We are excited to announce our Resident Artist positions—new paid roles for emerging artists. The Resident Artist role gives opera singers salaried, full-season experience with Seattle Opera, where they will receive professional development, performance, and mentorship opportunities along with the stability of a long-term partnership.
Audiences will have the chance to get to know performers over the course of a season, a welcome opportunity in an industry where singers typically travel to different companies for each role. Resident Artists will cover and perform principal roles in our mainstage and chamber productions. Our 2024/25 Resident Artists will also give a public recital on Friday, March 21, 2025 in Tagney Jones Hall and participate in a range of our public programs, making for a variety of chances to hear these exciting artists.
In addition to their public performances, Resident Artists will receive coaching from our music staff and mentorship in opera administration from company management. Additionally, visiting artists will work with the Resident Artists as they prepare roles and develop their operatic careers. The term of this position will be one season.
Our 2024/25 season cohort comprises two exciting singers, soprano Tiffany Townsend and baritone Michael J. Hawk.
Tiffany Townsend is a graduate of LA Opera's Young Artist Program, and has appeared recently with LA Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Long Beach Opera. In her first season as a 2024/25 Resident Artist, Townsend will cover Nedda in Pagliacci and Floria Tosca in Tosca. She will also perform the role of America Robinson in Jubilee.
Michael J. Hawk is a graduate of LA Opera’s Young Artist Program, and his recent schedule has included appearances with LA Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and the Buffalo Philharmonic. He was a 2023/24 Resident Artist as part of our inaugural cohort, singing in the 60th Anniversary Concert & Gala, covering Donner in Das Rheingold, and both covering Figaro and performing as Fiorello in The Barber of Seville. In his second season as a 2024/25 Resident Artist, Hawk will sing the roles of Silvio in Pagliacci and the Speaker in The Magic Flute.
Resident Artists in Recital
Friday, March 21, at 7:30 PM
Tagney Jones Hall at The Opera Center
Our Resident Artists Michael J. Hawk and Tiffany Townsend are featured in this intimate recital. Hear these up-and-coming singers before they take the McCaw Hall stage throughout the coming seasons.
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Past Resident Artists
Camille Ortiz, Soprano
2023/24 Resident Artist
Camille Ortiz, who currently serves as Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Oregon, has appeared recently with Opera Lafayette at the Kennedy Center, Opera Orlando, and Boston Baroque. As part of our inaugural cohort as a 2023/24 Resident Artist, Ortiz covered Freia and Woglinde in Das Rheingold and Morgana in Alcina. In the 2024/25 season, she will be singing Pamina in The Magic Flute.
The Resident Artist role, which was made possible through a generous donation from Joan Watjen, in memory of Craig M. Watjen, joins Creation Lab and the Seattle Arts Fellowship in Seattle Opera’s lineup of professional development initiatives, which provide mentorship opportunities for early-stage opera administrators, composers, and librettists.