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Multi-Grammy Award winner and 2018 Olivier Award winner for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, Kansas-born Joyce DiDonato entrances audiences across the globe, and has been proclaimed “perhaps the most potent female singer of her generation” by The New Yorker. With a voice “nothing less than 24-carat gold” according to The Times, Joyce has towered at the top of the industry both as a performer, a producer, and a fierce advocate for the arts. With a repertoire spanning over four centuries, a varied and highly acclaimed discography, and industry-leading projects, her artistry has defined what it is to be a singer in the 21st century.

Joyce begins her ambitious 2023-24 season by opening The Metropolitan Opera’s season performing her signature role of Sister Helen in a new production of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, where she will return later in the season to revive her critically acclaimed “Virginia Woolf” in Kevin Puts’ The Hours. This season also sees Joyce touring Dido & Aeneas with Il Pomo d’Oro, and further tours of EDEN and the Grammy Award Winning SONGPLAY in Asia, South America, and Europe. In concert Joyce appears with her hometown Kansas City Symphony Orchestra for a series of subscription concerts, as well as performances in Istanbul, Strasbourg, and Paris. Joyce also performs in recital at Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, Wiener Musikverein and Carnegie Hall.

Recent highlights include giving the World Premiere of Tod Machover’s Overstory Overture in the role of Patricia Westertord at Alice Tully Hall in New York and Seoul Arts Center in South Korea and an in-depth residency at Musikkollegium Winterthur. Joyce’s groundbreaking EDEN Tour has had further success with recent tours in Europe and North America. In June 2022, Joyce joined the Metropolitan Orchestra for a tour that included the orchestra’s first visit to the UK in over 20 years, with performances at The Barbican, Philharmonie de Paris and Festpielhaus Baden-Baden. Her performance was “the embodiment of musical perfection”, according to the Wochenglatt Reporter.

Mezzo-soprano Julianna Smith is a second-year Master of Music degree candidate at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music, studying with Patrice Michaels. Smith recently appeared as Ruggiero in Alcina, Second Lady in The Magic Flute, and as Leona's Mother in In a Grove with Northwestern University Opera Theater, and is excited to sing the roles of Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel and Dorabella in Così fan tutte in the winter and spring, respectively. This summer, Smith will cover Hänsel and perform as a Valkyrie in Act III of Die Walküre as a studio artist at the Aspen Music Festival, to which she received a full fellowship. A Vocal Fellow of the 2023 Manetti Shrem Opera Program at Festival Napa Valley, Smith was featured in Lera Auerbach's Symphony No. 6 and "channeled the emotional challenge affectingly" (San Francisco Chronicle). Smith was previously a studio artist with Opera Neo and an apprentice artist with the Miami Beach Classical Music Festival. She received an Encouragement Award from the 2023 Camille Coloratura Awards, competed as a finalist in the Opera Index Vocal Competition and the Gigli International Voice Competition, and has received awards from the Hal Leonard Theater Competition and the Chicago NATS Student Auditions. Smith is from Towson, Maryland and holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Maryland. She currently teaches voice at The Musical Offering in Evanston.

Soprano Emma Rothfield is a second-year Master of Music student in the studio of W. Stephen Smith. During the 2022-23 season, Rothfield joined Lyric Opera of Chicago's "Lyric Unlimited" initiative for their tour of Dean Burry's The Scorpions' Sting and appeared with Northwestern University Opera Theater as Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte. In Summer 2022, she completed her third season as an apprentice artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, performing as Cobweb in A Midsummer Night's Dream and in concert excerpts as Ilia in Idomeneo. Rothfield's 2021-22 season included the Chicago premiere of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's Proving Up as Littler Zegner Daughter (cover; COVID-19 cancellation) and a workshop of Caroline Shaw's Four Portraits, both with Lyric Opera of Chicago. Other Northwestern University Opera Theater credits include Der Trommler in Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Mother in Dog Days, Héro in Béatrice et Bénédict, and Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw, and she served as assistant director for In a Grove and Orfeo Remote. Rothfield received her bachelor's degree in voice and opera, musical theater, and comparative literature from Northwestern University in 2020. emmarothfield.com

