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Soprano Jessica Niles is an introspective and spontaneous artist who combines storytelling with a love for collaboration. Concert highlights include Handel’s Aminta e Fillide with Les Arts Florissants at the Festival Dans les Jardins de William Christie and Handel’s Israel in Egypt with MasterVoices at Carnegie Hall. Niles regularly curates recitals of art song and chamber music, including Schoenberg’s String Quartet no.2, and premieres new works including her commission The Opposite of Loneliness: A Chamber Piece (Wenzelberg). She was a Young Artist at Aspen Music Festival, performing Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, and at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, covering in the world premiere of Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Niles is pursuing her master’s degree at Juilliard, where she is a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. At Juilliard, Niles performed Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and will perform Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo this spring.

Mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner, hailing from El Paso, Texas, is a master’s student studying with Darrell Babidge at The Juilliard School, where her upcoming 2019-2020 performances include the role of Anne in Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All in collaboration with the New York Philharmonic, a concert with The Friends of Mozart organization, and Lydia Brown’s Liederabend highlighting new compositions. Her undergraduate degree is from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell and performed in Mozart’s Requiem, Warren Jones’ seminar, and as Mrs. Herring in Albert Herring. She received the 2019 Bonnie Lincoln Voice Scholarship at the Chautauqua Institution where she performed Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, covered Romeo in I Capuleti e I Montecchi, and collaborated with Mikael Eliason in recital. In 2018, Ms. Wagner was awarded the Colburn Fellowship at SongFest and attended Matthew Rose’s Scuola di Bel Canto.

Originally from Dallas, TX, tenor Chance Jonas-O’Toole is pursuing a Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School, where he also completed his undergraduate studies. In the past season, Chance sang the role of the Sailor in Juilliard Opera’s touring production of Dido and Aeneas, about which OperaWire Magazine said, “his voice was transformative…he masterfully phrased each line so that his emotional connection to every word was his guide.” Also at Juilliard, he has portrayed the Prologue in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Mercure in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie, and Nebuchadnezzar in Britten’s The Burning Fiery Furnace. He has completed two fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, where he performed in programs of Bach cantatas under John Harbison, and multiple other recitals in Seiji Ozawa Hall. He is a student of William Burden.

Originally from San Francisco, CA, baritone Kyle Miller is pursuing a Masters of Music Degree at The Juilliard School, studying with Dr. Robert White. Miller recently performed on the Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall as the baritone soloist in Stravinsky’s Les Noces and at Alice Tully Hall in Stravinsky’s Pribaoutki. His prior operatic roles include Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Moralès in Carmen with the Chautauqua Institution, Marquis de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Conte Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro and Vincenzo Biscroma in Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma! at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he received his Bachelors degree. This season, he will play the part of Chris the Citizen in The Mother of Us All  at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the New York Philharmonic, and Customhouse Sergeant in La bohème in addition to covering the role of Marcello at The Juilliard School.

After living in Calgary, Canada her whole life, Bronwyn Schuman moved to New York City in 2018 to pursue her MMus in Collaborative Piano at The Juilliard School, with teachers Lydia Brown, Jonathan Feldman, and JJ Penna. A winner of Juilliard’s Honors Recital in Alice Tully Hall, Bronwyn has also performed on WQXR’s “Midday Masterpieces,” and she regularly performs in Juilliard’s Sonatenabende and Liederabende series. Prior to her studies at Juilliard, she completed her BMus under Edwin Gnandt at Ambrose University in Calgary, where she also completed her BA in English. During her summers, she has attended the Franz-Schubert-Institut (Vienna), Mountain View International Festival (Calgary, Canada), SongFest (Los Angeles), and Toronto Summer Music. In addition to summer festivals, Bronwyn has enjoyed apprenticeships such as the operatic coach and accompanist fellowship at the Atlantic Music Festival (Maine), and the coach and répétiteur fellowship at Aquilon Music Festival (Oregon).

Michalis Boliakis was born in Athens, where he studied piano, harmony, counterpoint and fugue. In 2005 he moved to Paris, where he specialized in piano performance, collaborative piano and vocal coaching at the prestigious Conservatoire National Supérieur (CNSM). Since his graduation in 2012, he has collaborated as performer and vocal coach with numerous major European concert venues, among which the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Opéra-Comique, Philharmonie de Paris, the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Megaron in Athens. He has also written and performed music for the stage, notably at the Festival d’Avignon and the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg. Michalis is a first year C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at the Juilliard School.