Resident Artists

Toledo Opera's 2024-2025 Resident Artists

Sarah Rachel Bacani, soprano

Filipino-American soprano Sarah Rachel Bacani is currently the soprano Resident Artist at Toledo Opera where she performs the role of Adèle/Spirit of the Rose in their touring outreach production of Grétry’s Beauty and the Beast. Her 2023-2024 season included covering the role of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette) at Central City Opera, where she also performed the role in their Family Matinee production as a Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program Apprentice Artist. In 2022, also with Central City Opera, she made her professional debut performing the role of Mariola in Heggie’s Two Remain. On the Indiana University Opera Theater stage, she performed the roles of Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte). There, she also performed in scenes as Leïla (Les Pécheurs de Perles), Micaëla (Carmen), and Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte). An accomplished competitor, this year, she placed in the Top 12 of the Inaugural Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition and is a semi-finalist in Fort Worth Opera’s McCammon Voice Competition. She previously competed as a finalist for the 2024 Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera National Voice Competition, placing sixth (Kay Carpenter Memorial Award) and winning the Irene Patti Swartz Memorial Award to a Soprano. She was also a semi-finalist for the 2024 Shreveport Opera Mary Jacobs Smith Singer of the Year Competition. In concert, Ms. Bacani has performed the soprano solo in Britten's Les Illuminations, Mozart’s Requiem, and Getty’s The White Election. Hailing from Toms River, NJ, Ms. Bacani received her Performer Diploma and Master of Music in voice at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she studied under the tutelage of Jane Dutton. She received her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Cynthia Hoffmann.

 Emily Cotten, mezzo soprano

Mezzo-soprano Emily Cotten graduated from Loyola University New Orleans with her masters in vocal performance in 2022. While at Loyola, she performed as La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), Mistress of the Novices (Suor Angelica), and Belinda (Dido and Aeneas). During the pandemic, she participated in Loyola's "Cura Personalis" project- premiering songs with words by librettist Jerre Dye and music by Dylan Trần. She received her Bachelor of Music at the University of Michigan, where she was an EXCEL grant recipient and performed in Bolcolm's Dinner at Eight and Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. She spent two summers as an Apprentice Artist with Opera in the Ozarks, where she performed roles such as Despina (Così Fan Tutte), Desiree Armfeldt (A Little Night Music), and Public Opinion (Orfee aux Enfers). Ms. Cotten is a member of the St. Thomas Bach Project, the May Festival Chorus, and has performed with Coro Volante. She is an avid believer that all people should have access to live music performance and music education and has worked in an administrative capacity with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Brady DelVecchio, tenor

Robbie Raso, baritone

Baritone Robbie Raso is a graduate of the AJ Fletcher Opera Institute at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, the Eastman School of Music, and the Carnegie Mellon School of Music. Most recently, he performed the roles of Chrevreuse (Maria di Rohan) and Marcaniello (Lo frate 'nnamurato) at UNCSA. In the summer of 2023, Mr. Raso performed the roles of Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Dandini (La Cenerentola) with Mediterranean Opera Festival in Caltagirone, Sicily. Other performance highlights include Jack Absolute (The Rivals), Rodomonte (Orlando paladino), and Zebul (Jeptha) at UNCSA; Johannes "Pa" Zegner )Proving Up), Rapunzel's Prince (Into the Woods), and Ophèmon (L'amant anonyme) at Eastman; and Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro), Count Robinson (Il Matrimonio Segreto), and Papageno (The Magic Flute) at Carnegie Mellon University. He also originated the role of Border Guard (ID, Please) at the Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival in London in 2017. In addition to singing, Mr. Raso is also an instrumentalist, having studied trombone since middle school.

Alessandro (Alex) Rotundo, pianist

Alessandro (Alex) Rotundo graduated from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in 2022, earning a B.M. in composition and piano, under the tutelage of Kevin Puts and Shirley Yoo. He earned his M.M. in Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in the Mason Bates studio, where he was also very active as a collaborative pianist. In addition, he received a regular High School Diploma in Piano Performance with honors from the National Guild of Piano Teachers of the American College of Musicians; completed the MTAC Certificate of Merit Advanced Level Exam with Honors, performing in MTAC Panel Audition State Panel Finals. He was also a violinist in California’s Peninsula Youth Orchestra up until 2018, and played upright and electric bass in the Hillsdale High School Jazz Ensemble. His first orchestral work, composed when he was 10, was premiered in May 2010 by the intermediate division of the Peninsula Youth Orchestra. From 2014 to 2018, he studied composition with David Conte and violin performance with Monika Gruber and Joseph Maile at the Pre-College division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM). He has won numerous composition awards, including the Peabody Institute's Otto Ortmann Composition Prize and the Multicultural Sonic Evolution Composition Competition.