Professional Artists WORKSHOP

Steffanie Pearce

Gulfshore Opera’s
General Director & Artistic Director

With over 30 years of experience in the field of opera, Steffanie Pearce is a producer, director, performer and teacher of the great art form. Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Ms. Pearce began her career as an operatic soprano with formal studies at The Cleveland Institute of Music finishing at The University of Southern California with a double major in opera performance and acting. She completed apprenticeships with both the Cincinnati Opera and the San Diego Opera and won many international vocal Competitions including the Pavarotti Competition, Montreal International, D’Angelo and the American Traditions competition. She went on to an International singing career with opera companies including Opera de Marseille, Opera Lisboa, Opera Colorado, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, San Diego Opera and The Buxton Festival in England performing at such major theaters as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Hollywood Bowl, The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and The Philadelphia Academy of Music.

She moved to Naples in 2000 and founded Southwest Florida’s first opera company, Opera Naples, in March, 2005.  In June of 2014, she re-organized and expanded into Lee and Charlotte County with the creation of Gulfshore Opera.

Jorge Parodi

Maestro

Internationally acclaimed conductor Jorge Parodi has worked extensively in North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Recent credits include Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro for Opera Tampa; Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires for New York City Opera, The Atlanta Opera and Opera Grand Rapids; Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia and Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi for Buenos Aires Lírica (Argentina); Britten’s The Turn of the Screw for the Castleton Festival in Virginia and The Banff Centre (Canada); Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann for Opera Orlando; Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges for The Juilliard School; and the World Premiéres of Anton Coppola’s Lady Swanwhite for Opera Tampa, and John Musto’s Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt in a coproduction of On Site Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago Lyric’s Unlimited and Pittsburgh Opera-. Most recently he made his debut at Chautauqua Opera and returned to The Atlanta Opera for Rodriguez’ Frida and to Opera Tampa for Bizet’s Carmen.

Also accomplished in the concert halls, Maestro Parodi has worked with a wide range of ensembles, as the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony, the Castleton Festival Orchestra, the Metamorphosis Chamber Orchestra, the Ensemble Zipoli for the American Baroque, the Juilliard Pre College Orchestra, the Ensamble XXI and the Orquesta del Conservatorio Nacional (Argentina), among others.

Tenor Kevin Mitchell received a Master of Music degree in Opera Performance from Wichita State University, where he worked with Samuel Ramey.

He is a core member of the St. Pete Opera.

Tenor Minghao Liu returns after performing the role of Almaviva in Barber of Seville at Gulfshore Opera in 2023.

He will perform the role Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at Opera Tampa in 2024.

Baritone Eric Luis Viñas is a Florida native who holds a Master degree in Opera Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music and University of Southern California.

He has performed with Sarasota Opera and Miami Music Festival.