THE BAUER FAMILY
HIGH
Graduation Recital
Steinway Selection Center
SATURDAY, MAY 2
11:00 AM
Bethany Self, PIANO
The Bauer Family High School Voice Studio class of 2026
PROGRAM
SARAH GENTLE, SOPRANO
Ma rendi pur contento Vincenzo Bellini (1801-35)
Si mes vers avaient des ailes Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947)
Will There Really Be a Morning? Lori Laitman (b. 1955)
CLARA MAYA WHITE, SOPRANO
Will There Really Be a Morning? Richard Hundley (1931-2018)
“Confiado jilguerillo” from Acis y Galatea Antonio de Literes (1673-1747)
JAI JOSHI, BARITONE
Zur Rosenzeit
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)
La serenata Paolo Tosti (1846-1916)
SARAH VANLANDINGHAM, SOPRANO
Oh, vieni al mare!
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Les chemins de l’amour Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
“Sweeter Than Roses” from Pausanias Henry Purcell (1659-95)
ARMANDO CABRERA-ONTIVEROS, BASS-BARITONE
Money, O! Michael Head (1900-76)
Già il sole dal Gange from L’honestà negli amori Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Die Forelle Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
GRACE GAMEL, SOPRANO
Caro mio ben Judith Cloud (b. 1954)
Joy Ricky Ian Gordon (b. 1956)
Du bist wie eine Blume Robert Schumann (1810-56)
LIAM NORTON, TENOR
Il fervido desiderio Vincenzo Bellini
“Candide’s Lament” from Candide Leonard Bernstein (1918-90)
When I Think Upon the Maidens Michael Head
GABRIEL MAGALLÓN, BARITONE
Chanson du pêcheur Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Júrame María Grever (1885-1951)
“Se il cor guerriero” from Tito Manlio Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
MARGARITA POTAPENKO, SOPRANO
Ouvre ton cœur Georges Bizet (1838-75)
Ah! Mai non cessate Stefano Donaudy (1879-1925)
Zdes’ khorosho Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
EDUARDO MARTINEZ, BASS-BARITONE
“Ho capito, Signor sì!” from Don Giovanni Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)
Give a Man a Horse He Can Ride Geoffrey O’Hara (1882-1967)
Go, Lovely Rose Roger Quilter (1877-1953)
DIANNA
GRACE GERGLEY, SOPRANO
“Furie terribili” from Rinaldo George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
“Steal Me, Sweet Thief” Gian Carlo Menotti (1911-2007) from The Old Maid and the Thief Allerseelen Richard Strauss (1864-1949)
Judges’ Deliberation and Awards Ceremony
2026-2027 BFHSVS Class Introduction
SARAH AND ERNEST BUTLER HOUSTON GRAND OPERA
STUDIO, NOVUM FELLOWSHIP, YOUNG ARTIST VOCAL ACADEMY, AND BFHSVS TEAM
Colin Michael Brush, Director of the Butler Studio
Maureen Zoltek, Head of Music Staff and Music Director of the Butler Studio
Kiera Krieg, Butler Studio Manager
Dr. Lisa Borik Vickers, Bauer Family High School Voice Studio Manager
BFHSVS VOICE FACULTY
Alicia Gianni, Affiliate Artist
Christopher Michel, Sam Houston State University
Hector Vásquez, University of Houston
2025-26 BFHSVS GUEST ARTISTS, CLINICIANS, AND
COLLABORATIVE
PIANISTS
Richard Bado
Mary Box
Colin Michael Brush
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen
Sasha Cooke
Mason Dowd
Alicia Gianni
Alissa Goretsky
Joel Goodloe
Ashlyn Killian
Tessa Larson
Mark C. Lear
Alexandra Loutsion
Ashley Love
SPECIAL THANKS
The Alley Theatre
BFHSVS Parents, Families, and Friends
Charlie Mechling
Christopher Michel
Alex Munger
Dr. Andreea Muț
Stephen Neely
Dr. Teresa Procter
Megan Samarin
Nino Sanikidze
Bethany Self
Monica Thakkar
Tzu Kuang Tan
Hector Vásquez
Maureen Zoltek
Steve Butler
Chelsea Crouse
Joel Goodloe
HGO Rehearsal Planning and Artist Services
Houston Methodist Texas Voice Center
Rita Jia
Pin Lim
Catherine Matusow
Claire Padien-Havens
Jack Ruffer
Chris Staub
EMCEE
JUDGES
DR. LISA BORIK VICKERS
Bauer Family High School Voice Studio Manager
SARAH MESKO
Mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano Sarah Mesko’s roles at HGO include Mistress of Novices in Suor Angelica/Il trittico (2025) and the title role of Carmen (2021). During the 2025-26 season, she returns to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. In the 2024-25 season, she returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro and debuted with Sag Harbor Song Festival as a guest soloist for its 2024 festival concerts. During the 2023-24 season, she sang the title roles in Carmen at Vancouver Opera and Handel’s Julius Caesar at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Mesko was a national finalist in The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, performing with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. She has won first place in competitions including those of the George London Foundation, the National Society of Arts and Letters, Annapolis Opera, Virginia Opera, Young Texas Artists, Sun Valley Opera, and the FrancoAmerican Vocal Academy. She is a two-time winner of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, at Washington National Opera and Central City Opera.
