featured artists

Sherrill Milnes

Co-Director, Don Giovanni 

Sherrill Milnes is universally acclaimed as the foremost operatic baritone of his generation. With his powerful voice, commanding stage presence and rugged handsomeness, he received the kind of adulation that is usually reserved for tenors. He sang over 650 performances at the Met, where he was honored with sixteen new productions, seven opening nights, and ten national telecasts. As a leading artist in all of the world’s great opera houses, Mr. Milnes performed and recorded with the likes of Domingo, Pavarotti, Sutherland, Sills, Horne, Price, and Tebaldi. He is the winner of three Grammy Awards, and the most recorded American singer of his time. In 2008 he received the Opera News Award for Distinguished Achievement.

Maria Zouves

Co-Director, Don Giovanni

Maria Zouves is an educator, director, producer and writer. She is President of the Sherrill Milnes VOICE Programs − VOICExperience Foundation and the Savannah VOICE Festival – which she co-founded with her husband, Sherrill Milnes, to provide training for aspiring young artists and foster new audiences for the vocal arts. The Greek-American soprano has sung leading roles in the regional U.S., made her Carnegie Hall debut in 1997, and has recorded under the VAI label. While Maria directs most of the concerts in the VOICE Programs and co-directed the new SVF opera commission, Ching’s Alice Ryley: A Savannah Ghost Story, she most recently directed Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague, where the work first premiered and co-directed Le nozze de Figaro with Sherrill Milnes in Prague and Salzburg with Prague Summer Nights. She was recently seen in the title role of the premiere of Ching’s Anna Hunter: The Spirit of Savannah.

Ms. Zouves has directed, taught, and produced events all around the world, having worked with the International Vocal Arts Institute (IVAI) in Montreal and Puerto Rico, the International Institute of Vocal Arts (IIVA) in Chiari, Italy, and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland. From 2007 to 2011, she served as Vice President and Associate General Director of Opera Tampa, the resident opera company of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. She has taught workshops at Southern Illinois University, Drake University and served as interim opera director at Northwestern University. A sought after clinician, particularly in career development, she has also aided young singers as a career liaison through her former feature, “A Conversation with…” in Classical Singer magazine.

Ms. Zouves has sung leading roles with the Baltimore Opera, Florentine Opera, Memphis Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Orlando Opera, and the Pittsburgh Opera. The Stuttgarter Zeitung praised her “beautiful, lyric voice” and “a not to be surpassed ‘piano’ in the high register.” Opera News has described her voice as “creamy.” This Greek-American soprano shows great versatility in opera, on concert stages, and in crossover repertoire, with a specialty in classical and popular Greek music.

James Morris

Featured in Salon Concert: Verdi, Puccini, and Something Called the Ring

Legendary bass-baritone James Morris is world-famous for his performances in opera, concert, recital, and recording. With a repertoire including works by Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, Offenbach, Stravinsky, Mussorgsky, Mozart, Gounod, and Britten, Mr. Morris has performed in virtually every international opera house and has appeared with the major orchestras of Europe and the United States. Considered one of the greatest interpreters of the role of Wotan in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, Mr. Morris has appeared in this role at the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and many others. He is also considered the world’s leading interpreter of the title role in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and has appeared as Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in the major houses of the United States and Europe.

Mr. Morris’s extensive discography includes two complete Ringcycles, one for Deutsche Grammophon under James Levine and one for EMI under Bernard Haitink, and other operas of Wagner, Offenbach, Mozart, Massenet, Verdi, and Gounod. He has recorded operas by Donizetti, Puccini, Bellini, and Thomas with Dame Joan Sutherland, and his orchestral recordings include Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and the Requiems by Mozart and Fauré. James Morris was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Opera Recording category for his performance in Thomas’s Desire Under the Elms with Manhattan School of Music Director of Orchestral Activities George Manahan conducting the London Symphony on Naxos. He also holds a Grammy Award for his recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. A recording of arias by Verdi and Wagner by Mr. Morris is available on the Angel/EMI label.

Susan Quittmeyer

Featured in Salon Concert: Verdi, Puccini, and Something Called the Ring

Acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Susan Quittmeyer, dazzled audiences and critics alike with her voice, dramatic performances and artistry. She has performed with leading opera houses in North America and Europe. Critics have praised Miss Quittmeyer for her “unusually vivid portrayals,” her “glorious, velvet voice,” and have called her “a rare talent who illuminates the stage.”

After her professional singing debut with the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Miss Quittmeyer started her long association with the San Francisco Opera Company where she sang over 150 performances. Among the many roles she sang with the company were Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Nicklausse in Les Contes D’Hoffmann, Meg Page in Falstaff, Siebel in Faust, Fenena in Nabucco, Paulina in The Queen of Spades, and Marina in Boris Godunov.

She debuted with the Metropolitan Opera portraying the role of Nicklausse in Les Contes D’Hoffmann, which was telecast on PBS. Among the other roles she sang at the Metropolitan Opera were Dorabella, Idamante, Cherubino, Siebel and Varvara in a new production of Katya Kabanova.

Ms. Quittmeyer also sang leading roles with the Los Angeles Opera Company, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Canadian Opera Company, L’Opéra de Montréal, San Deigo Opera, Portland Opera, Dallas Opera, Denver Opera, Los Angeles Opera Theater, Mobile Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Miami Opera and Santa Fe Opera.

Ms. Quittmeyer is a member of the voice faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

Kanon Adachi

Sponsored by Toby Hollenberg and Michael Bonder
Featured in Madama Butterfly

Kanon Adachi is quickly making her mark as an emerging artist in operatic and concert work with her sweet and rich timbre. Her acting is sincere and moving and merges perfectly with her singing. Her heart-felt performances along with her powerful voice often brings the audience to tears and on the edge of their seats for more. Although Kanon started singing at the age of 17, she’s won many prizes including the All Japan Student Music Competition and Burckhardt International Music Competition. Upon graduating from her Bachelor’s degree at Tokyo University of the Arts, she won two top awards for her brilliant achievement. She continued to thrive as she finished her Master’s degree at TUA as the top student of her year. 

As a young artist, Kanon has had many experiences performing and  brings a calm yet inviting energy to her performances, which makes her such a charming performer. Recently, she performed the roles of La Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi in Cosí fan tutte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Constanze from Die Entführung aus dem Serail. She does not only shine on operatic stages, but has also performed as a soloist for Mozart and Verdi’s Requiems. She’s looking forward to beginning her studies at the Hans Eisler Berlin School of Music in the fall semester  to continue her education and expand her full potential as a singer.

Javier Arrey

Sponsored by the Julia Ann Jeffords Krulic Memorial Fund
Featured in Don Giovanni

Heralded as one of the most sought after and versatile baritones of the emerging generation. Chilean born American baritone Javier Arrey recent debuts include, among others: Marcello in La Bohème at the Wiener Staatsoper, Schaunard in La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana at Boston Lyric Opera and Germont in La Traviata at Opera Nacional de Chile. In 2018 Javier made his debut as Tadeo Cespedes in the Spanish world premiere of the opera Dulce Rosa by Lee Holdridge in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Following an acclaimed debut as Jago (Otello) at the Castleton Festival under Lorin Maazel, a performance The Washington Post described as “menaced and connived but [Arrey] did so subtly and with a voice so lovely to listen to that his scheming seemed all the more threatening;” Praises came also from Mo. Lorin Maazel who published: “Jago was stunningly sung and acted by Javier Arrey [who] manages to give shape to the jealous demon within Otello.”

On CD, Mr. Arrey can be heard as Lescaut on the recording of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut for Decca Classics alongside Andrea Bocelli and Plácido Domingo.

In addition to his work on the opera stage, baritone Javier Arrey is a world-class interpreter of Lieder and concert repertoire most recently performing Carmina Burana in Europe, Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte in USA and Dvořák’s Biblical Songs & Gypsy Songs in Czech Republic. His repertoire includes Fauré’s Requiem, Bach St. John Passion BWV 245, Bach Weihnachtsoratorium BWV 248, Bach Cantata BWV 82, Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and Mahler’s Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen, among others.

