2024-2025 GUEST ARTISTS

A native of Austin, Texas, violinist James Zabawa-Martinez has performed concerts and recitals throughout the US and Europe. Before joining the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 2024, James was a member of the second violin section of the Kansas City Symphony and also served as a violin fellow at the New World Symphony for two seasons, where he performed frequently as concertmaster under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas. James has performed with orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Utah Symphony, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. James’ primary teachers include Sally O’Reilly, Brian Lewis, and Zoya Leybin.
Violist Lydia Grimes joined the Minnesota Orchestra in September 2022. A native Minnesotan, Grimes grew up as a violinist and began studying the viola at 16 under the instruction of Sabina Thatcher. She recently received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Hsin-Yun Huang, Misha Amory and Cynthia Phelps.

Grimes has enjoyed multiple seasons performing at Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Blue Hill, Maine, and has studied chamber music with former and current members of the Juilliard String Quartet. She has been featured in masterclasses led by Heidi Castleman, Samuel Rhodes, Roger Tapping and Joel Krosnick, and has performed frequently with the New York Philharmonic, APEX Ensemble and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra. Grimes also served as principal viola of the Juilliard Orchestra for five years, leading sections under Marin Alsop, David Robertson and Kevin Edusei.
Osip Nikiforov is a Siberian concert pianist, who studied under the tutelage of the world-renowned pianists－Yefim Bronfman, Jon Kimura Parker, and Alexander Braginsky. He is also a Third prize-winner of 2016 San Antonio International Piano Competition.

Born in the city of Abakan in Siberia to a family of musicians, Osip started studying piano with his father at age 6. While still living in Russia, Osip has participated and won numerous awards in national and international competitions, such as the Gold Medal at the Delphic Games in 2006 in Astana, Kazakhstan, and Third Prize at 2008 1st International e-Piano Junior Competition in Minnesota, where at the age of fourteen he shared the prize with Jan Lisiecki. A year later, he was the winner of Dorothy McKenzie Award in New York City at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival Competition. At just 14 years of age, Osip performed Beethoven Concerto No. 3 with Minnesota Orchestra.

Since 2010 Osip Nikiforov has been residing in the United States. In February of 2024 he was part of the recording project Folk Classics from Across the Globe at Minnesota Public Radio, where Osip recorded a series of folk tale inspired piano pieces for children by the Ukranian composer Aida Isakova. This recording, as part of a special podcast, was released in May 2024 on YourClassical. In 2023 Mr. Nikiforov performed a series of all-Rachmaninoff solo programs in Texas and Minnesota, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the composer. In 2020 he was awarded First prize at San Antonio Young Artist Tuesday Musical Competition. Osip is regularly invited to perform at concert series as well as festivals, including the Schubert Club Courtroom Concert Series in St. Paul, the Salon se Leve Concert Series in Minneapolis, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, the Memorial Classical Music Series in Houston, and the Mozart Festival Texas in San Antonio. Besides the United States, he has given solo recitals in Spain, Israel, South Africa, Russia, and Japan. Osip has also frequently collaborated with national and international orchestras, including the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Khakass Philharmonic Orchestra, the Incarnate Word Symphony Orchestra, and the Golden Valley Symphony Orchestra. In 2016 he became a recipient of the Adopt a Young Artist award, given to a young classical musician in Minnesota. He is also the Second prize winner of 2014 Music Teacher National Association Competition in Young Artist Division in Chicago.

​Osip Nikiforov is a graduate of University of Minnesota, BM ’17; Manhattan School of Music MM ’19; and Rice University DMA ’23. He has also appeared on Minnesota Public Radio, Performance Today by YourClassical, WFMT Radio, GetClassical, Classical Connect, Star Tribune, and Houston Press. In Fall 2021 Osip’s first piano solo album “Russian Elegie” was released by Orpheus Classical Label on all major digital platforms. Besides performing, Osip also enjoys making his own transcriptions for piano as well as playing solo jazz piano. Currently, Osip Nikiforov is based in the Twin Cities.
Born and raised in the Twin Cities, MN, the tenth grader Tingting Wang was surrounded by music since birth through accompanying her older sibling to Yamaha piano group lessons.  At the age of three, she was adamant about taking lessons as well.  She then moved on to private lessons when she was five years old. In Spring of 2022, Tingting joined Rubinstein Music Academy to study with Dr. Denis Evstuhin, an internationally-acclaimed pianist.  Dr. Evstuhin enlightened and elevated Tingting’s technical and artistic skills, completely transforming her playing.  He also introduced her to a wider range of piano repertoire, including concertos.

Tingting had her orchestral debut with the Dakota Valley Symphony performing Saint-Saëns’s piano concerto No. 2 in G minor first movement in Spring 2024.  She is honored to be the winner of the most recent Saint Paul Piano Teachers Association (SPPTA) concerto competition and looks forward to collaborating with the Mississippi Valley Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky piano concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor first movement on February 16, 2025. Since starting with Dr. Evstuhin, Tingting has received honorable mention at the Rising Stars Concerto Competition in La Crosse, WI.  In 2023, she was awarded second place at the Minnesota Music Teachers Association Junior Young Artist contest.  For two consecutive years, she has won third place at the Piano Solo Festival contest at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul.

