TIER I

Ben Reisinger is a tenor currently going into his second year with the Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera. In the 2025-2026 season Ben will make his Metropolitan Opera debut in the Magic Flute as the 1st Armoured Guard as well as perform the roles of the Young Sailor in Tristan und Isolde by Wagner and Gastone in La Traviata. Ben is also happy to make his role and house debut with Opera Colorado in La Traviata performing the role of Alfredo and will also cover the Duca in Rigoletto with San Francisco Opera. In the 2024-2025 season Ben covered the Seatwarmer in the new opera Grounded and covered the First Prisoner in Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera. Previously performing as a baritone, Ben was a Resident Artist with Detroit Opera in 2022-2024 and sang and covered many roles. In 2025 Ben was awarded the Sarah Tucker Study Grant, 1st place in Partners for the Arts in Washington, DC, 1st place in Florham Opera competition, 2nd prize in the Loren Zachary Competition, Top Prize from the Premiere Opera Foundation. In 2024 Ben was awarded the Career Grant from the Sullivan Foundation, and the Stephen Phebus Award from Opera Index. He holds degrees in voice from Nazareth College and Michigan State University.

Soprano Brianna J. Robinson, praised by The Boston Globe as “a radiant voice and presence,” is a native of Ravenna, Ohio. She is a Resident Artist with Detroit Opera for the 2024–2025 and 2025–2026 seasons, performing in La Traviata, Central Park Five and The Handmaid’s Tale. A former Emerging Artist with Boston Lyric Opera, she has performed in Omar, Fellow Travelers, and The Anonymous Lover. Robinson debuted internationally in Bulgaria and at Carnegie Hall in 2023. In 2024, she won First Prize in the George Shirley Vocal Competition. She holds degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University and the Eastman School of Music.

Taylor Deane Haines, Soprano, has become known for her radiant, powerful voice and confident, decisive stage presence. Her repertoire encompasses a variety of roles, including Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito), Chrysothemis (Elektra), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), and Older Alyce in Tom Cipullo‘s Glory Denied, among others. This season she makes role debuts as Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites, and Angèle in Der Zar Lässt Sich Fotografieren. She has won numerous prizes, including First Prize in the Maria Amadini International Opera Competition in Bellinzona, Switzerland; Second Prize in the Absalom Stifung Mozart Competition (Hamburg, Germany), Salvatore Licitra International Competition (Milan, Italy), and James Toland Vocal Arts Competition (Tier II); and Third Prize in the Anton Rubinstein Competition (Düsseldorf, Germany), and Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition. Taylor holds numerous degrees, and has studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Sacramento State University, the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, and the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Italy.

Recognized for his “robust, booming bass voice” (Rochester City Magazine), James McCarthy is a bass-baritone from Pleasantville, NY. With a commanding stage presence, Mr. McCarthy has performed the roles of Seneca and Mercurio in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Il Commendatore and Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Thomas Brockwiller in Lehar’s Die Juxheirat, and Frank Maurrant in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. Most recently, Mr. McCarthy appeared as Zuniga in Francesca Zambello’s production of Carmen at San Francisco Opera, where he was fortunate enough to be an Adler Fellow and he is the proud recipient of the 2025 Igor Gorin Memorial Award from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. Mr. McCarthy holds a Master of Music degree from Rice University and holds Bachelor degrees in Music and Audio/Music Engineering from the Eastman School of Music/University of Rochester.