In 2017, Javier was given the prestigious Congressional Medal of Honor at the National Congress of Chile in recognition of his artistic career and his social labor bringing the Opera to populations who have no access to live performances. In 2011 Javier won the CulturArte Prize at Operalia Competition in Moscow and in 2009 he was finalist at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition (Song prize). Mr. Arrey is a graduate of The Washington National Opera Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Mr. Arrey ‘s teachers and mentors includes: Darrell Babidge, Hanns Stein, Dolora Zajick, Joan Dornemann, Beatrice Benzi, Louis Salemno and Anthony Manoli.

Future engagements include, among others: Don Giovanni, Mozart (Giovanni) at the Savannah VOICE Festival in the United States directed by Maria Zouves, La Bohème, Puccini (Marcello) and L’Elisir d’Amore, Donizetti (Belcore).

Jessica Ann Best

Sponsored by Gail and Michael Siegel
Featured in Opera Salon Night and Finale Party: A Fabulous Farewell

Jessica Ann Best is a diverse cross-disciplinary artist, performing nationwide in opera, musical theater, concert, oratorio, recital, and jazz. Known for her interpretations and versatility; Best has premiered many new works including: Mrs. Otis and Madeline in Gordon Getty’s The Canterville Ghost and Usher House at LA Opera, The Stepmother in Anton Coppola’s Lady Swanwhite with Opera Tampa, the International Carol Suites (soloist) by Mark Hayes, at Carnegie Hall, the roles of Bessie and Mary Rivers in Louis Karchin’s Jane Eyre, (The Center for Contemporary Opera), and the title role of Alice in Alice Ryley, by Michael Ching with the Savannah VOICE Festival. Best has performed at The Savannah Music Festival, Birdland Jazz, The Iridium Jazz Club, The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, The Florida Orchestra, The New Jersey Festival Orchestra, The Santa Fe Opera, Opera Tampa, and Gotham Chamber Opera. Best recently performed and produced Jake Heggie’s At the Statue of Venus and Bolcom’s Cabaret Songs for the Rochester Fringe Festival.  Ms. Best appears on the recording of Louis Karchin’s Jane Eyre on the Naxos Label. She is featured on several podcasts; including The Mindful Mentor and Seasons of Resilience. Ms. Best is a Professor of Voice at Nazareth College. Best holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance and Literature from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Literature from Nazareth College. Ms. Best is a proud member of AGMA and The Actor’s Equity Association.

Andrew Bisantz

Sponsored by Carlton and Nancy Sheets
Conductor, Featured in Don Giovanni

Conductor Andrew Bisantz has received accolades from Opera News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, The Toronto Globe and Mail, The Boston Globe, and The Buffalo News. This is his 15th summer as part of  VE/SVF, in the past having led productions of Alice and Anna, La Bohème, and Dialogues of the Carmelites, among others. He is Artistic Director and Conductor of Eugene Opera; in his fifteen seasons there he has led twenty-seven productions exploring a wide range of repertoire, including both the beloved operatic canon and the company premiers of Nixon in China, Dead Man Walking, La fanciulla del West, Eugene Onegin, Little Women, María de Buenos Aires, As One, little match girl passion, and Lucy. He has conducted more than eighty-five productions for opera companies throughout the U.S., including appearances with Boston Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera San José, Shreveport Opera, the Savannah Music Festival, Wolf Trap Opera, and the Brevard Festival. He has led ten productions for Florida Grand Opera, including the world orchestral premiere of Daron Hagen’s New York Stories in February 2021, which was hailed by the South Florida Classical Review as one of its Top 10 Musical Performances of the Year. He has been appointed Associate Professor of Music and Principal Opera Conductor of Boston Conservatory at Berklee starting this fall and will continue in his role in Eugene.

Torlef Borsting

Sponsored by Toby Hollenberg
Featured in Madama Butterfly

A native of Hawaii, baritone Torlef Borsting has enjoyed singing lead roles all over the country. While living in Northern California, he graced the stages of such companies as San Francisco Opera, Opera San Jose, Sacramento Opera, Opera Parallele, and Livermore Valley Opera. His many roles include Scarpia, Marcello, Sharpless, Horace Tabor, Prince Yeletsky, Germont, Sgt Belcore, and Jack Rance, as well as numerous modern characters created for new compositions in opera and oratorio. Torlef has also performed as a concert soloist with the Mendocino Music Festival, Pacific Chamber Symphony, Oakland Symphony and Chorus, Symphony Parnassus, Cantare con Vivo, and most recently, Orlando Sings.

Torlef now lives in Central Florida, where he’s made his debut with Opera Orlando as the Count in Le nozze di Figaro (2019), returning to the company as Sonora in The Girl of the Golden West (2020), Peter (the Father) in Hansel and Gretel (2020), and most recently as the Marquis d’Obigny in La Traviata. He recently closed a 6 performance central Florida tour with Opera Orlando in All is Calm. Torlef returns to Opera Orlando in their winter production of Frida.

Torlef made his New York City Opera debut in Stonewall (2019), was featured with First Coast Opera in their annual Gala concert as part of their 2020 season followed closely by his debut with Indianapolis Opera as Leporello in Don Giovanni. Mr Gobineau in The Medium was his stage debut with First Coast Opera and is so thrilled to return for his second summer with the Savannah VOICE Festival as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.

Jeremy Brauner

Featured in Madama Butterfly

Jeremy Brauner is a 2022 grant recipient of the Wagner Society of New York and the Olga Forrai Foundation, as well as the a 2018 Regional finalist for the Met Opera National Council Auditions. In 2016 he made his debut as Alfredo (La traviata) and since then he has performed such roles as Cavaradossi (Tosca), Ricardo (Un ballo in maschera), Calaf (Turandot), B.F. Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Loris (Fedora), and Manrico (Il Trovatore). In 2021 he joined New Amsterdam Opera, and performed the role of Arrigo (I vespri sicilliani) and was described by OperaWire as “a voice of unbridled power, with a spine-tingling squillo”. In 2022, Jeremy performed the role of Giorgio in the world premiere of, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, produced by New York City Opera, The Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) with Boheme Opera of NJ and Rodolfo (La Bohème) with Opera Modesto. Last summer he joined Opera North in their 40th season as Alfredo (La traviata) and he performed the role of Il Montecchio, and covered the role of Romeo in Ricardo Zondanai’s Giulietta e Romeo produced by Teatro Grattacielo. In the 2023 he performed the role of Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) with Boheme Opera of NJ and made his debut as Canio (Pagliacci) with Opera Tampa. In June of 2023 he made is Carnegie Hall debut performing Vivaldi’s Magnificat with Mid-America productions.

Lisa Bremer

Sponsored by C. Elliott Bardsley
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

As an emerging soprano who recently graduated with her Master’s at Montclair State Univeristy, Lisa Bremer has sung roles such as Madame Flora in The Medium, Third Lady in The Magic Flute, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro, Beggar Woman in Sweeney Todd, Amy in The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry, Sandman in Hansel and Gretel, and performed scenes as Secretary in The Consul, Eustazio in Rinaldo, Dot in Sunday in the Park with George, Miss Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief. This season, Lisa is singing with the Light Opera of New Jersey for their Gilbert and Sullivan showcase Savoy Faire. For concert work, Lisa will be the Soprano Soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah at West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, New Jersey. In 2022, she was selected to be a Study Grant Artist with the Savannah VOICE Festival where she returns this season performing as the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas. Outside of singing, Lisa works as the Operations and Finance Manager at UIA Talent Agency.

Abigail Brodnick

Sponsored by Jean and John Fishburne
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

Abigail (Abby) Brodnick is a soprano vocalist with specialties in coloratura repertoire and musical theater. Currently receiving her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, she studies under Professor Beth Roberts. She received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with a minor in Musical Theater at DePauw University’s School of Music and studied under Dr. André Campelo. Some of her favorite past stage roles include Pernille in The Beautiful Bridegroom, Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, The Dew Fairy in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Jenny in Rorem’s Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters, and Percy Talbott in The Spitfire Grill.
Abby was a finalist for the Savannah Voice Festival Opera Idol Competition this past April, and is attending the 2023 festival as a Study Grant Artist. She is the recipient of the 2022 Fitzpatrick Opera Award, and was a 2021 finalist in the national Classical Singer competition within the University Classical Division. She also placed first in the NATS Indiana competition’s Third/Fourth Year Female Classical and Musical Theater categories in 2020, third in the Second Year Female Classical category in 2019, and first in the First Year Female Classical category in 2018. Abby is the high soprano in the choral/folk group Resonance Treble Ensemble. She has performed in Handel’s Messiah with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra as well as with VOCES8 and Decoda in new compositions at Merkin Hall in New York City. Abby is originally from Naperville, Illinois.

