Six returning members and four new artists comprise the prestigious training program for 2023-24
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) has concluded an extensive global search and is delighted to introduce the four new and six returning artists selected to train with the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio (Butler Studio) in the upcoming 2023-24 season. The Butler Studio, recognized as one of the world’s most reputable and competitive artist-training programs, offers an all-inclusive career development opportunity to exceptional emerging singers and pianists/coaches, who have exhibited the potential to make significant contributions to the world of opera.
First-year Butler Studio artists include:
- Ani Kushyan, mezzo-soprano (HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias finalist)
- Michael McDermott, tenor (third place at HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias)
- Marco Rizzello, pianist/coach
- Demetrious Sampson,, tenor (second place and Audience Choice at HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias)
Returning Butler Studio artists include:
- Meryl Dominguez, soprano
- Navasard Hakobyan, baritone
- Michelle Papenfuss, pianist/coach
- Renée Richardson, soprano
- Emily Treigle, mezzo-soprano
- Erin Wagner, mezzo-soprano
“For decades, HGO has been a beacon of excellence in the opera world, fostering the careers of talented artists from across the globe by inviting them to train with our Butler Studio as members of this company,” says HGO General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor. “The program is at the heart of everything we do. HGO’s mission is to advance the art form and share its captivating beauty and power with audiences worldwide. That starts with these fine artists, whose passion and potential never cease to amaze us.”
On February 3, 2023, HGO announced that Sarah and Ernest Butler have created a new fund within the HGO Endowment valued at $22 million, the largest philanthropic investment in the 68-year history of the organization. The company also announced that its acclaimed training program for young artists has been renamed the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio.
This year the Butler Studio received a record 945 applications from singers and pianists hoping to join this highly competitive program. The audition process culminates in the company’s annual Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers Concert of Arias, which this year was held on February 3, 2023.
“It has been a very exciting year for the Butler Studio, and we are thrilled to welcome this incoming group of artists to HGO. Their passion for the art form is truly inspiring, and we are confident that they will not only uphold but also elevate HGO’s productions next year,” said Butler Studio Director Brian Speck. “We look forward to watching their careers grow and flourish on our stage, bringing new life and energy to this timeless art. We are committed to providing them with the necessary support and guidance to succeed in a highly competitive industry, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for these exceptional talents.”
The Butler Studio provides intensive, individualized training to talented artists in classical singing, piano, and coaching. These artists reside in Houston from mid-August through May, dedicating themselves to a rigorous study program. Over a residency period of up to three years, Butler Studio artists undergo specialized training in voice, movement, and languages, while benefiting from numerous performance opportunities with the organization. This includes being cast in major and supporting roles in mainstage productions, where they work closely with world-renowned artists, directors, and conductors. In addition to these opportunities, Studio artists perform in recitals and participate in various events at venues across the city and state. With 45 years of history, the Butler Studio has become one of the most esteemed young artist programs in the world. It provides a practical learning environment that emphasizes exposure to the professional opera world, offering regular coaching sessions with industry professionals, roles in HGO mainstage productions, recital performances, and a wide range of concert engagements.
2023-24 HGO Butler Studio Artist Biographies:
FIRST-YEAR ARTISTS:
ANI KUSHYAN
Mezzo-soprano
A first-year Butler Studio artist from Akhaltsikhe, Georgia, mezzo-soprano Ani Kushyan will perform the roles of Flower Maiden/2nd Esquire in Parsifal and Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music during HGO’s 2023-24 season. Kushyan was a finalist in HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. She has been a member of the Young Artists Program at Armenian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet since August 2021, making her debut with the company in 2021-22 season as Third Girl in Anoush by Armenian composer Armen Tigranyan. Other roles include Marta in Iolanta, Lyubasha in The Tsar’s Bride, and Anoush’s mother in Anoush. As an active concert performer, she has appeared in Germany, Latvia, Sweden, Estonia, Georgia, and Armenia. She was named first prize winner in the 2022 Premiere Opera Foundation Vocal Competition, a bronze medalist in the 2021 CIS Delphic Games, the audience prize winner at the SOI Fiorenza Cedolins competition in Italy, and the first prize winner in the 2021 Armenian Romanciade. Kushyan received her bachelor’s degree from the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory and her master’s degree from the Tbilisi State Conservatory in Georgia. She continued her studies at the Riga Jāzepa Vītola Latvian Music Academy and the Lübeck Academy of Music in Germany.
