Boheme Cast Bios
Julie Adams, makes her West Bay Opera debut as Mimi in La bohème. She's a winner of the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, 2015 George London Award, 2015 Elizabeth Connell prize for aspiring dramatic sopranos, and recipient of a 2015 Sara Tucker Study Grant.  Upcoming engagements include Anna (Silent Night - Kevin Puts) with Arizona Opera; Mimi with Des Moines Metro Opera; and orchestral concerts with Phoenix Symphony and Oakland East Bay Symphony.  During the 2017–2018 season she returned to San Francisco Opera for Wagner’s Ring, singing Freia in Das Rheingold and Gehilde in Die Walküre. Additional engagements include the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro at Michigan Opera Theatre and Blanche (A Streetcar Named Desire- Previn) at Opera Idaho. Highlights at San Francisco Opera include Mimì, Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Kate Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Kristina (The Makropulos Case), Cesira in the world premiere of Marco Tutino’s La ciociara, and understudying both Eva (Die Meistersinger) and Jenůfa.
She has sung Mimì and Anna (Silent Night) with Opera San Jose; Blanche (A Streetcar Named Desire) at the 2014 Merola Program; Lia in Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodige at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv; Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Music Academy of the West; Magnolia (Show Boat) and Rose (Street Scene) with the Oakland East Bay Symphony; and Fiordiligi, Blanche (Les Dialogues des Carmélites) and Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) at the San Francisco Conservatory. Her lieder, oratorio and orchestral repertoire includes works by Barber, Strauss, Previn, Ponchielli, Chausson, Haydn, Brahms, Vivaldi and Joseph Marx.A native of Burbank, California, Ms. Adams holds both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she was awarded the Phyllis C Wattis Memorial Scholarship.
Nathan Granner makes his West Bay Opera debut as Rodolfo in La bohème. Among his recent engagements are Nika Maggadoff (The Consul) and Dr. Morel (The Invention of Morel) with Long Beach Opera, Nemorino (L'elisir d'amore), Ferrando (Cosí fan tutte), Curly (Oklahoma!), and Rodolfo (La bohème) with Lyric Opera Kansas City, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Tulsa Opera, Wolf Trap and Glimmerglass Opera. Additionally, Mr. Granner performed 2 consecutive seasons at Spoleto USA, and is a founding member of The American Tenors, whose Sony Masterworks album reached the top five in the classical crossover charts.
Jason Duika makes his West Bay Opera debut as Marcello in La bohème.  In Spring 2018 he was a finalist in the New York Lyric Opera Competition at Carnegie Hall. He was also a finalist at the James Toland Vocal Competition in 2015. He was the recipient of the Bayview Music Festival Scholarship; the VoicExperience, BelCanto Northwest and Aims Scholarships and the Jacobs School of Music Dean’s Award.  Recent engagements include a highly acclaimed Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor) at Indiana University; Baron Duphol (La traviata) at NYC Opera Collaborative; the Wigmaker (Ariadne auf Naxos) and Dr. Malatesta (Don Pasquale) at Palm Beach Opera.  He was a member of the young artists program at Palm Beach Opera in 2015 and 2016 where he sang and covered nine roles with the company, including the starring role of Herman in Ben Moore’s world premiere opera Enemies, A Love Story.   He was also a member of the young artist program at Wichita Grand Opera where he understudied the Count (The Marriage of Figaro) and Iago (Otello). He was a festival artist at Utah Festival Opera, where he sung Ford (Falstaff) and understudied Valentine (Faust). In April of 2014, Jason sang the role of Iago in the duet, “Si pel ciel” (Otello) opposite CNN-featured tenor Andrew Lunsford, and the aria "Di provenza" (La traviata) at Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern auditorium.  Other roles performed and understudied include Dancairo and Escamillo (Carmen), Harlekin (Ariadne), Paquiro (Goyescas - Granados), Dr. Falke (Die Fledermaus) and Germont (La traviata).  An active oratorio performer, he's sung the title role in Handel's Saul, as well as the baritone solos in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana at Alma College, among other engagements. He holds a BA in Music - Voice, from Alma College, an M.M. in Voice Performance from Portland State University and a Performer Diploma in Voice from Indiana Universituy's Jacobs School of Music.
