ivai & mannes college the new school for music

IVAI & Mannes College The New School for Music June 5 – June 25, 2016

Cover Art: Melissa Gerstein

A Warm Welcome to our 2016 IVAI participants!

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the International Vocal Arts Institute in cooperation with the Mannes College of Music The New School. We hope that this year's session is exciting and fulfilling for all of you. With numerous performances, master classes, and individual lessons, we have arranged a full schedule that will surely be stimulating! Our superb faculty is eager to help "get you to the next level" and to develop your special qualities. While IVAI over the years has taken place in many wonderful locations, it is particularly exciting to host our program in our home base, one of the world's cultural capitals. We hope this summer is a truly memorable learning experience for each of you!

Paul Nadler, Music Director Joan Dornemann, Artistic Director

On behalf of The Mannes School of Music The New School, I would like to extend my heartfelt welcome to all International Vocal Arts Institute students, faculty, staff, patrons, and friends. The Mannes School of Music and IVAI share a deep commitment to music, education, and artist development.

In hosting IVAI this season, Mannes and the greater New York City communities will have the tremendous benefit of access to the many concerts and master classes that will take place during IVAI.

IVAI brings together student musicians from around the globe who possess an extraordinary level of artistry and provides them with unparalleled opportunities for developing their craft. I am proud to say that many of those students are also students and alumnae of the Mannes School. We look forward to many years of making music together!

Richard Kessler Dean, The Mannes School of Music Executive Dean, College of Performing Arts at The New School

IVAI 2016 Summer Program in New York City - Page 1 of 35 www.ivai.org

IVAI

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Paul Nadler, President Lynn Warshow, Treasurer Rina Mosseri, Secretary Sharon Azrieli Perez Eileen Birnbaum Joel Birnbaum Joan Dornemann Naomi Houminer Diane Levy Tsvia Rosenthal

Joshua Major, Associate Artistic Director Blair Boone-Migura, Administrative Director Beth Roberts, IVAI Vocal Program Coordinator Lynn Warshow, Program Editor

ADVISORY BOARD

Thomas Hampson Marlena Malas Sherrill Milnes Eve Queler Julius Rudel (deceased) Renata Scotto Diana Soviero Cesar Ulloa Deborah Voigt


PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

June 07 Master Class Simon Saad 12 p.m.

June 08 Master Class Diana Soviero 12 p.m.

June 08 Master Class Bernard Uzan 12 p.m.

June 09 Master Class Steven Eldredge 12 p.m.

June 10 Master Class Djordje Nesic 12 p.m.

June 10 Master Class Sherrill Milnes 7:30 p.m.

June 13 Master Class Ira Siff 12 p.m.

June 14 Master Class Tom Muraco 12 p.m.

June 15 Master Class Dr. Daniel Kuhn 12 p.m.

June 15 Opera Duets, Trios, Ensembles 7:30 p.m.

June 16 Master Class Christian Sebek 12 p.m.

June 16 International Song Concert 7:30 p.m.

June 17 Master Class Deborah Birnbaum 12 p.m.

June 18 Roméo et Juliette 7:30 p.m.

June 20 Master Class Marni Nixon 12 p.m.

June 21 Master Class Olga Makarina 12 p.m.

June 21 Master Class Joan Dornemann 7:30 p.m.

June 22 La Bohème (Puccini) 7:30 p.m.

June 23 La Bohème (Leoncavallo) 7:30 p.m.

June 25 American Music Concert 7:30 p.m.


To learn more about IVAI, please be sure to like us on

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FACULTY

Joan Dornemann, Artistic Director and Assistant Conductor, is one of the most highly respected opera coaches in the world today. In her position as Assistant Conductor with the Metropolitan Opera, she has prepared the most prominent international artists for their performances at the Met. She has worked with such singers as Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Sherrill Milnes, Kiri Te Kanawa, Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Neil Shicoff, Juan Diego Flórez, and Anna Netrebko, among others. She has also collaborated with outstanding opera singers as an accompanist for many solo performances. Ms. Dornemann has been associated with the Gran Liceo in Barcelona, the Spoleto Festival, and the New York City Opera. At the Met she worked with such conductors as James Levine, James Conlon, and Carlos Kleiber. She prepared singers from the Kirov Opera for a recording of La Forza del destino and performances of Carmen and Aida under the baton of Valery Gergiev, and she was in charge of musical preparation for La Bohème and La Cenerentola at the Opéra de Paris. Ms. Dornemann was awarded an Emmy for her contribution to the highly acclaimed “Live from the Met” telecast of La Bohème with Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto. She also teaches master classes throughout the world and is the author of Complete Preparation: A Guide to Auditioning for the Opera. She was honored by the city of Tel Aviv, which issued a commemorative stamp bearing her picture, and she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Montreal.

