Sing Out Loud: Spring Fling

Upon her 2015 LA Opera debut as Susana in ¡Figaro! (90210), Opera News called Maria Elena Altany "delightfully smart and quicksilver." Most recently she starred in Mark Grey’s Birds in The Moon, which premiered at the New York Philharmonic’s Bandwagon 2 Festival, and then traveled to The Broad Stage in Santa Monica. She is a Company Member of the groundbreaking opera company The Industry, led by MacArthur Fellow Yuval Sharon. With The Industry, she has performed featured roles in Anne LeBaron's Crescent City, Chris Cerrone's Invisible Cities, an adaptation of Brecht’s Galileo, and Hopscotch: An Opera for 24 Cars, for which she was featured in The New Yorker. Recent appearances include the John Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2 with the LA Philharmonic and The Industry, the workshop of Esperanza Spalding and Wayne Shorter’s opera …(Iphigenia), and Susanna in Ragnar Kjartansson’s BLISS with wild Up!, as part of the LA Philharmonic’s Fluxus festival. Maria Elena appears in The Industry’s Sweet Land, which is available for streaming purchase. Upcoming performances include LA Opera Connects’ digital production of Mozart’s Opera Tales. She maintains a private voice studio in Long Beach.

Opera Tales

Award-winning bass-baritone Cedric Berry's experience spans opera, Broadway, American Song Book, jazz and gospel. He has performed with LA Opera, The Industry Opera, Long Beach Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival of Finland, Banlieurs Bleues Festival of France and the Ravinia Music Festival, to name a few. He has appeared with Pacific Symphony, Arizona Symphony, Santa Fe Symphony, Luckman Jazz orchestra, Pasadena Pops Orchestra, California Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Telemann Chamber Orchestra of Japan. He has also been the recipient of several awards including first place in the Metropolitan Opera Western Region Competition. Notable recent engagements include the role of Yusef in the world premiere of the Central Park Five opera. (CedricBerry.com)

Music as Medicine

Soprano Jamie Chamberlin, who has been praised for her "shimmering tones" by Opera News, is the co-creator and host of Sing Out Loud! along with her husband, tenor Nathan Granner and their rescue pup, Esther the Opera Dog. Jamie made her LA Opera main stage debut in 2004 singing the High Priestess in Aida and the Cretan Woman in Idomeneo, following an exciting professional debut singing the world premiere of Salonen's Wing on Wing with the LA Phil. Since joining the LA Opera Connects family in 2006, she created the role of "Soprano Jamie" in Open Door Days at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and has represented LA Opera in legendary venues, schools, and historic locations throughout Los Angeles. A star of Long Beach Opera, Jamie has received critical acclaim for her portrayals in contemporary operas such as Candide (Cunegonde), Marilyn Forever (Marilyn Monroe) and The Invention of Morel by Stewart Copeland of The Police, for which Schmopera dubbed her a "superhuman soprano" for her soaring high notes. Jamie is a Delos recording artist and her voice can also be heard in the Coen Bros. 2016 film Hail Caesar! during the epic water ballet scene. She holds both a BA and MM from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where she now serves as a Lecturer in Vocal Technique. Jamie also maintains a private voice studio, and will be an Artist in Residence at Manchester University in May 2021.

Sing Out Loud

Open Door Days

Tenor Ashley Faatoalia is a versatile, young artist born and raised in Los Angeles. Ashley studied vocal performance at Chapman University and has been singing professionally since that time. Opera News calls his singing “hauntingly beautiful” crediting him with “a voice of winning purity and variety of expression” and The San Francisco Chronicle calls him “Sweet-toned.” Ashley's recent engagements include performances as: Bobby McCray in the world premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera The Central Park Five with Long Beach Opera, The Crab Man in Porgy & Bess with Seattle Opera, Lyric Tenor in EUROPERAS with LAPhil, and his debut as Marco Polo in the Emmy-Award-winning, Pulitzer Prize-nominated Invisible Cities with The Industry. For the last ten years, Ashley has also had the fortune of working with LA Opera Connects going into the community and sharing music with all who wish to enjoy. (AshleyFaatoalia.com - follow him @ashthetenor)

Open Door Days
Opera Tales

California native, mezzo-soprano Shabnam Kalbasi is an up and coming mezzo-soprano garnering attention from coast to coast. Recent solo credits include alto soloist for Los Angeles Master Chorale's The Messiah under Grant Gershon at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the world premiere of Juhi Bansal's We All Look to the Stars, and the West Coast premiere of Reena Esmail’s This Love Between Us: Prayers for Unity. Kalbasi has also performed solos in Israel in Egypt and in Pulitzer Prize winning composer Ellen Reid’s world premiere of Dreams of a New World with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Ms. Kalbasi’s voice has been recognized by the George London Foundation, Metropolitan Opera's National Council Auditions, Palm Springs Opera Guild and Vocal Arts D.C. Competition. She has performed at The Broad Stage, Venture Opera, Opera Memphis, and made her recital debut at the Kennedy Center. Ms. Kalbasi sang Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with Prelude to Performance and debuted the role of Union Organizer in the premiere of Juliet Palmer's opera Sweat at Brooklyn's National Sawdust. A two-season Apprentice Artist and Canning Memorial Award recipient with Santa Fe Opera, Ms. Kalbasi sang Contessa Ceprano in Rigoletto and Olivia in Jennifer Higdon's world premiere and Grammy-nominated Cold Mountain. Ms. Kalbasi has worked with LA Opera Connects as a teaching artist since 2012.

Charlie Kim has served as music director, pianist, vocal soloist, and teaching artist since 2014. He was also the Assistant Conductor for Moses in 2023 at the Cathedral. He has been music director for the in-school performance tours of LA Opera Connects' original one-act operas throughout LAUSD elementary and secondary schools. He is a featured in-house artist for such LA Opera Connects series as Opera for Educators and Saturday Mornings at the Opera. He is active in the community recitals, frequently seen at the Huntington Library, J. Paul Getty Museum, City of Hope, the Keck School of Medicine of USC, UCLA Semel Institute, and several other key community-partner LA Opera Connects organizations.

Charlie can be seen on stage as a vocalist, pianist, and/or conductor with such companies as the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Opera Project, and the San Fernando Valley Master Chorale. He currently serves as adjunct voice faculty at Los Angeles Valley College and maintains a private voice and piano studio. Charlie is a member of SAG-AFTRA, AFM, and AGMA.

OPERA CAMP
Elementary In-School Opera