Dr. Kirsten C. Kunkle (Librettist; Stage Director; Choreographer; Charlotte Corday) is a voting citizen of the Mvskoke (Muscogee) Nation lauded as the leading Native American soprano in today’s classical music world. She has been hailed as an outstanding singing actress with a voice that has been described as beautiful, ethereal, powerful, fiery, and bewitching. Kirsten commissioned and premiered sixteen original compositions, including one of her own, based upon the poetry of her ancestor and highly-acclaimed poet of the Native American Muscogee Nation, Alexander Posey. Her recordings are collected at the Library of Congress, the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution (NMAI), and the Merkel Area Museum in Merkel, TX. Kirsten is included on the list of Classical Native American Artists and Musicians at the Smithsonian Institution’s NMAI and on the Molto Native Music list of performers. She was featured as a composer and soloist for the Circle of Resilience concert, with Intermountain Opera Bozeman, in May, 2021. In 2022, she was commissioned and premiered her new art song “Reclaim the Land” at Yellowstone National Park’s 150th anniversary, which has been featured on Yellowstone Public Radio (a branch of NPR) and BBC Radio. In 2023, she was commissioned to write the monodrama for voice, piano, and violin, “Witch of November in the White City” for “Chicago Currents: Celebrating Chicago’s Waterways,” which served as her performance, dramaturgy, poetry, and composition debut with Chicago Fringe Opera. Among her favorite roles in the standard operatic repertoire are Agathe in Der Freischütz, the title role in Suor Angelica, Magda and the Foreign Woman in The Consul, Mimì in La bohème, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Iolanta and Brigitta in Iolanta, Zemfira in Aleko, Lisa in Pique Dame, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas. She has an Honorable Mention for The American Prize in Voice – Professional Art Song and Oratorio Division (Women), as well as being a two-time semi-finalist for The American Prize in Opera (Women). She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2014, and in the same year she was the Pennsylvania District National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award winner. Kirsten won second place in the Roschel Vocal Competition in 2015. She made her solo European debut with the Sofia Philharmonic in the role of Arabella in Johann Strauss II’s Blindekuh. She is also a NAXOS recording artist for the world premiere recording of Blindekuh, which was released in March 2020 to extraordinary reviews. Her most recent recording was debuting the role of Charlotte Corday in the world premiere of “Girondines,” which is a collaboration between Kirsten (libretto) and Sarah Van Sciver (music), available on all streaming services. Kirsten will be premiering the role of Ipp’osi’ in the first opera written entirely in the Chickasaw language, “Shell Shaker” by Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate. With the Philadelphia Opera Collective, she created leading roles in numerous world premieres, including Edith Standen in Shadow House, Annie Jump Cannon in Jump the Moon, Edgar Allan Poe/The Poet in Opera Macabre: Edgar Allan Poe, and Dr. Frankenstein in By You That Made Me, Frankenstein. She also created the role of Space Mad Woman in Toowhopera by Sorrell Hayes. She has recorded extensively through the Comic Opera Guild, specializing in the works of Victor Herbert. Kirsten served as opera stage director for four years at Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting HBCU. Prior to her time at Lincoln, she directed opera scenes at Shorter University, for which she commissioned the work “The Tribunal” by composer Bradley Harris. Favorite productions directed include Treemonisha, Hansel and Gretel, Man of La Mancha, The Telephone, The Medium, and Kismet. Kirsten is the proud Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Wilmington Concert Opera, a women and minority led opera company in Wilmington, Delaware. She is a proud graduate of Bowling Green State University and University of Michigan. www.kirstenckunkle.com

Laurice Simmons Kennel, Soprano, was born and raised in Southwestern Michigan. She now resides in Philadelphia, PA with her Husband. She received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Michigan State University and her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Currently, Ms.Kennel studies privately with Sharon Sweet and coaches with Harold Evans. Laurice has performed a wide range of operatic roles. She has sung the role of Mimi (La Boheme), Micaela (Carmen), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Violetta (La Traviata) and Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica). Ms. Kennel has sung with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, Lyric Opera Company Los Angeles and OperaDelaware. Laurice is also an avid recitalist and church soloist. This season Laurice will be making her company debut with Mission Opera as Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun in Griondines written by Kirsten C Kunkle and composed by Sarah Melnick. She is thrilled to take on this new role, she sang the role of Olympe de Gouges in the premier concert version of this opera with Wilmington Concert Opera this past October.

