2023 Performers

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.

Mezzo-soprano Miranda Kettlewell is a native and resident of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Miranda's rich mezzo-soprano voice, outstanding musicianship, and lovely stage presence have garnered praise for such a young singer. Her vocal awards and honors include the Thelma Hunter Award at the Schubert Club's Bruce P. Carlson Student Scholarship Competition in 2019 and second prize from the St. Croix Valley Opera Vocal Competition in 2021.

She received her B.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2020, where she studied with Dr. Julia Rottmayer and performed the roles of Valetto in L'Incoronazione di Poppea, Cinderella in Into the Woods, and Cobweb in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In addition, she was chosen as a soloist for Beethoven's Choral Fantasy to open the new Hamel Music Center at UW-Madison. In the summer of 2021, Miranda attended Musiktheater Bavaria, a two-week intensive music program, where she worked with soprano Shirley Close and coaches Amanda Johnston and JoAnn Kulesza. Locally, she has performed in Carmen with Mill City Opera, Die Zauberflöte with Lakes Area Music Festival, and the world premiere of Requiem for Frankie Silver with Orpheus Music Project.

She is currently a Choral Fellow at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in Saint Paul and studies mezzo-soprano repertoire with opera coach/director Craig Fields. She is also preparing for The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition in February 2023 and Falstaff with Opera Reading Project in March 2023.

Native (Choctaw) baritone Mark Billy has a multi-faceted career in opera, recital, and concert work. 

This fall, Mark will make his Madison Opera debut singing the role of the Sacristan in Puccini's Tosca. In February, Mark will join the Lyric Opera of the North in their tour of the Pirates of Penzance as the Pirate King and the Major General. Recently Mark joined the Oklahoma City Philharmonic at the First American's Museum in Oklahoma- singing in Choctaw and playing the native flute. 

Next season he will create the roles of Inki and Okhina in the first-ever opera written in a Native language: Shell Shaker written by Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate. Mark was a 2022 finalist in the Sullivan Foundation Awards Competition. 

Mark is the recipient of the 2022-2023 Opera Reading Project IDEA Fellowship and will sing Ford in Falstaff. In October, he sang the role of King's Man in Minnesota Opera's world premiere production of Edward Tulane, by Paola Prestini. In demand as a recitalist, this season Mark presented solo recitals at Minnesota Opera's Luminary Art Center (inaugural), the University of Wisconsin-River Falls in their Coffee Concert Series, Saint Mark's Episcopal Cathedral, University Lutheran Church of Hope, and St. Albert the Great Church. 

In the 2021-22 season, the baritone stepped in at the last minute at Utah's 2022 Moab Music Festival. As the first-place winner of the 2018 Schubert Club Competition, the Schubert Club engaged Mark to sing and play clarinet in a recital in April 2022 as part of their Courtroom Concert Series. In the summer of 2022, he won first place in the St. Croix Valley Opera Competition and sang with orchestra in the Opera On The River Concert conducted by Joseph Li. The Minnesota Opera engaged Mark to sing a solo recital program to celebrate the opening of MNOP's new venue - The Luminary Arts Center. In 2020 Mark was awarded the prestigious Music in Action Grant from the Wagner Society of the Upper Midwest. 

For more information and Mark's complete performance schedule visit markbillybaritone.com.

Wesley Frye is an in-demand tenor, collaborative pianist, and music director throughout the Twin Cities metro and beyond. Recently, he received second prize as a pianist in the Sparks and Wiry Cries songSLAM at the 2022 NATS Conference in Chicago and was a resident artist at Opera Naples. It was there he debuted roles in Pirates of Penzance, Tosca, and Glory Denied. Wesley is also the co-owner and operator of Frye Music Duo, an in-demand duo for weddings throughout the Upper Midwest.