the Spirit of Christmas: A Holiday Special Cast

Jay Lucas Chacon (Host)
Jay Lucas Chacon is the founder/director of ViOp Productions and an active singer in NYC. As a result of teh COVID-19 pandemic, Jay created ViOp Productions, a virtual opera production company set up to employ artists to create and continue working through virtual medium creating opera on film, filmed concerts and online recitals, and virtual readings. He produced and performed with tenor John Riesen the duet recital Crossing Paths. ViOps second production was  a film version of La bohème Act 3 by Leoncavallo where Jay served as director, editor, and performed the role of Rodolfo. After Old American Songs ViOp Productions will produce Mascagni’ Zanetto, the Spirit of Christmas; a holiday special, a benefit concert featuring music from the musical Chess, and a recital of African American music featuring Stephanie Ball.
John Riesen (Tenor)
Hailed as “impassioned...and vibrant” (Opera Today), award-winning American tenor John Riesen is consistently impressing audiences with his "fantastic, powerful voice" (Texarkana Gazette). Recently John Riesen was seen in his Lincoln Center debut as the voice of Tony in Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story Suite as well as the tenor soloist in Stravinsky's Les Noces with the New York City Ballet, and tenor soloist in Rachmaninoff's Vespers with the NY Oratorio Society. He will be making his Carnegie Hall Debut as Tenor Soloist in the Messiah this December. He has also been seen in performance with numerous opera companies including Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Birmingham, Intermountain Opera Bozeman, Urban Arias, Pensacola Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Shreveport Opera among many others. 
Seen most recently in collaboration with PBS TV superstar and Emmy-Nominated pianist/composer Marina Arsenijevic singing new arrangements of Crossover standards as virtual concerts.
Nana Shi (Piano)
Pianist Nana Shi is a sought-after performer, collaborator, and music educator. Based in New York City, her recent engagements include solo and chamber music performances at Merkin Hall, Roerich Museum, Tenri Cultural Institute, SUNY New Paltz, and Bates College, among others. An avid chamber musician, she has participated in summer festivals such as Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and Banff Music Centre. Ms. Shi holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from SUNY Stony Brook under the tutelage of Gil Kalish, and Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She is a founding member of PinkNoise Ensemble, a New York City-based chamber ensemble dedicated to musical improvisation and compositions in acoustic and electronic mediums. She currently teaches as an adjunct faculty at SUNY New Paltz and serves as a staff accompanist for the Preparatory Division at the Juilliard School.