Baltimore-born baritone Daniel Rich is a recent graduate of The Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the 2023–24 Met season, he appeared as Pâris in Roméo et Juliette and as Chester in Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones. He made his Met debut during the 2022–23 season as a Waiter in Der Rosenkavalier and covered the Count of Lerma in Don Carlo. Last summer he made his company debut at Des Moines Metro Opera, where he appeared as the First Nazarene and covered Jochanaan in Salome, and sung Willie McDonald in the premiere of Damien Geter and Lila Palmer’s American Apollo. September 2024 he made his company debut with Opera Philadelphia covering the roles of Dillon and Paul Devon in the American premiere of Mazzoli’s The Listeners. October 2024, he returned to Opera Baltimore and debuted at Opera Delaware, making his role debut as Marcello, in Puccini’s La Boheme. Other recent operatic engagements include Masetto in Don Giovanni at Wolf Trap Opera, Valentin in Faust at Opera Baltimore, and various roles in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels's Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar, including its world premiere at the Spoleto Festival in 2022 and revival at Carolina Performing Arts in 2023. He will return to The Metropolitan Opera during the spring of 2025 to cover the 2nd Nazarene in Strauss’ Salome and will make his debut with Atlanta Opera as Raymond in the premiere of David Ragland’s opera, Steele Roots. On the concert stage, he has appeared as a featured soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Orff's Carmina Burana with both the Richmond Symphony and Berkshire Choral International, and a concert of sacred music by Mary Lou Williams & Duke Ellington with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall, among others. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 as a soloist in Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. In 2024, he was named the second place winner of Opera Columbus’ Cooper-Bing Competition and in 2023 he was the 1st place winner of the George Shirley Vocal Competition and emerging artist winner of the inaugural Duncan Williams Vocal Competition. Additional accolades include second place in Opera Ebony’s Benjamin Matthews Vocal Competition, first place in the Black Brilliance Art Song Competition, and second place in the Marian Anderson Vocal Competition. Daniel has found early success as a concert artist and recitalist performing for organizations such as Baltimore Musicales, Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts, Harlem Opera Theatre, and Capitol Singers of Trenton, to name a few. In addition to his extensive performance experience, he has worked as a music educator in public schools and as an adjunct professor of voice at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. He holds degrees from Morgan State University and Manhattan School of Music, where he received the Edgar Foster Daniels Scholarship in Voice.

TIER II

In the 2024/2025 season, Anna Thompson debuts the role of Marie Antoinette in The Ghosts of Versailles and the title role in Alcina at Rice University. As a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, she covers Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and performs scenes as the title role in Manon and Alice Ford in Falstaff with the St. Louis Symphony. She also debuts at the Bard Music Festival singing Mariken in Martinů’s Mariken de Nimègue. As a 2024 Apprentice Artist with The Santa Fe Opera, she covered Marianne Leitmetzerin in Der Rosenkavalier. Anna was recently named a 2025 Winner of the Houston District of the Laffont Competition.

Christopher Gray, bass-baritone, is a rising senior pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of North Texas, where he studies with American bass-baritone Stephen Morscheck. Christopher was recently named a winner in the Schmidt Vocal Arts Undergraduate Awards (Upper Division), took 3rd Place in the MIOpera International Vocal Competition, and was a finalist in the San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club Voice Competition. In the 2024–2025 season, Christopher’s performances have included Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Frosch (Die Fledermaus), and the Sodbuster (Proving Up) with UNT Opera; Masetto (Don Giovanni) with Music On Site Inc.; and Colline (La bohème) with the Sherman Symphony Orchestra. This summer, Christopher joins the Aspen Music Festival and School as a Studio Artist, where he will cover the role of Schaunard (La bohème) and perform as the Samana bass-baritone soloist in the world premiere of Siddhartha, She, a new oratorio by Christopher Theofanidis and Melissa Studdard.

Originally from Santa Cruz, California, Hans Grunwald attended the University of British Columbia, earning degrees in Vocal Performance and Mathematics. In 2024 Hans was named a Next Generation Artist with Early Music Vancouver. Previously, he was a fellow at the Music Academy of the West in 2023 and attended Songfest as a Schubert Fellow in 2022. Hans is passionate about Art Song, and has presented numerous recitals around the Bay Area and Vancouver. His teachers include Wendy Hillhouse of Stanford University and J. Patrick Raftery of UBC. Hans will begin Masters studies at UCLA in fall of 2025.

Justice Yates will be covering Le Gouveneur in Merola’s 2025 production of Le Comte Ory and performing as Don Annibale and Enrico in Il Campanello and Anna Bolena respectively in their scenes programs. After performing as Ibn-Hakia in Iolanta this past February, Justice took on Tobias Mill in La Cambiale di Matrimonio this spring at Yale Opera. Upon performing Masetto and covering Leporello in Merola’s 2024 production of Don Giovanni, he had just finished roles as Father Trulove in The Rake's Progress and Simone in Gianni Schicchi with Yale Opera in the spring prior. Having earned his undergraduate degree in Music Performance at Stetson University, Justice currently studies Voice and Opera Performance with Gerald Martin Moore at the Yale University School of Music, receiving his master's degree in May 2025 and expecting a second master’s degree in May 2026.

This year, Sofia Gotch was a semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and won third prize in the Gerda Lissner and Giulio Gari Vocal Competitions. Sofia has sung with the American Modern Opera Company, Aspen Music Festival, and is an alumna of the Manhattan School of Music. Sofia is currently a Young Artist with the Merola Opera Program."