Candide is Voltaire’s imagined history of the adventures and misadventures of a young foundling brought up by the Baron and Baroness of Thunder-Ten-Tronck in Westphalia, along with their children, Cunegonde and Maximilian. Before our eyes, Voltaire writes and tells a tale in which we learn that Candide’s greatest influence was his tutor, Dr. Pangloss, a philosopher who believed that the world they inhabited was the Best of all Possible Worlds.

Act I
We see and hear how: Candide was brought up in a fine castle but driven away due to love, he was tricked into the Bulgar army and lost what he loved, there was a fine auto-da-fé to prevent earthquakes, during which he was whipped, and Candide came to Paris, regained what he loved, and took a journey to Cadiz.

Act II
We see and hear: what happened to Candide and his friends in the New World, how Candide found Eldorado and took a trip to Venice, and last, how he arrived at a new philosophical position.

by Michael Shell

“That is well said, but we must cultivate our garden.” – Voltaire, Candide (1759)

As a director of opera and a musical theater enthusiast, it has been a great privilege and honor to have directed two of Leonard Bernstein’s seminal works: West Side Story and now Candide. I can remember at conservatory listening to, or rather wearing out, the recording of Leonard Bernstein conducting Candide. All the music was etched into my brain, but I knew very little of the story. The show is kaleidoscopic, filled with diverse locations, characters, and situations. It is as irreverent as any Mel Brooks movie and as dramatically potent as the most celebrated operas. The many versions of the show have left a legacy of attempts to bring focus to this episodic musical, and one of the exciting parts of directing Candide is to discover how best to tell the story.

It wasn’t until I was approached to direct Candide that I fully entered the wild and crazy journey as penned by Voltaire. After reading the original story, I realized that all the core questions and themes that Candide and his fellow travelers wrestle with on their “worldwide” journey are still present in our modern-day existence: Why are we here? What is our purpose? And why do things happen the way they do? Voltaire’s frustrations with religious zealots who proclaim to be faithful followers of Christianity yet kill people who do not believe, the corrupting power of money and greed, inequality of class, gender, and race, and a philosophy that encourages acceptance of the status quo that is supposed to justify these things and any natural disaster, mirrors our own today.

Bernstein’s version of Candide is a product of its time, just as Voltaire’s was a product of his. In both cases, there are questions about the political viability of the language that’s used, of ideas that are espoused, of philosophies set forth. Both Voltaire and Bernstein fight against notions with which they disagree; they also set up new questions to be examined and debated by later generations. The current generation of students is acutely aware of the inequities and complications of their own time and are heroically trying to solve them. Our performers wince at the use of words like “slave” and “whore,” yet they are part of the text and part of the history of the work. These words remain in the piece under the care and challenge of this new group of artists, who carry them forward toward a more equitable future.

I am sure by now you are thinking, “I thought this was supposed to be a funny show.” It is, but not for humor’s sake. It’s through the absurdity that we’re able to laugh at ourselves and the hypocrisy that we are confronted with daily. As we set about designing this production, I decided to have the work emerge from the imagination of Voltaire as if he is writing it on the spot. By theatricalizing the story in this context, we, as the audience, can watch the characters deal with how they feel about the world and what happens to them on their journey as possibly similar to our life paths.

In Candide, we have a hero for whom learning is slow to arrive, injuring many on the way and leaving some in its wake. In the theater, learning usually comes more quickly, with fewer injuries. Candide’s lessons seem absolutely lost, again and again, yet in the end, we’re in a new position. Like a garden, things remain subterranean for quite a while and then spring to life.

As a place of earth, insects, and decay, the garden is a detailed and humbling metaphor of world-making. A garden requires time, patience, and repetitive action; it highlights the futility of force. New life and growth won’t happen overnight, and there is no one to blame when things die.

When the characters are left alone and confronted with no direction from the author, they begin to ask, “What’s the use?” Like us, they want to know, “What is it all about?” They long to find a reason for the racism, inequalities, pain, and sufferings that occurred and rebel against the author, their creator. Hopefully, this production finds a fresh answer to that question each night.

by Freja Cole
(M.A. Student in Musicology and Music Library Science)

The struggle to find meaning amid the uncertainties of life is central to the human condition. When faced with environmental disaster, international conflict, or personal suffering, how do we respond to uncertainty or endure tragedy? How do we cope? Leonard Bernstein’s comic operetta Candide brings some comic relief to the overwhelming task of living in a far-from-perfect world. Bernstein and playwright Lillian Hellman chose to adapt Voltaire’s eighteenth-century novella Candide in 1954, recognizing the timelessness of the book’s themes and irreverent humor. Upon having the idea, Hellman immediately wrote to Bernstein, “It’s so obviously right that I wonder nobody has done it before.” The creative process soon got off to a rocky start—Bernstein, frustrated by the slow progress made by their lyricist John Latouche, excused him from the project well before its completion. With help from author Dorothy Parker and poet Richard Wilbur, Bernstein and Hellman wrote their own words, bringing the total count of Candide’s lyricists to five before the show’s premiere on Broadway in 1956.

