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Canadian-Armenian bass-baritone Vartan Gabrielian is a graduate of the Canadian Opera Company’s ensemble programme and the Santa Fe Apprentice programme. The 2023/24 season sees numerous roles and debuts for him, including Dottore Grenvil (La Traviata) at the Paris Opera, Basilio (The Barber of Seville), Frère Laurent (Romeo and Juliet), and Capitán (Florencia en el Amazonas) at Opera San Jose, as well as Fasolt (Das Rheingold) with the Edmonton Opera. A sought-after concert performer, Vartan will also be performing Handel’s Messiah with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. In 2022/23 he appeared as Masetto and Commendatore (Don Giovanni) at the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Nourabad (Les pêcheurs de perles) at Vancouver Opera, and returned to the Canadian Opera Company to perform Dottore (Macbeth) and cover Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Banquo (Macbeth), and Angelotti (Tosca). Vartan is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, having earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree after studies with Marlena Malas and Armen Boyajian.
William Socolof is an award-winning operatic bass-baritone and recitalist. He has appeared as a soloist with many top North American orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. The New York native graduated from The Juilliard School in 2022 with an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies and was awarded The Stephen Novick Grant for Career Advancement. Thereafter, he attended the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, singing Riolobo in selections from Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas, as well as operatic scenes of Mozart and Berlioz with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. He also complete both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at The Juilliard School, where he studied with Sanford Sylvan and William Burden. William was a winner of the 2020 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions.
Felix is a member of the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House. Next season he will be appearing in several productions at the Zurich Opera House, most notably as Phileas Fogg in the world premiere of Around the World in 80 Days by Jonathan Dove.
Felix is a Samling Artist and a National Opera Studio Young Artist 2022/23. He received his training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
He was a member of the Atelier Lyrique of the Verbier Festival 2023, where he was awarded the Prix Thierry Mermod for the most promising singer. In January 2024, he participated in the Carnegie Hall SongStudio under the patronage of Renée Fleming.
Felix is a passionate Lieder singer and regularly performs in recitals in the UK, France, and Switzerland with pianists JongSun Woo and Tomasz Domanski. He made his US debut performing Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Pierre-Nicolas Colombat at the Boston Text and Tone Festival.
Baritone Henry Griffin is pursuing his bachelor’s in Classical Voice at the Manhattan School of Music with Marlena Malas. His recent roles include Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Castleton Festival, covering the role of the Commentator in Derrick Wang’s opera Scalia/Ginsburg at the Chautauqua Opera Company in 2021 and returning in 2022 to sing the role of The Forester in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. This year, he sings Ottone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Manhattan School of Music and will be the inaugural Voice Fellow at the Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs, USA.
English tenor Christopher Willoughby began his training as a chorister at Westminster Abbey. He graduated Royal Holloway, University of London in 2021 with a First Class degree in Music before moving to Vienna to continue his studies at the MDW with Margit Klaushofer and Michael Schade KS. In 2021 Christopher was chorus in L’Elisir d’Amor with Waterperry Opera Festival and made his debut in the role of Grimoaldo in Handel’s opera, Rodelinda at the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn Palace. Last summer, Christopher debuted at the Internationale Barocktage Stift Melk in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, which was broadcast live on national television, before travelling to California to take part in The Music Academy of the West. Christopher appeared as Osmida in Holzbauer’s Der Tod der Dido, with the Teatro Barocco in Vienna, and performed the title role in Mozart’s Idomeneo this spring. He joins the Opera Studio at Opernhaus Zürich next in the fall.
Sam Harris is a British tenor studying with Peter Savidge. He is supported by the Dr Martin Schwartz scholarship. Born in Edinburgh, Sam began his musical career as a boy chorister at Winchester Cathedral, and, as a treble soloist, premiered James Macmillan’s Mouth of the Dumb for the NMC record label. He was subsequently a choral scholar at New College, Oxford. Sam’s operatic highlights include Pluto in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld at Royal College of Music (London), Fenton in Sir John In Love with British Youth Opera, and Cecco in Il Mondo Della Luna with Bampton Classical Opera. On the concert stage, highlights have included Stravinsky’s Mass with the London Symphony Orchestra, and Pärt’s Passio with Ensemble Pro Victoria. A prolific vocal arranger, his work has been featured on national television, in major national ad campaigns, and included on worldwide best-of compilations.
