Camille Sherman

Mezzo-soprano Camille Sherman hails from the California North Bay Area. In the 2019-2020 season, Ms. Sherman looks forward to returning to the Portland Opera Resident Artist Program, where she will be seen on their mainstage as Kate Pinkerton, as well as covering Suzuki, in Madama Butterfly, Sally in A Hand of Bridge, Announcer in Gallantry, and Asteria in the American professional premiere of Vivaldi's Bajazet. Previous credits with Portland Opera include Flora Bervoix in La Traviata and Ramiro in La Finta Giardiniera, as well as covering roles Hannah After in As One and Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Ms. Sherman also returned to Pensacola Opera in 2019 to make her role debut as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette.

Ms. Sherman’s recent seasons include role debuts as the Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos (Berlin Opera Academy, 2017) and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Janiec Opera Company, 2016). In addition to her stage career, Ms. Sherman has also appeared in concert with Nashville Opera and the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, and the Naples Philharmonic.

Daniel Mobbs

American bass-baritone Daniel Mobbs has won praise on both sides of the Atlantic for his "solid, resonant voice and boundless energy...his stage presence virtually ensured that he was the focal point of nearly every scene in which he appeared," as written in the New York Times.

For the 2019-2020 season Mr Mobbs can be seen as the title role of Vivaldi's Bajazet with Portland Opera as well as feature soloist in their "Big Night" concert.

During the 2018-2019 season, Mr. Mobbs returned to Portland Opera as Baron Douphol in La Traviata. This season he will rejoin Portland Opera in the title role of their production of Bajazet, and in their "Big Night" concert in the spring of 2020.

The previous season saw his return to Kentucky Opera as the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, the Metropolitan Opera as Kromow in The Merry Widow and to cover Assur in Semiramide, Portland Opera as Alidoro in La Cenerentola, and he joined both Symphoria and the Bryan Symphony Orchestra for Verdi's Requiem.

George Colligan

George Colligan is a New York based pianist, organist,drummer, trumpeter, teacher, and bandleader, who is one of the most original and compelling jazz artists of his generation. An award-winning composer (Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation grant recipient, RACC Grant Winner) and player (winner, Jazzconnect.com Jazz Competition, DownBeat Critics Poll Winner), Colligan is highly in demand as a sideman, having worked with players like Jack DeJohnette, John Scofield, Cassandra Wilson, Ravi Coltrane, and many others, both on the bandstand and in recording sessions (appearing on over 150 CDs). He has released 31 recordings full of his intelligent writing and impressive technique. His latest CD on the Ubuntu Label is called”Live in Arklow” and features Darren Beckett and Dave Redmond. Colligan’s musical style incorporates everything from showtunes to funk, from free improvisation to 20th century classical music. His performances include dazzling technique as well as mature restraint. Colligan was on the faculty of the Juilliard School for two years and is currently an Assistant Professor at Portland State University. He is currently a member of Jack DeJohnette’s New Quintet.Recently, Colligan started playing the Hammond 44 Melodion(melodica). He also started a popular blog called jazztruth(jazztruth.blogspot.com).

Micah Hummel

Micah Hummel is a sought-after drummer, composer, and music educator based out of Portland, Oregon. After relocating from the Sonoran Desert in 2013, Micah has already established himself as an essential part of the creative music scene in the Pacific Northwest. Honing his craft throughout the last decade, Micah is known for his specialty in cross-genre sounds and contemporary music. Micah has performed around the globe in countries such as Germany, Austria, Canda, France, Switzerland, China, and Morocco. Micah always enjoys getting to share music with people and the opportunity to connect with other cultures through his instrument.

Sequoia

Originally from the Isle of White, Sequoia has collaborated with many of the leading artists in opera today, working at Royal Opera House, Covant Garden and throughout Europe. Since relocating to Portland he frequently collaborate with Portland Opera and Opera Theater Oregon.

Mark Dubac

Mark Dubac joined the clarinet section of the Oregon Symphony in 2008, where he plays second clarinet and E-flat clarinet. He also performs in several Portland-based chamber groups, including Third Angle, fEARnoMUSIC, and 45th Parallel. Mark previously served as principal clarinet of the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, and has also performed with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Milwaukee Ballet, New Mexico Symphony, Portland Opera, and the Oregon Ballet Theatre orchestra. Mark has participated in a number of summer festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Colorado Music Festival, Astoria Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Spoleto Festival of Italy, National Orchestral Institute, Kent/Blossom Chamber Music Festival, and the Sarasota Music Festival.

