COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The Glimmerglass Festival is pleased to announce the 45 members of its 2024 Young Artists Program. This year’s roster includes singers, dancers, conductors, pianists, and directors from across the United States and countries such as Guyana, Canada, Korea, Uzbekistan, China, South Africa, and the Philippines. More than 1,300 artists applied to the Glimmerglass Young Artists Program this season. Members of the 2024 program were carefully selected through a competitive pre-screening and audition process by Director of Artistic Administration Lauren Bailey, Young Artists Program Director Andrea Grant, Head of Stage Movement & Choreography Eric Sean Fogel, and Artistic & General Director Rob Ainsley.
“We are absolutely thrilled with the roster of extremely talented Young Artists who will join us for the exciting 2024 season. We will do such amazing work together and in partnership with our wonderful 2024 Artist-in-Residence, Tara Erraught. The Festival offers a one-of-a-kind experience for Young Artists to not only learn from some of the most well-respected opera and theater professionals in the industry but to thrive in their various roles and take ownership of their work, culminating in a fulfilling and profound experience for all involved!” shared Andrea Grant, Young Artists Program Director.
The Glimmerglass Festival 2024 Young Artists
Soprano
Lauryn Davis, Atlanta, GA
Saane Halaholo, San Francisco, CA
Kaylan Hernandez, Miami, FL
Emilie Kealani*, San Francisco, CA
Amanda Sheriff*, Houston, TX
Emma Sucato*~, Dallas, TX
Catherine Thornsley*, Flagstaff, AZ
Ethel Trujillo*, Philadelphia, PA
Mezzo-Soprano
Kailee Regan Brandt*~, Honolulu, HI
Ruby Dibble, Kansas City, MO
SarahAnn Duffy, Cortlandt Manor, NY
Emily Harmon*, Barrington, NH
Winona Martin, Dallas, TX
Alexandra Sanchez, San Antonio, TX
Tzytle Steinman, Oceanside, CA
Xiao Xiao, Changsha, China
Countertenor
Kyle Tingzon*, Manila, Philippines
Tenor
Henry Benson*, Marinette, WI
Seiyoung Kim, Seoul, Korea
Fran Daniel Laucerica*, Miami, FL
Peter Murphy*~, Lowell, MA
Daniel O’Hearn, Chicago, IL
Ajit Persaud, Georgetown, Guyana
Namarea Randolph-Yosea, Tacoma, WA
Truman Tinius*~, Bowling Green, KY
Tristan Tournaud, Nashville, TN
Baritone
Benjamin Dickerson, Burlington, VT
Tshilidzi Ndou, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Jonathan Patton*, Durango, CO
Blaise Rossmann~, Dumont, NJ
Scout Santoro~, Albany, NY
Geoffrey Schmelzer, Skokie, IL
Bass-Baritone
Evan Lazdowski, Moultonborough, NH
Zizhao Wang, Qingdao, China
Jason Zacher*, Livingston, NJ
Bass
Cameron Rolling, Waycross, GA
Joshua Thomas, Houston, TX
Pianist
Laura Bleakley*, Honolulu, HI
Artyom Pak, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Conductor
Armand Singh Birk, Brentwood Bay, BC, Canada
Micah Gleason*, Chapel Hill, NC
Director
Marinette Gomez*, Orlando, FL
Mario Pacheco*, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Nadja Simmonds, Cincinnati, OH
Amanda Testini*, Vancouver, BC, Canada
* Indicates returning Young Artist
~ Indicates Musical Theater/Dancer
The Young Artists Program (YAP) was established at Glimmerglass in 1988 as an essential component of the company’s mission to promote an artistically stimulating environment for young performers. The program provides training and performance experience for talented singers at the beginning of their professional careers. The program accepts opera singers, musical theater singers/dancers, pianists/coaches, conductors, and stage directors and focuses on education through performance. The Glimmerglass Young Artists Program members receive opportunities to perform and cover appropriate roles in all four mainstage productions and work with world-class directors, designers, and conductors.
Glimmerglass Young Artists also receive musical coaching, attend classes in diction and acting, and are given instruction in audition techniques, role preparation, and the business aspects of managing a career. Starting in 2011 with soprano Deborah Voigt, Glimmerglass Young Artists have worked each season with world-renowned artists who join the Festival as Artist-in-Residence. Past Glimmerglass Artists-in-Residence include William Burden, John Corigliano (Composer-in-Residence), Anthony Roth Constanzo, Christine Goerke, Denyce Graves, Julie and Nathan Gunn, Isabel Leonard, Jay Hunter Morris, Eric Owens, and Kamala Sankaram (Composer-in-Residence). Our 2024 Artist-in-Residence is world-renowned Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught. Acclaimed worldwide, Erraught has been lauded for her “beautifully formed mezzo-soprano voice” (New York Times) and heralded as the “New Bel Canto Queen” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung). Her versatile repertoire includes mezzo and soprano roles, ranging from Baroque to Mozart and bel canto to contemporary music. In addition to providing mentorship for the Young Artists Program, Erraught will star in the title role in Elizabeth Cree.
The 2024 Season
The 2024 Glimmerglass Festival’s mainstage productions will include Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Cavalli’s La Calisto, Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s Elizabeth Cree. Whether through comedy, tragedy, absurdity, or mystery, each work probes the dynamic between authenticity and artifice, leading to questions about the true nature of self and the masks worn to align with societal expectations or personal desires.
The Festival will also feature the world premiere of the youth opera Rumpelstiltskin and the Unlovable Children by Jens Ibsen and Cecelia Raker and an exciting new works initiative called Project Pipeline. Curated by Artistic & General Director Rob Ainsley, Project Pipeline will give voice to rising artists while giving patrons an inside glimpse at the creative process. Project Pipeline features a first glimpse at the opera-in-development, The House on Mango Street, by Derek Bermel and Sandra Cisneros.