Victoria Arriero- Owner/Director, Voice, Acting, Dancing

A classically trained coloratura soprano, Victoria Arriero is an internationally celebrated concert and operatic artist. She received her degree from Treasure Valley Community College with an emphasis in music and has been teaching for over ten years in the Valley. She has had extensive experience in both musical and dramatic theater, both in roles and backstage production. Apart of the TVCC Theater Department in 2004, Victoria has had the opportunity to work backstage as assistant director and stage manager in Harvey, which she was nominated for an Irene Ryan award for her work. Victoria has also worked in lighting for different shows throughout her years at TVCC. Loving everything about the stage, she has been the make-up and costume designer for numerous shows, her favorites including Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide and Murder Room.

Victoria has performed on stage from a very young age. Her acting roles have included Amy March in Little Women, Mavis in Murder Room, Gwendoline in The Importance of Being Earnest, Meg in Crimes of the Heart, and many others. Studying a short time at the University of Idaho, Victoria loves to try new and varying roles to expand her knowledge and talent on the stage.

Some of her musical roles have included Maria in TVCC’s West Side Story, Mable in The Pirates of Penzance, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and Christine in Phantom of the Opera, to name a few. Victoria has performed in many different operas. She debuted her first professional role in Opera Idaho’s Hansel and Gretel as the Sandman/Dew Fairy, later taking the role of Cinderella in Massenet's Cinderella, also an Opera Idaho production.

In addition to her work on stage, Victoria has done recordings. Victoria has been a consistent guest performer for the annual Help Them to Hope Concert, and a repeat guest performer for the Treasure Valley Symphony. She toured the Treasure Valley with Robert Hatvani, performing her diverse repertoire of English, Italian, French, German, and Russian art songs and arias.

Beyond her work for theater and music, Victoria has also had training in dance. From clogging, lyrical, jazz, and ballroom to Mexican dancing, flamenco, and Aztecan dance, she has picked up as much as possible in many different genres of dance. Victoria loves expression through movement.

She discovered her talents for education when teaching dance, music, and theater at a bilingual charter school for seven years. After that, she moved her work closer to her home in Weiser, Idaho, teaching music in an elementary school and creating the children’s performing group Thomas Little Theater, a singing, acting, and dancing ensemble that puts on full musical productions. Victoria also runs a performing arts studio, Victoria Arriero-Thomas Studio, for all ages. Teaching the fundamentals of ear training, stage presence, support, focus, and flexibility, Victoria is able to instruct young, beginning performers to older, more advanced students. There is a place for everyone! Having worked with many students on an individual basis, she creates specialized lesson plans to meet the needs of each of her students. Victoria believes that everyone is able to express themselves through the performing arts and she is out to prove just that!

DeNice Jensen- Young Adult and Adult Voice

For the past 20 years DeNice Jensen has been affiliated with the Opera Idaho, both as vocal instructor and as soloist.  While it was still Boise Opera, she performed the second lady in the Magic Flute, and the Mother in Hansel and Gretel. During this time she has also been a teacher of voice at the Treasure Valley Community College.  She has worked with many of the people of the chorus and some minor parts, over the years, many of whom remain in Opera Idaho’s organization. 

Miss Jensen began her singing career in Boise Idaho with the Boise Little Theater, performing in The Student Prince and in Die Fledermaus in consecutive years.  She was then chosen to sing the role of Mrs Stunenberg in Griffith Bratt’s World Premier of A Season for Sorrow.   During that time, she also performed with the Boise Junior College Orchestra, won Superior ratings for three consecutive years, and ultimately, through a nationwide search she received a three-year scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music.  She also sang the lead role in Promised Valley by Crawford Gates, when performed for the first time in the Treasure Valley. 

Living in New York, she was the recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Grant for Further Study, a recipient of a grant from the Puccini Foundation, and was one of the original members of the Metropolitan Opera Studio for young singers. 

She performed many lead roles in New York and on the east coast, leaning toward the dramatic operas of Puccini and Verdi, and sang concerts throughout that area as well as in Europe.  One of the highlights was the Verdi Requiem which she performed with orchestra in the historical Bynzantine Cathedral on Park Avenue (St Bartholemew’s), New York. 

She was also the lead soprano at St Patrick’s Cathedral, as well as the Church of the Pilgrims Congregational church, a historical site where Henry Ward Beecher was its first Pastor. Here she performed the soprano role in Rossini’s Stabat Mater among other things over a 10 year period.  During that time, she returned to Idaho to sing the demanding role of Tosca under the baton of Daniel Stern.  She was also a soloist for the Columbia Artists Community Concert Series for a season.  Miss Jensen also performed the role of Kirstie in the World Premiere of Garni Sands, an opera written about a poor family in the outback of Australia, when she was told her voice was too beautiful for the part! 

Miss Jensen believes her crowning achievement was singing all three Brunnhildes (Wagner’s Ring Cycle) for the Boston Lyric Opera both in Boston and in New York.  These were done in Boston throughout the month, but in New York they were all performed within a weeks’ time, and to rave reviews. 

She made her debut in musical theater as the Mother Superior in Nunsense with the Boise Little Theater.  And at TVCC she tried her hand at producing the operettas The Telephone and Gallantry. 

Rose Shaber- Teacher Apprentice

Whitney Turner- Teacher Apprentice

Kayla Ross- Director of Accounting