Toni Marie Palmertree, soprano, returns to West Bay Opera to sing Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly.  She made her debut at West Bay Opera as Suor Angelica and Giorgetta in Puccini’s Il trittico during the company’s 61^st season. Last season she made two important debuts singing the title role in Tosca with Florida Grand Opera and Cio Cio San in Madama Butterfly with Palm Beach Opera. Earlier that season she made her Metropolitan Opera debut singing The Voice of Heaven in Don Carlo and was understudy for Elisabetta and for the title role in Medea. She also added a house and role debut singing the title role in Lucrezia Borgia with New Amsterdam Opera. Ms. Palmertree is an alumnus of the Merola and Adler Fellowship programs with the San Francisco Opera.  During her fellowship, she made numerous leading role debuts including Nedda (Pagliacci), Liù (Turandot), and Cio Cio San (Madama Butterfly). Following her fellowship she went on to the sing the title role in Luisa Miller at Chicago Lyric Opera. Later this season she returns to Florida to sing Cio Cio San with Lakeland Symphony. She is also excited to make her house and role debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Arizona Opera. 

Tom Mulder, tenor, makes his West Bay Opera debut singing Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.  He appeared most recently as Doctor Robert Wilson (The Diary of John Rabe) at the Berlin Staatsoper, Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie, Vienna's Ronacher Theater and Beijing's NCPA. He was the first American tenor to perform a lyric Mandarin opera in China. Having performed over 150 times with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, he has also been seen as a soloist in the premiere of Tenorrrissimo Off Broadway, Nadir (Les pecheurs de perles) with Bel Cantanti, Rodolfo (La bohème) with Long Island Opera, Freddy (My Fair Lady) with Skylight Theater, Nemorino (L'elisir d'amore) with North Shore Music Festival, and Ferrando (Così fan tutte) with the same company. Mr. Mulder has two recordings with Albany Records: Manhattan School of Music's The Mother of us All (Andrew Jackson) and Light Opera of NY's Island of Tulipatan (Hermosa). In addition to performing, Mr. Mulder served as Deputy Managing Director for tenor Michael Fabiano's non-profit organization, ArtSmart, which provides free voice lessons to students in underserved communities and now works in fundraising at San Francisco Opera. 

Mariya Kaganskaya,  mezzo-soprano,  returns to West Bay Opera to sing Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She made her WBO debut singing Polina in Pique Dame. Ms. Kaganskaya’s appearances this season include Beppe (L’amico Fritz) with Teatro Grattacielo, Rowan in the world premiere of Sally Lamb McCune’s We Wear the Sea Like a Coat with Opera Ithaca, and a debut as the soloist in Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky cantata with the Russian Music Festival. She premiered the role of Teacher in Mason Bates’ The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with the Santa Fe Opera, the recording of which won a GRAMMY for Best Opera Recording. Other recent roles include Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Paula (Florencia en el Amazonas), Page (Salomé), and Charlotte (cover) (Werther) at Florida Grand Opera, Suzuki (Madama Butterfly) and Tisbe (La cenerentola) at Arizona Opera, Hostess (Boris Godunov) and Marta (Iolanta) with New Opera NYC, Olga (Eugene Onegin) at the Russian Opera Workshop, and Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea), and the title role in Serse at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Daniel Cilli,  baritone, returns to West Bay Opera to sing the role of Sharpless in  Madama Butterfly.  He was first seen as Lescaut (Manon Lescaut) and in the title role in Don Giovanni. He has appeared with San Francisco Opera as Dancaïro (Carmen), Schaunard (La bohème out of the box), and covered the role of Agrippa (Antony & Cleopatra, Adams). Recently he performed the roles of Mark Torrance (The Shining, Moravec) at Opera Parallèle; Pa Zegner (Proving Up, Mazzoli) with Pasadena Opera; Burton (Sharaku Unframed, Miura) for its premiere at Left Coast Chamber Ensemble; Captain Ladoux (Mata Hari, Marks) at West Edge Opera, and Dandini (La Cenerentola) at Livermore Valley Opera. He has performed the title role in Sweeney Todd, Cervantes/Quixote (Man of La Mancha), and Javert (Les Misérables). As a principal artist 2006-2010 at Opera San José, he performed eleven roles including the title role in Evgeny Onegin, and Papageno (Die Zauberflöte). Daniel has performed with Earplay Ensemble, Festival Opera, Utah Opera, Central City Opera, and the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Upcoming: Birds & Balls, and Fellow Travelers at Opera Parallèle.

