There are four young artists from around the country among us, integrating into our community, giving main stage performances, and traveling to sing at regional schools and retirement communities. They are extremely talented and chasing their dreams. They are the future stars of opera.
Resident artists
These four singers are part of the Resident Artist program of the Shreveport Opera. They were interviewed in New York City and will live here for a 9-month program. Three are returning from last year, working under then-artistic director Steve Aiken who retired. Alan E. Hicks joined the Shreveport Opera as artistic director last summer.
Their first performance will be “La Boheme” on Saturday in Shreveport.
When asked about working under both, resident artist Justin Ramm-Damron, bass-baritone, said “it was a fairly easy transition, yeah. Both very different people, but in very great ways.”
Resident artist programs around the country range in length from a few weeks to a few years. “There’s something really special about the community here, and I definitely feel so grateful to be here a second year, Cambria Metzinger, mezzo-soprano, told The Shreveport-Bossier Advocate.
Justin Ramm-Damron, a bass-baritone, speaks during an interview Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, with The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate in Shreveport, La., about opera and the Shreveport Opera Resident Artist Program.
The Shreveport community
“As young artists, we move around a lot, and sometimes it’s hard to find a sense of community, because you’re constantly being uprooted and to have the opportunity to come back here and be welcomed in like family. I mean, even when we got here the first year, it seemed like every day someone was dropping off cookies at our doorstep, coming over, inviting us over for dinner, taking us out on the lake, like we’ve had so many people, just make us feel like family here.
“We, of course, love doing all the main stage shows. We do a lot of really wonderful work in the community too, going to retirement homes and singing at elementary schools. And that’s, I think, very fulfilling too,” she said. They all sing at First Presbyterian Church service on Sundays.
Describing opera
When asked about opera versus musical theater, Justin Ramm-Damron responded, “I think there’s a common misconception that there’s opera and then there’s theater. And Alan (Hicks) actually makes this comment repeatedly, that opera is primarily a theatrical art form. It’s not primarily a musical art form. It’s a staged thing. So good theater is good theater, whether it’s opera, musical theater or a straight play, you’re going to the theater, you just are happening to see a genre of thing that we call opera.”
Resident artist Gwenyth Sell, soprano, calls opera the “ultimate human art form,” which brings together the script, orchestra, singers, dancers, visual art like the scenic design, costumes, hair and makeup, and more.
Jeremy Do, a tenor, speaks during an interview Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, with The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate in Shreveport, La., about opera and the Shreveport Opera Resident Artist Program.
Jeremy Do, tenor, who hails from Delaware, is joining the Shreveport resident artist program this year. He said he has done professional choral work before but this is the first resident artistry. About landing in Shreveport, he said, “It’s nice. I don’t love the heat,” he laughed. “All the patrons have been so welcoming. It’s just a really nice community. I’m starting to, like, meet a lot of the musicians around here too, and do a little bit of extra work.”
Do and Sell both attended Indiana University and knew each other from the music program. And Metzinger already knew Hicks. “I had the privilege of knowing Alan, actually in my undergrad. He was my director, and the first opera I ever did was with Alan. So it feels like a really neat, full-circle moment to be back here with him.”
The four resident artists live together in a house in South Highlands provided by the Shreveport Opera. They said it is common for resident artists in programs across the country to live together. But these are the “best living arrangements” he’s ever had in a young artists program, “most spacious, and we have this big, beautiful house all to ourselves,” Ramm-Damron said.
Pianist Robert Cruz speaks during an interview Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, with The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate in Shreveport, La., about opera and the Shreveport Opera Resident Artist Program.
They have a piano in the house and pianist Robert Cruz, a freelance artist in Shreveport, comes over so they can rehearse together there. Cruz is the resident pianist and chorus master for the Shreveport Opera. They have been rehearsing for “La Boheme” in the house and for the last three weeks with the local chorus and other performers at Riverview Theater. Three weeks sounds like a compressed amount of time, but they said that is “pretty standard” in the industry.
