Curtis Bannister

Tenor

Described by TimeOut Magazine as “radiating with slowly simmering energy”, Curtis Bannister is establishing himself as one of the most dynamic, multi-genre performing artists of his generation. Remaining 2020/2021 engagements include Curtis joining the second season of the Apple TV+ program DICKINSON, as Marquis, his return to Chicago Opera Theatre as Cura in IL POSTINO after debuting the role of Hotel Manager in THE TRANSFORMATION OF JANE DOE. Previous highlights include two seasons as Reimers on NBC’s CHICAGO FIRE, Ragotski in Bernstein’s CANDIDE with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Celebrant in Bernstein’s MASS with Marin Alsop, and the title role in Verdi’s Otello for Utah Festival Opera. www.thecurtisbannister.com, Instagram: @thee_cb, Twitter: @theecb

Kelly Griffin

Soprano

Kelly Griffin returned to Heartbeat Opera in 2019 as “Leah” in Fidelio, and was the featured soprano in Songs from the Spirit with MetLiveArts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ms. Griffin recently had role debuts as Leonora in La Forza del Destino with New Amsterdam Opera and Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera with Opera in the Heights. She has also performed the title role of Aida, and Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth. Her latest concert work includes Rachmaninov's The Bells and Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer.

Derrell Acon

Bass-Baritone

Bass-baritone Derrell Acon is a dynamic performer, administrator, and activist. He is a Fulbright scholar, Mellon Foundation grantee, and doctor of 19th-Century Opera History and Performance. Dr. Acon's work in Blacktivism and Verdian opera has been presented throughout the country and abroad in Europe and Africa. Prominent operatic roles include Leporello in Don Giovanni, Escamillo in Carmen, and the title role in Don Bucefalo. He recently made debuts at National Opera Center in NYC, Kalihu and Palace Theaters on Hawai'i, Semperoper Dresden, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Deutsches Theater München, Kölner Philharmonie, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tel-Aviv Bronfman Hall, Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, and La Compagnia del BelCanto di Milano. He performed as Antron in the world-premiere of Anthony Davis' The Central Park Five with Long Beach Opera, and with Heartbeat Opera as Roc in Fidelio and Caspar in Der Freischütz.

Randy Castillo

Dancer

Randy Castillo is thrilled to be apart of Breathing Free. Previous credits include An American in Paris (National Tour), Mighty Real: A Fabulous Sylvester Musical (Off-Broadway), and West Side Story (Houston Grand Opera). Select regional credits include: In the Heights (Westport Country Playhouse), The Wiz, Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma, Shrek the Musical ,and The Drowsy Chaperone (Broadway at Music Circus). TV: “Dispatches from Elsewhere.” Juilliard grad.

Tamrin Goldberg

Dancer

Tamrin Goldberg, originally from Seattle, is a Brooklyn-based performer and choreographer. She is a recipient of the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Choreography, and was a winner of Opera America’s most recent Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer Showcase. With Heartbeat Opera, Tamrin served as associate movement director of the recent production of La Susanna. Performance highlights include: Ashley Fure’s Filament at the NY Philharmonic, The First National Tour of SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical, and productions with Broadway Sacramento, Goodspeed Opera House, The Alliance Theatre, and Opera Carolina. She holds a B.A. in Dance and Philosophy from Barnard College.

Brian HallowDreamz Henry

Dancer

Brian HallowDreamz Henry, the New York Krump King from Bed-Stuy Brooklyn N.Y. known for his Tedx titled "Krump is Language" and playing a major role in building the New York Krump community. Founding member of the dance trio The Nuu Knynez. He calls his personal Krump style BROOKLYN BUCK. Brian started Krumping in 2004. Inspired by Mijo and Tight Eyez "The creators", Brian has been pushing the Krump movement relentlessly with great passion. In 2008 Brian joined E.S.K. (East Street Kingdom) a branch of the group STREET KINGDOM founded by Tight Eyez and honed his skills further.  Brian has taught at EXPG, Broadway Dance Center, PMT, House of Duende, Alvin Ailey, Brick House, Coupe, Joffrey's Ballet, Layla's dance and drum, and many more studios/locations. Also, with experience in street dance, all style competitions, Ballet, Modern, contemporary, and African he has become one of the most sought after krump/dance teachers and performer. Brian has worked with some amazing creatives such as Madonna, Asap Ferg, Bill T Jones, John Grant, Spike Lee, Oshun, Lous and the Yakuza, and etc.