Maya Kherani, soprano, returns to West Bay Opera to sing Musetta in La bohème.  She was last seen as Frasquita in Carmen. She has sung over 35 operatic roles spanning her 7-year career. Most recently she sang the title role in Handel's Partenope with Opera NEO. Favorite roles include Despina (Così fan tutte) and Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) with Opera San Jose, Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) with West Bay Opera, Britomarte (L’arbore di Diana) with West Edge Opera, as well as Semele (Semele), Poppea (Agrippina), Dorinda (Orlando), Marie (La fille du régiment), Tytania (A Midsummer Night's Dream), and La Fée (Cendrillon). In 2014, Maya made her Houston Grand Opera (HGOco) debut as Meera in the world première of River of Light. Upcoming roles include Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Pip (Moby-Dick), and Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia). This November, Ms. Kherani will make her European debut with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, Italy singing a solo program of French Baroque repertoire. Prior to her singing career, Maya graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. 
Brandon Bell, bass baritone, makes his West Bay Opera debut singing Colline in La bohème. He has most recently appeared as a studio artist at Chautauqua Opera, performing and covering roles in that company's summer productions of Don Giovanni and Candide. During 2018, he was seen as Collatinus (The Rape of Lucretia) at the San Francisco Conservatory. In 2017, he returned to Wolf Trap Opera to appear in the world premiere performances of Listen, Wilhelmina! a mini-opera for children. He was also recently seen as Reverend John Hale (The Crucible) with the University of Tennessee Opera Theater. This season, Mr. Bell will sing Luciano/Chucho in a double bill of Musto's Bastianello (Musto) and Lucrezia (Bolcom) and Garibaldo in a concert production of Rodelinda with the Conservatory's Baroque Opera Ensemble. He appeared as Nick Bottom (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and Toots Sweet in the world premiere production of J. Mark Scearce’s Falling Angel, with the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center. He also performed Leporello (Don Giovanni) and Mr. Kofner (The Consul) with the University of Tennessee Opera Theater. Mr. Bell is an alumnus of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio Artist program, where he was seen as the English Ambassador (The Ghosts of Versailles - Corigliano) and L’imperial Commissario (Madama Butterfly). Other recent performance highlights include Masetto (Don Giovanni) and Pistola (Falstaff) with the Janiec Opera Company; Melisso (Alcina), Le Fauteuil and Un Arbre (L’enfant et les sortileges), and Dr. Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro) with CCM Opera d’arte. He was a Featured Dater in the world premiere performances of Speed Dating Tonight! by Michael Ching, and also appeared as Hymie Felderman in the workshop of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star with Opera Fusion: New Works, a collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and CCM Opera. In 2018, Bell sang with the Oakland Symphony for the world premiere of With the Right Music: A Song Cycle by Rosser and Sohne, as part of Pride and Prejudice: Notes from LGBTQ program. Mr. Bell was awarded 4th Place in the 2018 East Bay Opera League Young Artist Scholarship Awards Competition, and was also chosen from national auditions as a finalist in the 2018 Mondavi Center Young Artist Competition. In 2017, he received both the Third Place (Student Division) - Orpheus Da Capo Award at the Orpheus National Music Competition for Vocalists and the Leola Boyce Award, awarded by the Knoxville Choral Society. The Cleveland Foundation chose Mr. Bell as the 2015 and 2016 recipient of its A. Grace Lee Mims Vocal Scholarship, awarded in recognition of his commitment to the perpetuation of the singing of the Negro spiritual. Mr. Bell is a recent graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where under the tutelage of César Ulloa, he received a Postgraduate Diploma in Vocal Performance. Originally from Suffolk, Virginia, he also holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
Kiril Havezov, baritone, 
returns to West Bay Opera to sing Schaunard in La bohème. Most recently, WBO audiences saw him as Zuñiga (Carmen) and in the title role in Gianni Schicchi as well in the roles of Don Fermando (Fidelio), Antonio (Le nozze di Figaro), Monterone (Rigoletto), Bonzo (Madama Butterfly), Second Soldier (Salome) and Talpa (Il tabarro). A native of Sofia, Bulgaria, Mr. Havezov has performed regularly with the largest opera theaters in Bulgaria, including Sofia National Opera, Bulgarian National Music Theatre among many others. In 2013 he sang the role of Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) in China for Opera Art Lirica. Since his debut on the American opera stage in 2014, he has performed with Opera San Jose, West Bay Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, New Opera NYC, Island City Opera and other Bay Area-based companies. Significant roles performed by Mr. Havezov over the last few years include Conte di Luna (Il trovatore), Renato (Un ballo in maschera), Zupan (The Gypsy Baron), Sharpless (Madama Butterfly), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore) and Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro) among others. Mr. Havezov is also published author and media educator with Ph.D. in Media Studies.
