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Artistic Director/ Chorus Master - Joseph Rawley
Bass-baritone Joseph Rawley enjoys an active performing career, including opera performances, recitals, and choral works. Some of the venues where Mr. Rawley has performed include Seattle Opera, Portland (OR) Opera, Opera Idaho, and Opera in the Heights here in the Houston area. He performs locally with various churches and other artistic outlets as a chorus member and soloist.
He is the Christian Education Director and Children’s Choir Director at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Houston. He also serves the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Houston as their Artistic Coordinator and Chorus Master, teaches music through Alvin Community College, and teaches voice privately. When not busy with work, Mr. Rawley enjoys reading, golfing, and spending time with his family.
Mr. Rawley makes his home in Pearland, TX where he lives with his wife, pianist Dr. Sarah Spencer-Rawley, and their daughter Susannah. [photo credit: Shannon Langman]
Stage Director - Nicole Kenley Miller
Nicole Kenley-Miller is known for her colorful and embodied productions of opera and music theatre, both on stage and film. She is very much at home both on and off the stage as a director, producer, singer, and creative artist.
Throughout her career, she has worked fluidly between the opera and music theatre genres. She has been at the forefront of an initiative to bring musical theatre to the Schools of Music, Theatre and Dance at University of Houston, where she directed the first two collaborative musicals. Nicole has been directing opera at UH’s Moores Opera Center for almost a decade, where her innovative productions have won top prizes from The National Opera Association, The American Prize, and multiple national and international film competitions. Her work has also been seen at Opera in the Heights, the former Sugar Land Opera, and at several regional colleges and universities.
Nicole's latest creative venture is the founding of Intersection Arts, an organization which explores the convergence of different art forms to speak to social and cultural issues of our day. Its first production, The Women Have Something to Say, was featured on the Kennedy Center’s pandemic livestream series Arts Across America, and a new version of the show will be premiering in New York in May 2023.
Nicole holds a doctorate from University of Houston where she currently serves as Production Manager and ad hoc Stage Director for Moores Opera Center. She is a proud alum of the Houston Gilbert & Sullivan Society where she covered the role of Katisha as an undergraduate in 1997.Music Director - Eiki Isomura
Japanese-American conductor Eiki Isomura is artistic director and principal conductor of Opera in the Heights (OH) in Houston, where he has led over a hundred performances of over twenty-five operas, drawing consistent praise for elevating the company's performance standard.
He has guest conducted at Opera Philadelphia, Opera Santa Barbara, MUSIQA, and Temple University. His upcoming engagements include Opera Orlando, Harrower Workshop at Georgia State University, and Houston Grand Opera Community and Learning.
He previously served on the music staff as conductor and pianist with HGOco and Opera in the Ozarks. A devoted advocate for new music, Isomura has co-produced and music directed several world premieres with OH through partnerships with MUSIQA, the American Center for New Works Development, and the Decameron Opera Coalition. Eiki serves on the Artistic Services Council of Opera America.
Prior to his appointment at OH, Eiki served as director of orchestral activities at Lone Star College-Montgomery and remains a passionate educator. Eiki holds a doctorate in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan and was a conducting fellow at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He resides in Houston with his spouse and most trusted collaborator, mezzo-soprano Monica Isomura, and their two children.