“Lucas van Lierop perfectly adapts his tenor to the genre; the robust is still there, but at the same time he manages to give a certain shine to his voice that the music of Domenica Cimarosa needs.” – Place de l’Opera, Dutch National Opera

Lucas van Lierop
Tenor

Hailed as “a gifted tenor” (China Daily), Lucas van Lierop is a versatile singer, performing in opera, oratorio, and recital. This season he is seen as Spoletta in Tosca for the Dutch National Opera, Orphée, L’amor, Eurydice for a new production at Nederlandse Reisopera, and the Prince in The Snow Queen at the Concertgebouw conducted by Kent Nagano. His future engagements include Der Schneider in Königskinder, Pong in Turandot, and the Haushofmeister in Der Rosenkavalier all for Dutch National Opera, and the role of Richter in Das Wunder den Heliane for Nederlandse Reisopera.

Recent performances included performances at the Dutch National Opera in William Jeths Ritratto, and Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Schubert’s Mass in Eb with the Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (canceled due to COVID).

In August 2018 after graduating from the Yale University, Lucas joined the prestigious Dutch National Opera Studio in Amsterdam under the guidance of Rosemary Joshua. Recent performances with the DNO include the Male Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Paulino in Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto under the baton of Gianluca Capuano; Joe Cannon in John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West, direct by Peter Sellars; Heinrich der Schreiber in Christof Loy’s new production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser, conducted by Marc Albrecht.

Lucas has participated in masterclasses with Thomas Alan at SongFest, Graham Johnson at the Vancouver International Song Institute, and with Andreas Scholl at the Festival Sablé, Stuttgart Bach Academy, and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in Aldeburg, England. Lucas was recently named a Laureate of the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques – one of Canada’s most prestigious vocal competitions.  In November 2017 he was a prize-winning semi-finalist in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition.

“Dominick Chenes’ Rodolfo, whose remarkable stamina, vocal range, and dramatic capabilities pulled the show together into a compelling dramatic arc. His fragile relationship with Mimi was complex and yet, by the end, movingly simple…”
– Bachtrack La Boheme, Welsh National Opera

Dominick Chenes
Tenor

Reviewed in the Huffington Post as a “breakout star” and “powerhouse lyric tenor”, Dominick Chenes begins the 2023 – 24 season as Pinkerton in Boston Lyric Opera’s Madama Butterfly. Other engagements this season include Pollione in Norma with the Boston Youth Symphony, the title role of Hoffmann in Les Contes d’Hoffmann for Palm Beach Opera, and Nicias in Thaïs for Utah Opera. Future engagements include his house debut as Pollione for Oper Leipzig, Cavaradossi with the New Orleans Opera, and a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Greenhorn in Moby Dick (cover).

Dominick’s most recent engagements included Cavaradosi in Tosca for the Metropolitan Opera (cover), his role debut as Canio in I Pagliacci for the Sacramento Philharmonic, a return to Seattle Opera for Alfredo in La Traviata, a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the title role of Don Carlos (cover), Pollione in Norma for Musica Viva Hong Kong, the Verdi Requiem for the Reading Symphony, and Don José in Carmen for Palm Beach Opera.

Dominick has performed Pinkerton for Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège, Seattle Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago (cover), Alfredo for Tokyo New National Theatre, and the Pa Skaret Opera Festival in Sweden, Cavaradossi for Seattle Opera, Reading Symphony, Minnesota Opera, San Francisco Opera (cover) and Lyric Opera of Chicago (cover), Don Jose for Utah Opera, and Las Vegas Opera, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana for New Orleans Opera, Carlo in I Masnadieri conducted by Maestro Roberto Abbado for the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Adoniran in La Reine de Saba with Odyssey Opera, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera with Austin Lyric Opera, debuted Grand Theatre de Genevre as Iopas in Les Troyens with Maestro Dutoit, and Rodolfo in La Boheme with Opera Colorado, Musica Viva Hong Kong, and the Welsh National Opera.

Dominick was awarded second prize from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, third prize from the Mario Lanza Competition and a Grant from the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation.  He was also a finalist in the Meistersinger Competition in Graz Austria.

