FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ellen McDonald
(816) 213-4355
publicity@kcopera.org
For Tickets: kcopera.org or 816-471-7344
Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Announces
2024-2025 Resident Artists
Resident Artist Program includes
Soprano Bethany Jelinek, Mezzo-Soprano Virginia Reed,
Tenor Jaemyeong Lee, Baritone Alex Smith,
and Pianist/Coach Matteo Generani
Kansas City, MO (June 3, 2024) – General Director and CEO Deborah Sandler
Kemper today announced the selection of the artists for the Resident Artist
program for the 2024-2025 season. The 2024-2025 Resident Artists include
soprano Bethany Jelinek, mezzo-soprano Virginia Reed, tenor Jaemyeong Lee,
baritone Alex Smith, and pianist/coach Matteo Generani.
About the Resident Artists
Lyric Opera’s Resident Artist program was inaugurated in the 2016-2017 season.
Emerging artist singers and pianists are chosen following a series of local and
national auditions.During their residency, Resident Artists appear in mainstage
roles; serve as the performing resources for education and community
engagement initiatives; work with visiting guest artists, conductors, and
directors; participate in masterclasses and career coaching; receive voice
lessons and vocal coaching; and study leading roles. Resident Artists also receive
training in acting, movement, and stage combat under the guidance of industry
professionals. Many Lyric Opera Resident Artist alumni maintain professional
careers in the industry. Complete bios and high-res headshots can be found
here.
“We launched the Resident Artist Program in 2016 and since then, it has been an
unqualified success,” stated Kemper. “Lyric Opera has joined the ranks of
distinguished opera companies in North America who are committed to
nurturing the next generation of exceptional artists for opera. Our professional
development program involves performance experience and opportunities to
work with our field’s leading conductors, directors, and principal artists. Our
audiences have embraced our Resident Artists and have been touched by their
performances. I look forward to another season of productive and engaged
experiences with them.”
The Resident Artists Program is sponsored by the Estate of Richard Hill, Charter
Sponsor of the Resident Artists Program, and the Polsky Fund of the Lyric Opera
of Kansas City Foundation.
Bethany Jelinek, soprano, is a passionate performer
and a dynamic competitor from Dallas, TX. In 2024,
Jelinek was a semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera
Laffont Competition and was a finalist in the inaugural
Heartland Sings Vocal Competition. She was
awarded the 2023 Jonathan Pell People’s Choice
Award from the Dallas Opera Guild Biennial Lone Star
Vocal Competition, the 2022 Roy and Sue Johnson
Opera Theatre Award, and the 2021 Thomas
Hayward Memorial Award for Outstanding
Undergraduate Singer at Southern Methodist
University where she received her Bachelor and
Master of music degrees in vocal performance. Recent
credits include Micaëla (Carmen), Female Chorus (The
Rape of Lucretia), Abigail Williams (The Crucible), and
Fiordiligi (Cosí fan tutte).
In the 2024-2025 Lyric Opera season, Bethany Jelinek will appear as Querulous
String in The Haberdasher Prince and Maya in Maya and the Magic Ring.
A New York native, Virginia Reed was a recent finalist in the Southeast Region
of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition.
Versed in lyric repertoire, recent roles include
Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), the title role in La
Cenerentola, Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), Olga
(Eugene Onegin) and Der Komponist (Ariadne auf
Naxos). Reed was a scholarship recipient in the 2022
3rd Internationale Opernwerkstatt Waiblingen,
performing with the Wurttemberg Philharmonic under
Maestro Vlad Iftinca. She has worked as a Young
Artist with Wolf Trap Opera, Central City Opera, and
Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center. Reed
is a champion of concert and oratorio work, having
performed as a choral artist with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie
Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine.
In the 2024-2025 Lyric Opera season, Virginia Reed will appear as Clear
String in The Haberdasher Prince, Berta in The Barber of Seville, and
Grandmother in Maya and the Magic Ring.
