Beethoven’s Ninth Soloists
Teresa Perrotta, Soprano
Soprano Teresa Perrotta is a 2023 Grand Finals Winner of The Metropolitan Opera’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition and a first-year Cafritz Young Artist at Washington National Opera. In the 2022-2023 season, she made her Kennedy Center debut as Fünfte Magd in Elektra, followed by Musetta in La bohème. Additional debuts include Alice Ford in Falstaff with Maryland Lyric Opera, and Anna in Nabucco with Washington Concert Opera. In the summer of 2023, she returned to The Glimmerglass Festival to make her mainstage debut as Mimì in La bohème.
In summer 2021, Perrotta was a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist, where she performed as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream under the baton of Harry Bicket. She also performed scenes in concert as Nedda in I Pagliacci, Marguerite in Faust, and the title role in Susannah, as well as winning the Katharine Mayer Award. She returned to the Santa Fe Opera in 2022 as Alice Ford in Falstaff and covered Renée Fleming as Clarissa Vaughan in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Perrotta made her debut at Carnegie Hall in the winner’s concert in May 2022. She rang in the New Year as the soprano soloist with the Dayton Philharmonic in its New Year’s Eve: Return to Vienna concert. As an independent and self-funded project, she performed as Elle in La voix humaine.
In the 2019-2020 season, Perrotta made her international debut as Marie Antoinette in The Ghosts of Versailles at L’Opéra Royal de Versailles and was the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana with the Cincinnati Choral Society. An advocate for community engagement, she was the soprano soloist in the Lynx Project Autism Advocacy Series in Cincinnati, a collaboration with children with autism and artists to compose and create art songs.
Perrotta frequently collaborates with opera composers. Through Cincinnati Opera’s Opera Fusion: New Works, she has created leading roles in the workshops of The Hours and Tobias Picker’s Awakenings. She performed a scene as Magda in The Consul with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at The Glimmerglass Festival in 2019, as well as covering Marie Antoinette in The Ghosts of Versailles.
Other roles include covering Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Chautauqua Opera, performing Manja in Countess Maritza, and principal ensemble/dancer in productions of Anything Goes, Music Man, The Student Prince, and the North American Première of Gershwin’s Primrose with the Ohio Light Opera.
Perrotta received her Artist Diploma in operatic performance at The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she also received her Master’s Degree. She received her undergraduate degree from the Eastman School of Music. During her studies, she performed the roles of Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Krystyna Zywulska in Jake Heggie’s Out of Darkness, and the Soprano 1 in Philip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox.
She was a finalist in the 2020 Lotte Lenya Competition, first-place winner of the Cincinnati SongSlam, third-place winner in the Butler International Opera Competition, second-place winner of the prestigious Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal competition, semifinalist in the Houston Grand Opera’s Concert of Arias, two-time regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and three-time winner of the Corbett Opera Competition.
Katherine DeYoung, Mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Katherine DeYoung, originally from Traverse City, Michigan, is currently a third-year Ensemble Member of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In the 2022-2023 season, she sang Giovanna in Ernani and Mercédès in Carmen. She also covered Ragonde in Le Comte Ory, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Soloist in Proximity. She was the Mezzo-Soprano Soloist in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at Michigan State University.
In the Lyric’s 2021-2022 Season, she performed as the Second Lady in The Magic Flute, and sang in the Rising Stars Concert and in The Magic Victrola. She is a 2019 Sullivan Award Winner from The William Matheus Sullivan Foundation, a 2021 Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient from the Shoshana Foundation, the 2022 Eileen Deneen Scholarship Award Winner from The American Opera Society of Chicago, and a 2020 semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition.
DeYoung was a member of the Detroit Opera Studio program from 2018-2020. She performed Der Sandmann in Hänsel und Gretel, the Old Lady in Candide, The Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, covered Olga in Eugene Onegin, and performed Mae and covered Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. In the summers of 2018 and 2019, she was a member of the Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Singer Program, where she covered the role of The Mayor’s Wife in Jenůfa and performed the Act One Duet from La Favorita and the Act One Finale as Ma Joad from The Grapes of Wrath for the Apprentice Scenes programs.
