American baritone Andrew Ryker is an award-winning voice teacher, musician, and nationally recognized stage director. Recent voice and opera students perform on stages all over the country, from the Met to San Francisco Opera. Ryker has had nine award winners in Metropolitan Opera competitions, over 50 winners at NATS, and young artist placements at Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota, Merola, Des Moines Metro, Minnesota, Utah Festival, St. Louis, the Spoleto Festival, and more. Recent Musical Theatre alumni are on Broadway national tours (Anastasia, Come from Away, Hairspray), in off-Broadway shows (The Office, Friends, Stranger Sings), on cruise ships (Beetlejuice, Cats, Jersey Boys, Kinky Boots), at Disney (Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, Frozen), and featured on several original cast albums.

Ryker has served as Director of Opera at both Ohio University and Capital University and staged more than 40 productions for companies like Opéra Louisiane, Des Moines Metro, Opera North, Boston Opera Collaborative, Intermezzo, FIO Italia, Opera New Jersey, MetroWest Opera, and more. He and spent seven years at Des Moines Metro Opera, directing for their summer festival, educational outreach tours, and nationally recognized apprentice artist program. Prior to his time in Des Moines, Andrew was Artistic Director of Boston Opera Collaborative and served on the directing staff at the New England Conservatory. Awards have included an Elliot Norton Award, a Cloris Award, a Cincinnati SongSlam Award, a Goldowsky Directing Fellowship, and his production of Britten’s Curlew River was named Boston’s “Best Staged Opera of the Year” by The Boston Phoenix.

Ryker has a diverse background onstage. Operatic roles included Papageno, Don Alfonso, the Count, Silvio, Belcore, Marco, St. Brioche, Strephon, John Brooke, and the lead role in the US premiere of Dvorak’s Kral a Uhlir. Oratorio credits include Bach’s Johannes Passion, Durufle’s Requiem, Faure’s Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah and he’s been heard with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, College Light Opera Company, La Musica Lirica, Trinity Church, and more. Recent highlights include the lead role in Parade with StageWest, a solo cabaret at Noce jazz club, Messiah at the Church of the Good Shepherd, and the title role in I am Harvey Milk with The Des Moines Gay Men’s Chorus. Andrew has sung in master classes with Warren Jones, Pierre Vallet, Vinson Cole, and Alan Held and is an alumnus of Millikin University, where he studied with Kathryn Hartgrove. He received his master’s in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory where he graduated with Academic Honors and was a student of William Cotten and John Moriarty.

Prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Rolando Salazar served as the Associate Conductor/Chorus Master for his home company, The Atlanta Opera, having previously served for several years as Assistant Chorus Master under longtime Chorus Master Walter Huff. While serving as Chorus Master he worked alongside conductors Arthur Fagen, Joseph Colaneri, Joseph Rescigno, Ari Pelto, Joseph Mechavich, David Charles Abell, Dean Williamson, and others.

During this last year Rolando was featured in Love Letters to Atlanta, performing alongside singers Morris Robinson, Jamie Barton, and Kevin Burdette. He also was featured in the digital version of Madison Opera’s Opera in the Park, as well as in an all-Mozart recital with soprano Jasmine Habersham. Other performances included appearances with Cincinnati Song Initiative, MUS/IQUE In a Minute!, as well as returning to the podium to conduct performances of Pagliacci for the Atlanta Opera’s Molly Blank Big Tent Series, and one of the only covid-safe performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Atlanta Concert Opera, an online broadcast viewed all over the world.

Rolando’s previous performances include appearances on the podium with the Rome (GA) Symphony Orchestra, The Atlanta Ballet, Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra, the Ozark Family Opera, the Permian Basin Opera, Georgia State University Orchestra, collaborative work with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, as well as serving as the Assistant Conductor and festival pianist at the Bellingham Festival of Music.

American soprano, Jennifer Rowley, is acclaimed world wide for her unforgettable voice and remarkable stage presence in a richly varied repertoire that spans many of opera’s greatest heroines. During the past several seasons she has appeared at The Metropolitan Opera as Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac, the title roles of Tosca and Adriana Lecouvreur, Leonora in Il Trovatore, and Musetta in La Boheme; at Opernhaus Zurich as Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra, Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona in the title role of Aida, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Staatsoper Berlin, Opera National de Paris, and Opera de Rouen in her signature role of Leonora in Il Trovatore, the Semperoper Dresden as both Tosca and Valentine in Les Huguenots, at the Teatro Verdi Salerno in the title role of Manon Lescaut, the National Theatre Prague as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Musetta, among many others. 

On the concert stage,Ms. Rowley has performed concert performances of Tosca with the Israel Philharmonic led by maestro Zubin Mehta. She was the soprano soloist in Beethoven's colossal Missa Solemnis with the Philadelphia Orchestra both in Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center, and New York City’s Carnegie Hall, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She was the soprano soloist for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Symphony of a Thousand with maestro Fabio Luisi at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, was the soprano soloist with St. Cecilia Chorus and Orchestra in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at Carnegie Hall, and Tove in Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado São Paulo. An avid mentor to young artists, Ms. Rowley has created a summer young artist training program called Jennifer Rowley’s Aria Bootcamp. She holds an annual Artist in Residence position at Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory and is sought after for her seminars and masterclasses across the globe.

A winner of many international competitions, she was awarded the Richard Tucker Career Grant, was a top prize winner of the Lucia Albanese Puccini Foundation, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Opera Index Awards, and was a district winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Consul Awards.

