About Us

---

Athena Mertes, Soprano, is one of the Valley’s most celebrated sopranos, whose opera and concert credits include Marie (The Daughter of the Regiment), Mimi (La Bohème), Musetta (La Bohème), Despina (Cosi Fan Tutte), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Lucy (The Telephone), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Gianetta (L’Elisir d’Amore), Morgana (Alcina), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Abigail (The Crucible), Nella (Gianni Schicchi), Waldvogel (Siegfried) and soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria, Handel’s Messiah, Brahms Requiem, Mozart Requiem, Beethoven's 9th and Honegger’s King David. She has performed as a guest soloist with the Burbank Philharmonic, Las Vegas Philharmonic, Henderson Symphony, Opera Las Vegas, Vegas City Opera, Lexington Opera Outreach and the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society. Some of her recent credits include Sylvia in the World Premiere of Behold the Man, Zelda in the West Coast Premiere of Ghosts of Gatsby and Alice B. Toklas in the West Coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Royce Vavrek’s 27 with Opera Las Vegas and she portrayed Mimi in Vegas City Opera’s La BoDead. 

She is also the Chorus Master of the Opera Las Vegas Youth Chorus and the Director of Choirs at Thurman White Academy of the Performing Arts where she has 400 students. In 2020, she received the Teacher of the Year Award from Magnet Schools of America and is also a National Board-Certified Teacher. In March of 2024, her Choir was  featured at the American Choral Directors Association Regional Conference in Pasadena, California and in April of 2024, her contemporary a cappella group was featured at the National Magnet Schools of America Conference in New York City.

Isabella Ivy made her professional solo debut in 1998. She performed in the Sydney Opera House in 2004, and has performed on three continents thus far. In 2014, she became a Resident artist at Opera San Jose in the role of Gilda in Rigoletto, where she also performed the role of Elvira in L’italiana in Algeri, the roles of Lillia Herriton and the Opera Singer in the world premiere of Where Angels Fear to Tread by Mark Weiser, Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, and Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro. Other roles include Elvira in Don Giovanni, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Madame Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, Laetitia The Old Maid and the Thief, to name a few. 

She joined Symphony Silicon Valley as the soprano soloist in Rachmaninoff’s “The Bells”, and the Merced Symphony as the soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana. She has also been a part of Target’s “Summer Pops” Concert series in San Jose.. She graduated from the UNLV honors college with a Bachelor's degree in Music Performance, and completed her Masters coursework at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. She is also active in other areas of the theater, and has worked in costuming, stage management, prop making, dance, and set design.

Miss Ivy was a semi-finalist for the Houston Grand Opera Competition, semi-finalist at the first NATS National Student Auditions, and won 3rd place at the Metropolitan Opera competition in the Colorado/ Wyoming region