Tichina Vaughn and Friends Celebrate Martin Luther King Day Cast

Grammy-winning American mezzo-soprano Tichina Vaughn has established herself in the world's leading opera houses. She began her operatic career as a member of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Program and was a member of the Stuttgart State Opera, where she was awarded the title of Kamnersängerin. Guest contracts have taken her to the opera houses of New York Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Rome, and Milan, among others. Her most recent engagements include her debut at the Welsh National Opera as Zia Principessa and Zita (Il Trittico) under Maestro Carlo Rizzi, her Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut as the Witch ("Hansel and Gretel"), Azucena (Il Trovatore) for Piedmont Opera, as well returning to the Metropolitan Opera as the Hostess of the Inn (Boris Gudonow), and roles in Poulenc's Dialogues de Carmélites, R. Strauss' Elektra and Maria in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Tichina is an Associate Professor of Voice at IU Bloomington Jacobs School of Music.

Daveda Browne, a resident of New Jersey and native of St. Kitts and Nevis, is a professional Mezzo-Soprano performing artist. She earned her Master of Arts in Vocal Performance at the John J. Cali School of Music and received a dual degree, Bachelor of Arts in Music and BS in Biochemistry, from Lehigh University. Known for her beautiful, rich voice and captivating presence, Daveda's performances include the roles of Amneris from Verdi’s Aida, Mother Marie from Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites (in English), The Mother from Menotti’s Amahl & the Night Visitors, Mrs. Nolan from Menotti’s The Medium, Criada from Jairo Duarte-Lopez’s and Michaela Eremiasova’s Bodas de Sangre, and Baba the Turk from Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, and chorus roles in Porgy & Bess (MET Opera 2026), Andrea Chénier (MET Opera 2025), Fire Shut Up In My Bones (METropolitan Opera 2024), Champion (supplementary chorus debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago 2024), X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (extra chorus debut at the METropolitan Opera 2023), Mile Long Opera, Show Boat, and Hunchback of Notre Dame among others. She has performed at the Lincoln Center David Geffen Hall, The Apollo, and Paper Mill Playhouse, and with the National Chorale, American Spiritual Ensemble, Courtney Carey’s Stars of Tomorrow, Opera Ebony, and Choral Arts Society of NJ. Some notable memories include her being named a 2025 & 2024 Premiere Opera Foundation semi-finalist, a 2017 Harlem Opera Theater competition finalist, Grace Bumbry's 2018, inaugural The Bumbry Way, and being granted the opportunity to sing for his holiness Pope Francis at the United Nations Headquarters.

Praised by Opera News for his “appealingly suave baritone” and the Los Angeles Times for a voice that “travels expertly from airy falsetto to basso profundo depths,” Phillip K. Bullock has been featured in operas, recitals, and concerts throughout the United States and Europe. In the 2024–2025 season, Phillip returns to Virginia Opera, where he showcases his facility with new music, singing Theoliver “Jake” Jeter in the world premiere of Damien Geter's Loving vs. Virginia. He made his Jazz at Lincoln Center debut, in the poignant and contemporary opera Blind Injustice with MasterVoices. Phillip also had the pleasure of reprising the role of ‘the God of Love’ in the album recording of The Romance of the Rose with the Wet Ink Ensemble; an avant-garde opera from composer and Pulitzer Prize nominee Kate Soper released through New Focus records. He also continues as a Resident Singer with American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice 2023–2025 cycle, led by Artistic Director Steven Osgood.

Monica Camafreita (Soprano) last appearance with SAS was in our Enchanting Opera Masque where she appeared in multiple scenes including Puccini's Suor Angelica, Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos. In our Radio Days program, Monica sang Miss Pinkerton in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief. She has performed in numerous operas, musicals, and concerts with such companies as Varna International, SAS Concert Opera, Regina Opera, Opera for Earth, MORE Opera, Brooklyn Opera Works, New York Opera Forum, New York Lyric Opera Theatre, Eurasia Festival and, also, performed the role of Sophie de Palma in a Latin American tour of Terrence McNally’s Master Class with Venevision International. Some of her favorite operatic roles performed include Angelica (Suor Angelica), Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda), Wellgunde (Das Rheingold), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), and Tatyana (Yevgény Onégin). In 2022, she recorded the role of Rachel in David and Bathsheba, a chamber opera, by Mark Geiger and and performed as Tisbe (La Cenerentola) and Nursing Sister (Suor Angelica) with SAS Concert Opera; and as Mrs. Gobineau (The Medium) and The Lover (Il Tabarro) with Regina Opera. Thus far in 2023, she debuted as Angelica (Suor Angelica) with Varna International in a tour of Bulgaria and Northern Italy and will return to the Besides Miss Pinkerton, Monica has appeared as the 1st Trio Member (Trouble in Tahiti).and as a soloist in our Puccini Centennial Gala.