About Cruz, Metzinger said “he organizes a lot of our stuff, our repertoire. He coaches us, transports the keyboard, works with the chorus, does it all.”
Uniqueness of Shreveport program
One thing that makes the resident artist program special in Shreveport is that they play main roles in the main stage performance. Ramm-Damron said, “At a lot of other programs, it’s usually you’re just covering what you know, other hired in people, so you just have to stand in the background and, like, study the entire role. But you never actually get to go on unless somebody gets sick. So this is a very unique program in that you actually get to perform a role on stage. Just very exciting.”
Sell said they “get to sing our dream roles. I’m singing Mimi in “La Boheme,” and she’s actually the reason I sing opera, really. She is my be all, end all, dream. And I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to be singing her.”
The chorus is an auditioned role made up primarily of local community members, they said.
In this line of work, these singers have and will move to different cities often. “The thing about this career, too is that everyone’s experience is different,” Sell said. Nobody’s career is exactly the same. Nobody’s path exactly the same. It’s always going to be different. We’re different paces. We’re going to be at different places for different amounts of time. It’s tricky.”
At part of the resident artist program, the group goes out into the community to perform at elementary schools and at retirement homes where they are known as the Shreveport Opera Xpress group, or SOX singers. Requests for performances can be made by filling out an online form here.
“What we always tell the young students is, what makes opera unique is that we don’t use amplification. We don’t use microphones. I mean, it’s just the power of the human voice cutting over a giant orchestra like that is just really cool, I think. And for them at that young age, to hear that, even it was a kids show, they remember us,” Metzinger said.
Cambria Metzinger, a mezzo-soprano, speaks during an interview Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, with The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate in Shreveport, La., about opera and the Shreveport Opera Resident Artist Program.
“And same with going into the retirement homes, because now what’s neat and different about that experience is a lot we’re singing music that was popular because we also sing Golden Age musical theater. And a lot of these people in these in these homes, that is their popular music. There’s some really special memory linked to some of the songs that we sing. You know, we see a lot of emotions in our audiences, and that’s really special. Those are the moments I’m like, ‘OK, I feel very fulfilled right now,’ even though it’s challenging, like moving around a lot, but that makes it worth it,” she continued.
About being opera singers, “Sometimes we text each other, like, ‘Why are we doing this?’ But then one of us will say, ‘hey, don’t forget, it’s the most magical thing in the world.’ It’s all worth it for that show, for when you’re on stage, everything leading up to it, you’re like, ‘this is worth it, because this is the closest to magic on Earth. It is so, so special, opera.”
Upcoming performances
“La Boheme” will be at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday at Riverview Theater, 600 Clyde Fant Parkway, Shreveport.
“La Boheme” is described on the Shreveport Opera website: “Set in the Latin Quarter of Paris in the late 1930s, “La Bohème” follows a group of young struggling artists as they experience the trials and tribulations of lives lived in art and love as the spectre of world war surrounds them. Centered around the somewhat toxic relationship between Rodolfo and Mimì as their passion flickers against the harsh truth of poverty and illness. Puccini’s beloved score breathes passion into every moment of the timeless libretto by Illica and Giacosa.”
“Don Giovanni” will be at 7:30 p.m. on March 21, 2026, at Riverview Theater, 600 Clyde Fant Parkway, Shreveport.
“Don Giovanni” is described on the Shreveport Opera website: “A wealthy and powerful young man cuts a wide swath through the women he encounters. When his latest “conquest” leads to tragedy, he spends the next 24 hours in an adrenaline-fueled game of hide and seek with his pursuers. At the height of his mania comes a knock at the door…Considered by many to be the greatest opera ever written, “Don Giovanni” warns that, for the wicked—whether privileged or downtrodden—justice comes in this life…or the next.
Tickets
Tickets to Shreveport Opera performances can be purchased online here.