Laurel Semerdjian, an American mezzo-soprano of Armenian descent, has recently been hailed as “a dramatic and musical tour de force” (Pittsburgh Tribune) for her portrayal of Asakir in Pittsburgh Opera’s production of Mohammed Fairouz’s Sumeida’s Song. Her voice has been praised for its “guttural low notes” (...

Laurel Semerdjian, an American mezzo-soprano of Armenian descent, has recently been hailed as “a dramatic and musical tour de force” (Pittsburgh Tribune) for her portrayal of Asakir in Pittsburgh Opera’s production of Mohammed Fairouz’s Sumeida’s Song. Her voice has been praised for its “guttural low notes” (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) and “appealing weight, intensity and flexibility”.

In January 2020, Ms. Semerdjian returned to Pittsburgh Opera, singing the role of Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina and in the spring of 2020, Ms. Semerdjian made a company debut with Florentine Opera, singing the title role in Le Tragédie de Carmen, and was slated to return to Resonance Works to debut the role of Maddalena in Rigoletto and Symphony Tacoma for their Mozart Requiem (COVID19). During the 20-21 season, Ms. Semerdjian was slated to make a role debut with Young Victorian Theater Company as Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance, a return to Opera Southwest as Geneviève in Pelléas et Mélisande and was to join the Cape Symphony as the mezzo soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (COVID19- postponed to 2022). In the spring of 2021, Ms. Semerdjian returned to Sarasota Opera in the role of Marianna in their production of Il Signor Bruschino and this summer, she will make her Missouri Symphony debut in their Opera Gala. In the fall of 2021, Ms. Semerdjian will be featured in a filmed project entitled Heroes which is co-produced by Resonance Works and Decameron Opera Coalition and will also join Symphony Tacoma as the mezzo soloist in Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem, Opera Southwest for their NYE gala, and will make her Madison Opera debut as Public Opinion in Orpheus in the Underworld.

During the 2018–2019 season, Ms. Semerdjian returned to Pittsburgh Opera as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, sang the title role of Benazir Bhutto in a workshop of Mohammed Fairouz’s Bhutto with Pittsburgh Opera / Beth Morrison Projects, joined Symphony Tacoma as the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah, rejoined Tacoma Opera for her debut in the title role of The Rape of Lucretia, and performed with Syracuse’s Symphoria as mezzo soloist in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. In the summer of 2019, Ms. Semerdjian made company debuts as Flora in La traviata with Summer Garden Opera and Dorabella in Così fan tutte with Inland Northwest Opera. In the fall of 2019, Ms. Semerdjian returned to Pittsburgh Symphony in the Bruckner Te Deum and made her Opera Southwest debut in Bottesini’s rarely performed Alì Babà.

During the 2017–2018 season, Ms. Semerdjian returned to both Sarasota Opera, as Flora in La traviata, and Syracuse Opera, as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She made company debuts with St. Petersburg Opera (Florida) as Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte, with Pittsburgh’s Resonance Works as Ježibaba in Rusalka, and with Washington Concert Opera debut as guest soloist in their Opera’s Greatest Heroines gala concert. She also performed both Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Haydn’s Mass in Time of War with Washington DC’s Cathedral Choral Society at the Washington National Cathedral.

Ms. Semerdjian made several significant role debuts throughout the 2016–2017 season. In her return to Bellevue City Opera she performed her first Dorabella in Così fan tutte, and in October 2016 she made her Syracuse Opera debut as Tisbe in La Cenerentola. In early 2017, Ms. Semerdjian returned to Sarasota Opera for her initial performances of the role of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She also made her Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra debut with her first performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Ms. Semerdjian also fulfilled two seasons as a Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera (2014–2016). Her responsibilities included performances of the roles of Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress, Meg in Little Women, Gertrude Stein in Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera 27, Fenena in Nabucco, Emilia in Otello, Eduige in Rodelinda, Asakir in Sumeida’s Song, and covering the title role of Carmen. In the summer of 2015 she performed the role of Cherubino in Bellevue City Opera’s inaugural production of Le nozze di Figaro, and in the summer of 2014 she performed the role of Mercédès in Carmen as a Vocal Fellow at Music Academy of the West, under the guidance of legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne. As an Apprentice Artist with Sarasota Opera, she covered the role of Inez in the company’s 2014 production of Il trovatore.

