Brooke Tolley, General Director
Brooke Tolley is a native of Roanoke, Virginia and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from Liberty University and a Master of Arts in Voice from Radford University. Brooke’s opera roles include Kate Pinkterton in Madama Butterfly, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief and Lucy in Menotti’s The Telephone. As a concert soloist, Brooke has performed in Handel’s Messiah, DuBois’ Seven Last Words of Christ, Schubert’s Mass in G, and Pepper Choplin’s A Journey with the Shepherd, which she premiered at Lincoln Center in 2017.
As an experienced voice teacher, she has maintained a private voice studio for students across the Roanoke Valley since 2012 and has taught lessons at Opera Roanoke, the Jefferson Center’s Music Lab and Hollins University.
She was a participant in Leadership Roanoke Valley’s Class of 2019 and was chosen as one of only three opera administrators across the country to attend The Hart Institute for Women Opera Conductors and Administrators at The Dallas Opera in 2018. Brooke was appointed General Director of Opera Roanoke in 2019 and was chosen by The Roanoker magazine as one of Roanoke’s “40 Under 40” in 2021. She is passionate about connecting audiences of all ages with opera in both traditional and non-traditional venues and believes that opera should be accessible to all.
Email: btolley@operaroanoke.org
Steven White, Artistic Director
Praised by Opera News as a conductor who “squeezes every drop of excitement and pathos from the score,” Steven White is one of North America’s premiere operatic and symphonic conductors. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2010, conducting performances of La traviata starring Angela Gheorghiu. Since then, he has conducted a number of Metropolitan Opera performances of La traviata, with such stars as Natalie Dessay, Hei-Kyung Hong, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Hampson, Dmitri Hvorostovksy and Matthew Polenzani. In the past several seasons he has returned to the Met to participate in critically fêted productions of Don Carlo, Billy Budd, The Rake’s Progress and Elektra.
With a vibrant repertoire of over eighty titles, Maestro White’s extensive operatic engagements have included performances with New York City Opera, L’Opera de Montréal, Vancouver Opera, Opera Colorado, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Baltimore Opera, New Orleans Opera, and many others. In recent seasons he has conducted Rigoletto with San Diego Opera, Otello with Austin Opera, Tosca with Utah Opera, and Eugene Onegin with Opera Omaha.
In the 2022-2023 season he returns to the Metropolitan Opera for their production of Der fliegende Holländer, and makes his debut at the Wexford Opera Festival in Ireland. He continues his close collaboration with Opera Omaha, conducting Le nozze di Figaro. He joins Rutgers University as an artist-in-residence and conductor of La bohème, and returns to Opera Roanoke for Glory Denied in February and Britten’s War Requiem in April.
Katie Hylton, Operations Manager
Katie Hylton grew up in Collinsville, Virginia- about an hour southeast of Roanoke, where she found a love for people, history, museums, and the arts. She graduated from the University of Virginia's College at Wise with a bachelor's of arts in public history, where she learned how history and culture are essential to society. Since graduating, Katie has bounced around from places such as Reynolds Homestead, the Virginia Museum of Natural History, and Wonder Universe: A Children's Museum. She enjoys interacting with people, jamming to music (especially live music events and performances), and reading a good book. Katie is excited to join Opera Roanoke and to help facilitate bringing culture to the Roanoke Valley, one smile and performance at a time.
Email: khylton@operaroanoke.org
Robert Chafin, Director of Education and Community Engagement
Robert Chafin is a world-renowned American opera singer and music educator. Born and raised in Christiansburg, Virginia, Rob's love for music and performing was first discovered when he joined his local church choir at a young age. After completing his undergraduate and graduate studies in voice and opera performance at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Robert received a scholarship to study German in Europe. While there, he landed a guest contract singing Rodolfo in La Boheme, and it was here that his career took off.
