Allen Bonde, pianist and composer, has performed in many venues, including Carnegie Recital Hall, the National Gallery of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Severance Chamber Hall. His performances have been described as “brilliant” (Washington Post) and “solid” (New York Times). Recorded and widely commissioned, his compositions have been performed throughout the world by such notables as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic brass principals. Bonde’s many honors include a Festivals Casals Scholarship and a Yale Graduate Fellowship. Additionally, Bonde has the distinction of being a Fellow at the Saltzburg Seminar in American Studies. He was the first musician-in-residence at the Nanyang Technological University National Institute of Education in Singapore. He is Professor Emeritus of Music at Mount Holyoke College where he taught a popular course titled Music in the American Musical: the Golden Age.
Mara Bonde, soprano has thrilled audiences in diverse venues throughout the United States and abroad with her electric stage presence and musical artistry. Her voice has been described as having "sweet purity of tone" (Boston Herald) and "ravishing" (The Boston Globe). She has been the guest artist for "Holiday Pops" with the Boston Pops, The Naples Philharmonic and with the Baton Rouge, Rochester, Lansing, New Haven, Syracuse, and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras. Other orchestral engagements have taken her to the Firebird Pops, South Florida, Utah, San Diego, Stamford, Ridgefield, Waterbury, Cape, Cape Ann, Melrose, Quincy and Nashua Symphony Orchestras, the Handel & Haydn Society, and Boston Baroque. Mara also performs regularly alongside mezzo-soprano Sandra Piques Eddy & pianist Brian Moll in concerts benefitting different organizations including Bay Cove Human Services, The St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry and with the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network. This ensemble was born out of the incredible need to perform and spread kindness and good will during the pandemic. Her stage repertoire includes both opera and classic music theater roles; some favorites are Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music (Reagle Music Theatre), Jazz Trio in Trouble in Tahiti (Boston Lyric Opera), the title role in The Merry Widow (Imperial Symphony Orchestra), Sarah Brown in Guys & Dolls (Reagle Music Theatre), Marian in The Music Man (Greater Lowell Music Theater), Adina in L'elisir d'amore (Sarasota Opera), Mrs. Page in Sir John in Love (Odyssey Opera), Lilli Vanessi/Kate in Kiss me Kate (Commonwealth Opera), and Marietta in Naughty Marietta (Light Opera Oklahoma). Finally, Mara also collaborates with someone very close to her heart-her dad and pianist/composer Allen Bonde! They specialize in performing repertoire from The Great American Songbook and the Golden Age of Musical Theater.