Karl Kaminsky, bass baritone, makes his West Bay Opera debut singing Benoit and Alcindoro in La bohème.  A theater and film actor, in addition to opera singer, Mr. Kaminsky has performed over 35 roles in theaters around the world, including Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Real (Madrid), Royal Swedish Opera, Mariinsky Opera, Tokyo Opera, Salzburg Festival, Rotterdam Festival, Royal Festival Hall, Mikkeli Festival, Kiel Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Opera Baden-Baden among others. Active also as an oratorio singer, he recently performed Rachmaninoff's All Night Vigil with the San Francisco Choral Society; Carmina Burana (Orff) with the Sacramento Choral Society and Zigeunerlider (Brahms) with the New England Classical Singers.  Highlights of his operatic appearances include Benoit with South Dakota Symphony; de Beausset (War and Peace -Prokofiev) with Royal Swedish Opera; Prince Mikhail Ivanov (War and Peace) at the  Salzburg Festival; a muscovite (War and Peace) at the Tokyo Opera and at the Teatro Real and Teatro alla Scala; Truffaldino (The Love for Three Oranges - Prokofiev) at the Festival Aix en Provence; and a number of roles at the at the Mariinsky Theater, including Shuysky (Boris Godunov); Tinca (Il tabarro); Basilio (Le nozze di Figaro); Pong (Turandot); Arturo (Lucia); Goro (Madama Butterfly); Pyotr Fedorovich (The Nose- Shostakovich); Grishka Kuterma (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh - Rimsky-Korsakov);  Don Jerome (Bethrotal in a Monastery - Prokofiev); Scaramuccio (Ariadne); Spalanzani (Les contes d'Hoffmann) and Tsarevich Gvidon (The Golden Cockerel - Rimsky-Korsakov). He holds a performance degree from the Academia Studio in Saint Petersburgh (1998), studied at Gergiev Academy of Young Singers between 2000 and 2005 and has performed under conductors Valerie Gergiev and Kent Nagano, among others.
Carmello Tringali,tenor, returns to West Bay Opera to sing Parpignol in La bohème.  He is also the understudy for Rodolfo.  He has been recently seen at West Bay Opera as Remendado (Carmen), Jaquino (Fidelio), Flavio (Norma), Second Jew (Salome), Gherardo (Gianni Schicchi), the Song Seller and Lover (Il tabarro), Basilio and Don Curzio (Le nozze di Figaro). He made his West Bay Opera debut singing Borsa (Rigoletto) and he has also sung Triquet (Yevgeny Onegin). Carmello is a versatile performer and Bay Area native, taking on a wide variety of roles in terms of voice type, musical style and character. Other favorite roles include, Rodolfo (La bohème), the title roles in Candide and Faust, Ko-ko (The Mikado), Grosvenor (Patience) and Camille (The Merry Widow).  
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