Receiving mixed reviews, the production closed after only two months and 73 performances at the Martin Beck Theatre. However, the brilliant overture immediately stood out as a gem, earning a firm place in the symphonic repertoire. Bernstein was not done quite yet—five major adaptations of Candide emerged over the next few decades that proved to be rather different from this early version of the operetta. In addition to many changes made to the show’s lyrics (Stephen Sondheim later made contributions as lyricist number six), Hellman’s script was withdrawn from performance due to the writer’s dissatisfaction with subsequent adaptations of her work. The 1974 revival—often called the Chelsea version for its commission by the Chelsea Theater Center in Brooklyn—therefore required a new script; Hugh Wheeler was enlisted to rewrite the book, adding yet another adaptation to the already complicated history of Candide revisions. It was the 1988 Scottish Opera version that finally pleased critics, audiences, and Bernstein, who a year later, adapted the score into the “final revised version” that he conducted at London’s Barbican Centre. Even so, earlier versions continue to be performed, as their versatility makes them suitable for a variety of contexts from the opera house to the concert hall. It is the Scottish Opera version that IU presents today.

The novella Candide, ou l’Optimisme follows naive and blindly optimistic Candide as he travels Europe and the Americas, witnessing massacres, catastrophes, and evils that contradict his teacher Pangloss’s philosophy that this is the “best of all possible worlds.” Inspired by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that devastated the city and killed thousands, Voltaire satirizes philosopher Gottfried Leibniz’s doctrine of optimism and his corresponding argument: if God is omnipotent, omniscient, and benevolent, then he must have created the most perfect world possible. If there were the possibility of a better world, God would have brought it into being. Disillusioned by the tragedy in Lisbon, Voltaire found this idea inconceivable. How could a compassionate God’s ideal world include such pain and suffering? Voltaire’s critique of optimism is revealed most clearly by the character Pangloss, who serves as a parody of Leibniz. Despite the torments that Candide and his mentor endure and witness, Pangloss always finds a way to rationalize their circumstances to the point of absurdity. In the operetta, when asked how war could be explained, Pangloss states matter-of-factly, “War makes equal, as it were, / The noble and the commoner; / Thus war improves relations.”

Voltaire’s satire also proved to be particularly relevant to U.S. audiences in the 1950s. Bernstein and Hellman were collaborating on Candide at the height of the McCarthy era, a period characterized by fear and suspicion of communist influence in America and propelled by strict political censorship and propaganda. The House Un-American Activities Committee hearings and ongoing investigations of suspected communists find stark parallels in the first act “Auto-da-fé.” Candide and Pangloss are interrogated and arrested as heretics in this number recalling the persecution of Jews by the Church during the Portuguese Inquisition; autos-da-fé, or acts of faith, were public rituals surrounding the sentencing and punishment of enemies of the Church. Early versions of the scene included overt jabs at McCarthy that were cut before the show’s Broadway premiere, weakening the biting social criticism that Hellman originally intended. This episode from Voltaire’s novella would have resonated with the creators on a personal level; Hellman, Bernstein, Latouche, and Parker were cited in Red Channels, a 1950 publication that blacklisted and damaged the careers of many important artists by exposing their “un-American” activities to the public.

In Bernstein’s version of Candide, the characters face adversity that prompts them to engage with their optimistic worldviews differently. Candide struggles to reconcile his outlook with the awful realities of war, disease, death, and persecution. His love interest, Cunegonde, is subjected to equally horrific experiences when she is attacked by Bulgar soldiers and later sold to two wealthy men in Paris. In the aria “Glitter and Be Gay,” Cunegonde expresses despair over the loss of her virtue and laments the façade of gaiety she must maintain to cope—“forced to glitter, forced to be gay.” The second section of the aria is light and bubbly; Cunegonde disguises her pain with laughter and adopts the optimistic attitude of her teacher Pangloss, exclaiming, “If I’m not pure, at least my jewels are!” As the characters find themselves in less-than-perfect circumstances, they consider what it means to live in the best of all possible worlds. Candide and Cunegonde find their own methods of surviving by choosing to settle down in a new home in the finale, “Make Our Garden Grow.” They begin to cultivate something meaningful for themselves and those around them, doing the best they can to create a better world.