“Mr. Davila put in a robust and hot-blooded performance and showed off a burly, dark-hued tenor. He was especially convincing in his character’s impetuous and anguished utterances, which he emphasized with an appealing plangent ping.”
– Don José, Metropolitan Opera, Corinna da Fonseca-Wolheim for the New York Times

Rafael Davila
Tenor

Puerto Rican tenor Rafael Dávila began the 2022 – 2023 season at the Metropolitan Opera singing the role of Giasone in Cherubini’s Medea opposite soprano Sandra Radvanovsky, before taking on the title role in Verdi’s Don Carlo also for the MET. This past season he was also heard as Verdi’s Ernani at Sarasota Opera, Cavaradossi in Tosca with Opera Memphis, and Radames in Verdi’s Aida at the Metropolitan Opera. This current season he returned to the Met to sing Don Jose in their new production of Carmen, and the role of Ismaele in Nabucco. Later this year Rafi makes his role debut as Samson in Samson et Dalila with Opera Colorado, and returns to Sarasota Opera as Rodolfo in Luisa Miller. Future engagements include his debut with Pittsburgh Opera as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Turiddu and the role of Canio in Pagliacci with Sarasota Opera, and a return to the Florida Grand Opera.

Most recently Rafi  has performed Cavaradossi in Tosca with Opera Colorado, Calaf in Turandot for the Evansville Philharmonic, Don José in Carmen for Opera de Puerto Rico opposite Puerto Rican diva Ana Maria Martinez, and returned to the Metropolitan opera for productions of Tosca and Don Carlos. Engagements prior to that include his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Don José in Carmen, Des Grieux in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut for San Francisco Opera, Liceu de Barcelona and Opera de Valencia, the world-premiere of Jimmy Lopez’s Bel Canto for the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Turridu in Cavalleria Rusticana and Canio in I Pagliacci at the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli and the Macerata Festival in Italy, Radames in Aida for Valencia, and his debut at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in a Zarzuela Gala Concert.

Other notable debuts include Pollione in Norma opposite Angela Meade and Dolora Zajick for Washington National Opera, Ismaele in Nabucco for Opera de Bilbao Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West for Minnesota Opera, Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino and the title role in Don Carlo for Washington National Opera, Calaf in Turandot for Opera de Puerto Rico, Lyric Opera of Chicago (cover), Manrico in Il Trovatore for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera with Florida Grand Opera, and Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Boheme for Reisopera. He has sung the title role in Verdi’s Otello for Sarasota Opera, and Opera de Puerto Rico. Since his Metropolitan Opera debut as Don José, he has joined the company for productions of Aida, Luisa Miller, Tosca, Don Carlos, and Nabucco.

Rafael has appeared in the Zarzuelas Los Gavilanes, Luisa Fernanda, Maria La O, Cecilia Valdés, and El Huesped del Sevillano.  He has been nominated two times at The Grammy Awards for the recordings of Ariel Ramírez’s Misa Criolla and Rafael Hernández’s operetta Cofresi.

“Angel Raii Gomez (Ernesto) was the Audience Choice winner at last year’s Giargiari Bel Canto Competition, and indeed his liquid, warmly Mediterranian timbre is a crowd-pleasing sound; he’s also an appealing presence. When Gomez eases up – as in both the “Sogno soave e casto” and “Tornami a dir” – he’s a rising star”
– Parterre Box 2023

Angel Raii Gomez
Tenor

Angel Raii Gomez, an emerging voice on the opera stage, is currently a third-year resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts. Praised by critics for his “stage personality, tremendous wit and flare, and a heart-stopping pretty lyric tone”, Angel recently won the 2023 first prize in the prestigious Meistersinger Competition at AIMS in Graz, Austria. Roles performed at AVA include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Gastone in La Traviata, and Triquet in Eugene Onegin.

This past fall Angel debuted the role of Percy in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena at the Academy of Vocal Arts, and this coming spring he makes his much-anticipated debut there as Conte Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Other roles he has performed include Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, Don Jose in Carmen, and Podesta in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. Recently he has also appeared in concert with the Ocean City Pops.

