Leadership

Isaac Selya
Founder and Artistic Director

A musician of remarkable versatility, Isaac has extensive experience as a conductor, pianist, vocal coach, cellist and entrepreneur. He made his German debut conducting the world-famous Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in fall 2018. He has been a featured Spotlight Artist in Musical America, and has guest conducted the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic in China, the National Symphony of Guatemala, and Pacific Opera Project, where he led the Los Angeles stage premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta. For the Glimmerglass Festival, he coached and conducted the first-ever reading of the revised version of Philip Glass’s Appomattox, with the composer present. He was recently named an inaugural conducting associate at the Defiant Requiem Foundation, which presents performances of Verdi’s Requiem in commemoration of artists interested at the Terezín Ghetto, who performed Verdi’s Requiem in defiance of the Nazis. He also serves as Music Director of the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic.

In 2025, Isaac will make his debut conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Ballet in a production of The Wizard of Oz as part of the Ballet Music Director search.

Isaac holds a doctorate from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, where he specialized in historical casting trends in Mozart’s operas. He is one of the few conductors in the world who has conducted Mozart’s complete German-language operas.

With QCO, Isaac is responsible for selecting repertoire, contracting artists, coaching singers from the piano, and conducting performances. In addition, he handles librarian duties such as ordering parts and marking bowings. He is also responsible for administrative duties such as fund-raising, publicity, and renting performance spaces.

Alea Vernon
Social Media Manager

Cherokee Indian, and Italian-American Soprano, Alea Louise Vernon obtained her Bachelors degree at The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Elliot Madore and William McGraw. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School Pre-College Division; and an alumna of The Ensign-Darling Fellowship at The Bushnell Theater in Hartford, Connecticut. 

Ms. Vernon grew up in the New Haven area of Connecticut. Much of her childhood was spent making Sunday Sauce at Nana’s, learning about her Dad’s home and stories, and apple picking with her brothers. Drawing from her multi-cultural background, Ms. Vernon enjoyed learning about and honoring family traditions, especially from her Italian-American and Appalachian Cherokee descendants.

Ms. Vernon has been a featured soloist with organizations appearing in renowned theaters such as Carnegie Hall, Paul Hall, The Bushnell Theatre, Peter J. Sharp Auditorium, Seiji Ozawa Hall, and The New World Center. This season, Ms. Vernon could be heard throughout the greater Ohio region as a soprano soloist in the Lord Nelsen Mass by Hayden, the Nunes Garcia Requiem, Messiah, and Mozart’s Requiem. 

At CCM, Ms. Vernon was involved with projects spanning multiple genres including art song, opera, and musical theater. She debuted as Eurydice in Orpheus in the Underworld, as well as Die Königin der Nacht. In 2022 Ms. Vernon made her debut with the Princess Cruise Line and headlined in their on-board production, where she sang the role of Die Königin der Nacht. On this same tour, she also performed a solo concert with the house orchestra, which repertoire spanned from golden age musical theater to classical cabaret standards, to operatic hits. Ms. Vernon is particularly passionate about twenty-first-century music. This spark ignited when she did her first world premiere in October of 2018, in The Midwest Composers Symposium. Since then, she has been involved in several premieres in both opera and concert repertoire. In 2022, Ms. Vernon premiered the song “Take This Job and…” by Evan Mack, as a collaboration with Cincinnati Song Initiative. The two have plans to debut the rest of the song cycle in 2024. Additionally, she workshopped Revenants, a new opera, written by Eli Lucas with the Scandinavian Society. 

Prior to beginning her studies at CCM, Alea spent her summers at The Casentino Voice Festival in Popi, Italy, New York Summer Music Festival, The Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and The Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. In the summer of 2019, Ms. Vernon was a member of The Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center. She became one of the youngest members to ever hold residency. In 2020, she was scheduled to be a Colburn Fellow at Songfest in Los Angeles, California, as well as join the Berlin Opera Academy, in Germany, prior to the pandemic. 

Ms. Vernon is a National YoungArts Winner, Second Place Winner in SongSlam, a competition that commissions new works, a 3Arts Scholarship Winner, First Place in The American Prize Women in Song, Pre College Division, First Place in The American Prize Women in Opera, Pre-College Division,  and a two time George London Scholarship Recipient.