Arthur Wu,  tenor, makes his West Bay Opera debut as a principal singer in the role of Goro in  Madama Butterfly.  Last season he sang in the ghost chorus of Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer. With the COSI summer opera program in Sulmona Italy, Arthur understudied Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore). He sang with the West Bay Opera Chorus in the 2016 production of Madama Butterfly and he has also sung with Opera San Jose chorus in Moby Dick. Arthur lives in Carmel, California and has a bachelor of arts from the University of California in Santa Barbara. Off the stage, he has worked with I cantori di Carmel as a soloist performing Hadyn’s Mass in B flat minor and Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. For a few years as choir director at st. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Carmel Valley, he often sang arias from oratorios such as Handel’s Messiah, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, and Mendelssohn’s Elijah. This summer he also sang with the Carmel Bach festival chorus.

Alexander Hahn,  bass-baritone, makes his West Bay Opera debut  singing Zio Bonzo in Madama Butterfly.  He has recently appeared as Wotan (Die Walküre) with Vegas City Opera, Pietro (Simon Boccanegra) with the Beethoven Easter Festival of Warsaw, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) with Bronx Opera, Claudius (Hamlet) with Opera Ithaca, Monterone (Rigoletto) with Opera Theater of Connecticut, among many others. An enthusiastic proponent of art song and concert repertoire, Mr. Hahn has performed in recital and concert halls across the globe. Recent engagements include solo bass-baritone parts in  Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with EOS Orchestra of Beijing in Beijing Concert Hall, a recital in Vilnius, Lithuania at the 2023 College Music Society International Conference, a recital at the 2023 Fresno State Art Song Festival, recitals with Constellations Chamber Concerts in the Washington D.C. region, and a faculty-artist recital of German Lieder at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Trossingen, Germany.

Michael Orlinsky,  baritone/tenor, returns to West Bay Opera to sing Zio Bonzo in Madama Butterfly. He previously appeared as Bardolfo (Falstaff) during the 63rd season, and with the Opera In The Schools Progra, as Papageno (The Magic Flute), and Bartolo (The Barber of Seville). His most recent performances have been with Contemporary Opera Marin in the role of Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, and Marin Oratorio singing the tenor in Saint-Saëns Christmas Oratorio. He has performed over 60 roles, with companies in Las Vegas, Chicago, and the Bay Area; including West Edge Opera, Livermore Valley Opera (LVO), West Bay Opera, Opera San Jose, Solo Opera, Island

City Opera, the San Francisco Opera Guild (SFOG), The Lamplighters, Opera Cultura, Berkeley Chamber Opera, Pocket Opera and more. He has enjoyed singing such roles as Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Ford (Falstaff), and others. Michael works often with new music as a composer and performer in classical, and

contemporary styles. Movements from his Reqiuem will be premiered in early November by the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra.

Nia Lewis, mezzo-soprano, makes her to West Bay Opera debut as principal singer singing Kate in Madama Butterfly.  In May of 2022, she

received her Masters in Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). While she was there she starred in several productions, such as L’incoronazione di Poppea, as Ottavia, The Apple Tree, as Barbara, and Jonathan Dove’s, The Enchanted Pig, singing the lead role of Flora. Following graduation Ms. Lewis was in the young artist program at Opera in the Ozarks, where she performed as Despina in Cosi fan tutte, and Madame Armfeldt/Petra in A Little Night Music.

Before SFCM she graduated with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Opera Performance from The University of British Columbia where she participated in various UBC opera performances, most notably the Canadian premiere of The Passenger where she played the role of Vlasta.