Peiwen Chen

Sponsored by Carlton and Nancy Sheets
Pianist, Don Giovanni

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Ms. Chen graduated in 1990 from the National Academy of Art with highest honors. In 1992, Ms. Chen entered Mannes College of Music and in 1994, she performed Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini, by Rachmaninoff with the Mannes Orchestra. After she graduated with a special piano award, Ms. Chen made her New York recital debut at the Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in 1995 as a winner of New York Concert Artists Competition. In December 2001, Ms. Chen made her Paris debut in Salle Olivier Messiaen at Maison de Radio France with Concerto pathétique for two pianos by Liszt. In March 2004, Ms. Chen performed both Mozart and Mendelssohn Piano Concertos for 2 pianos with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra. In summer 2009, she gave a gala concert to raise funds for young musicians in Taiwan at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. In 2011, Ms. Chen performed Mozart Concertos for 2 and 3 pianos in Klaipeda, Lithuania and complete J. S. Bach Concerti for 2 pianos in Moldova, Lithuania and France. She has performed Brahms No. 1 Piano Concerto, Grieg Piano Concerto in New York City; Czerny piano concerto for one piano, four hands and complete Rachmaninoff music for 2 pianos in France and Lithuania. The other recent highlights of her performances include Schumann piano concerto, Mozart Piano concerto No 19 with Centre Symphony in NYC; Ms. Chen performs frequently piano duo concerts with her husband, Alexander Paley in many countries.
In 1998, she served on the music staff for the production of Fedora by Umberto Giordano at the Washington National Opera as well as for the Metropolitan Opera Guild Productions and Amato Opera in New York for many seasons. She was the official pianist for the Classical Singer Magazine Competition in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Ms. Chen is currently serving as music preparation/conductor with Regina Opera and New York Lyric Opera Theater. Ms. Chen has collaborated with Licia Abanese, Elly Ameling, Regina Resnik, Evelyn Lear, Diana Soviero, Deborah Voigt, Ruth Falcon, Mignon Dunn, Sherrill Milnes, and Olga Peretyatko among others. In 2019, Ms. Chen gave a series of master classes with the artists from Lithuania State Opera in Vilnius. Ms. Chen has been a member of faculty for the IVAI, CVAI in Montreal, CoOPERAtive Program in Princeton, NJ, NYLOT summer program in NYC, VOICExperience in Florida, and Savannah VOICE Festival. In 2019, she served as a member of jury and pianist for the gala concert for International Music Competition in Osaka, Japan. Since 1998 she has been on faculty at Mannes College of Music.

Anna Farysej

Sponsored by Mark Epstein
Featured in Legacy: Opera Scenes Night

Soprano Anna Farysej is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music in New York under the supervision of prof. Mignon Dunn. Currently, Doctoral candidate at the University of Music in Warsaw in the class of prof. Eugenia Rozlach.

Upcoming engagements include the debut in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte as Pamina at Warsaw Chamber Opera.

She opened the 2021/2022 season by singing G. Donizetti Il giovedi grasso and Il campanello di notte at the Warsaw Chamber Opera and a return to the part of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette by C. Gounod directed by Michał Znaniecki and to the roles of Fräulein Bürstner and Leni in The Process by P. Glass at the Castle Opera in Szczecin under the baton of Jerzy Wołosiuk.

In the previous seasons, she portrayed the role of Hanna in S. Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor under the musical direction of Janusz Przybylski, she sang the part of Juliette in C. Gounod in the co-production of the Opera na Zamku in Szczecin and the Bytom Opera and the role of Despina in W. A. ​​Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte at the Opera na Zamku

She improves her vocal skills by participating in master vocal and interpretation courses led by outstanding vocal authorities such as: Edith Wiens, Diana Soviero, Catherine Malfitano, Teresa Żylis-Gara, Helena Łazarska, Eva Blahová, Anita Garanca, Renato Bruson, Thomas Hampson, Valentin Peytchinov and others.

Emily Gallagher

Featured in VOICES In Song and As Time Goes By

Emily Gallagher is a soprano and community based artist, recently returned from Austria where she completed a Fulbright Scholarship. Earlier this summer she could be seen performing in concert in Vienna and Valletta, Malta and directing at Opera Modesto’s Summer Opera Institute. Stage credits include Magulone/La Fée in a film production of Cendrillon, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Nada in Ana Sokolović’s Svada at the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade, Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica and Adele in Die Fledermaus at the KammerOper in Vienna, Soprano in Missy Mazzoli’s Songs from the Uproar at the August Wilson Center in Pittsburgh, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, and Carolina in Il matrimonio segreto. Emily is an advocate for new music and has debuted several roles, including performances in collaboration with Pittsburgh Opera and a virtual mini-series with OperaVision.

Offstage, Emily is passionate about arts administration and music education. She has music and stage directed numerous musicals for youth theater, runs a private voice studio, stage manages, and is the Marketing and Patron Services Manager for the Savannah VOICE Festival. 

Clinton Garrison

Sponsored by Sue and Bob Stephenson
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

Clinton Garrison is currently finishing his Masters at the University of Kentucky where he has been heavily involved in the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre program since his arrival. He has performed in past productions such as La Bohéme and Die Zauberflöte as an ensemble member, and is currently preparing to perform in the opera theatre’s spring Opera Gala in scenes from L’italiana in Algeri as Taddeo as well as in the opera theatre’s chamber opera The Medium as Mr. Gobineau. He has also done scenes from Die Fledermaus as Gabriel von Eisenstein. In 2020 Clinton was one of 10 singers selected to be a part of LA Opera’s inaugural HBCU Opera Career Comprehensive created and lead by American tenor Russell Thomas.

Olivia Gasper

Sponsored by Toby Hollenberg

Olivia Gasper is a versatile soprano whose charm and charisma shine in anything from opera to musical theatre to pop and rock. Some of her recent operatic roles include La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi/Buoso’s Ghost, Mrs. Nolan in The Medium, and Cendrillon in Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon. Olivia attends Montclair State University, studying with Professor Beth Roberts to obtain a Vocal Performance MM degree. Outside of performance, Olivia works as the graduate assistant for Montclair State University’s Opera Program, as an Administrative Assistant for Savannah VOICE Festival, and as the Arts Administration Intern for Des Moines Metro Opera. She also took her first step toward directing this year, Assistant Directing Montclair State’s productions of Gianni Schicchi and Buoso’s Ghost.

Dan Gettinger

Sponsored by Harvey Lebos
Featured in LEGACY: Opera Scene Night

Dan Gettinger has worked as a pianist and/or vocal coach for Chautauqua Opera Company, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Tampa, Santa Fe Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Shreveport Opera. In addition to serving as a judge for different opera competitions including the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation and the Loren L. Zachary Foundation, Dan has also performed as a recital pianist for many artists, including Heidi Grant Murphy, Patricia Racette, and Florence Quivar. Dan has held university faculty positions as an educator of Musical Theater, conducting many productions at the Manhattan School of Music, The Hartt School at the University of Hartford,  Florida International University, and Brooklyn College in Brooklyn, New York.  He has also conducted productions of Sweeney Todd, Carousel, and My Fair Lady for Shreveport Opera, as well as having served as assistant conductor of the national tours of the original Broadway productions of No, No, Nanette and A Little Night Music.  He has worked as a musical arranger and pianist for both Debbie Reynolds and Diahann Carroll, at the Desert Inn, Riviera, Frontier, and Sands hotels in Las Vegas, as well as working as dance arranger on the Julie Andrews film S.O.B. In addition to the Savannah VOICE Festival, Dan has served on the faculties of many summer music festivals including The Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival; the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in  TelAviv and Montreal; Lidal North International Opera Workshop in Oslo, Norway; VOICExperience Foundation in New York, Tampa, and Orlando; the Intermezzo Foundation in Bruges, Belgium; the Manhattan School of Music Summer Voice Festival in New York City; and the Miami Music Festival in Miami, Florida.

