HORIZON DUO

United by a shared love of ambitious projects and theatrical storytelling, Claire McCahan and Barbie Noyes first began performing together during their years at the University of Colorado Boulder. Both accomplished soloists, they have competed in several national and international competitions and have been featured in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Granada Theater, and Hahn Hall in Santa Barbara, California. Drawn to the new music scene in Colorado, Horizon Duo appeared at the Pendulum New Music concert series as well as CU New Opera Workshop (CU NOW) and Composer Fellows’ Initiative. The Duo looks to pursue creative programming focusing American art song and other contemporary programatic contemplations.

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ABOUT

Barbara Noyes

Collaborative Piano

Claire McCahan

Mezzo Soprano

Barbara (Barbie) Noyes of Golden, Colorado is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and educator. A versatile performer, Noyes can be found collaborating with musicians in a wide variety of genres including, chamber music, opera, orchestral ensembles, new music ensembles, and choral music. In 2021, she served as music director for Southern Illinois University’s chamber opera performances as well as the Composer Fellows’ Initiative program as part of the CU New Opera Workshop (CU NOW).

Noyes received fellowships to study at both Aspen Music Festival as well as Music Academy of the West where she studied with Jonathan Feldman. During her two summers in Santa Barbara, Noyes was a finalist in the Duo Competition, performing twentieth and twenty-first century masterpieces with Colin Benton, tuba, and Chas Barnard, cello. In 2018 she made her Carnegie Hall debut with oboist Kristen Weber at Weill Recital Hall. An ardent lover of contemporary repertoire, Noyes’s doctoral thesis project culminated in a recorded album of André Previn’s music for voice and piano duo, bringing to the concert hall Previn’s unheralded art song library.

Noyes received her Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Collaborative Piano at the University of Colorado Boulder, studying with Margaret McDonald and Alexandra Nugyen. There she was a répétiteur for Eklund Opera, performing operas under the batons of Maestro Nicholas Carthy as well as Phillip Hesketh and Caleb Harris. She previously earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Willamette University where she studied composition with John Peel and piano and chamber music with Anita King. An avid language-learner, Noyes pursued French language and cinema studies in Paris at the Sorbonne Université and the Institut Catholique and later, innovation in music technology at IRCAM’s ManiFeste summer academy for composers. Noyes currently holds the position of collaborative pianist at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

American mezzo-soprano Claire McCahan has been applauded for her rich tone and dedication to character and expression in operatic and concert performances. Her recent operatic credits include Witness 2/ Woman 2 in the American Permiere of Geroge Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence, Orfeo in an adaptation of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Renegade Opera), Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Boulder Opera), the title role in Handel’s Ariodante, Third Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Prince Orlofsky in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (Eklund Opera), and Camille Claudel in a staged interpretation of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s Camille Claudel: Into the Fire (Opera Steamboat). She has appeared as a soloist with the Boulder Bach Festival, the Longmont Symphony Orchestra, Cantabile Ensemble, St. John’s Cathedral in Denver, and the Rocky Mountain Chorale.

Ms. McCahan is the winner of the 2022 Joy in Singing International Art Song Competition and the 2022 NATS Artist Awards competition. She is also the winner of the 2020 inaugural World of Bach Competition and the 2020 Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition and received the 2019 Frances MacEachron Award from the Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Solo Competition in New York.

An avid performer of contemporary works, she workshopped the role of Brittomara in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s If I Were You with the CU New Opera Workshop and has premiered works with the Pendulum New Music series. She performed with Jónsi & Alex Summer’s at their Denver performance of the Riceboy Sleeps 10th anniversary album tour and contributed vocals to the soundtrack of Adam Sandler’s Uncut Gems. Ms. McCahan also worked in collaboration with with NEST Studio for the Arts on an interdisciplinary fellowship combining music, visual art, and geology, and as teaching artist and composer with the Colorado Lullaby Project in conjunction with Carnegie Hall.

Ms. McCahan holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire, and master’s degree and artist diploma from the University of Colorado Boulder.