Daniel Schlosberg

Piano/Co-Music Director/Arranger

Daniel Schlosberg’s music has been performed by the Dover Quartet, Minnesota Orchestra, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and Lorelei Ensemble, at venues including Carnegie Hall, (le) poisson rouge, and David Lynch’s Festival of Disruption. Daniel received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards. Current projects include The Extinctionist, a new opera he is composing for Heartbeat Opera. Daniel has collaborated with such luminaries as David Shifrin and the Imani Winds, and last spring, he was the pianist for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film West Side Story. Daniel’s work has been described as “richly detailed yet delicate” (New York Times) and “ingenious” (Wall Street Journal). www.danschlosberg.com

Jacob Ashworth

Violin/Co-Music Director

Jacob Ashworth is the “impressive Artistic Director” (New York Times) of Heartbeat's sister company Cantata Profana, and has been Co-Music Director of Heartbeat Opera since the beginning. As a violinist and conductor, Jacob has gained a reputation from early baroque to contemporary music as a consummate stylist and curator of music, receiving the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in 2016 for his work with Cantata Profana. A “lithe and nimble” (NYTimes) baroque violinist, an “exacting and sensitive” (Boston Globe) new music player, and a “richly detailed” (NYTimes) conductor, Jacob has made a specialty with Heartbeat of leading operas from the violin, "doing powerful work from the music stand" (Opernwelt).

Kyra Sims

Horn

Kyra Sims is a performing artist and writer living in NYC. She has worked as a backing musician for notable artists such as Lizzo, Jon Batiste, Carole King, and Frank Ocean, and has performed the world over as both a soloist and a collaborative musician. She works actively as a Broadway sub, and has held chairs on the Off-Broadway shows Carmen Jones, Superhero, and Soft Power. Sims also writes, directs, and performs with experimental theatre company The New York Neo-Futurists; her sound design has earned her a nomination for a NY Innovative Theatre Award.

Marika Hughes

Cello

Marika Hughes is a native New Yorker, a cellist, singer, a storyteller on The Moth. She grew up in a musical family - Marika’s grandfather was the great cellist Emanuel Feuermann, and her parents owned a jazz club, Burgundy, on the Upper West Side. As children, she and her younger brother were both regulars on Sesame Street, and attended the beloved Manhattan Country School. Marika continued her education in the double degree program at Barnard College and the Juilliard School, graduating with BAs in political science and cello performance, respectively.

Marika has worked with Whitney Houston, Lou Reed, Anthony Braxton, David Byrne, Adele, Henry Threadgill, D’Angelo, Idina Menzel, Nels Cline, Somi and Taylor Mac, among many others. She was a founding member of the Bay Area-based bands 2 Foot Yard (Two Foot Yard, Tzadik 2003 & Borrowed Arms, Yard Work, 2008) and Red Pocket (Thick, Tzadik 2004). She is a master teacher and director for Young Arts and a teaching-artist at Carnegie Hall’s Lullaby Project. She currently holds the cello chair at the Broadway show, Hadestown. Marika has self-released three albums: The Simplest Thing (2011), Afterlife Music Radio (2011) and New York Nostalgia (2016). She happily leads her bands Bottom Heavy and The New String Quartet and is the co-founder and co-director of Looking Glass Arts, an artist residency and youth education program in upstate New York. With a commitment to a sliding scale fee structure, LGA is democratizing access to the space, time and natural beauty critical to artistic and educational growth. Marika lives in the countryside of Kings County.