Recently finishing a production of Steven Lutvak’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder as Miss Shingle with Opera Saratoga, Mezzo-Soprano Kaitlyn Tierney particularly enjoys working on new and challenging repertoire. Her performance credits include Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Jo in Adamo’s Little Women, Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Ursule in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, and Elizabeth Proctor in Ward’s The Crucible. Dr. Tierney has performed with companies such as Opera Philadelphia, the Opera Project, Asheville Lyric Opera, and the Savoy Opera Company. She has won awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and Opera Libera. Dr. Tierney received her bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Vocal Performance and Music Theory, her master’s degree at the University of Delaware, and her D.M.A. at Temple University.

Los Angeles-based soprano Claire Pegram (Madame Manon Roland) routinely sings with the Los Angeles Opera Chorus (Turandot ’24, Otello ’23, Lucia di Lammermoor ’22, Aida ’22) and the Los Angeles Master Chorale (Rachmaninoff’s The Bells ’23, Mahler Symphony no.3 ’23, Mozart’s Mass in C Minor ’22) and has enjoyed many performances in tandem with the Chorale and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Hollywood Bowl, under the batons of Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Gustavo Dudamel. As a soloist, Ms. Pegram won first place at the Gwendolyn Roberts Young Artist Auditions and was named the “Young Artist of the Year” for the National Association of Teachers of Singing - Los Angeles Chapter (NATS-LA) in April of 2022. In September 2021, Pegram was selected to perform with The Opera Buffs Inc. in Pasadena, CA for the “New Voices - Concert of Discovery” program. Ms. Pegram’s recent opera engagements include singing the title role in the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute’s production of Rodelinda (2019), Sophie in Werther (2019), the Governess in The Turn of the Screw (2018), Mélisande in Impressiones de Pelléas (2018), Susannah in Susannah (Opera in the Ozarks, 2017), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Opera MODO, 2017), and Nannetta in Falstaff (Opera MODO, 2017). Claire Pegram received a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute in North Carolina in 2019. She received her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan in 2016. Ms. Pegram currently lives in Los Angeles and teaches privately. www.clairepegram.com

Acclaimed for her “Fierce soprano with intense high notes” Ashley Becker (Olympe de Gouges) has been hailed by The New York Times for her “lovely, fully supported sound and thoughtful nuanced phrasing”. In her most recent role, Operawire noted “Becker’s voice exhibited impeccable control over the extremes of her range” as Aunt Lydia in Poul Ruders A Handmaids Tale with Glow Lyric Theatre in Greenville, SC. Her performances have been nationally praised for her vocal clarity and her ability to capture the emotional nuances of complex roles. Ashley returned to Opera51 in June, 2023 to sing the title role in Tosca and the Boston Musical Intelligencer noted the versatility of her performance: “Her warm, vulnerable Tosca summoned images of Desdemona and Butterfly.” Ashley is thrilled to reprise her role as Olympe de Gouges in the West Coast premiere of Girondines with Mission Opera having originated the role in concert with Wilmington Concert Opera in 2022. In January 2024, Ashley will join Modesto Opera as the Giantess Merilee for the world premier of Evan Meier’s Sherlock Holmes and The Case of the Fallen Giant. www.ashley-becker.com

Marisa Robinson (Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier) What do you do with a degree in Chemistry? Co-found an opera company, commission a new opera centering women, and premiere the role of Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier, the Mother of Modern Chemistry, apparently. It is my profound joy to make my West Coast debut returning to the role of Pierrette, who is obviously very special to me. Science and art are the two halves of my whole. Other favorite roles include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Ännchen in Der Freischütz, Angelina in Trial by Jury, and Casilda in The Gondoliers. Offstage, I am the Executive Director of Wilmington Concert Opera (where Girondines had its east coast in-concert premiere, a Pure Barre addict, and a ridiculous fan of peanut butter with chocolate. www.wilmingtonconcertopera.com