Kelly Balmaceda, a native of Southern Maryland, received her degree in Vocal Performance from the renowned New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, MA. She has received extensive vocal training and coaching from Flicka Rahn, William Cotten, Jean Anderson- Collier, John Moriarty, Simon Carrington, and more. She has worked as a teaching artist with The Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York City. She has served as President of the New England Conservatory Light Opera Company and in the Educational Outreach Department with Boston Lyric Opera.  Her performance biography includes Atalanta in Xerxes, Julie Jordan in Carousel, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Maria in The Sound of Music, Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Nancy in Oliver. Having recently moved to Corpus Christi, she has performed as the soprano soloist in Brahms' Requiem, Mozart’s Vesperae Solemnes de Confessore and Karl Jenkin’s The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace with the Corpus Christi Chorale. She recently made her solo debut as Frasquita in Carmen with San Antonio Opera Company and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Sparkling City Light Opera.

contact: kbalmaceda@sparklingcitylightopera.com

Chrisi Carter is a native of South Texas, and has recently returned from New York City. Performance credits include Laurie/Dream Laurie in Oklahoma!, Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Miss Hannigan in Annie, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Woman #2 in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change!, and Louise in Always, Patsy Cline. Chrisi is currently Artist in Residence with the Corpus Christi Concert Ballet, and has performed the roles of Alice in Thom Clower’s Alice in Wonderland, Esmeralda in Mark Schneider’s Esmeralda and the Dewdrop and Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker. She has choreographed and co-directed the Corpus Christi Cathedral Concert Series Frost Holiday Spectacular, and has served as choreographer for the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra’s holiday concerts for several years. Chrisi received her B.S. in Speech-Language Pathology from TCU and her M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from NYU. She is currently working with Coastal Bend School for the Arts to develop a movement and music program for special needs children. Chrisi is the Vice President of Sparkling City Light Opera.

contact: ccarter@sparklingcitylightopera.com   

Board of Directors

Kelly Balmaceda, Founder & Artistic Director

Nan Borden, President

Chrisi Carter, Vice President

Todd Walter, Treasurer

Members at Large

Brad Kisner

Lucy Lee

Omar Lopez

Brucie Moore

Flicka Rahn

Bill Richmond

Dr. Robert Scott

Frank Trimble

Nan Borden, Soprano, is a music educator with 32 years of experience.  She has taught music with Flour Bluff ISD, St. James Episcopal School, The Montessori School of Corpus Christi, and Blanch Moore Early Childhood Development Center on the campus of A&M CC.  She is currently teaching music at the Rise School of Corpus Christi www.riseschool.org  and is running an early childhood music program called Musikgarten www.musikgarten.org  for the Coastal Bend School for the Arts.  Ms. Borden has been a member of the Corpus Christi Chorale for over 25 years where she served on the Board and was President for two terms.  Nan is on the Coastal Bend Regional Parks Foundation Board www.txregionalpark.org and also Vice President of the Corpus Christi International Competition www.ccicps.org. Nan is thrilled to be on the first Board of Directors for the Sparkling City Light Opera Company.

Flicka Rahn is an Associate Professor of Music at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi and has also served on the faculties of Brandeis University in Boston ,the Boston Conservatory of Music and the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. She is active as a performer, teacher and as a composer. Her art songs have been published in the Southern Music Company series, “Art Songs by American Women Composers”.  As a performer, Ms. Rahn has sung major operatic roles throughout the United States. She has appeared as a guest artist with the Boston Lyric Opera, New York Wagner International Society, Boston concert Opera, Minnesota Grand Opera and the San Antonio Opera to name a few. She has sung on the stages of major concert halls both here and abroad including Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall and concert halls in Belize, Guatemala and throughout Mexico. Recitals presenting her own compositions and American Art Song were recently given in La Paz, Bolivia and Toledo, Spain as part of a Cultural Music Exchange. She holds degrees from Washington University in St. Louis (B.M.E.), Texas State University (M.M) and Texas A&M-Kingsville (M.S. in Counseling).