Maestro Paul Nadler, co-founder and Music Director of IVAI, has distinguished himself as one of the world's most respected symphonic and operatic conductors. Since his debut in 1989, he has led more than 60 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, conducting such stars as Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo. At the Met he conducted Dvořák's Rusalka (Renée Fleming and Piotr Beczala) as well as a new production of Strauss's Die Fledermaus. Other Met performances include Eugene Onegin (Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Ramon Vargas) and Roméo et Juliette (Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani), as well as Tosca in Montreal and Naples, Florida, among others. Additional credits include his debut with the National Opera of Bucharest in Carmen and Don Giovanni, as well as productions with opera companies in Indianapolis, Utah, Calgary, Minnesota, Syracuse, Orlando, and Glimmerglass. Maestro Nadler returned to Opera Montréal for performances of Turandot and conducted La Bohème at Indiana University as well as The Merry Widow and Ernani at the Metropolitan Opera. He is principal guest conductor of the Filarmonica de Stat Iasi (Romania) and also conducted gala performances in Beijing and in Alice Tully Hall for I Sing Beijing. He led concerts with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra de Navarra, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, and the orchestras of Bucharest, Iasi, and Brasov (Romania). His international engagements include conducting the Hong Kong Opera as well as performances in Plovdiv, Varna, and Russe (Bulgaria). In December 2002, he conducted at the Kennedy Center Awards ceremony in honor of James Levine. In 1974, Maestro Nadler founded the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, where he remained as music director and conductor through 1983.


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Lucy Arner, Conductor, was appointed Music Director and Conductor of New Jersey Verismo Opera in the fall of 2015, becoming the first woman to hold this position in the company’s history. She has conducted all over the world and was the first woman to conduct opera in Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes. She served as the Artistic Director of the New York Chamber Orchestra and the Principal Conductor of the Asociación Bel Canto in Lima, Perú. She received Florida Grand Opera’s Henry C. Clarke Award as the season’s outstanding conductor for her work on Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Prior to her concentration on conducting, she was on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera and the Liceu in Barcelona. She has coached and taught master classes all over the world, most recently in Moscow and Reykjavik, Iceland. Ms. Arner is currently on the coaching faculty of the Mannes College of Music and is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Canto Vocal Programs, offering professional training for singers in Toulouse and Zagreb.

Israeli native Omer Ben Seadia, Stage Director, has quickly established herself as one of the fresh new voices in opera. Her recent production of L’Italiana in Algeri at Opera Santa Barbara was hailed as a “directorial triumph,” praising “her subtle sense of humor, clever sight and sound gags and unerring staging.” She is currently part of the directorial staff at Houston Grand Opera and remounted John Caird’s production of Tosca in May 2016. Other upcoming engagements include directing for the Merola Opera Program. Her credits also include A Streetcar Named Desire at Opera Santa Barbara, Così fan tutte at the University of Michigan, Pursuing the Dream and Let’s Cook Up an Opera at Cincinnati Opera, Surviving the Amazing Opera Race at Dayton Opera, a double bill of Der Kaiser von Atlantis/Brundibár with the Cincinnati Chamber Opera, as part of the Theresienstadt Opera Project, The Sound of Music at the Crested Butte Music Festival, The Coffee Cantata with the Barrocade Orchestra, and The Golden Vanity with the Cincinnati Boy Choir. Ms. Ben Seadia began working at the Israeli Opera at the age of 15. She studied theater directing and also received her teaching degree from the School of Performing Arts at Seminar Ha’Kibuzim, and she has had extensive experience working in repertoire, fringe, and festival theater across Israel. She attended the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she directed numerous productions, including Don Pasquale, Le Docteur Miracle, Saint John’s Passion, and Don Carlos. Three of her productions made the Best of Cincinnati list in 2013 and 2014.