MADELINE SLETTEDAHL
Assistant Conductor, Houston Grand Opera
“Extraordinarily expressive” (Seen and Heard International) pianist Madeline Slettedahl is an enthusiastic collaborator, recitalist, and operatic coach. In addition to serving on the HGO music staff, additional faculty appointments include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Ravinia Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Wolf Trap Opera, Solti Accademia di Bel Canto, and Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she received her training in the Patrick G. And Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. An avid recitalist, she has made appearances with leading operatic singers at Carnegie Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, the Collaborative Art Institute of Chicago, Green Lake Festival of Music, Cincinnati Song Initiative, and the Emberlight Festival, as well as collaborative engagements with Icicle Creek Chamber Players, Bellingham Festival of Music, and TwickenhamFest. Additional educational fellowships include the Solti Accademia di Bel Canto, the Britten-Pears Young Artist Program, The Song Continues with Marilyn Horne, and Renée Fleming’s SongStudio program at Carnegie Hall. She also attended Music Academy of the West, where she won First Prize in the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. Her recording output includes the 2022 Billboard-charting album, No Choice But Love, with rising star tenor Eric Ferring for Lexicon Records, and a 2023 release for Delos Records, We Have Tomorrow, with Ferring and French string quartet Quatuor Agate. Slettedahl holds degrees in Collaborative Piano and Performance from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and Western Washington University.
MAUREEN ZOLTEK
Head of Music Staff and Butler Studio Music Director, Houston Grand Opera
Pianist and educator Maureen Zoltek has built a dynamic career working with leading vocalists, orchestras, and opera companies across North America and abroad. She currently serves as Head of Music Staff and Butler Studio Music Director at Houston Grand Opera, as well as a teaching artist at Music Academy of the West and Festival Napa Valley Previously, Dr. Zoltek spent eight seasons on the music staff of San Francisco Opera and has assisted at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Canadian Opera Company, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, among others.
A graduate of the Ryan Opera Center in Chicago, she has also attended the Aspen Music Festival and School and Music Academy of the West. Dr. Zoltek earned her D.M.A. from the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Warren Jones and holds a master’s degree in piano performance and musicology.
Eduardo Martinez (Senior, Dobie HS), Armando Cabrera-Ontiveros (Senior, Pearland HS), teaching artist Hector Vásquez, and Gabriel Magallón (Senior, Kinder HSPVA)
Liam Norton (Senior, Kinder HSPVA), Grace Gamel(Senior, Seven Lakes HS), teaching artist Christopher Michel, Jai Joshi (Junior, Elkins HS), and Sarah Gentle (Senior, Clements HS)
Grace
Dianna
Gergley (Senior, Conroe HS), Sarah Vanlandingham (Senior, Kinder HSPVA), teaching artist Alicia Gianni, Clara Maya White (Junior, Kinder HSVPA), and Margarita Potapenko (Senior, Awty International)
ABOUT HOUSTON GRAND OPERA
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is one of the largest, most innovative, and most highly acclaimed opera companies in the United States. General Director and CEO Khori Dastoor assumed leadership of the organization and responsibility for its strategic vision in 2021. HGO was the only American finalist for Opera Company of the Year in the 2025 International Opera Awards, and the only American company to be nominated three times.
In fulfilling its mission to advance the operatic art, to serve the Houston community, and to be a global leader in the future of opera, HGO has led the field in commissioning and producing new works (76 world premieres to date) and in training and nurturing promising young artists and administrators.
In 2025, the company launched the Houston Grand Opera record label, enabling it to share American operatic works with a broad international audience. The label’s first release, which captured the 2023 world premiere of company-commissioned opera Intelligence, won the 2026 GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording.
HGO contributes to the cultural enrichment of Houston and the nation through a diverse and innovative program of performances, community events, and education projects that reaches the widest possible public. The company’s pioneering community and educational initiatives have set a standard in the field. HGO invites all Houstonians to experience superlative opera without the barrier of price through discounted single tickets and subscriptions, subsidized student performances, and free productions.
HGO has toured extensively and has won a Tony, three GRAMMY awards, and three Emmy awards. It is the only opera company to win all three honors.
ABOUT THE BAUER FAMILY HIGH SCHOOL VOICE STUDIO (BFHSVS)
The Bauer Family High School Voice Studio’s mission is to identify and nurture high school students who exhibit potential and are interested in pursuing vocal performance at the collegiate level. The BFHSVS guides aspiring students to find healthy means of vocal technique and artistic expression and all-around achievement within a rigorous and supportive environment.
THE BAUER FAMILY HIGH SCHOOL VOICE STUDIO IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY:
C.T. Bauer Foundation
Ruth and Ted Bauer Family Foundation
Houston Grand Opera Guild
VISIT HGO.ORG FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UPCOMING EVENTS AND PERFORMANCES.