Meet the 2025-26 Artists-in-Training Class

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Opera Theatre Selects Twenty-Five Local High School Students for Prestigious Bayer Fund Artists-in-Training Program

St. Louis, MO, September 25, 2025 – Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is pleased to announce the 2025-26 class for its prestigious Bayer Fund Artists-in-Training (AIT) Program. Created in 1990, AIT is a nationally acclaimed initiative that identifies, coaches, and encourages promising young high school singers both on and offstage. In 2001, this program was recognized by the President’s Committee for the Arts and the Humanities as one of ten outstanding programs for youth in the nation.

The 2025-26 class of AIT students was selected through a highly competitive audition process and spans both sides of the Mississippi River with 19 students from Missouri schools (St. Louis City, North County, South County, and West County) and 6 students from Illinois schools (Metro East). This class also represents a diverse mix of public schools, magnet schools, and private schools. The class even includes a brother-sister pair: junior Soren Carroll and freshman Margot Carroll. The full roster of 2025-26 AIT students is listed below.

Each of the 25 students will receive weekly vocal coaching with college instructors from Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville, WashU, Webster University, and University of Missouri – St. Louis. In addition to their vocal studies, participants receive the opportunity to participate in master classes with internationally recognized opera artists, attend performances across a wide range of St. Louis arts institutions, go on college campus tours, and perform in two public recitals. At the final Spring Recital (scheduled for April 19, 2026), AIT students will compete for approximately $17,000 in scholarships and awards.

The members of the 2025-26 Bayer Fund Artists-in-Training Program are:

Bree Aplin, junior at Belleville West High School
Adrielle Aruya, senior at Francis Howell North High School
Anna Berezowski, senior at Festus High School
Kayden Brooks, junior at Francis Howell North High School
Soren Carroll, junior at McKinley Classical Leadership Academy
Margot Carroll, freshman at Metro Academic and Classical High School
Zoe Childs, junior at Bayless High school
Nadia Curtiss, junior at Missouri Online Connections Academy
Brendan Davis, senior at Hazelwood Central High School
Abby Donald, senior at Rosati-Kain Academy
Josephine Gibson, senior at Francis Howell North High School
Celeste Grodeon, sophomore at Mascoutah High School
Jace Heigham, junior at Kirkwood High Schoool
Mark Hill, junior at Edwardsville High School
Andrew Lambson, freshman at Parkway South High School
Jermisha Lewis, senior at Valley Park High School
Brody Mitchell, junior at Clayton High School
Madison Moore, junior at Central VPA High School
Amelia Mueller, junior at Webster Groves High School
Ikee Muhammad, junior at Hazelwood Central High School
Graham Pezza, sophomore at Edwardsville High School
Lelaina Pursifull, senior at Visitation Academy
Eliot Riechmann, sophomore at Edwardsville High School
Zoe Ritter, sophomore at Edwardsville High School
Danielle Singleton, senior at Grand Center Arts Academy

These students will begin vocal instruction in early October and will be assigned to studios with local university faculty, including Noel Prince and Jonathan Heaney at WashU, Karen Kanakis and Jason Eschhofen at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, Martha Hart and Diana Umali at Webster University, and Marc Schapman and Nancy Mayo at Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville. The 2025-26 class will also receive the opportunity to work with master teacher Yvonne Redman from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“Bayer Fund is proud to support Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and their work to make real, sustainable impact through this nationally acclaimed initiative,” said Michael Parrish, President of Bayer Fund. Bayer Fund (formerly Monsanto) has been the program’s principal corporate sponsor since the inception of the program in 1990. “Programs like AIT help our neighbors and make our community stronger and more resilient, and we’re honored to help bring this work to life and support the greater St. Louis community.”

For the last 35 years, the Bayer Fund Artists-in-Training Program has served more than 300 students and awarded over $768,000 in scholarships to its graduates and alumni. The AIT program boasts an impressive high school graduation rate, with nearly 100% of its participants attending college over the last decade. Many of these students are the first in their families to pursue higher education. Graduates have gone on to study at prestigious music schools such as the Boston Conservatory, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, The Juilliard School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music, and the New England Conservatory, among others.

Many AIT graduates have achieved remarkable success in the music field, working as professional singers, educators, stage directors, arts administrators, and private instructors. Alumni have performed with major opera companies and symphonies across the United States and Europe, including the Dutch National Opera, English National Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, Paris’ Opera Comique, San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, and Washington National Opera. As of 2025, 13 graduates have appeared in mainstage productions at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, including notable performances by Kendall Gladen in the 2012 title role of Carmen, Angel Riley in a 2021 production of Highway 1, U.S.A., and Julia Bullock and Chaz’men Williams-Ali in the 2019 world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

The success of AIT alumni is not limited to the musical industry; over the past 30 years, AIT alumni have also gone on to careers as professional performers, teachers, lawyers, engineers, public elected officials, founders of opera companies, and more.

About Bayer Fund

Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer in the U.S., is a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening the communities where Bayer customers and employees live and work by providing funding for food and nutrition, and health and wellness projects.

For more information, visit fund.bayer.us.

About Opera Theatre of Saint Louis

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is a spring festival featuring casts of rising opera singers accompanied by the acclaimed St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Each season, OTSL presents four compelling new productions in English during the months of May and June. In addition to staging innovative interpretations of classics, OTSL is also committed to premiering new and reviving relevant operas by prominent composers; as of the company’s 2025 season, Opera Theatre has presented 45 world premieres and 27 American premieres. The company’s competitive young artist programs foster the next generation of emerging singers; these programs have been a springboard for countless artists to launch international careers. Beyond its Festival Season, Opera Theatre provides year-round programming and educational initiatives that reach over 80,000 people in St. Louis and beyond annually. OTSL is led by General Director Andrew Jorgensen, in collaboration with Artistic Director Designate Patricia Racette and Principal Conductor Daniela Candillari.

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is funded in part by the Missouri Arts Council and the City of St. Louis Mental Health Board. Opera Theatre gratefully acknowledges Webster University for its sustaining partnership.