Caleb Yanez Glickman

Sponsored by Toby Hollenberg
Assistant Conductor, Featured in Dido and Aeneas

Caleb Yanez Glickman is a conductor and coach based in Los Angeles, and is thrilled to be joining the Savannah Voice Festival for his third season as the chorus master and assistant conductor of Dido and Aeneas. He is the music director of the Harmony Project’s Hollywood Youth Orchestra, where he leads several ensembles in programming dedicated to cultivating community interest in classical music. He is also the assistant conductor of Artes Vocales, a Pasadena-based adult choir. Most recently he was the music director of the recent production of Pacific Opera Project’s The Pirates of Penzance.

He has also worked on music staff with Opera Southwest, Opera in the Ozarks, Opera Saratoga, and Opera Modesto.

Caleb received his BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in Vocal Performance. In addition to being an accomplished opera singer and pianist, Caleb is a violinist and flutist.

Caleb holds a Master’s in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and he was a member of the Artist Diploma program in Opera Coaching in 2021-22. He will be conducting Pacific Opera Project’s productions of Trial by Jury/Scalia-Ginsburg and Die Fledermaus next season.

Jodi Goble

Sponsored by David and Claudia Seyle
Pianist, VOICES In Song

Composer Jodi Goble writes text-based, character-driven music fueled by her extensive background as a vocal coach and song-specialist collaborative pianist. Her compositions have been performed across the United States and internationally and featured on National Public Radio. She won the Iowa Music Teachers Association Commission Competition in 2013 and took second prize in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Art Song Competition in 2016. She also placed as a NATS ASCA finalist in 2008, 2017, 2020, and 2021, and as the honorable mention winner in 2015. Her art songs are published in anthologies by New Music Shelf and North Star Music.

Ms. Goble’s recent commissions include works for Seaglass Theater, Really Spicy Opera, I, the Siren, Voices of the Pearl, the Durward Ensemble, and Laura Strickling and the 40×40 Project. Her works have recently been performed at the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago’s Spring Lieder Lounge, the ASEAN Festival of Contemporary Music, Calliope’s Call, Songfest, the National Opera Center in New York City, the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris, San Francisco Opera’s Atrium Sessions, Jordan Hall, Ames Town and Gown, Omaha Under the Radar, and the Art Song Preservation Society of New York. Helen of Troy, her monodrama for mezzo-soprano and chamber instruments, was recorded and released by the Durward Ensemble on their Prophetic Revolutions album.

Ms. Goble is Full Teaching Professor in Voice at Iowa State University, the official pianist for the Simon Estes Roots and Wings Community Concert Series, and the official accompanist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Guild Auditions in Iowa.

Timothy L. Hall

Sponsored by the Julia Ann Jeffords Krulic Memorial Fund
Featured in VOICES in Sacred Song

After three decades in Savannah, Timothy Hall purchased his dream house in southern Virginia and has returned to the city of his childhood.  He currently serves as Organist and Choirmaster at Christ and Grace Episcopal Church and is Staff Accompanist for the Concert Choir and applied voice students at Virginia State University.  In Savannah, he served as Director of Music for two historic congregations, Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church and Christ Church Episcopal, The Mother Church of Georgia.  He was also Chorus Master for Savannah Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director and Conductor of Savannah Choral Society and Conductor/Accompanist for Savannah Children’s Choir.  He served on the Board of Directors and was an adjudicator and accompanist for The American Traditions Vocal Competition for Singers.  He has been a part of Savannah VOICE Festival’s steering committee and has been a faculty member and producer of the Sacred Concert since its inception.

Justin Havard

Sponsored by Allan and Arlene Ratner
Featured in As Time Goes By: A Tribute to Post-War Era Music with the Elite Party Band

Justin Havard is an accomplished director, pianist, singer and educator in Monroe, Louisiana.  Originally from Mobile, Alabama, he received his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Choral Music Education from Florida State University with an emphasis on Piano. He was the collaborative pianist for the Florida All-State Men’s Choir in 2017 and 2018, and he has played for many national tours including The Book of Mormon, Wicked, and Spamalot.  He also regularly performs as a pianist with the St. Petersburg Opera and the VOICExperience program, led by Sherrill Milnes. During his 13 years as the choral director at Palm Harbor University High School, they gained recognition and honors both statewide and nationally.  Mr. Havard is particularly known for his work with Acapella Groups and Musical Theatre, and he has presented at the American Choral Directors Association, Florida Music Educators’ Association Conference, and the Florida State Thespian Conference.  He has worked as a music director for theatrical productions both equity and amateur.  Mr. Havard joined the faculty at the University of Louisiana Monroe in 2018, where he conducts The Warhawk Singers, teaches voice, music directs the Spring musical, and accompanies many of the other ensembles, faculty, and students within the department.

Seungchan Hong

Sponsored by the Tom Lysaught Scholarship Fund, 2023 Opera Idol Winner
Featured in Legacy: Opera Scenes Night

Seungchan Hong is a South Korean baritone and the 2023 Milnes Opera Idol award winner.

Hong is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at Montclair State University, studying with Prof. Karen Driscoll. There he recently performed Le nozze di Figaro (Count) and in the main stage operas Gianni Schicchi & Buoso’s Ghost by Puccini and Michael Ching, respectively.

Hong won the 1st Cali School of Music Voice Competition with a full scholarship and studied his master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music. Last summer he performed Gianni Schicchi with Canto Vocal Programs in Kentucky.

Leah Huber

Featured in Legacy: Opera Scenes Night

Hailing from Northwest Louisiana, soprano Leah Huber has just completed her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music.

Favorite roles include Bubikopf, the maiden and Le feu/Le rossignol in CMU’s productions of Viktor Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. Previously, she earned her Bachelor of Music from the University of Louisiana Monroe, where she appeared as Cunegonde and Christine Daaé in its productions of Candide and The Phantom of the Opera. More recently, Leah portrayed Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Miami Music Festival.
Having grown up an Air Force brat and lived amongst many different communities, Leah appreciates music’s incredible power to unite audiences and artists alike despite their differing backgrounds. This sparks her joy for interpreting a broad spectrum of styles, from Mozartian coloratura to contemporary musical theatre, with a splash of her favorite Great American Songbook standards. Whatever the genre, Leah dedicates herself to delivering energized and honest performances, a storyteller at heart.

Moeko Idani

Sponsored by John and Jean Fishburne
Featured in Madama Butterfly

Moeko Idani recently completed the opera soloist course at Kunitachi College of Music in Japan. Her mentors included Etsuko Kanoh, Yukie Okura, Kei Fukui, Kiyotaka Kaga, and Hiroshi Kuroda. She has also participated in various masterclasses with renowned professors such as Howard Watkins, Jorge Parodi, Eric Trudel, and Nic Muni.

She is proud to have won fourth prize at the 20th Japan Classical Music Competition and to have been selected for both the 67th All Japan Student Music Competition in Tokyo and the 47th Italian Vocal Concorso. She has performed at numerous concerts and events, including the 85th Freshman Concert organized by Yomiuri Shimbun.

She also completed the graduate master class of the Nikikai Opera Academy, and made her debut as Amelia’s friend in Amelia al Ballo with the Saitama City Opera. Additionally, she has covered the roles of Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and the Shepherd in L’enfant et les sortileges.

