Tazewell Thompson is an internationally acclaimed director of opera and theater, an award-winning librettist and playwright, teacher, lecturer and actor. His opera Blue with composer Jeanine Tesori, won the 2020 MCANNA Award for Best New Opera in North America. The New York Times and Washington Post listed Blue as Best in Classical Music for 2019. He has opera commissions from the New York Philharmonic and Chicago Opera Theater. He has more than 150 directing credits, including 30 world and American premieres, in major opera houses and theaters across the USA, France, Spain, Italy, Africa, Japan and Canada, including New York City Opera, Glimmerglass, Washington National Opera, Teatro Real, La Scala, L’Opera Bastille; in select cities: Cape Town, Paris, Tokyo, Milan, Madrid, Osaka, Vancouver, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Norfolk, Washington DC, New Orleans, and San Francisco. His award-winning play, Constant Star has had 16 national productions, garnering 9 Barrymore Awards, 5 NAACP Awards and 3 Carbonell Awards; Mary T & Lizzy K, commissioned and produced at Arena Stage, is the recipient of The Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award; adaptor of the revue, Jam & Spice: The Music of Kurt Weill; an adaptation of A Christmas Carol; and a contributing writer to Our War, short plays for Washington DC. His a cappella musical Jubilee: Fisk Jubilee Singers had its world premiere spring of 2019 and played to extended performances and SRO audiences at Arena Stage. He has play commissions from Lincoln Center Theatre, South Coast Rep and People’s Light & Theatre Company. His production of Porgy and Bess, broadcast Live from Lincoln Center, received EMMY Award nominations for Best Director, and Best Production: Classical Music. He holds the record for directing three productions: Appomattox/ Philip Glass, Lost in the Stars/ Kurt Weill, and his American premiere production from Glimmerglass Festival of Cato in Utica/ Vivaldi, all in the same season in three different theaters at The Kennedy Center. He was chosen to rewrite the libretto and direct the American premiere staging of Aaron Copland’s The Second Hurricane as part of a New York State-wide celebration of Copland’s 85th birthday. A select list of operas directed: Dialogues of the Carmelites, Death in Venice, Xerxes, Carmen, Don Giovanni, The Tender Land, Street Scene, Pearl Fishers, Norma, Margaret Garner, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Patience, Freedom Ride. He is commissioned by chic Opera Theater to write a new opera and Seattle Opera to write a song cycle. His opera Blue is rescheduled for future productions at Washington National Opera, Chicago Lyric, Minnesota Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Seattle Opera, English National Opera, and Mostly Mozart Festival. At schools and conservatories: directed productions and/or held artistic residencies; master classes at NYU, Juilliard, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, Tulane, Indiana/ Bloomington, and Kansas/ Lawrence. Chair of Theater Department: St. Ann’s School and Columbia Prep. His national theatre directing credits include nearly every major theater across the country including: the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Arena Stage, The Goodman, Seattle Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House, Hartford Stage, Second Stage, The Guthrie, Indiana Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Huntington Theatre, Delaware Theatre Company, Syracuse Stage, Playmakers Rep, City Theatre, Virginia Stage, and the Old Globe.

