A frequent "audience favorite (onStage Pittsburgh)", lauded for her versatility and commitment to performance building, soprano Wallis Lucas has quickly proven herself to be a young artist to watch.

In May, Wallis received an Advanced Music Studies certificate at Carnegie Mellon University, where she worked with voice, orchestra, and composition faculty to workshop new chamber and orchestral pieces. This season, she also reprised her role as Morgana in Alcina, as well as made her mainstage and touring debuts with Pittsburgh Festival Opera (Adriana Lecouvreur, Hansel and Gretel). Other recent roles include Albina (La donna del lago), Lucy (The Telephone), Elle (La voix humaine), Caio Silio (Ottone in villa), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro).

Wallis holds a Bachelor of Music from Furman University, where she was the first to receive a Musical Theatre minor, and a Master's from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied under Jennifer Aylmer. A Georgia native, Wallis was a state champion 2-baton twirler three years in a row. 

Wallis Lucas was generously supported by the Virginia Middelberg Scholarship.

Italian-Canadian soprano Teresa Tucci is establishing herself as a compelling and versatile performer. She showcases her diverse opera and musical theatre talents and is recognized for her vibrant stage presence and musical sensitivity.

Teresa recently completed her Artist Diploma in Operatic Performance at the University of Toronto, where she has debuted in roles such as Despina in Così fan tutte and La Fée in Cendrillon, to name a few. This summer, she will join Opera Neo as a studio artist, covering the role of Asprano in Vivaldi’s Motezuma.

An accomplished competitor, Teresa won third prize in the 16th International Opera Singing Competition, “City of Brescia—Tribute to Maria Callas.” She has also been recognized as a finalist and award winner in the Camille Coloratura Award Competition and won the Arizona District in the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition.

Originally from Vaughan, Ontario, Teresa earned her Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory in 2023 before returning home to further her training in Toronto. She looks forward to debuting the role of Moira in The Handmaid's Tale here in Banff. She is eager to embrace new challenges and grow alongside her renowned faculty and talented colleagues in this vibrant artistic community.

Teresa Tucci was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

From West Yorkshire, UK, Patricia Yates now lives in Montréal, where she completed her Master’s and Artist Diploma at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music, studying with tenor John Mac Master. Patricia is a proud advocate for trans singers everywhere, and revels in being a rare female tenor.

As Peter Quint in Opera 5’s The Turn of the Screw, Patricia was described as “the quintessential English Britten tenor in that long lineage which traces back to Peter Pears.” Other recent operatic credits include Imeneo Imeneo, Elvino La Sonnambula, Jupiter Semele, Don Ramiro La Cenerentola, Alfred Die Fledermaus, Tamino Die Zauberflöte, and Der Sandmann Hänsel und Gretel. Patricia created roles in world premieres by such composers as Dean Burry, Anna Vienna Ho and Ramin Amin Tafreshi. Oratorio work includes Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Patricia has sung in masterclasses with figures such as Warren Jones, Irene Kudela, Helmut Deutsch, Wolfram Rieger, Pierre Vallet, Jeff Cohen, François Le Roux, Giovanni Reggioli, Martin Constantine, Peter Ford, Marjan Kuiper and Lisette Oropesa.

A passionate wordsmith, Patricia has written articles for publications, including Opera Canada and the Musician’s Union of the UK, centering issues of decolonisation, gender variance and EDI in opera.

Patricia Yates was generously supported by the Sheila K. Piercey Opera Endowment.

Contralto Nicole Percifield has featured in concert performances with New Haven Symphony (Messiah), Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (D. Scarlatti’s Salve Regina and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater), UTSO (Beethoven’s Mass in C) and Minnesota Orchestra. Recently, Percifield performed Elgar’s Sea Pictures with North Bay Symphony, and workshopped Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with Mandle Philharmonic. A skilled interpreter of art song, Percifield won the 2024 Norcop Prize in Song, was a 2024 Fellow with both Toronto Summer Music and Académie Francis Poulenc, performed Debussy’s Chansons Baudelaire at Carnegie Hall, and featured on CBC’s Tapestry program. A graduate of Yale Opera, Percifield has worked with Minnesota Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Central City Opera, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and was a finalist at the Metropolitan Opera New England Regionals. She can be heard singing the roles of Cathleen (Riders to the Sea), and Hostess (At the Boar’s Head), recorded live at the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw, Poland. The International Classical Music Awards nominated the recording for Best Opera Album, 2017.

Nicole Percifield was generously supported by the Ruby Mercer Endowment.

Mihnea Nitu is a Romanian-Canadian bass-baritone acclaimed for his “booming and robust vocals” (Opera Canada). In the fall of 2024, he made his debut as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the McGill Choral Society and portrayed the title role in Judith Weir’s Blond Eckbert with Opera McGill, serving as the Alumni Artist-in-Residence. His versatile performances include the role of the Father in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel with Manitoba Underground Opera, Somnus in Handel’s Semele, as well as Tom and John in Henry Mollicone’s The Face on the Barroom Floor with Opera McGill. Additionally, he portrayed Nardo in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera with Western University’s Accademia Europea dell’Opera.

Mihnea has also covered the roles of Don Magnifico in Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Pigmalione in the world premiere of Dean Burry’s Il Giudizio di Pigmalione. Beyond the classical canon, he has recently contributed to Théâtre Prospero’s devised work Surveillée et Punie with singer-songwriter Safia Nolin, which has been performed in Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec City, and Paris. Additionally, he participated as a singer in Operatika, a unique recital that merges pole dance and opera. Mihnea holds a Master of Music from McGill University and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Calgary.