Heather Jones

Sponsored by Daniel C. Cohen
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

Heather Jones (they/them) is thrilled to be celebrating their third season with SVF after being a finalist in the American Traditions Competition and winning the Sherrill Milnes American Opera Award in 2021. In the 2022-2023 season, Heather appeared in As One with Holy City Opera, the NYC premiere of Lori Laitman’s opera Uncovered with City Lyric Opera, and in the world premiere of Bryce McClendon’s new play, The Smallest Sound in the Smallest Space at the cell theatre in NYC. Heather also appeared as a soloist with Beth Morrison Projects, American Contemporary Music Ensemble, ChamberQUEER, Trinity Wall Street, and Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC; and starred in a workshop performance of Expostulation(s) of Mary with Wild Up Ensemble in Los Angeles based on their own original concept and featuring the music of Henry Purcell arranged and re-composed for string ensemble, electronics and vocal processing, and modern dance. In the coming season, Heather will make their house debut with Kentucky Opera singing the role of Hannah in As One and will join Apollo’s Fire and the New York Philharmonic to sing Handel’s Israel in Egypt at Lincoln Center. Heather grew up in Charleston, South Carolina and is now based in Brooklyn, NY with their cat Blue. heatherjonesmezzo.com

Taka Komagata

Featured in Madama Butterfly

Praised for his “soaring lines” and “particularly lyrical” singing (Boston Musical Intelligencer), tenor Taka Komagata performs “with earnest gusto” (The Boston Globe), brightening classical music internationally.

During the 2022/2023 season, Taka made a role debut as Nemorino in The Elixir of Love with the Hawaii Opera Theatre. As a resident artist at The Mae Z. Orvis Opera Studio of Hawaii Opera Theatre, Taka previously performed the role of Colin Craven in Nolan Gasser’s opera The Secret Garden, Goro in Madama Butterfly, and Bastien in a studio version of Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne. Taka also performed as the tenor soloist in Mozart’s Requiem in D minor with MidAmerica Productions conducted by Peter Tiboris. In his 2021/2022 season, Taka made his company debut in the role of Manny in Gabriele Vanoni’s Ellis, a world premiere multimedia and immersive opera with Guerilla Opera. In 2020, he debuted in Japan, performing the leading male role in an original Christmas musical, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, at Asakusa Kyugeki Theater in Tokyo. Recent engagements include Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi) in Varna, Bulgaria, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) in Halifax, Canada, Ferrando (Così fan tutte), and King Kaspjer (Amahl and the Night Visitors) in Massachusetts, US. Mr. Komagata co-founded and produces Balcony Series, an artistic troupe delivering timeless compositions to the unsuspecting listener through impromptu performances.

Liz Lang

Sponsored by Gary and Nancy Radke
Featured in Opera Salon Night and Finale Party: A Fabulous Farewell

Opera News has applauded American soprano Liz Lang for her “comedic timing and clear resonant tone.” Last February, Liz was a semifinalist in the American Traditions Vocal Competition where she won the Sherrill Milnes American Opera Award. She was delighted to return to Georgia this winter for several concerts as a Savannah VOICE Festival Artist. Last year she enjoyed solo performances with the New American Songbook Orchestra, Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Riverside Choir and Orchestra, various cabarets throughout New York and the East Coast, and the premiere of The Constitution: a Secular Oratorio by Ben Yarmolinsky with the Vertical Player Repertory as part of New York Opera Fest. In March 2018, Ms. Lang made her Lincoln Center debut in a new production of La Traviata with the Philharmonic Orchestra of New York as Annina and the Violetta u/s. Ms. Lang has been a recitalist and soloist at Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School, with Voices of Ascension, Bard Summerscape, St. Bartholomew’s Choir and Orchestra, with Grammy® award winners Paul O’Dette and Stephen Stubbs, the Salzburg Festival in Austria, and throughout the Tuscan region of Italy. Liz is based in NYC with degrees from the Eastman School of Music (MM) and Oklahoma City University (BM).

Minghao Liu

Sponsored by C. Elliott Bardsley
Featured in In Recital: Minghao Liu, tenor and Don Giovanni

Minghao Liu is an alum of the Miami Music Festival and a rising international opera singer. He studied and performed in many places such as Ukraine, Canada, Austria, and Italy. He is blessed by the influences of Miami Music Festival. The festival caused the first launch for his career at Rossini Opera Festival in Italy. Sadly, the program was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic. Following this, he studied at Frost School of Music where he was an Artistic Program student. Recently, he performed the principle role Tancredi Falconeri in the World Premiere of The Leopard at Dadeland-Cultural Art Center with Frost School faculty members. This coming year, he will to launch his career at US as an active MMF alum. Additionally, he will perform concerts and retaking his position in the Italian opera market.

Fabrizio Melano

Sponsored by Middy Larson
Featured in Legacy: Opera Scene Night and Masters in VOICE Series

Fabrizio Melano, stage director, is an established figure on the international opera scene, having worked in leading opera houses throughout the world for more than 40 years. He began a long-standing relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in 1969 and has directed 21 operas there, among them seven new or revised productions. He directed Tony Randall in his last play, Pirandello’s Right You Are, with the National Actors Theater and staged a new musical, Asylum, at the York Theater Company. In April 2010, Juilliard presented his production of Dialogues des Carmélites, and the Met and Juilliard his staging of Armide in February 2012. He is a member of the Milnes VOICE Programs faculty, participating annually in Opera as Drama and the Milnes VOICE Studio.

Laura Melano-Flanagan

Featured in MASTERS IN VOICE: FABRIZIO MELANO MASTER CLASS

Laura Melano Flanagan is a psychotherapist in private practice with offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn. She received her Masters in Social Work from Hunter College and a Certificate from the Advanced Institute for Psychoanalysis. She has taught in the Post Masters Programs at both Hunter and NYU and is a long-standing adjunct faculty professor at the Smith College School for Social Work. She is also a Field Faculty Advisor for the Smith interns who are placed in various agencies in New York. She is the co-author of the psychodynamic theory textbook Inside Out and Outside In, the fifth edition of which will be released in 2020.

Laura’s involvement in working with young opera singers began over a decade ago when she started working with her brother, Fabrizio Melano, in the Sherrill Milnes VOICExperience “Opera as Drama” program in New York City. Since then she has become part of the VE faculty, continuing to coach, work on productions, and give Master Classes both in New York and Savannah. She has also worked with Fabrizio in the Juilliard productions of Dialogue of the Carmelites (in which, to her great delight, she got to play a nun for two days) and Armide. Recently Laura has provided psychological consultation to OperaRox for the company’s newly commissioned opera Ghost Variations, which will be produced in 2020.

Hope Metts

Sponsored by C. Elliott Bardsley
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

Hope Metts is a soprano from Altoona, Iowa known for her flexible, silvery voice and her vivacious stage presence. Her most recent opera roles include Monica in Menotti’s The Medium, La Fée in Viardot’s Cendrillon, Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, and Rose Maurrant in Weill’s Street Scene. Hope has frequently been a finalist at the Iowa and Central Region NATS competitions, and was named the winner of the 2022 Iowa NATS competition and the 2021 Iowa State University Solo Competition. Additionally, she has participated in masterclasses with Baritone Sherrill Milnes, Mezzo-Soprano Susan Quittmeyer,  and Bass Morris Robinson. Hope has also studied and appeared in concert with Bass-Baritone Simon Estes. In 2022, she was selected to be a Study Grant Artist with the Savannah VOICE Festival, and was a featured soloist for the program’s 2022 VOICES in the Cathedral concert in Tarpon Springs, FL. She will be returning to the Savannah VOICE Festival in 2023 to reprise the role of Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Hope has also appeared as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah at the Collegiate United Methodist Church in Ames, IA and Vivaldi’s Gloria with the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic Orchestra in Pittsburgh, PA. Ms. Metts is a graduate of Iowa State University and is currently pursuing her masters in vocal performance at Carnegie Mellon University in the studio of Maria Spacagna. 

