Valerie Elizabeth Loera, Co-Founder, Artistic Director
Valerie Elizabeth Loera is a Mexican-American Soprano from Fresno, California. Due to Covid-19, Ms. Loera's appearance as 2nd Lady in Opera Modesto's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute has been postponed to April 2021. In August 2020, Ms. Loera founded the Voces del Valle collaborative, a group of Central Valley musicians dedicated to the promotion and performance of Latin American song. In the 2019-2020 season, Ms. Loera performed with Camerata California as the mezzo-soprano soloist in Mozart’s Regina Coeli and Handel’s Messiah. In March, she gave a recital of Spanish zarzuela and Mexican art songs by Manuel Ponce as part of the First Christian Church of Selma California Recital Series. Ms. Loera has appeared in Sacramento State’s production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amelia goes to the ball and Seymour Barab’s A Game of Chance. She was the recipient of the 2018 Kristina Townsend Memorial Competition Award and was a finalist in the 2018 Student Artists Performance category for Sacramento State’s Festival of New American Music. She has frequently appeared as the mezzo soloist with Capella Antiqua, most notably in Bach’s Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, Bach’s Meine Seel erhebt den Herren, Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Stabat Mater. In past seasons, Ms. Loera has been a featured soloist in John Corgliano’s Fern Hill and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with Camerata California. Ms. Loera holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Vocal Performance from Fresno State and a Masters of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Sacramento State.
Christopher Rodriguez Co-Founder, Musical Director
Christopher Rodriguez, baritone, studied voice with Professor Helene Joseph Weil and Professor Brigid de Jong, receiving a bachelor's degree from California State University, Fresno. In the last 5 years, he made National Semi-Finals in both the NATS and Classical Singer competitions, premiered music as apart of the Fresno State Chamber Singers at the Library of Congress in collaboration with Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, and studied in Sant’angelo in Vado, Italy under Eugene Villanueva in the Young Artist’s Program, Lingua e Canto. He has participated in masterclasses with Dr. Anton Belov, Dr. Vladimir Chernov, Dr. Leneida Crawford, Dr. Robin Fisher and Professor Emerita Helene Joseph Weil amongst others. He has performed opera roles such as The Bonze, Don Alhambra, Dr. Falke, Superintendent Budd, Zuniga, amongst many under the baton of Dr. Thomas Loewenheim, Director of Orchestras and Dr. Anthony Radford, Director of Opera at Fresno State. He sang the baritone solo in Duruflé’s Requiem with the Fresno State Symphony Orchestra and Grand Chorus under Dr. Cari Earnhart in May 2019. He made his professional operatic debut with Modesto Opera singing the role of the Ufficiale in Verdi's "Rigoletto" in October of 2019. In January 2020 he presented a Poster Paper at the Cal-Western NATS conference on “Introducing New Competition Repertoire for Young Baritones: Vocal Writing of Georgy Sviridov.” He is an advocate for living composers and has made it his goal to bring their compositions to crowds all over the country. In 2016 he premiered the role of "Everybody" in Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena by Evan Mack and Joshua McGuire. He revisited and toured the Central Valley with this role in 2019. In 2018 he premiered the art song "Requiem" by South Korean native Joungmin Sur on his undergraduate recital. He premiered the role of Stanton from Dr. Kenneth Froelich's "State of Jefferson" in January 2020 and premiered "So together" by Christian Cruz with text by Juan Felipe Herrera at the Third Annual Fresno State Art Song Festival in February 2020, which received the Judge's Choice and Audience Choice awards. He plans on premiering works by Kurt Erickson, Kimberly Osberg, Clayton Woosley and Joungmin Sur in the 2020/2021 season. Christopher is a vocal coach and piano teacher at the United Conservatory of Music in Fresno, California. He has a studio of over thirty students of mixed age and experience level and prides himself in becoming a better performer and teacher by learning from his students every day. He is currently pursuing his Master of Arts in Vocal Performance at California State University, Fresno and is studying with Dr. Maria Briggs.