​Inspired by the full and beautiful sounds of orchestral music, Tingting also enjoys playing cello in the chamber orchestra at school.  Additionally, she engages in Science Olympiad and Econ Start-up club. For two consecutive years, her Science Olympiad team has won the state championship title and represented the state of Minnesota to compete at the national level.  In the community, she dances and performs in various events with her dance academy.  At home, she enjoys a variety of activities, such as baking, gardening, crocheting, and playing table tennis.
Korean American soprano Corissa Bussian returns to Minnesota Opera this season making her principal role debut.  She has regularly performed in the MN Opera chorus since 2012, having performed in multiple productions as well as New Works Initiative workshops, including singing Mrs. Massey in The Shining workshop.  Recent highlights include Mimì in Theater Latté Da’s La Bohème and Pamina in The Magic Flute with Mixed Precipitation’s Pick Up Truck Opera. Other credits include performances with local companies such as Skylark Opera Theatre (Besse, La Rondine), An Opera Theatre (Found Again, The Consul), OOPS MN (Spotlight 1.0 recital), and Theater Mu (A Little Night Music, The Mikado).

Corissa was the recipient of Opera Reading Project’s 2021-2022 IDEA Singer Fellowship where she sang Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. She has trained with The Wesley Balk Opera/Music-Theater Institute, The Janiec Opera Company at The Brevard Music Center Institute & Festival, and The Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar in Germany, where she performed the roles Susanna and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro and Despina in Così fan tutte. Corissa is a graduate of DePaul University with a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance and holds a Masters of Music in vocal performance and opera studies from The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University.

Originally from the Milwaukee area, Corissa balances performing with teaching private voice lessons and educational outreach. Things that bring her joy are baking, running, yoga, martial arts, crossword and jigsaw puzzles, and adventures around her Macalester-Groveland neighborhood with her husband and their two young sons.
Mikalia Bradberry, is a mezzo-soprano currently based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Niagara Falls natives, she received her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from Abilene Christian University and her Master of Music in vocal performance from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Ms. Bradberry’s operatic highlights include Carmen in La Tragedie de Carmen and Madame de Croissy in Poulenc’s Les Dialogues de Carmélites for the University of Minnesota, as well as Lucretia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia for An Opera Theatre in Minneapolis. In addition, she performed the role of Nia in Lyric Opera of the North’s Decameron Opera Coalition submission, The Place and soloed for Minnesota Chorale’s concert BRIDGES: Black Voices Amplified. She is the winner of St. Croix Valley Opera’s vocal competition of 2021 and collaborated for the fifth time in the lecture recital, I Too Sing America, The Friendship and Collaboration of Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes at Colorado State University in September of 2023. Additionally, Ms. Bradberry was a recent qualified competitor for the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition. She is a former student of Dr. Julie Pruett.
Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, tenor Seokho Park is the recipient of the ‘Super Rookie Award’ at the 15th Korea Opera Awards presented by the Korea Opera Festival. Dr. Park has performed the leading roles including La bohème, L’elisir d’amore, Rigoletto, L’incoronazione di Poppea, La tragédie de Carmen, La traviata, Così fan tutte, L’heure Espagnole, The Magic Flute, Cavalleria Rusticana, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Falstaff, and more across US, Canada, and South Korea.

Dr. Park earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A) degree from the Korea National University of Arts and his Master of Music (M.M) degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he began his opera career as a collaborative artist with Tri-Cities Opera. He later obtained Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A) degree from the University of Minnesota, further broadening his academic and musical experiences. In Canada, he participated in the Canadian Operatic Arts Academy (COAA) and the Accademia Europea Dell'Opera (AEDO) program at Western University, where he pursued Master of Music in Performance and Literature.

​In addition to his operatic career, Dr. Park’s diverse musical experiences include service with the Korea Army Band (tuba, trombone, and conducting), as well as involvement in contemporary music, K-pop, and musical theatre. He has received numerous awards from competitions and musical organizations and has participated in prestigious programs such as the Glimmerglass Festival Young Artists Program and the Canadian Opera Company Summer Intensive.
At home with Schubert, as he is with Stockhausen, Justin Anthony Spenner’s appearances run the gamut from recital and oratorio staples to world premieres of experimental music.

Recent stage credits include Trevor (In the Midst of Things); Man’s Voice (The Sky Where You Are) and John Sorel (The Consul) with An Opera Theatre; Schaunard (La Bohème) with Theater Latte Da; Father (The Golden Ass/World Premiere) with 113 Composers Collective; Joey (The Most Happy Fella) and Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte) with Skylark Opera Theatre; Morales/Dancaïro (Carmen) with Pine Mountain Music Festival; and 2nd Priest/Armored Man (Die Zauberflöte) with LAMF.

Soloist credits include his solo recital Like Sun Through Eyelids; Das Fliegenpapier and Strange Autumn (Steven Takasugi) and Maulwerke (Dietrich Schnebel) with 113 Composers Collective; Coffee Cantata (Bach) and Apollo e Dafne (Handel) with Le Grande Bande; Niccolai Messe/Coronation Mass/The Messiah (Haydn/Mozart/Handel) with St. John's Lutheran Music Series; Choral Fantasy (Beethoven) with St. John's University; and Ein Deutsches Requiem (Brahms) with South Metro Chorale.

His self-produced work focuses on normalizing conversations about mental illness/trauma and destigmatizing mental health treatment (I Enter As A Stranger; A Winter’s Journey). In addition to performing, Justin keeps an active private studio, develops Opera Immersion classes, and works as a grant writer/consultant for various Twin Cities non-profits and individual artists. He is the host of Is This Music?!?!, a podcast featuring conversations with composers and performers of experimental music.
Chorus Polaris is an auditioned, adult community concert choir comprised of approximately 50 professional, semi-professional, and talented amateur singers. We are an inclusive singing group. Every singer is vital to our success. We encourage everyone to grow as a musician and person, fostering fellowship among our members. Chorus Polaris exposes singers to many musical styles, performing a variety of compositions which draw from works by sacred, secular, classical, and popular composers.

​We value integrity and fairness in our business and fundraising practices.