Texas-based artist Jen Stephenson enjoys a multifaceted career as stage director, producer, soprano, educator, and arts administrator

As a stage director and producer, Stephenson has worked with the Baylor Opera Theatre, Chicago Summer Opera, Landlocked Opera, Opera Seme, Lawrence Opera Theatre, Music On Site, Harrower Summer Opera, Druid City Opera, The University of Alabama Opera Theatre, and Tabor College Opera, which she founded in 2015. For her work with the Baylor Opera Theatre, Stephenson's productions have collected numerous accolades from the National Opera Association, including most recently being named first place winner of the Robert Hansen Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition (2023) and first place winner in the NOA's annual production competition (2024). Recent directing credits include productions of Giulio Cesare, The Tender Land, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, La finta giardiniera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Hänsel and Gretel. Praised for her thoughtful characterization and impeccable comedic timing, she is currently chair of the awarding committee of the National Opera Association's JoElyn Wakefield Wright Stage Director Internship, of which she was the recipient of in 2015.

No stranger to the stage, Stephenson has performed extensively throughout North America and Europe in a wide range of opera roles, as a vocal soloist, and as a member of several professional choral ensembles. As a featured soloist, favorite concert and oratorio appearances have been with L’Orchestre et les Chanteurs de Saint Eustache of Paris, France; Nei Stëmmen of Luxembourg, Luxembourg; The Classical Music Festival of Eisenstadt, Austria; the Prentice Chorale of Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Lawrence Opera Theatre of Lawrence, Kansas; and the Westfield Festival Chorus of Westfield, Massachusetts. Additionally, she has sung professionally with Alabama’s Highland Consort, the Richard Zielinski Singers, and New England’s Novi Cantori. Stephenson has sung leading roles with Opéra du Perigord, Utah Lyric Opera, and New Century Opera. Favorite operatic performances include the roles of Elvira (Don Giovanni), Magda (The Consul), Gertrune (The Twilight of the Gods), Mother (Hansel and Gretel), Frasquita (Carmen), and Manuelita (La Périchole), among others.

Equally comfortable as a conductor, Stephenson has served as chorus-master for the Wichita Grand Opera, The University of Alabama Opera Theatre, and the University of South Florida Opera Workshop, and has conducted operas and musicals for The Actors Charitable Theatre (AL), Arts in Motion (FL), and The University of Alabama Opera Theatre. Formerly, she served as Music Director and Organist at Saint Matthias Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa, AL, and as Director of the Celebration Choir at Chapel Hill United Methodist Church in Wichita, KS.

An avid scholar, Stephenson frequently presents clinics, masterclasses, and lectures throughout the United States. She has presented her peer-reviewed research nationally at both the Classical Singer Convention (2014) and the National Opera Association’s annual convention (2017 - 2024), and has been solicited for publication by the Opera Journal for her research on Menotti’s The Consul and Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero. Recently, she has presented masterclasses at Columbus State University, Emporia State University, Hesston College, University of the Ozarks, The University of Alabama, Tabor College, and Barton Community College, among others. Competitions and festivals for which Stephenson has adjudicated include the NATS State and Regional Auditions, KSHSAA regional and state solo and large ensemble competition divisions, Classical Singer online and semi-final divisions, the NOA Collegiate Opera Scenes Competition preliminary round, as well as various independent league and invitational competitions. In 2017, Stephenson’s DMA dissertation, “Luigi Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero and Gian-Carlo Menotti’s The Consul: A Comparative Study,” was named the winner of the prestigious National Opera Association’s biennial Dissertation Competition.

Dr. Stephenson holds degrees from The University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Westfield State University, University of South Florida, and The University of Alabama. Currently, she serves as Director of Opera Theatre and Assistant Clinical Professor of Opera at Baylor University, Artistic Director at Music On Site, Inc., Resident Stage Director with Opera Seme, and Executive Board Member of the National Opera Association. Stephenson’s primary voice teachers include Mary Brown Bonacci, Kyoung Cho, and Paul Houghtaling.

Dr. Jean Anderson is a nationally-known vocal coach and pianist. She is the principal opera coach at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she also coaches art song and teaches courses in operatic recitative and aria studies. She also teaches graduate art-song courses and works with collaborative pianists at Boston University. She has been active as musical advisor, pianist, and coach for the Boston Opera Collaborative, and has served as vocal coach and pianist for Canto Vocal Programs, Berklee College of Music’s Summer Opera Intensive in Valencia, Spain, University of Alaska's Summer Arts Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Northern Arizona University’s summer opera program Flagstaff in Fidenza in Fidenza, Italy. She has worked with Boston Lyric Opera, the Tanglewood Music Festival, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Opera Providence, Harvard University Summer Chorus, the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus, Back Bay Chorale, the Orpheus Singers, Brandeis University choruses, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been in residence at many schools of music, including Rollins College, University of Texas (Austin), University of Connecticut, and Northern Arizona University. She collaborates regularly with her husband, baritone David Small.

She maintains an active schedule as a recitalist, performing with singers in the United States and Europe. Engagements have included concerts in Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, Rome, Santo Stefano, Italy, Hartford, Connecticut, Austin, Texas, and Valencia, Spain. Her performance of Mirror with singers from the Boston Opera Collaborative was named one of the ten best Boston classical music performances of the year in Boston’s Classical Music Review. She recently recorded an album with mezzo-soprano Felicia Gavilanes, featuring song settings of the poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. She is also the author of the book The Young Classical Singer’s Toolbox.

Dr. Anderson holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from New England Conservatory. Principal teachers include Margo Garrett, Irma Vallecillo, Kayo Iwama, Kenneth Griffiths, and Hartmut Höll.