Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 9 - Rising Stars

9 | Lyric Opera of Chicago Tobias Picker’s Emmeline , Zurga/ The Pearl Fishers , Vittorio and The Boarder/Nino Rota’s I due timidi , Demetrius/ A Midsummer Night’s Dream , and the Captain and Prince Ragotsky/ Candide . In the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Quant was awarded Second Place in the New England Region (2024), the Western Region (2022) and the Southeastern Region (2020). He has also won the Luminarts Cultural Foundation Men’s Voice Fellowship (2023) and the Online Audience Award in Houston Grand Opera’s Concert of Arias (2020). Quant has participated in the Merola Opera Program and SongStudio, the latter led by Renée Fleming at Carnegie Hall. Laureano Quant is sponsored by Lead Sponsor Peter Scheuermann . LINDSEY REYNOLDS SOPRANO Previously at Lyric: Barena/ Jen ˚ufa (2023/24), Very Loud Girl and Passenger 2/ Proximity , Alice/ Le Comte Ory , and Voice from Above/ Don Carlos (all 2022/23). The soprano, a native of New Orleans, is a second-year member of the Ryan Opera Center. In 2021/22, she portrayed Despina/ Così fan tutte and Betty/Marc Blitzstein’s Triple-Sec (film adaptation) with Curtis Opera Theatre and served as an Emerging Artist with Opera Philadelphia, where she sang the Page/ Rigoletto . Among the many leading roles Reynolds has performed are Zerlina/ Don Giovanni , Adina/ The Elixir of Love , Giulietta/ I Capuleti e i Montecchi , Miss Wordsworth/ Albert Herring , and Monica/ The Medium . She has appeared in concert with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Recipient of an Emerging Artist Award from Opera Index, Reynolds has been awarded first place in many competitions, among them the Musicians Club of Women, James Toland Vocal Arts Competition, and National Association of Negro Musicians Competition. Lindsey Reynolds is sponsored by an Anonymous Donor, Fred and Phoebe Boelter and Donna Van Eekeren & Dale Connelly . IAN RUCKER BARITONE Previously at Lyric: Man in Bar/ Champion and Foreman/ Jen ˚ufa (both 2023/24); Moralès/ Carmen and Raimbaud/ Le Comte Ory (both 2022/23). The second-year Ryan Opera Center baritone is from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He holds a master’s degree in vocal performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. His roles there included Count Almaviva/ The Marriage of Figaro and the title role/ The Barber of Seville . He has also appeared as Papageno/ The Magic Flute at Bloomington Chamber Opera. Rucker earned his bachelor’s degree in vocal performance at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he was heard in the title roles/ Don Giovanni and Sweeney Todd , as well as Officer Lockstock/ Urinetown and Ernst Ludwig/ Cabaret . Rucker is a former Palm Beach Opera Apprentice Artist and a former Aspen Music Festival Renée Fleming Artist. He recently received an Encouragement Award in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (Wisconsin District) and first place in the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition. Ian Rucker is sponsored by Karen Petitte, Jennifer L. Stone and Heidi Heutel Bohn . WM. CLAY THOMPSON BASS Previously at Lyric: King / Aida (2023/24), Zuniga / Carmen, Second Courtier/ Le Comte Ory (both 2022/23). The American bass is a second-year Ryan Opera Center member and a two-time District winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. He debuted at Arizona Opera (Zuniga/ Carmen ) and the Metropolitan Opera (Octet Singer/Brett Dean’s Hamlet ). Thompson is a former participant in the Santa Fe Opera and Wolf Trap Opera young-artist programs (last summer he performed Méphistophélès/ Faust ). From 2017 to 2019, he was a Resident Artist at Minnesota Opera, performing in numerous operas including The Fix , a world premiere by Joel Puckett. Thompson has been featured at the Château de Versailles Spectacles (Suleyman Pasha/ The Ghosts of Versailles ), The Glimmerglass Festival ( The Cunning Little Vixen , Silent Night , West Side Story , Noye’s Fludde , The Ghosts of Versailles , and La traviata ), and Fort Worth Opera (Zuniga/ Carmen and Raymond Buck/David T. Little’s JFK , in a world premiere). Wm. Clay Thompson is sponsored by Lead Sponsor the J.Thomas Hurvis Endowment,in loving memory of Dick Kiphart and cosponsor Julian A.Oettinger . TRAVON D. WALKER TENOR Previously at Lyric: Lawrence Brownlee and Friends (2023/24). The first-year tenor recently received his master's degree from Rice University, where he sang Sam Kaplan/ Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and appeared in scenes from Così fan tutte , The Turn of the Screw , Lucia di Lammermoor , and West Side Story . A native of Hinesville, Georgia, Walker completed his undergraduate studies at the Eastman School of Music, where he made his operatic debut as The Reader in Ricky Ian Gordon's The Tibetan Book of the Dead and sang Dan Leno in the virtual production of Kevin Puts’s Elizabeth Cree . Walker has been a Studio Artist at Wolf Trap Opera and was invited to participate in Joyce DiDonato's 2023 Master Classes and Renée Fleming's 2023 SongStudio, both at Carnegie Hall. Other engagements include the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra and his company debut with Houston Grand Opera as The Navigator/Jeremy Howard Beck’s Another City (world premiere). Walker won the American Opera Society of Chicago Best Vocal Artist Award. He received an Encouragement Award from the Kansas City District in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Travon D. Walker is sponsored by the Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation and the Ford, Mages and Boykins families with Fifth Third Bank .