Special to The Truth
Toledo Opera resident artists Sara Mortensen (soprano), Imara Miles (mezzo soprano), Jon Suek (tenor), Evan Fleming (baritone), and Steven Naylor (pianist) have arrived in Toledo for the 2023-2024 season.
All five will serve as touring artists for the Opera on Wheels program which travels extensively, visiting local educational institutions and bringing live opera to the furthest reaches of the Toledo area. Annually, the program is performed for 20,000 students from Findlay to Ann Arbor and Sandusky to Archbold.
This season, the traveling production will be an adapted children’s opera, which sources its music and story from W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Joshua Borths of Virginia Opera adapted the score and wrote the libretto. James M. Norman, Toledo Opera’s Co-Artistic Director and Director of Production, will direct the production. “Continuing a decades long tradition, I look forward to working with the next generation of opera artists who will call Toledo Opera home next season. This group is absolutely fantastic,” shared Norman.
The five will also perform Toledo Opera’s 2023-24 installments of Opera Outdoors. Opera Outdoors is a series of pop-up live performances at outdoor community hubs throughout Toledo. Vocal selections from the classical repertoire, along with musical theater and other American standards will be heard in the fall of 2023 and the spring of 2024.
The Resident Artists will also sing smaller roles in Toledo Opera’s mainstage productions of Cinderella, Romeo & Juliet, and Ragtime which are slated for this season.
Hailed for her expressiveness and lush sound, Imara Miles is a Mezzo-Soprano from the Washington, DC area. With experience in both operatic and musical theater repertoire, Miss Miles has been a featured performer in shows such as Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Berta), The Drowsy Chaperone (Title Role), Gianni Schicchi (Zita), and Porgy & Bess (Lily) to name a few. As a graduate of York College of Pennsylvania (B.A.) and Indiana University (M.M.), Imara has been a young artist in programs such as The Glimmerglass Festival, Grant Park Music Festival, Pensacola Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and is currently a Resident Artist with Toledo Opera. Her past awards and recognitions include the Mollie Shapiro award at Des Moines Metro Opera, a finalist for the Jette Parker Program with The Royal Opera House, an Encouragement award winner from the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, and a semi-finalist in the George Shirley Vocal Competition. She last appeared as Olga in The Merry Widow.
For more information about the 2023-2024 Resident Artists and/or Opera on Wheels, please visit toledoopera.org. For media access, please contact Rachael Cammarn at rcammarn@toledoopera.org.