Shreveport Opera Xpress
SOX Artists
The Shreveport Opera Resident Artist Program allows emerging professional singers and pianists the opportunity to receive training within a professional opera company. Each season, the Resident Artists (consisting of four singers and one pianist) perform and/or cover leading, supporting, comprimario and ensemble roles in the three mainstage productions. They receive coachings and workshops with visiting artists, opportunities to sing with area orchestras as featured soloists and weekly cantor positions at Shreveport churches. Perhaps the most important part of the Resident Artists’ position in Shreveport is their participation in the SOX Program (Shreveport Opera Xpress). This program allows the Resident Artists to go out into the communities of Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas to bring opera into their lives. The SOX program features two children’s operas that not only expose children to the art form but also discuss important topics such as diversity, acceptance and bullying, and they are performed in over 100 different schools . The SOX program also includes “Operatizers” (a concert of Opera Arias and Musical Theatre Pieces) at senior centers, community centers and private functions. Along with a weekly stipend, the Resident Artists receive housing, transportation to all company events and a travel stipend. Auditions for the program are held each December in New York City.
For information on how to apply to the Shreveport Opera Resident Artists program, please see the listing on YAPtracker here.
RESIDENT ARTISTS
2022-23
Gabrielle Gilliam
Praised for her “beautifully resonant vocal quality” (Texas Classical), soprano Gabrielle Gilliam made her mainstage debut in 2022 at The Dallas Opera as Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. As a Lesley Resident Artist, she was seen as Luisa in the world premiere production of Hector Armienta’s Zorro, and covered the role of Violetta in La Traviata with Fort Worth Opera. Despite the constraints of the Covid – 19 pandemic, Gabrielle was a district winner for the 2020-2021 Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions, and was engaged in a number of virtual performances, including music videos, virtual operas and recitals. She was also featured soloist alongside Sasha Cooke, Deanna Breiwick, and Lucas Meachem in the orchestra workshop of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a new work by composer Joby Talbot and librettist Gene Scheer. This October, Gabrielle returns to The Dallas Opera as the Dew Fairy in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.
Bridget Cappel
Mezzo-Soprano, Bridget Cappel, has been celebrated for her “beauty of tone and honesty of feeling…a real mezzo-soprano.” This past season, Bridget created the role of Toypurina in Hector Armienta’s World Premiere of Zorro (Fort Worth Opera) and made her debut with The Dallas Bach Society as La Poesie in Les Arts Florissants. She returned to Opera Mississippi and The Natchez Festival of Music as a soloist in The Magic of Opera. She is a winner of the John Alexander National Vocal Competition and a Midwest Regional Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2019). Bridget has performed with Kentucky Opera (Mercedes/Carmen cv., Carmen) , Des Moines Metro Opera (Paquette cv., Candide), and Fort Worth Opera (Hansel, Hansel & Gretel, Maria cv., Maria de Buenos Aries). Other roles include Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Hermia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Eliza (My Fair Lady), and Toledo (The Falling and the Rising, WP).
Dylan Davis
Tenor Dylan Davis, an apprentice with Santa Fe Opera in summer 2022, performed Shepherd (Tristan und Isolde) and chorus in Carmen, The Barber of Seville, and M Butterfly. He was a Studio Artist for Central City Opera in 2019 and returned in 2021 as an Apprentice Artist covering the Duke (Rigoletto). He is a past and current resident artist of Shreveport Opera where he performed the Duke (Rigoletto), Don José (The Tragedy of Carmen) and Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro). Roles for Shreveport Opera this season include Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville) and Alfredo (La traviata). Dylan is a proud native of Marion, OH, but today calls Columbus, OH, home. He received his BM from Otterbein University in Westerville, OH, and his MM from Ohio State University where he sang Basilio (Le Nozze di Figaro) and The Governor/Vanderdendur (Candide).
Andrew Payne
Baritone Andrew Payne hails from Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and is a student of Jennifer Rowley. Previously, he has studied with W. Stephen Smith at Northwestern University where he received his M.M. in voice and opera, and with Marcus DeLoach, where he graduated from Temple University with a B.M. in voice performance. Past operatic roles have been Howard (Dog Days), Sam (Trouble in Tahiti), Guglielmo (Così Fan Tutte), Benoît/Alcindoro (La bohème), Johann and the Albert understudy (Werther), Nick Shadow (The Rake’s Progress), Frank (Die Fledermaus), Claudio (Béatrice et Bénédict) and the Gendarme (Les Mamelles de Tirésias). Mr. Payne has also been the baritone soloist in Stacey Garrop’s oratorio, Terra Nostra and has also performed internationally in a world premiere production of The Mad Hatter in the West End of London. This summer, he will be making his debut with Central City Opera as an Apprentice Artist. Afterwards, he will travel to Shreveport Opera where he will be a Resident Artist for their 2022/2023 season. Mr. Payne has recently won first place in Opera Idol hosted by Sherrill Milnes, third place in the NATS Philadelphia Chapter in 2015, and was a recipient of the Middleburg Music Scholarship in 2017. He has performed in masterclasses with Sherrill Milnes, Jennifer Rowley, Warren Jones, Anthony Michaels-Moore, and Brenton Ryan.
Ah Young Kim
Pianist Ah Young Kim, a native of South Korea, maintains a diverse range of musical experiences. As a collaborative pianist, she played for studios, including that of cellist János Starker, at Indiana University, where she received a master’s degree. Ms. Kim has also played for singers at masterclasses led by Alan L. Smith, Donna Racik, Dwayne Croft, Twyla Robinson, and the late Nico Castel. As an operatic pianist and coach, her previous credits include Aspen Music Festival Opera Coach Fellow (CO), Charlottesville Opera (Ash Lawn Opera, VA), Fort Worth Opera (TX), Musiktheater Bavaria (Germany), Opera North (Lebanon, NH), and UNT Opera (Denton, TX). Ms. Kim began her musical training in South Korea and received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas. Her teachers include Pamela Mia Paul, Shigeo Neriki, Stephen Dubberly, and Elvia Puccinelli. She made a presentation at the MTNA National Conference (Baltimore, MD) and Louisiana Tech University (Ruston, LA). She also participated in the Mozarteum Summer Academy (Salzburg, Austria) and the International Keyboard Institute & Festival (IKIF, New York, NY).
Shreveport Opera Xpress
Outreach Productions
Shreveport Opera offers educational performances at your school for preK-12 students.
RALPH THE RAT
STOP! BULLY
Operatizers
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