From TOLEDO OPERA
Toledo Opera will welcome Sarah Rachel Bacani (soprano), Danielle Casós (mezzo soprano), Brady DelVecchio (tenor) Rick Hale (baritone), and Yura Jang (pianist) as Resident Artists for the 2025-2026 season.
All five will serve as touring artists for the Opera on Wheels program which travels extensively, visiting local educational institutions and bringing live opera to the furthest reaches of the Toledo area. Annually, the program is performed for 20,000 students from Findlay to Ann Arbor and Sandusky to Archbold.
This season, the traveling production will be an original children’s opera: “The Bear Who Couldn’t Fish ” Joshua Borths of James Madison University School of Music wrote the score and libretto. James M. Norman, Toledo Opera’s General Director, will direct the production. “Opera on Wheels is one of the most exciting programs we offer, and this year, we’re especially thrilled to present an original work that beautifully blends the arts with science. Our incredibly talented Resident Artists – selected from a pool of over 150 applicants nationwide – are bringing something truly special to K-6 classrooms across the region. It’s a powerful way to spark imagination and curiosity through music, storytelling, and discovery,” shared Norman.
Toledo Opera Artistic Director Kevin Bylsma added: “With every season, Toledo Opera is fortunate to attract amazingly talented and passionate young singers to our Resident Artist program. I am very excited to work with our 2025-26 artists as they bring the joy of opera to our schools and community.”
The five will also perform Toledo Opera’s fall and spring tours of Opera ‘Round Town (formerly Opera Outdoors) – a series of pop-up live performances at community hubs throughout Toledo. Vocal selections from the classical repertoire, along with musical theater and other American standards will be heard in the fall of 2025 and the spring of 2026.
The Resident Artists will also sing smaller roles in Toledo Opera’s mainstage productions of Carmen and The Elixir of Love which are slated for this season.
Sarah Rachel Bacani
Filipino-American soprano Sarah Rachel Bacani is currently the soprano Resident Artist at Toledo Opera. Her 2023-2024 season included covering the role of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) at Central City Opera, where she also performed the role in their Family Matinee production as a Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program Apprentice Artist. In 2022, also with Central City Opera, she made her professional debut performing the role of Mariola in Heggie’s Two Remain.
On the Indiana University Opera Theater stage, she performed the roles of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte). There, she also performed in scenes as Leïla (Les Pécheurs de Perles), Micaëla (Carmen), and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte). An accomplished competitor, this year, she placed in the Top 12 of the Inaugural Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition and is a semi-finalist in Fort Worth Opera’s McCammon Voice Competition.
She previously competed as a finalist for the 2024 Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera National Voice Competition, placing sixth (Kay Carpenter Memorial Award) and winning the Irene Patti Swartz Memorial Award to a Soprano. She was also a semi-finalist for the 2024 Shreveport Opera Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition. In concert, Ms. Bacani has performed the soprano solo in Britten’s Les Illuminations, Mozart’s Requiem, and Getty’s The White Election. Hailing from Toms River, NJ, Ms. Bacani received her Performer Diploma and Master of Music in voice at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied under the tutelage of Jane Dutton. She received her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Cynthia Hoffmann.
Ms. Bacani last appeared with Toledo Opera as Liat and a nurse in South Pacific.
Danielle Casós
Mezzo-soprano Danielle Casós is a graduate of the University of Michigan where she earned her Master of Music degree in 2023 and Specialist of Music degree in 2025, studying under Professor Freda Herseth. While at the University of Michigan, she performed the roles of Mrs. Grose (Turn of the Screw), Elizabeth Cree (Elizabeth Cree), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Fox Gold-Stripe (Cunning Little Vixen), and Mrs. McClean (Susannah).
An avid performer of new works, Ms. Casós was involved in UMich’s orchestral workshop premiere of Derek Bermel’s The House on Mango Street as the leading role of Esperanza (2024), and also originated the role of Older Leah in Lori Laitman’s chamber opera, Uncovered (2022). In 2024, she joined the Sandford Studio Artist training program at Kentucky Opera, where she performed the role of Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly). In 2023, Ms. Casós performed as a Studio Artist in Central City Opera’s Bonfils-Stanton Training Program, where she performed in a scenes program as Dorabella (Cosí fan tutte) and Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte).
