Opera Theatre St. Louis


Gerdine Young Artist Program

Named for Opera Theatre's founding board chairman, Leigh Gerdine, the Gerdine Young Artists receive extensive professional experience. In addition to chorus responsibilities they sing supporting roles and/or cover leading and featured roles in mainstage productions; enjoy extensive coaching; appear in challenging master classes with renowned artists like Anthony Rolfe Johnson, Marlena Malas, Phyllis Curtin, Evelyn Lear, Erie Mills, Jerry Hadley, Grace Bumbry, John Wustman, Sheri Greenawald, Lotfi Mansouri, Craig Rutenberg, Sherrill Milnes, Shirley Verrett, Colin Graham, James Robinson, and Stephen Lord; and appear in solo settings occasioned by OTSL's outreach presentations.
 



Former Gerdine Young Artists (starting from the left) Kristen Forrest Leich (Peep-Bo), Katherine Jolly (Yum-Yum) and Alison Tupay (Pitti-Sing) in The Mikado. Photo by Ken Howard

Gerdine Young Artists are hired on an AGMA contract and receive a weekly salary, round-trip transportation, a modest sustenance allotment and accommodations for the duration of their engagement.

Opera Theatre showcases outstanding young artists in an unusual small theater where audiences and critics alike have come to expect sophisticated, high-caliber productions. The company offers a mix of familiar and unconventional repertory, all sung in English and accompanied by members of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Visitors from forty-two states and six foreign countries came to St. Louis for the spring season, as did writers from Opera News, Chicago Tribune, Opera Magazine, Financial Times, Dallas News, and Wall Street Journal among others.


                                             

2010 Gerdine Young Artists



                                Sopranos                                                 Mezzo-sopranos                  
                                
Allison Buivid                                    Jenni Bank
                          Lauren Jelencovich                           Jennifer Berkebile
                          Vivian Krich-Brinton                          Jennifer Feinstein
                          Rebecca Nathanson                          Tatyana Ilyin
                          Catherine O'Rourke                           Sarah Limper
                          Laura Puzio                                     Irene Snyder
                          Erin Snell                                        Erin Wells
                          Corinne Winters                               Laura Wilde
                          Elizabeth Zharoff


                                Tenors                                                    Baritones, Bass-baritones, Basses
                              
  Martin Coyle                                   Aaron Agulay                                 
                          Nicholas Filzen                                Aubrey Allicock
                          Nicholas Fitzer                                Adam Cannedy
                          Roy Hage                                       AndrĂ© Chiang
                          Jeffrey Hill                                      Andrew Harris
                          John Myers                                     Jonathan Kimple
                          Mark Van Arsdale                             Adrian Rosas
                          Matthew Wells                                Adrian Smith
                          Zachary Wilder                                Bradley Smoak