Carlton Moe

Sponsored by Michael and Linda Zoller
Featured in Concert: Carlton Moe and Friends

Heralded by the New York Times as an “ardent tenor,” Carlton Moe has been thrilling audiences at The Majestic Theater since his Broadway debut in The Phantom of the Opera as Ubaldo Piangi. He debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2013 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as the “Brother” in Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Oregon Symphony, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Walla Walla Symphony, and the Charlottesville Symphony Society. His previous opera credits include The Mother of Us All (John Adams), Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth (Malcolm), with the Manhattan School of Music Opera Studio, Roméo et Juliette (Tybalt) with the Aspen Music Festival and Savannah Voice Festival, and Albert Herring (Albert) with the Napa Music Festival. Mr. Moe has also covered leading roles with the Martina Arroyo Foundation Prelude to Performance Program, Venture Opera, and Opera in Williamsburg. Carlton completed his Bachelor of Music in voice at Portland State University and his Master of Music in classical voice at The Manhattan School of Music where he attended on a full scholarship. (www.carlmoetenor.com, IG:@carltonmoe)

Ashley Nuñez

Sponsored by Gary and Nancy Radke
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

Cuban-American Soprano Ashley Nuñez’s operatic repertoire includes the Foreign Woman in Ourland by Davies with the San José Chamber Orchestra, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Painted Sky Opera and Opera Amici, Manon in Massenet’s Manon with the Turner-Fischer Center for Opera at LSU and Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen with Vero Beach Opera. Ms. Nuñez has recently received the Turner-Fischer Opera Scholarship and the Full Tuition Grant Award from LSU and was a featured soloist with Stetson University’s premier Concert Choir, Women’s Choir, and Choral Union. 

She was named a Finalist for the Music International Grand Prix competition in New York and a Finalist for the St. Petersburg Opera Guild Voice Competition happening April 2023. She was also named Third Place winner in the Mobile Opera Rose Competition, a Finalist in the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Houston Vocal Competition, First Place winner of the Giffin Vocal Competition, the Wednesday Morning Music Club Voice Competition, and the Daytona Beach Choral Society Vocal Competition. Ashley received her Bachelor of Music Degree at Stetson University and her Master of Music degree at Louisiana State University in Vocal Performance. 

Jorge Parodi

Sponsored by Nancy Cunningham
Conductor, Featured in Dido and Aeneas and Madama Butterfly

Internationally acclaimed conductor Jorge Parodi has worked extensively in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Recent credits include Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Tampa; Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires for New York City Opera, The Atlanta Opera and Opera Grand Rapids; Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Buenos Aires Lírica (Argentina); Britten’s The Turn of the Screw for the Castleton Festival in Virginia and The Banff Centre (Canada); Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann for Opera Orlando; Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges for The Juilliard School at Lincoln Center and the World Premiere of Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt, the latest opera by John Musto –a coproduction of On Site Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric’s Unlimited and Pittsburg Opera-.  Upcoming engagements include his return to The Atlanta Opera and Opera Tampa, and his debut at Chautauqua Opera. Reviewed as having “the most expressive conducting hands since Stokowski” by the New York Daily News, Argentinean born Jorge Parodi has also worked with such companies as the Teatro Colón in Argentina, the Volgograd Opera in Russia, the Encuentros Internacionales de Opera in Mexico, the Tokyo International Vocal Arts Academy in Japan, and the International Vocal Arts Institute in Israel.  He has collaborated with such artists as Isabel Leonard, Eglise Gutierrez, Tito Capobianco, Sherrill Milnes, Aprile Millo and Rufus Wainwright and has assisted conductors Lorin Maazel and Julius Rudel, among others. Maestro Parodi is the Music Director of Opera in Williamsburg (Virginia), where he has conducted Rigoletto, Il trovatore, L’elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, La cenerentola and Le nozze di Figaro, among other titles.  He is also the Music Director of the Senior Opera Theatre at the Manhattan School of Music, where he has led its productions to critical acclaim, including Schubert’s Die Verschworenen –that the New York Times praised as being “superbly performed” and the American premieres of Le Roi l’a dit by Délibes and Nina by Paisiello. A featured interview by editor-in chief F. Paul Driscoll to Maestro Parodi and his work with MSM Senior Opera Theater appeared in the March ’18 edition of Opera News.

Andrew Payne

Sponsored by Toby Hollenberg
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

Baritone, Andrew Payne hails from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania and is a student of Jennifer Rowley. This past July, Andrew performed Angelotti/Scarpia cover (Tosca) with Charlottesville Opera. Past operatic roles include Barone Douphol (La traviata), Fiorello/Officer (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Marchese d’Obigny (La traviata), Howard (Dog Days), Sam (Trouble in Tahiti), Guglielmo (Così Fan Tutte), Benoît/Alcindoro (La bohème), Johann/Albert cover (Werther), Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress), Frank (Die Fledermaus) and the Gendarme (Les Mamelles de Tirésias). Andrew had the pleasure of being the baritone soloist in Stacey Garrop’s oratorio, Terra Nostra. He won first place in Opera Idol (2020) and has performed in masterclasses with Sherrill Milnes, Jennifer Rowley, Warren Jones, Anthony Michaels-Moore, and Brenton Ryan. Mr. Payne has been a young artist with Central City Opera, Toledo Opera, Shreveport Opera and Charlottesville Opera. Andrew will be a Mary Ragland Emerging Artist with Nashville Opera for their 2024 season starting in January. Mr. Payne is very honored to be apart of the Savannah Voice Festival in person at last, and not over zoom.

Emma Petersen

Sponsored by Jean and John Fishburne
Featured in Don Giovanni

Lyric coloratura Emma Petersen’s recent roles include Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Contessa di Folleville in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, Jean in Brigadoon, Yvettte in the Western Canadian premiere of Weinberg’s The Passenger, Orpheus in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, La Fée in Massenet’s Cendrillon, as well as understudying the roles of Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Olympia in Offenbach’s Les Contes D’Hoffmann. She has performed concert and recital works such as Strauss’ Brentano Lieder, Edvard Grieg’s Sechs Lieder, and Prevost’s Musiques Peintes. Her choral experience includes the Helios Ensemble, Tucson Masterworks Chorale, and singing alongside True Concord for a concert of Verdi’s Requiem. She has worked in masterclass settings with Jane Archibald, Barbara Bonney, Sasha Cook, Heidi Stober, Jennifer Johnson-Cano, and Corinne Winters. She has performed in the University of Miami Frost School of music’s summer program in Salzburg, Austria, and she attended Taos Opera Institute. She was the featured soloist in the finale episode of The Amazing Race Canada’s 2022 season, performing “Libiamo” from Verdi’s La Traviata. She received her Bachelors of Music in Voice from the University of Arizona and her Masters of Music from the University of British Columbia. She is currently in the third year of her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Voice degree at the University of British Columbia.

Jacquelyn Pileckas

Sponsored by Nancy and Gary Radke
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

Mezzo soprano Jacquelyn Pileckas is a frequent performer throughout the Central Florida area, appearing in productions with Opera Tampa, Opera Orlando, Lakeland Opera, and Central Florida Vocal Arts. Recently, Jacquelyn has appeared as 3rd Lady in the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia’s production of Die Zauberflöte and as a soloist in Opera Tampa’s productions of Spanish Nights and OutLoud. Additional credits include Quintet (Sweeney Todd), Alice (The Secret Garden), Pearl (The Gollum of Prague), Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), Marcello (La Femme Boheme), Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte), and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro). 

In addition to opera, Jacquelyn is a section leader at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke’s in Orlando as well as a member of Central Florida Vocal Art’s Belles and Bows Ensemble. She is a frequent guest soloist at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Gainesville, FL, having appeared in The Mozart Requiem, The St. John’s Passion, and The Ellingboe Requiem. Jacquelyn completed a Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Florida. She received a Bachelor of Music from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA.

Jacquelyn looks forward to appearing as Seconda Sorella Cercatrice and La Badessa in Bold City Opera’s inaugural production of Suor Angelica in September.

