Fort Worth Opera Welcomes Four New Resident Artists for 2026–2027 Season

Emerging singers will take their artistry into performances, classrooms, and uniquely Fort Worth spaces through Cowboys and Culture and Project: Opera’s Macbeth

Fort Worth Opera welcomes four emerging opera singers as its 2026–2027 Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artists, providing the young artists with opportunities to perform professionally, develop their artistry, and connect with audiences throughout the Fort Worth community.

Soprano Rayna Mia Campbell, mezzo-soprano Lauren Salazar, tenor Cecil Garrison, and bass-baritone Noah Mond will take part in Fort Worth Opera’s performances and education and community engagement initiatives throughout the season. Through the Resident Artist program, the artists gain professional performance experience while sharing their voices with audiences in theaters, schools, and community spaces across North Texas.

Established in 2015 with a grant from the Hattie Mae Lesley Foundation, the Resident Artist program provides early-career singers with professional training, stage experience, education opportunities, and community engagement.

“The future of opera rests not only in cultivating the extraordinary artists who will carry this art form forward, but also by inspiring the next generation who will become its audience, advocates, and champions,” said Angela Turner Wilson, General and Artistic Director of Fort Worth Opera. “The Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artist Program does both. It provides emerging artists with the opportunity to develop their talents and build their careers while sharing their artistry with audiences throughout Fort Worth.”

Meet the 2026–2027 Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artists

Rayna Mia Campbell, soprano

Rayna Mia Campbell is a Japanese-African American soprano from Belleville, Illinois, whose artistry blends classical tradition with personal and cultural storytelling. Her recent credits include the West Coast premiere of Jeremy Beck's Death of a Little Girl with Doves, Nurse Graves and Ida Muntz in The Road to Wellville, and a recipient of the Contemporary Spiritual Prize from the George Shirley Vocal Competition. A passionate educator and advocate for arts accessibility, Campbell has taught in New York City and San Francisco and co-founded Teens for Opera at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and San Francisco Conservatory of Music. 

Lauren Salazar, mezzo-soprano

Lauren Salazar is a Houston native mezzo-soprano praised for her versatility and dramatic presence. Her recent credits include Carmen in Carmen, Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas, with performances with Fort Worth Opera, Austin Opera, Opera Arlington, Opera in the Ozarks, and Wichita Grand Opera. In 2026, Salazar returns to Fort Worth Opera as a Hattie Mae Lesley Resident Artist, performing in Amahl and the Night Visitors and covering roles in Scalia/Ginsburg and The Barber of Seville. She holds degrees from the University of North Texas and The University of Texas at Austin.

Cecil Garrison, tenor

Cecil Garrison is a tenor originally from Farmington, New Mexico, who came to Texas to pursue graduate studies at SMU and the University of North Texas. His recent credits include Don José in Carmen, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel, and Old Martin in the premiere of Lisa DeSpain and David Simpatico's That Hellbound Train. In 2025, Garrison won UNT’s Concerto Competition and completed the University of Utah’s Summer Vocology Institute. His artistic interests include opera, art song, vocal pedagogy, and barbershop quartet singing.

Noah Mond, bass-baritone

Noah Mond is a bass from Stony Brook, NY who will join the International Opernstudio at Oper Köln after his tenure at Fort Worth Opera. Notable career highlights include working with The Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, Nashville Opera, The Public Theater, and Des Moines Metro Opera. Last year, he won the Tennessee District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and went on to win Third Place at the Southeast Region. His favorite roles include Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande, Sir John Falstaff in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, and Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea.

Cowboys and Culture Brings Resident Artists to the Fort Worth Stockyards

This season, Fort Worth Opera is giving its Resident Artists the opportunity to step into the spotlight and curate concert experiences of their own with Cowboys and Culture, presented February 7 and 14, 2027, at 7 p.m. in the Fort Worth Stockyards at the Stockman's Club. 

The two concerts will offer audiences an intimate introduction to the Resident Artists as individual performers. Rather than presenting a traditional company recital, each performance will feature just two Resident Artists, who will select repertoire from their own musical interests and create a program that reflects their individual voices and personalities.

February 7 will feature soprano Rayna Mia Campbell and tenor Cecil Garrison, while February 14 will feature mezzo-soprano Lauren Salazar and bass-baritone Noah Mond.

“From mainstage performances in Amahl and the Night Visitors to our education performances and Cowboys and Culture programs, these artists are engaging with audiences of all ages and serving as ambassadors for our company—all while performing at the highest artistic level,” said Angela Turner Wilson.

The Stockyards serve as a distinctly Fort Worth destination for the performances, bringing together two defining elements of the city’s cultural identity: the cowboy and the arts.Tickets for Cowboys and Culture are $25.

Project: Opera Connects Students With Verdi’s Macbeth

The Resident Artists will also bring opera into North Texas classrooms through Fort Worth Opera’s Project: Opera, a high school residency and performance initiative that returns this season with Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth. The student-centered program explores opera through music, storytelling, performance, and cross-curricular learning. 

Based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth gives students an opportunity to engage with a work they may encounter in their English classrooms through an entirely different artistic medium. Its themes of ambition, pressure, expectations, choices, and consequences offer opportunities for students to connect the story’s human conflicts with their own experiences.

“As is inherent in Project: Opera’s framework, we are intentional about the opportunities for crossover knowledge outside of the music classroom for both participants and student audiences,” said Anthony D. Pound, Director of Education and Community Engagement. “Verdi adapted Macbeth from Shakespeare’s play, often studied in high school English classes, and it gives students another way to engage with a text they are being asked to explore.”

Through Project: Opera and other education and community engagement initiatives, the Resident Artists will work with students and families throughout North Texas, including through Fort Worth Opera’s touring productions of The Ugly Duckling and Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World.

“This year’s Resident Artists are among the finest we have welcomed, and we are thrilled to have them with us in Fort Worth as they develop their careers and help shape the future of opera,” said Angela Turner Wilson.

By bringing together performance, education, and community engagement, the Resident Artist program allows these four emerging artists to develop their voices while sharing opera with audiences across Fort Worth and North Texas.

Tickets for Project: Opera Macbeth are $20.