CELESTE WINANT (mezzosoprano) maintains an active performing schedule with numerous chamber vocal and early music ensembles throughout the Bay Area, notably, with American Bach Soloists, Artists' Vocal Ensemble (AVE), Pacific Collegium, Philharmonia Chorale, and Volti. Her voice has been described as a "true rich alto" by San Francisco Classical Voice. She has been the alto soloist with the Stanford Summer Chorus, the UC Berkeley University Chorus, and for Pacific Collegium's performances of Monteverdi's Vespro della beata Vergine. She has had the fortune of appearing in chamber operas by Philip Glass, Darius Milhaud, Matthew Locke and the medieval School of Beauvais. As an enthusiastic proponent of early music, she both spearheaded and performed the North American premiere of Louis-Nicolas Clérambault's Miserere à 3, and is a founding member of Vajra Voices, an all-women ensemble dedicated to the music of Hildegard von Bingen, directed by her teacher, Karen Clark.