Matthew Soibelman

Bass
California State University-Northridge

A Los Angeles native pursuing a BM in Vocal Performance at California State University Northridge. Recently, he was awarded the Ben DeBolt Memorial Scholarship at the Henry and Maria Holt Memorial Scholarship Competition, Regional and National Scholarship Winner from National Society of Arts and Letters Shirley Rabb Winston Voice Scholarship Competition, he received the S. Livingston Mather Scholarship from The Singers Club of Cleveland Competition , 2nd in Center Stage Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Competition and honored to receive the LA Opera Encouragement Award.

He was a Finalist in the Kristen Lewis Foundation Scholarship Competition, as well as the Carolyn Bailey and Dominick Argento Vocal Competition at the 2017 National Opera Association, also taking first place with Pepperdine University in NOA’s Opera Scenes Competition and first place in the Cal-Western Freshman Division of NATS in 2016.

Matthew has had the honor of participating in Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy, OperaWorks and the past several years in Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. He is excited to start this summer participating in Songfest followed by Chautauqua Institute’s Voice Program.

Roles performed include Falstaff in Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, Surin in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Mr. Slocum in Nice Day for the Races, The Speaker/2ndArmored Guard in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Giorgio in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers and several other productions. Matthew can also be heard on the film soundtracks of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Wars: The Force Awakensand Transformers: The Last Knight.

Daewon Seo

Baritone
Oberlin College Conservatory of Music

Daewon Seo, a baritone from South Korea, is a first year Artistic Diploma student at Oberlin conservatory studying with Daune Mahy. He earned a master degree in music from The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor degree in music from Seoul National University.

He has performed in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and in Puccini’s La Bohème with the Butler Opera Center in Austin, TX. At the Seoul National University National Opera Theater, he performed in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. He was awarded the first prize at the “Korean Art Song” competition and the third prize at the Ewha Kyunghang competition in Korea.

Daniel Fridley

Case Western Reserve University

Daniel Fridley, bass, is a doctoral student in the Case Western Reserve University Historical Performance Practice program, studying with Ellen Hargis and Aaron Sheehan. His “spotless, resonant bass” (Cleveland Classical) lends itself well to both early music and operatic performing.  He obtained his Masters of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he continues to take lessons with Dean Southern.

This season, Fridley performs Fiorello in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with Cleveland Opera Theater, will return to the Cleveland Institute of Music in their fall double bill as the Chamberlain and Bonze in Stravinsky’s Le rossignol and L’arbre in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges, sing with the Boston Early Music Festival for their chamber opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (Francesca Caccini) in November, and solo with Les Délices and Quire Cleveland in their Christmas concert, featuring Charpentier’s Midnight Mass. He is looking forward to exploring the repertoire of the recently discovered Leuven Chansonnier with Les Délices and the Newberry Consort in January, as well as performing the contrabass solo in Rautavaara’s Vigilia with the Chicago Chorale in March, and singing his first Coffee Cantata with Wyoming Baroque in May.

Performance credits from recent seasons include Dottore Grenvil in Verdi’s La traviata (The Cleveland Opera); Dangerous Love, a concert of fiery 17th century Italian music (Newberry Consort); Jesus in both Arvo Pärt’s and J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion (Trinity Cathedral Cleveland and Atlanta Baroque); Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (La Musica Lirica); Polyphemus in Handel’s Acis and Galatea (CWRU); Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte (Cleveland Institute of Music); and Figaro in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (Cleveland Institute of Music).

This summer he was a Studio Artist with Central City Opera, and the previous summer he was a Young Artist with the Boston Early Music Festival.  He regularly sings with Apollo’s Fire and Quire Cleveland, as well as concertizing with Musical Upcoming Stars in the Classics.