Born in Washington, DC, Mr. Bruce was a choirboy at Washington National Cathedral where he made his operatic debut in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He holds degrees in English and Drama from Tufts University and has also guest directed on the faculty of Yale University and Westminster Choir College. Initial internships with Harold Prince (Faust, Metropolitan Opera) and Leonard Bernstein (performances and recording of Candide) led to stage management positions at The Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera and Opera Colorado and assistant director assignments at The Dallas Opera and Houston Grand Opera, where he assisted (among others) Francesca Zambello, John Copley, Bruce Beresford, David Alden, Michael Blakemore, Harry Silverstein and Anne-Margret Pettersson.

Bruce currently serves on the directing faculties of the Aspen Music Festival and Peabody Conservatory as well as the board of directors for FBN Productions (Opera for Kids).

Garnett Bruce stages Turandot for the opening of the San Francisco Opera's 2011/2012 season as well as for the inaugural production for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City's Kaufmann Performing Arts Center. He will return to the Dallas Opera to stage Lucia di Lammermoor, followed by The Rake's Progress for Peabody Opera Theater, Don Pasquale for Opera Memphis, and his production of La Cenerentola for Madison Opera.

Nicholas Cleobury is Artistic Director of Mid Wales Opera, Principal Conductor of the John Armitage Memorial (JAM), Principal Conductor and Founder Director of Sounds New and Principal Conductor of the Oxford Bach Choir. He is Founder Laureate of the Britten Sinfonia.

Cleobury has a wealth of operatic experience, having worked with companies including English National Opera, Glyndebourne and Opera North, Canadian Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre, the Royal Opera Stockholm, Hamburg Opera and Zurich Opera. He has also conducted numerous ballets, including works by Berg, von Bose (World Premiere), Debussy, Glass, Ligeti, Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

He has worked with some of the most prestigious festivals in the world, including Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Proms, English Bach Festival, St Magnus Festival Orkney and the Two Moors Festival.

Noted in particular as an orchestral and choral conductor, Cleobury has conducted all the major orchestras in the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Singapore, South Africa and beyond, and choirs including the Swedish and Danish Radio Choirs, the Berkshire Choral Festival (UK and USA) and numerous major choirs in the UK, including the Royal and Huddersfield Choral Societies and the BBC Singers.

A regular broadcaster with the BBC, Classic fM and on European radio, his discography includes highly regarded recordings of Mozart Concertos with the Britten Sinfonia and RPO, an award-winning CD of the music of Richard Strauss for EMI, Bridge, Headington, Maw and English Music with the Britten Sinfonia, and many others including the Chopin Piano Concertos.

Highlights this season and beyond include tours with Mid Wales Opera, return visits to orchestras including the RPO, Sonderjylland and Odense, Cape Philharmonic, and engagements further afield in Hong Kong and the USA (with both Opera Omaha and the Omaha Symphony Orchestra).

 “Among this country’s most dynamic and versatile conductors” - The Independent

Jun Kaneko was born in Nagoya, Japan in 1942 and by his teens was painting daily with instructor Satoshi Ogawa. This creative passion led him to California in 1963 to continue those studies when his interaction with contemporary sculptural ceramics intrigued him with the medium’s possibilities and he proceeded to study with the pioneers of the movement.

When invited to Omaha in 1981 by his now wife Ree Kaneko to participate in an experimental workshop at a brick factory he created his first large scale Dangos. He later hand-built his largest works at terra cotta factories and continues to work in a variety of mediums at studios internationally. His prolific diverse work appears in numerous international solo and group exhibitions annually and is included in more than seventy museum collections. He has realized over fifty public art commissions around the world and is honored with national, state and organizational fellowships and doctorates.

Jun and Ree Kaneko formed the non-profit scholarly and presenting organization, KANEKO, dedicated to exploring creativity in the arts, sciences and philosophy.

Jun’s production design of Mozart’s Magic Flute is preceded by his design of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 2006 and Beethoven’s Fidelio in 2008.

Tenor Shawn Mathey performs in the most important and distinguished opera companies and music festivals in the world including the Paris Opera, the Opernhaus Zurich, the Salzburg Festival, Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Theater an der Wien, and the Frankfurt Opera, among many others.

This season marks Shawn Mathey’s return to London for one of his signature roles, Tamino, at the English National Opera. He will reprise this role for further performances of Die Zauberflöte in Charlotte and Omaha. He will also be heard in an Opera Gala Concert at home in Toledo, OH. Further projects include returns to the Washington National Opera and the Cincinnati Opera, both in leading roles.

