Four singers and two stage directors join the company for a season of professional performance, directing and training opportunities
EarRelevant Staff | 31 AUG 2026
ATLANTA, Georgia— The Atlanta Opera has selected four singers and two stage directors for its 2026–27 Studio Artist program, bringing six early-career artists to Atlanta for a season of performances, directing assignments, understudy and cover work, rehearsals and specialized coaching.
The new class — soprano Page Michels, mezzo-soprano Ashlyn Brown, tenor Randy Ho, baritone Harrison Hancock, and stage directors Ky Chassells and Madeleine Snow — represents the 10th season of the company’s Studio Artist program. The program is structured around practical experience in a professional opera company, with singers taking performance assignments as well as covers and understudies, while stage directors work with directors, conductors, designers and performers.
The singers
Page Michels, a soprano, completed an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at The Juilliard School. Her recent work has included Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff and Miss Jessel in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with Juilliard Opera. She also has performed concert works including Dvořák’s Te Deum, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater.
Her recent professional activity has included a Gerdine Young Artist position with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where she covered Blanche DuBois in André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire. The Atlanta Opera’s current biography also lists Michels as a 2026 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition national semifinalist and says she will make her European debut in January 2027.
Ashlyn Brown, a mezzo-soprano from Palm Springs, California, has apprenticed with Santa Fe Opera, Palm Beach Opera and Sarasota Opera. Her recent roles include Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the Aspen Music Festival, Stéphano in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and Flora Bervoix in Verdi’s La traviata with Palm Beach Opera, and roles in Der Rosenkavalier and The Righteous with Santa Fe Opera.
Her 2026 engagements include work with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the Music Academy of the West, while the Atlanta Opera biography lists a November 2026 debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
Randy Ho, a tenor from Denver, has already accumulated experience with several young-artist programs and professional companies. He made his Glimmerglass Festival debut as Goro in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and previously spent two seasons as a Laufer Young Artist with Palm Beach Opera, where he covered leading tenor roles and performed Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, Gastone in La traviata, Parpignol in La bohème and Borsa in Rigoletto.
During the Atlanta season, Ho is scheduled to perform and cover in multiple productions. He also is slated to return to Pensacola Opera as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. His other recent engagements have included productions with Opera Montana, Opera Nacional de Chile, Opera Saratoga and Opera Colorado.
Harrison Hancock, a baritone from Lexington, Kentucky, recently completed a Master of Music degree at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music after earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Kentucky. His Cincinnati roles included Sweeney Todd in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon and the King in Mary Watkins’ Dark Sisters. He also sang the baritone solo in Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem.
Hancock has spent the past two summers with Des Moines Metro Opera’s Apprentice Artist Program, where he covered Slim and performed Johnson in Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men. He won the 2024 Kentucky District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and the 2025 Dayton Performing Arts Vocal Competition, and was a semifinalist in the 2026 George London Competition.
The stage directors
Ky Chassells, from Conway, Arkansas, works across stage direction, intimacy direction and stage management. Their recent assistant-directing credits include Salome and Carmen with Cincinnati Opera, Falstaff with LA Opera and The Handmaid’s Tale with Detroit Opera. Their work has also included Opera Philadelphia, Palm Beach Opera and Opera Orlando.
Chassells previously worked with the Atlanta Opera through the company’s Boheme Project in 2024. During the 2026–27 season, they will assist on Bizet’s Carmen, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Jubilee.
Madeleine Snow joins Atlanta after two seasons as a Studio Artist in the Marion Roose Pullin Studio at Arizona Opera, where she directed La Cenerentola, staged an outdoor La finta giardiniera and directed and choreographed a studio cabaret. During the 2025–26 season she directed L’elisir d’amore with Boulder Opera, Opera Colorado’s touring Roméo et Juliette, and served as associate director for Madama Butterfly at Opera Grand Rapids.
She also was a 2026 Directing Fellow at Wolf Trap Opera, assistant directing Eugene Onegin and Tosca. Snow studied psychology and theater, dance and media at Harvard University and earned a Master of Music in opera stage directing from the Eastman School of Music.
The Atlanta Opera says the six artists will receive individualized training during the season. The coaching staff includes Master Vocal Teacher Laura Brooks Rice, Principal Guest Voice Teacher David Okerlund, Principal Guest Coach Walter Huff, and diction coaches for Italian, German and French.
Their work will intersect with a season that includes productions of Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s Silent Night, Bizet’s Carmen, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Puccini’s Tosca and Jubilee, among other programming.
For an emerging opera artist, the distinction between classroom training and professional work can be significant. The Atlanta program places the six artists inside an operating company, where their development will take place not only through coaching but through the demands of preparing and presenting actual productions. ■
EXTERNAL LINKS:
- Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta: atlantaopera.org
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