South Korean mezzo-soprano Hyejun Melania Kwon joined the Opera Studio NRW Germany in 2022. She is currently performing Valencienne (Merry Widow), Flora (La Traviata), Fortuna, Valletto and Famigliare 1 (L’incoronazione di poppea) at Theater Wuppertal, and Mara (Kirsas Musik) at Theater Dortmund. She has performed in the Konzerthaus Berlin’s opera gala and has won top prizes in competition, including First prizes at the International Competition Nouvelles Étoiles in 2021, and the King’s Peak International Music Competition in 2022. Hyejun received her bachelor’s degree at Ewha Womans University in Korea. During her studies, she was alto soloist for a tour of the United States with the Ewha Chamber Choir, which made a stop at Los Angeles Disney Hall. She went on to study with Ewa Wolak at the Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule Berlin, where she received her master’s degree and where she performed Dorabella (Cosi fan Tutte), Ruggiero (Alcina) and Ljubica (Svadba). Hyejun has been awarded a scholarship from the Mozart Gesellschaft (Dortmund) for the upcoming year.
English mezzo-soprano Siân Griffiths has recently graduated from the National Opera Studio’s Young Artists programme (London), studying with John Evans and generously supported by the Nicholas John Trust. Recent performance highlights include Fanny Price in Waterperry Opera’s Touring and Festival production of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park, Riccardi in Opera Rara’s concert performance of Offenbach’s La Princesse de Trébizonde, and Guest Singer in the Royal Ballet’s production of Like Water for Chocolate by Joby Talbot at the Royal Opera House, London. Recent concerts performances include alto soloist in Saint-Saëns Messe de Requiem for the Sussex House School and alto soloist in Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor and Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore for the Wooburn Singers. In 2023, Siân will perform the roles of Cherubino in Spira Mirabilis’ upcoming production of Le nozze di Figaro and Dryad in Garsington Opera’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos.
Soprano Erin O’Rourke is a second year Master’ degree student in the Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School, where she studies with Amy Burton. Erin recently won the Laffont Metropolitan Opera Competition New York District and is preparing for her roles as Nella in Gianni Schicchi and Philidel in King Arthur at Juilliard. In 2022, she made her Raylynmor Opera debut as Nannetta in Falstaff, joined New Amsterdam Opera covering the lead role of Anna in Boïeldieu’s La dame blanche, and performed the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea with the Chicago Summer Opera Company. She also performed concert works with Juilliard’s Focus Festival, which The New York Times dubbed “Broadway Meets the Avant-garde”, and made her Lincoln Center debut in the CPE Bach Concert Festival at the Bruno Walter Theater. Erin has been enjoys singing both early music and contemporary styles of music and is a champion of music by female composers and composers of colour.
American soprano Sarah Fleiss is in her fourth year at the Curtis Institute of Music. In the 2022/23 season, she sings Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante with the Tempesta di Mare Orchestra and the Curtis Opera Theater. She recently went on a North American tour with Eric Owens and sang the world premiere of Tania Léon’s In the Fields. A lover of song, she also performed in a recital with Warren Jones and looks forward to singing the Pergolesi Stabat Mater. Past seasons include Despina in Così fan tutte, Monica in The Medium, Annio in La Clemenza di Tito, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. Prior to Curtis, she attended Columbia University and participated in the Juilliard-Exchange program where she narrated Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat and performed around New York in musical theatre and cabaret-style performances. Sarah has received awards from the George London and Gerda Lissner Foundations, and is generously supported by the Jack Wolgin Fellowship and the Shirley Winston Rabb Scholarship.