Known for his riveting dramatic portrayals and the power and beauty of his voice, American baritone Morgan Smith has been entrusted to create 16 roles in world premieres, including Starbuck in Jake Heggie’s widely celebrated Moby-Dick. Mr. Smith has also earned universal praise for performances in traditional repertoire, notably Escamillo (Carmen), the title role of Don Giovanni, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Count Alamaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Four Villains (Les contes d’Hoffmann), and the title role of Eugene Onegin.

Most recently, Morgan’s work as Richard in Kevin Puts’ The Hours has been heard in workshops with Cincinnati Opera (2021) and The Metropolitan Opera (2022), as well as a cover assignment with the Philadelphia Orchestra (2022).

Prior to the impact of COVID, Morgan began the 2019/20 season fresh from two highly successful role debuts with Cincinnati Opera: Musiklehrer (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Earl Mann in the widely anticipated and greatly acclaimed premiere of Scott Davenport Richards’ and David Cote’s Blind Injustice. He revisited the role of Eugene Onegin with Livermore Valley Opera before appearing in Seattle as soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Seattle Symphony. Later that season, Morgan debuted with the Atlanta Symphony as soloist in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music, and J. S. Bach’s Cantata 29.

Recent successes include Scarpia in Tosca with National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Herman in Ben Moore’s Enemies, a Love Story with Kentucky Opera, Paul Jobs in The (R)Evolution of Steve Jobs with Seattle Opera, Tadeusz in Weinberg’s The Passenger with Israeli Opera, Joseph De Rocher in Dead Man Walking with Welsh National Opera, his title role debut of Eugene Onegin at Lyric Opera Kansas City, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Kentucky Opera and Opéra de Montréal; the reprise of his critically acclaimed Starbuck at Dallas Opera and LA Opera, Marcello in La bohème with Oper Leipzig and San Diego Opera. Mr. Smith performed Don Giovanni with Arizona Opera, Austin Opera, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He received rave reviews for his riveting portrayal of Joseph De Rocher in Dead Man Walking at Kentucky Opera and Opera on the Avalon in 2017.

Other performances of note included Escamillo in Carmen at Vancouver Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and Fort Worth Opera and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Seattle Symphony. He joined the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus at Davies Hall to revive the role of Manfred in Jake Heggie’s poignant For a Look or a Touch (another role he created). Mr. Smith starred as Aaron in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star at Cincinnati Opera, for which he won outstanding reviews. He sang Adam Brant in Mourning Becomes Electra at Florida Grand Opera; Tadeusz in The Passenger in the US premiere of David Pountney’s production at both Houston Grand Opera and Lincoln Center Festival; and Fritz in Die tote Stadt at Dallas Opera. Mr. Smith was honored to sing the role of Lieutenant Audebert in Silent Night in Fort Worth Opera’s presentation of Kevin Puts’ Pulitzer Prize winning opera.

Smith made his European guest artist debut at the Berliner Staatsoper in 2011, performing Marcello in La bohème. Fully fluent in German, Mr. Smith joined Oper Leipzig in 2009 as a resident artist. Over the following four years he sang Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Billy in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, Leandre in The Love for Three Oranges, Whitelaw Savory in One Touch of Venus, Marcello in La bohème, and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte.

A regular on the concert stage, Mr. Smith made his Dallas Symphony debut in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under the baton of Jaap van Zweden, and debuted with the San Antonio Symphony for the North American premiere of Vier Präludien und Ernste Gesänge, Detlef Glanert’s orchestral adaptation of the beloved cycle by Brahms. Other concert repertoire includes Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; the Requiems of Brahms, Fauré, Mozart and Duruflé; the Mass in C Minor of Mozart, Mass in G Minor and Serenade to Music of Vaughan Williams; Bach’s B Minor Mass, numerous Cantatas, and Weihnachts Oratorium; Handel’s Messiah and L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato; and Haydn’s The Creation and Lord Nelson Mass.

