playbill vip

Janki Namboodiripad

Janki Namboodiripad is a sophomore at Pennsbury High School and is thrilled to play the role of Amahl in Operanauts' production of Amahl and the Night Visitors. 

This is the third time that Janki has sung the role of Amahl. In 2019, she performed this role with the Boheme Opera (NJ) and with the Kyrenia Opera in Cyprus. Other opera performances include In a Grove, a one-act chamber opera produced by the Opera Project (NJ).

Molly Burke

American mezzo-soprano, Molly Burke is making her debut in the role of Mother with Operanauts' Amahl and the Night Visitors. Her other roles include Mrs. Grose in Britten’s Turn of the Screw and Elizabeth Proctor in Ward’s The Crucible where she was praised for her “secure mezzo and intense declamation that captured Elizabeth’s strength and heartbreak.”

Ms. Burke joined the Wagner Institute for their inaugural season singing Roßweiße in Wagner’sDie Walküre. While an apprentice at Sarasota Opera she sang una vecchia in Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre Re and covered Mere Jeanne in Poulenc’s Dialouges des Carmelites. She performed Queen Leda in Die Liebe der Danae and covered Fricka for The Valkyrie at the Pittsburgh Festival Opera.

Brian Ming Chu

On the operatic stage, Brian Ming Chu, baritone, has performed with opera companies around the country, in signature roles including Marcello in La Bohème, the Count in The Marriage of Figaro, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, and Silvio in Pagliacci. He recently appeared in the title role of Anton Rubinstein's Russian opera, The Demon, at the Academy of Vocal Arts. 

Brian performed the role of the Count in Operanauts' world premiere of FANDANGO! (music by Mozart). He has appeared in recital at Carnegie’s Weill and Merkin Halls in New York, the Annenberg Center for the Arts, Washington's Phillips Collection, and as a US Embassy Cultural Artist in West Africa and Vienna, Austria.

Mr. Chu did his graduate work in voice and opera at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cornell University. He teaches on the voice faculty of Muhlenberg College (PA).