A season-long residency for emerging opera singers, the Handorf Company Artist Program pairs high-level performance opportunities with professional development, civic engagement, and personalized coaching.
In today’s field, vocal and dramatic excellence isn’t the finish line, it’s the entry point. Our mission is to help artists in a holistic way, preparing them for all facets of a life in opera both professionally and personally. Our goal is creating citizen artists, prepared to champion opera in the 21st century, on the stage and in the community.
A Year-Long Residency
The Handorf Company Artist Program gives emerging singers and pianists an immersive, career-building season inside a busy regional opera company. Artists perform leading and supporting roles, build the business skills a modern career demands, and bring opera directly into the life of the city.
Beyond the pursuit of artistic excellence, the program offers the tools and the entrepreneurial mindset a citizen artist needs to champion opera in the 21st century, balancing the spotlight with genuine service to the community that surrounds it.
Lead and supporting roles in the subscription series, dozens of appearances during 30 Days of Opera, and recital and cabaret sets at venues across the Mid-South.
Workshops in branding, public speaking, and entrepreneurship, plus practical skill-building in audition strategy, self-promotion, and financial planning.
Cross genre collaborations, community performances across the city, and a central role in Opera Memphis’ civic practice and advocacy work throughout the season.
Individualized vocal coaching and role preparation, guided by goals each artist sets in partnership with the company’s Music Director and General Director.
This program is not only about the stage. The life on an artist is a holistic effort. HCAs work extensively as cultural ambassadors, taking part in community events, collaborations with other arts organizations, and Opera Memphis’ civic practice initiatives across the Mid-South.
Nowhere is that clearer than with 30 Days of Opera, Opera Memphis’ award-winning program that brings a month of free performances to every corner of the city. Launched in 2012, 30 Days has brought free opera to over 500,000 people in the Memphis area.
“Turning the opera house inside out” is not only thrilling for audiences, it lets singers test their skills in a wide variety of circumstances, building their capacity to command attention and understand their instrument.
Just as importantly, importantly, this face to face connection with audiences helps artists learn how opera can serve, not just impress. They leave with a deeper understanding of their craft, a wider artistic community, and a clear sense of how a singer’s work can uplift the people and community around them. As we battle for relevance in a digital age, this point of view is more foundational than ever.
Training for Today's Artist
Most Company Artists arrive having completed their graduate studies, and many have been part of one or more Young Artist Programs. At Opera Memphis, training continues with coaching crafted around each artist’s needs, with teachers and coaches drawn from the company’s leadership and a rotating roster of visiting professionals.
HCAs learn not only the skills and techniques of opera as an art, but the tools of opera as a profession, so that every artist leaves prepared to sustain a career and a life, not just excel in a role.
Vocal coaching & role preparationRepertoire, role study, and acting coaching with Music Director Donald Lee III and General Director Ned Canty, with language and diction coaching to prepare each role for the stage.
Branding, speaking, & entrepreneurshipWorkshops in social-media branding, public speaking, and building an artistic business, so artists can present themselves with confidence on stage and off.
The business of singingPractical feedback in audition strategy, self-promotion, contracts, and tax preparation, covering the working realities of a professional singing career.
Performance & community practiceLeading and supporting roles in mainstage productions, plus dozens of community performances and recitals, each one a chance to grow with coaching and honest feedback.
Three emerging artists in residence with Opera Memphis this season, on stage in the Masterworks series and across the Mid-South.
Miastasha Gonzalez-Colón is a Puerto Rican mezzo-soprano from New York City. She has most recently performed as the Composer in Bronx Opera’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos, a company with which she has done extensive work. She has performed with them for the past three seasons, singing roles such as Dorabella in Cosí fan tutte and Zita in Gianni Schicchi. This past winter, Miastasha performed as an ensemble member in Amahl and the Night Visitors at Lincoln Center Theater in association with The Metropolitan Opera. Last summer, Miastasha was a resident artist at Central City Opera where she joined the ensemble in Once Upon a Mattress and The Knock while also covering the role of Aisha McNair in The Knock. This upcoming season, Miastasha will be joining Opera Memphis as a Handorf Company Artist and will be performing in their outreach program 30 Days of Opera as well as their three mainstage productions.
Reece Ruhl is a rising tenor from Paragould, Arkansas. He has been acclaimed for his dynamic, captivating timbre. Reece has been in productions with Opera in the Ozarks, Wichita Grand Opera, and Opera Memphis, and has portrayed Judge Danforth (The Crucible), Rodolfo (La bohème), Le Petit Vieillard (L’enfant et les Sortilèges), and covered Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Alfredo (La traviata), and Sam Polk (Susannah). Reece has recently performed as a tenor soloist in Schütz’s Johannespassion, Camille Saint-Saens’s Oratorio de Noel, and Handel’s Messiah. This summer, Reece returned for a second season with the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Steiermark, Austria, performing the roles of Duca (Rigoletto), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), and Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly). He competed in the Meistersinger Competition being awarded an honorable mention singing “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz”. Reece is an honored alumnus of Arkansas State University (MM, ‘25) and Henderson State University (BMA, ‘22). reeceruhl.com
American soprano Hallie Schmidt has sung with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Seattle Opera, Pacific Northwest Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Colorado, and Des Moines Metro Opera. Most recently, Hallie made her debut with Central City Opera in The Ballad of Baby Doe, singing Mary, and returned to Pacific Northwest Opera in the spring to sing Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos. Other recent performances include Marie in Daughter of the Regiment (Opera Colorado), and Rose in At the Statue of Venus (Opera Colorado- celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Ellie Caulkins Opera House). Other past roles inclue Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (Pacific Northwest Opera Opera), Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Blonde in The Abduction from the Seraglio, and The Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute (Opera Theatre of St. Louis). This season, Hallie will make her debuts with Opera Memphis, the Kirkland Chorale Society, Opera Omaha, and will return to Pacific Northwest Opera to sing the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. hallieschmidtsoprano.com
In Their Own Words
Thanks to the HCA program, I was granted the opportunity to act as a representative of opera in the community of Memphis, which strengthened my awareness as an artistic advocate and my purpose as a performer. I left with a greater ownership of my artistry.
Our outreach into the community allowed us not only to focus on our own artistic growth, but to forge ties with the wider musical community in Memphis. The company truly operates as a cultural hub. I consider my experience at Opera Memphis to be one of the most formative of my career.
It is easy to think all this work is for the applause, but my time as a Handorf Company Artist taught me that my singing can be a civic act that serves the emotional needs of the community around me. That became all the clearer when the pandemic began.
To have a person say “thank you, I really needed that today” after a pop-up concert, then see them at the opera house months later, is proof of its power to engage, uplift, and transform. My year with Opera Memphis revealed what I want my career to look like.
This transformative program is made possible by the generosity of:
Auditions for emerging singers and pianists open each season. Step into a year of performance, mentorship, and civic practice, and help shape the future of opera in the Mid-South.
