Anastasia Koorn is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned a dual degree in Vocal Performance, and Choral Music Education, with a minor in German. This summer season she has been selected to perform the title role in Chicago Summer Opera’s Serse, and following this she will make her Berlin debut as The Gingerbread Witch in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel. Her most recent roles include Cherubino in W.A. Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Bradamante in G.F. Handel’s Alcina at the Saluzzo Opera Academy in Saluzzo, Italy.  She has also performed as Phoebe in Gilbert & Sullivan’s Yeomen of the Guard, the contralto role understudy in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Chorus America’s Conducting Academy, Felice in William Grant Still’s Minette Fontaine, Agnes in Bruce Trinkley’s Baby Shower, and Iolanthe in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe. Anastasia has performed at Carnegie Hall twice as part of the Honors Performance Series, in addition to the Honors Women’s Choir at the Sydney Opera House. She has also performed with the National Association for Music Education's (NAfME) All-Eastern Honors Choir, and the All-National Honors Choir at the Grand Ole Opry in Tennessee. Anastasia will be continuing her education at the Royal College of Music where she will be earning her masters in Vocal Performance.

Kristina Costello is a coloratura soprano from Long Island, NY. She holds a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Vocal Performance and Music Education from Carnegie Mellon University. While at CMU, she sang a wide plethora of roles and repertoire, including, Flora in “Turn of the Screw”, Zémire (cover) in “Zémire et Azor”, Young girl/ chorus in “Le Nozze Di Figaro”, and Almirena in “Rinaldo”. She was selected to perform a selection from Rinaldo at CMU’s commencement, singing Lascia ch’io pianga.

At New England Conservatory she was the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana, Despina in the Così fan tutte opera scenes, and in the chorus of Dido and Aeneas.

Outside of school, Kristina has held lead roles in multiple contemporary operas premiered in the Pittsburgh area. In 2020, she won the Michael Mayes award at the Death by Aria Competition as part of the Utah Vocal Arts Academy. Kristina has attended various music programs including Classical Singing and New York in June, Utah Vocal Arts Academy, Songfest as a Colburn Fellow, Oyster Bay Music Festival, and the Savannah Voice Festival. While at SVF, she worked closely with composer Michael Ching as Dater #38 in his opera, "Speed Dating Tonight”.

Kristina is studying at New England Conservatory where is pursuing her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance as part of the voice studio of Lisa Saffer. Kristina has a private voice and piano studio in Long Island, NY, and Boston, MA. Besides singing, Kristina loves teaching private music lessons, playing the ukulele, and taking care of her pet bird, Luna.

Soprano Wallis Lucas is ecstatic to be joining CSO for another season, having covered Morgana in last year’s Alcina. She is a first-year master’s student at Carnegie Mellon University and recently graduated with a B.M. in Voice Performance and a minor in Musical Theatre from Furman University. Recent roles include Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Duke Senior (Shakespeare’s As You Like It), Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Lucy Harris (Jekyll and Hyde). Later this summer, she is joining Opera Steamboat in the cast of Company as Kathy. When not singing, she enjoys hiking, painting, and looking for her next cup of coffee.

Mezzo-soprano Olivia O’Brien is a recent graduate of Northwestern University, where she received her B.M. in Voice & Opera. During her undergraduate career, Olivia appeared in several roles, including Rachel in Jake Heggie’s If I Were You, Gertrud in Hänsel und Gretel, and Cupid in Orpheus and the Underworld. Last summer, Olivia sang as Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Atlantic Music Festival, and this fall, Olivia is excited to begin her M.M. in Opera Performance at the University of Maryland College Park’s Opera Studio. Thank you to CSOpera and everyone involved in this production, from the talented cast of musicians to those behind the scenes, for working so hard to make this performance a reality!

Originally from Libertyville, Il, mezzo-soprano Lauren Randolph studied Voice and Opera performance under the mentorship of Theresa Brancaccio at Northwestern University. With Northwestern Opera Theater, she performed the roles of Mrs. Nolan in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium and Rachel in Jake Heggie’s If I Were You. Randolph also appeared as the mezzo-soprano soloist in the Northwestern Choirs performance of the Duruflé Requiem. During the 2021 summer season, she performed the role of Florence Pike in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring with Chicago Summer Opera. In the fall of 2020, Randolph was awarded 1st place in the Central Region NATS competition, and in 2021, she was a finalist in the Bienen School of Music Concerto/Aria competition, and was awarded 1st place in the Chicago Chapter NATS competition, as well as 1st place in the 2021 NATS National Student Auditions.

Bass-Baritone from South Korea, Seoyong Lee is pursuing his Master of Voice and Opera study at Northwestern University, Bienen School of Music under the guidance of W. Stephen Smith. Seoyong received his Bachelor of Music degree with distinction in Eastman School of Music under Dr. Jonathan Retzlaff. Opera role he performed includes Colline from Puccini's La Bohème with the Northwestern Opera Theatre, Death from Der Kaiser von Atlantis by Viktor Ullmann, Puppet Master from Postcard from Morocco by Dominick Argento, Jimmy from Mahagonny Songspiel by Kurt Weil with Eastman Opera Theatre. He is the recipient of the Eckstein award with full scholarship in Northwestern University and he was the finalist for the 2021 Kneisel Lieder competition. This summer he is very excited to play the roles of Ariodate and Grandpa Moss with the Chicago Summer Opera!