Morgan has collaborated with prolific conductors such as Jaap van Zweden, Donald Runnicles, Itzhak Perlman, James Conlon, Ulf Schirmer, Christopher Allen, Robert Spano, Markus Stenz, Jacques LaCombe, Andreas Stöhr, Gerard Schwarz, Matthew Halls, Patrick Summers, Eduardo Mueller, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Joseph Colaneri, George Manahan, Ramón Tebar, Jack Everly, Joseph Mechavich, James Meena, Emmanuel Villaume, Ken Masur, John DeMain, Ari Pelto, and Antony Walker.

Praised for his “big, heroic voice” (LA Weekly) and “powerful emotions,” tenor Dane Suarez (he/him) has developed an exciting and varied career. Last season, Mr. Suarez made his Off-Broadway debut in Kate Tarker‘s world premiere play Montag at Soho Rep and joined OperaDelaware, The Carolina Philharmonic, Heartbeat Opera, Penn Square Opera, and Maryland Opera for concert and gala performances. He also returned to New Jersey Festival Orchestra to sing Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), covered Apollo (Strauss’s Daphne) with American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, sang Luigi (Il tabarro) with On Site Opera, and sang Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana) with Lyric Opera of the North.

Upcoming performances include a reprise of Don José in Carmen with Festival Opera, Il Duca (Rigoletto) with OperaDelaware (debut) and Opera Baltimore, Scalia (Scalia/Ginsburg) with Anchorage Opera (debut), Don José in La tragédie de Carmen with Newport Classical, and Canio in his return to Opera Birmingham. With Penn Square Music Festival, he performs excerpts from Carmen, Cavalleria rusticana, and Tosca, with Maryland Opera he performs excerpts from Werther and Les contes d’Hoffmann, and he covers Calaf at OperaDelaware. He will also be heard in concert with The Phoenix Symphony as tenor soloist for both a Holiday Pops concert and Handel’s Mesías (Messiah in Spanish).

Mr. Suarez’s 2021-2022 season included a return to Opera Memphis starring as the tortured Canio in a new production of Pagliacci; his debut as Manrico (Il trovatore) and a jump-in as Lensky (Eugene Onegin) with Opera in the Heights; a reprisal of Scalia (Scalia/Ginsburg) with both Penn Square Music Festival and Opera in the Heights, company debuts as Rodolfo with Opera Birmingham and Newport Classical, and his role and company debuts as Pollione in Norma with Festival Opera. He was also seen in concert for a recital with wife Kerriann Otaño for Il Cenacolo Club of San Francisco, a debut with New Jersey Festival Orchestra for The Three Holiday Tenors, a return to Maryland Opera for a live-streamed concert entitled Variant Valentine, and a return to his alma mater (Butler University) as guest tenor soloist for Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.

In the winter of 2020, Mr. Suarez returned to West Bay Opera to perform the role of Macduff in their production of Macbeth. For the remainder of the 2020 season, he was scheduled to reprise the role of Rodolfo in La bohème with Fort Worth Opera (COVID19), perform the title role in Faust with Opera Neo (COVID19) and make his role debut as Manrico in Il trovatore with Opera in the Heights (COVID19). In the summer of 2020, Mr. Suarez performed the role of First Armored Man in Opera Neo‘s innovative digital production of The Magic Flute. During the 2020-2021 season, Mr. Suarez debuted with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra for their holiday concert, returned to Opera Memphis as Scalia in Derrick Wang’s acclaimed Scalia/Ginsburg, returned to Maryland Opera for a live-streamed concert, and was scheduled to perform the role of Don José in Carmen with Festival Opera (the aforementioned production postponed to 2023).

Mr. Suarez’s 2019 season included his role and house debut as Fenton in Falstaff with West Bay Opera, a return to Opera Neo to perform the role of Lensky in Eugene Onegin (where he was hailed by critics as “a vocal tour de force of surpassing splendor,”) a return to Opera San José as Greenhorn in Moby-Dick, reprising the role of Erik in Der fliegende Holländer with Baltimore Concert Opera, and his mainstage debut as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Opera San José.

