TIER I

Puerto Rican soprano, Kresley Figueroa, is a first-year Cafritz Young Artist with Washington National Opera. Her roles this season include Partenope in Handel’s Partenope, The Unicorn in Tesori’s The Lion, The Unicorn, and Me, and Berginella in an English adaptation of Offenbach’s La Périchole.  

Other recent highlights include performances as Nannetta in Verdi’s Falstaff, alongside Bryn Terfel in the title role with The Aspen Music Festival, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni with OPERA San Antonio. 

Kresley is a winner of the Duncan Williams Voice Competition and an Encouragement Award winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

Thomas Kinch is a Welsh tenor quickly establishing himself as an exciting young  performer. He is a 2024 Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera. Recently, Thomas was the tenor  soloist in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the San Francisco Ballet.

Thomas also participated  in the 2023 Merola Opera Program, where they performed the title role in Otello Act 2 for the  Schwabacher Summer Concert. They were a 2022 Associate Artist for the Welsh National Opera,  and with WNO sang First Armed Man in The Magic Flute,and covered Vitek in The Makropulos Affair.

Ilanah Lobel-Torres, soprano, received her Bachelor and Master degrees in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and Mannes School of Music respectively.

Immediately following her Master’s degree in 2019, she was invited to Opéra National de Paris to join the Young Artist program known as L’Académie de l’Opéra National de Paris.

As a young artist, she has sung on the mainstages of Opera Bastille, Palais Garnier, and Opéra Dijon, as well as on tour in Beirut, Lebanon, at La Grange au Lac in Évian, France. She debuted at Palais Garnier in January 2020 in L’enfant et les sortilèges as La Bergère and La Chauve souris.

Maggie Reneé, a mezzo-soprano, is a Metropolitan Opera Competition  Grand Finalist Award Winner, Saengerbund Awards Winner, Rochester Oratorio Society Emerging Artist  Winner, Opera Index Award Winner, Igor Gorin Memorial Award Recipient and an Honors BM and MM  graduate of The Juilliard School where she is pursuing her ADOS.

This season performances include:  Carmen with Music Academy of the West, Carmen with Juilliard Opera, Baba the Turk with Barbara  Hannigan’s production of The Rakes Progress with the Swedish Orchestra, and Venus with Vienna  Volksoper. This past summer at Des Moines Opera she covered Carmen and sang Nicolette in The Love  for Three Oranges.

In the 2023-24 season, baritone Ethan Vincent joins the roster at The Metropolitan Opera covering the role of Riolobo in Mary Zimmerman’s new production of Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, followed by a house and role debut as Leporello in Don Giovanni with San Diego Opera, and a house debut with Washington National Opera singing Ping in a new production featuring an added world premiere prologue and ending of Puccini’s Turandot at the Kennedy Center. 

Mr. Vincent is a graduate of Northwestern University and was a resident artist at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.

TIER II

Mexican-American mezzo-soprano, Natalie Corrigan, is completing her undergraduate at University of Cincinnati-CCM, where she is a proud recipient of the Darwin T. Turners Scholarship, Cincinnatus Scholarship, and CCM Power Scholarship. Ms. Corrigan most recently performed Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with CCM’s Opera d’arte. She will join the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory this summer to perform Bradamante in Alcina. Award highlights include 2024 Schmidt Vocal Competition Winner, 2024 Encouragement Award at Metropolitan Laffont Competition Kansas City District, 2023 Vanderlaan Prize Audience Choice, 2023 Dayton Opera Vocal Competition Second Prize, 2022 Classical Singer First Prize, & 2022 Hal Leonard Second Prize.

Matthew Dexter, bass-baritone from McKinney, Texas, is a senior majoring in vocal performance at the University of North Texas. During his time with UNT Opera, he has performed the roles of Mícha in The Bartered Bride, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Zúñiga in Carmen and The Conductor in Lisa DeSpain’s That Hellbound Train. As a vocal fellow at Spoleto Festival USA, Matthew appeared in the world premiere of Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar in 2022 and covered the role of the Old Doctor in Samuel Barber's Vanessa in 2023. 

Lindsay Martin is a 23 year old mezzo-soprano from San Diego, CA. She received her Bachelors degree in music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is now attending the University of Southern California to gain her Masters in voice and opera performance. Lindsay has performed roles such as Chérubin in the opera Chérubin, Minkswoman in Flight, Giulio Cesare in Giulio Cesare, Annio in La Clemenza di Tito and Adelberto in Ottone. This past summer Lindsay attended Aspen Music Festival and School where she covered Idamante in Idomeneo. This upcoming summer Lindsay will be attending the Merola Opera Program. Lindsay’s main goal as an artist, is to continue pushing boundaries and revolutionizing music in all aspects but specifically in the opera world to help it be more accessible and relatable to broader audiences.

Jordan McCready is a Mezzo Soprano currently a first year Graduate student at San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying Opera performance under the tutelage of Cathy Cook.

This past year she has been involved in SFCM’s Zanetto by Mascagni as Zanetto and Serse by Handel as Serse, as well as chorus and Fox (cover) in Pocket Operas production of The Cunning Little Vixen.

She was honored to receive the Anchorage Festival of Music Young Artist of the year Award and Scholarship on August 2023. After completing her Masters she hopes to pursue a career in performing opera, chamber music, and musical theater. Outside of performing you can find her climbing, trail running, mountain biking and doing all she can to be outside.

Mexican-American soprano Amanda Olea is celebrated for her "pretty voice" and  remarkable high register. Noteworthy for her debut with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, she  joined the Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist in 2022, contributing to productions like  Carmen and Falstaff. Her versatility shone in roles such as Zerbinetta in Ariadne air Naxos and  Flora in the Turn of the Screw.

As a studio artist with the Florida Grand Opera, she impressed  with performances in Fellow Travelers and Rigoletto. Committed to fostering new works,  Amanda participated in Cincinnati Opera’s OperaFusion:NewWorks workshop. A graduate of  the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, she's currently pursuing her doctoral  degree while passionately engaging in chamber music and interdisciplinary collaborations.