Meet our Co-founders
Elisabeth Halliday-Quan
She/Her & They/Them
Soprano Elisabeth Halliday-Quan works with established and emerging composers to commission and premiere new classical vocal repertoire. Elisabeth sings primarily with the commissioning opera ensemble Rhymes With Opera, of which she is a co-founder, and additionally with such diverse ensembles as Experiments in Opera, NYsoundCircuit, Chelsea Opera, New York Opera Alliance, Hotel Elefant, Emerging Voices Project, The Fourth Wall, The Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra and more. She has performed at (le) Poisson Rouge, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Issue Project Room, Roulette, the National Opera Center, the New Music Gathering, Omaha Under the Radar, Music in the Alps, JACK, the Tenri Cultural Institute, Barrow Mansion, and many other venues and festivals on the front lines of promoting new and experimental classical music.
Elisabeth trained at the Peabody Conservatory and currently studies with Manhattan School of Music’s Ashley Putnam and Eastman School of Music’s Ruth Hennessy.
Heather Holmquest
She/Her
Heather Holmquest is a singer, music theorist, and voice pedagogue. Born in Chicago, she received her Ph.D. and M.A. in music theory from the University of Oregon with a secondary area in vocal performance. She earned her B.A. in music from Knox College in Galesburg, IL.
Heather is an early music enthusiast. She has promoted Baroque opera works in Rochester and sung as a soloist with the Baroque organ at the Memorial Art Gallery. She has appeared in various Rochester choral ensembles including Voices, Musica Spei, and First Inversion. She has sung in professional ensembles across the country, including the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, OR and the South Dakota Chorale in Sioux Falls, SD.
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In addition to performing, Heather teaches music theory at Nazareth College. She also teaches voice and piano lessons privately in the Rochester area.
Kerri Lynn Slominski
She/Her
Lyric coloratura soprano, Kerri Lynn Slominski, captivates her audiences with her lovely warm voice and outstanding presence. As a talented singing actress, Slominski dominates the stage with commanding force, delightful comedic timing and provides memorable performances. She has graced the stage singing countless operatic roles throughout the United States and Italy.
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Kerri Lynn is the recipient of a 2020 Grant from the Jensen Foundation. Additional accolades include finalist in the 2018 Elaine Malbin Vocal Competition, the Philip Y. Cho Scholarship Fund, Howard Olian Memorial Fund and the Lillian Mann Prize in Voice.
She strives to make opera accessible to all generations by providing “no-holds-barred” performance experiences at the KeyBank Rochester Fringe Festival. Her initial debut at the festival was in 2017, with her own operatic cabaret show: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Audition. Jack Garner (Democrat and Chronicle) praised it as an “amusing opera memoir”. In 2019, Kerri Lynn single handedly produced and sang the role of Lucy in a modern, social media interactive interpretation of Menotti’s comic opera, The Telephone. The production received CITY Newspaper’s: 2019 Critics’ Pick.
Kerri Lynn holds a Professional Studies Certificate and a Master’s in Music in Opera Performance from Temple University. Additionally, she has her Bachelor’s in Music in Vocal Performance from the Peabody Conservatory.