Constantine Kitsopoulos has established himself as a dynamic conductor known for his ability to work in many different genres and settings. He is equally at home with opera, symphonic repertoire, film with live orchestra, music theater, and composition. His work has taken him all over the world, where he has conducted the major orchestras of North America, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Tokyo Philharmonic. In addition to Kitsopoulos’s engagements as guest conductor, he is music director of the Festival of the Arts Boca and general director of Chatham Opera. He is general director of the New York Grand Opera and is working with the company to bring opera, free and open to the public, back to New York’s Central Park. His 2022-23 season includes his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducting return engagements with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Detroit, Phoenix, Houston, Vancouver, New Jersey, and San Francisco symphonies. Highlights of previous seasons include return engagements with the Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Houston Symphony, Toronto Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Louisiana Philharmonic. He also conducted Leonard Bernstein’s Mass at IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater. Kitsopoulos has developed semi-staged productions of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, for which he has written a new translation, Don Giovanni, and La Bohème. He has conducted IU Jacobs Opera Theater productions of Falstaff, Die Fledermaus, A View from the Bridge, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Most Happy Fella, South Pacific, Oklahoma, The Music Man, and The Last Savage. He was assistant chorus master at New York City Opera from 1984 to 1989. On Broadway, he has been music director of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (cast album on PS Classics), A Catered Affair (cast album on PS Classics), Coram Boy, Baz Luhrmann’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème (cast album on DreamWorks Records), Swan Lake, and Les Misérables. He was music director of ACT’s production of Weill/Brecht’s Happy End and made the only English-language recording of the piece for Sh-K-Boom Records. Kitsopoulos studied piano with Marienka Michna, Chandler Gregg, Edward Edson, and Sophia Rosoff. He studied conducting with Semyon Bychkov, Sergiu Comissiona, Gustav Meier, and his principal teacher, Vincent La Selva.

Michael Shell is associate professor of voice at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he teaches acting and opera workshops, and directs mainstage productions. His philosophy is to inform, excite, and empower his students to be the most authentic singing actors possible. Over the past two years, he has created the new core of Jacobs dramatic training courses. His productions have been praised by critics across the nation. A Broadway World reviewer recently commented on Shell’s new production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide: “This production was one I could watch over and over again.” Shell has directed productions for Atlanta Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Omaha, Opera San José, Opera Tampa, Opera North, Virginia Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Houston Grand Opera. He made his international directing debut at the Wexford Festival Opera in 2010 with a production of Winners by American composer Richard Wargo and returned the following fall to direct Double Trouble–Trouble in Tahiti and The Telephone. He has written and directed three cabarets, including All About Love and The Glamorous Life—A group therapy session for Opera Singers, both for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Shell earned a B.M. and an M.M. in Music/Vocal Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He was a Corbett Scholar at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and studied acting and scene study at H. B. Studios on an H. B. Studios merit scholarship. Shell has been guest faculty and director at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Florida State University, Oklahoma University, A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute, and Webster University–St. Louis, teaching opera workshops and directing full productions and workshop performances. He is also on faculty at the International Vocal Arts Institute Summer Opera Program in Tel Aviv.

Steven C. Kemp is a set designer for opera, theater, and events. Originally from Houston, Texas, he earned his M.F.A. from UC San Diego. His previous IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater designs have included West Side Story, The Music Man, Madama Butterfly, Oklahoma, and Dead Man Walking. His 120 designs for opera have been presented at 40 companies, including LA Opera, Arizona Opera, Atlanta Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Sarasota Opera, Utah Opera, Central City Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Des Moines Metro Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Kentucky Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Omaha, Opera Santa Barbara, Pittsburgh Opera, Portland Opera, Curtis Institute of Music, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His 26 designs for Opera San Jose across 13 seasons include the west-coast premieres of Anna Karenina and Silent Night as well as the acclaimed productions of Idomeneo and Alma Deutscher’s Cinderella. This design for Candide, originally presented at Des Moines Metro Opera, won Honorable Mention at the 2021 Golden Trezzini Awards for Architecture and Design. Kemp’s design for Falstaff was selected as a finalist in the World Stage Design 2017 exhibit in Taipei, Taiwan. He has designed over 50 productions in New York City, including the Off-Broadway revivals of Tick, Tick … Boom! and Ordinary Days as well as numerous productions for regional theaters, cruise ships, and international tours, such as the current Blippi: The Wonderful World Tour and Baby Shark Live!. Early in his career, Kemp worked extensively as an associate designer, including designs for 10 Broadway productions, national tours, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Disney Theatricals, DreamWorks, and the Metropolitan Opera.

