Korean soprano Chea Kang is recognized for her distinctive voice and innovative artistry, consistently bringing creativity and originality to her performances. She has appeared at San Francisco Opera, where she debuted as “Sister Catherine” in Dialogues of the Carmelites (2022), covered “Papagena” in The Magic Flute (2024), and joined the Merola Program as a young artist in the summer of 2025. She is the second prize winner of the 2024 Handel Aria Competition and a semifinalist in the 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition. Chea has further developed her artistry through prestigious young artist programs, including Schwab Vocal Rising Stars at Caramoor (2025) and the Georg Solti Accademia (2023), working under the guidance of world-renowned artists and mentors. She has also performed internationally as a soloist in Lee Mingwei’s Sonic Blossom exhibition, engaging audiences in museums and unconventional venues through intimate, immersive performances. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School and went on to complete a Master’s degree and an Artist Diploma at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, training under the mentorship of César Ulloa. Looking ahead, Chea will perform the role of “Belle” in
Philip Glass’s La Belle et la Bête with Opera Parallèle in 2026, following her company debut as “Henrietta Wong” in Harvey Milk Reimagined (2025).

Baritone Hadleigh Adams is delighted to return to Opera Parallele. Born in New Zealand, Hadleigh relocated to the US in 2012 after studying at London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He is a former merola artist and San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow. Among his extensive performance history he has performed as a principal baritone at London’s Royal National Theatre, the Nederlandse Reisopera, Lincoln Center Festival, the San Francisco Opera, and the LA Philharmonic. His performances centre around the baroque, and modern operatic repertoires.

Franco-American mezzo-soprano Sophie Delphis’ operatic roles include: Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Giunone (La Calisto), Carmen and Mercédès (Carmen), Flora (La Traviata), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Marla Maples (The Drumf and the Rhinegold, premiere), Cenerentola and Tisbe (La Cenerentola), Concepción (L’heure espagnole), Hansel, (Hansel and Gretel) and Elle (La voix humaine). An avid recitalist, Sophie regularly produces programs for musical and cultural organizations in the United States and China. Recent and upcoming works include: Ravel’s Chansons madécasses and Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, Bolcom’s Cabaret Songs, Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten and Messiaen’s Harawi. Along with classical repertoire, she enjoys collaborating with composers, improvisers and theater artists on new works. She is a soloist on the Grammy Award-nominated Naxos recording of Milhaud’s Oresteia trilogy. She currently resides in New York City, where she is pursuing a doctoral degree in voice performance at the Graduate Center CUNY.

Jean Cocteau was an enormously influential French artist and writer known as one of the major figures of Dada and Surrealism. With an oeuvre that spanned painting, novels, poetry, plays, and films, Cocteau established himself as a leading creative force in Paris. A regular member of the avant-garde, he maintained long-term friendships with artists such as Pablo Picasso, Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray. “The job of the poet (a job which can’t be learned) consists of placing those objects of the visible world which have become invisible due to the glue of habit, in an unusual position which strikes the soul and gives them a tragic force,” he once mused. Born on July 5, 1889 in Maisons-Laffitte, France, the self-taught Cocteau would regularly draw his friends and acquaintances in a distinctive, fluid style informed by his interests in Cubism, psychoanalysis, and Catholicism. “Poets don’t draw,” he once quipped about his artworks. “They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.” Among his best-known works is the novel Les Enfants Terribles (1929) and his critically acclaimed films le Sang d’un poète (Blood of a Poet) (1930), La Belle et la Bête (Beauty and the Beast) (1946), and Orphée (Orpheus) (1949). Cocteau died on October 11, 1963 at the age of 74 in Milly-la-Foret, France. Today, his works are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, among others.