MICHAEL MCDERMOTT
Tenor
A first-year Butler Studio artist from Huntington Beach, California, tenor Michael McDermott is the third place winner in HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias and a 2021 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy. During HGO’s 2023-24 season, he will perform the roles of Bardolfo in Falstaff and 4th Esquire in Parsifal and cover the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Last year he returned to the Aspen Music Festival for a second summer, covering the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. At The Juilliard School in New York, he performed the roles of Spärlich in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor and Filippo in Hadyn’s L’infedelta Delusa, as well as appearing in liederabends and recitals coached by Brian Zeger and Pierre Vallet. His recent competition wins include first prize in the 2021 Schmidt Vocal Competition and first prize in the Scholarship Division of the National Opera Association’s Carolyn Bailey Argento Competition. McDermott received his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and is currently pursuing his master’s degree at Rice University studying with Robin Rice.
MARCO RIZZELLO
Pianist/coach – Rimini, Italy
A first-year Butler Studio artist from Rimini, Italy, Marco Rizzello will serve as coach for a selection of mainstage operas and appear with Butler Studio singers in recital and other performances during HGO’s 2023-24 season. He is an alumnus of the Art Song Festival in Cleveland and the Aspen Music Festival, where he served as a rehearsal pianist for Falstaff under the baton of Patrick Summers. He has served on the staff at NYU Steinhardt and worked as a coach at Manhattan School of Music. A prizewinner in many international piano competitions, Rizzello recently made his New York debut at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at New York classical music station WQXR. He has performed in many prestigious festivals, including the Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza (2017 and 2020) and the Piano Echoes Festival (2019). Rizzello studied at the “G. Rossini” Conservatory in Pesaro, the International Piano Academy in Imola, and the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He studied solo piano with Giorgio Farina, Giovanni Valentini, Marlies Van Gent, and Boris Petrushansky, and opera coaching with Ubaldo Fabbri, Warren Jones, and Thomas Lausmann. Upcoming engagements include the 2023 Georg Solti Accademia and the 2023 Wolf Trap Opera Festival, where he will be a coaching fellow.
DEMETRIOUS SAMPSON, JR.
Tenor
A first-year Butler Studio artist from East Albany, Georgia, Demetrious Sampson, Jr. will perform the role of 3rd Esquire in Parsifal during HGO’s 2023-24 season. Sampson is the second place and Audience Choice Winner in HGO’s 2023 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias and a 2022 alumnus of HGO’s Young Artists Vocal Academy. He made his professional debut with Atlanta Opera at the age of 20 as Crab Man in Porgy and Bess, a role he reprised at Des Moines Metro Opera in summer 2022 as an apprentice artist. At Georgia State University, he has performed the roles of Vanderdendur in Candide and the title role in John Musto’s Bastianello. A previous Encouragement Award winner, he recently won the Georgia District in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. This spring Sampson will receive his bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University, where he studies with Kathryn Hartgrove. During the summer, he will join the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco.
RETURNING:
MERYL DOMINGUEZ
Soprano
A second-year Butler Studio artist from Brooklyn, Meryl Dominguez will perform as a Flower Maiden in Parsifal and cover the roles of Callie Van Lew in Intelligence and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni during HGO’s 2023-24 season. During HGO’s 2022-23 season, she performed the role of Skyspace Woman in Another City and, this spring, will perform the roles of Slave in Salome and Violetta in La traviata at Miller Outdoor Theatre. A finalist in HGO’s 2022 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias, she recently made her international debut as the title character in Norma with Musica Viva Hong Kong. She was a resident artist at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts, where she performed roles such as Violetta (La traviata), Juliet (Romeo and Juliet), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Adina (The Elixir of Love), and Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor), which she also performed with Knoxville Opera. As an apprentice artist at Santa Fe Opera, Dominguez sang the role of Naiade in Ariadne auf Naxos. She has Bachelor of Arts degrees in Dance and Voice Performance from Oberlin College and Conservatory. In addition to her operatic roles, she is an enthusiastic advocate for art song and new music.
NAVASARD HAKOBYAN
Baritone
A second-year Butler Studio artist from Voronezhskaya Oblast, Armenia, Navasard Hakobyan won first place at HGO’s 2022 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. During HGO’s 2023-24 season, he will perform as Sharpless in alternate cast performances in Madame Butterfly. During the 2022-23 season at HGO, he performed the roles of Baron Douphol in La traviata and Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro, and this spring performs the role of Second Nazarene in Salome. He was a member of the young artist program of the National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Yerevan, Armenia since 2018. His roles there in the 2020-21 season included Silvio in Pagliacci, Giorgio Germont in La traviata, and Belcore in a new production of The Elixir of Love. He has won numerous international competitions, including first prize in the Premiere Opera Foundation International Vocal Competition and third prize in the José Carreras Grand Prix in Moscow, Russia. Hakobyan received his master’s degree at Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan. He was named the 2019 winner of the President of the Republic of Armenia Youth Prize. This summer, he will perform the role of Marcello in La bohème at Music Academy of the West.
MICHELLE PAPENFUSS
Pianist/coach
Second-year Butler Studio artist Michelle Papenfuss, originally from Fairfax, Virginia, served as coach for La traviata and The Marriage of Figaro, and will do so again this spring for Tosca, during HGO’s 2023-23 season. During HGO’s 2023-24 season she will serve as coach for a selection of mainstage operas and appear with Butler Studio singers in recital and other performances. She is an alumnus of the Cafritz Young Artist Program at the Washington National Opera (WNO) and was recently a Young Artist at the 2022 Glimmerglass Festival. During her time at WNO, Papenfuss served as assistant conductor for Così fan tutte and played for several new operas commissioned by the American Opera Initiative, including the workshop for Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded. At Glimmerglass, Papenfuss served as a coach for Carmen, Taking Up Serpents, and Holy Ground. In 2020, Papenfuss graduated from the University of Michigan with a master’s degree in collaborative piano, where she studied with Martin Katz. She also holds a bachelor’s degree (2016) and master’s degree (2018) in piano performance from Brigham Young University, where she studied with Jeffrey Shumway and Scott Holden. She joins Wolf Trap Opera this summer as a coaching fellow.
RENEE RICHARDSON
Soprano
A second-year Butler Studio artist from Springfield, Pennsylvania, Renée Richardson will perform the roles of Flower Maiden in Parsifal and Sister Margaretta in The Sound of Music, as well as covering the role of Mary Jane Bowser in Intelligence, during HGO’s 2023-24 season. During the 2022-23 season at HGO, she performed the roles of Annina in La traviata and Woman Whose Uncle Loved Maria Callas in Another City. In the 2021-22 season she sang Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème at the Academy of Vocal Arts, where she studied with Bill Schuman. Also at AVA, she sang the Foreign Princess in Dvořák’s Rusalka, the title role and Suor Dolcina in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Inès in Donizetti’s La favorite. She holds a Professional Studies Diploma in Voice from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where her roles included Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Béatrice in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, and the title roles in Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Cherubini’s Medea. Richardson has been seen in several Pensacola Opera productions including Carmen, La bohème, and The Pirates of Penzance. She was the recipient of an A. Grace Lee Mims Scholarship for Negro Spirituals and was the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Kennett Symphony. She was recently named a finalist in the Vincerò Worldwide Opera Competition in Naples, Italy. This summer, she will debut the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Wolf Trap Opera.
EMILY TREIGLE
Mezzo-soprano
A third-year Butler Studio artist from New Orleans, Emily Treigle was named a Grand Finals Winner in the 2021 Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition and was the third prize winner in HGO’s 2021 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. During HGO’s 2023-24 season she perform the roles of Meg Page in Falstaff, Flower Maiden in Parsifal, and Sister Sophia in The Sound of Music, and cover the role of Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. During HGO’s 2022-23 season, she performed the roles of Flora Bervoix in La traviata, Käthchen in Werther, and Miss Violet in Another City. For HGO’s 2021-22 season, she performed the roles of Mother Jeanne in Dialogues of the Carmelites and Gertrude in Romeo and Juliet. In 2021, she covered the title role of L’enfant in L’enfant et les Sortilèges at Rice. In 2019, Treigle trained with HGO’s Young Artist Vocal Academy and participated in the Aspen Music Festival, where she portrayed Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music. She was a Studio Artist at Wolf Trap in the summers of 2020 and 2021, and will return to the company this summer as a Filene Artist to perform the roles of Juno and Ino in Handel’s Semele. Previous roles include Bradamante in Alcina and Mrs. Ott in Susannah, an opera made famous by her grandfather, world-renowned bass-baritone Norman Treigle. Treigle pursued her Master of Music degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in 2020.
ERIN WAGNER
Mezzo-soprano
A second-year Butler Studio artist from El Paso, Erin Wagner will perform the roles of Flower Maiden in Parsifal, Kate Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly, and Sister Berthe in The Sound of Music during HGO’s 2023-24 season. During the 2022-23 season at HGO, she performed the role of Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro and this spring will perform the role of Page in Salome. She is a winner of the 2021 Naumburg Foundation International Vocal Competition and, with pianist and composer Shawn Chang, the 2021 Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital. Wagner was a 2021 Renée Fleming Artist at Aspen Music Festival, where she performed the roles of Second Lady (The Magic Flute) and Unulfo (Rodelinda); sang in scenes from Così fan tutte, La clemenza di Tito, and Semele; and premiered David Clay Mettens’s The Sustaining Air. She worked with Fleming for Carnegie Hall’s 2021 SongStudio and received second prize in the 2021 Saengerbund Awards. She has performed with Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois at Caramoor and with Brian Zeger at Juilliard Songfest. Wagner received her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she studied with Darrell Babidge and was a Gluck Community Service Fellow. This summer, she returns to Aspen to perform the role of Idamante in Idomeneo. She completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell.
To learn more about the Sarah and Ernest Butler Houston Grand Opera Studio, visit HGO.org/Studio
Photos of the 2023-2024 Sarah and Ernest Butler Studio Artists can be found here. Photos are Courtesy of Houston Grand Opera.
About Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is one of the largest, most innovative, and most highly acclaimed opera companies in the United States. General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor assumed leadership of the organization and responsibility for its strategic vision in 2021. HGO was the only American finalist for Opera Company of the Year in the 2019 International Opera Awards, and the only American company to be nominated twice. In fulfilling its mission to advance the operatic art, to serve the Houston community, and to be a global leader in the future of opera, HGO has led the field in commissioning and producing new works (74 world premieres to date) and in training and nurturing promising young artists and administrators. The company contributes to the cultural enrichment of Houston and the nation through a diverse and innovative program of performances, community events, and education projects that reaches the widest possible public. HGO’s pioneering Community and Learning initiative has served as a model for other arts organizations. The company invites all Houstonians to experience superlative opera without the barrier of price through discounted single tickets and subscriptions, subsidized student performances, and free productions.
HGO has toured extensively and has won a Tony, two Grammy awards, and three Emmy awards. It is the only opera company to win all three honors.