QUEER OPERA 2023
our singers
the songs
production team

September 2nd @ 7pm and 3rd @ 3pm

Lincoln Hall Studio Theater @ PSU

Carlee Abschneider (she/her)

Carlee Abschneider holds a BM in Vocal Performance from Houston Baptist University, MM in Vocal Performance from Texas A&M University-Commerce. She enjoys working on and off the stage. As a singer, Ms. Abschneider was named the 2019 Vocal Division Winner of the New Texas Symphony Orchestra’s Community Concerto & Aria competition. She has performed with Opera San Antonio, Gilbert & Sullivan Austin, ATX Musical Theatre Collective, Music On Site, Inc., Texas State Opera, Spotlight on Opera, Varna International Music Academy, Resonance Opera, TAMUC Opera Ensemble, and HBU Opera Workshop. She particularly enjoys comedic roles and some of her favorite shows to have been a part of were Gallantry and Gianni Schicchi. Carlee also enjoys teaching voice and has a large studio in Austin, TX.

Frances Bigelow (she/they)

Frances Bigelow (she/they) is a fourth-year student of voice and composition at Portland State University, where she is studying with Christine Meadows and Renée Favand-See. She is a member of Portland State University’s Thorn Choir. Her main compositional interest is in writing vocal music; ultimately, her goal is to write operas. Her previous roles include First Lady and cover for Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute at PSU Opera and Susannah in scenes from Susannah with Queer Opera. She is delighted and honored to be participating in Queer Opera again this year!

Jessie Bodell (he/they)

Jessie graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Musicology/Ethnomusicology and went on to earn a Master of Arts & Culture degree in Musicology from the University of Amsterdam. His scholarship has focused on music and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, with an emphasis on the performance of gender in various theatrical genres. Before discovering a passion for music history and feminist musicology, Jessie studied classical flute performance at the University of Vermont (where they are originally from), and PSU.

Jessie works full time as Marketing & Communications Coordinator for Chamber Music Northwest, part time as Patron Services & Development Manager for OrpheusPDX, and has held patron-facing roles at Portland Opera and Portland Columbia Symphony.

When he isn’t swimming in a river, singing, or knitting, they can be found spending time with his husband and their two small dogs. Jessie is thrilled to participate in Queer Opera for the third year in a row.

Christina Mata (she/her)

A Las Vegas native, soprano Christina Mata holds a Bachelor's Degree in Vocal Performance from University of Nevada, Las Vegas and most recently was awarded a Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from Portland State University. She has extensive experience singing and performing both commercial music and classical music.

During her undergraduate career, she worked as a background vocalist on the Las Vegas Strip, most notably for The Killers and at The Latin Grammys. She also has experience in sacred and church music, as she interned in music ministry at Las Vegas’ mega-church Central Church, where she directed and performed contemporary church music for three years. She has sung operatic roles such as: the Third Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the Venus Goddess of Love in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, and the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. It is one of her biggest goals in her future career as an opera singer - if not her biggest - to sing as much underrepresented and new music as possible and to create artistic spaces where people of any background, race, sexuality, or gender feel understood, seen, and validated.
IG: @christina.mata

Chelsea Scott (she/her)

Chelsea Scott (she/her) is an Afghan soprano, Stephen F. Austin State University alumna, and proud Houston native. Some of her defining roles thus far include Angelica in Suor Angelica, Rusalka in Rusalka, and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. She premiered the role of Mimì in Mimì’s Perfect Day, the comedic prequel to Puccini’s La bohème, with Lone Star Lyric Houston.

This summer, Chelsea won the Atlanta Philharmonic Orchestra’s first Young Queer Artist Opera Scenes Contest. Most recently, she made her debut performance with Kingwood Summer Opera Scenes program as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and Mrs. Anderssen in A Little Night Music.

Outside of opera, Chelsea is credited with concert soloist positions in both elegant and passionate works. Miss Scott has sung soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah, a canonical staple during both Christmas and Easter, and Haydn’s The Creation. Additionally, she has also performed as the soprano soloist in Romantic works such Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio and DuBois’ Seven Last Words of Christ.

Miss Scott also has a strong interest in academia and research, particularly in musicology. Some of her research interests include exoticism, Orientalism, and intersectional feminism as they apply to reimagining opera for all.

Drew Swatosh (they/them)

Drew Swatosh (they/them) is a Vancouver, Washington-based composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist. Inspired by their background in arts-integrated education, they write eclectic, programmatic music and use composing as a means of processing the world around them. Drew’s commissions include a trans/non-binary retelling of the myth of Icarus and Daedalus for the Seattle Opera Creation Lab; choral educator Stephanie Bivins; the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics Music Department; and vocalists Stephanie Lamprea, Marguerite McKean, and Carolyn Quick as part of the Dead Fires Anthology for Solo Unaccompanied/Self-Accompanied Voice. As a vocalist, they have sung in the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium American Creators Chorus under Conspirare Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson. In collaboration with Persisting Sound, they made their professional debut with Portland artists Lisa Neher and Carolyn Quick. Drew holds an MMus in Contemporary Music and a BMus in Contemporary Music from Western Oregon University and has studied composition with: Kevin Walczyk, James Reddan, Carlos Velez, Bill Whitley, Dave Averre, and Elizabeth Ackerman. They are currently in Portland Symphonic Choir, Cascadia Composers, Raindrop New Music, and study voice/composition with Lisa Neher. For more information, visit their website, www.drewswatosh.com

Vincenza Taylor

Vincenza Taylor is a recent graduate from the School of Music at PSU, where she studied Music Performance and Musicology with Christine Meadows and Jelena Simonović Schiff. While studying at PSU, she had the opportunity to perform in two operas, The Merry Wives of Windsor and The Magic Flute. This is her first performance with Queer Opera, and she is delighted to be a part of this experience.

Émilie Versailles (they/them)

Émilie Versailles is a queer, non-binary opera singer and choral conductor from Montreal/Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang. Émilie is artistic director of the company Opéra Outside the Box, which seeks to demystify opera by offering works that resonate with today's world in unusual and varied places. As part of Montreal Pride, they participated in the cabaret Them Fatale, a concept by Rosie Bourgeoisie, reuniting non-binary and gender expansive artists, they also participated in the show Drag’Opéra on the Olympic Park esplanade. Projects highlighting the stories of non-binary and queer people are important in Émilie's artistic approach. In this sense, this Fall, they will have the pleasure of performing the role of Gaël in VACARMES: le concert théâtral at the theatre Denise-Pelletier.

They are excited to join this roster of amazing and unique artists for Queer Opera, to celebrate queer joy in opera and to discover Portland for the first time.

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Handles:
Ig: @emilieversailles
Fb: Émilie Versailles

Isaiah Walker (he/him)

Baritone Isaiah Walker was introduced to music at a young age, taking piano, cello, and voice lessons in his adolescent years. His love for opera developed later. Walker studied classical voice with Damien Geter, and later with Daniel Mobbs. A voice described as mellifluous with a silky timbre, he especially enjoys German repertoire.

Instagram: iw_baritone