Tenor Jaemyeong Lee, a native of South Korea,
graduated in 2024 with a Performer Diploma and
Artist Diploma in Voice Performance with
Performance Fellowship at the Indiana University
Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with
Carol Vaness, Kevin Murphy, and Gary Arvin. He is
the 2021–2022 recipient of a Wilfred Bain Opera
Award and the 2022–2023 recipient of Georgina
Joshi Graduate Fellowship Award at Indiana
University; he also took second place at the
Indiana Chapter of the National Society of Arts and
Letters Voice Competition.
He earned his Bachelor and Master of Music
degrees in Voice Performance from Seoul National
University as a student of Yonghoon Lee. While in
Korea, he won the Chunchu Music Competition and
won awards at the Joong-Ang Music Competition, the Sung-Jung Music
Competition, the Suri Music Competition, and the Gwang-Ju Music Competition.
Recent credits include Roméo (Roméo et Juliette), Ruggero (La Rondine), Rodolfo
(La bohème), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), and
Ferrando (Cosí fan tutte). Recent soloist concert work includes Handel’s Messiah,
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Verdi’s Requiem.
In the 2024-2025 Lyric Opera season, Jaemyeong Lee will appear as Playful
String in The Haberdasher Prince, Unicorn in Maya and the Magic Ring, and
Pong in Turandot.
Baritone Alex Smith received his Master of Music in Voice
from the Yale School ofMusic in the spring of 2024, under
Adriana Zabala. He received his Bachelor of Music in Vocal
Performance at the Oberlin Conservatory, where he
studied with Lorraine Manz. During his time at Yale,
Mr. Smith performed the roles of Musiklehrer
(Ariadne auf Naxos), Junius (The Rape of Lucretia),
Raimbaud (Le Comte Ory), Father Trulove (The
Rake’s Progress), and Marco (Gianni Schicchi). In the
summer of 2023, he attended The Glimmerglass
Festival as a Young Artist where he performed in the
chorus of La bohème and Roméo et Juliette, in
addition to covering roles in Roméo et Juliette.
In the 2024-2025 Lyric Opera season, Alex Smith
will appear as Stately String in The Haberdasher
Prince, Fiorello in The Barber of Seville, Cat in Maya
and the Magic Ring, and Ping in Turandot.
Matteo Generani is an acclaimed Italian pianist,
recognized for winning several competitions such
as the Villa Oliva National Piano Competition
(Italy, 2018), White Lake Young Artist Solo
Performance (Michigan, USA, 2019), and
Jefferson City Symphony Orchestra Piano and
Orchestra Competition (Missouri, USA, 2020). He
performs across Europe and the United States,
both as a soloist and as a chamber musician.
Matteo co-founded the Medhelan Duo with
violinist/violist Doriano Di Domenico and the NeoArt Piano Duo with pianist Regina
Tanujaya. In May 2020, he premiered and recorded the
complete set of Études Op. 23 by Giovanni Albini.
He looks forward to a CD and streaming release
of his recording of piano works by Giuseppe
Martucci, slated for December 2024 on the Naxos label. Matteo also serves as
the festival coordinator and assistant to the artistic director of the Piano Lieven
Foundation, and as co-artistic director of Classical Music Express.
Matteo will be the music director and pianist in The Haberdasher Prince. He will
also play the organ in the pit for Turandot, coach and accompany Resident
Artists throughout all performances during the season, and assist in mainstage
performance rehearsals.
2024-2025 Season
The Brightness of Light
The Brightness of Light (2019)
Composer: Kevin Puts
Text excerpts from the letters by Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz used and
reprinted by permission of the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke
Rare Book & Manuscript Library. All rights reserved.
