Nathalie Friederich is a soprano from Phoenix, Arizona. Ms. Friederich’s recent engagements include the role of Musetta in La Bohème with the IU Opera Theatre & Ballet, chorus in Le Nozze di Figaro at Indiana University Opera Theatre and Ballet, Erste Dame in the Trentino Music Festival’s 2024 production of Die Zauberflöte, The Taumännchen in Indiana University Opera Theatre’s Fall 2022 production of Hansel und Gretel, and several Indiana University Opera ensembles including the chorus in Don Giovanni, Candide, Die Lustige Witwe, and Sweeney Todd, and Oklahoma. Her achievements in vocal competitions are notable, with first-place wins in the 2019 Atlanta Music Club Competition, the 2021 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competition in the Mid-Atlantic undergraduate voice category, and the 2022 undergraduate division of the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale. In 2024 she placed first place in the Peabody art song competition in the graduate division and competed in the Laffont Metropolitan Opera Competition. In 2025 she won 1st place in the Atlanta Music Club competition and in 2026 she won the Pock and Blumberg award in the NSAL Indiana Chapter competition. She graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music under the instruction of Professor Jane Dutton. She is currently continuing her studies with Jane Dutton, pursuing her Masters at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. This Spring she will premiere the role of Karolina in the workshop of Martin Hennessey’s new opera Swimming in the Dark based on the best-selling novel by Tomasz Jedrowski. This is her debut performance singing the soprano solo in Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9.

Mezzo-soprano Esther Jo, a native of Seoul, South Korea, is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Jane Dutton, supported by a Performance Fellowship and full scholarship. She recently completed her Performer Diploma, earning a Performer’s Certificate under the same support. With Indiana University Opera Theater, her roles include Carmen in Bizet’s Carmen, Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon, La Zia Principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She has also appeared in opera workshops as Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, Gertrude in Thomas’s Hamlet, and Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti’s Anna Bolena. She was named a finalist in the Georgina Joshi Foundation Competition. She also participated in a masterclass with Stuart Skelton. She further expanded her artistic career in Europe as a Faculty-Nominated Artist and Competition Winner in the Jacobs Berlin Performance Program, taking masterclasses with Klaus Sallmann, Uwe Griem, Brenden Gunnell, Byron Knutson, Viviana Barrios, and Trevor John Pichanik, which were held in Berlin and Leipzig. She then made a successful debut at the Mendelssohn-Remise. This summer, she will join Opera Maine as a Studio Artist, covering Gertrude in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and performing Khanh in Huang Ruo’s Bound.
At Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea, Jo graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music, receiving multiple merit-based full scholarships, an exclusive teaching certification, and ranking among the top three students in the voice department. She subsequently earned her Master of Music with full scholarship and research assistantship. Under the guidance of Locky Chung and Su-gil Park in Korea, Jo performed Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto (a co-production of Hanyang University and the Seongdong Cultural Foundation), Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Dritte Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, among other roles. As an alto soloist, she has performed Charpentier’s Te Deum, Vivaldi’s Gloria in D major, Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, and Schütz’s Die sieben Worte Jesu Christi am Kreuz. She has further refined her artistry through masterclasses with Mutsumi Moteki and as a Voice Fellow at the Yewool Music Stage, earning international recognition.

Korean tenor Suro Kim is currently pursuing his Master of
Music in Voice Performance at the Indiana University
Jacobs School of Music, where he studies with Carol
Vaness. A native of Seoul, he attended Seoul Arts High
School, Korea’s leading arts high school, and graduated at
the top of his class from the College of Music at Hanyang
University, one of the country’s premier music schools.
Kim has sung Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata and Rodolfo
in Puccini’s La Bohème in Korea, and has broadened his
stage experience at Indiana University in opera workshop
productions of Dialogues des Carmélites, La fille du régiment, Rigoletto, Faust, and Peter
Grimes. He is engaged to sing Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in Tokyo this summer and
will also appear as the tenor soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Bloomington
Symphony Orchestra in Indiana.

Stephen Stavnicky is a bass-baritone from Cleveland, Ohio graduating this May from Indiana University – Jacobs School of Music with a Master’s degree in Voice Performance and Trumpet Performance, having been under the tutelage of Peter Volpe (voice) and Jason Bergman (trumpet). He has been seen on stage with IU Opera Theater as Escamillo in Carmen, Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Le Roi in Cendrillon, and has been in various opera choruses at IU, including the world premiere of Mason Bate’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Stephen has been a soloist for other works such as Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s The Creation, both J.S. and C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat, and Handel’s The Messiah. Stephen was the first-place winner of the 2025 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale competition in the Graduate Voice division and placed in the top three of the voice division of the Tuesday Musical competition in Akron, Ohio in 2023, a competition in which he won first place in the brass division the year prior. As a trumpet player, Stephen has performed with professional orchestras in Ohio, has performed with nearly every ensemble here at IU, and was a finalist in IU’s Brass Concerto Competition in 2024. Stephen holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Trumpet Performance from Kent State University.