Katherine holds a Master’s Degree in Voice Performance from the University of Houston, where she performed Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri, Fidalma in The Secret Marriage, Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, Princess Clarice in The Love for Three Oranges, and Lady Sneerwell in the World Premiere of The School for Scandal. She appeared with the Texas Medical Center Orchestra at the “A Night at the Opera” Concert and was the Alto Soloist for Chapelwood United Methodist’s “Messiah Selections.” She was a finalist and The Online Viewers’ Choice Award Winner in the Houston Grand Opera’s 31st Eleanor McCollum Competition. She is an alumna of Michigan State University.
Anthony León, Tenor
An American-born, Cuban and Colombian tenor, Anthony León is a young up-and-comer who is quickly developing an international performing career. During the 2022-2023 season he was a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at the Los Angeles Opera. His engagements at LA Opera include Pelléas in Impressions de Pelléas, Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Spoletta in Tosca, and Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor. He will return to Los Angeles Opera to open the 2023-2024 season, performing the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni.
León recently sung Remendado in Carmen at Santa Fe Opera, Ernesto in Don Pasquale at the New England Conservatory, and has been on tour performing the roles of Giove and Amphinome in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with the ensemble I Gemelli. On tour, he performed at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris; Arsenal Theater in Metz, France; and Victoria Hall in Geneva. A recorded album is in the works and is set to be released in 2023.
In the fall of 2021, León performed the role of Count Almaviva in Opera Theatre St. Louis’ production of The Barber of Seville. During the summer of 2021, he was an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera, covering the role of Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other leading roles include Le Chevalier in Dialogue des Carmélites, Agenore in Il re pastore, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Tamino in The Magic Flute, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance.
Honors include winning the First Prize and Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Zarzuela Prize at Operalia, 2022. He was also a 2023 winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, Western Region, and received a Career Development Grant from the Sullivan Foundation. He was named “Best up-and-comer” in the Inland Empire Magazine’s “Best of the Best 2019” list and was awarded the Wendy Shattuck ‘75 Presidential Scholarship for Vocal Studies.
León holds a Bachelor’s in Music from La Sierra University and a Master of Music degree concentrating in vocal performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, studying under the tutelage of Bradley Williams.
Griffen Hogan Tracy, Bass
Praised by Parterre Box for his “glorious outpouring of tone,” Colorado bass Griffen Hogan Tracy debuted with the Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist for the 2022 season, covering the role of Manuel Toulon in Huang Ro’s M. Butterfly. He was featured in the Apprentice Scenes program as Phillipe II Don Carlos.
A recent graduate of the acclaimed Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, he performed Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Colline in La Boheme, Sam in Un ballo in maschera (C-19), Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro, and Viktor Ullmanns’s Liederbuch des Hafis. In the 2022-2023 season, he performed in A&E Atlanta’s premiere of Our Sacred World by Amy Leventhal, and debuted with Amarillo Opera as Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Cincinnati Opera as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor. During his AVA residency, Tracy was featured in a wide variety of recitals and operas, performing repertoire by Shostakovich, Berg, Rachmaninoff, Haydn, Handel, Mozart, and Verdi.
Tracy has made numerous concert and operatic debuts around the country, including bass soloist work with the Colorado Repertory Singers Mozart’s Requiem and Knoxville Symphony Orchestra Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. In the summer of 2019, he was a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where he sang the role of 3rd Familiari in The Coronation of Poppea, in addition to covering the roles of Seneca in The Coronation of Poppea and Sparafucile in Rigoletto.
In the 2017-2018 season, he made several role debuts at UT Knoxville, most prominently as Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Eduard Casaubon in Allan Sheerer’s Middlemarch, a performance praised for its “insidious maliciousness” (Arts Knoxville). He returned to Central City Opera’s Bofils-Stanton Artist Training Program, where he sang Un Vecchio Zingaro in the mainstage production of Il trovatore, in addition to scenes including the Don Pasquale, The Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance), and Dansker (Billy Budd).
Comfortable in a wide variety of repertoire, Tracy has notably sung Neptune in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, Reverend John Hale in Robert Ward’s The Crucible, Leporello in Don Giovanni with the Yakima Symphony, Emile de Becque in South Pacific, Sir John Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Dr. Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro.
Tracy is a two-time District winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a Regional Finalist Encouragement Award recipient (2019) and a Denver Lyric Opera Competition grand finalist. He holds an M.M. from the University of Tennessee and a B.M. from the Lamont School of Music.