Yelena Dyachek
Soprano
Ukrainian-born soprano Yelena Dyachek was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2016, receiving praise from The New York Times saying “…memorable as the soprano Yelena Dyachek from California, who demonstrated impressive range, depth and power in ‘Come scoglio’, before delivering an emotionally captivating Letter Scene…”. She is a graduate from Houston Grand Opera’s prestigious studio program and during her time in the HGO Studio, Ms. Dyachek appeared in several productions including as Musetta in La bohème, Flora in La traviata, and Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Further productions included Norma, Some Light Emerges, and Nixon in China.
In the summer of 2019, she made her debut as Marie Antoinette in Ghosts of Versailles at the Glimmerglass Festival. In the 2019-20 season she joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago for their productions of Il barbiere di Siviglia and Dead Man Walking and was scheduled to make her role debut as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Palm Beach Opera. Other scheduled performances that season were her Houston Symphony debut and a return to the Aspen Music Festival. Dyachek begins her 2022-23 season singing both the roles of Zemfira in Aleko and the title role of Francesca da Rimini with Odyssey Opera.
Recent performances for Dyachek include Susan B. Anthony in The Mother of Us All with the Rochester Philharmonic, Elettra in Idomeneo and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 as a Filene Young Artist at Wolf Trap Opera and Fiordiligi for San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program. A multi-year member of the Aspen Opera Theatre Center, Ms. Dyachek appeared as Fiordiligi in 2015 and as Tatiana in 2014. She will return to the Aspen Music Festival in the Summer of 2020 as part of their Beethoven Celebration.
Further recognition includes the Ana Maria Martinez Encouragement Award at the 2016 Eleanor McCollum Competition, and singing as a finalist at the Palm Springs Opera Guild of the Desert’s vocal competition. She holds a bachelor’s degree from University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music, and a master’s degree from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Further roles performed while at USC include Frau Von Daubek in the concert premiere of Thomas Morse’s Frau Schindler, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito, the title role in Iphigénie en Tauride, and Madama Cortese in Il viaggio a Reims.
Carlos Enrique Santelli
Tenor
A Winner of the 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, tenor Carlos Enrique Santelli is a recent graduate of Los Angeles Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, where he covered Nadir in The Pearl Fishers. In the 2021-22 season, Santelli reprises the role of Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Finger Lakes Opera. He also sings the role of Lorenzo in William Bolcom’s Lucrezia with Opera Louisiane. He will then sing Valcour in the rarely performed The Anonymous Lover with Minnesota Opera before joining Houston Grand Opera for their productions of Turandot and Romeo et Juliette as Pong and Tybalt.
In the 2020-21 season, Mr. Santelli made his San Diego Opera debut as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In the 2019-20 season, he returned to Dayton opera as Ramiro in La cenerentola. On the concert stage, he performed a joint recital with his wife, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon. In the 2018-2019 season, Mr. Santelli made his Dayton Opera debut as Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville and performed as tenor soloist in Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht with the Sacramento Choral Society.
Recent projects with LA Opera include performances in Salome, conducted by James Conlon, and Wonderful Town, conducted by Grant Gershon. Additionally, Mr. Santelli appeared as a guest soloist in a special gala celebrating the 10-year anniversary of LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program. Further collaborations on the West Coast include numerous projects with LA Opera’s Artist-in-Residence Matthew Aucoin.
In the summers of 2016 and 2017, Mr. Santelli was a member of Santa Fe Opera’s distinguished Apprentice Artist Program where he worked with such noted conductors as Harry Bicket, Emmanuel Villaume, and Corrado Rovaris. The summer of 2017 was a particularly notable season for Mr. Santelli as he made his principal role debut with the company as Arturo in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor. His scene work there included Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore and Arnold in Guillaume Tell.
Carlos Enrique Santelli’s concert engagements have included appearances as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah (with the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra), Mozart’s Coronation Mass (with the Rochester Symphony Orchestra), and Mozart’s Requiem (with the University of Michigan/Yale Alumni Glee Club).
Mr. Santelli received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and his Master of Music from the University of Michigan. It was at the latter institution that he had the distinction of holding a Jessye Norman Graduate Fellowship. He is a native of Orlando, Florida.
Craig Verm
Baritone
Praised for his “arrestingly vibrant" and “robust" baritone, Craig Verm has brought his riveting dramatic portrayals to stages around the world. Most recently, he received high praise for his performances of the title role in Billy Budd for Des Moines Metro Opera. John van Rhein of the Chicago Tribune said, “The strong baritone voice, strapping physique and winning stage presence of Craig Verm created a sympathetic Billy" and Opera Today said Verm “was every moment the star vocal and theatrical presence that galvanized the performance."
