Carl DuPont is an artist, innovator and educator dedicated to Transformational Inclusion in the arts and Care of the Professional Voice. He has held center stage in performances at The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Carolina, First Coast Opera, Toledo Opera, Opera Saratoga, Sarasota Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, El Palacio de Bellas Artes, Opera Company of Brooklyn, The In Series, Carnegie Hall and Leipzig Opera. He has been invited to present research and recitals in Salzburg, Rome, Stockholm, New York, Portland, and Miami. This season Carl is excited to return to Opera Columbus in this production of Fellow Travelers after previously appearing here in productions of The Barber of Seville and Don Giovanni. Later he will debut with Bach in Baltimore in the title role of Elijah and in recital at The Kennedy Center.

A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, and the University of Miami, Carl currently serves as a voice professor at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where he has developed a course on art song by African American composers, co-chairs the Culturally Inclusive Task Force, and serves on the Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee. He also creates and leads dynamic workshops in the private and public sector as a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business Executive Education team. His articles can be found in The Laryngoscope and Voice and Speech Review and he can be heard on the world premiere recording of the Caldara Mass in A Major, The Death of Webern, and his solo album of art songs by Black composers entitled The Reaction.

As CEO/founder of DuPont Consulting, LLC, he leverages his research, expertise, and compassion to design and implement strategic initiatives in diversity, equity, and inclusion. This includes training, programming, and talent acquisition within academic and performing arts institutions.

Soprano Meghan Kasanders has been hailed by Opera News as “a wonderfully promising, rich dramatic soprano”. She begins the 21/22 season with a debut at Opera Ithaca in Hansel and Gretel (Mother/Witch) and returns to Staatsoper Hannover for Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud), Opera Columbus for Fellow Travelers (Mary Johnson), and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for The Magic Flute (First Lady). On the concert stage she will debut with the Lubbock Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

Last season she made debuts at Opera Columbus in Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) and Raylynmor Opera in Falstaff (Alice Ford) and returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Gianni Schicchi (Nella) and Des Moines Metro Opera as guest soloist in A Concert for Robert.

Meghan debuted the title role in Anna Bolena with Baltimore Concert Opera and made her European debut in Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud) with Staatsoper Hannover. She made her Carnegie Hall debut singing in Bernstein’s Songfest with the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of Marin Alsop and debuted at Opera Saratoga in their critically acclaimed production of The Consul (Magda). She also performed Sibelius’ Luonnotar, Barbara Hannigan conducting, in Alice Tully Hall (NYC) and Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) at The Juilliard School. Ms. Kasanders is a 2019 Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and both the First Prize and Audience Choice Winner in Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. She has also been recognized by the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition (Second Prize and Audience Choice), and the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition, where she won first prize in 2017 as the youngest competitor.

Meghan’s training has included past resident artist apprenticeships with International Meistersinger Akademie (Neumarkt, Germany), Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Ms. Kasanders holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Simpson College, a Master of Music degree from Rice University, and an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from The Juilliard School, where she was the recipient of The Richard F. Gold Career Grant.

Calvin Griffin, a native of Columbus, Ohio, has been hailed as “outstanding” by Opera News and was commended for his “voluminous bass-baritone” by South Florida Classical Review. During the 2020/2021 season he returned to The Atlanta Opera for their acclaimed tent series in performances of Der Kaiser von Atlantis,  and Carmen, made his Opera Theatre of St. Louis debut in their Outdoor Festival season, appearing in their “New Works, Bold Voices Lab” in the World Premieres of Laura Karpman and Taura Stinson’s On the Edge  and The Tongue and the Lash by Damien Sneed and Karen Chilton, and returned to Wolf Trap Opera as Death in Gustav Holst’s Savitri.  Other recent highlights include the title role in Le nozze di Figaro with both Florentine Opera and Florida Grand Opera, Handel’s Messiah with the Columbus, Richmond and Virginia Symphonies, Eddie in The Fix with Minnesota Opera, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Gomez in L’heure espagnole with Wolf Trap Opera, and his Metropolitan Opera debut singing Brühlmann in Werther.  The 2021/2022 season will see his return to the Metropolitan Opera and his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones, his return home to Opera Columbus as Tommy in Fellow Travelers, as well as concert appearances in both Columbus, Ohio and Sarasota, Florida.

Venezuelan bass-baritone Miguel Pedroza recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Vocal Performance from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying under professor William McGraw and coaches Donna Loewy, Kathleen Kelly, and Marie-France Lefebvre. His engagements at the conservatory included Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro), Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro), and Cavalli’s La Calisto (Sylvano). Prior to his time at the conservatory, Miguel received a Bachelor’s in Vocal Performance from the University of Houston. Miguel has been contracted with Cincinnati May Festival, Opera in the Ozarks, and Opera in the Heights, with appearances in Milhaud’s Le Pauvre Matelot (Son Beau-Père), Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto (Geronimo), and Bizet’s Carmen (Zuniga). He has performed as a chorus member with Cincinnati Opera and Houston Grand Opera and as a soloist in concerts across the US, including Bach’s Magnificat and St. Matthew Passion, Schubert’s Mass in G minor, and Mozart’s Spatzenmesse.

