Curtis on Tour in Athens, Greece

Baritone Emilio Vásquez, from Manvel, Texas, entered Curtis in 2024, studying in the opera program with Mark Schnaible, and is the William J. Fenza Fellow. This summer, he joins Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, covering the role of Dr. Malatesta (Don Pasquale), and attends the Ravinia Music Festival as a Steans Vocal Fellow. He is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he sang numerous roles including Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Jupiter (Orpheus in the Underworld), and Marco (Gianni Schicchi). Mr. Vásquez has also performed the role of Schaunard (La bohème) with the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia. He has participated in several master classes, including those with Jake Heggie, Lawrence Brownlee, Ana María Martínez, Michael Heaston, Pierre Vallet, and Paul Groves. For Curtis Opera Theatre he recently performed the roles of Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) and Pangloss (Candide).

Xingxing Yao is a 19-year-old guitarist from Hangzhou, China. Xingxing started learning the guitar at age three with Li Le and Andres Hsieh. She entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020, where she studies with David Starobin and Jason Vieaux, and is the Emilio Gravagno Fellow.

Xingxing has won multiple awards across Asia, including first prize in the Altamira Shanghai International Guitar Competition (youth division), second prize in the Taiwan International Guitar Festival, and second prize in the East End International Guitar Competition in Japan. At age 11, she was invited as the guest performer in world-renowned guitarist Alvaro Pierre’s concert at the Joy of Music Festival in Hong Kong.

During her study in the U.S., she has performed solo and chamber pieces in concerts held by the Philadelphia Guitar Society and the Village Trip Festival in New York City, and she joined and performed as a fellow in the Aspen Music Festival in 2025. Besides traditional guitar repertoire, Xingxing actively performs new music for guitar composed by Tania León, Mel Powell, Paul Lansky, William Bland, Mario Davidovsky, and Stephen Jaffe.

She has also participated in numerous master classes led by internationally renowned guitarists, including William Kanengiser, Aniello Desidero, Zoran Dukic, Marcin Dylla, Petra Poláčková, Franz Halasz, Christian Saggese, and Elena Papandreou.

Xingxing performs on guitars built by Steven Walter and Richard Bruné, and on an Altamira Vienna model 19th-century guitar.

Kārlis Bukovskis, from Alūksne, Latvia, a student of Robert McDonald, is the John J. Medveckis Fellow and entered Curtis in 2022.  

Soprano Jeysla Rosario Santos, from Loiza, Puerto Rico, entered Curtis Institute of Music in 2024, studying in the opera program with Julia Faulkner, and is the Joseph Cairns Jr. and Ernestine Bacon Cairns Memorial Fellow. Recent credits include Poppea (The Comet / Poppea), Joan 1 and chorus (Savior & Infernal Angel), as well as being featured in Le nozze di Figaro and Candide during Curtis’ Centennial Season. She has also performed the roles of Chloe (The Book of Hours) and Alcyon (The Seven Sisters) in world premieres with the Miami University Opera Theater, where she earned her bachelor’s degree. She has been a featured soloist in several Miami University-affiliated performances, including those with the Miami University Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Rosario Santos’ accolades include the Richard Miller Prize for best performance at the Ohio NATS Competition, and first place in Miami University’s Undergraduate Artist Competition. Ms. Rosario Santos has participated in master classes with distinguished educators and artists, including Joyce DiDonato, Amanda Majeski, Megan Moore, Linda Di Fiore, Nicole Cabell, Magdalena Wor, Martin Bakari, Nico de Villiers, J.J. Penna, and Trineice Robinson-Martin. In 2022, she attended the American Institute of Musical Studies’ Lieder Studio in Graz, Austria, and in the summer of 2025, she was a Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artist at Central City Opera.

Soprano Nikan Ingabire Kanate, from Ottawa, Ontario, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2024, studying in the opera program with Julia Faulkner as the Edwin B. Garrigues Fellow. The Ivorian-Rwandese soprano recently completed her Bachelor of Music degree in performance at the University of Toronto under the tutelage of Nathalie Paulin. Over the years, she has won several prizes, including best female soloist at the third Lorenzo De’Medici International Choral Festival in Florence, Italy, in 2019. She has also gained extensive ensemble experience, touring with the National Youth Choir of Canada in 2022 and 2024. In June 2024, she appeared as soprano soloist in Carlos Alberto Pinto Fonseca’s Missa Afro Brasileira with the Nathaniel Dett Chorale at Koerner Hall. At the University of Toronto, she portrayed a bridesmaid in the 2023 production of Nino Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, and in July 2023 she headlined a concert with the string orchestra of the Festival L’Art de la Musique in Gatineau under the direction of Cendrine and Valérie Despax. Most recently, in fall 2024, she sang the roles of Ottavia and Fortune in Curtis Opera Theatre’s East Coast premiere of The Comet / Poppea by George Lewis and Claudio Monteverdi.