This coming summer he debuts the roles of Duca di Mantova in Verdi’s Rigoletto and Pluto in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld with Opera North in New Hampshire.  Angel was a 2024 Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.

“Mr. Tanner left no doubt about his prowess, singing with a firm, generously sized voice and producing clarion top nots….” – The New York Times

Carl Tanner
Tenor

Carl Tanner has established an international career performing in the world’s most prestigious opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera National de Paris, Washington National Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Real Madrid, New National Theatre of Tokyo and the Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona, among others. His most recent engagements include the title role in Othello with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Florestan in Fidelio with Opera North Carolina, Tucha in Ivan the Terrible with Grange Park, and Manrico in Il Trovatore with the Toledo Opera.  Last season he joined the Metropolitan Opera for Tosca (cover), and performed Radames in Aida with Opera Grand Rapids. This coming season he joins The Dallas Symphony as tenor soloist in Franz Liszt’s Faust Symphony, performs Canio in I Pagliacci with Opera Carolina, and sings Cavaradossi in Tosca with the Greek National Opera at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. Next season he will debut the title role in Verdi’s Ernani with North Carolina Opera and join the Metropolitan Opera as Ahab (cover) in Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick.

 In the 2018 – 2019 season Mr. Tanner performed the title role of Verdi’s Otello at the Metropolitan Opera to great acclaim. The occasion also marked Gustavo Dudamel’s house debut. Immediately prior to this, he performed Otello at the Bolshoi Opera and Savonlinna Opera Festival. Recent engagements at the Metropolitan Opera have included Radames in Aida, Turiddu in Cavaleria Rusticana, Canio in I Pagliacci, Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio (canceled due to COVID), Luigi in Il Tabaro (cover), Manrico (cover) in Il Trovatore, and the title role in Samson (cover).

 Other notable performances include Luigi in Il Tabarro for the Royal Opera House with Maestro Pappano, Radames with the Washington National Opera, Opera Colorado, San Diego Opera, Opera de Massy, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Canio in I Pagliacci with the Korean National Opera, Opera North Carolina, Otello with the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opera Hong Kong and with the Royal Opera House (cover), and Calaf in Puccini’s Turandot with San Diego Opera.

 Past performances include Tosca at Deutsche Oper Berlin, La Fanciulla del West at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie de Liège, Madama Butterfly at the Opéra National de Paris, Il Trovatore at the Semperoper in Dresden and at the Staatsoper in Hamburg, Turandot in Hamburg, Carmen at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under the baton of Zubin Mehta, at the Teatro alla Scala and at the Teatro San Carlo, La Gioconda in Berlin and the Teatro Real de Madrid. His Royal Opera House debut was as Cavaradossi in Tosca.

“…Tenor, WooYoung Yoon scored big, with eight pure and glorious high C’s in Tonio’s aria, “Ah, mes amis!” from the Daughter of the Regiment. Unlike famous performers of this knotty aria, Yoon didn’t rush into the climaxing ninth high C. He paused, took a big breath with a sigh, bringing friendly laughter from the audience, and then hit the rafters and held the note right into the inevitable ovation.”  The 2018 Merola finale was grand indeed.” ……. Janos Gereben-San Francisco Classical Voice

WooYoung Yoon
Tenor

Tenor WooYoung Yoon has been praised for his “soaring high notes” and a voice that “conveys nobility” – Opera News. Upcoming performances include the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto for San Jose Opera.  Also, for San Jose he will sing Benvolio and cover the role of Romeo in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliet.  Last season he made his role debut as Edgardo with the New York City Opera in their production of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. He returned later in the season for a concert commemorating the heroism of Chiune Sugihara which debuted at Carnegie Hall.  Additional highlights of last season include Mozart’s Requiem for the Evansville Philharmonic and a return to the NYCO for All Is Calm.

In previous seasons he joined Maestro John Nelson for Christus am Oelberg with the Orquesta Sinfonica National de Costa Rica, made his Carnegie Hall debut as the tenor soloist in Mozart’s Regina Coeli, debuted Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Knoxville Opera and the New York City Opera, and performed Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Lubbock Symphony. Recent performances include the title roles in Les contes d’Hoffmann as a guest with Opera Theater Rutgers, and Le Damnation de Faust with Maestro Nelson and the Orquesta Sinfonica National de Costa Rica.