Linda Pisano designs for many theater, dance, musical theater, ballet, and opera companies throughout the United States; her ballet designs have toured the U.K. and Canada. An award-winning designer, she was selected to represent the United States in costume design in the World Stage Design Exhibition in Taipei 2017. Her work has been selected for feature in the Quadrennial World Exhibition in Prague, and she is a three-time winner of the National Stage Expo for performance design and a four-time recipient of the Peggy Ezekiel Award for Excellence in Design. Her work was selected from top designers in the United States to be featured and published in the “Costumes of the Turn of the Century” exhibition with the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow and the China Institute of Stage Design in Beijing. As professor of costume design at Indiana University, she also directs its Theatre and Drama study abroad program in London, is department chair, and produces IU’s Summer Theatre. She is co-author of the recent book The Art and Practice of Costume Design. Some of her favorite projects include The Daughter of the Regiment, Urinetown, Anne Frank, Salome (with Patricia Racette), To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, Sense and Sensibility, Chicago, Madama Butterfly, The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus, A Little Night Music, and the opera Akhnaten. She served two terms as an elected member of the board of directors for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829. She is currently designing the 2023 Nutcracker for the Jacobs School of Music.

Bridget S. Williams is a Chicago-based lighting designer for theater, opera, dance, and events. She is currently an assistant lighting designer for Lyric Opera of Chicago; she also works on independent projects nationally. Williams earned an M.F.A. in Lighting Design from Indiana University before accepting a teaching position at Interlochen Center for the Arts as the instructor of design and production. During her time at Interlochen, she taught all aspects of design and production to students in grades 9-12, while also designing several theater and dance productions for Interlochen’s production division. Most recently, she has designed for Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Festival of Chicago, Cardinal Stage Company, and Valiant Theatre. Williams has also worked in several capacities for the Joffrey Ballet School, The Juilliard School, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Indiana Festival Theatre, Jewish Theatre of Bloomington, Thunder Bay Theatre, Children’s Theatre of Madison, Miller Auditorium, and Kalamazoo State Theatre.

Lauren Haughton Gillis is an assistant professor of musical theatre at Indiana University. Some of her performance credits include Wicked on Broadway, Turn of the Century at the Goodman Theatre, and Sammy at The Old Globe. On screen, she appeared in the television series Encore! on Disney+ in Annie. She has produced, directed, and choreographed shows for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS all over the U.S. and Canada with the Broadway National Touring companies of Hamilton, Wicked, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and The Book of Mormon. She currently works internationally as an associate choreographer for Virgin Voyages. In 2021, Haughton Gillis was granted a director/choreographer observership assisting Tony Award-winner Graciela Daniele on The Gardens of Anuncia at The Old Globe. Haughton Gillis’s director and/or choreographer credits include The Magic Hummingbird at The Cutting Room in New York City, Matilda and Godspell at Festival 56, The World Goes Round at Coronado Playhouse (Aubrey Award winner), Bright Star and The Marvelous Wonderettes: Dream On at Okoboji Summer Theatre, Trouble in Tahiti, Susannah, The Tender Land, Peter/Wendy, and Rose and the Rime at Northwestern University, She Loves Me at San Diego Musical Theatre, Fly at the La Jolla Playhouse (director fellowship), PDA at the La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival (associate director), Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Diversionary Theatre (assistant director), and Pickwick’s Haunted Christmas at Ripley Grier Studios, NYC (assistant director). Locally, Haughton Gillis was on the creative teams for Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812; Carrie; and Head Over Heels at IU Theatre & Dance. She also choreographed Elf at Constellation Stage & Screen and A Year with Frog & Toad at Cardinal Stage. She holds a B.F.A. from Syracuse University and an M.F.A. from San Diego State University.

