San Francisco Opera

Tenor Andrew Bidlack, a first-year Adler Fellow, hails from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and made his San Francisco Opera debut earlier this season in The Little Prince; Odoardo (Ariodante) marks his War Memorial Opera House debut and will also appear with the company this summer as Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor),. A 2007 Merola Opera Program participant, he created the role of Charles Carter in the world premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s The Hotel Casablanca last summer. The Pennsylvania native has recently appeared as Rodolfo (La Bohème) with the Opera Company of Brooklyn; Tamino (The Magic Flute) at Ohio Northern University; and as Rolla (I Masnadieri) and Don Curzio (Le Nozze di Figaro) with Sarasota Opera. At the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the tenor performed the role of A Guest in Gian Carlo Menotti's The Saint of Bleecker Street, which was recorded on the Chandos label. He served as an apprentice at Florida Grand Opera, where he covered the role of Ferrando (Così fan tutte), and at Des Moines Metro Opera, where he performed Bastien in Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne. Bidlack has also been an apprentice artist at the Santa Fe Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Opera North in New Hampshire. The tenor will appear in upcoming San Francisco Opera productions The Simpleton (Boris Godunov) and Graf Albert (Die Tote Stadt).

Mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas, a Louisiana native, is a first-year Adler Fellow. She sang the role of Tisbe in the 2007 production of La Cenerentola with the Merola Opera Program. Karanas made her professional debut in 2006 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, singing Vierte nackte Jungfrau in Schoeberg’s Moses und Aron. Operatic roles include Ericlea (Il Ritorno D’Ulisse) with Chicago Opera Theater; Lady with a Hat Box (Postcard from Morocco) and Zia Principessa (Suor Angelica) with Boston University Opera Institute; Marchesa Melibea (Il Viaggio a Reims) with Music Academy of the West; Mère Marie (Dialogue des Carmélites), Judith (Bluebeard’s Castle), Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), and Lucretia (The Rape of Lucretia) with Arizona State University; Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Mme. Pernelle (Tartuffe), and Baba (The Medium) with Southeastern Louisiana University. She holds a master's degree in opera performance from Arizona State University and a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from Southeastern Louisiana University. Her awards include Western regional finalist and Gulf Coast regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Grand Prize winner in the Arizona Opera League Competition, and a recipient of the Encouragement Award at the Marilyn Horne Foundation.

First-year Adler Fellow Kenneth Kellogg made his San Francisco Opera debut as The King, A Baobab, A Hunter (Little Prince) with this performance. An alumnus of the 2007 Merola Opera Program, he created the role of Tobias in Thomas Pasatieri’s The Hotel Casablanca. The Washington, D.C. native recently served as a resident artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he performed the roles of Don Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Zaretsky and Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Killian and a Hermit (Der Freischütz), and Count des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon. Other notable credits include the title roles of Le Nozze di Figaro and Bluebeard’s Castle at Bel Canto Northwest, Fiorello (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) for the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, and Balthazar (Amahl and the Night Visitors) at Fargo-Moorhead Opera in North Dakota. Kellogg holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Ohio University and master’s degree in music from the University of Michigan, where he appeared in a wide array of roles including Sarastro (The Magic Flute), Seneca (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Orgon Pernelle in Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe, and The Old Man in the world premiere of James P. Johnson’s De Organizer. The bass is a past winner of the Annapolis Opera competition and was a national finalist in Sun Valley Opera competition in 2007. Next season he will appear in the San Francisco Opera productions of Idomeneo, Boris Godunov, Simon Boccanegra, and La Bohème.

Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack, a native of Buenos Aires, is a first-year Adler Fellow. As a member of the Merola Opera Program in the summer of 2007, Ms. Mack performed the title role of Rossini's La Cenerentola. She has also performed the roles of Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Carmen (La Tragedie de Carmen), Blanche (Dialogues of the Carmelites), Jo (Little Women). She was a featured artist in the 2006 Plácido Domingo Gala Concert - A Night for New Orleans with the New Orleans Opera. Ms. Mack has appeared with Virginia Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and the Little Opera Company, and she has been a young artist with Sarasota Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. She was a second place regional winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a finalist in Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition, a winner in the Opera Birmingham Competition, and a finalist in the Palm Beach Opera Competition. She was also the recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, as well as a Baton Rouge Opera Guild Career Grant winner. Ms. Mack earned both her master's and bachelor's degrees from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Future engagements include a charity recital sponsored by the Shoshana Foundation and a concert of excerpts from Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra.

Coach and accompanist Matthew Piatt, a second Year Adler Fellow,  is an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program. He accompanied soprano Ailyn Perez in her Schwabacher Debut Recital last January. Piatt has worked with the Houston Grand Opera Studio, playing recitals at the McNay Art Museum of San Antonio, and with the Dallas Wagner Society. As an apprentice coach, he participated in the Aspen Opera Theater Center and the Seagle Music Colony. The Kansas native holds a master’s degree in collaborative piano from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Martin Katz. He graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in piano from the University of Houston. During his studies there, he served as a coach and accompanist for twelve productions at the Moores Opera Center, which included the world premiere of The Thirteen Clocks by Christopher Theofanidis and a production of Dominick Argento's Casanova's Homecoming, which was recorded for Newport Classics.