Last season, Mr. Mathey made auspicious debuts with the San Francisco Opera as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, the Dallas Opera as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, the Lisbon Opera as Ferrando in Così Fan Tutte and the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome as Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Award-winning baritone Corey McKern is earning attention and acclaim in his young career. In his 10 performance run as Marcello in La Bohème at the Santa Fe Opera this past summer, the Santa Fe New Mexican said, “Corey McKern’s resolute, robust-voiced and rambunctious Marcello, a perfect picture of a wannabe Parisian painter, was one of the best I’ve ever heard.”

In the current season, engagements include the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro with Michigan Opera Theatre, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Tulsa Opera, The Shoes for the Santo Nino with the Santa Fe Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Pensacola Opera and Syracuse Opera, his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen at Opera Birmingham, Slook in The Marriage Contract at Opera Omaha, and Marcello in La Boheme with Opera Grand Rapids.  In the 2012-2013 Season engagements will include his debut with Austin Lyric Opera as Silvio in I Pagliacci, his role debut as Dandini in La Cenerentola with Nashville Opera, and Papageno in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Omaha.

Equally at home in concert, recital or on the operatic stage, Monica Yunus is quickly establishing herself as one of America's most promising young sopranos. She has been called “especially winning” by The New York Times, and commended for her “rich and sensuous voice [that] was utterly captivating,” by the Charleston City Paper.  Her performance as Gilda in Rigoletto was applauded by Opera Online as “a performance that was quintessentially, Gilda. Her delivery was sweet, strong, smoothly evocative of the moment she was singing and most importantly, flexible and dynamic."

Ms. Yunus is the Co-Director of Sing for Hope (www.singforhope.org), a non-profit organization that mobilizes artists in volunteer service to benefit communities in need. For her contributions to the field of arts activism, Ms. Yunus has been honored to give special performances at The United Nations and the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, and received a 2009 DOHA 21st Century Leader Award in the category of Outstanding Humanitarian. Born in Chittagong, Bangladesh and raised in New Jersey, Ms. Yunus is the daughter of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Soprano Monic Yunus joins The Metropolitan Opera as Yvette in their production of La Rondine, Opera Omaha as Pamina in The Magic Flute, and The Wichita Symphony performances of Carmina Burana during the 2012-2013 season. Recent engagements include Norina in Don Pasquale with Opera Memphis, Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera with Washington National Opera, Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Austin Lyric Opera, Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Opera Omaha, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Palm Beach Opera, and Adele in Die Fledermaus with Nashville Opera. She has joined The Metropolitan Opera for numerous productions including The Enchanted Island, Le Comte Ory, Die Zauberflöte, Manon, and Don Giovanni. Recent concert performances include engagements with Andrea Bocelli in Lajatico, Italy, with José Carerras at The Zouk Mikael International Festival in Lebanon, and with Plácido Domingo at The Jordan Festival in Amman, Jordan.

Emily Hindrichs is emerging as one of the most important coloratura sopranos of our time. In the spring 2009, she made her English National Opera debut in Die Zauberflöte as Queen of the Night, and reprised the role this past season at the New Orleans Opera and Seattle Opera. Upcoming and recent performances include the Queen in her Oper Frankfurt debut, with Nashville Opera, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, and Opera Omaha; the role of Anne Trulove in The Rakes Progress with Opera de St. Etienne, her debut at Oper Köln as Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, and her debut in the role of Konstanze in Mozart's Die Entführung au dem Serail with the Connecticut Early Music Festival. Concert performances include Wang Jie’s From The Other Sky at Zankel Hall and Bach’s B Minor Mass with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall. Last season, Ms. Hindrichs also joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s roster to cover ten performances of the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte.

Described by the NY Times as an “oceanic bass” Tom McNichols continues to garner praise for work ranging from internationally acclaimed premiers to standard concert repertoire. In the last six years, his voice has been heard on five continents in live performance, live and recorded radio broadcasts and eight studio recordings in work ranging from the narration of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” with the Boston Pops to world premieres of new operatic work.

Following the premier of Death and the Powers at Opera Monte Carlo in September of 2010 in which Musical America praised him for a “powerful sonorous bass.” Tom covered the role of Bustamente in La Navarraise with the Opera Orchestra of NY at Carnegie Hall. 2011 begins with a revival of Death and the Powers by Tod Machover with The American Repertoire Theater and The Chicago Opera Theater and a recording of the opera for a 2012 release. Additionally, 2012 will see him as Sarastro in Die Zauberfloete with Opera Grand Rapids and with Trenton’s Boheme Opera. He makes his Opera Omaha debut in 2013 also as Sarastro.