Britton-René Collins

Percussion

As a young emerging soloist, Toronto-based percussionist Britton-René Collins finds passion in the art of contemporary percussion performance. She is dedicated to contributing to the growth of modern percussion repertoire, and her current projects include composing and commissioning new works for multi-percussion and marimba. She recently launched a blog on her website, in which she discusses her experiences in facing challenges as a minority musician.

Career highlights include attending soundSCAPE festival, advancing in the 2020 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition, and being selected to appear as a soloist in upcoming concerto performances with symphony orchestras in the United States and Canada.

Mikio Sasaki

Trumpet

Mikio Sasaki is a member of Saint Louis Brass and an adjunct lecturer at Texas Lutheran University. Currently based in Austin, TX, where he is pursuing a doctorate of musical arts at the University of Texas, Mikio was previously in New York City as an active freelance musician and adjunct lecturer at Brooklyn College. He has performed with a wide range of groups such as San Antonio Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Talea Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, yMusic, and Broadway’s Matilda. Mikio earned degrees from the Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music with teachers Raymond Mase, Mark Gould, and Allan Dean.

Thomas Flippin

Guitar

Thomas Flippin is a versatile guitarist and advocate for the creation of new works and equality in classical music. His recent album, Night Triptych, featured new works entirely by women composers and was named one of the Best Classical Music albums of 2018 by both All Music and I Care if You Listen. Flippin has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and frequently collaborates with Porgy and Bess national tour star Alicia Hall Moran, MacArthur Fellow Jason Moran, and the American Repertory Theater production The Black Clown. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Music.

Jason Thomas

Piano

Jason is a New York City-based classical pianist. His performances have been televised throughout the world, including on the 3 Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN). Throughout his career, Jason has received many awards and prizes. Jason has also had an extensive collaboration career that has led to several recording projects being formed.

Jason has a long list of piano teachers, which include Nina Svetlanova, Emanuel Krasovsky, Erik T. Tawaststjerna, and Lauri Väinmaa. Jason has also performed in masterclasses with accomplished musicians such as Seymour Bernstein and Barry Snyder. Jason is currently finishing his doctorate studies at Manhattan School of Music.

Ethan Heard

Director/Adaptor

As Founding Co-Artistic Director & Producer of Heartbeat Opera, Ethan Heard adapted, directed, and co-wrote new English dialogue for Fidelio (“urgent, powerful, and poignant” -The New York Times). Other Heartbeat productions include Lady M (created during quarantine), La Susanna (Kennedy Center and BAM), Butterfly, Dido & Aeneas, Kafka-Fragments, six Drag Extravaganzas, and the first opera performance on the High Line. Other opera includes Truth & Reconciliation, Desire|Divinity (Judson), Empty the House (Curtis), and Sisyphus (Experiments in Opera); L’Orfeo (Yale), and Poppea (Princeton). Musical theater includes Little Shop of Horrors and A Little Night Music (Berkshire Theatre Group), Sunday in the Park with George (Yale), and Into the Woods (Princeton); he also served as Resident Director of The Secret in Beijing and Shanghai. He received his BA and MFA from Yale and now teaches at Yale School of Drama and Yale Institute of Sacred Music. ethanheard.com

Anaiis Cisco

Filmmaker

Anaiis Cisco is a filmmaker and assistant professor of moving image production in film and media studies at Smith College. She received a Masters of Fine Arts in cinema from San Francisco State University, where she was awarded a 2018 Princess Grace Award (Louis D. Srybnik Film Award) for her graduate thesis film, Drip Like Coffee. Cisco’s work focuses on the experiences of underrepresented racial, ethnic, queer, and gendered identities. Her short films have screened at dozens of film festivals such as Outfest, NewFest, and Raindance, while also broadcasting on networks like REVOLT TV’s Short & Fresh and KQED’s Film School Shorts programs. Her body of work also includes a series of short videos produced for the 20th Anniversary of Who is Jill Scott World Tour. 