Sung in English with English subtitles
Artists and Artistic Team
Conductor: Robert Moody
Projection Design and Design Realizer: Paul Vershbow
Georgia O’Keeffe: Renée Fleming
Alfred Stieglitz: Rod Gilfry
The Brightness of Light
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, Kansas City, MO
64108)
• Friday, September 27, 2024 at 7:30 pm
• Sunday, September 29, 2024 at 2:00 pm
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville (1816)
Composer: Giacomo Rossini
Librettist: Cesare Sterbini
Sung in Italian with English subtitles
Artists and Artistic Team
Director: Morris Panych
Conductor: James Lowe
Lighting Designer: Kimberly Purtell
Rosina: Chrystal E. Williams
Count Almaviva: Matthew Swensen
Figaro: Johnathan McCullough
Doctor Bartolo: Ashraf Sewailam
Don Basilio: Kristinn Sigmundsson
The Barber of Seville
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, Kansas City, MO
64108)
• Friday, November 15, 2024 at 7:30 pm
• Saturday, November 16, 2024 at 7:30 pm
• Sunday, November 17, 2024 at 2 pm
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna (2010)
Music: José “Pepe” Martínez
Lyrics: Leonard Foglia and José “Pepe” Martínez
Book: Leonard Foglia
Ensemble: Mariachi los Camperos
Sung in Spanish and English with English subtitles
Artists and Artistic Team
Conductor: Blair Salter
Director: Leonard Foglia
Ensemble: Mariachi los Camperos
Lighting Designer: Brian Nason
Renata: Cecilia Duarte
Laurentino: Octavio Moreno
Mark: Federico De Michelis
Lupita: Vanessa Alonzo
Rafael: Daniel Montenegro
Chucho: Miguel De Aranda
Cruzar la cara de la luna
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, Kansas City, MO
64108)
• Friday, March 7, 2025 at 7:30 pm
• Saturday, March 8, 2025 at 7:30 pm
• Sunday, March 9, 2025 at 2:00 pm
Turandot
Turandot (1926)
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Librettists: Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni
Sung in Italian with English subtitles
Artists and Artistic Team
Director: Garnett Bruce
Conductor: Carlo Montanaro
Set Designer: R. Keith Brumley
Costume Designer: Mary Traylor
Lighting Designer: James Sale
Princess Turandot: Wendy Bryn Harmer
Calaf: Diego Torre
Liu: Brittany Olivia Logan
Timur: William Guanbo Su
Ping: Alexander Smith
Pang:Zhengyi Bai
Pong:Jaemyeong Lee
A Mandarin: Seungchan Han
Emperor Altoum: Genaro Mendez
Lyric Opera of Kansas City Announces 2024-2025 Resident Artists Page 8
Turandot
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (1601 Broadway, Kansas City, MO
64108)
• Friday, May 2, 2025 at 7:30 pm
• Saturday, May 3, 2025 at 7:30 pm
• Sunday, May 4, 2025 at 2:00 pm
Subscriber and Single Ticket Information
Subscriptions for the 2024–2025 season are 4-show packages containing The
Brightness of Light, a concert with Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry, The Barber of
Seville, Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, and Turandot.
Individual opera tickets will go on sale July 16, 2024.
Season ticket packages range from $100 to $652. For ticket information, visit
kcopera.org or contact Lyric Opera Ticketing and Patron Services at (816) 471-
7344.
About Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Established in 1958, Lyric Opera of Kansas City is one of the world’s premier
regional opera companies and brings high-quality live operatic performances to
the Kansas City region. Renowned for its dedication to excellence, Lyric Opera
presents a diverse repertoire featuring original language productions from the
traditional opera canon alongside contemporary and American operas. Lyric
Opera is committed to lifelong learning through robust education, family, and
community engagement programming. Through innovative initiatives and
commissions, these programs deepen humanistic connections, artistic literacy,
and social-emotional learning. Lyric Opera of Kansas City remains an integral
part of the cultural fabric of Kansas City and the surrounding region.
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Direct media inquiries to Ellen McDonald, (816) 213-4355
For Tickets: kcopera.org or (816) 471-7344
