KATE ALDRICH, 32, mezzo-soprano, is currently singing Carmen at New York City Opera and began the 2005-06 season as Idamante in Idomeneo opposite Plácido Domingo with the Los Angeles Opera. Other recent engagements include her debut in Torino as Charlotte in Werther with Roberto Alagna, a performance which was recorded for DVD release, her Lisbon debut in Barbiere di Siviglia, performances as Adalgisa in Norma in Montreal and with Palm Beach Opera, Dulcineée in Don Quichotte for the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, and the title role of Giulio Cesare at the Hamburg Staatsoper. In New York, Ms. Aldrich has been heard with Opera Orchestra of New York as Smeton in Anna Bolena and Frédéric in Mignon. Opera Orchestra also honored her with their prestigious Vidda Award, granting her a New York recital debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in March, 2006. Upcoming engagements include Sesto in La clemenza di Tito in Prague, Maria Stuarda in San Diego and a new production of L’italiana in Algeri in Lisbon. A native of Damariscotta, Maine, she is a graduate of the Pittsburgh Opera Center and Manhattan School of Music, and participated in the Central City and Glimmerglass Young Artists Programs.
JORDAN BISCH, 24, bass, joined the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the beginning of the 2005-2006 season. He is a graduate of Indiana University, where he was heard in various roles, including Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin and Osmin The Abduction from the Seraglio. He made his professional debut with the Indianapolis Opera as the Bonze in Madama Butterfly. For the past three summers he has been a Gerdene Young Artist at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where he recently appeared as Count Ceprano in Rigoletto. He is the winner of a 2005 Sara Tucker Study Grant, a MacAllister Career Grant, was the second place winner of the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers and was a 2005 Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He will make his Metropolitan Opera debut in Parsifal in 2006.
QUINN KELSEY, 28, baritone, is a third-year member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Center for American Artists, where he has performed the title role in Don Giovanni, Escamillo in Carmen and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro. With Lyric Opera of Chicago he has appeared in numerous operas, including Der Rosenkavalier, Rigoletto, Carmen and Manon Lescaut. He has appeared at Hawaii Opera Theater as Melot in Tristan und Isolde, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, Ping in Turandot and Marcello in La bohème, a role he has also performed with the San Francisco Opera Merola program and Western Opera Theater. Upcoming engagements include Ping in Turandot with Lyric Opera of Chicago, a return to Hawaii Opera Theater as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and a Weill Hall recital in April, 2007. He was a 2004 winner of a Sara Tucker Study Grant, second place winner in the 2005 MacAllister Awards, a finalist in the 2004 Operalia Competition and represented the United States in the 2005 Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He holds a bachelor of music degree from the Universiy of Hawaii.
DIMITRI PITTAS, 28, tenor, is in his third and final year of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Following his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2004 as the Herald in Don Carlo, he has been heard there as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette and the First Prisoner in Fidelio. He has been an apprentice artist at Des Moines Metro Opera and at Santa Fe Opera, where he debuted in 2003 as Achille in Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène. He has also performed with Pittsburgh Opera as Rodolfo in La bohème, Opera Theatre Highland Park as Alfredo in La traviata and Wolf Trap Opera as Mr. Ford in Salieri’s Falstaff. Upcoming engagements include Narraboth in Salome with Santa Fe Opera, Alfredo with L’opera de Montréal, Rodolfo with Oper Leipzig and the Duke in Rigoletto with Opéra de Bordeux. He is the winner of a 2005 Sara Tucker Study Grant, a 2004 George London Award and Vienna Prize, the first place prize in the Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation Competition, a 2005 Sullivan Foundation grant, a 2005 Encouragement Award from Opera Index, a second place prize from the Liederkranz Foundation and first place in the Elardo Competition. He holds degrees from the Crane School of Music in Potstdam, New York and McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
GERALD THOMPSON, 29, counter-tenor, is an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera Center and a 2004 graduate of the company’s Merola Program. He made his San Francisco debut as Prince Go-Go in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and recently returned to as Unulfo in Handel’s Rodelinda, a role he reprised in Bilbao, Spain. He also made his Canadian Opera debut in Rodelinda in the role of Bertarido. Other career highlights for the Arkansas native include Sesto in Giulio Cesare with Arkansas Concert Opera and concert and recital performances in California. Upcoming engagements include his New York City Opera debut as Guido in Handel’s Flavio, Nireno in Giulio Cesare at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the title role in Giulio Cesare for the International Handel Festival in Gottingen, Germany, and a return to San Francisco Opera as Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus.
