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2022 Wagner Scenes

Biographies

Alan Chavez

 

Alan is a Richmond native and has been consistently performing since his debut at VCU in 2011, becoming a familiar face in opera around the Richmond area ever since. Alan is very excited to finally begin his career as a Tenor, where he has already secured multiple performances for the remainder of the year, including Arnalta in Capitol Opera of Richmond’s upcoming production of L’Incoronatione di Poppea as well as Manrico in Commonwealth Concert Opera’s upcoming production of Il Trovatore. He most recently appeared in the RVA Art Song Series presentation of Brahms' "Die schöne Magelone".

As a baritone, Alan performed numerous roles, including recent performances as: Conte Almaviva as well as the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro, the title role in Gianni Schicci, and the Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance.

Cody Davis-Meadows

 

Cody Davis-Meadows, tenor, is a native of Scottsville, VA and a 2015 graduate of Longwood University, where he began his initial studies as a bass baritone.  In 2019 he began his transition to tenor.

As a bass-baritone, Mr. Davis-Meadows has performed with Longwood University, Summer Garden Opera in La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Dido and Aeneas, Faust, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Die Fledermaus.  He has also performed as a bass soloist with Longwood University and the Oratorio Society of Charlottesville.

In 2021, as a tenor, he understudied the role of Don Jose for Commonwealth Concert Opera’s debut performance of Carmen and in August 2022 will sing Lohengrin and Siegfried in Commonwealth Concert Opera’s “Scenes and Arias from the operas of Richard Wagner.”

Catherine Pelletier

  

Catherine Pelletier has studied as a vocal performance major at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she studied with voice teacher Dr. Kenneth Wood and vocal coach Melanie Kohn Day. She is currently a voice student of James Taylor of James Taylor Studios.

She has performed in a variety of genres at a variety of venues, but her favorite has always been opera. Favorite past performances include Ms. Todd in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (partial role), Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (partial role), Leonora in Donizetti’s La Favorita (partial role), Princess Ida in Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida, and Nick Bottom in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Catherine sings as the alto section leader and soloist at First English Evangelical Lutheran Church. While she is primarily a classical singer, she  but teaches and performs many musical genres. She has taught voice and piano at School of Rock, Chester Performing Arts Studio, Brilliant Summer, and Music & Arts, where she currently teaches. She also works as assistant
stage director and production stage manager for VCU’s award-winning opera department.

George Revill

 

George Revill is an English American tenor living in Southeast Virginia.  He has performed in the choruses of Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with Virginia Opera, choral works such as Joby Talbot’s "Path of Miracles", C.H.H. Parry’s "Songs of Farewell", and Bernstein’s "Chichester Psalms" with the Virginia Chorale. In April, he appeared as Ferrando in CCO's production of Così fan tutte.

Mr. Revill has also performed in song recitals in Indianapolis and in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and, more recently, in a Liederabend in the RVA Art Song Series.  He recently received a Master of Music degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland under the tutelage of Iain Paton and is currently studying with James Taylor.

James Taylor

 

James Taylor, M.M. (Yale University), is an internationally celebrated performer. At home in opera, concert, recital, and musical theatre, he has appeared with numerous opera companies, symphonies, and theatres, including the New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera Carolina, Göttigen Handel Festspiele, Theatre Augsburg, and the Nederlandse Reisopera.

In his earlier roles as a baritone, Mr. Taylor performed the title roles in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Le Nozze di Figaro, Marcello in La Boheme, as well as thirty-three others. As a tenor, his performances have included Siegmund in Die Walküre, the title role in Lohengrin and Parsifal, Don Jose in Carmen, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Cavaradossi in Tosca, and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. His many concert performances include Hándel's "Messiah", Bach's "Magnificat", Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Mozart's "Requiem".

An avid recitalist, Mr. Taylor has presented programs in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Breda, and Groningen in the Netherlands, Munich, Augsburg, and Dusseldorf in Germany, Klagenfurt, Linz, and Vienna in Austria, and Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, as well as several universities and colleges across the United States.  He has sung Schubert's "Winterreise", "Die schöne Müllerin", and "Schwanengesang", Schumann's "Dichterliebe", "Liederkreise" Op. 24 & Op. 39, Brahms' "Vier ernste Gesange", "Ziguenerlieder" and "Die schöne Magelone", and Wagner's "Wesendonk Lieder".

Caroline Whisnant

Caroline Whisnant is an American opera singer and soprano whose repertoire encompasses Richard Strauss, Puccini, Wagner, bel canto, lieder, American Standards and musical theater. Her signature roles include the title role in Richard Strauss's Elektra, the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten, the title role in Puccini’s Turandot & Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Ring Cycle. She has performed operatic roles in Italian, German, French, and English as well as concerts in Greek, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Finnish. During her career, Caroline has performed in over half of the states in the US and in 13 different countries on four continents.

Caroline worked across the United States with numerous houses including the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Washington Opera, Dallas Opera and many other companies. In Europe she has sung Turandot with Teatro La Fenice (Venice, Italy), Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Nationaltheater Mannheim and the Staatsoper Hannover; Elektra with Oper Frankfurt, Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, Stockholm's Kungliga Operan and Norway's Den Norske Opera and Anna Bolena with Nationaltheater Mannheim.  Other important performances include the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten with Nationaltheater Mannheim, Oper Frankfurt, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Hamburgische Staatsoper and Brünnhilde in Der Ring Des Nibelungen with Nationaltheater Mannheim, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Aalto-Musiktheater in Essen and Teatro Lirico di Cagliari in Sardinia. Opernwelt hailed her as one of Europe's female singers of the year for her role debut as Lady Macbeth in the Oper Frankfurt’s controversial Calixto Bieito production of Macbeth.

Caroline received her Bachelor’s degree from Converse College with Distinction in Performance and a Master of Music degree from Florida State University.  She then spent four years at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia honing her craft. During this time, she won or was a finalist in several competitions, including the North Carolina State and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Metropolitan Opera Competitions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition.

Charles Staples

Pianist

Charles Staples’ playing has been described in the Richmond Times-Dispatch as “forceful…but unforced, as natural as breathing.”

A native of Alabama and honors graduate of the Alabama School of Fine Arts, Staples won the Van Cliburn full tuition scholarship to the Cincinnati College-Conservatory
of Music and went on to receive his master’s and doctoral degrees at Stony Brook University, training under David Bar-Illan, Martin Canin and Bernard Greenhouse. He won prizes in the MTNA Southern Division Competition, the Bryan Young Artist Competition, the Five Towns and Sunwood
competitions, and has performed on public radio in Cincinnati, New York and Richmond.

Staples has been soloist in concertos with the the Richmond Symphony as well as the CCM Concert Orchestra, the
Congress of Strings, the North Carolina Symphony and University of Richmond Orchestra. He recently performed the Brahms 1st Piano Concerto with the Richmond Philharmonic and will make his 6th appearance with them this fall playing the Rachmaninoff 2nd concerto. He has also performed recitals in
New York's Town Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

He teaches on the piano faculties of VCU and the Greenspring International Academy as well as being director of music ministries at Trinity United Methodist Church.

Reese Williams

Narrator

Reese Williams has been a voice actor for over 25 years. She enjoys this work because it allows her to be obnoxiously animated, yet socially acceptable. She’s lent her talent to live radio, animation, mobile apps, voicemails, commercials, corporate videos and backup singing vocals. She’s Head of Business Development for In Your Ear Studios in Richmond, so now she gets to run her mouth about her beloved audio industry for a living. She hosts the live stream concert series Shockoe Sessions Live, and its companion podcast, "This Room Sounds Great." She also produces and hosts her own podcast titled "Spying on Humanity."

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