Voices of Women Concert Series
Women’s History Month: Circus of Song
Friday, March 7 @7:30 at Summerlin Library
Friday, March 14 @7:00 at Windmill Library
Friday, March 21 @7:00 at West Charleston Library
A musical circus of song, story and poetry celebrating groundbreaking female zoologists, marine biologists and ornithologists.
Concerts are free and open to the public on a first come basis. Appropriate for all ages!
Circus of Song - Featuring
Kayla Wilkens
Soprano Kayla Wilkens is delighted to return to Vegas City Opera after appearing in their collaboration with Meow Wolf's Omega Mart in Prokofiev's The Love For Three Oranges this fall. Here in Vegas, she’s appeared at Super Summer Theater as Cinderella in Cinderella and Polly in The Threepenny Opera with Vegas City Opera, and with Opera Las Vegas as Isabel in Again and Again and Again, Littler Zegler in Proving Up and Teen Zelda in The Ghosts of Gatsby. An enthusiastic supporter of developing new works, she appeared in the premiere and national tour of the musical We’ll Meet Again (Millie O’Brien), and opera premieres of Diary of a Madman (Sahfee), Vía Láctea (Peggy cover/featured soloist), Culture, Culture! (Page), and O Pioneers! (Marie Shabata). Other contemporary concert soloist credits include Stephen Paulus’ To Be Certain of the Dawn with the Lincoln Choral Artists, John Muehleisen’s Pietà with Abendmusik, and the premiere of Libby Larsen’s Moabit Sonnets with the Linfield Chamber Orchestra. Upcoming, she will appear as Cecile in The Dangerous Liaisons with Vegas City Opera, as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Mass in F Major at UNLV, and as the soprano soloist in Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass with Masterworks Choral Ensemble. www.kaylawilkens.com
Dina Emerson
Dina Emerson (Mezzo Soprano) first came to Las Vegas in 2000 for a temporary contract to replace the lead singer at O by Cirque du Soleil, and to her surprise, is still here 22 years later. She migrated over to Mystère by Cirque du Soleil where she sang more than 5000 shows and earned the nickname “The Iron Lung” from the lighting crew. Before settling in Las Vegas, Dina lived in NYC for over a decade and was known for her versatility and commitment to new and unusual works (The Village Voice called her a “vocal chameleon”). Most notably, she spent 15 years touring the world as a member of MacArthur Genius award winner Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble. Currently she is back at O as the alternate lead singer and is thrilled to be a part of this production, as the music of Kurt Weill has been an obsession of hers from a young age.
Oksana Trygubenko
Ukraine native based in Las Vegas, is lyrical soprano studying at UNLV under the tutelage of Dr. Monica McCullough-Williams as a graduate student. Raised in Chernihiv (Ukraine) since the age of 11 start to build her way as a singer. Graduated from Kiev National University of Art and Music.
Oksana performed as a pop artist in different ensembles and duets in Ukraine and all around the globe. Hired as a performer in such countries as Maldives, AOE, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia, was a lead singer in party band on Royal Caribbean Cruise ship in Los Angeles back in 2022. She came to Vegas at the end of 2023 to and is honored to be on the Vegas City Opera stage, to share traditions and music heritage of her native country with people around as well as appreciate cultural diversity of United States.
Jae Ahn-Benton, Collabrative Pianist
Jae Ahn-Benton, born in South Korea, first studied piano at the age of 5. He continued his studies with Roger Bushell in Las Vegas, NV, where he started to participate in various competitions and performances, such as MTNA and Henderson Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition.
He continued studying piano in college with Dr. Mykola Suk at UNLV, performing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with their orchestra, under the direction of Taras Krysa. As a solo pianist, Jae has given numerous concerts for various causes locally, including benefit
concerts for family members, as well as nonprofit organizations. Most recently, he performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society, under the direction of Randy Pagel.
As a collaborative pianist, Jae has worked with nearly 1,000 individual music clients since 2010, working closely with local companies and institutions such as the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Henderson Symphony Orchestra, Vegas City Opera, and the UNLV Symphony Orchestra. Since 2014, he has been working as a staff pianist at the Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, a program
founded by renowned dramatic mezzo-soprano Dolora Zajick.
As a self-taught composer and arranger, Jae has written over 100 original compositions and more than 30 arrangements and transcriptions. Notable premieres include his own 24 Preludes, Op. 60, Sonata in F minor for Cello and Piano, Op.86 (with cellist Jeremy Russo), Variations on a
Theme by Maykapar, Op. 96 (with his wife, pianist Maria Kolesnyk), and Variations on “God rest ye merry, gentlemen”, Op. 101.