Acclaimed British conductor Jane Glover, named Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2021 New Year’s Honours, has been Music of the Baroque’s music director since 2002. She made her professional debut at the Wexford Festival in 1975, conducting her own edition of Cavalli’s LʼEritrea. She joined Glyndebourne in 1979 and was music director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1981 until 1985. She was artistic director of the London Mozart Players from 1984 to 1991, and has also held principal conductorships of both the Huddersfield and the London Choral Societies. From 2009 until 2016 she was Director of Opera at the Royal Academy of Music where she is now the Felix Mendelssohn Visiting Professor.  She was recently Visiting Professor of Opera at the University of Oxford, her alma mater. Jane Glover has conducted all the major symphony and chamber orchestras in Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia. In recent seasons she has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the San Francisco, Houston, St. Louis, Sydney, Cincinnati, and Toronto symphony orchestras, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Bamberg Symphony.  She has worked with the period-instrument orchestras Philharmonia Baroque, and the Handel and Haydn Society.  And she has made regular appearances at the BBC Proms. Future and recent-past engagements include her continuing seasons with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, her returns to the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra—both at Severance Hall as well as the Blossom Music Festival, the Houston Symphony, the Orchestra of St Luke’s (at Carnegie Hall) and the London Mozart Players.  In the 2019/2020 season she made debuts with the Bremen Philharmonic and the Malaysia Philharmonic.  In the 2021/2022 season she will make her debut with the Chicago Symphony and Montreal’s Orchestre Mètropolitain. Jane Glover’s discography includes a series of Mozart and Haydn symphonies with the London Mozart Players and recordings of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Britten, and Walton with the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic, and the BBC Singers. She is the author of the critically acclaimed books Mozart’s Women and Handel in London.  She holds a personal professorship at the University of London, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music, an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, and the holder of several honorary degrees.  In 2020 she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gamechanger Award for her work in breaking new ground for other female conductors.

James Blaszko (he/him) has been called “a major young, new directing talent” (The Sunday Mail) that shows “the potential our increasingly multidisciplinary future holds for both theatrical innovation and inclusion” (Howlround.com). A first-generation American raised in a Polish-Pakistani household, Blaszko’s varied education in arts and culture began at an early age and has translated into diverse collaborations across the globe. Before the pandemic, Blaszko staged Puccini’s Il Trittico at Daegu Opera House (South Korea), the opening ceremony of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (Zimbabwe), and Britten’s Les Illuminations with selections of Debussy and Patti Smith at Bay Chamber Concerts (Rockport, ME). He returned to live performance in 2021 by devising and staging Puccini and Verdi Play Ball with Tulsa Opera on their city’s baseball stadium. Blaszko’s collaborations with Cuban filmmaker Adolfo Mena Cejas include Tell The Story, a documentary for John Doyle’s Classic Stage Company about the seminal New York productions of Sondheim’s Assassins over the the past 30 years, and Zenon, which was selected by the New Haven Documentary Film Festival in 2020. His next digital work, a commission from Catapult Opera with composer Tamar-kali and writer Carl Hancock Rux, will premiere in late 2022. He is currently the tour producer of The Peculiar Patriot by Liza Jessie Peterson, which will be presented next at Detroit Public Theater in 2023.

Key'mon W. Murrah, a countertenor heralded for his wide range and “hot coals-core of tone”, is a native to Louisville, Kentucky. In 2020, he was heard on the stage of The Metropolitan Opera as a semi-finalist in the company’s National Council Auditions after winning the Nashville District Auditions. In the summer of 2021, he received high-praise for his performances as a Fleming Fellow at the Aspen Music Festival where he was heard as Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda and in several concerts featuring a wide range of works from Baroque to contemporary. In the current season, he will appear at the Bolshoi in Moscow as a competitor in Operalia, makes his company and role debut in the title role of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Eurydice with Seattle Opera, and will be heard in concert with Rochester Oratorio Society and the American Baroque Opera Company. Recent competition successes include winning the 2021 Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers with Houston Grand Opera a nd the 2020 Premiere Opera + NYIOP Vocal Competition. Murrah has been heard with University of Kentucky Opera Theatre and Bluegrass Opera in performances of Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte, Tales of Hoffman, and La bohéme. His most notable roles are Mingo in Porgy and Bess and creating the role of the Spiritual Man in Ernst Bacon’s A Tree on the Plains and has sung the role of Tolomeo from Handel's Giulio Cesare with Red River Lyric Opera and Asprano in Vivaldi's Montezuma with America Baroque Opera Company. Murrah was recently featured in a Masterclass with Joyce DiDonato in for Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute and continued his studies at the International Vocal Arts Institute. In 2009 Murrah received the Second Place Undergraduate Award at The Alltech Vocal Competition, and in 2010 he won the second-place award at the National Association of Negro Musicians and Bellarmine's University’s “Traditional Negro Spiritual’ Voice Competition. In 2014, Murrah was a finalist in the Juanita Peterson Vocal Competition, won 2nd place at the Emerging Soloists Competition, and was a finalist in the Opera MODO Opera Competition. Recently, Murrah toured with the American Spiritual Ensemble and in the summer of 2020, he was a young artist with the Glimmerglass Opera Festival.

Recognized for her unique artistic curiosity in world-class performances spanning the music of Claudio Monteverdi and Johann Adolph Hasse through to Missy Mazzoli and George Benjamin, American Lauren Snouffer is celebrated as one of the most versatile and respected sopranos on the international stage. During the 2021-22 season, Lauren Snouffer makes her debut at the Opéra national du Rhin in the lead role of The Snow Queen, by Hans Abrahamsen, in a new production directed by James Bonas and Grégoire Pont under the baton of Robert Houssart.  She returns to Houston Grand Opera for a production by Francesca Zambello of Dialogues des Carmélites conducted by Patrick Summers and bows in no less than two new productions with the Opernhaus Zürich: she is the title role in the world premiere of Girl with a Pearl Earring by composer Stefan Wirth and she performs Argene in Pergolesi’s L’Olimpiade in a new production conducted by Ottavio Dantone.  The soprano joins The Dallas Opera for Opera Galas and concertizes with Patrick Dupré Quigley and Seraphic Fire in tour performances of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.  She returns to Mercury Chamber Orchestra for a program of Vivaldi and Handel and appears with Ars Lyrica Houston in fully-staged performances of Purcell’s Dido and Æneas. Operatic performances on leading international stages have fortified the soprano’s place as one of the eminent interpreters of contemporary music; she assayed the title role of Berg’s Lulu in a new production at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago conducted by Pedro-Pablo Prudencio and directed by Mariame Clément, and returned to Houston Grand Opera for the world premieres of The Phoenix by composer Tarik O’Regan and librettist John Caird and The House Without a Christmas Tree by Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek.  Other past appearances include Handel’s Serse for the Internationale Händel-Festspiele Karlsruhe directed by Max Emanuel Cencic and conducted by Georg Petrou and the role of Magnolia Hawks in Francesca Zambello’s production of Show Boat for The Glimmerglass Festival. A Grammy Award-nominated artist, Lauren Snouffer’s impactful discography includes Hasse’s Siroe and Handel’s Ottone with George Petrou for Decca, Gottschalk’s Requiem for the Living with Vladimir Lande on Novona Records, Grantham’s La cancíon desesperada conducted by Craig Hella Johnson on Harmonia Mundi, and Feldman’s The Rothko Chapel with Steven Schick for ECM. An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Lauren Snouffer was graduated from Rice University and The Juilliard School.

Chinese-American mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce is quickly distinguishing herself as an exciting communicator and artist in the opera world. During the 2022-23 season, she will return to Houston Grand Opera as Jack in Dame Ethel Smyth's epic 1906 opera The Wreckers and make her house debut at Opera Philadelphia in a role debut as Emilia in Rossini’s Otello alongside tenor Lawrence Brownlee. This season Ms. Pierce debuts four new roles on stage at Houston Grand Opera: Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette) directed by Tomer Zvulun; sing Sister Mathilde and cover Blanche de la Force (Dialogues des Carmélites) directed by Francesca Zambello and conducted by music director Patrick Summers; Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte) in the Barrie Kosky and Suzanne Andrade production under the baton of Jane Glover; and Mercédès (Carmen) led by Lidiya Yankovskaya. Additional appearances include reviving her portrayal of Mozart’s Second Lady for Des Moines Metro Opera; joining the Aspen Music Festival in a role debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and mezzo-soprano soloist in a concert of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and covering the role of Bao Chai in Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber with the San Francisco Opera. In the 2020-21 season at Houston Grand Opera, Ms. Pierce sang the title role in a digital presentation of Hansel and Gretel by director Lileana Blain-Cruz with original animated settings by award-winning visual artist Hannah Wasileski. She also appeared as Liesl in the company's live sing-a-long event, My Favorite Things: Songs from The Sound of Music, which took place at the TDECU Stadium at the University of Houston. Scheduled appearances included K ätchen (Werther) as well as covering Angelina and singing Tisbe (La Cenerentola) before being canceled due to the pandemic. Recent scene productions with the Houston Grand Opera Studio include excerpts of Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Bizet’s Carmen. A native of Clinton, New York, she holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance degree from the Eastman School of Music and is an alumni of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College Conservatory of Music where she studied under the tutelage of Dawn Upshaw, Kayo Iwama, and Erika Switzer. Ms. Pierce will complete her training as a member of the Houston Grand Opera Studio in May 2022.

Since her professional debut at The Metropolitan Opera, Mezzo-Soprano Vanessa Cariddi has appeared as Carmen, Waltraute, Siegrune, Suzuki, Maddalena, Dorabella, Rosina, Gondí, Hedwige, Little Buttercup, and Nicklausse, among others, at opera houses and companies including The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, Sarasota Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, On Site Opera, Bel Canto at Caramoor, and on stages in Europe, Asia, and South America. Her concert work includes the Berlioz Nuits d’été, the Verdi Requiem, Délage Four Hindu Poems, Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle, Bach B minor mass and Christmas Oratorio, and recital repertoire spanning from the Baroque to living composers. Vanessa is a frequent collaborator on new works, including performances and workshops of Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters, Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, Tobias Picker’s American Tragedy, Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna, and other works from opera to song, throughout her career. Some of her impressive reviews include praise like, “a mezzo-soprano of extraordinary gifts,” “luminescent,” “noble and eloquent,” and “A mezzo to watch.” Vanessa was twice a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival and has been a young artist at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. She is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music, and lives in New York City.

“Impressive coloratura soprano” (The New York Times) Elizabeth Sutphen has garnered praise for her sparkling voice and her ability to “soar deftly through stratospheric trills and arpeggios” (Financial Times). Praised as “Exquisite” by The Guardian, Ms. Sutphen looks forward to the 2021-2022 season, which will include her Palm Beach Opera debut as Valencienne in The Merry Widow and her debut with the  Atlanta Opera as Chrisann Brennan in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobsby Mason Bates and Mark Campbell. Ms. Sutphen has performed leading roles in houses around the world, including Sophie in Der  Rosenkavalier with the Glyndebourne Festival and Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxoswith both the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and Oper Frankfurt, and Faustina in Tarik O’Regan and John Caird’s The  Phoenix with the Houston Grand Opera. Most recently, Ms. Sutphen was praised by Schmopera for her “impeccable comedic delivery” and “ability to sing flawlessly...with dexterity and finesse” for her Des  Moines Metro Opera debut as the delightfully zany La Folie in Rameau’s Platée. The beginning of Ms. Sutphen’s 2019-2020 season saw her debuts as Gilda in Rigoletto with the Houston Grand Opera, as the Rossini heroine Lisetta in La gazzetta with Oper Frankfurt, and as the soprano  soloist in Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium with the Tiroler Festspiele. Her 2019-2020 season was also slated to include her debut as the charming Philine in Thomas’s Mignon with Oper Frankfurt, her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Singer 1/Witness 1/Woman 1 in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence, her debut with The Dallas Opera as il voce dal cielo in Don Carlo under the baton of Maestro  Emmanuel Villaume and directed by the late, unparalleled Edward Berkeley, and the cover of Cleopatra in Rossini’s Giulio Cesare with the Metropolitan Opera, all sadly cancelled due to COVID-19.

