Opera in the Garden

Join the Valentine and the Virginia Opera for a performance from the Opera’s Emerging Artists in the Valentine Garden!

Enjoy refreshments (beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages) from a cash bar.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged. Valentine Members will receive (1) free drink ticket by registering for this event beforehand.

About the Emerging Artists Program:
The Virginia Opera Herndon Foundation Emerging Artists Program provides training, performance opportunities, and access to industry connections and resources to a group of opera’s talented rising stars. As one of the most competitive training programs in the nation, the Herndon Foundation Emerging Artists Program receives over 650 applicants annually for an average of 12-20 artist contracts. Emerging Artists appear in Virginia Opera mainstage productions, tour in fully-staged educational programs, and perform in recitals, donor events, and the VO Master Teacher Series. In addition, Emerging Artists receive regular coachings with VO’s artistic staff, including Artistic Director Adam Turner, as well as guest conductors and mainstage artists.

Featured Artists:

Chase Sanders –

Soprano Chase Sanders is thrilled to be joining Virginia Opera this season. Sanders was most recently seen at Sarasota Opera as an Apprentice Artist. In 2022, she was a young artist with Opera Saratoga where she performed the role of Elder (Sky on Swings) and covered the soprano soloist in Rossini’s Petite messe Solennelle. In the summer of 2023, Chase was a Gerdine Young Artist with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. There, she covered the title role of Treemonisha. She returned as a GYA this summer to sing the role of Berta/A Notary (The Barber of Seville) and cover Musetta (La bohème).

Born and raised in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Chase is an alumnae of West Chester University (B.M.) and Indiana University (M.M. and PD). At Indiana University, she performed the roles of Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Mary (Highway 1, USA), and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni). Sanders has also been a recipient of two Laffont Competition encouragement awards at the Michigan and Idaho-Montana Districts.

At Virginia Opera, Chase will be singing the role of Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Frasquita (Carmen), role studying Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), and will cover Mildred Jeter Loving (Loving v. Virginia).

Aria Minasian – 

Hailing from Bainbridge Island, WA, mezzo-soprano Aria Minasian is delighted to be a Herndon Foundation Emerging Artist with Virginia Opera for the 2024-2025 season. Ms. Minasian recently spent the summer as a Studio Artist with Wolf Trap Opera covering Anna 1 in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Madeleine in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night, as well as performing various opera scenes and mainstage choruses throughout the season. Recently, Aria was the Alto Soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Dexter Community Orchestra for their Bicentennial Concert and debuted with Pacific Symphony as Giovanna in Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Ms. Minasian’s extensive variety of stage roles include Elizabeth Cree in Kevin Puts’ Elizabeth Cree, receiving reviews for her “spectacular portrayal…her Elizabeth was deep and seductive, precociously balancing beauty and terror…[her voice] pulled the audience into Elizabeth’s madness and gripped until we were left begging for more.” and her performance of Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, for which she was praised for being “the favorite all-around performance…for her ability to embody both the humor and the darker, more painful emotions of [Donna Elvira’s] story” (Arts at Michigan). Additional roles include Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Madame de la Haltière in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicci, The Celebrant in Bernstein’s Mass, Olga in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Taller Daughter in Mazzoli’s Proving Up, Forrester’s Wife & Owl in Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (in Czech) and more. Aria has worked with a number of composers and on world premieres, such as workshopping the role of Maggie Hobson in Tom Cipullo’s new opera Hobson’s Choice, portraying the role of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Grammy Award-Winning composer Christopher Theofanidis’ Door Out of the Fire, performing as the soloist in James Stephenson’s Symphony No. 2, and taking on the role of Carmen Miranda in Roberto Sierra’s I am Carmen Miranda. For more information, please visit www.ariaminasian.com.

Patrick Wilhem –

Baritone Patrick Wilhelm’s sound has been praised as “ardent” and “burnished” (Broad Street Review), as well as having a “distinctive timbre” (Philadelphia Magazine) and “gorgeously plush color” (Parterre Box). In the 2024-25 season, Patrick joins Virginia Opera’s Herndon Foundation Emerging Artists Program, performing in main stage productions of Don Giovanni (Masetto) and Carmen (Le Dancaïre). Additionally, he covers the roles of Richard Loving and Bernard Cohen in the world premiere of Loving v. Virginia, also appearing in the chorus of that production and as a soloist in their outreach program, Building a Loving Community.

This summer, Patrick works with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, covering the roles of Schaunard in La bohéme and Fiorello in The Barber of Seville. In the 2023-24 season, Patrick returned to the Curtis Institute of Music to give performances of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and Angélica Negrón’s Dóabin with Ensemble 20/21. He also returned to Wolf Trap Opera last summer as a Studio Artist, where he covered Valentin in Gounod’s Faust.

In 2022, Patrick was engaged by Wolf Trap Opera as Marchese d’Obigny in La traviata and Elder McLean (cover) in Floyd’s Susannah. Following this, he appeared with the Greater South Jersey Chorus as the soloist in Vaughn Williams’ Five Mystical Songs. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Patrick was additionally able to perform a 2021 tour of Schubert’s Die Winterreise with collaborator Mikael Eliasen, culminating in a performance for the Aspen Socrates Institute.