JONATHAN PIERCE RHODES TENOR( MESSENGER)
With his mellifluous“ honey-voice,” tenor Jonathan Pierce Rhodes is quickly establishing himself as a compelling presence in today’ s opera scene. In the 2024 – 25 season, he makes his role debut as Timothy Laughlin in Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers with Opera Parallèle. He also makes his house debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago, reprising Policeman 2 and covering The Son in Jeanine Tesori’ s acclaimed opera Blue. Additional highlights include performances with the Mid-Atlantic Symphony, Apollo’ s Fire, and his Carnegie Hall debut with the Oratorio Society of New York, where he will be the soloist in the world premiere of Moravec’ s All Shall Rise and Mendelssohn’ s Lobgesang.
A graduate of Washington National Opera’ s Cafritz Young Artist Program, Rhodes performed a range of roles including Pong in Turandot, Frank in The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson, and the Hippo in The Lion, The Unicorn and Me. He created the role of Frank at The Glimmerglass Festival, where he was a young artist for three seasons. In his final summer, he covered the title role in Bernstein’ s Candide and portrayed Cacambo, earning praise from The Wall Street Journal as a“ big-voiced standout.”
Rhodes earned his Master’ s in Opera Performance from Rice University and dual undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music / University of Rochester. His accolades include an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition( Houston District) and the Neva Pilgrim Award.
AMBER MONROE SOPRANO( HIGH PRIESTESS)
Soprano Amber R. Monroe’ s 2024-25 season includes her return to Washington National Opera as Serena in Francesca Zambello’ s production of Porgy and Bess at the Kennedy Center. She makes her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as Lucienne in Korngold’ s Die Tote Stadt under Andris Nelsons, and with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as the High Priestess and cover for the title role in Aida, conducted by Jonathon Heyward. Additional engagements include Verdi’ s Requiem with the National Philharmonic, a Gershwin concert with Paquito D’ Rivera and the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and a reprise of Nedda in I Pagliacci with Pensacola Opera.
In the 2023-24 season, she returned to the Glimmerglass Festival as Nedda, performed Mimì in La Bohème with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, and sang Esther in Ricky Ian Gordon’ s Intimate Apparel with Arizona Opera. Concert appearances included works by Vivaldi, Margaret Bonds, and Brahms.
A recent alumna of the Cafritz Young Artists Program at Washington National Opera, she debuted at the Kennedy Center and went on to join Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist. She also trained with San Francisco Opera’ s Merola Program and The Glimmerglass Festival.
Ms. Monroe is a 2023 winner of the Sullivan Foundation Award and the George and Nora London Foundation Competition. She holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
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