Matthew Sink is a first-year master's degree candidate at Northwestern University, studying with W. Stephen Smith. The 27-year-old tenor from Las Vegas, Nevada began his studies in 2014 at Waldorf University. After three years at Waldorf, he transferred to the University of Nevada Las Vegas to continue his degree in vocal performance, studying under Dr. Alfonse Anderson. He took a two-year hiatus to serve a church mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Rome from 2019-2021, learning fluent Italian and serving the people. While in Rome, he performed many concerts and recitals across southern Italy. He returned to the University of Nevada Las Vegas and graduated in the summer of 2022. Sink appeared in opera scene programs at the University of Nevada Las Vegas as Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, and Tony in West Side Story, among others. He portrayed Randy in the world premiere of State of Grace by Linda Lister and starred as Don Pellagio in Joseph Haydn's La canterina. In the summer of 2023, he was featured as Don José at the Bienen School's Intensive Vocal Performance Seminar production of Carmen. This spring, he will sing the role of Ferrando in the Northwestern University Opera Theater production of Così fan tutte. He and his wife, mezzo-soprano Giada Barney, have enjoyed studying and performing together while raising their daughter, Jade.

Giada Barney is a first-year master's degree candidate at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music and a student of Karen Brunssen. The 24-year-old mezzo-soprano is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada. She has been a participant in the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices for three years, working primarily with Dolora Zajick. She has performed roles in Georges Bizet's Carmen (Bienen School Intensive Vocal Performance Seminar), Grace Ansley and Robert Ward's Roman Fever (UNLV Opera), and George Frideric Handel's La canterina (UNLV Opera). In recital, she has sung the complete set of Dalila's arias from Samson et Dalila, Azucena in Il trovatore, and the title role in Carmen. She lived in Spain for two years and performed in several concerts throughout the country, including with La Banda Municipal de Granada. She and her husband, tenor Matthew Sink, have enjoyed performing together, including singing opposite each other as Carmen and Don José. Barney has also sung with the Opera Las Vegas chorus and the Las Vegas Master Singers, both of whom perform with the Las Vegas Philharmonic.

Uma Singh is a lyric soprano from Cleveland, Ohio. She is currently pursuing her Master of Music degree in Voice and Opera Performance at Northwestern University. Recently, Singh was named an Illinois District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and a winner of the Casa Italia Vocal Scholarship Competition. In 2024, she will appear s Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte with Northwestern University Opera Theater, and she will cover Mutter in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel. During the 2022-23 season at Northwestern, she sang the title role in Handel's Alcina, Erste Dame in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and covered Leona Raines in Christopher Cerrone and Stephanie Fleischmann's In a Grove. In Summer 2023, Singh joined the Chautauqua Opera Company as a studio artist and performed in the chorus of Sweeney Todd and covered Johanna. She also workshopped Kamala Sankaram's A. E. Reverie as a part of Chautauqua's reading of their upcoming opera, The Summer Place. In 2021, she completed her Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance at the University of Michigan, where she appeared as Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice. She has attended the Collaborative Piano Institute Vocal Academy, Brancaleoni International Music Festival, and Middlebury College's German for Singers Program. Singh will join Central City Opera as a Studio Artist in Summer 2024.

Pianist Yasuko Oura has been praised for her sensibility and passion for collaborating with others. She has maintained a busy schedule of performing concerts and working for various opera companies while keeping an active teaching schedule. She is currently a lecturer of collaborative piano at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music, where she enjoys working with talented pianists as well as coaching chamber music. Also in demand as a vocal coach, she has been on the music staff for Des Moines Metro Opera for over eight seasons. She also regularly works for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Chicago Opera Theater. She has played under many prominent conductors such as Sir Andrew Davis, Stephen Lord, and Jane Glover. Additionally, she was the principal production pianist and coach for Florentine Opera for seven years. Her other past affiliations include companies such as Fort Worth Opera, Kentucky Opera, Madison Opera, Toledo Opera, and AIMS in Graz, Austria. 

An avid chamber musician, Oura has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Merkin Hall. She is also the co-artistic director of the Chamber Music at Bethany concert series, where members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and other prominent musicians come together to perform chamber music. She has performed recitals with some of the world’s most exciting musicians including singers such as Susanne Mentzer, Susanna Phillips, and Kyle Ketelsen. She has also served as the official pianist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Wisconsin District and the McCammon Voice Competition in Fort Worth, Texas. She has appeared in performances for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, the Bel Canto Foundation, WFMT, and WTTW’s Chicago Tonight. She resides in Chicago, where she works with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Orchestra Chorus, Music of the Baroque, Chicago Opera Theater, Light Opera Works, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Wisconsin District. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and master’s and doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School, where she was a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow.