Join us at the Jesup for a classical music recital by Travis Benoit accompanied by Susan Ryder.

This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 7pm.

What might interest the listener about tenor Travis Benoit, a 2018 first-place Schubertiade recipient now making his DownEast recital debut singing Schubert‘s song cycle Die schöne Müllerin, is that he was also awarded an all-conference catcher title for the Gordon College Baseball team in Wenham, Massachusetts. 
Baseball and classical music?  Yes!

With the combined experiences of performing the tenor solo in Messiah, as a 17-year old, and his catcher’s mitt in tow, Travis headed off to study music and play baseball.  

Worcester, Massachusetts native, tenor, Travis Benoit has been described by Jane Olian and Donna Gill, Directors of the program Classical Singing in New York in June as having “a lovely, lyrical tenor voice, clear and bright, with great ‘ping’, flexibility and carrying power”.

“His angelic tenor voice helps elevate the performance .... He dominates many of the scenes he is in.” – Metrmag (as Frederic in Pirates of Penzance with Valley Light Opera)

Previous credits include Bach’s Magnificat in Barcelona, Spain with the Worcester Master Chorus.  In the summer of 2023 Benoit sang in the SONGFEST’s Young Artist Program in the Professional Artist track where he performed in The Bach Cantata Institute under John Harbison. He was a featured soloist in BWV 106 and BWV161 as well as in multiple art song recitals and masterclasses. Prior to that he was a featured soloist in BWV 108 with Mark Mummert at Trinity Lutheran Church in their annual Lenten Concert Series. In December, Benoit made his debut with The Connecticut Choral Artists singing the tenor solos in their production of G.F Handel’s Messiah. In November with The Farmington Valley Choral he sang Tenor solos in a celebration of their 50th year anniversary.  In October, he was the featured tenor soloist with The Providence Singers in their season opener of Joseph Haydn’s The Creation with full orchestra. In October of 2021, he was a featured soloist with EnsembleNYC in a program of Mozart Sacred Works. He also sings with The Connecticut Choral Artists (CONCORA) as an ensemble singer, The Providence Singers as a choral scholar, and the Boston-based studio choir VOX Futura. His professional concert debut was in September of 2021 at the Hanover Theater’s “Brick Box,” located in downtown Worcester. There, he performed selections by Roger Quilter, and Gerald Finzi’s A Young Man’s Exhortation. Benoit also made his new music debut in 2021 singing William David Cooper’s New Composition The Passion According to Saint Luke in April of 2022 where he sang the role of The Evangelist. In the spring of 2020, he graduated with his Master in Vocal Performance at The Manhattan School of Music where in his second year of studies was asked to sing for, the world-renowned baritone, Thomas Hampson for his annual Masterclass. Benoit was cast in the Main Stage opera his first semester, as Il Dottore Sinisgalli in Nino Rota’s I Due Timidi. He also performed in Puccini’s Opera La Rondine as Prunier. In the summer of 2019, he was invited to Italy to sing with Glenn Morton’s program “La Lingua Della lirica,” Classic Lyric Arts, and was also a vocal apprentice in Nahant, Massachusetts singing the role of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte. Future performances include the Winter Harbor Chamber Music Festival and his Merkin Hall debut singing Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin.

As a junior at Gordon, Benoit won The Gordon College Concerto Competition and performed a program of Mozart concert arias as a part of their Spring Gordon Symphony Orchestra concert.  In that same year, he played the role of Arpad in Gordon’s musical theatre production of She Loves Me.

As a sophomore, Benoit was the featured vocal soloist with the Gordon College Wind Ensemble in its performance of Four Irish Pieces arranged by Robert W. Smith.  He also has sung solos with the Gordon College Jazz Band, and participated in masterclasses with Katherine Whyte, Metropolitan Opera soprano, Dr. Ollie Watts Davis from the University of Illinois, and Janna Baty of Yale.

 Travis Benoit also is an assistant conductor with The Boston Children’s Chorus and has been a music educator in the central mass area. Additionally, he is a jazz pianist and enthusiast,

Benoit also played in the Gordon College Jazz Band and has interned and performed at WICN 90.5, Worcester.  He has also, from time to time, been seen singing The National Anthem for The Worcester Red Sox. As a former collegiate athlete, 

Benoit is a voice student of Chadley Ballantyne.

Susan Ryder has performed in choral ensembles, as singer and pianist, and clarinetist in venues from Interlochen’s Kresge Auditorium to Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall.   She sang with The Gregg Smith Singers on a national tour culminating in NYC, premiering new works at Merkin Hall, and was a chorus “ringer” with The Juilliard Chorus.  She had the privilege of singing with her University of Wisconsin peers at Karlskirche and St. Stephen’s Church.  

She has been a piano collaborator in recital with vocal and instrumental soloists, performing a wide range of repertoire by composers from Purcell to Hindemith and she accompanied and recorded a performance, conducted by composer Norman Dello Joio as well as participated as accompanist in a Masterclass led by renowned accompanist, John Wustman.  Two performance highlights for her were as piano collaborator in Schubert’s ‘other‘ song cycle, Die Winterreise, with NYC Opera chorus tenor (and Jeopardy winner) Mukund Marathe at Merkin Hall and also with tenor Todd Oxley, who introduced her to the magnificence of the Schubert song cycle.

Susan’s interests in conducting, both choral and orchestral, led to positions as assistant conductor and rehearsal pianist for a college production of The Mikado as well as musical theatre productions such as Godspell, The Boyfriend and Oh, Coward.  In New York she co-conducted a piece for duo-choirs with Gregg Smith and for six months she moved to Denver to work as assistant conductor with Duaine Wolfe, creator of the Colorado Children’s Chorale, a world-renowned professional touring ensemble.  She was also privileged to audit orchestral conducting at Tanglewood, studying orchestral scores with Gustav Meier and Erich Leinsdorf, who said to her “the word ‘audit’ is a misnomer in my class”, at which point she responded, “Danke schön, Maestro!”

Susan spent most of her working life, however, behind the scenes at companies such as Columbia Artists Management Inc., Colbert Artists and The Juilliard School in the first decade of living in New York.  Switching gears, she worked as an assistant to the executive editors of Redbook as well as Flying Magazine and, eventually, worked in television at ABC News.  She also enjoyed being a houseparent for the international student exchange program in NYC with the American Field Service (AFS) program.

Ultimately, Susan is an educator, a believer in others.  Though it is obvious she spent much time out of a classroom, most recently she returned to music education, having the privilege of teaching music to elementary and junior high school young people in Worcester, Massachusetts:   It is there where she crossed paths with the lovely tenor performing here.

Susan grew up on her parents’ farm in Wisconsin, experiencing life quite uncommon for the daughter of a farmer and a Red Cross Volunteer serving in the Pacific during WWII:   She owes absolutely everything to them.