 Cisco teaches digital video production courses as she develops media that explores the emotional and internal journeys of Black characters, confronting intimate moments of violence and trauma in diverse story worlds.

Ras Dia

Creative Producer

Ras Dia is an arts producer and curator who specializes in multi-disciplinary arts programming. He is the Assistant Producer of the Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody- and Emmy-award winning Live in HD series  seen in movie theaters in 70 countries worldwide, and recently helped produce the Jessye Norman Celebration for the Met and the Ford Foundation, with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Renée Fleming, Anna Deveare Smith, and Gloria Steinem, and many others, gathering to pay tribute to the remarkable artist.

Ras is also the Programming Director of Thresh, whose work has been presented by Guggenheim Works & Process, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Glimmerglass Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, and Silkroad, in addition to his work as Production and Finance Manager of Contemporaneous, which has been presented by such institutions as Lincoln Center, Park Avenue Armory, PROTOTYPE Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, MATA Festival, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and Bang on a Can. Ras was appointed Special Advisor on Arts and Advocacy for Humanitarian Causes to the United Nations Association of El Salvador, for his role as Executive Producer of Una Voz, Un Mundo: A Concert in Support of the People of Guatemala, presented in partnership with The New School, following the 2018 Fuego Volcano disaster.

He is the former Managing Director of the New York City Master Chorale, and has worked in marketing, development, production, and administrative roles with the National Children’s Chorus, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, Carnegie Hall, The New School’s MA TESOL Outreach Program, where he supported programs for immigrant, refugee, and survivor communities across New York City, and National Sawdust, the dynamic, artist-led, non-profit music venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he produced the Artists-in-Residence program, and co-created SAUCE, a series of artist sessions in partnership with Radeberger Pilsner and Sweet Reason CBD Water.

Emma Jaster

Movement Director

Hailed a “splendid mover” (The Washington Post) and “a master of her craft” (Baratunde Thurston), Emma has spent her life in the study and practice of physical expression. She works internationally as performer, director, choreographer and educator in theater, opera, film, and other with the purpose of building cross-cultural relationships and cultivating peace. She studied with her mime father, Mark Jaster and attended the Lecoq school for physical theatre in Paris. She is the Founder and Director of international artist residency @mamaisamaker and Program Manager at the Lab for Global Performance and Politics. @notapapercrane www.emmajaster.com

Jacob Mallin

Director of Photography (New York & Chicago)

Jacob Mallin is a NYC-based cinematographer with a background in narrative and documentary filmmaking. His work has been screened at a variety of film festivals in the US and internationally. More info can be found at www.jacobmallindp.com

Celine Layous

1st AC/Gaffer (Los Angeles)

Celine Layous is a cinematographer from Lebanon. She is a graduate of USJ-IESAV Beirut, with a BA in Performing Arts and an MFA graduate of the American Film Institute Conservatory. Since 2012, she worked as a cinematographer and camera operator on various formats in the MENA region. She is now based in Los Angeles and pursues a career in the visual arts.

Anthony P. McGlaun

Repertoire Consultant

Anthony P. McGlaun is noted for his clarity of tone,musicality and expressive delivery of text. He has a BA from Morehouse College and MM from UNI. He has also made role debuts with both Lyric Opera of Chicago in Porgy and Bess and Showboat San Francisco Opera, Spoletto Music Festival, New Orleans Opera and this fall will be at the Metropolitan Opera in Porgy and Bess. Mr. McGlaun is a much sought after soloist, recitalist, lecturer. He specializes in the Negro Spiritual and work of African-American composers of Art Songs and uses them for social justice.

Sean Mayes

Arranger/Associate Music Director

Sean Mayes is a New York & Toronto based music director. He is an active member of the Broadway music community as an MD, vocal coach, accompanist and orchestrator-arranger. As an orchestrator & arranger, Sean's work has been played by and written for numerous ensembles and performers of multiple musical genres across North America and in Europe.