Opera News calls Director Jeffrey Buchman “a formidable talent” and the Miami Herald wrote: “Jeffrey Buchman has mastered an art beyond the powers of many directors.” Recent and forthcoming highlights include a new production of Eugene Onegin for Florida Grand Opera and his debut with Opera Colorado directing Kaminsky’s As One. Other engagements include: at the University of Miami Stravinsky’s Mavra and Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar; at the Academy of Vocal Arts Don Giovanni; at Opera Naples Don Pasquale; at Indiana University Carmen; at Baltimore Opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia; at the Brevard Music Festival Die Zauberflöte; and at Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music La Traviata. Mr. Buchman’s work in contemporary opera has also been praised by the press, including world premieres of Kievman’s multimedia operas Fairy Tales: Songs of the Dandelion Woman and Intelligent Systems, which was named one of the “most innovative productions of 2015” by the Miami Herald, as well as Vores’s chamber opera No Exit for Florida Grand Opera, which was voted “Best & Brightest of 2014.” Among many other productions he has directed are La Tragédie de Carmen, Don Giovanni, La Cenerentola,


L’Elisir d’amore, Rigoletto, Faust, Il Trovatore, Turandot, South Pacific, Hänsel und Gretel, The Bartered Bride, Roméo et Juliette, and Cold Sassy Tree. In addition he conceived and served as artistic director for a ground-breaking multimedia arena event for the Grand Rapids Symphony that included over 1,500 performers. Mr. Buchman holds a B.M. in opera from the Boston Conservatory of Music and an M.M. in voice from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Winner of the prestigious Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, he has garnered equal acclaim for both his singing and his acting.

Bill Connington, Alexander Technique teacher, is a New York City-based Alexander teacher and lecturer in acting at the Yale School of Drama. He is former chairman of the board of the American Center for the Alexander Technique and has taught at the Juilliard School, the Actor’s Studio Drama School, and N.Y.U.’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is the author of Physical Expression on Stage and Screen: Using the Alexander Technique to Create Unforgettable Performances. Mr. Connington is a lecturer in acting at the Yale School of Drama and teaches Alexander technique at Mannes. He is at work on his next book, which will explore the effect of the mind-body connection on our daily lives.

Mignon Dunn, Voice Teacher, has sung leading mezzo-soprano roles in the most important opera houses of the world, including La Scala, the Vienna Staatsoper, London’s Royal Opera, the Paris Opéra, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the opera companies of Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, as well as the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Opera Nacional in Chile, Mexico City’s Bellas Artes, the Opera of Puerto Rico, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, and Opéra de Montréal. In the U.S. she sang at Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, among others. At the Metropolitan Opera she sang more than 650 performances in 35 years. Ms. Dunn is known for her portrayals of dramatic Italian roles, such as Amneris, Azucena, both Laura and La Cieca in La Gioconda, the Princess in Adriana Lecouvreur, and Santuzza. Her French repertoire includes Dalila, Giulietta in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Carmen, which she has sung over 400 times in four different languages. Her German repertoire includes Wagner’s Ring, Ortrud, Kundry, Venus, Klytämnestra, Herodias, and the Nurse in Die Frau ohne Schatten. Ms. Dunn has performed recitals all over the world and recorded for EMI, Erato, and Deutsche Grammophon. She has taught on the faculties of the Universities of Texas, Illinois, Northwestern University, Brooklyn College, and for many years at the Manhattan School of Music.

Soprano Ruth Falcon, Voice Teacher, has won wide acclaim in performances at the leading opera houses in Europe. In 1989 she made a spectacular Metropolitan Opera debut as the Kaiserin in Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten. The chief music critic for The New York Times said that "her robust and glistening voice easily pierced the lushest orchestrations." She has since sung many other leading roles at the Met, including Turandot and Chrysothemis. Born in New Orleans, Ms. Falcon was the winner of several important international competitions, including those of Bussetto, Vercelli, Rio de Janeiro, Geneva, and the Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions. She made her professional debut as Micaëla at New York City Opera in 1974 and began her international career in 1976, when she joined the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Ms. Falcon has performed with many of the world's great conductors, including Christoph von Dohnanyi, Seiji Ozawa, and Andrew Davis. She may be heard in recordings of Wagner's Ring and Die


Walküre. Ms. Falcon is also a voice teacher of international reputation. She has trained many star performers on the operatic stage, including Deborah Voigt and Sondra Radvanovsky, and is on the faculty of the Mannes School of Music.