Walter Huff is professor of choral conducting and faculty director of opera choruses at the Jacobs School of Music. He served as chorus master for the Atlanta Opera for more than two decades, leading the renowned ensemble in more than 125 productions, with critical acclaim in the United States and abroad. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory (Johns Hopkins). He studied piano with Sarah Martin, Peter Takács, and Lillian Freundlich, and voice with Flore Wend. After serving as a fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, he received Tanglewood’s C. D. Jackson Master Award for Excellence. Huff served as coach with the Peabody Opera Theatre and Washington Opera and has been musical director for The Atlanta Opera Studio, Georgia State University Opera, and Actor’s Express (Atlanta). He also has worked as chorus master with San Diego Opera. He served on the faculty at Georgia State University for four years as assistant professor, guest lecturer, and conductor for the Georgia State University Choral Society. He has served as chorus master for many IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater productions, including L’Étoile, It’s a Wonderful Life, Lucia di Lammermoor, West Side Story, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Dialogues of the Carmelites, The Elixir of Love, Bernstein’s Mass, Le Nozze di Figaro, Parsifal, Suor Angelica, La Traviata, Little Women, The Barber of Seville, Xerxes, La Bohème, The Magic Flute, The Coronation of Poppea, Falstaff, Highway 1, USA, La Rondine, H.M.S. Pinafore, Ainadamar, and Anne Frank. For five years, Huff has served as choral instructor and conductor for the Jacobs School’s Sacred Music Intensive. He conducted the Jacobs Summer Music series productions of Arthur Honegger’s King David and Stephen Paulus’s The Three Hermits. This past summer, Huff returned for his fourth year as a faculty member at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute. He also maintains a busy vocal coaching studio in Atlanta.

John Armstrong is an actor, producer, director, and coach with over 20 years of diverse experience in the entertainment industry. He is a cofounder of Pigasus Pictures, an Indiana-based, independent film company, where he has produced several films, including The Good Catholic (Danny Glover, John C. McGinley) and So Cold the River, the film adaptation of Michael Koryta’s novel of the same name. Armstrong’s acting credits include As You Like It (New York Classical Theatre), The Piper with Tony Award-nominees Christiane Noll and Bob Cuccioli (New York Musical Festival and Irish Repertory, NYC), Heartbreaker with Tony Award-nominee Christine Andreas (NYC), Seussical (National Tour), Macbeth (Indiana Repertory), Hamlet (title character, Freed PAC), and many more. He also performed locally in Santaland Diaries, Rounding Third, and Tuning In for Bloomington Playwrights Project with Constellation Stage & Screen, where he is also director of development. Armstrong is an adjunct professor of acting and voice at the IU Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance, and has served as instructor and professor of acting, voice, movement, musical theater, and Shakespeare studies at the New York Film Academy, Ohio Northern University, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, and Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey. He is also a private coach of voice, speech, and public speaking to business professionals across the U.S. Armstrong began his training in vocal performance at the Jacobs School of Music. He earned a bachelor’s degree in musical theater under the mentorship of professor emeritus George Pinney and an M.F.A. in acting from the IU Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance, where he performed in more than 20 plays and musicals over seven years. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, Bloomington Rotary, and the National Society of Arts and Letters.

Chris Mills comes to Bloomington from New York, where she was the global content strategist for UNICEF. Before that, she taught for a decade in the Undergraduate Drama Department and Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She was also the long-time resident dramaturg for Theater Mitu and has worked as a dramaturg for Little Lord, Lucky Pierre Performance, 24seven Play Lab, and Young Playwrights. She is an alumnus of NYU’s Department of Performance Studies, Temple University’s History of Art Department, and the Whitney Museum of Art’s Independent Scholars Program. Mills has made theater with the Public Theater/NYSF, Big Mess Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Company, Stage Left Theater, Philadelphia Alliance for Performance Alternatives, and Walnut Street Theater as well as Momenta Art Alternatives and Goat Island Performance Group. She has been published in Art Journal, TDR, Frakcija, Theater Journal, Journal of Architectural Education, Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory, The Village Voice, and in the books Out of Time and Place: an anthology of plays from The Women’s Project Playwrights Lab, and [1968]: Moments of Culture in Context. Mills is currently completing her M.F.A.in Dramaturgy at IU.

Andrew Elliot is a makeup artist, wig designer, stylist, and cellist. His design and music work can be seen and heard with IU Jacobs Opera and Ballet Theater, Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre, Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre, Actors Theatre of Indiana, Phoenix Theatre, Zach & Zack Productions, Summer Stock Stage, and more. As a makeup artist and stylist, his work can be seen locally and nationally in various publications, commercials, billboards, industrials, and editorials. He spent 2020 recreating icons of film, fashion, and theater, which gained national attention, with features in The New York Times, NowThis News, The Indianapolis Star, and Indianapolis Monthly.

Ansley Valentine is a professional actor and director for the theater and musical theater and an educator with experience teaching professionally at the collegiate level and in both public and private performing arts high schools. He earned an M.F.A. in Directing from Indiana University. He is currently a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and Actors’ Equity Association. Some of his favorite productions include Les Misérables, The Colored Museum, Twelfth Night, and many new plays. Valentine is also a graduate of the Arts Midwest Minorities in Arts Administration Fellowship, a program funded by the Ford Foundation to increase minority representation in leadership roles at American not-for-profit organizations. His many awards include a Kennedy Center Gold Medallion. He is excited to be working with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater.