Additionally, as an author, Sean has published on the role of Black music directors on Broadway (Reframing the Musical, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and the retracing of Black practitioners through musical theatre history (An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre, Bloomsbury, 2021).

Mar Cox

Assistant Director

This is Mar's first production with Heartbeat Opera. They are thrilled to work alongside the brilliant and talented cast and creative team behind Breathing Free. Mar most recently directed George C Wolfe's The Colored Museum at Georgetown University in Washington DC. Current projects include The Black Stories Matter Project, an ethnographic documentary anthology focused on the perspective of Black Lives Matter protestors during May-July 2020. They are also pursuing a certificate through NYU Tisch School of the Arts. They would like to thank Ethan for the opportunity and their partner Cindy for her support.

Jessica Emmanus

Stage Manager

Jessica Emmanus is a New York City freelance stage manager. Her credits include: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Cher Show. Off Broadway: Notes from the Field (Second Stage). NYC: Between the Lines, Love, Loss, and What I Wore (92nd Street Y), Protest (Cherry Lane Theatre) Regional: Seared, Dangerous House, Buffalo Bill (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Education: MFA, Columbia University. Thanks to her parents and her friends for always being supportive of the journey.

Gleb Kanasevich

Sound Editor

Gleb is a clarinetist, composer, and noise/drone musician. He has been a featured artist at various institutions and festivals, such as Dark Music Days (Iceland), Spoleto Festival USA (Charleston, SC), New Music Gathering (Baltimore, MD), Sonic Circuits Festival (Washington, DC), University of Oxford, Peabody Conservatory, soundSCAPE Festival 2015/16/17 (Italy), Dias de musica electroacustica (Portugal), and more. Since 2013, he has been a core member of Heartbeat Opera’s sister ensemble Cantata Profana. In August 2018, he has taken on the duties of the ensemble's Associate Artistic Director.

Mona Seyed-Bolorforosh

Music Assistant/Orchestra Manager/Copyist

Mona Seyed-Bolorforosh is a Music Director, Conductor and Pianist working in musical theatre and classical music. Recent theatre credits include OFF-BROADWAY: Heather Christian’s Oratorio for All Living Things NATIONAL TOUR: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Keys 3), as well as sub credits on a Broadway show. Credits in Opera, Film, and Orchestral music include Heartbeat Opera (Music Assistant) and Harry Potter Soundtrack Orchestra (Former music director, conductor). She is an alumna of Berklee College of Music, where she studied composition and conducting.

Ashley RenÉe Watkins

Director of Education

Ashley Renée Watkins is a classically trained multi-genre vocalist, songwriter and teaching artist facilitator. As an artist, she is skilled music maker and performer influenced by Opera, R&B, Jazz, and Soul. The New Orleans born artist has been based in New York City since 2014 – the year she appeared on NBC’s America’s Got Talent with her opera and multi-genre duo ACTE II. Ashley Renee released her first EP project “Roux” under her artist name A. Renee in the fall of 2019. It captures the many experiences and narratives of her as an artist and a woman of color. Ashley Renee has worked nationally as a facilitator over the past several years, serving on the teaching artist faculty of Lincoln Center Education as well as consulting in arts education and equitable practices within cultural institutions throughout the United States. Prior to joining the faculty at Lincoln Center, she completed a teaching artist fellowship at Big Thought of Dallas, TX.  She has since worked with a team of consultants to generate and implement cultural plans in communities throughout the United States, leading the focus on professional development of community artists. Her priority, as a facilitator, is to co-create a learning community that feels both safe and supported for all learners. She most recently developed and manages The Marguerite Watson National Teaching Artist Cohort, which is an online based program dedicated to holistic career development for new and emerging teaching artists. She also has the pleasure of being a mentor for the Diversity in Arts Leadership (DIAL) Network for Americans for the Arts.  Ashley Renee maintains an active career as a professional performer, facilitator, and holds a master’s degree in voice & operatic performance from the University of Oklahoma.