The Performers & Creative Team

Mezzo-soprano, Dana Kinney, is recognized as “a consummate storyteller with a warm and clear tone.” She’s performed throughout Colorado in roles such as Dinah in Trouble in Tahiti, Carmen in Carmen, Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, and Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana. Other performances include Mercédès (Carmen) and Tisbe (La Cenerentola) in upstate New York with Opera Ithaca.

Ms. Kinney discovered her passion for performing as a member of the Junior Denver Bronco Cheerleaders. She continued her training as a dancer, giving yearly recitals and playing in theatrical productions throughout the community. These experiences fueled her ambition for staged theater and prepared her for character roles such as The Baker’s Wife (Into the Woods), Zita (Gianni Schicchi), Baba (The Medium) and Buttercup (H.M.S Pinafore). Ms. Kinney continues to expand her performing repertoire as a comedic actor and writer, finding ways to bridge her two loves of singing and comedy together. She can be seen on the Improv and Sketch Comedy House Teams at Rise Comedy, performing monthly, in Denver, Colorado.

Ryan Pachmayer is a writer and marketer based in Arvada, Colorado. He founded Puzzah! escape rooms in 2014 and helped grow the company to three locations prior to the pandemic, focusing on incorporating customer preferences into new experiences, press marketing, and company management. Ryan is currently the beer writer for Westword Magazine, and freelance writes about beer and food for a number of publications. He is also the marketing director for NewImage Brewing. He has co-written several short films and helped a number of organizations in the gaming, food, and beverage industries. Ryan enjoys finding and sharing stories, especially those that are process or cause-driven.

Hailed as “opulent and rich”, Soprano Leah Podzimek’s recent roles include Mrs. Gleaton (Susannah) and Second Lady (The Magic Flute) with Opera Fort Collins, Rosita & Fulang (Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World) with Central City Opera, Princess Dora (The Three Feathers) with Opera Steamboat, and Voice 1 in the world premiere of composer Nathan Hall’s new opera, Atlas of Remote Islands. She is also the core vocalist in the Rocky Mountain Region’s premiere new music group, The Playground Ensemble, and continues to work extensively through her business, Luster Productions, to perform in interactive performances including “Interplay: Art + Opera” which was recently presented by Opera Steamboat and Boulder Opera.

Based in Denver, Ms. Podzimek received her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Wartburg College, and MA from Goldsmiths, University of London. While abroad she performed roles with OperaGold (Tytania/A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Giornata Opera (Suor Osmina/Suor Angelica), and Park Opera (Chloë/The Queen of Spades). She has received scholarships to attend and perform at the Aldeburgh Festival, Dartington International Summer School for Music, Abingdon School for Solo Singers, and OperaWorks in Los Angeles, and was recently the sole Vocal Fellow at the 2023 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice. She currently studies with Dramatic Soprano Alexandra LoBianco.

In addition to her career as a performer, Ms. Podzimek is a freelance arts administrator & creative producer. She works with non-profit arts organizations, providing services in fundraising, project management, events, and more. She has held leadership roles with Boulder Symphony, Meow Wolf Denver, and Curious Theatre among others, and currently serves on the boards of Junkyard Social Club and Control Group Productions. She is also the owner of Luster Productions, a creative consultancy and production company that specializes in innovative performance experiences rooted in opera that embrace the artform's core characteristic of storytelling. Luster’s mission is to use music theater and opera to tell stories that contemporary audiences can relate to, embracing the diverse array of lived experiences of both composers and artists to create innovative musical experiences that connect audiences. Recent Luster projects of note include co-producing the immersive Japanese folktale experience, ZOTTO, and the world premiere of Unbound: A Kink Opera by Nathan Hall.

Filipino bass-baritone Jerome Síbulo is an active performer, educator, and arts administrator in the Denver area. He was recently seen as Voice 6 in the world premiere of Nathan Hall’s Atlas of Remote Islands, the Page in Central City Opera’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance with the Empire Lyric Players. Jerome teaches voice lessons in his private studio, is the Director of the Music & Arts Ministry at Trinity United Methodist Church in downtown Denver, and is a co-manager of Opera on Tap Colorado.

Prior to moving to Colorado in 2019, he was a Principal Vocal Artist with Heartland Sings in Fort Wayne, IN for four years. There, he performed and taught a variety of genres of music, including opera, oratorio, musical theatre, pop, jazz, and a cappella. In the summer of 2019 alone, he sang in an a cappella quintet concert, performed in a semi-immersive, fully acted Cole Porter revue, and was the baritone soloist in Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem. As a teaching artist, Jerome taught voice lessons, coached choirs, taught arts-integrated curricula, and co-created their Vocal Arts Institute.

Jerome has performed roles with Intimate Opera of Indianapolis, Reimagining Opera for Kids, IU Opera and Ballet Theater, IU Latin American Music Center, the Sieur Duluth Summer Arts Festival, and Monroe County Civic Theater. He has also appeared on concert stages in the US, Canada, and the Philippines.

Silen Wellington (they/he) is a sculptor of sound, artist of people, storyteller, genderqueer shapeshifter, mercurial name collector, and lover, among other things. Avidly interdisciplinary, they make art as act of service, healing, disruption and magic, weaving together disciplines of poetry, acoustic sound, electronics, ritual, and performance art. Internationally performed from Invercargill, Aotearoa New Zealand to Hyderabad, India, their work has won competitions & commissions from places such as The Boulder Arts Commission and Colorado’s Bohemian Foundation and from ensembles such as Ars Nova Singers, Denver’s Playground Ensemble, Resonance Women’s Chorus, and Phoenix: Colorado’s Transgender Community Choir. They are a 2022-2023 American Opera Initiative Fellow with Washington National Opera for a production at the Kennedy Center, 2022 Bouman Fellow with the composer collective Kinds of Kings, and a 2019 SEAMUS Allen Strange Award recipient. Their work has been performed in gardens whispering delightful fae dances to the trans-ancestors that escape definition, featured boys in dresses next to saxophones, unveiled prescription label collages amid chaotic soundscapes of dysphoria, danced nonbinary shadow puppets behind sheets of rainbow light, and given permission to intramuscular testosterone injections under expansive life-giving harmonics. Silen currently lives on Cheyenne, Arapaho & Ute land in what is otherwise known as Fort Collins, Colorado. Outside of music, they are published poet and writer and work in peer support for people, especially LGBTQIA+ youth, struggling with mental health & suicidality. Besides writing music & hanging out with Gen Z gender aliens, they enjoy harvesting stories, unhinged-unfettered-unapologetic dance, and falling in love.