Nick Barootian, a Racine native, has studied voice with Gregory Berg, former King’s Singers Anthony Holt, and Richard Sjoerdsma. He sang with the Ensemble Singers of VocalEssence under Philip Brunnelle during their 40th Anniversary tour of England, and is a regular member of the Florentine Opera Chorus, for which he has also been engaged as a soloist in summer outreach programs. His stage credits include Giuseppe in The Gondoliers, Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief, and Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors. Nick has appeared as soloist and conductor with Southeast Wisconsin Performing Arts, music-directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the University of Wisconsin at Parkside, and composed music for the Case High School original production he also music-directed, #DarkSideoftheRainbow. Since 2015, Nick has served as Director of Liturgy and Music for St. Francis Xavier and St. John the Baptist Catholic Parishes in Brighton and Paris, Wisconsin. Nick founded the Belle Ensemble, a vocal chamber music group aimed at bringing first class vocal performance to Racine and its neighbors, while developing collaborations among talented vocal musicians and other artists in the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor.