Kassandra

Neena Beber

Librettist Neena Beber’s plays include Jump/Cut, The Dew Point, Tomorrowland, A Common Vision, The Brief but Exemplary Life of the Living Goddess (as told by herself) and Misreadings, published by Samuel French. Beber is a recipient of an Obie Grant award (Lilly Award), the L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award, and Sloan and Amblin Commissions, as well as an exchange at the Royal Court Theatre.

Penelope Shumate

Praised by The New York Times for her singing with “bell-like clarity and surpassing sweetness,” and by the New York Concert Review for “her sparkling coloratura perfection,” soprano Penelope Shumate (Kassandra) can also be heard on Messiah Refreshed (2020) recorded at London’s Abbey Road Studios with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and As the Fireflies Watched . . .the Chamber Music of James Stephenson (2021).

Christopher Besch

Bass-baritone Christopher Besch (Apollo) has performed in eight countries on three continents with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, and Jeffrey Thomas. Besch has been described as having “a commanding stage presence and rich resonance of deep bass sound” (DC Theatre Scene). Recently, he sang Nourabad in Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles with Opera in the Heights and created the role of Peter Gray in the world premiere of What Wings They Were: The Case of Emeline with Houston Grand Opera (HGOco).

Megan Berti

Mezzo-soprano Megan Berti (Ty) is a Houston-based performer of opera and oratorio. She sings often with Houston Grand Opera, and recently performed as a soloist in O’Regan’s The Phoenix and Female Emilia in Floyd’s Prince of Players. Berti has appeared with Opera in the Heights, Miami Lyric Opera, and Painted Sky Opera as Angelina (La Cenerentola), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), Prince Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel), and Flora (La traviata).

Albert J. Stanley

Singaporean-American tenor Albert J. Stanley (Al) is honored and delighted to reprise his role as Al for the recording of Kassandra. Since graduating from Carnegie Mellon University’s prestigious voice program, Stanley has focused his career on new music and is glad to be returning to that world after so much time away during the pandemic. In particular, Stanley would like to thank Anthony Brandt and Maestro Eiki Isomura for giving him the chance to help bring such incredible music to life. A highlight of the 21-22 season includes Willy in the world premiere of Laura Schwendinger’s chamber opera Cabaret of Shadows with the contemporary music ensemble Musiqa.

Aidan Smerud

Originally from La Crosse WI, Aidan Smerud (Artie) is earning his Doctor of Musical Arts study at the University of Houston. While attending school, Smerud has remained an active artist, collaborating with secular and sacred ensembles as well as performing with opera companies locally and nationally. His other performing credits include Amarillo Opera: Marquis d’Obigni–La Traviata; Bartolo–Le nozze di Figaro. Opera Saratoga: Innkeeper–The Man of La Mancha; Bartolo–Le nozze di Figaro; chorus–Il Postino, Dido and Aeneas, and La Cenerentola.

Eiki Isomura

Japanese-American conductor Eiki Isomura is artistic director and principal conductor of Opera in the Heights (OH) in Houston, where he has led over a hundred performances of over twenty-five operas, drawing consistent praise for elevating the company’s performance standard. Isomura previously served on the music staff as conductor and pianist with HGOco and Opera in the Ozarks.

William Yeh

Praised for his “astounding dexterity”(Sarasota Observer News), flutist William Yeh is a master’s student at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He received his bachelor’s degree in music and minor in accounting at the University of California, Los Angeles. Yeh has performed with the Fort Worth Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and held the 3rd flute/piccolo position of the American Youth Symphony and Young Musicians Foundation’s Debut Orchestra, both pre-professional training orchestras in Los Angeles, for two seasons.

Roy Park

Clarinetist Roy Park began his musical studies at the age of seven and has since earned degrees from Indiana University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Rice University. As an orchestra musician, Park has performed with the Louisiana Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony, Victoria Symphony, and Corpus Christi Ballet Orchestras.

Thomas Frey

A clarinet soloist and orchestral player, Thomas Frey performs widely through classical music and other music mediums. He has performed with the San Antonio Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Opera in the Heights, Musiqa, Loop38 and Hear&Now. Frey has toured throughout Texas as part of an electronic music and dance collaborative, as well as performing in Houston’s Rothko Chapel, Match Theater, CAMH and Madison Wisconsin’s Museum of Contemporary Art. His recordings appear in the documentary soundtrack for Saving the Great Swamp as well as Karim Al-Zand’s Studies in Nature.

Ting-Ting Yang

Ting-Ting Yang is a multi-genre composer and collaborative pianist whose musical journey began in Taiwan. A composition graduate from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore), her compositions were premiered in the USA, Taiwan, Singapore, and she was invited to speak in composition colloquium in East Carolina University (2019). While avidly composing, Yang was invited by many orchestral musicians to join them as a recital pianist globally. These constant invitations solidified her confidence which eventually led her to pursue a master’s degree in piano accompaniment and chamber music with Virginia Weckstrom at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Alexander Garde

Percussionist Alexander Garde is a member of “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. Garde holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from the New England Conservatory, where he was a recipient of the 2020 George Whitefield Chadwick Medal. He pursued graduate studies at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Jacob Schafer

Violinist Jacob Schafer is a multifaceted performer dedicated to compelling, thoughtful presentations of works old and new. Based in Houston, Texas, he is a core member of Loop38 and Kinetic Ensemble and regularly performs with MUSIQA, Da Camera of Houston, and Mercury Chamber Orchestra.

Julia Kirk

Julia Kirk is a violist, violinist, and pianist from Jackson MS. She has performed in the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, Interlochen Summer Arts Camp, and Aspen Music Festival. Kirk has been a substitute violinist and violist for the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra since 2013. Kirk has had solo engagements with the Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra, the Master Camerata, and the Symphonic Orchestra of Cuzco. In 2017, she won First Prize of the International Viola Competition of Mississippi. Kirk has a Bachelor of Arts in Conducting and Theatre from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. She currently studies with James Dunham at Rice University, pursuing a Master of Music in Viola Performance.

Max Geissler

Praised for his “superb artistry and beautiful sound,” cellist Max Geissler is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Rice University under the tutelage of Desmond Hoebig. Currently, Geissler serves as the cellist and Co-Artistic Director of the mixed instrumentation new music ensemble Latitude 49 and is a highly sought-after chamber collaborator and educator. Before his studies at Rice, Geissler earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan working with Richard Aaron.