Merola Opera Program and San Francisco Opera Center to Present Recital in March

The March 19 recital highlights the artistry of four 2024 Merola Opera Program graduates: tenor Michael John Butler, baritone Olivier Zerouali, and pianists Julian Garvue and Ji Youn Lee. Works in the program include Francis Poulenc’s Le Travail du Peintre and Calligrammes, Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Lee Hoiby’s I Was There: Five Poems of Walt Whitman and songs by Richard Strauss.
 
American tenor Michael John Butler is poised to emerge as a major contender on the international opera scene, with a voice described as having a "bright, ringing quality throughout his range" and a "plush, resonant middle voice with vibrant high notes" (OperaWire). Butler debuted with Washington National Opera as the Mission Coordinator in Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded and reprised the role in workshop with The Metropolitan Opera. In 2024, he made his international debut as Martin in Copland’s The Tender Land with Teatro Regio di Torino and recently performed Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Merola Opera Program. An alumnus of Des Moines Metro Opera and a Renée Fleming Artist at Aspen Music Festival, Butler has performed Fenton in Falstaff with Sir Bryn Terfel, the title role of Gounod’s Faust and Rodolfo in La Bohème. A Washington, D.C. native, he is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at The Juilliard School.
 
Baritone Olivier Zerouali is a first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow. As a Merola Opera Program participant he performed Silvio in a scene from Pagliacci and Malatesta in a scene from Don Pasquale. In 2023 he was Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with the Glimmerglass Festival. His other roles include Robert in Iolanta, Slook in Rossini’s Il Cambiale di Matrimonio, Betto in Gianni Schicchi, Brother in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Pandolfe in Cendrillon, the title role of Le Nozze di Figaro and Zaretsky/Captain in Eugene Onegin. Zerouali completed his undergraduate studies at SUNY Purchase’s Conservatory of Music, is currently completing his master’s degree at Yale University and has received training with the Merola Opera Program, Glimmerglass Festival, Young Artists Vocal Academy of Houston Grand Opera, Highlands Opera Studio and Berlin Opera Academy.
 
Pianist/vocal coach Julian Garvue is passionate about music in all its forms. As a first-year Domingo Colburn Stein Young Artist at LA Opera, Garvue will help prepare Così fan tutte and Ainadamar in the spring of 2025. He will also attend Wolf Trap as a Coaching Fellow this summer. With the Merola Opera Program in 2024, Garvue worked with many luminaries of the vocal/piano world, such as Carrie-Ann Matheson, Martin Katz, Warren Jones, Kevin Murphy and Mario Marra, and performed harpsichord continuo for Don Giovanni. In 2023, he attended Music Academy of the West as a fellow of the Lehrer Vocal Institute where he worked as a pianist/coach on their production of La Bohème. Garvue graduated with both his Master of Music degree and Performer’s Certificate in Collaborative Piano from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.
 
First-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow Ji Youn Lee is an accomplished pianist who recently completed her Master of Music degree in Collaborative Piano at The Juilliard School. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory (NEC). While at NEC, she was awarded first place in the Concerto Competition and performed with the New England Conservatory Symphony. Lee has collaborated with renowned orchestras, including the Brockton Symphony, the Broad Street Orchestra and the Hawaii Symphony. Other notable achievements include prizes from the Duo Competition at the Music Academy of the West, the Ke’alohi International Piano Competition and the Jacob Flier International Piano Competition. A participant in the 2024 Merola Opera Program, Lee played and coached Don Giovanni and the third act of La Bohème for the Schwabacher Summer Concert. Her rich experiences with Merola deepened her understanding of vocal collaboration and enhanced her appreciation of the opera art form.