Judges and Special Guests

James Brown enjoys an eclectic career of conducting, concertizing as a singer, stage directing, and voice teaching. He is the Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Pacific Lutheran University, where he directs the opera and oversees a large voice program. His voice students have gone on to study at graduate programs such as Indiana University, The Juilliard School, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Temple University, and Yale University. James joined Vashon Opera through stage directing and conducting The Barber of Seville in Vashon Opera’s second season. Ever since, he has become the musical and theatrical engine behind the company bringing his multiple talents to bear in many productions. In 2024, the board invited James to step into the role
of General Director to lead the company through its 15th season and beyond.

As a tenor, James sang in many professional opera productions under the batons of such conductors as James Conlon, John DeMain, Richard Hickox, Julius Rudel, and Robert Spano. Recent concert appearances include many performances of Messiah, most recently with Symphony Tacoma. Brown has concertized internationally in China, Italy, and Mexico as tenor soloist.

As the regular conductor and stage director for Vashon Opera, James has led productions such as Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Carmen, Cosi fan tutte, Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Madama Butterfly, Pagliacci, Tosca, and Werther. Other notable productions as stage director include Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Handel’s Semele, La bohème and a critically acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd. James has guest directed and/or conducted for Pacific Northwest Opera, Seattle Opera’s Educational Outreach, and Tacoma Opera.

Recent productions for James include Verdi’s Otello and Falstaff, and Massenet’s Cendrillon with Vashon Opera, and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with PLU Opera. James was a Resident Artist at The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and holds degrees in voice from Loyola University/New Orleans, The Juilliard School and the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Baritone Randall Scarlata is acclaimed by the New York Times as “an intelligent and communicative singer” with a “compelling desire to bring texts to life.” He is equally lauded for his versatility, consummate musicianship and ability to perform a repertoire spanning five centuries and sixteen languages.

Mr. Scarlata has appeared as a soloist on concert stages throughout Europe, North America, South America, Australia, and Asia. He has performed with major ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and BBC Symphonies. He also frequently collaborates with early music groups such as Wiener Akademie and Tempesta di Mare.

A sought-after interpreter of new music, Scarlata has given world premieres of works by numerous composers, including George Crumb, Paul Moravec, Richard Danielpour, Ned Rorem, and Lori Laitman. He is a regular guest with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Art Song Society, and has been involved with Philadelphia’s Lyric Fest since its creation. He is also a fixture at many of the world’s great music festivals, including the Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Vienna, and Salzburg festivals.

Scarlata regularly performs the great song cycles, maintaining especially rewarding partnerships with pianists Gilbert Kalish, LauraWard, and Cameron Stowe. His recording of Schubert’s Winterreise with Gilbert Kalish was honored with a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Vocal Solo. The duo is performing this cycle tonight at Lagerquist Concert Hall and recently recorded Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin. His extensive discography includes 25 commercially released recordings.

In addition to his performing career, Mr. Scarlata is a sought-after master teacher. In 2019, he joined the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University and the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was named an Endowed Berkshire Master Teacher Chair. He previously held teaching affiliations with The Juilliard School, and the Bard Conservatory. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School, and studied in Vienna as a Fulbright scholar. In the formative stages of his career, he was a top prize winner in the Young Concert Artists’ International Auditions, the Naumburg Competition, and The Das Schubert Lied Competition (Vienna). He had the honor of studying under the great French baritone, Gérard Souzay.

Andrew Krikawa, baritone, has been celebrated by Opera News as an “accomplished performer possessing an attractive, cultivated baritone, with well-honed acting.” He has performed with numerous U.S. opera companies, including the New York City Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and Central City Opera. Krikawa’s repertoire spans beloved roles like Marcello (La Bohème), Sharpless (Madame Butterfly), Germont (La Traviata), and Guglielmo (Così fan tutte). Notably, he performed Così fan tutte with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and won the Sullivan Foundation Award, and was a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant.

A New England Conservatory of Music graduate, Krikawa relocated to the Pacific Northwest in 2004 and co-founded Vashon Opera with his wife, Jennifer. As marketing director since 2008, he has helped bring over thirty productions to sold-out audiences, cultivating a local passion for opera. As both a leader and performer, he has taken on roles with Vashon Opera, including Marcello in La Bohème, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, and title roles in Rigoletto, Gianni Schicchi, and Eugene Onegin.