Praised for her silver- voiced soprano… (Seen and Heard International), Victoria Okafor has sung with companies such as Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera and Opera Birmingham. A native to the Maryland/DC area, Miss Okafor received her B.M. in vocal performance at Shenandoah Conservatory and went on to receive her M.M in vocal performance as well as her artistic diploma in opera performance at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Roles for Miss Okafor include Pamina; Die Zauberflöte, Miss Wordsworth; Albert Herring, Servilia; La clemenza di Tito, Barbarina; Le nozze di Figaro.

As a lover of new music, Victoria has originated roles in numerous operatic workshops such as Alesha in Blind Injustice, Wilhelmina in Gregory Spears’s Castor and Patience, Nyomi in William Menefield’s Fierce, and Laura in Kevin Puts’s The Hours. The Hours will premiere at The Metropolitan Opera and star singers Renee Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, and Kelli O’Hara. Victoria premiered the role of Alesha in Cincinnati Opera’s season in 2019 and will be premiering the role of Wilhelmina in Gregory Spears’s Castor and Patience in the summer of 2022. Miss Okafor was an encouragement award recipient for the 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, first place winner for Catapult Opera’s 2020 Accelerate Competition and a 2nd Prize winner of the 2021 Lotte Lenya Competition.

Praised for her “big, beautiful voice with an attractive edge and sparkle” soprano, Adia Evans is quickly establishing herself as an up-and-coming operatic talent. During her tenure in Knoxville, Evans has been featured as Adina in University of Tennessee Opera Theater (UTOT)’s production of L’elisir d’amore, Laetita in Old Maid and the Thief, Ms. Dara in An Embarrassing Position, and La Zia in Knoxville Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly. This year, Evans won Second Place and Audience Choice in the Harlem Opera Theater Vocal Competition and Fourth Place and Audience Choice in Opera Columbus’s Cooper-Bing Competition.

Evans holds a Bachelor of Music from University of Maryland College Park and a Master of Music from the University of Tennessee Knoxville. Evans is a proud alumna of the Baltimore School for the Arts. Devoted to social action and advocacy, Evans completed two terms as an AmeriCorps member in Washington DC, through Public Allies. She works in diversity and inclusion, volunteer engagement, education and arts administration when she is not on the stage.

Bruno Baker is a Latinx NYC based American/Brazilian multidisciplinary stage director. Mr. Baker has worked as an assistant director at The Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Madison Opera, as a stage manager at the Park Avenue Armory, and on the staging staff for Santa Fe Opera.  Previous work on the staging staff includes Guerilla Opera, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and LoftOpera. In the past year of the COVID-19 crisis, Mr. Baker associate directed a new filmed version of La bohème for Hong Kong-based opera company More Than Musical, co-produced with Opera Omaha and Tri-Cities opera. He spent a few months back home in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil developing an anthology of short operas, inspired by different Brazilian musical genres. He is a recipient of the 2021 OPERA America Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Prize.

Luther Lewis III is a multidisciplinary artist, singer, teacher and stage director within Classical Voice/Opera, Theater and Visual Art and is currently the Crane Directing Fellow at Opera Columbus. He has appeared with several major Opera companies in supporting and chorus roles including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cincinnati Opera, San Francisco Opera, Opera de Montreal, as well as international tours in Austria, France, Germany, Israel, South America, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. In 2018, he presented an Art Gallery Concert featuring his illustrations of legendary African American Opera singers at the iconic Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois in collaboration with Chicago Opera Theater. Luther has studied Vocal Performance at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Kentucky as well as Visual Art Studio at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sara Brown is a set designer for theater, opera, and dance.  Selected designs include The Day at Jacob’s Pillow; Hagoromo at the Brooklyn Academy of Music; Fellow Travelers and La Rondine at the Minnesota Opera; World of Wires at The Kitchen in NYC and Festival d’Automne in Paris; Prince of Providence at Trinity Repertory company in Providence, RI; Der Freischütz with Heartbeat Opera in NYC; The Mother of Us All at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Upcoming projects include Champion with Boston Lyric Opera and Common Ground Revisited at the Huntington Theater. She is an Assistant Professor at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Music and Theater Arts. You can see samples of her work at www.sarabdesign.com.

Mary Shabatura is a Minneapolis-based lighting designer, artist, and theater technician.

She has worked with the Minnesota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Theater Latté Da, Mixed Blood Theater, Trademark Theater, Utah Shakespeare Festival, The Moving Company, Dark & Stormy Productions, Teatro del Pueblo, Transatlantic Love Affair, SHAPESHIFT DANCE, the University of Minnesota, The Guthrie Theater, and many others.

Kimberley has mostly worked in opera in her 30-year career as a stage manager, assistant director and director.  Although she has stage managed plays, musical theatre, puppetry and dance in places such as Baltimore Center Stage, Arena Stage, Alley Theatre, Houston Ballet and LaJolla Playhouse, the majority of her work has been at companies like Washington National Opera , LA Opera, Palm Beach Opera, WolfTrap Opera, Atlanta Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Seattle Opera where she worked on the 1995 production of Der Ring auf des Niebelungen.  Kimberley has worked abroad in Montreal Canada, Italy, France, Germany and Ireland.  Houston Grand Opera was her home company from 1994-2006, where, as PSM she oversaw over 50 productions including 13 world premieres.  Kimberley’s home since 2008 is as PSM for Opera Theatre Saint Louis where she’s managed, among others, world premieres of Champion, Twenty-Seven, Golden Ticket, Shalimar the Clown and Fire Shut up in my Bones.  She has also taught stage management at Webster Conservatory and lectured at Missouri State University.  Kim is a third generation native Floridian currently residing in Springfield, Missouri.