Who's Who in The Opera Project

	Mezzo-soprano Olga Andronikova is a graduate of the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia and the Pacific Opera Young Artists Development Program in New York City. Ms. Andronikova has appeared in Handel's Giulio Cesare, Puccini's Suor Angelica, Mozart's Nozze di Figaro and as La Cieca in Ponchielli's Giaconda. She has been a finalist in the Palm Beach Atlantic National Vocal Competition, the Paul Robeson Vocal Competition, the Marjorie Lawrence International Vocal Competition, and the All-Russian Competition of Young Music Performers.
	Soprano Mary Ellen Assue holds a Master of Arts degree in voice performance from Florida International University. She has performed the roles of Belinda (Dido and Aeneas), Despina (Cosí fan Tutte), Madame Hertz (Der Schauspieldirektor) and Lakmé. In addition to opera, she has sung various musical theater roles including the role of Christine in Phantom of the Opera. Her choral credits include the soprano solos in both Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Mozart’s Mass in C “Coronation Mass”.
	Lyric soprano Teresa D’Amico holds a Master of Music degree from the University of Minnesota and a language certificate from Centro Studi Italiani in Urbania, Italy. She has performed solo recitals and sung many operatic roles, including Micaela in Carmen and both Susanna and the Countess in Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro, and in many venues, from the Kimmel Center to Alice Tully Hall.
	Tenor Raymond E. Foose has been performing in the Delaware Valley since the 1970s. He sang with such companies as the Trenton Civic Opera, Artist Showcase Theatre, Princeton Opera Company, and the Trenton State College Opera Department, singing the tenor lead in 14 operas. He has also performed in many churches doing solo, oratorio and wedding music. From 1992 to 2003 he sang the National Anthem for The New Jersey Devils Hockey Team. Mr. Foose is the Grand Soloist of the New Jersey Masons. He has performed for the Grand Jurisdictions of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Quebec, as well as other Masonic bodies. In February of 2004 he gave a concert for the Grand Council of Grand Secretaries and Grand Masters in Washington, DC.
	Soprano Sarai Johnson has sung in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Mozart’s Magic Flute, in the role of Queen of the Night. At Westminster Choir College she belonged to the college’s famed Symphonic Choir and its select choir, Schola Cantorum. She has won competitions in Harlem, Long Beach, and Milwaukee, and was a finalist in the 2007 Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria. Recently she performed at Carnegie Hall as a first-place winner in the Barry Alexander International Voice Competition.
	Soprano Cassandra Lambros, Warren native, graduated May 2006 with highest honors from The Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, with a BM in violin performance. Ms. Lambros sang the starring role of Deborah in the Opera Project's world premiere production of Dennis Hyams' The Golden Arrow. She recently covered the role of Giannetta in the Opera for Humanity benefit performance of L'Elisir d'Amore and performed in the chorus with the State Repertory Opera in Don Pasquale. In April 2007 Ms. Lambros was named a winner in the Irving Ludwig Young Artists Auditions and was soprano soloist with the Lansdowne (Pa.) Symphony Orchestra in February 2008. In the spring of 2008, Ms. Lambros won a Hellenic Music Foundation Scholarship and performed at the Second Young Artist Showcase in New York City. Ms. Lambros has studied voice with Metropolitan Opera soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra and  Deborah Maher, teaches violin and piano while continuing her orchestral activities, dances at the New Jersey Ballet and teaches music at a pre-school.
	Mezzo-soprano Alyssa Lehman made her professional debut as a soloist with the Maine Chamber Ensemble and her professional operatic debut as Mother Jeanne in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites. Since completing her formal studies, she has sung the roles of Mercedes in Bizet's Carmen and one of the Ladies in Mozart's Magic Flute. She has also sung sacred and chamber music. In addition to the Opera Project she has worked with the Opera League of Maine, the Delaware Valley Opera Company, the Capitol Opera, the Chester County Opera Society, the Belfast Arts Council, the Androscoggin Players and the Ardmore Opera. A lover of the art song, Ms. Lehman has recently concentrated in performing song recitals. She participated at the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium in Italy, working with Nico Castel, Carol Castel, Judith Coen and Enza Ferrari, and studied with Edda Moser at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Ms. Lehman currently studies with Evelyn Mandac and is a former student of Deborah Cook. She will be performing the role of Nancy in Dennis Hyams' The Golden Arrow at the Opera Project.