Mihnea Nitu was generously supported by the T.C Hargrave Scholarship in Voice Endowment.

Max Randal, age 26, recently completed a Master of Music in Collaborative Piano at the University of Colorado Boulder in the studio of Dr. Margaret McDonald and Dr. Alexandra Nguyen. Previously, he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he also sang bass in the Nashville Symphony Chorus and served as Minister of Music at Hillwood Presbyterian Church. As a participant in the Music Teachers National Association competitions, he was the Young Artist winner for the state of Tennessee in 2019 and a Chamber Music National Finalist in 2021. Outside the realm of collaborative piano, Max is trained in organ and harpsichord performance, and enjoys composing original works, especially art song. He is also the Lead Musical Engineer at Edify Technologies (developers of MusiQuest) and creator of the ear training app Intonalogy. Finally, Max is an avid distance runner who has won the Seattle Marathon twice and participated in the last five Boston Marathons. He is now located in Chicago.

Max Randal was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Kozmo Sammartino (He/Him) is a bass-baritone singer, actor, and pianist, born and raised in Nelson, British Columbia. He graduated from St. Clair College’s Music Theatre Performance program and finished his Performing Arts Honours degree at the Atlantic Technological University in Sligo, Ireland. He sang with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra as a guest soloist on two occasions, including a performance of ‘Epiphany’ from Sweeney Todd. He was the baritone soloist in Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem and will be performing as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah this coming winter. Selected theatre credits include Professor Callahan in Legally Blonde, Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Cosmé McMoon in the two-hander play with music, Souvenir. In this role, he played piano, acted, and sang, and will be coproducing the remount of it in the West Kootenay’s this fall. As a pianist, he has accompanied a number of shows, including the new children’s opera, Anything is Possible. Kozmo is also passionate about education, teaching piano, voice, and musical theatre at Studio 88. He aims to use his art to bring hope, humanity, and protest to the world, at a time where we must be stronger and kinder than ever.

Kozmo Sammartino was generously supported by the David Spencer Emerging Vocalists Endowment Fund.

Recognized for her “haunting, smoky tonality” and “thrilling artistry” (Opera Canada), French-Canadian mezzo-soprano Justine Ledoux is an artist-in-residence at the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal for the 2024-2026 seasons. An alumna of Calgary Opera’s McPhee Artist Development Program, she has performed Wellgunde (Das Rheingold), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Béatrice/Ursule (Béatrice et Bénédict), and Mercédès (Carmen). Selected by the Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques 2024, she is a laureate of European prizes for the 2024-2025 season, including a gala-konzert at Eisenach's Wartburg Castle in May 2025.

In 2024, Justine made her role and company debut as Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) at Brott Opera. This season, she has performed Mrs. Nolan (The Medium) with l’Orchestre classique de Montréal, the Teacup and Dragonfly (L’Enfant et les sortilèges) at l’Opéra de Montréal, and was the alto soloist in Messiah with Brott Music Festival.

At Banff Centre’s Opera in the 21st Century, she portrayed Rachel in a workshop of Mary Kouyoumdjian and Royce Vavrek's opera Adoration, in collaboration with Beth Morrison Projects.

Justine continues to refine her craft under the mentorship of Lena Hellström-Färnlöf, artistic director of the Academy of Music and Opera at Mälardalen University (Sweden).  She holds her BM and MM in Vocal Performance from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal.

Justine Ledoux was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.

Bass Jason Somerville recently graduated with his B.Mus in Opera Performance from the University of British Columbia. He discovered his passion for opera after joining the chorus of Edmonton Opera in 2016 (Turandot, Cenerentola, Les Feluettes, Don Giovanni, La Traviata & Rigoletto) going on to perform his first role as Betto in Pop Goes the Opera’s production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Since then, he has portrayed an array of characters with the UBC Opera Ensemble, including Don Alhambra (The Gondoliers), Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro), Nonancourt (Il cappello di paglia di Firenze), Dr. Cajus (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor), Jezevec/Farář (Příhody lišky Bystroušky), and Don Alfonso (Cosi fan Tutte).

In Spring 2024, he debuted with Burnaby Lyric Opera as Colline in Puccini's timeless classic La bohème and with City Opera Vancouver in Missy Mazzoli’s multimedia chamber opera Song from the Uproar. Having diverse interpretive interests, Jason obtained a certificate in Electronic Music Production at the Art Institute of Vancouver, followed by certification as a Sommelier through the International Sommelier Guild.

Jason Somerville was generously supported by the Ruby Mercer Endowment.

Mezzo/Alto, Hillary Tufford is a versatile and engaging performer, noted for her “rich, velvety tone,” (Dawn Martens, Opera Canada).

Last season, Hillary performed Duruflé’s Requiem with the Victoria Philharmonic Choir and she sang the title role in Bizet’s Carmen with Toronto City Opera. This season Hillary made her debut with The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, singing Handel’s Messiah, and she sang Canadian composer Romulo Delgado's oratorio, The Cross of Christ.

A Graduate of Western University (Masters in Literature and Performance), Hillary was invited to join the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program at Vancouver Opera where she sang Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hebe in HMS Pinafore, and “almost stole the show” as Lola in their concert performance of Cavalleria Rusticana (David Gordon Duke, Vancouver Sun).

Other highlights include singing Olga in Eugene Onegin (Highlands Opera), Flora in La Traviata (Brott Opera), and Nadia in Oksana G (Tapestry Opera).

Hillary was a District Winner (Metropolitan Opera Competition), finalist in The Mozart Project and IRCPA Singing Stars, and a Semi-Finalist at the Concours Internationale de Chant de Marmande.

Hillary Tufford was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artists' Awards.