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SUMAYYA ALI
Sumayya Ali has been
recognized for her ar-
tistic versatility as a
singer, actor, composer,
writer, and multi-in-
strumentalist. Her ca-
reer has led her to opera
houses and concert halls around the world, as
well as to Broadway. Ali’s Broadway credits in-
clude
Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of
1812
, The Tony Award–winning production of
the Gershwins’
Porgy and Bess
, and the reviv-
al of
Ragtime
. Film credits include Spike Lee’s
Red Hook Summer
and
Easter Mysteries
. She
holds a bachelor’s degree from Spelman Col-
lege and a master’s degree in music from the
New England Conservatory. Ali has written a
song cycle entitled
The War of Me
, due to be re-
leased in the fall of 2018. www.sumayya.com /
Instagram, Twitter @sumayyasings
AARON BLAKE
A 2017 George London
Foundation Award win-
ner, Aaron Blake creat-
ed of the role of Timo-
thy Laughlin in Gregory
Spear’s
Fellow Travelers
with Cincinnati Opera.
He recently made a critically acclaimed debut
with New York City Opera as Louis in
Angels in
America
, and his credits also include Komische
Oper Berlin (Tamino in Mozart’s
The Magic
Flute
), Minnesota Opera, Utah Opera, Tulsa
Opera (Nadir in Bizet’s
The Pearl Fishers
), Dallas
Opera (Romeo in Gounod’s
Romeo et Juliette
),
Opera Orchestra of New York (Donizetti’s
Pa-
risina
), Washington National Opera (Donizetti’s
Anna Bolena
), the Metropolitan Opera (Verdi’s
La traviata
, Offenbach’s
The Tales of Hoffmann
,
Lehár’s
The Merry Widow
), American Sympho-
ny (Rothschild in Fleishman’s
Rothschild’s Violin
at Carnegie Hall), and Atlanta Symphony (Ber-
nstein’s
Candide
). Future engagements include
Poulenc’s
Dialogues of the Carmelites
at the Met
and Count Almaviva in Rossini’s
The Barber
of Seville
with Tulsa Opera and New York City
Opera. www.aaronblaketenor.com / Instagram,
YouTube, Twitter @tenorblake
MATT BOEHLER
A native of Minneapo-
lis, MN, bass Matt Boe-
hler is a singer equally
at home on the interna-
tional opera stage as on
the concert platform.
He trained as an actor at
Viterbo College, an opera singer at Juilliard, and
a composer at the San Francisco Conservatory
of Music. He has appeared as a principal artist
with the Metropolitan Opera, Théâtre Royal de
la Monnaie, and Canadian Opera Company,
and additionally as a soloist with the New York
Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra,
Minnesota Orchestra, and New York Festival of
Song, among many others. An enthusiastic new
music collaborator, recent seasons have featured
him in world premieres with Prototype Festival,
Dallas Opera, and Opera Philadelphia, as well
as in staples of the bass repertoire across the US
and abroad. Upcoming engagements include
debuts with Utah Opera and the Mostly Mozart
Festival at Lincoln Center; his upcoming writing
commissions include a project for Washington
National Opera. www.mattboehler.com
JOHN CLAY III
A native of Oak Park,
IL, John Clay III rep-
resented Illinois at the
2013 National High
School Musical The-
ater Awards (the Jimmy
Awards) in New York,
and he recently appeared in a New York City
Center Encores! presentation of
Grand Hotel
as
Erick the desk clerk.
PAULO SZOT,
baritone
(Celebrant)
Born in São Paulo to Polish immigrants, bari-
tone Paulo Szot has earned international ac-
claim as both an opera singer and actor, having
appeared with numerous major opera compa-
nies in Europe, the United States, and his native
Brazil. In 2008, he starred as Emile De Beque
in the Broadway revival of
South Pacific
and be-
came the first Brazilian to win Best Actor honors
at each of the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics
Circle, and Theater World Awards. Over the
past year, Szot has appeared as Don Alfonso in
Mozart’s
Così fan tutte
with Paris National Op-
era, Count Almaviva in Mozart’s
The Marriage
of Figaro
with Michigan Opera Theatre, and
Frank Mourrant in Kurt Weill’s
Street Scene
at
Madrid’s Teatro Real, as well as in concert with
the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at
London’s Royal Festival Hall as the Celebrant in
Bernstein’s
Mass
with Marin Alsop conducting.
Recent highlights have included creating the
roles of Alexander Hamilton, Bill Clinton, and
Dick Cheney in Mohammed Fairouz’s
The New
Prince
with Dutch National Opera, appearing
on the New York Philharmonic’s televised New
Year’s Eve gala with Alan Gilbert and Joyce Di-
Donato, and giving a solo recital at Madrid’s Te-
atro Real saluting Frank Sinatra’s recordings of
Antônio Carlos Jobim’s bossa novas. Szot’s cred-
its also include Lescaut in Puccini’s
Manon Les-
caut
(Theatro Municipal de São Paulo) and Mas-
senet’s
Manon
(Metropolitan Opera); Dr. Falke
in Strauss’s
Die Fledermaus
, the Captain in John
Adams’s
The Death of Klinghoffer
, and Kovalev
in Shostakovich’s
The Nose
(Metropolitan Op-
era); Sharpless in Puccini’s
Madama Butterfly
(Opera Municipal de Marseille); Escamillo in
Bizet’s
Carmen
(Glyndebourne Festival, Metro-
politan Opera, and San Francisco Opera); the ti-
tle roles of Tchaikovsky’s
Eugene Onegin
(Opera
Australia) and Mozart’s
Don Giovanni
(Wash-
ington National Opera and Dallas Opera); and
Filippov in Alexander Raskatov’s
A Dog’s Heart
(La Scala). Paulo Szot is making his Ravinia and
Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts.
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