Mexican soprano Judy Yannini joined Portland Opera’s Resident Artist program in 2022, where she made her company and role debut as Frasquita in Carmen. Recently, Judy also made her Kennedy Center debut singing the role of Sara Morales in IN Series’ world premiere of Brian Arreola and Anna Deeny Morales’s opera ZAVALA-ZAVALA. She was also seen with IN Series as Mimí in a Spanish-language reimagining of Puccini’s La Bohéme, Bohème in the Heights and Consuelo in John Adams’s I was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky. She returns to Portland Opera as a Resident Artist for their 2023-2024 season with the roles of Barbarina in Mozart’s Le noze di Figaro and Amy in Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day

A recent graduate of the Maryland Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, Judy performed a number of roles with the university, including Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante and Rima in Hajar.

In 2021, Judy was named a District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 2020, she won first prize in the American Opera Idol Competition with Opera Connecticut, and she was also named the overall winner of the Hartt Vocal Division Competition in 2018.

Before immigrating to the United States, Judy made a name for herself singing onstage with internationally renowned Mexican tenor Fernando de la Mora in the 122nd Anniversary Concert in her native Tijuana, Mexico. She was also part of Ensamble Lírico Juvenil and Centro Cultural Tijuana’s group Opera Ambulante, performing opera flash mobs across Mexico, Canada and the USA.

Yannini holds a master’s in music in Opera Performance from University of Maryland-Maryland Opera Studio as well as a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from University of Hartford-The Hartt School.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Amber R. Monroe has been recognized as “a crystalline lyric soprano and a superb singing actress” (Seen and Heard-International). Her 2023-2024 season will include reprising the roles of Mimì with Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, and Nedda with Opera Birmingham. On the concert stage, she will be a soloist with the Arlington Chorale and Capital City Symphony performing selections such as Vivaldi’s Gloria, Margaret Bonds' The Ballad of the Brown King, and Alleluia from Exulatate Jubilate.

She is a recent alumna of the Cafritz Young Artists Program with Washington National Opera, where she made her Kennedy Center debut as Ines in Il trovatore, followed by Isabelle in Carlos Simon’s The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson, and Mimì in La bohème. Other professional credits include Clarissa in the world premiere of Gregory Spears‘ Castor and Patience (Cincinnati Opera), Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Opera Columbus), Nedda in I Pagliacci (El Paso Opera), and Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro (Kentucky Opera). She has also workshopped several profound contemporary operas including Blue by Jeanine Tesori, and The Hours by Kevin Puts, commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. 

Ms. Monroe has been named a 2023 winner of the George and Nora London Foundation Competition. She has performed and studied in several prestigious summer programs including The Glimmerglass Festival, the Merola Opera Program, and Santa Fe Opera. She is a proud graduate of both Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

Currently serving on the Vocal Music Department staff at Duke Ellington School of the  Arts, mezzo-soprano Monique Spells completed her Doctoral degree in Vocal Performance at the University of Michigan. As a classical singer, she has toured as a performer in Germany, Italy,  Trinidad, and Barbados. She has been heard as, “La Haine” in Armide, “Marcellina” in Le Nozze  di Figaro, “Olga” in Eugene Onegin, “Ma” in The Tenderland and “Florence Pike” in Albert  Herring along with other principle roles. Formerly serving as chair of the vocal music  department at Duke Ellington, she continues to teach vocal technique and serves as a voice  consultant and coach. She is also a member of the Sphinx vocal ensemble “Exigence”. She  received her Bachelor degrees in Vocal Performance and Music Education from the University  of Northern Iowa and her Masters degree from the University of Michigan. Currently a resident  of Washington DC, Monique Spells hails originally from Buffalo, NY.

​Baltimore-based tenor Devin Mercer began his classical music studies as an undergraduate at Oakwood College (now Oakwood University) in Huntsville, Alabama, where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy (2006), under the instruction of Dr. Julie Moore-Foster and Dr. Angelique Clay. He earned a Master of Music degree in Voice and Voice Pedagogy (2010), as well as a Graduate Performance Diploma (2012), at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, under the instruction of Marianna Busching.

During his studies at Oakwood, Mr. Mercer traveled with, and was a soloist for, the Oakwood University Aeolians. He has traveled and sung across the United States, as well as Bermuda, Spain, and Poland, where he performed in the annual Wratislavia Cantans International Music Festival in the city of Wroclaw. He also performed such works as Handel’s Messiah, Monostatos in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Moses in R. Nathaniel Dett’s oratorio The Ordering of Moses. During his studies at Peabody, Mr. Mercer performed the roles of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Eisenstein in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. He was also the tenor soloist for the Peabody Concert Orchestra performance of J. S. Bach’s Magnificat in D. 

Other roles performed by Mr. Mercer include Manuel in Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Dream Lovers, Lippo in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, the title role in Mozart’s Idomeneo, Janáček’s Otčenáš , Le Chevalier Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon, and both Gherardo and Spinelloccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. In April 2012, Mr. Mercer was a guest soloist for a recital given by Janice Chandler-Eteme, world-renowned soprano. Since August 2012, Mr. Mercer served as Visiting Lecturer of Voice at The Delaware State University from 2010 to 2019. He currently teaches Vocal Music with Baltimore County Public Schools, and still performs frequently in the Baltimore/Washington Metropolitan area.