In 2022, she joined the Lehrer Vocal Institute at Music Academy of the West where she covered the role of Olga (Eugene Onegin).
Brady DelVecchio
Tenor, Brady DelVecchio is known for his versatility on stage and screen. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, his career has brought him international acclaim for his portrayals of engaging romantic leads. Mr. DelVecchio attended The Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University and New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Since then, he has had the pleasure of portraying Le Prince Charmant (Cendrillon), Mercurio (La Calisto), Rektor, Komár, and Pasek (The Cunning Little Vixen), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Tony (West Side Story), Nanki Poo (The Mikado) and Timothy Harper (Strike Up the Band).
While performing traditional operatic, musical theater, and recital repertoire, he has had the privilege of premiering staged new works by Melissa Dunphy (The Gonzales Cantata) with the American Opera Theater, Richard Allan White (Hester) with the Center for Contemporary Opera and Felix Jarrar (Fall of the House of Usher). Mr. DelVecchio’s upcoming work includes an Untitled Colin Mochrie Film by Nicola Rose, and a recital series at First Presbyterian Church in Royal Oak, Michigan, where he serves as tenor soloist. Mr. DelVecchio is incredibly thankful and excited to return as the tenor resident artist at Toledo Opera for their 2025-2026 season.
Last season, he performed the roles of Spoletta (Tosca) and the Professor (South Pacific) for Toledo Opera.
Rick Hale
Baritone Rick Hale believes that music is one of the most fundamentally powerful mediums for communicating human emotions and stories. Opera, in his opinion, is the best-equipped method to communicate the human experience.
Mr. Hale is elated to join Toledo Opera as a Resident Artist for the 2025/2026 season, where he will make his mainstage debut as El Dancaïro in Carmen and cover Belcore in the Elixir of Love. During the 2024/2025 season, Mr. Hale made his company debut with Resonance Works as the Drunkard in Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince. In the summer of 2024, he made his debut at the Seagle Festival where he performed the role of W. P. Inman in Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain and covered the title character in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
Additionally, Mr. Hale performed with Slippery Rock University as the Unnamed Bass in the university’s production of Too Many Sopranos. This summer, he will be an Apprentice Artist at Sante Fe Opera. During his time at Carnegie Mellon University, Mr. Hale performed the roles of Kaiser Overall in Viktor Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis and Ben Upthegrove in Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Telephone. Mr. Hale received his Bachelor of Science in mathematical economics from Gettysburg College, and he recently completed his Master of Music in vocal performance from Carnegie Mellon University where he studied under the tutelage of Daniel Teadt.
Along with music, he enjoys keeping up with professional basketball, learning about the brain, and spending time in Pennsylvania’s state parks with his family.
Yura Jang
Yura Jang is a highly accomplished pianist and opera coach who recently completed her master’s degree in collaborative piano at the Mannes School of Music in New York City, under the mentorship of Cristina Stanescu. Her musical foundation was established at the University of Seoul in South Korea, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in piano performance.
Ms. Jang has distinguished herself particularly in the field of opera coaching, having worked on productions such as Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro, Puccini’s La Bohème, and Verdi’sRigoletto. Each of these productions enjoyed sold-out performances, underscoring her effectiveness and excellence as an opera coach. Additionally, her collaboration as a vocal soloist performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 showcases her profound understanding and sensitivity toward vocal performance.
Since relocating to the United States, Ms. Jang has captivated audiences with expressive interpretations and technical precision at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, the German Consulate General in New York, and WQXR (New York’s classical radio station). Her versatility extends beyond opera to chamber music concerts and various competitions, earning her the grand prize at the UK International Music Competition 2024. Additionally, she was awarded first place at the LAKMA Scholarship Competition in Los Angeles, receiving both a scholarship and an opportunity to perform a piano concerto. Ms. Jang’s career is defined by her dedication, resilience, and the artistic insight she brings to both performances and teaching.
She continues to contribute passionately to the vibrant New York musical community, believing firmly in music’s transformative power to convey profound human emotions and unite audiences.