In 2018, Mr. Suarez reprised the roles of Don José in Carmen and Rodolfo in La bohème AKA “The Hipsters” with Pacific Opera Project, where the Act I duet was described as “a transfixing moment of sublime beauty.” He sang the title role in Idomeneo with Opera Neo and joined Opera San José as a Resident Artist in 2017, where his role responsibilities included Ruggero in La rondine, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer, Alfredo in La traviata, and Canio in Pagliacci. During the 2016-17 season, Mr. Suarez made his New York City Opera debut in his “completely winning” performance as Joe in La fanciulla del West, Rodolfo in his debut with Pacific Opera Project, and was a Studio Artist with Sarasota Opera, where he covered Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and performed Flaminio in L’amore dei tre re. (Suarez was subsequently granted the Mandelker Award for Outstanding Studio Artist). He returned to Fort Worth Opera for their 2017 Frontiers Showcase, and to Opera Memphis for 30 Days of Opera. Mr. Suarez was pictured on the front page of The Arts section of The New York Times and lauded for his “beautiful, soaring, and moving” performance as Cavaradossi in LoftOpera’s production of Tosca that “brought down the house.”

Mr. Suarez made his John F. Kennedy Center debut in 2015 with Washington National Opera as Ely Parker in Philip Glass’s Appomattox. Other past credits include joining Opera Memphis as Don José in La tragédie de Carmen and Beppe in Pagliacci, a run with Crested Butte Music Festival as Rodolfo, his role debut as Il Duca in Rigoletto at Opera in the Heights, his Fort Worth Opera debut as Marcellus in Thomas’s Hamlet, Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mr. Splinters in The Tender Land, and Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor (all with Opera North), his debut as Don José as well as a turn as Shuisky alongside Eric Owens in the Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov with Aspen Music Festival, and Henrik in A Little Night Music at the late Loren Maazel‘s Castleton Festival.

Mr. Suarez was a 2014 National Semi-Finalist of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and has been recognized and awarded by multiple organizations including: Tri-Cities Opera TCO NEXT Competition, The Loren L. Zachary Society for the Performing Arts, Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition, Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition, Sarasota Opera, Brava! Opera Theater Vocal Competition, The Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition, Beethoven Club of Memphis, Bel Canto Foundation, and Sigma Nu Fraternity, Inc.

Mr. Suarez holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Butler University and a master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The artist’s website can be seen at danesuarez.com.

Russian American mezzo-soprano Anastasiia Sidorova recently graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she held the Curtis Friends Board Fellowship and studied with Patricia McCaffrey.

This season, Anastasiia sings Madame Flora (Baba) in a film of The Medium with Curtis Opera Theatre, as well as performing Mahlers’ « Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen» with Curtis Chamber Ensemble under the baton of Robert Kahn.

In the 2020-21 season, Anastasiia sang Sesto in MERCY, a film by the Curtis Opera Theatre based on Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. She also performed in the concert “Sounds of Spring” with Opera Philadelphia.

Anastasiia participated in the Wolf Trap Studio Artist program both in 2018 and 2019, performing Giovanna in their production of Rigoletto and Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos. She has also attended Ravinia ‘s Steans Music Institute (2020,2021), the Music Academy of the West and the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland.

In 2019 she was one of four singers to go on American Tour as a part of Curtis on Tour Program with Mikael Eliasen, performing Liebeslieder-Waltzer by Brahms.

As an Emerging Artist at Opera Philadelphia, she made her professional debut as Roggiero in Tancredi and performed Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte and Mércèdes in Carmen.

Hailed for her “rich mezzo” (OPERA Magazine, 2022), Mezzo-Soprano Mariya Kaganskaya most recently performed roles including Larina (Eugene Onegin) with Opera Omaha, Polina/Milovzor (Pique Dame) with West Bay Opera, Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro),  Page (Salome), and Paula (Florencia en el Amazonas) at Florida Grand Opera, Tisbe (La Cenerentola), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), and Third Wood Sprite (Rusalka) at Arizona Opera, and Teacher in the Santa Fe Opera’s world premiere production of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, the recording of which earned the GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording. In the 2022-2023 Season she joined the San Francisco Opera for their production of Dialogues of the Carmelites and released her first solo album on the Lexicon Classics label. Appearances this season include reprising the roles of Suzuki and Larina.