Soprano Lynnesha Crump is making her debut with SAS Performing Arts in this performance.. She hails from Washington, DC and is a graduate of the Mannes School of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory, where she received her Master of Music and Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. Ms. Crump studied and performed in Italy this summer. Ms. Crump recently won the Luana DeVol award for dramatic voices in the SAS Performing Arts vocal competition. Ms. Crump is decorated with more awards from prestigious vocal competitions, including two Grammy awards as a featured soloist in Porgy and Bess and her contribution in Fire Shut up in My Bones at the Metropolitan Opera. She sang in the inauguration of former President Barack Obama with artist Beyoncé Knowles. Lunnesha was the first recipient of the Luana DeVol Award for the Dramatic Voice presented by SAS Performing Arts.

Jerrell R. Gray is an educator, conductor, and composer from Chicago, Illinois. He holds a MS in Music Education (Choral) from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a BM from Southern University and A&M College. Mr. Gray has published works with notable publishers, including the Trinity College of London, Hal Leonard, Walton Music, Inc., and GIA Publications, Inc., and his compositions and commissioned works have received performances both nationally and internationally. Mr. Gray has been entrusted with the composition of music for numerous occasions, notably the Cincinnati Song Initiative, to create a piece for the Inaugural National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Composer Mentorship Program. In addition to these accomplishments, Mr. Gray achieved first place in the 2020 George Shirley Composers Competition. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

Grammy award-winning American baritone Eric Greene’s recent engagements include BENNY “KID” PARET in Terence Blanchard’s Champion Metropolitan Opera, ESCAMILLO Carmen Liceu Barcelona, PORGY Porgy and Bess Lyric Opera Kansas City, Theater an der Wien and English National Opera, BUDIJOV Dalibor The Bard Festival, and a return to Opera Holland Park, London as NICHOLAS LOFTE in Itch, a new opera by Jonathan Dove. Eric also joins the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden for Rigoletto, on tour to Japan. In concert, current projects include War and Peace Isreali Opera, Porgy and Bess Madison Symphony Orchestra, Musikfest Bremen and Quincena Musical of San Sebastian, BUDIVOJ Dalibor Bard Music Festival, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 La Fondazione Arturo Toscanini with Fabio Luisi conducting, Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero (title role) London Symphony Orchestra with Mo. Pappano conducting, and THE WORD/VOICE OF GOD in Dett’s Ordering of Moses Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and at Carnegie Hall.

Haitian-American soprano Melissa Joseph, praised for her vibrant stage presence, wowed audiences with her debut as Musetta in La Bohème at Opera Philadelphia, earning acclaim from The Washington Post. In 2025, Melissa debuted at the Washington National Opera’s Cartography Project, singing the lead role of Ama in The Seer. In 2024, she premiered at Chicago Opera Theatre in the workshop of She Who Dared as the role of Mary Louise Smith, and later went on to cover the lead role of Claudette Colvin in the world premiere in 2025. In the summer of 2023, she was a Steans Singer Fellow at Ravinia Steans Music Institute and returned to the Opera Theatre of St. Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist (under the Thelma Steward Endowed Artist Award), covering the titular role in Treemonisha and singing the role of Mrs. Gleaton in Susannah. Her OTSL debut in 2022 was as Lily in Tobias Picker’s Awakenings and covered Micaëla in Carmen. Joseph's competition accolades include the Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition grand finals (2024), an encouragement award from the Gerda Lissner International Voice Competition (2024). Off the operatic stage, she’s also a part of the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir..

This performance will mark Ms Lloyd's debut appearance with SAS Performing Arts Company. Kimberly Lloyd is a soprano who graduated from Jacksonville University after studying bel canto for a semester in Florence, Italy. After moving to New York she has sung Suor Angelica with New York Lyric Opera Theatre, The Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier's Trio with Metropolitan Opera Assistant Conductor Joshua Greene with New York Summer Opera Scenes, Anna Bolena and Leonora from Il Trovatore with West Side Opera Company, and Donna Elvira from Don Giovanni with Amore Opera, and Donna Anna with First Coast Opera and VOX Opera in Wooster, Massachusetts. Ms. Lloyd has sung Aida with Regina Opera, West Side Opera Society, and Gateway Classical Music Society and covered Cio-Cio San for The Princeton Festival's Madama Butterfly production. Since then, she has sung La Bohéme's Mimi twice with Regina Opera, Micaëla with the Hudson Opera Theater, and Gutrune, Woglinde, Brünhilde with Trilogy Opera Company, You can follow this lovely soprano at www.KimberlyLloydSoprano.com. She will appear in the near future in Act 2 of Offenbach;s Les Contes D'Hoffmann as Antonia and as Marguerite in Act 2 of Gounod's Faust.