Baritone Gabriel Armstrong, an actor, singer, and playwright from Ogden, Utah, is a junior studying voice with Marietta Simpson. This is his debut with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater. In January, he joined the chorus of Cedar Rapids Opera’s production of Così fan tutte as part of its Smith Young Artist program. Other credits include Sueño, Gross Indecency, and Nice Jewish Boy with IU Theatre, The Secret Garden and Amazing Grace with Utah Festival Opera, West Side Story with The Grand Theatre, and The Jungle with Good Company Theatre. His short plays have been performed by the Utah New Works Project and IU’s At First Sight Festival. He produced the premiere of his play, Fishbowl, last December at IU.

Tenor Matthew Perez is a second-year master’s student studying with Deanne Meek. Originally from San Antonio, Texas, he earned a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2021. Perez has performed roles with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater and the University of Texas at San Antonio Lyric Theater. His previous roles include Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, Fernando in Granados’ Goyescas, and Hérisson de Porc-Épic in Chabrier’s L’Étoile as well as appearing in the opera chorus of Puccini’s La Rondine. Perez has also performed with the University Singers and NOTUS ensembles. Most recently, he was a summer 2022 vocal fellow with the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago.

Michael Christopher is a tenor from Dallas, Texas, studying with Peter Volpe. He is currently in his third year of a dual bachelor’s degree program in voice performance and Italian. Before transferring to IU, Christopher made his professional opera debut with The Dallas Opera as Second Priest in The Magic Flute, at age 19. He also sang with The Dallas Opera Chorus in its production of Don Carlo and has been a part of The Magic Flute, H.M.S. Pinafore, and L’Étoile opera choruses at IU. This semester, he is a part of the NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble at IU. This is his first titular role with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater.

Tenor Cameron King is in his second year of pursuing a Master of Music in Voice Performance at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Michelle DeYoung. Originally from Central Florida, he graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Florida State University (FSU) as a student of Jeffrey Springer. While at FSU, King appeared in operatic classics such as Puccini’s La Bohème, Marschner’s Der Vampyr, Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience as well as newer works such as Floyd’s Of Mice and Men. Within the FSU Scenes Program, he performed excerpts from Puccini’s La Rondine and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. He also performed with Teatro Lirico D’Europa in a traveling performance of Puccini’s Tosca. During the 2021 season, King was the first-place winner of the Charleston International Music Competition, first-place winner of the Southeastern NATS Student Auditions, and third-place winner of the NATS National Student Auditions. He finished the 2021 season playing Fenton in IU Jacobs Opera Theater’s production of Verdi’s Falstaff. During the 2022 season, he portrayed Alfred and Dr. Blind in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar.

Jamaican soprano Sashekia Brown regularly performs throughout the Caribbean and North America. She returns to the IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater stage after making her debut in the fall as Sandmännchen (Hansel and Gretel). Brown made her professional opera debut with Toledo Opera as Girlfriend1/Nurse in Jeanine Tesori’s new opera, Blue, and recently sang the role of Gretel in LandLocked Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel. She was a scholarship recipient of the 2021 Premiere Opera Vocal Arts Institute young artist program and placed first in the 2021 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS): Cal-Western Regional competition in both the Advanced Classical Treble Voice: 4th/5th Year College/Graduate Age and the American Negro Spiritual categories and went on to be a finalist at the national level NATS. Brown also won the 2022 University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) Concerto Competition and performed Milhaud’s Quatre Chansons de Ronsard with the UNR Symphony Orchestra at its annual Honors Concert. Most recently, she was a semifinalist in the 2022 Classical Singer Competition. Brown is currently pursuing a Performer Diploma in Solo Performance at the Jacobs School of Music with Carol Vaness. Other major voice teachers and coaches include Albert Lee, Daniel Fung, and Jamaican pedagogues Keastner Robertson and Carline Waugh. Brown is the recipient of career grants from the Government of Jamaica through the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports, and Education Fund.

Chinese soprano Siyi Yan is a second-year master’s student at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Brian Horne and Gary Arvin, having earned her bachelor’s degree in 2021 from China Conservatory of Music studying under Jingjing Li. She was a finalist in the 2022 Premiere Opera Foundation International Vocal Competition. In 2021-22, Yan debuted with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater in Puccini’s La Rondine as Yvette and appeared in the opera chorus of Chabrier’s L’Étoile and Verdi’s Falstaff. During her undergraduate studies, she performed at the China Conservatory of Music as Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute (2021), and her scenes work included Ophelia (Hamlet), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Frasquita (Carmen), and Adina (The Elixir of Love).