Chafin quickly gained a reputation for his incredible talent and versatility as an opera singer, performing a wide range of works from Mozart to Rossini, title roles in Don Carlo, Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Les Troyens, and the German composers Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Robert's performances have taken him to some of the most prestigious venues in the world, including Carnegie Hall, Covent Garden in London, and the Salzburg Summer Festival. He has also worked with some of the most celebrated conductors and directors in the business, including Riccardo Muti, Fabio Luisi, and Donald Runnicles. In 2022, he recorded all five of Benjamin Britten's Canticles with InSeries Opera of Washington, D.C., showcasing his continued commitment to his art. He has sung lead roles in numerous other projects in the United States and abroad, including award-winning recordings of Richard Strauss and Franz Schreker.
In demand as a voice instructor in a variety of genres, Rob was a Visiting Guest Professor at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music residency in the spring of 2021 and a master teacher at the prestigious Brevard Music Center opera program in the summer of 2022. In addition to professorships at Radford University, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia University and serving as the Young Artist Program Director of Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Rob has been a sought-after masterclass technician throughout the United States and Europe.
Today, Robert Chafin serves as the Young Artist Program director at Opera Roanoke, where he continues to inspire and mentor young singers. Currently a guest lecturer at Virginia Tech with the School of Theater and Dance, Chafin will join the world-class faculty of the International Summer Opera Festival in Morelia, Mexico this June and looks forward to giving master classes in Europe
Email: robchafintenor@gmail.com
Dillon Swanson, Chorus Master
Dillon J. Swanson is among the most notable, up-and-coming liturgical musicians and scholars, awarded for his practice and innovation in the art of sacred music, liturgical theology, and worship practices.
Dillon studied music at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota in the areas of organ performance and church music with Dr. Peggy Johnson, Dr. Jay Hershberger, and Professor Andrew Steinberg; and vocal performance and pedagogy with Dr. Holly Janz and Peter Halverson. Dillon also studied both instrumental and choral conducting with Dr. Kevin F. E. Sütterlin, Dr. Kira Haler Knutson, and Dr. Michael Culloton.
Dillon has worked in music ministry in a variety of roles and congregations in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Virginia for over a decade. He currently serves as Director of Music Ministries at Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church, in Roanoke, Virginia. Dillon recently finished his 4-year tenure as Cantor for the campus ministry of Concordia College and 2-year tenure as Cantor for the community of Bethesda Lutheran Church, both of Moorhead. He has also served on the worship staff of the Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival (LSM) facilitated by the Lutheran Music Program at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana as organ fellow under the mentorship of Chad Fothergill during the 2020-21 seasons.
Dillon has also held several professional titles and appointments and currently works with Opera Roanoke as Chorus Master and vocal music accompanist at Roanoke College. Prior to moving to Roanoke, Dillon held the offices of Dean of the Red River Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (RRVAGO) and President of the Red River Theatre Organ Society (RRTOS). Other appointments included serving as House Organist of the Fargo Theatre and Producer of the annual RRTOS Silent Movie Night and the Holiday Pipes Concert Series at the Fargo Theatre.
As an author and composer, Dillon has contributed to the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM) journal CrossAccent. Several recent commissions and premieres include choral and orchestral hymn setting, anthems, and instrumental works for ensembles and churches in Virginia, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Ohio. Of notable interest is for Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church’s Centennial (2024), Concordia College’s Centennial Homecoming (2021), and the RRVAGO 75th Anniversary (2020).
Dillon is also an avid researcher with current interests in the organ and choral music of J. S. Bach, oratorios of Felix Mendelssohn, and the liturgy and musical settings of the Requiem. He completed a historical survey of the liturgical use of the organ with musicologist Dr. Annett Richter in the summer of 2020. His most recent research writing project explores the theological confessions represented within Bach’s musical rhetoric found in the Clavier-Übung III. In the writing, he argues that the Clavier-Übung III was Bach’s translation of Martin Luther’s Catechisms into the musical vernacular.