British baritone Joshua Lane finished his masters in Vocal Studies and Opera at the Royal Northern College of Music under the tutelage of Matthew Best. This year he has sung the roles of Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and Edmund Bertram in Jonathon Dove’s Mansfield park for RNCM Opera scenes and looks forward to singing Benoit and Alcindoro in La Boheme for Outreach Opera. In 2021 Josh took part in two Opera North residential weekends working with Antony Hermus and Annabel Arden, sung as a young artist for Southwell Music Festival as well as the role of Le Dancaïre in Carmen for RNCM opera scenes.

Joshua is excited to be singing Elviro in Handel’s Serse and covering Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with Chicago Summer Opera, before starting a Postgraduate Diploma at the RNCM in September 2022.

Joshua graduated from Newcastle University in 2015 with a 2:1 BA(Hons) in Music. At Newcastle he made his vocal debut as Count Henri de Bouvray in Victor Herbert’s MMLE. Modiste with Newcastle University Opera and was also elected President of the university Jazz Orchestra.

After graduating from Newcastle Joshua worked in corporate fundraising for major arts organisation in London, including the London Symphony Orchestra. He has also sung with award winning chamber choir Coro, directed by Mark Griffiths, where he has been featured as the baritone soloist. Whilst working in London he studied with Mark Wildman and Marcus Farnsworth.

Joshua is extremely grateful for the generous support of the Headley Trust and the Leverhulme Trade Charities Trust during his studies.

Soprano Carson Hardigree is a rising senior at Furman University, where she studies voice with Dr. Alison Trainer, and is majoring in Vocal Performance and Music Education with a minor in Musical Theatre. While studying classical voice at Furman, she has proven herself to be an extremely versatile artist, and has performed a wide variety of roles, such as the Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods, Meg March in Little Women, and Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia. She was also slated to sing the Spirit in Cendrillon (Massenet) in the spring of 2020. This past fall, Carson also directed a full musical production of Jekyll and Hyde. Carson is currently cast as Donna Elvira in Furman Lyric Theatre’s production of Don Giovanni. She has repeatedly placed or won at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competitions at the state and regional level in both Classical and Musical Theater Voice. Carson looks forward to the summer of 2022, when she will join Chicago Summer Opera’s Young Artist Program and will cover the role of Romilda in Handel’s Serse.

Jacqueline Conlon has just finished her first year of her master's degree in vocal performance under the tutelage of Jane Bunnell at Michigan State University. A Long Island Native, Jackie received her Bachelor's in Music Education and Vocal Performance from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in May 2021 studying with Margaret Chalker. She has recently appeared in Mayo *World Premiere (Carolyn), L'enfant et les sortilèges (The Squirrel), Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino Cover/Mezzo-Bridesmaid), and Speed Dating Tonight! (Coordinator.) Jackie is very excited to be a part of this experience and would like to thank all her teachers, family, and friends for their love and support.

Alessia Vitali is an Italian Canadian mezzo-soprano who has completed her Diploma of College Studies in music from Vanier College and her BMus in Performance at the University of Toronto. She is currently pursuing a MMus in Opera at the University of Toronto, studying with Elizabeth McDonald. She has had masterclasses with artists such as Denyce Graves, Joyce El-Khoury, Kathleen Kelly, Erin Wall, etc. In 2019, Alessia had her operatic and role debut of Cherubino in Long Reach Opera’s Le nozze di Figaro. She also attended the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy where she had the opportunity to perform in multiple outdoor concerts. In Spring of 2020, she understudied the role of Fanny Price in UofT Opera’s Canadian premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park. In Fall 2020, she participated in the NATS Ontario Vocal Showcase and won First Place in the Graduate School/Young Professional Category and the Most Promising Award. In January 2021, she premiered the role of Guardian #2 in UofT Opera’s Student Composer Collective Opera Escape Room. This past April, Alessia had her role debut of Carmen in UofT Opera’s La Tragédie de Carmen by Georges Bizet. Most recently, Alessia participated in the National Opera Intensive with Against the Grain Theatre and UofT Opera, where she had the chance to create and produce her own personal statement with guidance from Miriam Khalil and Joel Ivany. She also had the opportunity to coach with artists such as Heidi Melton, Catherine Daniel and Elliot Madore. Alessia is very excited for her upcoming roles with UofT Opera in 2021-2022. In November, she will be singing the role of Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini. In January, she will premiere the role of Iphigenia in the Student Composer Collective Opera Disobedience. Finally, in March, she will perform the role of Ma Moss in The Tenderland directed by Tim Alberry. Alessia is very excited to be joining Chicago Summer Opera for the title role in their production of Handel’s Serse.

