Christian Baldini

Christian Baldini has conducted opera at English National Opera, Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires), the Aldeburgh Festival (England), and as music director of the Rising Stars of Opera at the Mondavi Center, in collaboration with the San Francisco Opera. His CD of Mozart arias and overtures with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Elizabeth Watts was selected as Recording of the Month by the BBC Music Magazine. He served as assistant conductor with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London and the San Francisco Symphony. He is an international guest conductor among others with Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Noord Nederlands Orkest and Buenos Aires Philharmonic, and music director of the Camellia Symphony and UC Davis Symphony.

Patricia Craig

Patricia Craig renowned operatic soprano, serves on both the faculty of the New England Conservatory and the San Francisco Conservatory. Her performing career spanned three decades in leading opera houses around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut in 1978 and returned in a variety of leading roles. Craig teaches at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Austria, the Chautauqua Institute, and the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI). She serves on the board of both Opera Boston and AIMS.

Susanne Mentzer

Introduced to opera as a teenage usher at the Santa Fe Opera, Susanne Mentzer is now one of today's foremost mezzo-sopranos, recognized for her generous vocal and interpretive gifts, and is widely admired for her versatility from the recital and concert stage to the operatic arena. For over 20 years she has sung leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, La Scala Milan, Royal Opera Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Opéra de Paris, and other major houses around the world. She has recorded extensive discography and videography from full operatic releases to collaborative recitals including her most recent recording of the works of Carlisle Floyd.

Michele Patzakis

Michele Patzakis is a Los Angeles native and celebrated performer, director, producer and educator. She received critical acclaim as a leading soprano with companies such as the Zurich Opera, Spoleto Festival, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of Toulouse, New York City Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and the Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels. Ms. Patzakis graduated in May 2019 with a DMA from the USC Thornton School of Music. In October of 2018 the Loren L. Zachary Society honored Michele, a former Zachary competition winner, for her years of service to the organization as a competition judge and artistic director.

George Shirley

George Shirley is The Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Music and former Director of the Vocal Arts Division of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. He has won international acclaim for his performances with the Metropolitan Opera, where, as a result of his winning the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions in 1961 he became the first African-American tenor to sing leading roles with the company, and with major symphony orchestras, opera houses and festivals in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Mr. Shirley received a GRAMMY AWARD in 1968 for his role (Ferrando) in the RCA recording of Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte. He has performed more than 80 operatic roles as well as oratorio and recital literature over the span of his 61-year career. A graduate of Wayne (State) University, he was the first African American to be assigned to a high school teaching position in vocal music in Detroit, and the first African American member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington D.C.

Honors include The 2014 National Medal of Arts awarded by President Barack Obama, the National Association of Teachers of Singing Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Opera Association Lifetime Achievement Award, The National Association of Negro Musicians Award for Musical Excellence, and induction into the Inaugural Class of the Opera America Hall of Fame in 2020.

The George Shirley Vocal Competition, a long-held dream of its namesake, was founded in 2011 under the aegis of the Videmus Foundation and its Artistic Director, Dr. Louise Toppin. Centered on the performance of compositions by African American composers of art songs and operatic arias, the Competition invites singers of all ethnicities to learn and perform this enriching wellspring of vocal literature.

James Toland

James Toland is JTVA’s Founder and General Director. For more information, visit his bio.