BARBARA HOLLINSHEAD, mezzo-soprano, has enjoyed a prolific career including highlights are varied as singing Bach at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Monteverdi at San Marco in Venice, Bach's St. Matthew Passion one-to-a-part with Tafelmusik in Toronto, and the Mother with her son Ned in the title role of Amahl and the Night Visitors. She has appeared with many of the East Coast's finest early music groups, including Chatham Baroque, Opera Lafayette, The Washington Bach Consort, and The New York Collegium, and has sung under the baton of eminent conductors such as Christopher Hogwood and Andrew Parrott. She performs extensively in Manhattan and its environs as a member of the NY-based chamber group ARTEK, and has traveled with the group to perform at festivals in Regensburg (Germany), Bloomington (Indiana), and Edinburgh (Scotland). Hollinshead began her vocal studies at her opera-singing mother's knee, and as an adult has studied with coaches in New York, Washington, and with Max Van Egmond in the Netherlands. Her discography includes recordings of solo lute songs with lutenist Howard Bass, Renaissance Spanish and Sephardic music, and Bach masses. Hollinshead rounds out her musical contributions with educational endeavors as professor of voice at American University, a leader of master classes on Renaissance and Baroque styles and a cast member of "Bach to School." When not performing, you can find her judging summer dive competitions and proudly listening to her sons sing at evensong services.