Soprano Holly Boaz has a dynamic career spanning opera, oratorio, chamber music, and small ensemble work. Her notable performances include appearances with the Seattle Symphony, Symphony Tacoma, Hartford Symphony, Seattle Opera, Pacific MusicWorks, Music of Remembrance, and the Russian Chamber Music Foundation. Internationally, she has performed at the Aldeburgh Festival and with the Caritas Chamber Choir in the UK.

Boaz won the Northwest Region NATSAA competition and the Ladies’ Musical Club of Seattle Competition. She was also a Connecticut District encouragement award recipient in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a finalist in the Palm Beach Opera Competition. Her training includes fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the Britten-Pears Programme in England. A graduate of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, Boaz continues to build

Michaella Calzaretta joined Seattle Opera in 2022 as Chorus Master and Head of Music Staff, making an immediate impact with her meticulous preparation and commitment to excellence. In this role, she oversees all musical activities and prepares the chorus for each main stage production. Her debut season included a successful tour with the chorus to Mt. Vernon and Vashon Island, earning accolades such as, “Her chorus was one of the stars… the voices were radiant” (Bachtrack), and “The Seattle Opera Chorus sang exuberantly and expertly” (The Seattle Times).

Before Seattle Opera, Calzaretta served as Chorus Master and Assistant Conductor at Utah Opera, where she prepared notable productions such as Silent Night, Norma, Roméo et Juliette, Candide, and Moby-Dick. Her concert work includes preparing choruses for Messiah, live film presentations, and a Rodgers & Hammerstein tribute.

Her conducting credits span Orpheus in the Underworld (Utah Vocal Arts Academy), Damn Yankees (Pittsburgh Festival Opera), and Patience (University Gilbert and Sullivan Society). As an active clinician and lecturer, she has worked with university opera choruses and presented on choral preparation in opera. Calzaretta holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Simpson College, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from UMKC, and is completing her Doctorate in Choral Conducting at Indiana University.

In demand as a concert soloist, Kelley Nassief has recently sung Mozart’s Requiem with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. She was soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Rio, Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with the Louisville Orchestra, and in Bernstein’s Symphony No. 3 (“Kaddish”) with Fondazione Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Italy as well as Bardavon1869 Opera House in New York. Other recent engagements include soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Grand Rapids Symphony and in her Dallas Symphony Orchestra debut; soprano soloist in Bernstein’s “Kaddish” Symphony at Konzerthaus Berlin; with Richmond Symphony in Verdi’s Requiem, also with the Portland Symphonic Choir; with the Rochester Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; and with Nashville Symphony in Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony. She also sings in recitals regularly in North America and Europe, and has appeared on Japanese television. Ms. Nassief was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, was awarded a Sullivan Foundation Grant, is a Laureate of the Leonard Bernstein Jerusalem International Oratorio and Song Competition, and received a Richard Tucker Career Grant. Her opera credits include First Lady in Die Zauberflöte (Lyric Opera of Chicago, Philadelphia Opera), Cover of Desdemona in Otello (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro (Portland Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Arizona Opera), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Atlanta Opera), Mimi in La Boheme (Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera, Glimmerglass Opera), Liu in Turandot (Atlanta Opera), Micaela in Carmen (Minnesota Opera, Saarbrucken Germany), Tatiana in Eugene Onegin (Strasbourg Opera), and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Eugene Opera). Ms. Nassief is the Director of Opera and Opera Studios and the Marilyn Crilley Professor of Opera at Portland State University. She is a vocal pedagogue sought after for master classes and clinics throughout the country. She has been an adjudicator for several competitions, including National NATS, NW Regional NATS. Ms. Nassief has a private studio in Portland, Oregon.

Soprano Allison Pohl’s vivacious stage presence and spirited singing have inspired enthusiastic responses across three continents. Her work has received positive reviews for her “sparkling voice” (outerstage.com) and “exuberant” performances (Opera News). Of her performance in L’elisir d’amore at Virginia Opera, The Washington Post wrote: “Allison Pohl stood out with a ripe, flavorful soprano and ample character.” Her 2023/2024 engagements include Violetta in La Traviata at Opera Bend, Social Worker/Reporter in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X at Seattle Opera, Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire at Tacoma Opera, Tatyana in highlights from Eugene Onegin with SkyOpera, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at Vashon Opera, a solo recital in Freeport, New York, Handel’s Messiah with Symphony Tacoma, and several concerts curated by Maestro Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops. Allison has appeared with opera companies and orchestras throughout the United States, including Boston Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Saratoga, Tacoma Opera, Vashon Opera, Opera in the Heights, Opera Providence, Opera on the James, Seattle Symphony, Canton Symphony, Symphony Tacoma, Bremerton Symphony, Seattle Philharmonic, Garden State Philharmonic, Harmonia Seattle, and SkyOpera. She has been a soloist for orchestral tours in both Italy and China. As a member of Soprello, Allison has performed chamber music across North America with cellist Alistair MacRae. She is the Artistic Director of Vashon Opera, a Seattle Opera Career Grant recipient, winner of the Seattle Philharmonic
Concerto Competition, is on faculty at Brevard Music Center, and holds degrees from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music and Boston University.

