Stuck Elevator

She served as Conducting Fellow of New World Symphony during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons, leading the orchestra in subscription, family, education, and holiday concerts, and was also a Dudamel Fellow with Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2024/25. In 2025/26 Turner returns to Los Angeles Philharmonic for a performance in the Green Umbrella new music series, and to Orchestre de Paris to conduct a series of Young Person concerts. Following her successful 2025 debut with Minnesota Orchestra as part of their education concert series, she rejoins the ensemble for multiple projects throughout 2025/26, including leading performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and conducting the Season Sampler concerts. Other notable engagements of the season include a Nordic subscription debut with Kristiansand Symfoniorkester, conducting Stuck Elevator with Opera Grand Rapids, and St. Barth’s Music Festival. 

Her productions have appeared at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Elbphilharmonie, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China.

In the 2025–26 season, she returns to Houston Grand Opera to direct the Butler Studio Showcase and revive her acclaimed children’s opera The Big Swim. She leads a new co-production of Madama Butterfly with Calgary Opera, Arizona Opera, and Opera Grand Rapids, where she also directs Byron Au Yong’s Stuck Elevator and serves as Guest Artistic Director. Additionally, she makes her debut with Opera Colorado directing Madama Butterfly.

In 2024–25, Ms. Zhou directed the Butler Studio Showcase at Houston Grand Opera, revived her acclaimed Madama Butterfly with Florentine Opera and Kentucky Opera, staged Così fan tutte at The Juilliard School, La bohème at Arizona Opera, and returned to Virginia Opera for a new production of Così fan tutte. She also made her Canadian directing debut with Madama Butterfly at Vancouver Opera.

Ms. Zhou trained at The Juilliard School, Merola Opera Program, Wolf Trap Opera, and Glimmerglass Festival, and has worked on the directing staff at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Dallas Opera. She holds an MFA in Stage Directing from Columbia University, where she studied under Anne Bogart, and a BA in English and Theater from Bowdoin College.

She has designed for opera, theater, and film in America and internationally. Her opera lighting design has been seen at Vancouver Opera, Calgary Opera, Arizona Opera, Virginia Opera, Florentine
Opera, Kentucky Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Tokyo Bunkakaikan. As well as her theater lighting design at ZACH Theatre, Theatre Squared, Miami New Drama, KC Rep, St. Louis Rep, American Conservatory Theater, Vineyard, and Yale Repertory Theater. Her set design credits include Miser and The Imaginary Invalid with Moliere in the Park; Human at Asheville Creative Arts; Pillowtalk, TALA, and The India Plays with Kyoung’s Pacific Beats; Merry Widow and Fantasticks at Opera Theatre Pittsburgh; and The God of Carnage and Macbeth at Redhouse Arts Center. Upcoming 2026: Madama Butterfly at Opera Grand Rapids; Madama Butterfly at Colorado Opera; Jagged Pills at Redhouse, NY; Human at the Shed and BAM, NY. 

Nearly 50 years working professionally in the arts has allowed John great opportunities such as unveiling world-class sculpture, a National Endowment for the Arts award for his own sculpture, designing opera for arena performances and is owner of The GR Shop LLC. A favorite nugget of trivia is he won an EMMY for art direction in 2006. His list of corporate clients is extensive and wide ranging. John’s career has taken him through feature films, television production, and industrial films. For fun John enjoys winter and summer ultra distance races on bicycle all around the country. Competitions are often over 100 miles and in temperatures ranging from -30° to 100° F. When not engaging in crazy stuff like that, John also owns a company building custom bike bags for bike packing and commuting. He is married to Lea with one son, Nicolas. The dog’s name is Artemis and she’s the sweetest pupper on the planet.

She spent 10 years on the University of Michigan faculty, and created the BFA program in Stage Management there before returning to full time freelancing.  She frequently stage manages opera productions at UMich, mentoring students, several of whom have subsequently ASM’d for Brett at opera companies around the country. In recent years she stage managed productions for Opera Grand Rapids, Tri-Cities Opera, New Orleans Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Chicago / Scenario Two, San Diego Opera, Tulsa Opera, West Edge Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera San Jose, and Detroit Opera. In 2023, Brett was thrilled to be one of three recipients of the national Stage Management Association’s 2023 Del Hughes Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Currently she serves as the year-round ASM for the Philadelphia Ballet, still traveling to stage manage opera and more between Ballet performances. Recent opera experiences include credits with Sarasota Opera, Madison Opera, Haymarket Opera Company, and Bard Summerscape. She graduated from Syracuse University in 2022 with a BFA in Stage Management and a BA in Psychology. L is grateful to be making her Opera Grand Rapids debut with this timely and powerful piece.

