Cecil Price Walden is a composer and pianist based in Oxford, MS. Price frequently writes music dealing with Southern mythology and culture, and in 2011, he was named a Hero of the New South by Southern Living Magazine after a performance of his cantata “Leaves of Greens” at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival by the Atlanta Opera. 2015 saw the premiere of “Abide with Me: 5 songs of love” by tenor Jos Milton, which will have performances across the country and an official recording in 2016. Price’s first opera, The Contract Player, (with librettist Lane Williamson) will debut in New York City in June 2017 with OperaRox Presents. Other upcoming projects include a commission from the Southern Foodways Alliance to expand his cycle “Let Us Now Praise Famous Cooks” for a release in 2017.
Lane Williamson is a director, actor, playwright, and lyricist from Los Angeles, California. His work as director and actor includes pieces by Beckett, Kander & Ebb, Kushner, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Sondheim, and Shakespeare, among many others. As writer, his play The Sidewalk was seen in two productions in California, and his lyrics have been heard across the country and at 54 Below in NYC. Lane received a BA in Theatre Direction from UCLA. He currently resides in New York, NY.
Born by the beach in sunny Southern California, Jeremy Weissmann studied mathematics and theoretical linguistics at Northwestern University before moving east to pursue a career in music. He has worked as a pianist, coach, and conductor in the Bay Area and New York City, and was an apprentice coach at the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. Jeremy loves teaching mathematics, is an avid solver of cryptic crosswords, and sings tenor in his barbershop quartet, Age of Flight. He spends his days as a stay-at-home dad with his 15-month-old son, Oliver, and house-husband to his wife, Michelle.
With a career as both pianist and composer, Shawn Chang has created an international career of distinction. Since his solo piano debut at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Shawn Chang has performed extensively throughout North America and Asia. As a collaborative pianist, he has worked with the Bronx Opera, Garden State Opera, Opera Moderna amongst other production companies. His own compositions encompass piano solos, vocal music, and chamber music. Mr. Chang’s recent piano arrangement of the Dutch folk song, “tulpen uit Amsterdam,” was premiered and received critical acclaim at the Prinsjesdagconcert in Hague. Original compositions by Mr. Chang have been premiered by the Chromatic Voice Exchange Chorus, Novello String ensemble, aTonal Hits Duo, to name a few. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Shawn Chang currently lives in New York City. He holds Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory and a Professional Studies degree from the Mannes College of Music. shawnchangcomposer.com
Baritone Nathaniel Sullivan is a New-York-based performer of vocal music and theatre. Sullivan has received two recognitions from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and has been the recipient of the Orpheus Vocal Competition’s Bizet Award.His opera roles have included Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Sid (Albert Herring), and the Count (Le nozze di Figaro). Sullivan recently covered the roles of Gilgamesh and the Young Monk in Paola Prestini’s Gilgamesh and Scott Wheeler’s Naga, produced by Beth Morrison Projects in 2016. A winner of the Bard Conservatory’s 2016 Concerto Competition, Sullivan will perform Frank Martin’s Sechs Monologe aus Jedermann with The Orchestra Now in their 2017-18 season. Originally from Bettendorf, Iowa, he received his bachelor’s of music degree from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (2014), and his master’s of music degree from the Bard College Conservatory of Music’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program (2017), led by soprano Dawn Upshaw. nathanielsullivanbaritone.com
Coloratura soprano Jane Hoffman is a true singing actor who brings her engaging stage presence and expressive voice to works ranging from baroque to brand new. She has performed with Pasadena Opera, Utopia Opera, Amore Opera, the Emerald City Opera Artist Institute, and the Fresh Squeezed Opera Company, where she is a Core Company Resident. She has sung roles such as Elizabeth ‘Baby Doe’ Tabor, Adele, Olympia, and Le Feu, and has been a soloist in works by Bach, Couperin, and Britten. She is an alumna of Sarah Lawrence College and received her master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Jane grew up in Pasadena, California, where she first became interested in music while studying piano and singing with the Los Angeles Children’s Choir. She is a student of David Jones. She lives in Harlem with her cat, Roxanne. This is her OperaRox Productions debut. janehoffmansoprano.com
Mezzo-soprano Maayan Voss de Bettancourt has been described as "fascinating," "delightful," and "powerful enough to make us sit up and take notice." Her roles include Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), L'enfant (L'enfant et les sortileges), and Nancy (Albert Herring). She has enjoyed performing offbeat repertoire, such as obscure Gilbert & Sullivan operettas like Iolanthe and Princess Ida (with Lamplighters Music Theatre), and has sung in (and done lighting for) burlesques with the Dr. Wilkes troupe. A woman of many talents, Maayan recently made her directing debut with a sold-out run of Händel's Alcina. Find her online at maayanvoss.com
Brian J. Alvarado, New York-based baritone, has been recently seen in Lighthouse Opera Company’s inaugural Don Giovanni as Leporello. He has also been seen in Utopia Opera’s season as the Captain and Zaretzky in Eugene Onegin, Jacob in The Ballad of Baby Doe, the Ludwig cover in The Grand Duke, as Corporal Nym and the Master Page cover in Bronx Opera’s 50th Anniversary production of Vaughan-Williams’ Sir John in Love, and as the Melisso cover in OperaRox Production’s Alcina. He also recently covered Alcade and Chirurgo for New Amsterdam Opera's concert performance La forza del destino, and Tsarevich Afron for New Opera NYC’s Zolotoy Petushok (The Golden Cockerel). Upcoming engagements include: covering Dandini for Opera Theatre of Montclair’s La Cenerentola, performing Cascada in Minuetto Music Festival’s The Merry Widow concert, portraying the Badger and Parson in dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s Příhody lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen), and the Ghost of Vergil in Garden State Opera’s Francesca da Rimini. website
Ruby Nightingale is a soprano from Brisbane, Australia, and Hong Kong, and is a graduate of The Hartt School of Music. Here, she performed the roles of The Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Bird in Ned Rorem’s Fables, and Mae Jones in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. Since moving to New York she has won first prize in the William Haralson Vocal Competition, acted in Euripides’ The Bacchae performed at Columbia University, and performed in the ensemble of multiple Bronx Opera productions. Ruby is also particularly drawn to experimental, improvised, and new music, and enjoys performing her own work of this nature in the city.
Mezzo-Soprano Melissa Serluco recently made her debut with Amore Opera as the title role in the American premiere of Donizetti’s unknown work, La Zingara. Critics applauded Melissa for her “large, even, agile mezzo, admirable fireworks for the showpieces and a take-charge stage presence.” (Parterre Box) This season Ms. Serluco has made several appearances performing the roles of Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore), Curra (La forza del destino), and Ruggiero (Alcina). Upcoming this August, she is engaged to perform the title role in Bizet’s Carmen with Opera Breve, and later this October she will return as La Zingara in Amore Opera's revival brought back by popular demand. Past credits include Jo (Little Women), Dido (Dido & Aeneas), Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito), Zita (Gianni Schicchi), Siebel (Faust), and Meg Page (Falstaff). Website: http://www.musicagrandeartists.com/melisssa-serluco---mezzo-soprano.html
Max Vitagliano, tenor, will tell you he's a substitute teacher, but he's actually Batman. This is his OperaRox Productions debut.
Aubrey Miller, baritone, works with the Young People's Chorus of New York City and studies at Hunter College. This is his OperaRox Productions debut.