Performer Profiles

Jeff Hemingson (Bass-Baritone) holds a B.A. in Vocal Performance from Western State College of Colorado and an M.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Denver, where he studied with world-renowned bass Kenneth Cox and internationally famous baritone Robert Gardener. He has performed lead roles in several popular operas, including Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte, Zuniga in George Bizet’s Carmen and The Sergeant of Police in Pirates of Penzance. Internationally, Hemingson performed in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Verdi’s La Traviata in Rome and Viterbo, Italy. In 2010 Hemingson decided to become a music teacher to help better young people’s lives as his teachers did for him. He is now teaching band, choir and elementary music in Norwood.

André Wilkins (Baritone), is the Ouray music teacher. He earned his B.A. in Music Education from Western State College of Colorado in 2007. Wilkins conducts the Ouray County Chorus. He has performed roles in several operas, including the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance and the Lawyer in Trial by Jury. He has performed roles in a number of musicals as well, including Hines in The Pajama Game and Alferd Packer in Cannibal! The Musical. Wilkins enjoys cycling, fishing, skiing and of course, singing!

Kellie Egging (Mezzo-Soprano) earned her B.A. in Vocal Performance from Western State College of Colorado in 2010. Egging has performed roles in several operas, including Mabel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance and Gianetta in The Gondoliers. She studied Voice at the Queensland Conservatorium in Brisbane, Australia, in 2009, where she performed as a Fairy in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe. She created the Weehawken Children’s Chorale in 2010 and continues to conduct the Chorale. Egging teaches private voice lessons in Ouray and sings Mezzo-Soprano in High Desert Opera of Grand Junction, where she recently performed as Nimue in Loewe and Lerner’s Camelot. Egging is an avid runner and finds that the wildlife of Ouray tend to leave people alone if they try to run and sing opera at the same time.

Nancy Ziglar has a B.A. in Music Education from the University of South Carolina and M.M in Musicology from the University of Colorado at Boulder. A resident of Ouray for 28 years, Ms. Z. has taught choir, general music and music history at Ouray Schools, accompanied various ensembles and directed the music for local and regional theatrical productions. Currently, she teaches at her private music lesson school “Feast on Music,” is the music director for Ouray County Players and a performer with the classical and Celtic musical group “The Chameleon Ensemble.”