San Francsico Opera Center Announces 2015 Adler Fellows

San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald announced today the twelve recipients of the 2015 Adler Fellowship, a multi-year performance-oriented residency offering advanced young artists intensive individual training, coaching, and professional seminars, as well as a wide range of performance opportunities. Adler Fellows are selected from the young artists who have participated in the Merola Opera Program.

This prestigious training program has nurtured the development of more than 150 young artists since its inception. The ten singers selected as 2015 Adler Fellows are sopranos Julie Adams (Burbank, California), Jacqueline Piccolino (Chicago, Illinois) and Maria Valdes (Atlanta, Georgia); mezzo-sopranos Zanda Šv?de (Valmiera, Latvia) and Nian Wang (Nanjing, China); tenor Chong Wang (Shijiazhuang, China); baritones Edward Nelson (Santa Clarita, California) and Efraín Solís (Santa Ana, California); bass-baritone Matthew Stump (Goshen, Indiana); and bass Anthony Reed (Alexandria, Minnesota). The two pianists selected for Apprentice Coach Fellowships are Ronny Michael Greenberg (Montreal, Canada) and Noah Lindquist (Brooklyn, New York).

The Adler Fellow apprentice coaches work closely with Mark Morash, Director of Musical Studies of the Opera Center and John Churchwell, Head of Music Staff at San Francisco Opera. The coaches participate in the musical activities of both San Francisco Opera and the Opera Center, and they are involved in all aspects of the Adler Fellows' training by acting as pianists for masterclasses, working with master coaches and preparing the Adler Fellows for concerts and mainstage roles.

Adler Fellows gain valuable professional experience by participating in roles of increasing importance in San Francisco Opera's repertory season, and also enjoy a variety of performance opportunities throughout their fellowship. Planned performances for the 2015 Adler Fellows include a performance at the Napa Valley Opera House (February 1); Temple Emanu-El's Music at Meyer (February 9); Castro Valley Center for the Arts (March 28); and in concert with Philharmonia Baroque (April 15, 17, 18, 19). Selected Adler Fellows will also be featured in the Schwabacher Debut Recital Series (at Temple Emanu-El's Martin Meyer Sanctuary in San Francisco), which was created to spotlight artists who have participated in the programs of the San Francisco Opera Center. Remaining 2014 Adler Fellows concerts and recitals this fall include performances at University of California, Davis (October 10); San Francisco's Upwardly Global Gala (October 16); and the East Bay Opera Guild (October 25).

The Adler Fellows' season culminates with a special year-end concert featuring the singers in an evening of opera scenes and arias with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. This year's concert, The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Gala Concert, showcasing the acclaimed 2014 Adler Fellows, takes place on Thursday, December 4, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center in San Francisco. The outgoing 2014 Adler Fellows are soprano Erin Johnson, tenor A.J. Glueckert, baritone Hadleigh Adams, bass-baritone Philippe Sly and pianist Sun Ha Yoon. Julie Adams, Jaqueline Piccolino, Maria Valdes, Zanda Šv?de, Efraín Solís and Noah Lindquist are returning as 2015 Adler Fellows. Soprano Julie Adams joined the 2014 class of Adler Fellows in Fall 2014 and will continue as a first-year Adler Fellow in 2015. Further details about upcoming 2015 Adler Fellow performances will be announced at a later date. Biographies of the 2015 Adler Fellows follow below.

2015 Adler Fellow Biographies

Julie Adams

(Burbank, California)

A winner of the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, soprano Julie Adams is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and alumna of the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where she performed the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. During her studies with César Ulloa at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she holds bachelor's and master's degrees, she performed the roles of Blanche in Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Mimi in La Bohème, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. Other credits include Lia (Debussy's L'Enfant Prodigue) at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv; Pamina (Die Zauberflöte) at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara; and Magnolia Hawks (Show Boat) and Rose (Street Scene) with the Oakland East Bay Symphony. Adams is a former studio artist with Opera Santa Barbara.