Conductor, Nicole Paiement is the Founder and General & Artistic Director of Opera Parallèle (OP). Recently for OP, Paiement conducted Glass’ La Belle et la Bête and Everest: An Immersive Experience by Talbot, a work she originally premiered on stage at The Dallas Opera, where she is Principal Guest Conductor. An active guest conductor, Paiement has performed with companies including the Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and The Atlanta Opera. In 2020 Paiement made her debut with L’Opéra de Montréal with Benjamin’s Written on Skin, returning in 2023 to conduct Golijov’s Ainadamar. This season Paiement also made her UK debut with the English National Opera conducting Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life, and conducted a series of concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, Italy. Upcoming engagements include a return to London to conduct Talbot’s Everest with the BBC Symphony at the Barbican Center. The 2023/2024 season will include 2 world premieres with OP, a return to The Dallas Opera, followed by a debut with the Volksoper Vienna conducting both a symphonic concert and an opera by John Adams. Photo Credit: Cory Weaver

Brian Staufenbiel is the creative director for Opera Parallèle where he has directed and spearheaded the conceptual designs of the company’s productions since it was founded in 2010. Specializing in multimedia, immersive, and interdisciplinary productions, he actively works across a wide range of artistic disciplines collaborating in film and with media designers, choreographers and dancers, circus and fabric artists, and designer fabricators. His progressive approach to stagecraft has garnered critical acclaim for many of the company’s productions, including Wozzeck, Orphée, Champion and Dead Man Walking. Most recently he finished the Cocteau Trilogy with Opera Parallèle’s acclaimed production of La Belle et la Bête, and the first fully immersive opera experience of Talbot and Scheer’s Everest. On film Staufenbiel recently directed pieces for the online festival season of the Sun Valley Music Festival, a film of Dove/Angelis’ Flight for Seattle Opera, a graphic novel opera film of Talbot/Scheer’s Everest with Opera Parallèle, and a feature length film of Gordon Getty’s opera Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Upcoming film projects include a documentary about the life of Frederica von Stade with Paper Wings Films, and Out of the Darkness, a dance film about Japanese incarceration camps in the United States during World War II. Staufenbiel recently directed Golijov/Hwang’s Ainadamar at L’Opéra de Montréal which will be reprised at Victoria Opera next season. Other upcoming directing engagements include Das Rheingold for Seattle Opera and Calgary Opera and The Shining for Atlanta opera. Photo Credit: Cory Weaver.

Y. Sharon Peng is pleased to be joining Opera Parallele for the first time. A member of IATSE 706, her works range from stage to editorial to film & television. She is head of Wigs & Makeup at Opera San José and a foreperson at San Francisco Opera. Recent stage productions include Mozart & Salieri (Opera San José), Allegiance (Palo Alto Players), and Shout! the Musical (South Bay Musical Theatre)

Jessica Ann Drayton (Lighting Designer). She holds a BFA from Wright State University and an MFA from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in Lighting Design. She is the 2024 Howell Binkley Fellowship Recipient. Her selected lighting designs include Beauty and the Beast, Singing in the Rain, Anxiety Project (Archbishop Alter HS), Fat Ham, Amen Corner, Wrecking Ball, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Cincinnati Shakespeare), Once on this Island, Cunning Little Vixen, Spelling Bee, Cinderella (CCM), Winter’s Tale Remix (Epic Theatre Company, NY), Everly Brothers (Ivoryton Playhouse, CT), La Ville Morte (Catapult Opera, NY), and Secret Garden (TheaterLabs Dayton). She could not continue to pursue her craft without the love and support of her friends and family (especially Jonathan, Sophia & Nigel). Explore more of her work at DraytonDesignsLLC.com. Fiat Lux.

Natalie Barshow is a recent graduate of the University of California, San Diego, with a MFA in Costume Design. Natalie was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. Natalie’s designs have been seen nationally and internationally, including Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, Grace Cathedral, LJP’s WOW Festival, and South Korea’s MODAFE Festival. Natalie is also a media artist whose work explores embodiment and identity through clothing, fabric, projections, and animation.