Baritone Alexander Kapp, originally from Louisville, Kentucky, is a second-year doctoral student at the Jacobs School of Music studying under Jane Dutton. This marks his second production with IU Jacobs Opera Theater, after last being seen as Ottone in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea in the 2021-22 season. This summer, he will return to Central City Opera as a Bonfils-Stanton Apprentice Artist, where he will sing the roles of Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette and the Padua Priest/Stage Doorman in Kiss Me Kate. Previously, he was a studio artist with Central City Opera, where he covered the role of Manfred Lewin in Jake Heggie’s Two Remain in addition to performing in its studio artist concerts. Kapp has also been a vocal institute fellow with the Music Academy of the West under the direction of Marilyn Horne. While there, he performed in scenes concerts as well as the role of Thomas in the west-coast premiere production of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain. Elsewhere, he has performed the roles of Ford (Falstaff), Dottore Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Top (The Tender Land), Le Podestat (Le Docteur Miracle), and Bartley (Riders to the Sea), among others. In competition, Kapp has been a finalist in the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra Competition (2023) and Opera Grand Rapids Vocal Competition (2020), a semi-finalist in the Opera Index Vocal Competition (2022), and an Encouragement Award winner from the Middle/East Tennessee District of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He earned an M.M. degree from the University of Cincinnati College–Conservatory of Music and B.M. degrees in Vocal Performance and Music Education from the University of Louisville.

Scottish native Steven M. Warnock is a baritone completing Performance Diploma studies at the Jacobs School of Music. He has worked privately with Heidi Murphy, Mary Ann Hart, Julia Bentley, Timothy Noble, and British baritone Julian Tovey. Warnock’s operatic roles include Captain Corcoran in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Sam in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Friedrich Bhaer in Adamo’s Little Women, Marco in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Steve Sankey in Weill’s Street Scene. As a chorus member, he has appeared in Charbier’s L’Étoile, Still’s Highway 1, USA, Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, Handel’s Xerxes, Britten’s Owen Wingrave, Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and Jonathan Dove’s The Day After. He was featured in Scottish Opera’s concert performance of Prokofiev’s Fiery Angel and alongside Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique as a member of the National Youth Choir of Scotland in Edinburgh, Paris, London, Lyon, Michigan, and New York City. Warnock is also a fellow at the Bach Institute-Emmanuel Music.

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette hailed Arkansas-native baritone Kyle Forehand as “a baritone of stock, a voice you will hear again.” A graduate student at the Jacobs School of Music, Forehand is a graduate of the University of Arkansas (UARK). He was previously seen on IU Jacobs Opera Theater’s stage in productions of L’Étoile (Chabrier), La Rondine (Puccini), and Falstaff (Verdi) in addition to UARK Opera Theatre’s productions of Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck) and The Magic Flute (Mozart), among others. While studying in New York, Forehand made his Carnegie Hall debut as the baritone soloist in Gabriel Faure’s Requiem with the Crane Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. He made his international debut in 2017 performing the role of Belcore in The Elixir of Love (Donizetti) at the Brancaleoni International Music Festival of Piobicco, Italy. In 2019, he performed the bass solos of the Lord Nelson Mass (Haydn) with the UARK Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. In 2020, he returned home to Little Rock and made his company debut as Jim in Opera in the Rock’s (Little Rock’s professional opera company) production of the contemporary opera The Gift of the Magi (Conte). Additional operatic performances include Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief (Menotti), Noye’s Fludde (Britten), and Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart), among others. He has been a multi-finalist in the Kristin Lewis International Voice Competition and winner of numerous state and regional NATS competitions. He currently studies under Heidi Grant Murphy and maintains an active piano and voice studio.

Baritone Ryan Peña is a native of Taft, Texas, and a first-year master’s student studying under Russell Thomas. Peña earned a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Texas Rio-Grande Valley. There, he performed scenes from Così fan tutte in the role of Guglielmo and was featured as the bass soloist for Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. At Del Mar Community College, he performed scenes from Così fan tutte, appearing as Don Alfonso, and tenor role Monsieur Vogelsang in Der Schauspieldirektor. Peña has also appeared as a tenor soloist with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra in its 2018 Pops in the Park concert. With IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater, he appeared in the chorus of the 2022 production of Don Giovanni. This is his Jacobs Opera Theater role debut.

