Bass-baritone Jim Williams enters the 2025–2026 season with a series of exciting engagements that showcase his versatility across opera, concert, and musical theatre. In September, he will be featured as one of two soloists in Washington Concert Opera’s Opera Outside Concert Series. November brings two exciting opportunities: a master class with the Denyce Graves Foundation led by Grammy Award–winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, followed by his Opera Maryland appearance as Baron Zeta in a concert version of The Merry Widow. In December, Jim appears as bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Southern Delaware Chorale and Southern Delaware Orchestra under guest conductor Joseph Shortall. Looking ahead to early 2026, he will make his role and company debut with Opera Montana as Booker T. Washington in Francesca Zambello’s new production of Ragtime. 

Jim has performed with Washington National Opera, Maryland Lyric Opera, The IN Series, and abroad in Italy and Canada. Recent credits include his WNO solo debut covering the Lion in Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me; Assistant Prime Minister in Beethoven’s Fidelio alongside Denyce Graves; and Ned in Morgan State University’s Treemonisha. On the concert stage, he has appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Handel’s Messiah, and the world premiere of Dan Forrest’s chamber arrangement of Creation. He recently debuted as Warden George Benton in Dead Man Walking with Opera AACC and joined a jazz ensemble in Annapolis for Porgy and Bess arranged for big band. 

A graduate of Oakwood University with a B.M. in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy, Jim began his career in the Washington, D.C. region and has since built a reputation for clarity, connection, and craft. His work continues to bridge traditions, genres, and communities with powerful storytelling and artistry. 

Korean-American soprano Tiffany Choe was born and raised in Southern California. A Cafritz Young Artists alumna, she was most recently seen as Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio. Last season at Washington National Opera, she appeared as Juliet in the Young Artists production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette.

A 2022–23 Arizona Opera Pullin Studio Artist, Choe performed Pamina in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Najad in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and Sister Margaretta in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music. She has performed across both opera and musical theater.

Choe has also performed extensively with Indiana University Opera Theater, singing Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème and Magda in La rondine. Across eleven productions at IU, her roles included Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Constance in Dialogues des Carmélites, Rosalia in West Side Story, and Laoula in Chabrier’s L’Étoile.

A former Steans Music Institute Fellow, she returned to Ravinia in 2023 as First Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. In recital, she has been featured as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Phoenix Symphony and Poulenc’s Gloria with the Indiana University Philharmonic.

Choe has received multiple awards from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, including Encouragement Awards in 2019, 2021, and 2024, as well as an Indianapolis District win in 2020.

Collaborative pianist and vocal coach Joy Schreier is Assistant Conductor and Pianist on the music staff at Washington National Opera and also serves as Assistant Conductor and Pianist for the Cathedral Choral Society at the Washington National Cathedral. At WNO, she has assisted on the world premiere of Grounded and recent productions of Turandot, La Bohème, Fidelio, Porgy and Bess, and Il Trovatore.

She has performed in recital at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, the White House, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Highlights from this past season include recitals with soprano Renée Fleming, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, and violinist Pinchas Zukerman. A highly sought-after vocal coach, Schreier prepared Ms. Fleming for the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ The Hours at The Metropolitan Opera and for Nixon in China at Opéra National de Paris, with whom she also performed for President Joe Biden. Schreier regularly coaches and performs under the auspices of the Denyce Graves Foundation.

For her GRAMMY®-nominated album with soprano Laura Strickling, Opera News described her as a “superbly emotive pianist that wrings every nuance out.” Schmopera praised her as “an indispensable accompanist… either preternaturally intuitive or has achieved perfect communication—perhaps a bit of both.”

An avid art song recitalist, Schreier serves as the official pianist of the Washington International Voice Competition at the Kennedy Center. She earned her Doctorate in Collaborative Piano from the Eastman School of Music under Dr. Jean Barr, where she received the Barbara Koeng Award for Excellence in Vocal Accompanying and the piano prize in the Jessie Kneisel German Lieder Competition.

www.joyschreier.com