Justin Ralls, composer

Justin Ralls, composer and conductor, hails from the Pacific Northwest and is inspired by the beauty of the natural world and our ‘elemental imagination.’ Ralls has conducted his works at the Hydansaal in Eisenstadt, Austria, the Lucca International Youth Orchestra Festival in Albano Terme, Italy, Oregon Bach Festival, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, Britt Festival at Crater Lake National Park, the Newman Scoring Stage in Los Angeles, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, as well as venues in Salzburg, Rome, Portland, Fairbanks, Boston, and San Francisco. Ralls’ Tree Ride won the 2013 Highsmith Award for orchestra and received Special Distinction in the 2014 ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize as well as winning Third Place in the 2017-18 American Prize. Tree Ride was featured on the 2014 Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Fairbanks, Alaska conducted by Robert Franz. Tree Ride was also featured on Albany Symphony’s 2015 Composer-to-Center-Stage as well as their 2017 American Music Festival, conducted by David Alan Miller. John Adams spoke of Tree Ride as “impressive…showing a mastery of orchestral technique,” also stating “your analogy to natural forces was done very well, your thunderstorm basically better than the Pastoral.”

Ralls’ works have been performed by a variety of soloists and ensembles including Albany Symphony (NY), Third Angle Ensemble, Roomful of Teeth, Fear No Music, Jarring Sounds, International Orange Chorale, Filmusik, Opera Theater Oregon, San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, Esteli Gomez, Molly Barth, Robert Ainsley, William Goforth and more.

As a conductor he has led several premieres of contemporary works as well as conducting professional musicians at the Newman Fox Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox. As conductor and Artistic Director of Opera Theater Oregon he has led the NW premieres of Academy Award winning composer Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince, Michael Lanci’s Songs for Joe Hill and Grammy Award winning composer Michael Daugherty’s  This Land Sings. In March, 2020 he successfully defended his Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of Oregon.

Michael Lanci, composer

Michael Lanci is a composer and educator currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. His music is viscerally engaging and stylistically diverse, drawing from a wide range of influences. Michael's short comedic chamber opera Admissions, written in collaboration with librettist Kim Davies as part of the American Opera Initiative program with the  Washington National Opera, was premiered in  January 2020 at the Kennedy Center. He was a finalist for the 2018-19, Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation competition that included the commissioning and premiere of his first opera Crude Capital, with libretto by Ajax Phillips. Michael is currently working on a variety of projects exploring different musical mediums.

Michael was recently selected for the Composers & the Voice Fellowsh with The American Opera Project  based in NYC. He was awarded the 2017-18, American Prize for his Songs for Joe Hill. His works have been performed at festivals such as the Cortona Sessions,  Edmont Fringe Festival, Orford Festival, Detroit Bureau of Sound, Midwest Composers Symposium and the Vox Novus Festival. He has received commissions from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera,  Beth Morrison Projects,  The Response Project,  Beyond Pluck, Unhread-of//Ensemble, Klangpar2, and the Vive! Ensemble. His works have been performed by the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra, Contemporaneous, Present Music,  Hypercube,  Opera Theater Oregon, Great Noise Ensemble, All Of The Above, SINGULARITY, Duo d’Entre Deux, and Decho Ensemble. 

Michael holds a B.M. in piano performance from SUNY Albany, where he also studied composition with Max Lifchitz and a M.M. in composition from SUNY Fredonia, where he studied with Rob Deemer and Karl Boelter. Michael completed his D.M.A. in composition at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where he studied with Michael Fiday.

Michael Daugherty, composer

Multiple GRAMMY Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty has achieved international recognition as one of the ten most performed American composers of concert music, according to the League of American Orchestras. His orchestral music, recorded by Naxos over the last two decades, has received six GRAMMY Awards, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2011 for Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra and in 2017 for Tales of Hemingway for cello and orchestra. Current commissions for 2020 include new orchestral works for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Omaha Symphony and a concerto for violinist Anne Akiko Meyers who will give the world premiere with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in 2021.

Michael Daugherty was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1954 and is the son of a dance-band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. As a young man, Daugherty studied composition with many of the preeminent composers of the 20th century including Pierre Boulez at IRCAM in Paris (1979), Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Bernard Rands and Roger Reynolds at Yale (1980-82), and György Ligeti in Hamburg (1982-84). Daugherty was also an assistant to jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York from 1980-82. In 1991, Daugherty joined the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance as Professor of Composition, where he is a mentor to many of today’s most talented young composers. He is also a frequent guest of professional orchestras, festivals, universities and conservatories around the world.

Daugherty’s music is published by Peermusic Classical/Faber Music, Boosey & Hawkes and Michael Daugherty Music. For more information on Michael Daugherty and his music, see his publisher’s websites.