falstaff, Act 3 scene 2

Zoe will be singing the role of Lucia.

February 27, 2026

Hillel JHU
Baltimore, MD

Musical Kabbalat Shabbat Service

Join John’s Hopkins Hillel for a Musical Kabbalat Shabbat, led by Peabody Jewish musician Zoë Chessa.

February 25, 2026

Cohen-Davidson Hall
Baltimore, MD

Calder Sprinkle: Composition Student Recital

Presenting the choral work “Phos Hilaron”

February 7, 2026

Griswold Recital Hall
Baltimore, MD

NEXT Ensemble: Suonare/to sound

Beth Willer, Conductor

Dudley: Suonare/to sound Tallis (1505-1585): Loquebantur variis linguis Hare: whereof one cannot speak Woods (b. 1998): SHIFT Hearne (b. 1982): Sound from the Bench

December 4, 2025

Griswold Recital Hall, 8 pm
Baltimore, MD

December 6, 2025

Church of the Redeemer, 7:30 pm
Baltimore, MD

A Little Knight Music: Peabody Renaissance Ensemble

In this end-of-semester concert, PRE will be under the direction of Niccolo Seligman, performing a program of 12th and 13th century French music.

November 21, 2025

Griswold Hall, 12:30
Baltimore, MD

Peabody Noon:30 Concert Series

This week’s Noon:30 recital features the Peabody Historical Performance Department. In collaboration with musicians from the Baltimore Baroque Band, Zoë will be presenting J.S. Bach’s Cantata 51: Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen.

November 19, 2025

Cohen-Davidson Theater, 6 pm
Baltimore, MD

Zoë Chessa, Graduate Student Recital

In this degree recital for the M.M. Historical Performance in Voice, Zoë will be presenting a program of early music from composers such as Orlando Lassus, J.S. Bach, Carson Cooman, Giulo Caccini, Sigismondo d’India, Barbara Strozzi, and Benedetto Ferrari. Featuring musicians from the Baltimore Baroque Band.

November 16, 2025

Christ Lutheran Church
Baltimore, MD

Baltimore Baroque Band

Zoë will be presenting the soprano solo of Bach’s Cantata 51, “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen“ with the Baltimore Baroque Band.

November 1, 2025

Grace & St. Peter’s Church
Baltimore, MD

Special Project: Madrigal Responsories

Under the direction of Dr. Beth Willer, this program of small vocal chamber ensembles presents an intimate mix of old and new, featuring Renaissance Madrigals and modern composers’ responses to them (including works by Peabody composition students). This music is performed by two vocal quintets, as well as the bigger works of Riley (eight voices) and Minakakis (twelve voices and saxophone quintet).

Terry Riley: Madrigal
Claudio Monteverdi: Piagn’e Sospira
Stratis Minakakis: Monteverdi Responsories (w/ sax quartet)
Sulpitia Cesis: ll mid piu vago sole
Gillian Perry: response
Cipriano de Rore: O Sonno
Nathan McAdam: response
Claudio Monteverdi: Darà la Notte
Ethan Watts: response

October 8, 2025

Goodwin Recital Hall
Baltimore, MD

Master Class: Daniel Moody, Countertenor

September 27, 2025

Grace & St. Peter’s Church
Baltimore, MD

October 3, 2025

Hopkins Bloomberg Center
Baltimore, MD

Peabody Camerata

Under the direction of Beth Willer, the Peabody Camerata will be performing a program including:

Eastman: Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc
Jakob Handl: Ecce quomodo
Schönberg: Friede auf Erden
Kallembach: Antigone: The Writings of Sophie Scholl, with cello quartet

July 4, 2025

Muhlenberg College
Allentown, PA

Amherst Early Music Festival: Dafne (1734)

Under the direction of Richard Stone, the AEM offers the modern premiere of Georg Reutter the younger's Dafne, a festa teatrale composed for the imperial family in Vienna. Drawn from Ovid’s Metamorphoses of classical antiquity, the opera sets the myth of woodland nymph Daphne, her desperate flight from Apollo, lovesick from Cupid’s poisoned arrow, and her magical transformation.

Zoë Chessa will be singing the role of Dorinda.

June 22, 2025

Duke University Chapel
Durham, NC

Chorworks: JS BACH: MASS & MOTETS

Under the direction of Dr. Philip Cave, executive director of Chorworks and conductor-in-residence at Duke Chapel, this program will feature J.S. Bach’s sacred music, including the Missa in A Major BWV 234, and Motets by the Bach Family.

June 14, 2025

Asbury United Methodist Church
Harrisonburg, VA

Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival: The Judgement of Paris (1703)

Under the direction of Judith Malafronte, the Baroque Academy of the 2025 Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival presents scenes from The Judgement of Paris with music by Eccles, Weldon, and Daniel Purcell.

Zoe Chessa will be singing the role of Mercury.

Peabody Renaissance Ensemble: Il Vero Modo di Diminuir

Under the direction of Michael Holmes, PRE will present a program that will trace the history of Italian madrigal and frottola from its beginnings through Monteverdi, exploring the art of division and improvisation, as well as lute and organ intabulation.

May 3, 2025

George Peabody Library
Baltimore, MD

May 2, 2025

Peabody Conservatory
Baltimore, MD

Carmina Burana by Carl Orff

Under the direction of Dr. Beth Willer, this project is a collaboration between the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Peabody-Hopkins Conservatory Choir, NEXT Ensemble, and the Peabody Camerata. This end-of-season concert will feature Carl Orff’s masterwork Carmina Burana: Songs of Beuren.

March 6, 2025

Emmanuel Episcopal Church
Baltimore, MD

Special Project: Lorelei

Director of Choral Studies Beth Willer welcomes her own SSAA vocal ensemble Lorelei for a special concert featuring members of the Peabody Vocal Ensembles performing Tim Brady’s Symphony No. 11: This One is Broken in Pieces. The piece is written for an octet of electric guitars and a treble choir.

Peabody Chamber Opera: La Calisto (1651)

In La Calisto, a comic 17th-century adaption of Greek myth, Jupiter falls for the nymph Calisto, who rejects the older man creeping on her, causing Jupiter to disguise himself as Diana, the goddess Calisto adores. Diana happens to carry a torch for shepherd Endymion, and with the addition of some mythological magic, a comic string of risqué meetings involving mistaken identities ensues.

This colorful production is a collaboration between Peabody Opera and Peabody’s Historical Performance department, providing the Baroque instrumentation under the direction of faculty artist Adam Pearl and guest directed by Luther Lewis, a multidisciplinary freelance artist who was the inaugural Ryan Opera Center Stage Director for the 2023-2024 season at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Zoë Chessa will be singing the role of Satirino.

February 13-16, 2025

Peabody Opera Theatre
Baltimore, MD

December 5, 7, 2024

Griswold Hall, Church of the Redeemer
Baltimore, MD

Peabody Renaissance Ensemble: I Love Lucette

The Peabody Renaissance Ensemble, under the Direction of Tina Chancey, will present a program of 15th-century French theatrical chansons telling the story of a young girl named Lucette.

November 9, 2024

Emmanuel Episcopal Church
Baltimore, MD

Special Project: Ockeghem

Director of Choral Studies Beth Willer welcomes Blue Heron vocal ensemble music director Scott Metcalfe for a special concert featuring members of the Peabody Vocal Ensembles and the Historical Performance department performing the works of early Renaissance composers including Johannes Okeghem.