Jacqueline Piccolino (Chicago, Illinois) Jacqueline Piccolino is a second-year Adler Fellow who made her San Francisco Opera debut in June 2013 as Stella in Les Contes d'Hoffmann and has returned as a maid in the world premiere of Dolores Claiborne, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Clotilda in Norma and as Mrs. Hayes in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. As a participant in the 2012 and 2013 Merola Opera Program, the soprano appeared as Countess Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) and as Arminda (La Finta Giardiniera). As a studio artist with Wolf Trap Opera Company, she has appeared in that company's productions of The Inquisitive Women, Sweeney Todd, and Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

Other career highlights include appearing in the Napa Festival del Sole's Bouchaine Young Artist Concert Series and participating in the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy. Piccolino is a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation and winner of the New York Lyric Opera Theatre Competition and the Bel Canto Competition. Maria Valdes (Atlanta, Georgia) Soprano Maria Valdez is a second-year Adler Fellow who appeared as Susanna in Merola Opera Program's 2013 production of The Marriage of Figaro. She will make her San Francisco Opera debut in Fall 2014 as Clorinda in Rossini's La Cenerentola and will return as Musetta in La Bohème for Families. An award-winner in the regional Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, Valdes is also the winner of the top prize at the Corbett Opera Scholarship Competition at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She has been heard in concert with ensembles including the Georgia State University Singers, the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Atlanta Sacred Chorale, the choirs of Emory University, Bent Frequency, and the Bellingham Festival of Music in Washington.

Zanda Šv?de (Valmiera, Latvia) Latvian mezzo-soprano Zanda Šv?de is a second-year Adler Fellow and an alumna of the 2013 Merola Opera Program. She made her San Francisco Opera debut as Flora Bervoix in last summer's La Traviata and will return as Thisbe in Rossini's La Cenerentola this fall. Roles in her repertoire include María (Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires), Endimione (Cavalli's La Calisto), and the title role in Massenet's Cléopâtre. On the concert stage she has performed solo roles in Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, Vivaldi's Gloria, and Liszt's Missa Coronationalis. Šv?de has studied at the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, the Manhattan Summer Voice Festival in New York, Scuola Italia in Italy, and the Tyrolean Opera Program in Austria. Nian Wang (Nanjing, China) Mezzo-soprano Nian Wang is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and a participant in the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where she performed excerpts as Juno (Handel's Semele), Federica (Luisa Miller), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), and the title role of Carmen.

Currently pursuing studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, her credits there include the title roles of La Cenerentola and Rinaldo, Mother Jeanne (Dialogues des Carmélites), Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Kate (Britten's Owen Wingrave), the Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte), Siebel (Faust), and the First Witch (Dido and Aeneas). Other credits include Nicklausse (Les Contes d'Hoffmann) with the Martina Arroyo Foundation; Chinese Tea Cup, Female Cat, Shepherd, and Squirrel in Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges and Mother (Mazzoli's Song from the Uproar) at Bard College; and Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) with Princeton Symphony. Wang also performed in the Dawn Upshaw and Donnacha Dennehy Young Artist Concert at Carnegie Hall, and she received fourth prize in the 2012 Opera Columbus Irma M. Cooper Vocal Competition and the 2013 Opera Index Encouragement Award in 2013. Chong Wang (Shijiazhuang, China) An alumnus of the 2014 Merola Opera Program, tenor Chong Wang is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow. He performed with the Merola Opera Program excerpts as Goro (Madama Butterfly), Don José (Carmen), and the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto). He has performed a number of roles at Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts, including the Steersman (Der Fliegende Holländer), the Messenger (Aida), Dr. Caius (Falstaff), Ruiz (Il Trovatore), and Rodolfo (Guglielmo Tell). He is a graduate of the Conservatory of the People's Liberation Army in China.