Mezzo-soprano Alice Lind is a second-year graduate student pursuing a Master of Music in Voice under the tutelage of Timothy Noble and Mary Ann Hart. Lind is also pursuing an Independent Study in Stage Directing through the Jacobs School of Music. A native of Clinton, Iowa, she earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Drake University. While there, she served as singer and assistant stage director with Drake Opera Theatre, performing the role of Third Lady in The Magic Flute, and covering the roles of Miss Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief and Marcellina in Le Nozze di Figaro. With Jacobs Opera Theater, recent performances include Dame Quickly in Falstaff and the opera choruses of Ainadamar and La Rondine. Lind has also performed the roles of La Badessa and Zia Principessa (cover) in Suor Angelica and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with the International Lyric Academy in Italy. Most recently, she performed as Annio in La Clemenza di Tito and Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro with Jacobs Graduate Opera Workshop under the direction of Heidi Grant Murphy. Other recent opera scenes credits include Bradamante in Alcina, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Sibella in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, and stage director for The Magic Flute. She is also a frequent collaborator with Jacobs student composers, premiering many solo and ensemble works.

Maisah Outlaw transitioned to a career in opera after working internationally as a Montessori teacher. Since leaving her home state of New Jersey, her career has taken her across five continents to encounter numerous cultures. After committing to the pursuit of her lifelong passion and gifts, she was admitted to the Jacobs School of Music, where she is currently studying in the master’s program with Patricia Stiles. Since the start of her graduate work, Outlaw has premiered the role of Aunt Lou in Highway 1, USA at the collegiate level. In Europe, she has performed the roles of Ottavia in The Coronation of Poppea and Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica.

Originally from Terre Haute, Indiana, Caroline Goodwin is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Voice under the tutelage of Brian Horne. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Voice with an Outside Field in History from IU in 2021 and attended the world-renowned American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, during the summer of 2022. She has most recently appeared on the MAC stage as a chorus member in Ainadamar. Past roles include Gabriella in La Rondine and Second Spirit in The Magic Flute with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater, as well as Marie in scenes from The Bartered Bride, Cherubino in scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro, and Lou Ann in Hairspray. Other opera chorus experiences include L’Étoile, Falstaff, Xerxes, and Bernstein’s Mass with Jacobs Opera Theater and The Jungle with New Voices Opera. Goodwin’s growing experience in concert work includes engagements with the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra in 2021 and 2022, as well as various recitals and concerts in Terre Haute, Bloomington, and Indianapolis, Indiana, and Graz, Austria.

Soprano Elleka Okerstrom-Drew is a second-year doctoral student from Traverse City, Michigan, studying with Peter Volpe. This past fall, she sang the world premiere of Don Freund’s October Songs with Freund at the piano. Recent concert work includes performing as the soprano two soloist in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Bloomington Chamber Singers under the direction of Gerald Sousa and as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Second Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis under the direction of Shelly Lauer. Previous engagements with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater include singing Fortuna/Damigella in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea and the choruses of Peter Grimes, Florencia en el Amazonas, Oklahoma!, and Dead Man Walking. Other recent roles include Papagena in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Landlocked Opera and Morgana in Handel’s Alcina with Meadow’s Opera Theatre. In addition to operatic performances, Okerstrom-Drew has sung with several professional choral ensembles, including the Dallas Chamber Choir and the Highland Park Chorale.

Tenor Michael Deshield is a second-year master’s student from Abington, Pennsylvania, studying under Russell Thomas. Deshield performed his IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater debut role as Nate in Still’s Highway 1, USA in February 2021. Later that semester, he sang the role of Pinkerton in Act III of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra during its “Greetings from Japan” concert. During his undergraduate career at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with Youngsuk Kim and Todd Ranney, he performed roles such as Monostatos in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Fenton in Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Tenor Zhihui Pang is a second-year master’s student and a graduate assistant at the IU Jacobs School of Music studying with Deanne Meek. Born in China, he studied journalism and communication at Renmin University of China for his undergraduate program. During his master’s studies, he has performed the roles of Tamino (The Magic Flute), Prunier (La Rondine), and Liberto (The Coronation of Poppea). He has also sung in the choruses of The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni. Last summer, he participated in Lyric Opera Studio Weimar on scholarship.

Baritone Jack Nadler, from Chicago, Illinois, is in his first year of pursuing a master’s degree at the Jacobs School of Music. A student of Carol Vaness, he completed his undergraduate studies in voice at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. During his time there, he performed Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale and Ludwig in The Grand Duke as well as Schlemil in The Tales of Hoffmann with Arbor Opera Theatre. Most recently, he performed the title role in Don Giovanni with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater. An alum of Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy, Nadler has placed in or won multiple competitions, such as the New York Lyric Opera Competition, Schmidt Competition, NSAL Voice Competition, and Livingston Mather Competition, in addition to receiving an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.