Artistic Direction

Artistic Director . . . Sharon Kaye

Mezzo-soprano has sung with many companies in the United States, Europe and Pacific Rim.  Locally these include San Francisco Lyric Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, San Jose Lyric Theatre, and Mission City Opera.  She has also sung with the Grammy-Award-Winning San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera Chorus.  Her roles include the Dames of Gilbert & Sullivan to Verdi’s Azucena, from Strauss’ Octavian to Ward’s Elizabeth Proctor and from Moore’s Augusta Tabor to the perennial favorites, Carmen and Dalila.  Sharon's CD, Classic Christmas highlights her long relationship with master vocal coach, Russell Norman, and she has also been invited to record with the Bulgarian Radio Orchestra in Sophia. 

Ms. Kaye participated in the inaugural year of BASOTI and has had the opportunity to participate in many competitions.  She was a first place winner in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Regional Competition.  As an accomplished oratorio and recital soloist, she reaffirmed her artistry, winning 1st place in the professional division of Santa Clara University's International Art Song Festival.

She has also been active in the business of singing as a member of the Board of Governors for the American Guild of Musical Artists and is now the retired president of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing after four years in that office.

Sharon took undergraduate studies at Brigham Young University, holds a Masters in Vocal Performance and a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology.  Besides singing and producing for Mission City Opera, enjoys bringing the joy of music to Private School children in San Jose.  She is excited announce her association with Gorin School of Music in Mountain View, California and is looking forward to new projects with GSM's outstanding staff.

Growing up in the Bay Area and returning here after an eight year career in Germany, Sharon saw a need for more quality performance opportunties in the Bay Area and so founded Mission City Opera in 1996.  MCO was founded to provide an intimate arena for the many excellent local artists to present quality opera at an affordable price for Santa Clara and Bay Area residents.  She envisions the company growth to a full season, an expansion of the outreach programs to more elementary and secondary schools and the opening of the Mission City Opera Academy to train the next generation in operatic professions of all kinds.

Music Director. . . Michael Taylor

A long-time favorite with Bay Area audiences, Michael Taylor is well known as a singer, stage director and conductor.  Over the past 25 years, Mr. Taylor has appeared as a soloist with many local companies including Opera San Jose, San Francisco Opera Center, West Bay Opera, Berkeley Symphony, Vallejo Symphony, Fremont Symphony, Schola Cantorum, Reno Symphony and the San Francisco Ballet. Mr. Taylor was a regional finalist in both the San Francisco Opera Merola Auditions and the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and particpated in the San Diego Opera Apprentice Program. A winner of the 1989 Bel Canto Foundation competition, Mr. Taylor spent six weeks in Siena, Italy studying with coaches from La Scala.

Mr. Taylor’s conducting credits include “Pirates of Penzance”  and “Merry Widow” with Lyric Theare of San Jose as well as the Livermore Valley Opera productions of “Carmen,” “Die Fledermaus,” “La Traviata” and “L’Elisir d’amore.”  He was the music director for Mission City Opera’s premier production, “Die Fledermaus,” and conducted the  company’s 2004 and 2005 productions of “Cosi Fan Tutte” and “La Traviata.” Along with performing and conducting, Mr. Taylor  is an active voice teacher in the Bay Area and, is music director at the Trinity Episcopal  Church of Menlo Park and choir director at Temple Emmanuel.

John Kendall Bailey ... Associate Conductor

is Principal Conductor and Chorus Master of the Trinity Lyric Opera, Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, Chorus Master of the Festival Opera of Walnut Creek, and Music Director and Conductor of Voices of Musica Sacra. In 1994, Mr. Bailey founded the Berkeley Lyric Opera and served as its Music Director and Conductor until 2000. Since then he has been a guest conductor with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Oakland Youth Orchestra, and Oakland Ballet, and music director and conductor for productions with North Bay Opera, Goat Hall Productions, Solo Opera, the Crowden School and Dominican University. He is also a composer, and his works have been performed and commissioned in the Bay Area and abroad.

Mr. Bailey also maintains a busy performance schedule as a bass-baritone, oboist, and pianist, and has performed with the San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Oakland East Bay, Berkeley, Redding, Napa, Sacramento, and Prometheus symphonies, American Bach Soloists, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Midsummer Mozart and West Marin music festivals, San Francisco Bach Choir, Coro Hispano de San Francisco, Pacific Mozart Ensemble, California Vocal Academy, San Francisco Concerto Orchestra, Masterworks Chorale of San Mateo, Baroque Arts Ensemble, San Francisco Korean Master Chorale, the Master Sinfonia, the Mark Morris and Merce Cunningham dance companies, Goat Hall Productions, Opera Piccola, the Berkeley, Golden Gate, and Oakland Lyric Opera companies, and many other groups. He has recorded for the Harmonia Mundi, Koch International, Pro Musica, Wildboar, Centaur, and Angelus Music labels.

Mr. Bailey has been a pre-performance lecturer for the Oakland East Bay Symphony and the San Francisco Opera, a critic for the San Francisco Classical Voice, a writer of real-time commentary for the Concert Companion, and has taught conducting at the University of California at Davis.