IT'S A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING!
November 7th, 2026
A Grand Night, A Grand Tradition
It’s a Grand Night for Singing celebrates another year of music, friendship, and extraordinary voices at Jarvis Conservatory
It’s a Grand Night for Singing returns to the Jarvis Conservatory on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at 7:00 PM, bringing together an eclectic ensemble of Bay Area singers, musicians, and choral artists for an evening spanning opera, operetta, musical theater, art song, jazz, and Nordic repertoire.
Hosting the evening is lyric soprano Cris Walker, who returns to the series with her signature warmth, musicality, and commitment to creating welcoming spaces for performers and audiences. Walker is celebrated for her work across classical music, musical theater, and cabaret, and is a passionate advocate for accessibility in the arts. She co-founded Up Street Music Patrons, which provides scholarships and professional performances in schools and underserved communities, and co-owns Music to My Ears in Cotati, where she teaches, produces, and directs musical productions.
Providing the musical foundation for the evening is pianist Brian Shaw, whose career encompasses classical performance, composition, arranging, teaching, sound design, recording, and collaborative work with vocalists and instrumentalists. Shaw began piano studies at age five and began working as a collaborative pianist for a professional vocal studio at 15. He holds degrees in classical piano performance, music theory, and composition from Northwestern University, with additional studies at Berklee School of Music and Northern Illinois University. Shaw is also principal of Ecoutez Music, Inc., a Napa Valley firm providing musicians and music-related services for weddings, celebrations, religious services, and other events.
Tenor Erich Buchholz brings a career spanning opera, operetta, musical theater, concerts, recordings, and chamber music. He has appeared with the Grant Park Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Calgary Philharmonic, and has performed repertoire by composers including Bach, Handel, Mozart, Britten, Debussy, and Bernstein. An accomplished stage actor, he has played both Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and Tony in West Side Story, and has more than 1,000 hours of experience as a session singer. His work with the male classical vocal sextet Hudson Shad has taken him throughout the United States, Japan, and Germany, including performances of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins at the Berlin Philharmonic, Elbphilharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt, and Tonhalle Düsseldorf.
Buchholz has also developed a particular passion for Finnish art song. Since 2006, he has studied Finnish language and repertoire and performs regularly with Finnish pianist Heidi Saario as Duo SaBu. The pair has performed at the Flower Piano Festival in Golden Gate Park, the Norwegian Seaman’s Church in San Francisco, the Finnish Hall in Berkeley, and private house concerts throughout the Bay Area. Their repertoire includes Finnish composers Jean Sibelius, Yrjö Kilpinen, Oskar Merikanto, Heino Kaski, Leevi Madetoja, and Selim Palmgren, as well as Nordic and other composers including Grieg, Korngold, Vaughan Williams, Amy Beach, Forrest, and Wright.
For the November program, Duo SaBu will perform three songs representing the Nordic tradition: Sibelius’s Swedish-language “Var det en dröm?” (“Was It a Dream?”), Agathe Backer Grøndahl’s Norwegian “Mot kveld,” and Yrjö Kilpinen’s “Ihme.”
A native of Finland, Heidi Saario has performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist in Finland, Canada, and the United States, with a particular interest in Nordic repertoire. Her playing has been praised as “polished and self-assured,” and her recordings include a solo album of rarely heard piano works by Jean Sibelius and Diamonds of the North – Songs from Scandinavia, recorded with soprano Cindy Koistinen as Duo Freya. Saario maintains a busy teaching studio in Alameda, serves as a Senior Examiner and Ambassador for the Royal Conservatory, and regularly presents on Finnish and Nordic music at conferences in the United States and Canada.