The 2010 season included the premier of the role of “Inquisitor Felletti” in Francisco Calluffo’s Il Caso Mortara followed by “Bonze” in Madame Butterfly and the bass soloist in Donizetti’s Requiem, all with The Di Capo Opera.

Tom is most at home with the Basso Profundo and Basso Cantante repertoire including Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Osmin in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail and Sparafucile in Rigoletto.

An appearance as a grand semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008 led Tom to resign his tenure with CANTUS, a position he held for four seasons. Among other engagements, those years included full time touring, live and studio recordings, live broadcasts via NPR, APM and the EBU and performances in all the nation’s coveted concert halls including Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Spivey Hall and the Library of Congress.

Tom holds a MM from The Peabody Institute and currently studies with Michael Paul in NYC.

This versatile Korean-American tenor began his 2012-2013 Season via a highly acclaimed debut as Pang in Puccini’s Turnadot with Seattle Opera.  Additional engagements in 2012-2013 Season include Goro in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Nashville Opera, Mark in Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage with Boston Modern Orchestra Project in concert at Jordan Hall, and Monostatos in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Opera Carolina.

Also as part of the 2012-2013 Season, Ahn will perform the lead role of Guang in Stuck Elevator by B. Au Yong and A. Jafferis – the role which Ahn also helped develop and workshop as a participating artist with the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab  in its world premiere at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.

Ahn’s other recent engagements include Padre Ruffano in Musto’s The Inspector with Boston Lyric Opera , Basilio and Curzio in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera Baltimore.

In the 2011-12 season, Jamie-Rose sang the role of Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann with Wolf Trap Opera Company, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with Austin Lyric Opera, Maria Celeste in Galileo Galilei with Madison Opera, Cis in Albert Herring with Los Angeles Opera, and  Xanthe/Aphrodite in Lysistrata with Fort Worth Opera. She was a featured soloist in the 2011 Christmas Spectacular with Madison Symphony Orchestra, and Brahms’ Requiem with the Santa Fe Orchestra.  In the 2012-2013 season she reprises her Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro for both Florentine Opera and Austin Lyric Opera.   Additional engagements for the upcoming season include Papagena with Opera Omaha and her debut with Memphis Opera as Judy Atkins in Lee Hoiby’s This is the Rill Speaking.

With the Santa Fe Opera Ms. Guarrine has appeared as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro,  Papagena in Die Zauberflöte and Cis in Albert Herring.  Additional recent highlights include Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Kentucky Opera, Susanna in Utah Opera’s Le nozze di Figaro, Nella in Gianni Schicchi and the roles of Fire, Nightingale and Princess in L’Enfant et les Sortileges with Opera Company of Philadelphia, and concert appearances with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, St Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. 

“Singing powerfully with a straight-forward, burnished baritone of considerable beauty” according to OPERA TODAY, American bass Bradley Smoak has rapidly emerged as one of opera’s most exciting and sought-after young talents. The 2011/12 season saw him as Zuniga in Carmen with both Opera Charleston and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, along with the King of Hearts in the American Premiere of Chin’s Alice in Wonderland. Of his performance as the King, the CHICAGO CLASSICAL REVIEW lauded “the plush, rolling tones with which he echoed [the Queen’s] orders.” Smoak has become a household name with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, performing in past seasons as Masetto in Don Giovanni, Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro, 2nd Soldier in Salome, as well as covering such roles as Colline in La Bohème and Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin. His performance in Don Giovanni was cause for critical acclaim, as THE RIVERFRONT TIMES stated, “The best comic turns are pulled off by Bradley Smoak and his effortlessly elegant bass voice as the peasant, Masetto.” He returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2013 to take the stage as the Pirate King in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance

The versatile soprano is an artist whose consummate skills as both a singer and an actress have made her highly visible in opera, oratorio and as soloist with symphony orchestras. The beauty of her voice and intelligent artistry have also made her a much sought after artist for both the standard repertoire and new works. She has become known for her riveting and moving portrayals of Violetta in La Traviata and Lucia in Lucia Di Lammermoor. She has sung leading roles with Opera Tampa, Opera Columbus, Lake George Opera Festival, Jacksonville Lyric Opera, Treasure Coast Opera, Opera Naples, Light Opera Oklahoma, Ocean State Lyric Opera, the Salt Marsh Opera Company, Boston Academy of Music, Rhode Island Philharmonic and Opera Providence among others.

Mezzo-soprano Leah Wool has been hailed by Opera News as "among the more distinctive and accomplished artists of her generation," with  "a voice of truly beautiful timbre."

