DIVERSITY & INCLUSION COMMITTEE

SAMUEL JAMES DEWESE

Baritone Samuel James Dewese is forging a unique path as an evocative artist in the US and beyond. Recent opera performances include Antonio (cover Conte)/Le nozze di Figaro, Marcello/La Bohème, Father/Hansel and Gretel, and Astrophel/The Arcadians, while oratorio and concert performances have seen Samuel featured as a soloist alongside the Portsmouth Festival Orchestra at Portsmouth Cathedral, Highgate Choral Society, and Illinois Wind Symphony. Samuel has found success in the creation and performance of new works, including the world premiere operas John Henry/McCarthy with Tête à Tête in London and The Perfect Opera/Davis with Virtually Opera at the 2019 Edinburgh International Fringe, where he was also presented in recital. In competition, Samuel has twice been named a district winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (St. Louis), captured second prize in the James Toland International Competition, and was a grand finalist in the Hariclea Darclée Competition. Samuel completed his studies and training at the University of Illinois, the Royal College of Music, London, and the Florentine Opera Baumgartner Studio Artist Program.

Despite cancellations in the wake of COVID-19, Samuel recently recorded Paul Scherer’s brand new opera La Trout Lily. Samuel continues curating a series of distanced outdoor concerts called On Your Street, bringing music directly to people in Chicago and its suburbs. Further information and streaming dates can be found on www.samueljamesdewese.com.

Peter Mendiara, Treasurer and board member

Peter Mendiara is a native of San Francisco and resident of Oakland for the past 25 years. He has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, having held management positions at Bank of America and Visa, Inc. in payment card operations, marketing, and product development. After developing a love of opera as a young boy listening to his father's old 78 rpm records of Bizet's Carmen, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from the University of California at Berkeley. Here he first began vocal studies that he later continued with Lillian Loran in Berkeley. He has sung with many Bay Area arts organizations, including: Festival Opera, Berkeley Opera, Verismo Opera, San Francisco Choral Artists, Oakland Symphony Chorus, and the Pacific Mozart Ensemble.

PAIGE PATRICK

JTVA Operations Manager Paige Patrick is a Texas-born soprano with a passion for music education and great singing. Her degrees include a Bachelor of Vocal Music Education from Texas State University and a Master of Vocal Performance from the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Paige actively performs and teaches voice in the East Bay.

LINDSEY REYNOLDS

American soprano Lindsey Reynolds is currently pursuing her Graduate Degree at the Curtis Institute of Music, under the tutelage of Julia Faulkner. A versatile young artist, her favorite roles include Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Miss Wordsworth (Albert Herring), and Monica (The Medium). She is the recipient of many awards and accolades, including first place in the Camille Coloratura Awards: Student Division, James Toland Vocal Arts Competition: Tier 2, Junior Division of the Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera National Voice Competition, Hal Leonard Vocal Competition, and the National Association of Negro Musicians Vocal Competition. Last summer, Ms. Reynolds was a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre Saint Louis where she was to premiere the role of Lily in Awakenings written by Tobias Picker and Aryeh Lev Stollman (Canceled due to Covid-19). In October 2020, Lindsey was a featured artist in Lawrence Brownlee with Friends presented by Opera Philadelphia. 

Helen Sheaff, Board chair

Helen Sheaff was executive director of Festival Opera of Walnut Creek for 20 years. Raised and educated in England, she was exposed to classical music and opera at an early age by her father, whose love for music sustained him long after he could no longer hit a golf ball 200 yards! After immigrating to the United States, she began a career in the nonprofit world at the Chicago Hearing Society, and later at the Multiple Sclerosis Society of the East Bay. In 1978 she began attending San Francisco Opera, originally standing in the back of the dress circle, and in the mid-1980s she bought season tickets which she has held for the last 30 years. She became a stay-at-home mother raising three daughters, until she was approached by the founder of Festival Opera to take over administration of the company. Now retired, she enjoys staying involved with the performing arts as well as traveling.

Efrain Solis

Baritone Efraín Solís is a recent graduate of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship, where he sang his first performances of Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Dandini in La cenerentola, Schaunard in La bohème, Silvano in Un ballo in maschera, Sciarrone in Tosca, and Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly. In the 2020-21 season, he joins Opera San Jose and Florida Grand Opera as Charlie in Heggie’s Three Decembers and Utah Opera as Escamillo in La tragédie de Carmen. 

An active recitalist, he has previously joined the New York Festival of Song for multiple programs of Spanish repertoire and has been presented in a Schwabacher Debut Recital in San Francisco and offered an additional recital program at the El Camino College Center for the Arts.

He is an alumnus of the prestigious Merola Opera Program in association with San Francisco Opera, at which he sang Junius in The Rape of Lucretia and covered Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. He holds a Master of Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music, at which he sang Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and while at Chapman University, his performances included Beethoven’s Mass in C and Puccini’s Messa di Gloria.

ALEX rameses TAITE

A resident and native of Oakland California, Alexander Taite graduated in 2007 from Pepperdine University with a Bachelor’s Degree in music theory and composition with an emphasis in vocal performance and jazz piano. He spent 4 years teaching theory and conducting choirs at the Oakland School for the Arts. In 2014 He placed third in the inaugural James Toland Vocal Arts competition and in 2016 took audience favorite. He was a finalist in the East Bay Opera League scholarship competition in 2015. He is currently writing two song books of spirituals, one for solo voice with piano and one for acapella chorus. He finds great joy as the Director of Chorus Eclectic; singing with the San Francisco Opera chorus; teaching with the SF Opera Guild (SF Opera's education and outreach department); teaching private piano, music theory, and voice lessons; and conducting the graduate level ensemble at the San Francisco Boys Chorus.

James toland, founder, General director and board member

JTVA Founder and General Director James Toland has been a private voice teacher for the past thirty years, whose students have performed in major opera houses and on concert stages throughout the world. He has served in recent years as a master teacher for the prestigious San Francisco Girls Chorus, and has taught for the Piedmont Children's Chorus and Young Women's Choral Projects of San Francisco, as well as the choral music programs of the Acalanes School District. Mr. Toland was director of the Pacific Masterworks Chorus (now renamed Chorus Eclectic) from 2014-2020. Currently, Mr. Toland is an adjunct professor teaching voice and opera at the Collinsworth School of Music at California Baptist University.