Brandy Noveh returns to Jarvis Conservatory for the fourth time, bringing her opera and jazz roots to an evening of musical variety. A classically trained singer and New Orleans native, Noveh has performed extensively in local theaters and concert venues. Most recently, she appeared as Sally Durant in Sonoma Arts Live’s production of Follies. Her other favorite roles include Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes with The Raven Players and Betty in White Christmas at 6th Street Playhouse. She has also performed as a featured singer with The Wednesday Night Band and at venues throughout the Bay Area. Her November selections include “Adieu, notre petite table” from Massenet’s Manon and Bernstein’s “Some Other Time” from On the Town.
Audrey Johnson is an emerging performer whose work spans opera, musical theater, and concert performance. In 2025, she created the role of Saint Joan of Arc in the world premiere of The Passion of Joan of Arc by composer John Partridge and appeared as Helena in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with the San Francisco Opera Summer Conservatory at Herbst Theatre. Her musical theater credits include Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia!, Velma Kelly in Chicago, Heather Duke in Heathers at Cinnabar Theater, and Glinda in The Wizard of Oz, along with appearances in The Lion King, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and 42nd Street. Her training includes the San Francisco Opera Summer Conservatory, Petaluma School of Music, Technology High School, and Petaluma School of Ballet. Johnson will perform “Maybe This Time,” associated with Cabaret, and “Poor Wandering One” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance.
Soprano Stephanie Wagner studied Vocal Performance at the University of Texas at El Paso and Southern Oregon University, where she developed a foundation in classical and contemporary repertoire. Her experience includes the Chamber Singers and Jazz Singers at UTEP, the Chamber Choir at Southern Oregon University, featured solo performances, and appearances with the British Invasion Sensation Group at San Francisco’s Pier 39 Theatre and the Jersey Boys and Girls Group. She has previously appeared with Jarvis Conservatory’s It’s a Grand Night for Singing and presented a solo senior recital at Southern Oregon University. Wagner is an accomplished music reader with strong sight-reading skills and experience performing multilingual operatic repertoire. Her selections will include Adele’s “Laughing Song” from Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus and Schubert’s “Gretchen am Spinnrade.”
The evening also welcomes the Petaluma Women’s Chorus, a community ensemble with roots stretching back to the late 1990s. After a period of pause, the chorus has returned with renewed energy and a commitment to its mission of celebrating women’s voices and the power of music to unite people. The chorus performs repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary in a spirit of collaboration and community.
The chorus is directed by Sadie Sonntag, an accomplished conductor and educator who has directed ensembles throughout Sonoma County, including Casa Grande High School, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Rosa, Live Oak Charter School, the Petaluma Children’s Chorus, First United Methodist Church, and El Molino High School. Her leadership emphasizes warmth, artistry, and expressive, confident singing.
Lorelei Sikorski, the chorus’s accompanist, studied music at the University of Southern Colorado and has accompanied choirs since middle school. Her work includes choral groups and musical theater productions, and she currently serves as pianist for St. John’s United Methodist Church in Rohnert Park.
The Petaluma Women’s Chorus will perform Jacob Narverud’s “Sisi Ni Moja (We Are One),” incorporating the Swahili phrase meaning “we are one,” and Frank Ticheli’s “Earth Song.”
The November program offers an especially wide-ranging musical journey, moving from the intimate poetry of Nordic art song to the theatrical worlds of Manon, Die Fledermaus, The Pirates of Penzance, Cabaret, On the Town, and Anyone Can Whistle.
The combination of opera, musical theater, choral music, and Scandinavian song reflects the spirit of It’s a Grand Night for Singing: bringing together performers and repertoire from different musical worlds in one welcoming evening.
It’s a Grand Night for Singing remains the longest-running concert series at the Jarvis Conservatory, celebrated for its thoughtfully curated programs that bring together established performers, emerging artists, and audiences from throughout the Bay Area.
It’s a Grand Night for Singing Saturday, November 7, 2026 — 7:00 PM Jarvis Conservatory — Napa, CA
Tickets are $20 and available at the door. The box office opens at 6:00 PM, with general seating beginning at 6:30 PM.