Ms. Wool's 2012-2013 season includes appearances with both Nashville Opera and Knoxville Opera as the title role in La Cenerentola; Sacramento Opera, as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia; and Opera Omaha as Second Lady in The Magic Flute. The 2013-2014 season will feature a return to Boston Baroque.

Sought after on the concert stage, she has appeared as mezzo-soprano soloist for works including Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor with Gloria Musicae, Haydn's Theresienmesse with the New Jersey Symphony, Handel's Messiah with the Utah Symphony, Duruflé's Requiem with the Greenwich Choral Society, Vivaldi's Gloria with the New Haven Symphony, Bruckner's Missa Solemnis with the Manchester Symphony, and Bach's Magnificat, Stravinsky's Les  Noces, and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass at Yale University.

Ms. Wool has been a Young Artist at Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Utah Symphony & Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera North, and the Caramoor Festival. She holds an Artist Diploma and Master of Music from Yale University and received her Bachelor of Music magna cum laude from Westminster Choir College. Ms. Wool is a native of Long Island, New York.

Mezzo-Soprano, Elisabeth Bieber, has been noted for her “spine-tingling” performances and her “warm, fluid [tone]… even in scale from top to bottom.” Holding degrees in both English and Music, Ms. Bieber’s love of poetry and story makes her a compelling singing-actor.

Elisabeth Bieber, mezzo-soprano, is excited to return to Opera Omaha for her second Jun Kaneko designed production, after performing the role of Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in 2011.  Last fall, Elisabeth returned to Omaha as the alto soloist in Omaha Symphony's Choral Collaborative Concert of Mendelssohn's Elijah. 

Elisabeth's operatic stage experience includes the roles of Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Desiree Armfeldt in A Little Night Music and the title roles in The Rape of Lucretia and La Cenerentola.  Equally comfortable on the concert stage, she has been seen with the symphonies of Omaha, Waterloo-Cedar Falls, and Orchestra Iowa.  Elisabeth has served apprenticeships with Des Moines Metro Opera, Bel Canto at Caramoor, Opera Santa Barbara and Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre.  Holding music degrees from Luther College and the University of Iowa, Elisabeth currently lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with her husband and two children.

Tenor Edwin Vega recently made his debut with the English National Opera debut as Molqi in Death of Klinghoffer followed by his role debut of Goro in Madama Butterfly with Nevada Opera. This past summer Mr. Vega returned to the Santa Fe Opera as a Servant (Arabella) and King Edrisi understudy in Szymanowski's King Roger. Mr. Vega recently returned to the dell'Arte Opera Ensemble performing the roles of Tanzmeister and Brighella in new production of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, and to Chicago Opera Theater for the Chicago premiere of Charpentier's Medee. Last season he was featured as Rubens Barrichello (the title character's protégé) in the Metropolitan Opera's new opera workshop of Michael Torke's Senna. Mr. Vega made his Carnegie Hall debut in Jerry Springer - The Opera starring Harvey Keitel and sang Rinuccio in the summer of 2010 with the dell'Arte Opera Ensemble’s new production of Gianni Schicchi.

Darik Knutsen, baritone from McLean Va, began singing as a boy soprano with the National Cathedral Boys' Choir when he was 9 years old. He is excited to make his Omaha Opera debut in the Magic Flute. Earlier this season Mr. Knutsen made his international debut singing Marcello in La Boheme under the baton of Lorin Maazel at the Royal Opera House of Muscat, Oman.

This past summer Mr. Knutsen was a part of the 2012 Castleton Music Festival. There he starred as Fredrik in Sondheim's A Little Night Music. Also at Castleton he understudied the role of Figaro in The Barber of Seville, and sing the role of Le Dancaïre in Carmen.
Previous operatic experience includes; Inquisitor Galileo Galilei with Madison Opera 2012, Wagner in Faust with The Santa Fe Opera 2011, Arcas in Médée with Chicago Opera Theater 2011, Schlemil in The Tales of Hoffmann SFO 2010, Charlie understudy in Three Decembers with COT 2010, and the title role of Eugene Onegin at the Chautauqua Institute of Music 2009.

Mr. Knutsen is the recipient of numerous awards including 2nd Place Winner in the Central Region Finals of the Metropolitan Council Auditions 2010, Winner of the American Opera Society Scholarship 2011, and 1st Place in the Bel Canto Foundation of Chicago 2011. He is a 2011 graduate of Roosevelt University's AD Program under David Holloway, and graduate of Northwestern University where he studied under Sherrill Milnes.