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Ms. Kaganskaya’s other recent appearances include Beppe (L’amico Fritz) with Teatro Grattacielo and Rowan in the world premiere of We Wear the Sea Like a Coat with Opera Ithaca. Additional roles include Olga (Eugene Onegin), Hostess (Boris Godunov), Marta (Iolanta), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea), the title role of Serse, La Nourrice (Milhaud’s Médée), Mexican Woman (A Streetcar Named Desire), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), and Julia Bertram (Mansfield Park). Recent oratorio credits include performances as the Mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, and Handel’s Messiah. 

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Ms. Kaganskaya’s training includes residencies with the Santa Fe Opera, Arizona Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, and the iSing International Festival in China. She is an alumna of the OperaWorks Advanced Artist Program and the Russian Opera Workshop at the Academy of Vocal Arts, and earned her MM and PGD at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of Catherine Cook.

Her recent awards include First Place in the Classical Singer Competition (Emerging Professional Division), the Lois Alba Aria Competition, the Lois Alba Aria Competition, the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, the St. Petersburg Opera Guild Competition, the Gershwin International Music Competition, the Pacific Musical Society Competition, and both the Eastern and Southeastern Region of the NATS Artist Awards; Second Place in the Henry and Maria Holt Memorial Competition; Third Place in the Edward M. Murray International Competition of Voice, the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and the East Bay Opera League Competition, and Fifth Place/Special Encouragement Award from the Pasadena Vocal Competition. She is a Winner of the most recent Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Foundation Competition and the inaugural Butler Opera International Competition, as well as the Pasadena Opera Guild Competition and the San Francisco District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and the recipient of Encouragement Awards from the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition and the Western Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council.

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Ms. Kaganskaya is represented by Piper Artists Management. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, baby son, and rescue dog.

Baritone Artega Wright is known for his vibrant, mellifluous, and authoritative voice. He is also a neurodivergent with adult ADHD, which he has learned to navigate and use to his advantage in his artistic pursuits. Wright earned his master’s degree in Vocal Performance from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and a Bachelor’s in Vocal Performance from Wayland Baptist University.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, Wright is now based in the Midwest and has performed with some of Chicago’s most notable ensembles and storefront opera companies, including the Chicago Opera Theatre. He has had the honor of premiering in new works commissioned by the company such as Quamino’s Map and Freedom Ride. Wright has also made his New York debut with On Site Opera in Il Tabarro in the Spring of 2023.

Recently, Wright served as an artist in residence with Dayton Opera, where he sang the role of Donner in an original production of Das Rheingold. He also honed his skills as a teaching artist, bringing “Who Wants to Be an Opera Star” to the Dayton Metro area, inspiring young people to explore their own artistic potential.

Wright has covered the role of Sam in Grammy award-winner Will Liverman and DJ King Rico’s masterpiece, The Factotum, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. His talent has also earned him opportunities to perform with other prestigious opera houses, such as San Francisco Opera, where he will make his debut in the 2023-2024 season. He will also be returning to other amazing houses such as Opera Columbus.

In the summer of 2022, Wright served as an Apprentice Artist at Des Moines Metro Opera, where he stepped in on short notice as the lead role in Porgy and Bess, impressing audiences and critics alike with his professionalism and talent. This demonstrated his versatility and reliability as a performer, while also earning him high praise and cementing his reputation as an up-and-coming singer in the opera world.

Specializing in character tenor roles, he has a remarkably varied repertoire with more than 80 roles from Monteverdi to Ligeti. Mr. Cole’s recent seasons exemplify his extraordinary versatility: Don Buscone in Veremonda with the Spoleto Festival USA, performances as The Narrator in a world premiere of Chris Theofanidis’ Creation/ Creator with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Goro in Madama Butterfly and the Abbé de Chazeuil in Adriana Lecouvreur with Opéra de Nice, Nick in La Fanciulla del West with San Francisco Opera, the four valets in The Tales of Hoffman with Edmonton Opera and Canadian Opera Company, the three tenor roles in L’enfant et les Sortilèges with Théâtre de Caen, Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess with Cincinnati Opera, and Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte at the Théatre Champs Elysées in Paris. Mr. Cole has a particular interest in contemporary repertoire, having participated in the world premieres of Jean Prodromidès’ La noche triste, Gavin Bryar’s Medea, and the revised version of Györgi Ligeti’s Le grand macabre in a production by Peter Sellars at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen.