2022 Performers

RILEY CARDONA

Soprano

Soprano Riley Cardona is a South Dakota native. She is at home singing a wide range of repertoire from Bach, Mozart, and Handel to Donizetti, Puccini, and Verdi. Having graduated with a degree in music education from South Dakota State University, in 2013, she was awarded a full scholarship toward her graduate degree in Opera Studies from Indiana University’s prestigious school of music. While there, Riley performed Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Daughter in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, and the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro. She has performed leading roles with Florida Grand Opera and Sarasota Opera in Florida. Since moving to Minneapolis in 2016, Riley has been heard as a soloist with many musical organizations, including the Schubert Club, MacPhail’s Sonomento, the Kenwood Symphony, St. John’s Lutheran Church, South Metro Chorale, Garden of Song Opera, and Bethel University. In 2021, she was the featured soprano in the Orpheus Music Project’s virtual video recital for the benefit of Covid health workers, SongBreak. We first heard this remarkable young artist spontaneously delivering an impressive rendition of the daunting “Queen of the Night” aria (Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen) at a local fundraiser event.

MIRANDA KETTLEWELL

Mezzo-Soprano

Mezzo-soprano Miranda Kettlewell is a native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, and the daughter of two professional musicians. At just 23 years of age, Miranda’s rich mezzo-soprano voice, outstanding musicianship, and stage presence have already garnered attention and praise. Her recent vocal awards include the Grand Prize Award in the prestigious Schubert Music Club Vocal Competition in Minneapolis and second prize from the St. Croix Valley Opera Vocal Competition. Miranda received her B.M. degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2020. Locally, she has performed in Carmen with Mill City Opera and Die Zauberflöte with Lakes Area Music Festival. She will make her Minnesota Opera ensemble debut in the 2022 spring season and has been cast as soloist in the world premiere of Orpheus Music Project’s Requiem for Frankie Silver, slated for late 2022. She is currently a soloist at St. Clement Episcopal Church in Saint Paul and studies voice with opera/vocal coach Craig Fields in preparation for graduate program auditions at the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools of Music.

JONATHAN PRESCOTT

Bass-Baritone

Bass-baritone Jonathan Prescott has had a career spanning 30+ years, singing more than 1000 performances of 60 operatic roles in the United States and Europe. His many roles include Wotan in Die Walküre, Philip II in Don Carlos, Banquo in Macbeth, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and the title roles in Don Giovanni and Die Nozze di Figaro. Mr. Prescott has been engaged by theaters in Zurich, Basel and Bern, Switzerland, Freiburg, Ulm, Heidelberg, Wiesbaden, Saarbrücken, and Hannover, German and in many American opera houses including Boston, Detroit, Austin, New York, Phoenix, Tucson, San Francisco, and Atlanta. No stranger to concert repertoire, he has performed many works including the Verdi Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, the Brahms Requiem, the Mozart Requiem, and Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Jonathan has recorded for Phillips records. He is a graduate of Tufts University where he started his music career as a composition student. He holds a master’s degree from the Boston University School of Music where he studied voice with Chloe Owen with a further concentration on choral conducting. 

BRYON WILSON

Pianist

Bryon Wilson is a professional pianist, teacher, and vocal coach based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has appeared with numerous arts organizations, including the Schubert Club, Source Song Festival, Thursday Musical, NATS, Mill City Opera, Out of the Box Opera, Orpheus Music Project, and River Sounds in Ft. Lauderdale. Bryon's students have entered music programs at Indiana University, New York University, Boston University, and Interlochen Arts Camp. Bryon is the pianist for The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists, on the faculty of Macphail Center for Music, and is an organist at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Edina, MN. Bryon also spends two months every summer commercial salmon fishing in Bristol Bay, Alaska.