David McDade first worked with Seattle Opera in 1995 in Rigoletto and the Ring, joining the staff full-time in 2002. As Head of Coach-Accompanists and Assistant Chorus Master he plays for rehearsals and auditions and is sometimes heard on celesta or piano in the pit with the orchestra. He has accompanied various recitals for Seattle Opera and often accompanies the local rounds of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions. McDade has been a vocalist, a French horn player, and a conductor.

Michaella Calzaretta made her Seattle Opera debut earlier this season as the company’s new chorus master and head of music staff. Acclaimed for her high standards and superb preparation skills, Calzaretta oversees all musical activities at the company and prepares the chorus for main stage productions. Calzaretta previously served as chorus master and assistant conductor at Utah Opera. Among her many achievements, Calzaretta was recognized for consistently delivering strong performances and a well-balanced ensemble sound. She made her main stage conducting debut in October 2020 with performances of The Human Voice and Gentleman’s Island. Other conducting credits include Damn Yankees and The Merry Widow with Pittsburgh Festival Opera, and Patience with the Indiana University Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Calzaretta is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in choral conducting at Indiana University, and she holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Barry Johnson, baritone, is an Associate Professor at Pacific Lutheran University, where he teaches private voice, directs operas, and conducts the Knights Chorus. Mr. Johnson has sung more than twenty roles at Seattle Opera and is a frequent guest with northwest opera companies including Vashon Opera, Tacoma Opera, Anchorage Opera, and Portland Opera. Notable roles in his repertoire include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Dancairo in Carmen, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Baron Douphol in La Traviata, the Sacristan in Tosca, der Sprecher in The Magic Flute, Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, and Jupiter in Orpheus in the Underworld. Mr. Johnson’s professional stage directing credits include Puccini’s La Boheme, Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Rossini’s Le Comte Ory, Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Puccini’s Tosca, Lehar’s The Merry Widow. On the concert stage, Mr. Johnson has been a soloist with orchestras throughout the northwest including Seattle Symphony, Symphony Tacoma, American Sinfonietta, Orchestra Seattle, Skagit Symphony, Yakima Symphony, and Northwest Sinfonietta.

Jennifer Krikawa, soprano, was seen this past May singing Hanna Glawari in Vashon Opera’s production of The Merry Widow, and in 2019 as Blanche in Vashon Opera’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire. She has sung for numerous opera companies including New York City Opera, Virginia Opera, Connecticut Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera North, Augusta Opera, Annapolis Opera, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Israel Vocal Arts Institute. Jennifer’s roles include: Fiordiligi (Così Fan Tutte), Mimi (La Bohème), Micaela (Carmen), Musetta (La Bohème), Laurie (The Tender Land), Gretel (Hansel und Gretel), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Frasquita (Carmen), Antonia (Les Contes d’Hoffman), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Giorgetta (Il tabarro), Nedda (I Pagliacci), Hanna (The Merry Widow), Tosca and Madama Butterfly. Mrs. Krikawa has appeared at Carnegie Hall as the soprano soloist for Scarlatti’s Dixit Dominus, Vaughan Williams’ Benedicite, and Poulenc’s Gloria, and has appeared at Benaroya Hall as soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Soprano II in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Vashon Island Chorale. She pursued contemporary music studies at The Banff Centre for the Arts, earned a Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University, and she holds a master’s degree as well as a Graduate Diploma from The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Her awards include First Place NATS winner, First Place Opera Theater of Connecticut Amici Competition, Olga Berzins Vocal Scholarship Award, Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Finalist in Boston and Metropolitan Opera National Council Honorable Mention in Connecticut. She has recorded a CD titled “Songs of Walt Whitman”, composed by Malcolm Peyton with Centaur Records. Mrs. Krikawa is a founding member of Vashon Opera and has held the position of Artistic Director since the company’s inception in 2009. She looks forward to leading Vashon Opera into the second half of its 13th Season with Rigoletto and Vashon Opera’s 14th season with The Marriage of Figaro and Verdi’s Otello.

