A Groundbreaking Model

At OperaDelaware, we’re investing in the creative workforce and redefining what it means to build a sustainable career in the arts. Our groundbreaking Company Artist model flips the “starving artist” stereotype on its head by providing professional freelance performers with full-time employment—including salary, benefits, and a housing stipend—while investing in their growth as both artists and administrators. These dynamic artists perform on stages across the country and bring that excellence home to Delaware, where they are deeply embedded in the life of our company: contributing to artistic planning, education, development, marketing, and statewide community engagement.

Meet the Artists

Our 2024/25 Company Artists are sopranos Emily Margevich and Toni Marie Palmertree, tenor Dane Suarez, and baritone Gerard Moon. Get to know them below!

Emily Margevich, soprano

Emily Margevich is “a star in the making” (Bachtrack). Wilmington’s newest “poised and fearless prima donna” (Musical America) has been on stage since age two. Be it opera, musical theater, or the Great American Songbook, Margevich will always deliver a performance “as passionate as any Taylor Swift epic” (Theatermania). This “luminous soprano” (Wall Street Journal) gives “a voice of liquid beauty” (Opera Magazine) that is “big and luxurious, with a cascading quality, like a bolt of silk dropped from a balcony” (Parterre). Referred to as the “star of the 2022 Ocean City Pops season” Margevich stunned audiences in 2022 with her remarkable versatility singing everything with equal vigor and expertise, while also having everyone in stitches with her humor and panache” (Ocean City Daily News).

This season at OperaDelaware: Musetta (La bohème), Home for the Holidays (Delaware Theatre Company), Fascinating Rhythm (solo recital), Opera’s Greatest Moments (with the Company Artists), The Soprano Soirée (cabaret with Toni Marie Palmertree)