During the 2012–2013 season Ms. Semerdjian was an Emerging Artist with the Dallas Opera. She performed the role of Veronica in Bizet’s Dr. Miracle in outreach performances in local schools as well as at the Winspear Opera House with the Dallas Opera Orchestra. She also covered the role of Sonia in the Dallas Opera’s production of Argento’s The Aspern Papers.

Ms. Semerdjian holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of North Texas and a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Arts with a minor in Music Industry from the University of Southern California.

A winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Miles Mykkanen has garnered recognition on the world’s concert and operatic stages for his “focused, full-voiced tenor” (The New York Times). Of his performance in the title role of Candide at Tanglewood, it was reported in Opera, “Mykkanen sang ...

A winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Miles Mykkanen has garnered recognition on the world’s concert and operatic stages for his “focused, full-voiced tenor” (The New York Times). Of his performance in the title role of Candide at Tanglewood, it was reported in Opera, “Mykkanen sang and spoke feelingly and superbly, with crystalline diction, a powerful lyric sound seemingly capable of infinite dynamic gradations.”

Miles Mykkanen’s 2022-23 season features three prominent role debuts: he sings Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer in a return engagement with the Canadian Opera Company; the title role of Albert Herring in his debut at Chicago Opera Theater; and his first Fenton in Falstaff for a company debut at the Staatsoper Hamburg. Other operatic engagements include the tenor’s return to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Tamino in the company’s new production by Simon McBurney of Die Zauberflöte and the title role of Candide with the Opéra de Lausanne. Concert engagements of the season are anchored in Handel’s Messiah with performances at University Musical Society, Ann Arbor and with the Atlanta and New Jersey symphonies.

Last season the Finnish-American tenor appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in
no less than three productions: Boris Godunov conducted by Sebastian Weigle, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg led by Sir Antonio Pappano, and Ariadne auf Naxos with Marek Janowski. He made his debut at the Festival d’Aix en Provence in L’incoronazione di Poppea in a new production by Ted Huffman conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón and at Austin Opera in Fidelio led by Timothy Myers. He joined David Danzmayr and the Oregon Symphony for Messiah and presented a Lieder recital program of Beethoven and Schubert under the auspices of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Highlights of recent seasons include a Metropolitan Opera debut in the company’s new William Kentridge production of Wozzeck led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a Minnesota Opera debut in the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Silent Night by Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell, a debut at the Canadian Opera Company in Robert Lepage’s The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opera Philadelphia in Robert Carsen’s production conducted by Corrado Rovaris, and Ariadne auf Naxos with Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra. One of his signature roles, Candide has been performed at Arizona Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and at the Ravinia and Tanglewood festivals in concert with The Knights.

The tenor’s vibrant concert schedule has included performances of Bruckner’s Te Deum with Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony, the world premiere of Mohammed Fairouz’ Another Time with Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Mozart Requiem with David Danzmayr and the San Antonio Symphony, a
New York Philharmonic debut with excerpts from West Side Story conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and Handel’s Messiah with the symphonies of Atlanta, Indianapolis, and New Jersey, with the National Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center, and at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium under the auspices of the University Musical Society.

Miles Mykkanen spent numerous summers at the Marlboro Music Festival where his performances have spanned from art songs of Brahms and Britten to chamber music of Brett Dean with distinguished guest artists Mitsuko Uchida, Malcolm Martineau, Roger Vignoles, and many others. He frequently appears with Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, and the New York Festival of Song and also has collaborated with Juilliard415, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New World Symphony, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

A champion of new music, he has given the world premieres of Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27, Jack Perla’s Shalimar the Clown, and of Matthew Aucoin’s Crossing at the American Repertory Theatre directed by Diane Paulus. Opera News wrote, “Miles Mykkanen’s work was especially distinctive: his burnished high tenor seemed like the organizing principle around which the other voices cohered.”

The tenor is a 2019 Sara Tucker Study Grant winner, youngARTS Gold winner and the recipient of prizes from the Sullivan Foundation, Toulmin Foundation, Novick Career Advancement Grant, and Juilliard’s Joseph W. Polisi Award. Miles Mykkanen is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and earned his Artist Diploma in Opera Studies, along with his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Cynthia Hoffmann.

