Ravinia 2023 Issue 4

JOHN MATTHEW MYERS (DIXON); SIMON PAULY (NEWMAN) JOHN MATTHEW MYERS (DIXON); SIMON PAULY (NEWMAN) TIFFANY CHOE Korean-American soprano Tiffany Choe was born and raised in Southern California. A 2022–23 Pullin Studio Artist at Arizona Opera, she recently sang Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and also portrayed Najad in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Sister Marga- retta in Rodgers’s The Sound of Music . While earning her BM, MM, and Performance Diploma from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music under the guidance of Kevin and Heidi Grant Murphy, Choe appeared in 11 productions with IU Opera Theater, most recently essaying the Puccini roles of Mimì in La bohème and Magda in La rondine . Her credits also included Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro , Constance in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites , Rosalia in Bern- stein’s West Side Stor y, and Laoula in Chabri- er’s L’étoile , and a performance in Bernstein’s Mass . In concert, Choe has also sung in Han- del’s Messiah with the Phoenix Symphony and Poulenc’s Gloria with the IU Philhar- monic. She has earned several awards from the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competi- tion, including a Western Region Encourage- ment Award in 2021, an Indianapolis District win in 2020, and a Southeast Region Encour- agement Award in 2019. Tiffany Choe was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow across 2019–21, during the first year also perform- ing in Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Dis- appeared with mezzo Jennifer Johnson Cano and tenor Matthew Polenzani, and is making her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut. ASHLEY DIXON A 2018 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon is also a 2019 alum of the Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera. During her two-year residency, she made her SFO main-stage debut in Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life as a First-Class Angel and was also heard as Mércèdes in Bizet’s Carmen , Third Wood Sprite in Dvořák’s Rusalka , the Italian Singer in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut , and the Sandman in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel . Dix- on was also a two-year participant in SFO’s Merola Opera Program, during which she portrayed La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schic- chi , Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium , and Popova in Walton’s The Bear . In the spring of 2020, Dixon made her Los Angeles Opera de- but as Sara in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux , and she has since appeared in the title roles of Bolcom’s Lucrezia for Opera Louisiane and Bi- zet’s Carmen with Atlanta Opera and Hawaii Opera Theater, as Doris in Puts’s Elizabeth Cree with West Edge Opera, and as Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma with Festival Opera. Recent highlights include Mrs. Splinters in Copland’s The Tender Land with Detroit Opera and Flora in Verdi’s La traviata with Des Moines Metro Opera, where she made her profession- al debut, and her repertoire also includes the title roles of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas , Rossi- ni’s La Cenerentola , and Handel’s Ariodante , as well as Marguerite in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust and Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville , which was the vehicle of her Amarillo Opera debut this past fall. This season she also participated in the final workshops of Heg- gie’s Intelligence , which will premiere this fall at Houston Grand Opera. Dixon holds a BM from Louisiana State University and an MM from the University of Michigan, where she portrayed the title role of Handel’s Giulio Ce- sare and Sister Helen Prejean in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking . Ashley Dixon was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2019, that year also performing at Ravinia on a winter tour with RSMI alumni singers and program direc- tor Kevin Murphy and during the summer in Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared with mezzo Jennifer Johnson Cano and tenor Matthew Polenzani. She made her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut at Ravinia last summer as Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito , and she returned earlier this year for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. TAYLOR RAVEN The top-prize laureate of the 2018 Loren L. Zachary Competition and a grant winner from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven highlighted her 2022–23 season immediately with her debut at San Francisco Opera in three roles new to her repertoire, including inaugural performances of Charmian in John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra . She also portrayed Sis- ter Mathilde in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Car- mélites and Flora in Verdi’s La traviata , then sang in Handel’s Messiah with the Memphis Symphony. In the new year, Raven debuted with Kentucky Opera as Angelina in Rossi- ni’s La Cenerentola and with Chicago Opera Theater as Joan Clarker in Justine Chen’s The Life and Death of Alan Turing , then made her Cleveland Orchestra debut in concert per- formances of Puccini’s La fanciulla del West singing Wowkle. She recently completed her role debut as Bizet’s titular Carmen in a re- turn to Des Moines Metro Opera, and later this month she returns to the character with Festival Opera in California. Highlights of the upcoming season include returns to San Francisco Opera as Fatima (Omar’s Mother) in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’s Omar and to Seattle Opera as Rosina in Ros- sini’s The Barber of Seville , as well as to the Los Angeles Philharmonic for concert per- formances of Wagner’s Das Rheingold singing Flosshilde. During the 2021–22 season, Raven was a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Baltimore and Dallas Symphonies and the LA Phil, and she made house debuts with Houston Grand Opera as the Third Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute , North Carolina Opera as Clarissa Davis in Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road , and Washington Concert Opera as Mallika in Delibes’s Lakmé , the lat- ter two essays also role debuts. Past highlights include her Des Moines Metro Opera debut as Pauline in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades . Raven is an alumna of Los Angeles Opera’s studio program, where she sang Annio in Mozart’s Clemency of Titus , Tebaldo in Verdi’s Don Carlo , and Sandman in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel , and Wolf Trap Opera, appearing as Concepción in Ravel’s L’heure espagnole and as Rosina. Taylor Raven was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2017 and is making her Chicago Symphony Or- chestra debut. DIANA NEWMAN Soprano Diana Newman began her 2022–23 season as the soloist in Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, later alighting to the theater stage as Woglinde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Despina in Così fan tutte with Dallas Opera. The 2021–22 season marked Newman’s Met- ropolitan Opera debut, engaged as Papagena in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and covering the role of Echo in R. Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos . She also appeared in the leading role of Clara in Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza with Central City Opera and was a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Alabama Symphony. During the 2019–20 season, Newman debuted with Dallas Op- era as the First Lady in The Magic Flute and, then freshly an alumna of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, returned to the company to join its Wagner Ring Cycle, por- traying Woglinde in Götterdämmerung and Woodbird in Siegfried . With the Los Ange- les Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, she was a featured artist in America in Space , cel- ebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. While a member of the Lyric’s studio program, Newman performed as Fras- quita in Bizet’s Carmen , Pedro in Massenet’s Don Quichotte , Clorinda in Rossini’s La Ce- nerentola , Papagena in The Magic Flute , and the Page in Verdi’s Rigoletto , a role she first performed with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. Recent highlights also include role and house debuts as Adele in J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus at Palm Beach Opera and cover- ing Sophie in R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Glyndebourne Festival, as well as con- cert performances of Orff ’s Carmina Burana with the Rochester Philharmonic. Newman appeared at the Lucerne Festival performing Maria Schneider’s song cycle Winter Morning Walks , and her concert credits also include Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 at the Eastern Sierra Symphony Summer Festival, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the American Youth Symphony, Vivaldi’s Gloria in Havana, Cuba, and her Grant Park Music Festival in 2016 singing Curly’s Wife in Floyd’s Of Mice and Men . Diana Newman was a Ravinia Ste- ans Music Institute fellow in 2014 and is mak- ing her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 29