In this column, we explore singers to watch, celebrate new albums, note new resources for singers, and other industry changes.
And Other Duties as Assigned
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
—Buckminster Fuller
The past few years have seen the opera industry ask deep, difficult questions. We’ve wrestled with issues of gender, race, accessibility, and inclusion while also challenging our industry’s “war horses” with how they’re perceived by the general public. While a few companies have continued to hold onto their current models of artistic planning, leadership, and engagement, others have embraced new ideals that include a stronger community engagement component as well as bringing on board artists who, through their traveled careers, have a unique and distinct perspective on how the opera industry is shifting and changing.
Looking to find ways to continue to remain aware and committed to their communities, opera companies have hired singers to take on roles of artistic leadership and community engagement to connect to new audiences and demystify the idea of what opera was, is, and can be.
Bass-baritone Kenneth Kellogg was recently named Seattle Opera’s artistic ambassador for the 2024–2025 season. Soprano Karen Slack has been named the Lyric Opera of Chicago artist in residence for the 2024–25 season. Mezzo-soprano Claudia Chapa assumes the role of assistant director of artistic administration while continuing to serve as the curator of Hispanic and Latinx programming at Austin Opera. Soprano Allison Pohl is the new artistic director at Washington State’s Vashon Opera.
Stand Up
Speaking of shifting and changing the operatic landscape, at the recent Opera America Conference, a panel entitled “The Future of Opera” sparked an unexpected reaction. The panel, which consisted of all men, was surprised when a group of female leaders in the field (literally) took a stand. The women wanted to point out to the organizers of the panel that there were no women, people of color, or singers in on the conversation.
It speaks a great deal that the idea did not cross any of the organizer’s minds about not only what the future of opera could look like, but who gets to sit at the table to even have the discussion. Eventually, the panel made room for more voices, and the result of this taking a stand has sparked deeper conversations.
Choral, Choral Chameleon
A brand-new choral group, Fourth Wall Ensemble, has been making a splash in the musical life of New York. Dedicated to “storytelling through sound and music,” Fourth Wall Ensemble balances a diverse program of new works and choral masterpieces of the 17th and 18th centuries. They recently made their Carnegie Hall debut in Jeff Beale’s “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”
Led by Artistic and Creative Director Christopher Allen and Executive Director Johnathan McCullough, the ensemble spent August at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute Residency. Fall finds them in concert with Death of Classical, featuring Caroline Shaw’s “Partita for 8 Voices,” at the Green-Wood Cemetery and Catacombs and at Merkin Hall in a concert of Monteverdi madrigals.
Advertisement
Competition Roundup
Classical Singer celebrates singers who have recently placed in competitions throughout the U.S. Here are the results from the 2024 CS Vocal Competition.
Musical Theatre High School
- Tessa Osborne
- Sarah Osness
- Roger Wang
Musical Theatre University/Pro
- Grace Foulsham
- Carlos Perez
- Sebastian Plymette
Classical High School
- Violet Paris
- Meghan Linnington
- Benjamin Pixley
Classical University
- Ash Connor
- John Solomon Collins
- Syndey Sorbet
Classical Young Artist/Emerging Pro
- Dawson Franzino
- Jamilah Barnes
- Victoria Popritkin
Ten singers took home prizes in the 2024 Loren L. Zachary Competition:
- Alice Chung, Mezzo-soprano (First Prize – $15,000)
- Yeongtaek Yang, Baritone (Second Prize – $10,000)
- Nathan Matticks, Baritone (Third Prize – $6,000)
- Angel Gomez, Tenor (Fourth Prize – $4,500)
- Edward Graves, Tenor (Fifth Prize – $3,000)
- Kevin Godinez, Baritone (Encouragement Grant – $2,500)
- Jenny Anne Flory, Mezzo-soprano (Grant – $2,000)
- Monique Galvão, Mezzo-soprano (Grant – $2,000)
- Melissa Joseph, Soprano (Grant – $2,000)
- Erick Mosteller, Baritone (Grant – $2,000)
Advertisement
Singers to Watch
SeungHyeon Baek has been lauded for his “full, generous baritone” that encompasses a variety of roles, including Rigoletto, Scarpia, Gianni Schicchi, and Count Almaviva. He spent last season on the roster of the Met covering roles in La bohème and Falstaff. He was seen as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra. The role of Marcello figures prominently into his career having covered it this summer at the Bravo! Vail Music Festival and performed it with Hawaii Opera Theater and the Pacific Symphony last season. He again returns to the Met roster this season, to cover Marcello.
Hailed for her “lustrous and idiomatic” singing, soprano Michelle Johnson excels in verismo and modern works. Last season saw her as the title role in Madison Opera’s Tosca, the Nagging Wife in Shostakovich’s The Nose at Chicago Opera Theatre, Mimì in Florentine Opera’s “Bronzeville” Bohème, and the title role in Turandot with Opera Delaware. Additionally, she is an active recitalist having given concerts with Opera Delaware and Lyric Fest. Next season she joins Boston Lyric Opera in the title role in Aïda, performs the Porgy and Bess Suite with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and returns to Sarasota Opera as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro.
Sharmay Musacchio is that rarest of female voices, a contralto. The singer has already graced the stages of the Met, LA Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, and New York City Opera. Her recent engagements include a critically acclaimed turn as Frugola in On Site Opera’s Il tabarro. No stranger to new music, she was seen as Iphigenia the Elder in the new Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding opera Iphigenia, and performed Swift/Dr. Overcast in the world premiere of Ruinous Gods by Layale Chaker and Lisa Schlesinger at the Spoleto Festival. She repeats the roles in debuts with the Nederlandse Reisopera and Oper Wuppertal in 2025 and 2026. A proponent of new opera, she recently joined composer Derrick Skye in a Lincoln Center workshop of Songs of the Ambassador, a reimagining of opera that examines music’s effects on the body conceived by K. Allado-McDowell.
SeungHyeon Baek, Michelle Johnson, and Sharmay Musacchio
New Choral Recording from Delaware-Based Elevation
Elevation is Elevate Arts’ professional vocal ensemble based in Delaware. Led by Artistic Director and CEO Arreon A. Harley-Emerson, the 39-member choral ensemble mixes traditional classical choral literature with jazz, gospel, spoken word, and narration. The group recently released their newest album, Are You Looking for Me?, which features world premiere choral music recordings by Dominick DiOrio, Christopher Harris, Lori C. Hicks, Kevin B. James, Lee R. Kesselman, Erik Meyer, Reginal S. Wright, and Faith Zimmer.
Each composition is well crafted and often times surprising in its structure. Are You Looking for Me? highlights the group’s excellent blend and balance, intricate harmonies, zest for text and, especially, the sustained control of the highest soprano voices who sing everything in an elegant straight tone.
In addition to a high choral music standard, Elevation purposefully is an inclusive, diverse, and contemporary ensemble—and alongside its parent organization, Elevate Vocal Arts, it gives back to its community through its workforce development and mentorship programs.
