Sam Handley

Sam Handley, bass-baritone, has been praised for “his rich, burnished” voice and the “genuine emotional depth of his characterizations.” He has performed more than a dozen roles at Lyric Opera of Chicago and first joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera in 2017 for Der Rosenkavalier. Handley made his Asian debut as Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the National Centre for Performing Arts (Beijing) under the baton of Lorin Maazel, with whom he had previously performed Colline in La Boheme. 

On the symphonic stage, his deep repertoire encircles masterworks of Handel, Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Charpentier, Stradella, Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, Verdi, and Mozart, in whose Requiem Handley has been described as “striking in the tuba mirum.”

Dr. Handley has long loved sharing his knowledge of the art of singing and was a Teaching Fellow during both his Master and Doctoral studies. Sam currently serves on the faculty of DePaul University in Chicago and is in demand as a Master Teacher, Clinician, and Adjudicator. He is President of the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Executive and Artistic Director of the Green Lake Festival of Music.

Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Sam now resides in Sheboygan, WI, and enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, especially while camping, hiking, sailing, cooking, fine dining, and keeping up with their Labrador Finzi!

Chase Hopkins

Chase Hopkins is currently serving as the general director of Chicago’s acclaimed Haymarket Opera Company and the artistic director of Opera Edwardsville. Hopkins was appointed as Haymarket’s first general director in 2020 and led the company through its 10th Anniversary Season with three innovative cinematic productions of Handel operas that received praise from international press as “an inspiring and relevant modern production” (Operawire) and “a superb document of a Handel opera” (Chicago Tribune). As a creative producer, a 2022 production of L’Amant Anonyme by Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges was praised by the Chicago Tribune for “making history.” Through a collaboration with Chicago’s Grammy Award-winning label, Cedille Records, the world premiere recording of this forgotten work was released. The album has been given 5 stars by the BBC Music Magazine and praised for “luxury casting” by Gramophone. Hopkins also served as a creative producer for Haymarket’s 2022 production of L’incoronazione di Poppea that was included in the Chicago Tribune’s “Top performances of 2022.” In 2023, Hopkins will make his directorial debut with Hasse’s Marc’Antonio e Cleopatra, starring countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim and contralto Lauren Decker. Hopkins brings expertise to Haymarket as both a performer and creative producer. His own singing career included a strong focus on Baroque opera, and he has performed with distinguished conductors at festivals across Europe and the United States. On the operatic stage, Hopkins has been described as a “strong and convincing presence” (Opera Today) and has been praised for delivering “thoughtful and disciplined” performances (Operawire). He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Performance and Arts Administration from Northwestern University and a Masters degree in Performance from the Royal Northern College of Music in the United Kingdom. Hopkins is also the founding artistic director of Opera Edwardsville (Illinois), a role he maintains while serving as Haymarket Opera Company’s general director. In the fall of 2023, Hopkins will pursue professional studies at the Harvard Business School. 

Paul Rowe

Baritone Paul Rowe has maintained a wide-ranging performing career throughout the United States for the past 30 years. He has performed with many of the leading American musical organizations including the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa at Symphony Hall in Boston and Carnegie Hall in New York, American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera and Kennedy Center, and Musica Sacra at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall. He has appeared as well with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Alabama and Arkansas symphony orchestras, the Folger Consort, and the Ensemble for Early Music, among many other groups.

As a member of the Waverly Consort, Mr. Rowe toured the United States, the Far East and South America and participated in the Consort’s regular series at Alice Tully Hall and the Cloisters in New York. In addition, he performed for two years as a member of the New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, touring the U. S. and Yugoslavia and recording two discs: the Quartets of Haydn and Trios of Mozart, and a disc entitled Listen to the Mockingbird, featuring songs of Stephen Foster and other American music. He has sung at various summer festivals including Marlboro, Aspen, Flagstaff Festival of the Arts, Hot Springs and Sewanee.

Paul Rowe has served on the voice faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Vanderbilt University, State University of New York at Purchase, Lehigh University and Nazareth College of Rochester, the Berkshire Choral Festival, and the Tennessee State Governor’s School. Paul Rowe is Professor of Voice at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Artistic Director of the Madison Early Music Festival, an annual festival he helped found in 2000.