A 2018 Merola Young Artist, he returned to San Francisco Opera the following season for a recital in the Schwabacher Recital Series, before joining the New Jersey State Opera as Rodolfo in La Boheme.  He made his role debut as Don José in Carmen for the Trentino Music Festival, a role he later reprised for the Martina Arroyo Foundation. At the Manhattan School of Music, he performed the Mozartian roles Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Tito in La Clemenza di Tito, and Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

WooYoung will be heard in the final round of the 2023 Viñas competition in Barcelona in January. Among his numerous awards, he is a 2022 Opera Index Awards winner, A 2019 Grand Prize Winner in the Orpheus Competition, a Metropolitan Opera National Council Eastern Regional Finalist, a finalist in the Harbin competition, a semi-finalist in the Zachary Competition, winner of the Grand Prix Prize at the Talents of the World Voice Competition as well as the Audience Favorite Award, 3rd place winner in the Marcella Sembrich International Voice Competition, and a prize winner in the Altamura/Caruso International Voice Competition.

“Lithuanian tenor Kristian Benedikt is capable of furious outbursts as well as intimate piano-singing. A moving portrait of Otello, vocally and in terms of stage-presence.”
– Frankfurter Allgemine Zeitung”

Kristian Benedikt
Tenor

Lithuanian tenor Kristian Benedikt has built a reputation as one of the leading international dramatic tenors of his generation.  A renowned Otello, he has sung the role more than 100 times including performances at the Wiener Staatsoper, Bavarian State Opera Munich, the Mariinski Theatre in St. Petersburg, Modena, Piacenza, Cagliari, Palermo, Ekaterinenburg, Santiago de Chile, Vilnius, Graz, Basel, Stockholm, Latvian Opera Festival and at Victoria’s Pacific Opera, Montreal Opera, Savonlinna Festival, etc.

Recent engagements include his Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut as Canio in I Paglicacci with Antonio Pappano, Calaf in Turandot at the Houston Grand Opera with Eun Sun Kim, the title role of Ernani and Eleazar in La Juive for the Lithuanian National Opera, the title role of Otello at the Wiener Staatspoer with Marco Armiliato, Hungarian National Opera, Savonlinna Opera Festival, Al Bustan Festival, and the Salzburg Easter festival with Christian Thielemann, Samson in Torino Regio, Herman with the Hungarian National Opera, Calaf with the Macedonian National Opera, and Siegmund in Odense. In 2023 he performed Calaf at Teatro Real in Madrid, and this coming season he performs Calaf with Opera de Dijon.

In the 2019/20 season he sang Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino at Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos, Hermann in the Queen of Spades at The Metropolitan Opera New York, and Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer at ABAO, Bilbao. In 2018/19 he sang the title role in Don Carlo, Don Jose in Carmen and Calaf at the Lithuanian National Opera, the title role in Andrea Chenier at Teatro Verdi di Trieste and Calaf at Teatro di Colon, Buenos Aires.

Past seasons include Samson in Samson et Dalila at The Metropolitan Opera, Dick Johnson in Girl of the Golden West  in Trieste, Siegmund in Die Walküre in the Odense New Opera house, Don José  in Carmen at the Lithuanian National Opera, Herman for the Luzern Festival, Radames in Aida in Estonian National Opera.

His current repertoire includes the title roles of Otello, Samson, Andrea Chenier, Ernani, Rienzi, Tristan, Lohengrin, as well as Don José (Carmen), Cavaradossi (Tosca), Calaf (Turandot), Canio (I pagliacci), Eleazar (La juive), Manrico (Il trovatore), Herman (Queen of Spades), Dick Johanson (La fanciulla del West).He has performed with conductors such as Antonio Pappano, Marco Armiliato, Marcello Votti, Riccardo Chailly, Maurizio Barbacini, Paolo Carigniani, Asher Fisch, Renato Palumbo, Valeri Gergiev, and Alexander Vedernikov.