Chauncey Packer is an exciting American tenor who hails from southern Alabama. His 2019-2020 engagements included his Metropolitan Opera debut in the roles of Sportin’ Life, Robbins, and Crabman in Porgy and Bess, soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Colour of Music Festival, concerts with the Saint-George International Music Festival and the Harrisburg Symphony, Sportin’ Life with New York Harlem’s Porgy and Bess at Teatro Regio in Torino, Italy, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Soo Theatre Project in Michigan, and Cavaradossi in Tosca and Jo the Loiterer in Virgil Thomson's The Mother Of Us All, both with Chautauqua Opera. This season’s engagements include Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg as well as postponed or cancelled performances as Robbins & Crab Man in Porgy and Bess with Greensboro Opera and Howard Boucher in Dead Man Walking with The Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Packer has performed with Nashville Opera, Mobile Opera, Pensacola Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Pacific, and New Orleans Opera. He has sung the roles of Rodolfo (La bohème), Alfredo (La Traviata), Pong (Turandot), Werther, Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Sam (Susannah), Ruggero (La rondine), Dr. Blind (Die Fledermaus), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Amon (Akhnaten), and Sportin’ Life, Mingo, and Robbins (Porgy and Bess). Of his Sportin’ Life the Atlanta Journal proclaimed “Here Chauncey Packer was the complete entertainer...” He has performed the role in his 2008 debut with Paris’ Opera Comique, his 2016 debut at Teatro alla Scala, as well as with Tulsa Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Birmingham, San Francisco Opera, and a tour throughout Europe with New York Harlem Theatre.

This season, Kyaunnee Richardson debuts as the Soprano Soloist in the ensemble of Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera, Frasquita in Carmen with New York City Opera at Bryant Park and as the Soprano Soloist in Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de Dominica at Carnegie Hall. She also debuted as Maxie in the world premiere of The Eleanors with the Savannah VOICE Festival, Sister 2 in Why I Live at the PO with UrbanArias and Calpurnia in The Secret River with Opera Orlando. Highlights from previous seasons include Johanna in Sweeney Todd with the American Gothic Performing Arts Festival; Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Amelia Island Opera; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the Savannah VOICE Festival; Adele in Die Fledermaus, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Despina in Così fan tutte with Opera in Williamsburg; Monica in The Medium with First Coast Opera; Juliette in Roméo et Juliette and Maria in West Side Story with Gulfshore Opera’s Gala Concert; Gretel in Hansel and Gretel and Frasquita in Carmen with Opera Orlando; Alice Allegretto/Dr. Marigold in Bruce Adolphe’s The Amazing Adventure of Alvin Allegretto and Pamina in The Magic Flute with Orchestra Miami; Monica in The Medium, Nella in Gianni Schicchi and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos with Opera Fusion and Papagena in The Magic Flute with the Festival of the Arts Boca. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic she has performed virtually, including Opera Fusion’s #SongStrong and Music to Eat Chocolate By e-concerts, Hued Songs in Make Music Miami, and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber’s International Online Cadenza Competition.

Praised equally for her rich, powerful voice and unique expressiveness, Mezzo Soprano Lara Tillotson is an exciting dramatic singer on the rise. OPERA WIRE described Ms. Tillotson’s 2018 role debut of Amneris in Verdi’s Aida as “an unexpected thunderbolt.” The BROOKLYN DISCOVERY proclaimed “the Judgement Scene in Act 4 was sung brilliantly” and “was greeted by an ovation for its tremendous - beautifully sung and acted - imploding of Amneris.” Of her performances of Azucena in Il Trovatore, Nino Pantone was struck by her “stunning upper register” and “burnished lows” while Loren Lester wrote “Ms Tillotson is a tremendous actress with a soulful voice.” Fall of 2019 brought a return to Carmen, a signature role for the fiery diva, as part of Regina Opera’s 50th anniversary season. She brings her “lustrous mezzo” to the heroine with “brash, beguiling strength” “like Lana Turner capturing her prey.” Ms. Tillotson also performed excerpts from Don Carlo for the company’s 50th anniversary Gala.

Antonio Watts has appeared as a concert and opera soloist throughout America and abroad. Opera News critic Robert Croan, writing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, observed, “Antonio Watts impressed in the role of the gangster Schlemil!” WFMT classical radio host Andrew Patner, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, observed, "Antonio Watts showed a powerful and attractive voice." David Schengold, writing in Opera News, observed, "(Antonio) In all five performances, showcased a cultivated baritone." In his travels abroad, Mr. Watts visits Ghana, West Africa to perform benefit concert tours and has given masterclasses that raised disease awareness and money, to build children's hospitals. In Europe as well as Ghana, his interviews and performances aired live, on national broadcasts. Since moving to New York in 2014, Mr. Watts has performed at The Metropolitan Opera House, The Kennedy Center, and The Kaufman Center for Performing Arts as a soloist with Ms. Kathleen Battle; Carnegie Hall, The Bronx Opera, The Frick Collection Museum, Loft Opera, and throughout the tri-state area.

American Bass-Baritone Virdell Williams is very excited to return to SAS Performing Company. His most recent performance with the group was in a Wagner Gala Concert honoring Luana Devol. Other recent performances include Wotan in NY Dramatic Voices’ production of Die Walküre and Colline in La Bohème with The Opera Collective in New York City. He has also performed with Amore Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Other engagements include Wotan in Die Walküre with New York Lyric Opera, Zuniga in Carmen with Capitol Heights Lyric Opera, and Scarpia in Tosca and the title role of Rigoletto with Zwei Gröschen Oper in Germany.