The Singers

Originally from Memphis, NINA GARGUILO has been performing and teaching in the Phoenix area since 2011. Most recently, she performed as Sarah in Harrower Opera's Ballad of Baby Doe, and has performed roles including Despina (Così fan tutte) Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), and Maria (West Side Story). In the summer of 2013, Nina sang the title role in Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank at the Mittelsächsisches Theater in Freiberg, Germany. While obtaining her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Mississippi, Nina was a member of the Mississippi Early Music Ensemble. She completed her DMA in Vocal Performance at ASU in 2017, and took her research of American Southern music to New York and Brooklyn. Nina finds joy in exploring performance practices, styles, and dialects in music. Nina teaches music and voice at Phoenix College and seeks to promote American Opera, Art Song, and Broadway repertoire in her own work as well as in her teaching.

Holly Sheppard has been singing professionally in the Phoenix area for over two decades. She is in her 20th season with the Grammy® Award-winning Phoenix Chorale, contributing to numerous live performances across the valley and several recording projects. As a versatile soloist, Holly appears regularly in concert series and operatic productions, including frequent appearances in concert with Phoenix Opera. Recent highlights include performing as the mezzo-soprano soloist in the Arizona Bach Festival’s Messiah (2025) and Dvořák’s rarely performed Stabat Mater at St. Barnabas. Her stage credits include Sesto in La Clemenza di Tito at the Trentino Music Festival in Italy (2019) and covering Mercédès in Arizona Opera’s Carmen (2022). Alongside her vocal career, Holly has worked as a 3D and motion graphics artist in the video game and slot machine industries. She lives in Mesa with her husband, George, and their birds, Pico and Olive, where they enjoy exploring the outdoors.

Two facts about my life:
1) I used to tour the world with three time Grammy Award winning
vocal ensemble Chanticleer as chair one soprano.
2) I once witnessed someone unknowingly discover a recording of me singing art songs, and
they said ‘Oh, I get it. It’s Miss Piggy doing opera.’
Take from this what you will.

JAMES GRANDJEAN is a native of Prescott, Arizona, he earned his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Oklahoma City University in 2014 and has since performed around the country and world. After moving to Phoenix, James has sung with various ensembles including the Grammy award-winning Phoenix Chorale, Canto Vivo Chorale, Arizona Musicfest, The Prescott Quartz Ensemble and the Arizona Opera Chorus. James was also privileged to appear in the world premiere of Paula Prestini’s operatic adaptation of Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea last fall, and served as an education outreach artist for Arizona Opera in 2020. Other notable opera roles include Ferrando in Cosi fan Tutte, Laurie in Mark Adamo’s Little Women, The Stage Manager in Ned Rorem’s Our Town, and Le Remendado in Carmen. In his spare time, he enjoys figure skating and works at a litigation firm in Scottsdale.

JORDAN MURILLO is a vocalist with expansive vocal range from Tucson, Arizona with strong ties to operatic and choral performance. In 2022, Jordan took his talents to Phoenix, Arizona to promote in his career field of working with the blind community of Arizona through his non profit organization Saavi Services for the Blind. Finding opportunities to sing once becoming settled in Phoenix came in abundance, and Jordan is currently a bass vocalist in the Phoenix Chorale, The Quartz Ensemble in Prescott, Arizona and is ecstatic to be joining Helios. Jordan studied voice at the University of Arizona under Dr. Kristen Dauphinais and sung as a concert soloist, operatic bass-baritone, and beatboxer/soloist for his a cappella group Amplified. Jordan had his operatic debut with the Amarillo Opera House in their production of Michael Ching’s Speed Dating Tonight!  Through the Inner Voice Studio Jordan has been able to teach lessons to many communities on growing stylistic approaches in contemporary singing, as well as vocal percussion (beatboxing). Eager to create impactful performances that enrich our communities, Jordan Murillo has been described as having a “...controlled and effortless singing style [that] gives the performance an acoustic feel that’s simply impressive.” (Alexander, 2018).