John F. Warren is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Syracuse University, where he conducts choirs, and teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in conducting, choral literature, and rehearsal techniques.

During his fifteen-year tenure, Syracuse choirs have performed at two state and three Eastern ...

John F. Warren is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Syracuse University, where he conducts choirs, and teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in conducting, choral literature, and rehearsal techniques.

During his fifteen-year tenure, Syracuse choirs have performed at two state and three Eastern Region American Choral Director Association Conferences, including Rochester, New York in 2020, and toured throughout the Northeast United States and Canada, as well as Europe and South America. In 2017, the Syracuse University Singers performed for the National Conference of the National Collegiate Choral Organization in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In 2015, Singers won the Grand Prix at the Florilegé Vocal de Tours in France, which entitled them to compete in Varna, Bulgaria in May 2016 as a finalist in the European Grand Prix for Choral Singing. Dr. Warren travelled back to Varna to judge the 2017 International Choir Competition. The choir’s first album, Mysteries and Wonders is available on ITunes and Amazon.com. Dr. Warren is a regular guest conductor with Symphoria, the professional orchestra of Syracuse, New York, having most recently conducted a program of music by J. S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, and Mahler.

He was the NYACDA Choral Director of the Year in 2016 and is a 2011 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University. Prior to coming to Syracuse, Dr. Warren was the Director of Choral Activities at Erskine College in South Carolina, where he was awarded the Younts Excellence in Teaching Award in 2005.

Dr. Warren serves ACDA on the Standing Committee on International Activities, and is NYACDA Vice President. Dr. Warren has lectured, adjudicated and conducted festival choirs throughout the Eastern United States, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cuba and France, and has published research in the Choral Journal and the International Choral Bulletin.

Lawrence Loh is Music Director of Symphoria (Syracuse, NY). Mr. Loh was Assistant, Associate and Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 2005-2015 and he returns annually to lead a wide variety of programs.

Mr. Loh’s previous positions include: Music Director of the West Virginia ...

Lawrence Loh is Music Director of Symphoria (Syracuse, NY). Mr. Loh was Assistant, Associate and Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 2005-2015 and he returns annually to lead a wide variety of programs.

Mr. Loh’s previous positions include: Music Director of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Syracuse Opera; Music Director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra; Associate Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra; Associate Conductor of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Denver Young Artists Orchestra.

Mr. Loh is active as a guest conductor, both in the U.S. and abroad. In addition to annual concerts in Pittsburgh and Dallas, his recent engagements include the Boston Pops (Tanglewood), North Carolina Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Pensacola Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Albany Symphony and the Cathedral Choral Society at the Washington National Cathedral. Past engagements include the National (Washington D.C.), Indianapolis, Tacoma, Utah, Rochester, Naples, Knoxville, Florida, El Paso, San Luis Obispo, Edmonton, Colorado, Charleston (SC), Malaysia, Daejeon (South Korea) and Greater Bridgeport Orchestras. His summer appearances include the festivals of Grant Park, Sun Valley, Bravo Vail Valley, Aspen, Mann Center in Philadelphia, Breckenridge, Las Vegas, Hot Springs, the Kinhaven Music School and the Performing Arts Institute (PA). In the summer of 2016, he made his debut at Tanglewood, conducting Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony with the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Young Artists Orchestra and returned to Tanglewood in 2017 to conduct the Boston Pops.

Having a particular affinity for pops programming, Mr. Loh has been engaged for repeat performances with Chris Botti, Idina Menzel, Ann Hampton Callaway and more. He has assisted John Williams on multiple occasions and conducted numerous sold-out John Williams tribute concerts. He is particularly adept at conducting concerts synchronizing live orchestral music with film, and he has lead Jurassic Park, Pixar in Concert, Disney in Concert, The Wizard of Oz and Singin’ in the Rain, among other concert productions.

Mr. Loh received his Artist Diploma in Orchestral Conducting from Yale, his Masters in Choral Conducting from Indiana University and his Bachelor of Arts and Certificate of Management Studies from the University of Rochester. Lawrence Loh was born in southern California of Korean parentage and raised in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Jennifer have a son, Charlie, and a daughter, Hilary. Follow him on instagram @conductorlarryloh or twitter @lawrenceloh or visit his website, www.lawrenceloh.com.