Hailed for his “polished vocal technique” and “heart-tugging emotional communication” (San Diego Story), Nicholas Newton is garnering due attention as an up-and-coming bass-baritone in the classical music world. Mr. Newton is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio where he has sung roles such as Daddy/Tim in the world premiere of The Snowy Day, Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette, Billy King in the world premiere of Marian’s Song, and Monterone in Rigoletto. Other notable performances include the role of Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Santa Fe Opera, Colline in a reduced (due to COVID-19) production of La bohème and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd with Wolf Trap Opera, and Monterone in Rigoletto with both The Dallas Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. An avid concert performer and recitalist, Mr. Newton is also an alumnus of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute and has performed as a soloist in Mozart's Requiem, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, Fauré's Requiem, Stephen Paulus' To Be Certain of the Dawn, Duruflé's Requiem with San Diego Master Chorale, Handel's Messiah with Indianapolis Symphony and New Jersey Symphony, and the world premiere of Christmas Revels with Las Colinas Symphony.

American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel, lauded as having “vocals that are smooth and ingratiating” (Daily Camera), will return to the Metropolitan Opera in the 22/23 season, singing Belcore in L’Elisir D’amore. Othe debuts include the Father in Blue with English National Opera, Elviro in Xerxes with Detroit Opera, and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Pittsburgh Opera. In concert, Mr. Sumuel will perform Mozart’s Requiem with the Cincinnati Symphony and James Conlon, Bach cantatas BWV 61 and 140 with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston, open Washington Concert Opera’s season, performing in a gala with soprano Tammy Wilson, and return to Mercury Houston for Handel’s Messiah. Finally, with Pacific Chorale, Mr. Sumuel will take part in a European tour, performing in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Florence Price’s Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight. Last season, Michael Sumuel made his debut as Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with LA Opera, a semi-staged production conducted by James Conlon with choreography by the Hamburg Ballet, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro with Seattle Opera, Escamillo in Carmen for his debut with The Santa Fe Opera, a concert of arias to open The Dallas Opera season, the King in Massenet’s Cinderella with the Metropolitan Opera, Leporello in Don Giovanni with Opera San Antonio and Escamillo with Chicago Opera Theater. In concert, Mr. Sumuel returned to the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall to sing Mozart’s Mass in C minor with Zubin Mehta, Bach’s Easter Oratorio with Music of the Baroque and Mozart’s Requiem with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Highlights of past opera seasons have included the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Masetto in a new production of Don Giovanni, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, the San Francisco Opera to perform the title role in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro, Tom in the world premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’ Heart of a Soldier, Escamillo in Calixto Bieito’s production, Masetto, conducted by Marc Minkowski, and Elviro in Handel’s Xerxes. At Houston Grand Opera, he has performed Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Frank in Die Fledermaus, Masetto, Sharpless, Marcello and Schaunard in La bohéme. With Glyndebourne Festival Opera, he performed Sharpless, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, Schaunard and Theseus. At Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, he performed Alidoro and Escamillo, and Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Dayton Opera, later reprising the role for his company debut with Central City Opera. Finally, he performed Leporello in Don Giovanni with Seattle Opera. An in demand concert artist, previous work has included Messiah with San Francisco Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, the United States Naval Academy, New Jersey Symphony, Phoenix Symphony and University Musical Society in Ann Arbor. He has performed Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Lukes, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, American Classical Orchestra in David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Other repertoire includes Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis (Pittsburgh Symphony and Grant Park Music Festival), Mozart’s Requiem (North Carolina Symphony), Haydn’s Theresienmesse (Grant Park Music Festival), Puccini’s Messa di Gloria (San Diego Symphony), the bass solos Bach’s St. John Passion (Music of the Baroque), the bass solos in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion as well as the Magnificat (Mercury Houston). Mr. Sumuel’s competition accolades include being awarded a Richard Tucker Career Grant, Metropolitan Opera National Council audition Grand Finalist and a winner of the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. A Texas native, he is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera and the Filene Young Artist program at Wolf Trap Opera. He currently resides in San Francisco with his wife and baby son.