Polochick To Lead BSO & Concert Artists of Baltimore Chorale In 30th Anniversary Performance of HandelÂ's MESSIAH, 12/7

In the 2012–13 season, she will travel to the Netherlands for Handel's Alexander's Feast and Acis and Galatea and to Walt Disney Concert Hall to perform the Brahms Requiem with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She will also debut with the Baltimore and Toronto Symphonies (Messiah), Nashville Symphony (Elijah), and Pasadena Symphony (Mahler Symphony No. 4).

Abigail Nims (mezzo-soprano) has established herself as a musician of integrity and versatility through her performances of repertoire spanning from Bach, Handel and Mozart to Crumb, Ligeti and contemporary premieres. In 2012-13 she debuts with the BSO, with Adrian Symphony in Berlioz' Les Nuits d'ete, with Florentine Opera as Nancy in Britten's Albert Herring and Virginia Opera as Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus. She made her debut in season 2011-12 with Atlanta Opera as Veruca Salt in Peter Ash's The Golden Ticket, a role which she created at the opera's workshop performances in New York City through American Lyric Theater in the 2008-09 season. She also sang as soloist in Messiah at Carnegie Hall with the Masterwork Chorus and as Octavian in selections from Der Rosenkavalier in a return to Quad City Symphony Orchestra.

Her discography includes performances of Martin Bresnick's song cycle "Falling," featured on the composer's compilation album Every Thing Must Go (Albany Records, 2010) and the role of Veruca Salt in Peter Ash's The Golden Ticket (Albany Records), fall 2012.

Awards include second prize in the 2007 Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, the Anna Case MacKay Memorial Award from Santa Fe Opera, an honorable mention in the 2006 American Bach Society Competition, recipient of the 2007 Dean's Prize from Yale School of Music and finalist in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation.

Sean Panikkar (tenor) is known for his "surpassing musicality and passion, commanding self-confidence and gorgeous expression." The American artist of Sri Lankan heritage made his Metropolitan Opera debut with James Levine in Manon Lescaut and his European operatic debut in Mozart's Zaïde at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in a production directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Louis Langrée.

Highlights of the current season include The Magic Flute at Chicago Opera Theater, Don Giovanni at Pittsburgh Opera, Otello and La rondine at the Metropolitan Opera, and the artist's first La bohème with Fort Worth Opera.

Past appearances include Roméo et Juliette, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan, Béatrice et Bénédict at Opera Boston, Les pêcheurs de perles at Pittsburgh Opera, Nabucco with Washington National Opera, Eugene Onegin at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, The Last Savage at Santa Fe Opera, and Salome at San Diego Opera and the Saito Kinen Festival.

Baritone, Tyler Duncan's current season includes a New York Philharmonic debut (conducted by Masaaki Suzuki), joining the Metropolitan Opera roster and returning to Carnegie Hall for Mahler's Eighth Symphony with the American Symphony. He has appeared at the Spoleto USA, Princeton, Halle, Bard, Lanaudière, Berkshire Choral, Chautauqua, Oregon Bach and Vancouver/Boston Early Music Festivals; as well as with Pacific Opera Victoria (as Dandini in Rossini's La Cenerentola). Concerts include the Québec, Toronto and Montreal Symphonies; Calgary and Rochester Philharmonics; Boston's Händel and Haydn Society, San Francisco's Philharmonia Baroque and Toronto's Tafelmusik; collaborating with such conductors as Kent Nagano, Helmut Rilling, Christopher Seaman and Nicolas McGegan.

The Canadian baritone has earned prizes from the Naumburg, Wigmore Hall, ARD/Munich, Joy-in-Singing, New York Oratorio Competitions, and the Prix International Pro Musicis Award and the Bernard Diamant Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. He is a founding member on the faculty of the Vancouver International Song Institute and given acclaimed recitals in New York, Boston and Paris, as well as throughout Canada, Germany, Sweden, France and South Africa.

Mr. Duncan's recordings include Bach's St. John Passion with Portland Baroque under Monica Huggett, and the title role of John Blow's Venus and Adonis with the Boston Early Music Festival.

Holiday Concert: Handel's MESSIAH will be presented on Friday, December 7, 2012 at 7:30 pm- Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (JMSH). Ticket prices range from $25 to $67 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000 or BSOmusic.org