Currently studying under the tutelage of Carole Haber of the New England Conservatory of Music, Rebekah completed her Master’s degree in vocal performance in 2018 at Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. While at Longy, she had the pleasure of singing the roles of Cecilio in Mozart’s Lucio Silla, Erste Zofe in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg, and Fortuna in Monteverdi’s L'incoronazione di Poppea.

Prior to studying at Longy, Rebekah studied at Mannes College, The New School for music in New York, where she performed in an array of scenes from works such as Lakmé, Idomeneo, Le nozze di Figaro, Roméo and Juliette, and L’elisir d’amore

Rebekah also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from UCLA, where she was an active member of the UCLA Chorale performing in venues such as Royce Hall and Disney Concert Hall. She has also been seen in Concert with the Opera Maya music festival in Yucatan Mexico, and as the Sandmännchen in the Manhattan Opera Studio Summer Festival’s production of Hänsel und Gretel.

Laura Looper is an incoming junior pursuing a bachelor of voice performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying in the studio of Julia Bentley and Heidi Grant Murphy. In addition to her major, Laura is pursuing a minor in Italian and loves to study the Italian language. She is active in her school’s community, involving herself in extracurricular activities such as the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and is the winner of the 2021 Pock and Blumberg Merit Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters. In the summer of 2021, Laura was a young artist at the Utah Vocal Arts Academy, playing the role of Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro and a chorus member in Orpheus in the Underworld. This year, she was a semi- finalist in the Orpheus National Vocal Competition, and a second round singer in the Schmidt Vocal Competition. In February of 2022, Laura performed as a chorus member in the IU Opera Theater’s production of William Grant Still’s Highway One USA, and in the spring of 2022, she was cast as the Foreman of the Jury in the IU Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s production of Trial by Jury. This summer, Laura is thrilled to be playing the role of Atalanta in Chicago Summer Opera’s production of Handel’s Serse. Aside from singing, Laura is an avid cook and a lover of nature.

Mezzo-soprano Kaisa Herrmann, a native of Wisconsin, has recently completed her MM in Vocal Performance at CU Boulder under the instruction of Abigail Nims, having received her BFA from UW Milwaukee. Some past roles include Euridice (L’Orfeo), Narciso (Agrippina), Annio (La Clemenza di Tito), the Fox (The Little Prince), Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), and Violetta (La Pèrichole). Parial roles Miss Herrmann has performed in scenes programs are Tisbe (La Cenerentola), the Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte) and Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro). Over the summer of 2018, she had the opportunity to take part in the Up North Vocal Institute, where she performed the role of Zerlina from Don Giovanni in the Opera Scenes Gala. Taking special interest in early music, she has been a part of various ensembles focusing on this repertoire, most notably the Milwaukee based ensemble Aperi Animam, as well as CU Boulder’s Early Music Ensemble and UW Milwaukee’s Collegium Musicum. Kaisa Herrmann has received various awards, including the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Scholarship, the St. David’s Society Music Scholarship, Friends of Music Scholarship, Moebius Merit Award, Dr. Henry and Julia Freund Scholarship, and the second-place prize at the 2019 West Central Region NATS Student Auditions.

Mezzo-soprano Ruoxi Bian from China is a first-year DMA student at Michigan State University. She has a Master’s degree from Manhattan school of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree from Minzu University of China. Her awards include the first prize in the San Jose International Performance and Visual Arts Festival, the first prize in Sino-Singapore International Music Festival, and the third prize in the Beijing Piano Competition. Previous credits include opera scenes the title role of Carmen, La Clemenza di Tito (Sesto), and Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Nicklausse), etc.

Justin Daley is an adjunct instructor of voice and second-year Master’s student at New York University. Most recently he was seen as the baritone soloist for Dubois’s “Seven Last Words of Christ” in Tinley Park, IL. He is ecstatic to be performing with CSO for his second-year in two fantastic shows. Past credits: Mr. Gedge (Albert Herring), Jupiter (Orpheus in the Underworld), The Pirate King (Pirates of Penzance) and Jake Blount (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, debut workshop).

Emily feels extremely grateful to have the opportunity to work with an amazing cast and crew in her first young artist program. This is also her first full opera in a foreign language which is both nerve-racking and exciting, and she is thrilled to be performing as the Serse cover in Handel's Serse! While getting her B.M. in Vocal Performance from Millikin University, Emily is premiering the workshop opera as 'Mick Kelly' from The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter alongside the brilliant composer, Robert Chumbley. During the 2021 season, she was also a part of Dido & Aeneas as 'Spirit'. She thanks her voice teacher, Rebecca Vonkamp, for being her greatest support system through this journey, as well as her family for being there for her constantly.

Arden Hearne is so excited to grow this summer as Atalanta’s cover in Serse! She is a rising senior, doubling in musical theatre and vocal performance, at Oklahoma City University. Arden has been in full productions as a chorus member of Die Fledermaus, Lucy Brown in The Threepenny Opera, and Dater #9 in Speed Dating Tonight. Arden is so grateful to be apart of this process.