She is the costume designer in residence for American Contemporary Ballet since 2017, and is the recipient of the Swarovski Award for Excellence in Costume Design 2014. Notable theatrical credits: Madama Butterfly (Virginia Opera, Florentine Opera, Kentucky Opera 2024), On Gold Mountain (LA Opera Connects 2022), I’ll Be Seein’ Ya (Center Theater Group 2021), Aubergine (South Coast Repertory 2019), The Nutcracker Suite (American Contemporary Ballet), The Midsummer Night’s Dream (ISC 2018), The Great Wall: One Woman’s Journey (Drama Centre Singapore 2017).

For the beginning of season 2026, Mark will be performing the role of Guang in Opera Grand Rapid’s production of Byron Au Yong’s Opera Stuck Elevator.

Mark was a Vocal Fellow at Tanglewood Music Center. Prior to his time at Tanglewood, he was a 2024 Herndon Foundation Emerging Artist at Virginia Opera, performing the role of Prince Yamadori and covering the role of Goro in Virginia Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly. He also appeared as a guest artist performing the role of Spoletta at Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s production of Tosca in April 2024. 

With a versatile vocalism, Mark has been an avid singer of chamber repertoire. In early May, 2024, he sang the tenor soloist in the Music from Auschwitz Chamber Orchestra Concert series at Jüdisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria and Galicia Jewish Museum, Krakow, Poland. His 2024 engagements at Tanglewood Music Center summer includes the tenor soloist in the world premiere of “From Genesis” by Daniel Zlatkin, Auf dem Strom with piano and horn by Schubert in the BSO Prelude Concert, song selections by Nadia Boulanger, Charles Ives, and Mozart’s opera concert with the TMC Chamber Orchestra.

Mark Yinghui He received his MM degree in vocal performance from University of Michigan. He also holds a BM degree in vocal performance from University of Massachusetts – Amherst.

With the Juilliard Orchestra, he has performed Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, as well as L’Horloge Comtoise and Le Chat in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges at Alice Tully Hall. His operatic roles also include Agrippo (Erismena), Kaiser (Der Kaiser von Atlantis), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), and Dandini (La Cenerentola). Concert and festival
highlights include the Uprising/Rising Up concert with Lawrence Brownlee at Hahn Hall in Santa Barbara and the Joye in Aiken Festival & Juilliard415 Chamber Music Concerts, a week-long tour.
He has also collaborated with The Cecilia Chorus of New York with Orchestra at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. He has participated in the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS program, as well as the Music Academy of the West, where he sang Escamillo and Moralès in Carmen. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

In the 2025-2026 season, will debut as Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore with Opera Grand Rapids, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi at Knoxville Opera. She will also return to the Alabama Symphony Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah. She will reprise the role of Ming in Byron Au Yong’s Stuck Elevator with Opera Grand Rapids, as well as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette at Resonance Works Pittsburgh. 

Huang’s operatic roles include Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Monica (The Medium), the Nightingale (Le rossignol), and Amor (Orfeo ed Euridice). Her concert repertoire includes Bach’s Magnificat, Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4.

She has performed with The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Kentucky Opera, Portland Opera, Washington Concert Opera, North Carolina Opera, Nashville Opera, Annapolis Opera, Naples Philharmonic, American Symphony Orchestra, and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.

Huang is the executive director and co-founder of Wear Yellow Proudly, a non-profit organization amplifying Asian voices in classical music. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking and eating traditional Chinese dishes.

His affinity for Spanish opera and zarzuela is evident in roles such as Don Urbano in the American première of Luigi Boccherini’s only zarzuela Clementina (Opera Southwest, 2025); Felipe Gutiérrez y Espinosa in Johanny Navarro’s opera La Batalla de los Clásicos (world première, 2024); Esteban in Guarionex Morales Matos Si me ven llorando (world première, 2018); and the title role in the U.S. première of Alejandro García Caturla’s Cuban opera Manita en el suelo (New York, 2022). His zarzuela repertoire also includes El dúo de la Africana, La corte del Faraón, Los claveles, El barbero de Sevilla and La del manojo de rosas. He also portrayed Tony in the Spanish-language adaptation of Terrence McNally’s play Master Class.

Beyond the Spanish canon, García-Roque appeared opposite Roberto Alagna as Roderigo in Verdi’s Otello for CulturArte de Puerto Rico (2025), toured the United States with Teatro Lírico D’Europa as Spoletta in Tosca and later as Gastone in La Traviata, and completed 2 seasons with Opera on the Avalon in Canada, performing in L’enfant et les sortilèges, Carousel and Sweeney Todd.

His concert résumé features tenor solos in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera tribute (2023), Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette (2023), Orff’s Carmina Burana (2024), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico (2025) and the Puerto Rico Philharmonic Orchestra’s Puccini 75-year gala (2025).

García-Roque began his studies at the Escuela Libre de Música de San Juan, earned his degree from the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, and made his professional debut in 2012 as tenor soloist in the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra’s Concierto de Reyes.

He has performed a wide range of operatic roles spanning standard and bel canto repertoire. His artistic practice is grounded in the shaping of vocal color, stylistic nuance, and a disciplined approach to expressive intent, shaped by close engagement with the historical and musical contexts of the repertoire.