Kyaunnee Richardson

Sponsored by Allan & Arlene Ratner and Ellen Byck
Featured in Don Giovanni and Madama Butterfly

Kyaunnee Richardson, soprano, made her professional debut as Papagena in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Festival of the Arts Boca in 2016. In 2021, Kyaunnee starred as Calpurnia in the world premiere of The Secret River with Opera Orlando and made her 2020 Opera Orlando debut as Adele in Die Fledermaus.
Other highlights from the last few seasons include the roles of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Despina in Così fan tutte with Opera in Williamsburg; Monica in The Medium with First Coast Opera; Sister 2 in the world premiere of Why I Live at the PO with UrbanArias, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette and Maria in West Side Story with Gulfshore Opera; Gretel in Hansel and Gretel; Frasquita in Carmen with Opera Orlando; Clara in Porgy and Bess with the South Florida Symphony; Alice/Dr. Marigold in Adolphe’s The Adventures of Alvin Allegretto and Pamina in The Magic Flute with Orchestra Miami and several roles with Opera Fusion’s Emerging Artist Project series.
Recently, Kyaunnee was a semi-finalist in the 2023 American Traditions Vocal Competition where she was awarded the Sherrill Milnes American Opera Award. She has competed in several competitions and won awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition, New York Lyric Opera Theatre, Opera Ebony and Harlem Opera Theatre.
She has also been a featured soloist with the Symphony of the Americas, South Florida Symphony, Hallandale Symphonic Pops Orchestra, Sugar Pops Orchestra, Opera Fusion Orchestra, Coral Gables Chamber Orchestra and the Sunrise Symphonic Pops Orchestra.

David Roy

Sponsored by Mark Epstein
Featured in Don Giovanni 

David Roy, baritone has many successes in international and nationwide vocal competitions, including 1st Prize in 2nd Bogdan Paprocki’s Polish National Vocal Competition, 2nd Prize in 19th The Ada Sari International Vocal Artistry Competition (1st Prize was not awarded), 1st prize at 21-th Imrich Godin International Vocal Competition IUVENTUS CANTI 2019, 2nd prize at 3rd International Vocal Competition of Sacred Music Ars et Gloria and 1st prize and Grand Prix at 2nd International Talsi Children and Youth Academic Singing and Vocal Ensemble Competition. He made his debut role as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, and in February 2019 made his debut on the main stage of Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti. A year later he took part in The Haunted Manor by Stanisław Moniuszko as Swordbearer – also on the stage of Opera Nova. In January 2022 he played Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini at Polish Royal Opera in Warsaw, then in February he took part in Le nozze di Figaro by W.A. Mozart as Count Almaviva at Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz. He graduated in 2022 at The Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz under the guidance of Adam Zdunikowski.

Miho Sakoda

Sponsored by Brenda Kenworthy IMO Brian Kenworthy
Featured in Madama Butterfly

Japanese soprano Miho Sakoda has a strong technique and profound insights into score reading with a vast repertoire ranging from baroque to verismo. She made her stunning debut at the Fujiwara Opera by the Japan Opera Foundation in the title role of Madama Butterfly in 2019. Since then, she has developed her career as an operatic diva and during the 2022/23 season, performed Lucieta in Il Campiello (E.Wolf-Ferrari) and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte at the Fujiwara Opera, Guardian Angel in Rappresentatione di Anima e Corpo (E. de Cavalieri) produced by the EX NOVO (early music ensemble), Flora in Chopin (G. Orefice) at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. Other recent roles include Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Mimì in La Bohème, Riccardo in Il trionfo dell’onore (A.Scarlatti).
She has also appeared as a soloist at prominent concert halls in Tokyo, such as Suntory Hall and performed the 9th Symphony of Beethoven with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Her orchestral repertoire includes the Small Solemn Mass of Rossini, Requiem of Fauré, and Mass in C major of Mozart.
She received her Bachelor of Music from the Tokyo University of the Arts. She completed the advanced course at the Suntory Hall Opera Academy (Executive Faculty: Giuseppe Sabbatini) in 2017. She also won the second prize in the vocal section of the 13th Tokyo Music Competition, and she reached the finals for the vocal categories at the 86th Music Competition of Japan and the 50th Japan-Italy Vocal Concorso.

Benjamin Sokol

Sponsored by Linda and Michael Zoller
Featured in Legacy: Opera Scenes Night and Salon Concert: Verdi, Puccini, and Something Called the Ring

Benjamin R. Sokol is a bass-baritone whose musical capabilities span from opera to art song to cantorial arts to musical theatre.
In 2020 and 2021, Benjamin was awarded the Manhattan School of Music Alexandra Hunt Endowed Vocal Scholarship. He was selected as a Young Artist at SongFest. Benjamin won the 2021 Milnes Opera Idol competition. He was a Milnes VOICE Programs participant at the Florida VOICE Project, a member of the Milnes VOICE Studio, and performed at the Savannah VOICE Festival where he premiered the roles of Don Magnifico and Seagull #2 in Michael Ching’s A Royal Feast.
Benjamin has sung and soloed with choirs including Manhattan School of Music Chamber Choir, Zamir Chorale, Zamir Noded, and HaZamir, performing at venues such as David Geffen Hall, Carnegie Hall, and The Metropolitan Opera House.
Benjamin is a senior at Manhattan School of Music, where he has the privilege of studying in the studio of world-renowned bass-baritone, James Morris. Benjamin has also worked with voice teachers and coaches including Sherrill Milnes, Mark Schnaible, Shane Schag, Kenneth Merrill and Howard Watkins. Benjamin has been coached by prominent cantors including Cantor Jacob Mendelson. Benjamin serves as Cantor at Congregation Agudas Israel (Newburgh, NY).

Chad Sonka

Featured in Dido and Aeneas, Director and Legacy: Opera Scenes Night

Chad Sonka is establishing himself as a versatile American baritone, teacher, and director. He was consistently singing and teaching throughout the country for Savannah VOICE Festival and Iowa State University, where he serves on the voice faculty. Recently, he performed as the baritone soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem at Carnegie Hall with Iowa State University and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with Oneota Valley Community Orchestra. Previous performing credits: Tosca (Scarpia – cover) with Central City Opera; Gianni Schicchi (Marco) with Savannah Music Festival; Man of La Mancha (Don Quixote) and Carmen (Dancaïro) with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre; The Mother of Us All (Virgil T.), The Rape of Lucretia (Junius), Faust (Wagner), Elijah (Elijah) with Manhattan School of Music; and Amahl and the Night Visitors (King Melchior) with Nevada Opera. He was the first-place winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions – Iowa District in 2017. Chad is an active voice teacher and director and currently serves on voice faculty at Iowa State University. He is also the Executive Director of the Savannah VOICE Festival and VOICExperience. Directing credits include multiple scenes programs, Cendrillon (Viardot)Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck), and The Little Prince (Portman).

Maria Spacagna

Featured in Master in VOICE: Maria Spacagna Master Class

Providence born soprano, Maria Spacagna, has been a regular guest artist at many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the Dallas Opera, Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Santa Fe Opera Festival, Florida Grand Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Arena di Verona, Teatro San Carlo, the Puccini Festival at Torre del Lago, the Spoleto Festival, the Zurich Opera, Bavarian State Opera of Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opera Theater of Cologne, Opera Theater of Montreal, Canadian Opera, Shanghai Grand Opera, Capetown Opera of South Africa and many others. She was the first American-born artist to perform the role of MADAMA BUTTERFLY at La Scala. She has recorded for Vox Classics, the first commercial recording of the 1904 La Scala world premiere version of Puccini’s MADAMA BUTTERFLY. VARIETY, the American daily of the entertainment industry has written, “Spacagna is the Cio-Cio-San of our generation.” The Spacagna Butterfly was selected by FANFARE, the recording industry quarterly, as one of the three opera recordings of the year for 1997. Fanfare, places her recording of the role along with those of Tebaldi, Scotto and Toti dal Monte. Her recordings of the title role of Mascagni’s Lodoletta for Hungaroton and Vivetta in Cilea’sL’Arlesiana for Harmonia Mundi have earned critical acclaim. Ms. Spacagna is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music where she received a Bachelor of Music in Voice and a Master of Music in Voice with Distinction. She was honored with an Alumni of the Year Award in 2004 from NEC. She was a member of the Juilliard Opera Center at the Julliard School of Music. She is the recipient of 2 George London grants, the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Rockefeller Foundation and the Minna Kaufmann Rudd Distinguished Performance Award. Ms. Spacagna is a recipient of a Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts. In March, 2012, she received an award from the Italian Consulate General in Boston for Outstanding Achievement in Art, Culture and Entertainment. She is also Honorary President of the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra and has received its first Distinguished Artist Award. At the invitation of its founder, Sherrill Milnes, Ms. Spacagna is a faculty member of VOICExperience, a training program for emerging professional singers. She was Lecturer in Voice at Boston University, College of Fine Arts from 2005 until 2012. Presently, she is Associate Professor of Voice at Carnegie Mellon University School of Fine Arts.