Edward Nelson
(Santa Clarita, California) A first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, baritone Edward Nelson is a graduate of the 2014 Merola Opera Program where he sang the title role of Don Giovanni. Other recent and upcoming engagements include the Ferryman (Britten's Curlew River) with the Tanglewood Music Festival and Montreal's Ballet-Opéra-Pantomime; covering Miller in Montsalvatge's El Gato con Botas with Gotham Chamber Opera; and the title role of Britten's Owen Wingrave, Dandini (La Cenerentola), and Le Podestat (Bizet's Le Docteur Miracle) with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he holds undergraduate and graduate degrees. On the concert stage, he has been a soloist with the American Choral Directors Association and the Reno Philharmonic. A national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, he is a winner of the 2013 Opera Columbus International Vocal Competition.

Efraín Solís (Santa Ana, California) First-generation Mexican-American baritone Efraín Solís is a second-year Adler Fellow who made his Company debut in June 2014 as Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly. Solís will return to the Company as Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera, Sciaronne in Tosca, and Schaunard in La Bohème for Families. He has performed a variety of roles, including the title role of Eugene Onegin with Russian Opera Workshop in Philadelphia, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, and Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro. At the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he performed the title role of Don Giovanni, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, and the title role of Gianni Schicchi. In the spring of 2013, he joined Opera Santa Barbara as a member of their Studio Artist Program where he sang the role of Il Notaio and covered Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale. As a participant of the 2013 Merola Opera Program, he sang Junius in The Rape of Lucretia and covered the Count in The Marriage of Figaro. Chosen as a finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the 2013 Houston Grand Opera's Eleanor McCollum Competition, he holds a Bachelor of Music from Chapman University and a Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Matthew Stump
(Goshen, Indiana)

Bass-baritone Matthew Stump is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and graduate of the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where he appeared appeared in scenes in the Schwabacher Summer Concert as Walter in Luisa Miller and as Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola. He has appeared in the title role of Sweeney Todd, the Prime Minister (Cendrillon), the Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance), and Capulet (Roméo et Juliette) at the University of North Texas as well as the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), and Frank (Street Scene) at Luther College, where he holds a bachelor's degree. He holds awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and Dallas Opera Guild.

Anthony Reed

(Alexandria, Minnesota)

Bass Anthony Reed is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and alumnus of the 2014 Merola Opera Program. Roles in his repertory include Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Truffaldin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Don Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Dulcamara (L'Elisir d'Amore), Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola), and the Four Villains (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), among others. Reed received a 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Regional Encouragement Award and has been a young artist at the Wolf Trap Opera Studio and the Seagle Music Colony, in addition to his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Wisconsin.

Ronny Michael Greenberg

(Montreal, Canada)

Pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow and graduate of the 2014 Merola Opera Program, where he prepared A Streetcar Named Desire and Don Giovanni. His engagements range from guest soloist appearances with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to concerts in venues such as the Canadian Museum of Civilization for the Glenn Gould Exhibit, Steinway Hall as part of Yale in New York, and Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall as part of the Worldstrides Heritage Performance Programs. Greenberg holds degrees from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York, Potsdam and Manhattan School of Music, and he has been a participant with Music Academy of the West, New York Opera Studio, and Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar. He participated in The Song Continues Master Class series with Marilyn Horne, Jessye Norman, and Dalton Baldwin in 2013.

Noah Lindquist (Brooklyn, New York) Pianist Noah Lindquist is a second-year Adler Fellow and an alumnus of the 2013 Merola Opera Program where he prepared Le Nozze di Figaro and The Rape of Lucretia. He has worked on San Francisco Opera's productions of Madama Butterfly, Show Boat, and Susannah. This season he will also be on the music staff for La Bohème and La Bohème for Families. A native of New York City, he completed his master's degree in collaborative piano at the Mannes College of Music in 2013, studying with Cristina Stanescu. Lindquist has performed in Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall.

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