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 roles 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 Handel'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".

A talented and sought-after educator, he has served as Director of Opera at Drake University and the University of Alabama and has been on the music faculties of VCU and the University of Virginia. His students have gone on to such prestigious schools as the New England Conservatory, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, and the Royal College of Music. Several of his students perform regularly with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Semperoper, Glyndebourne, the Opera Comique, Utah Opera, Central City Opera, Landestheater Niederbayern, Opera Frankfurt, and the Oldenburgisches Staatsoper.

Mr. Taylor has had the pleasure to work with many of the top Artist Teachers in the business, such as Jon Fredric West, Sherrill Milnes, Richard Cross, Doris Yarick-Cross, Jackson Sheats, Andrew Gainey, and Seth Riggs. He has also participated in Master Classes with Placido Domingo, Sherrill Milnes, and Regine Crespin.

Catherine is very excited to be performing the role of Dalila in this production of “Samson et Dalila!” Catherine studied as a vocal performance major at Virginia Commonwealth University and is a former member of the production staff for VCU’s award-winning opera department, as well as a board member for Commonwealth Concert Opera. Catherine has performed in a variety of genres at a variety of venues, but her favorite has always been opera. Favorite past performances include Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Ms. Todd in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief, Third Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Princess Ida in Gilbert & Sullivan's Princess Ida, Maria Rainer in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, and Nick Bottom in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. After participating in several musical workshops of the piece, Catherine will be performing in the chorus for the world premiere of Loving v. Virginia in May of 2025 with Virginia Opera.

Alan has been a mainstay in the Richmond classical music scene since his debut at VCU Opera in 2011. Some of his favorite past roles include both Figaro and Conte d'Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Slook in Rossini's La Cambiale di Matrimonio, the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance, Silvio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, the title role in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, and Marcello in Puccini's La bohème. 

James Myers is a baritone who has sung with Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap Opera Company and abroad in Europe with the MittelsaechsischesTheater in Freiberg, Germany.

He sang the role of Guglielmo in Commonwealth Concert Opera’s 2022 production of Così fan tutte and recently performed with Bel Cantanti Opera Company in their productions of Die Csardasfurstin and La Traviata.  He holds a Master of Music degree in vocal performance and works as a professional singer, actor and voice teacher in the Washington D.C. area. As a performer in musical theatre, James has played the Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Tommy Albright in Brigadoon by Lerner and Loewe and South Carolina Senator Edward Rutledge in 1776.  This past October he created the role of Baltus Van Tassel in the world premiere of the musical, Ichabod, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow with the theatre company, Creative Cauldron.

Alexander Wilkerson is a conductor, arranger and musician from Richmond, Virginia. Since 2021 he has served as director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Large Brass Ensemble.  As director he traveled with the ensemble to perform in the opening night of the Delaware Contemporary Art Museum as a part of the exhibit Through a Glass Darkly, in which musical visualizations were created with lasers and mirrors mounted on brass instruments responding to vibrations.  He also has served as assistant conductor with the Bay Youth and Richmond Youth Symphony Orchestras. Internationally he has served as Director Invitado of Fundacion Tocando Puertas’ Festival in Cartagena, Colombia.  For the last two years he has participated in this global education program where he performs and conducts in the festival.  Through the festival he also teaches underprivileged Colombian students from beginner to advanced.  An avid lover of opera, he has served as assistant conductor for the Saluzzo Opera Academy's production of Handel's Guilio Cesar in 2024.  As a performer he has performed and taught across Virginia in a wide variety of ensembles, venues, and schools.

Primarily an organist and sacred music choral director, Charles Lindsey Jr. is also involved in the community and secular music as a pianist for vocal and string students at Virginia Commonwealth University and a harpsichordist for VCU Opera and RVA Baroque.  He is a vocal coach, piano teacher, and organ teacher.  Charles is currently finishing his longtime position as organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Petersburg, and in August will become associate organist at St. James's Episcopal Church, Richmond.

After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in organ performance from the University of Richmond, Charles has pursued further studies in early music, choral conducting, vocal coaching, and organ improvisation with various teachers around the country, including some affiliated with the Juilliard Institute, Manhattan School of Music, and Westminster Choir College.  He credits the most advancement of his post-undergraduate musical skill and knowledge to incredible local talents who have served as coaches and mentors, in particular Melanie Kohn Day of VCU and the late great James Erb of University of Richmond,.

He has a particular affinity for early music, which he credits to Suzanne Bunting, his organ professor at UR, who specialized in teaching how to shape and phrase Baroque music and express it on a mechanical instrument.  Evidence of his musical talent and desire to pursue a career in church music, particularly to be an organist, began in preschool thanks to genetics and family influence:  his mother, Bettie Lindsey, is a longtime organist and church music director in the Richmond area, and his aunt (her sister), Jane Reeves, was an organist from her early years almost up to the time of her recent passing.

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."