American soprano Angela Meade is the winner of both the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award and the 2011 Richard Tucker Award. In 2008 she joined an elite group of history’s singers when, as Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani, she made her professional operatic debut on the Met stage. Since then she has fast become recognized as one of today’s outstanding vocalists, excelling in the most demanding heroines of the 19th-century bel canto repertoire as well as in the operas of Verdi and Mozart.

The 2018-19 season begins with Ms. Meade joining forces with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain for a special performance of Verdi’s Requiem, in memory of Jacqueline Desmarais. Domestic opera engagements will include a role debut as Margherita in the Robert Carsen production of Boito’s Mefistofele at the Metropolitan Opera, a company debut with Seattle Opera as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore, and a return to the Dallas Opera as Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff. Internationally, Ms. Meade returns to Spain in the title role of Rossini’s Semiramide for Asociación Bilbaina de Amigos de la Ópera and revives her portrayal of Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla. Her schedule also includes a return to the Palacio de la Opera in A Coruña, Spain and the Sinfónica de Galicia for a concert of operatic highlights, a recital and masterclass with Vancouver’s The Singer Behind the Song series, as well as a return to Verdi’s Requiem in Dublin, Ireland, with the RTÉ National Symphony conducted by Michele Mariotti. Ms. Meade ends the season with a gala concert in her debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy.

A native of Washington State and an alumna of Pacific Lutheran University and the Academy of Vocal Arts, Ms. Meade has triumphed in an astounding number of vocal competitions: 57 in all, including many of the opera world’s most important prizes. In addition to being a winner at the 2007 Met National Council Auditions, as documented in The Audition, a film that was subsequently released on DVD by Decca, she was also the first singer to take first prize in both the opera and operetta categories of the prestigious Belvedere Competition.

PLU voice faculty member Marlette Buchanan is an accomplished performer of opera, musical theatre and other genres of music and has been noted by reviewers as a “soprano of extended range, flexibility, warmth, color… and beauty”. Ms. Buchanan’s operatic roles include Fiordiligi and Despina in Cosi fan Tutte, Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice, Marenka in The Bartered Bride, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffman, Blanche in Dialogue of the Carmelites as well as roles in Porgy and Bess. Her musical theatre credits include roles in Showboat, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Once on this Island, and Ragtime.

Marlette is a graduate of Boston University with a Master of Music degree. She attended Fisk University for a Bachelor of Arts degree where she toured nationally and recorded as the lead soloist with the Jubilee Singers. A regional finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Ms. Buchanan also was a finalist in the national MacAllister Awards and the Eleanor Lieber Awards. Her concert performances include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Fanshawe’s African Sanctus, Spohr’s Sechs Deutsches Lieder, and Carter’s Spiritual Cantata. Ms. Buchanan has recorded with a broad range of recording artists extending her versatility in vocal performance. Additionally, she can be heard as the soloist in the film documentary entitled The Freedom Riders.

Described by the New York Times as possessing an “agile coloratura technique and a feeling for the Italianate style…with warmth, full penetrating sound and tenderness,” American soprano Leah Crocetto continues to astonish audiences with her moving portrayals of opera’s greatest heroines.

In the current season, Ms. Crocetto returns to Seattle Opera as Leonora in Il Trovatore. She sings her first performance of Bellini’s Norma in concert with North Carolina Opera, and makes her debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall in recital with pianist Mark Markham, with additional performances in Washington, D.C. and Easton, Pennsylvania. Ms. Crocetto makes her Australian debut with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic she sings Soprano II in Mahler’s epic Symphony No. 8 “Symphony of a Thousand,” under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.

Last season, Ms. Crocetto performed the title role in Aïda, first with Washington National Opera, and subsequently with Seattle Opera. She sang Leonora in Il Trovatore with Oper Frankfurt, returned to San Francisco Opera as Liù in Turandot and performed the title role of Tosca with Pittsburgh Opera. In concert, she sang Verdi’s magnificent Requiem with the National Symphony and the NTR Symphony, and performed a solo recital in Ann Arbor, MI.

Ms. Crocetto sang her debut performances as the title role in Aïda with the San Francisco Opera in the 2016-2017 season. Also in this season, she made her role debut as Eleonora in the first US performances of Donizetti’s L’assedio di Calais with the Glimmerglass Festival. On the concert stage, she performed Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall and sang a solo recital in her hometown of Adrian, Michigan.