Our Team

Richard B. Gibson

Founder/ President/ General Director

Richard is a South African immigrant who landed in Kansas City, MO. In 1999 he graduated from high school Summa Cum Laude in music. Twelve days after his graduation he went to boot camp at MCRD Sand Diego for the United States Marine Corps. For his duty he served as an anti-terrorism expert in a Security Forces unit in Manama, Bahrain. Then he was sent to Camp Pendelton and found himself in an infantry unit with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, more famously known as the Dark Horse Battalion. In 2003 he invaded Iraq with them and earned his Combat Action Ribbon and a Presidential Unit Citation.

Upon his return from Iraq, he focused his life on singing opera. Within 2 years of study, he was a paid professional singing with the chorus at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. In 2014, when the Royals made it to the World Series, he was fortunate enough to sing ‘God Bless America’ on the field at game 2 during the 7th inning stretch. With that he was able to form the ‘Voices Honoring Veterans Chorus’ where 240 members joined together to sing ‘Silent Night’ for the 100th anniversary of the WWI Christmas Truce at the National WWI Museum.

In 2015 he moved to Las Vegas with his lovely wife, Emily, so that they could further their operatic studies. One year later they found themselves in the Phoenix area while his wife attended Arizona State University to get her master's degree. Mr. Gibson has recently taken a break from his operatic singing career but still involves himself in music as the Music Director at a local church.

What pursuing opera has given to Richard is immeasurable. Overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude towards the arts, he finds himself led to give back and serve his community. Starting Chandler Opera Company is his way of doing that. Mr. Gibson is grateful for what opera has done for him and hopes that audience members find even an inkling of the affection he has for the art form.

Emily Gibson

Co-Founder/ Vice President

Originally from Kansas City, Emily Gibson is a lyric soprano and voice teacher residing in Chandler, Arizona. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and a Master’s degree in Opera Performance from Arizona State University.

Ms. Gibson has been acclaimed as “a star equipped with a stellar soprano voice” by Broadway World, and noted for her “blooming high notes” by Opera Today. Recent role credits include Violetta in La traviata, Mimì in La bohème, Giannetta in L'elisir d'amore, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Marie in The Bartered Bride, Musetta in La bohème, and Frasquita in Carmen.

Emily is proud to bring more classical music and opera to the community!

Dr. Jeremy Peterman

Principal Pianist

Dr. Jeremy Peterman, pianist and organist, is active in the Phoenix Metropolitan area as a performer, recording artist, instructor, and vocal coach. He is proud to have been involved with every Chandler Opera Company/ Valley Opera production since its founding. Growing up in central North Carolina, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he majored in Romance Languages and Piano. While earning his doctorate from Arizona State University, he was already playing for many productions of both Arizona Opera and Phoenix Opera, as well as under the baton of Michael Christie (Phoenix Symphony) in Stravinsky’s Petrushka, John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls, and Golijov’s Ainadamar. In 2016, he completed his final summer as director of church music at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in beautiful Graz, Austria—having been involved with the program every summer since 2003. Dr. Peterman is the organist/handbell director at La Casa de Cristo Lutheran Church and he frequently collaborates with Arizona Musicfest and the Grammy Award-winning Phoenix Chorale. He has also recently been featured at the organ with the Phoenix Boys’ Choir and the Phoenix Symphony.

Jeremy Peterman, pianist Headshot_edited

Vanja Gjumar Nikolovski

Principal Conductor

Vanja Gjumar Nikolovski graduated with majors in conducting and composition from the Saints Cyril and Methods University of Skopje Faculty of Music, Macedonia. Currently, he serves as a principal conductor of the Scottsdale Philharmonic in Arizona, USA. He gained a specialization in orchestral and symphonic conducting at the Rimski-Korsakov State Conservatory in 1995/96 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He earned his Doctorate of Music Arts in Conducting from Arizona State University in 2018.
Until the end of the 2020 he was working as a Yamaha Certified Instructor at East Valley Yamaha Music School. Also, he was Conductor/Music Director of the Chandler Symphony Orchestra, Chandler, Arizona for six years. Maestro Nikolovski was principal conductor of the Macedonian Opera and Ballet, guest conductor with the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Macedonian Radio Choir, and also conducted in cities as diverse as St. Petersburg, Belgrade, Zadar, Split (Croatia), as well as Portugal, Russia to USA - Washington DC, San Diego, Los Angeles, and his hometown of Phoenix, AZ. His compositions have won Macedonian national awards, with his symphonic "Kartchner Caverns Magic" winning first prize in the national contest in the Republic of Macedonia in 2014, also chamber "The Dance of the Gallstones" winning third prize, 2015 first prize for piece for choir and orchestra "Kliment" and his "Zigurati" which won the Panche Peshev prize in 2000. His works have been performed in several European countries including Switzerland, Austria, France, Russia, Turkey, Poland, Great Britain, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, and the United States of America; they have been featured annually on "Days of Macedonian Music", "Skopje Summer Music Festival" and "Ohrid Summer Music Festival"
Vanja and his family currently live in Arizona where he works as a Music Director & Conductor of the Scottsdale Philharmonic.