In the 2017-2018 season, Verm made an impressive debut as a last-minute substitute in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni for The Dallas Opera. His performances received critical acclaim for “succeeding in the daunting assignment…with his own credible realization of the iconic character." Additionally that season he joined Opera Philadelphia for their inaugural festival, O17 in War Stories, a double-bill of Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi and Lembit Beecher’s I Have No Stories To Tell You, a production he premiered in New York City with Gotham Chamber Opera. He also returned to Seattle Opera as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Claudio in Beatrice et Benedict and revisited the role of Doug Hansen in Everest for his company debut with Lyric Opera of Kansas City. In the summer of 2018, he returned to The Santa Fe Opera as Haly in Italian Girl in Algiers.
In the 2018-2019 season, he returns to Pittsburgh Opera as Peter in Hansel and Gretel and Marcello in La bohème and returns to Austin Opera as Lt. Gordon in Silent Night. In the 2019-2020 season, he returns to Pittsburgh Opera for the title in Don Giovanni and also for Riolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas. He also returns to Austin Opera for Talbot's Everest.
Recent performances include The Santa Fe Opera as Sonora in Fanciulla del West along with Der Graf in Capriccio, performances for which he was praised for his “deep, velvet baritone {whose} featured moments leapt out from the crowd." Additionally, he joined Arizona Opera for their 45th Anniversary Celebration alongside famed mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade. He returned to Pittsburgh Opera as Ping in Turandot, made his debut with Seattle Opera as Papageno in The Magic Flute, and sang Marcello with Knoxville Opera. In the most recent season, Mr. Verm was heard at Opera Philadelphia as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, as Friedrich Bhaer in Little Women at Madison Opera, and sang Messiah with Rhode Island Philharmonic.
Mr. Verm has made international debuts on stages including Lyric Opera of Chicago as Albert in Massenet’s Werther; Escamillo in Carmen at Teatro Municipal de Santiago, where he later returned as Billy Budd; at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse as Sid in Albert Herring; as Ramiro in L’heure espagnole with the Nationale Reisopera in the Netherlands; and as Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Seiji Ozawa’s Ongaku-juku Festival. Frequently sought after for new works, Mr. Verm created the role of Doug Hansen in Judy Talbot’s Everest at Dallas Opera, sang the title role of Elmer Gantry with Florentine Opera, and was heard as George in Of Mice and Men at Tulsa Opera. In the fall of 2017, he returned to Opera Philadelphia for War Stories, a production which pairs Monteverdi’s Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda with Lembit Beecher’s I have no stories to tell you. He returned to the double-bill as Tancredi and Daniel, roles he performed when the production premiered with Gotham Chamber Opera.
Equally adept within the realm of oratorio, his other concert appearances encompass performances of Glass’ the CIVIL warS with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols with the Pittsburgh Symphony; Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra; Gounod’s Messe Solennelle de Sainte Cécile with Les Escales Musicales d’Evian; Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Alexandria Symphony; he sang William Schuman’s cantata, Casey at the Bat with the Reno Philharmonic; Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the Boston Youth Symphony; Handel’s Messiah with the Rhode Island Philharmonic; Bach’s Mass in B minor at Portugal’s Aviero Music Festival; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 as a guest artist at Brown University; as well as Faure’s Requiem with the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, and Schubert’s Mass in G and Rutter’s Mass of the Children with the Pittsburgh Concert Chorale. He has also sung Haydn’s Creation with the Robert Page Festival Singers at the Virginia Arts Festival as well as on tour in Vienna and Budapest, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, as well as performances of Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem. He has also presented solo recitals under the auspices of The Dallas Opera, the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and at West Liberty University.
He enjoys a strong relationship with Pittsburgh Opera, where he has sung the lead baritone role of Tom Joad in Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath, Zurga in Les pêcheur de perles, Papageno, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, Ping, Junius in The Rape of Lucretia, the Novice’s Friend in Billy Budd, Angelotti in Tosca as well as Guglielmo in student performances of Così fan tutte. Other recent performances include Marcello, Minskman in Dove’s Flight, and Ping with Austin Lyric Opera; Papageno, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, and Adonis in Venus and Adonis with Florentine Opera; Ned Keene in Peter Grimes and Mercutio with Des Moines Metro Opera; Marcello and Zurga with Nashville Opera; Schaunard in La bohème with Opera Philadelphia; Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Lyrique-en-Mer/Festival de Belle-Île; Joseph Pitt in Peter Eötvös’ Angels in America with Fort Worth Opera; Astolfo in the world premiere of Lewis Spratlan’s Life is a Dream and Hermann in Les contes d’Hofmann with Santa Fe Opera; Count Almaviva and Falke in Die Fledermaus with the Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh; and the title role of Eugene Onegin, Guglielmo, and the Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen with Aspen Opera Theater. He has also joined symphony orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Angelotti, Marullo in Rigoletto, and the Mandarin in Turandot, and the San Francisco Symphony for Fidelio with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting.
He received his Master of Music from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music where his performances included title role in Carlisle Floyd’s Markheim. He was graduated cum laude from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. He was a 2006 national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and is a former member of the young artist programs of Santa Fe Opera and Cincinnati Opera.