Melanie Spector

Sponsored by Claudia and David Seyle
Featured in Don Giovanni

Praised for her “beaming soprano” by Operawire, Melanie Spector is a soprano on the rise who was born and raised in New York City, and now based in Detroit where she is a Resident Artist at Detroit Opera. Most recently, in a cast headlined by Angel Blue and Christine Goerke, she made her Detroit Opera debut as the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida, in which she was praised for her “exceptional ability to nail pitch”, “supreme cleanliness of her sound”, and “commitment to operatic excellence”. Other performances during the 2022-23 season have included Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer, Op. 52 at Detroit Opera, Mozart’s “Vorrei spiegarvi, o dio” K. 418 and Requiem with the Midland Symphony Orchestra; Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Detroit Symphony’s Orchestra Hall with the Wayne State Wind Symphony; covering Atalanta in Handel’s Xerxes and Margarita Xirgu in Golijov’s Ainadamar at Detroit Opera; and Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in a collaboration between Detroit Opera and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. 

Melanie has received awards from several organizations for her vocal prowess, including the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (District Winner/Region Finalist 2021, 2022), the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the SAS Performing Arts Company, the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the Camille Coloratura Awards. 

This fall, Melanie begins begin her second season as a Resident Artist with Detroit Opera, during which she will be a featured soloist on a gala conducted by Music Director Roberto Kalb, one of the solo singers in John Cage’s Europeras, and Chocholka (Hen) and Mrs. Páskova in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen.

Cole Stephenson

Sponsored by Lani and Joe Winskye
Featured in Don Giovanni

Cole Stephenson is a young bass from Des Moines, Iowa, who recently graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor of Music. While in attendance, Cole earned multiple First Place results at the Iowa and Central Region NATS competitions. He has performed as a soloist in Faure’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah, as well as performing the roles of Mr. Olsen in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and Mr. Lundie in Frederick Loewe’s Brigadoon. Cole is coming to the Savannah VOICE Festival off the heels of his participation in Des Moines Metro Opera’s Apprentice Artist Program, where he sang in scenes programs and the choruses of productions of Georges Bizet’s Carmen and Sergei Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges. Cole previously participated in the Milnes Voice Studio, and he is excited to come to Savannah as a Study Grant Artist to perform the role of Il Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This fall, Cole will enter the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music to study voice under Bass-baritone Kenneth Shaw.

Yuya Tanaka

Sponsored by The Collaborative Artist Fund
Featured in Madama Butterfly

Maryanne Telese

Director of Madama Butterfly

Ms. Telese comes out of retirement to direct Madama Butterfly, a piece she has a rich history with both as director and singer of the title role.
Her first experience with Puccini’s beloved opera was at the Lake George Opera Festival at the age of 27 where she sang Cio-Cio-San under the tutelage of Shozo Sato. She learned Kabuki movement, geisha makeup, wig making and kimono dressing/wearing. These skills added texture to her performing of the title role and prepared her for directing the piece later in her career.
Throughout her twenty seven year career as a singer, she sang the role of Cio-Cio-San in THREE HUNDRED SIXTY SEVEN PERFORMANCES with companies such as New York City Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Opera North, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Glimmerglass Opera, Connecticut Opera, Tulsa Opera, Orlando Opera, Memphis Opera, Goldcoast Opera, Shreveport Opera, Opera Birmingham, Central City Opera, Augusta Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Rochester Opera, Opera Carolina, Dayton Opera, Augusta Opera and many, many more.
Ms. Telese also sang the original 1904 version of Madama Butterfly at New York City Opera and in her European debut at Opera North in Leeds, England. Although she enjoyed and appreciated the experience of singing the role as Puccini first conceived it, she is happy we are presenting the revised version tonight that audiences have come to know and love.
In 1998 heads of Opera Companies, aware of her expertise, began to ask her to direct the opera as well.
In three productions she actually sang the title role as well as directed. With the help of a young cover as stand in, Ms. Telese accomplished the job!
Her directing career also included productions of Aida, La Traviata, Le Nozze di Figaro, Lucia di Lammermoor and La Boheme for opera companies across the US.
Currently retired and living in Sarasota, Florida, Ms. Telese was thrilled to be asked to be a part of this beloved work once again.

Mika Urano

Sponsored by Leslie and Marty Steinberg
Featured in Madama Butterfly

Mika Urano is a Japanese mezzo-soprano.  She graduated with her bachelor’s degree with honors from Kunitachi College of Music, and her master’s degree from the Graduate School of Kunitachi College of Music, majoring in voice.  She has sung Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Sesto in La clemenza di Tito. She won the Grand Prize at the Tama Fresh Music Concert 2019, the Young Artist Division Prize at the 1st International Vocal Competition in Basel, the 38th Soleil Vocal Competition, the Grand Prize at the 81st TIAA All Japan Classical Music Concert, the Excellence Prize at the 34th New Performers Competition Vocal Division of the Ichikawa City Foundation for Cultural Promotion, and the Excellence Prize at the 1st International Vocal Competition. Prize, and 2nd Prize at the 1st International Vocal Music Competition for New Vocalists.

William Velasco

Sponsored by Gary and Nancy Radke
Featured in Dido and Aeneas

William Velasco de Jesús, tenor, was born and raised in Puerto Rico and began his musical studies in the San Juan children’s choir, from 2008 to 2017, and the Conservatory of music of Puerto Rico, from 2017-2022. Since graduating, Velasco has continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music where he currently studies vocal performance. Here he studies under the tutelage of Dimitri Pittas, Tenor. Velasco’s performed operatic rolls include Dr. Blind from Die Fledermaus, Astolfo from the baroque opera La Liberazione di Ruggiero da l’Isola, Alcina and Pasek Paskova from Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. In September of 2020 William was invited to participate in a series of virtual recitals that were organized by Opera Coquí. where he presented a variety of art songs, opera and operetta arias. 

Igor Vieira

Featured in Don Giovanni

Hailed by Opera News as “superb,” and “show-stealing,” Brazilian-American baritone Igor Vieira made his professional debut at age seventeen singing Dancaïre in Bizet’s Carmen.

 Subsequent performances have included the title roles in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, as well as Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff, Tonio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, Germont in Verdi’s La Traviata, and most recently Figaro in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in a triumphant debut at the Solis Opera House in Montevideo – Uruguay.

Mr. Vieira has professionally performed 104 different operatic roles in 11 countries across the globe, with such companies as the San Francisco Opera, the Theatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Sacramento Opera, Phoenix Concert Hall (Japan), Opera Santa Barbara, Teatro Barakaldo (Spain) and Lyric Opera of Kansas City to name a few, as well as the Opera Festivals of Manaus (Brazil), Festival del Sole (USA) and Bratislava (Slovakia).

In the concert and oratorio fields, Mr. Vieira has performed with the National Symphonies of Colombia (Orff’s Carmina Burana), Brazil (Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony), as well as the Prague Philharmonic (Dvorak’s Requiem at the world-famous Dvorak Hall) and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus at Davis Hall (Orff’s Carmina Burana).

Mr. Vieira is a world finalist of the Fifth Luciano Pavarotti Voice Competition in Philadelphia, and can be seen as Gubetta next to Renee Fleming on the DVD of the San Francisco Opera production of Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, released by the Euroarts label.

Congcong Wang

Sponsored by Middy Larson
Featured in LEGACY: OPERA SCENE NIGHT

Howard Watkins

Sponsored by Dan & Phyllis Huffer and Larry & Marcia Wills
Featured in IN RECITAL: Minghao Liu, tenor with Howard Watkins, piano; Madama Butterfly; and the Masters in VOICE Series

Brittany Weinstock

Sponsored by The Collaborative Artist Fund
Featured in Legacy: Opera Scene Night

YeongTaek Yang

Sponsored by Carol and Joel Greenberg
Featured in Legacy: Opera Scene Night and Salon Concert: Verdi, Puccini, and Something Called the Ring