	Bass-baritone Grant Mech holds a B.M. degree in music education and a M.M. in voice performance and pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, where he studied voice with Margaret Cusack. He has sung Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Somarone in Beatrice et Benedict with the Westminster Opera Theater. In the summer of 2008, he returned to Opera New Jersey as a member of the company's Studio Artist Program. In September 2008, he debuted with Capital Opera Harrisburg, singing Colas in Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne. Upcoming appearances include productions of La Clemenza di Tito with dell'Arte Opera Ensemble, Madama Butterfly with Boheme Opera, and La Traviata with New Rochelle Opera. During the summer of 2009, Mr. Mech will appear in concerts with the Franco American Vocal Academy and sing Agamemnon in Offenbach's La Belle Hélène with Opéra du Périgord in France. Mr. Mech is the Director of Music at Christ Church in Somers Point, NJ.
	Soprano Carly Rapaport-Stein is a graduate of Westminster Choir College with a Bachelor’s degree in Voice Performance. As a guest soloist in concerts and churches, Ms. Rapaprt-Stein performs frequently throughout the tri-state area. With SingThrough Central, roles studied include Elettra in Idomeneo and the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro. With Westminster Opera Theater, Ms. Rapaport-Stein has performed scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Walkure, Orphée et Euridice, and Die Fledermaus. With the world-renowned Westminster Choir, Ms. Rapaport-Stein has performed with the Spoleto Festival USA (Don Giovanni, Romeo et Juliette, Die Vogel), the New York Philharmonic, and the Dresden Philharmonic. Ms. Rapaport-Stein placed in NJ NATS three times, was a finalist in the Northeast NATS, and was recognized three times in the Westminster Vocal Awards. Ms. Rapaport-Stein is a student of Margaret Cusack.
	Baritone Don Sheasley has appeared in over fifty roles on the stages of most New Jersey opera companies. His favorites are Rigoletto, Count di Luna in Il Trovatore, Count Almaviva inLe Nozze di Figaro, Tonio and Silvio in Pagliacci, Scarpia in Tosca, and Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana. With Berks Grand Opera he appeared as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. Besides his opera performances he can be heard singing oratorio, cabaret and concert throughout New Jersey, Eastern Pennsylvania and the New York metropolitan area. A long-time academic and community theater actor-director, Mr. Sheasley has been seen as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, Emil deBecque in South Pacific, and Horace Tabor in the seldom produced Ballad of Baby Doe. He is a former high school English teacher and golf coach, and resides in Princeton.
	Tenor Steven Snow graduated from the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. He has sung the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with several different opera companies, and appeared in many other roles locally and abroad, most recently as Jesus in the Long Island Masterworks concert production of Pilate, Captain Corcoran in Ridge Light Opera’s production of HMS Pinafore, Mime in Wagner's Siegfried with the Baroque Society of New Jersey, First Jew in the Opera Cleveland Production of Salome, Macduff in Verdi's Macbeth, Don Carlo, and Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana with Amici Opera, Max in Der Freischütz with the Little Opera Company of New Jersey, and Alfred in Die Fledermaus with the Maine Grand Opera. His other performances include the roles of Eisenstein and Alfredo Fettucine in Opera New York’s off-Broadway production of Tales from the Manhattan Woods, Cavaradossi in OperaDelaware's production of Tosca, and Rodolfo in La Bohéme with the Lyric Opera of San Antonio. In earlier seasons, he performed the roles of Luigi in Il Tabarro with the Des Moines Metro Opera and Don Jose in Carmen with the Natchez Opera Festival. Mr. Snow also appeared at Carnegie Hall singing Mozart's Requiem and Vesperae solennes de confessore (K.339). In May of this year Mr. Snow will sing Cavaradossi in Tosca with Opera at Florham.
	Soprano Yeonjune Suh began studying voice in her native city of Seoul, Korea. She has studied at the Chicago College of Music, the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milano and The New School for Music in New York City. She has sung in concerts and opera productions throughout Italy, and in New York City. She recently appeared as Adina in the New Jersey State Repertory Opera’s production of L’Elisir d’Amore, and as Papagena in The Magic Flute in the El Paso, Texas, Young Artist program.