Tenor Jeffrey Lou Kerst, originally from Conway, AR, is a recent graduate of the University of Arkansas, where he earned a Bachelor of Music Education. Featuring in seven different roles with UArk Opera, his favorites include the Sorceress from Dido and Aeneas, Gerardo in Gianni Schicchi, and Bastien in Mozart's singspiel Bastien und Bastienne set in the world of Minecraft. In the summers of 2024 and 2025, he was accepted into the Emerging Artists program at Opera in the Ozarks where he performed Rev. Parris and Giles Corey in Ward's The Crucible, Gastone in La Traviata, Jack in Into the Woods, Remendado in Carmen, and Viscount Cascada in The Merry Widow. In December of 2025 he performed in the company's first ever professional production as Nobody in the Christmas one-act Lucinda y las Flores de la Nochebuena by Evan Mack. In 2026, Lou was selected as a studio artist with Finger Lakes Opera in Rochester, NY where he performed Younger Jim Thompson in Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied as well as Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro. In September he will begin study at Rutgers University pursing a Masters of Music in Opera Performance.