Rob Holland, Scheduling Administrator, comes to IVAI from the Sarasota Opera, where he has been the Assistant Artistic Administrator for the past nine seasons. Since 2010, he has also been the Program Coordinator for the Land of Enchantment Opera Institute in Gallup, New Mexico. Prior to his work in opera, Mr. Holland worked in regional theater with Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theater Festival, Chamber Theater Productions, and Actors Guild of Lexington. His assistant directing credits include West Side Story and Uncle Vanya (dir: Julianne Boyd), and Exit and Entrances (dir: Benny Sato Ambush).

Hemdi Kfir, Language Coach, has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera for the past several seasons. At the Israeli Opera she has been the language coach for the Opera Studio as well as for Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Il Trittico, Il Viaggio a Reims, Madama Butterfly, and Carmen. She holds a B.A. in linguistics and French from Tel Aviv University and an M.A. in music and languages from New York University. She has received scholarships from IVAI, AICF, the Goethe Institute, and the British Council's BI ARTS program. She taught at Brooklyn College and at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, as well as coached immigrant actors in all of Israel's prominent theaters. Ms. Kfir joined IVAI's faculty in 1999 and toured with them to Japan, the U.S., Italy, China, France, Puerto Rico, and Canada. She worked at La Fenice, Venice (Parsifal), and edited Nico Castel's book of Handel operas. She has also made translations for titles, including Benvenuto Cellini, Le Coq d'Or (Gergiev's Festival in the Red Sea), Dido & Aeneas (Israeli Opera), Der Zwerg, Lost Childhood, L'Amico Fritz, La Rondine, Pelléas et Mélisande, La Fille du régiment, and Les Dialogues des Carmélites (IVAI).

Soprano, Voice Teacher, and co-head of voice at the Faculty of Music of l'Université de Montréal, Rosemarie Landry has sung on all the major Canadian stages, in either recital, concert, or opera. She was a guest artist of major orchestras and numerous opera and chamber music festivals throughout the world and toured extensively with pianist Dalton Baldwin. The renowned critic Paul Hume of the Washington Post wrote: “She is, quite simply, one of the great artists of today, in the direct tradition of Mary Garden, Maggie Teyte and Denise Duval. I had not supposed I would be lucky enough to hear a soprano of this caliber singing French music again in my lifetime.” Winning first prize at the coveted CBC Young Artists Competition, Ms. Landry went on to win numerous other prizes and scholarships, as well as many honorary doctorates. She has given master classes around the world and teaches in vocal art summer schools and venues, such as Le Centre d'Arts, Oxford, the Vancouver International Song Institute, and CVAI. Ms. Landry has been actively involved as artistic advisor or member of the board of directors with many of the major cultural and musical organizations in Canada. She is a member of the Order of Canada, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, and Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléïade. In 2014 she received the prestigious Opera Canada Rubies Award, which honors outstanding individual achievement onstage and behind the scenes.


Acting Coach Dietlinde Turban Maazel’s first stage appearance at age 19 as Gretchen in Goethe’s Faust in Munich brought her national fame. In rapid succession she starred in Lessing’s Minna von Barnhelm and as Desdemona, which earned her the Bad Hersfeld Festival Prize for Best Actress, and also in works by Anouilh, Brecht, Giraudoux, Pinter, and Rattigan. Ms. Turban won Germany’s coveted Bambi Award as “Best Actress of the Year” in 1983. Among her film credits: the title role in Goethe’s Stella and Luise in Schiller’s Love and Intrigue, Mozart’s sister-in-law Aloysia in the French biography, a starring role in Sidney Sheldon’s Bloodline, Euridice in the Ponnelle/Harnoncourt adaptation of Monteverdi’s Orfeo, and Mussolini and I, opposite Anthony Hopkins. In 2004 she performed her first one-woman play, Constantly Risking Absurdity, in New York. Ms. Turban has been a soloist/narrator with symphony orchestras and recorded a number of audio books as well as CDs. She also performs dramatic readings of literary masterpieces both in the United States and in Europe. She studied violin, classical dance, and voice in Munich, New York, and Aspen. Ms. Turban founded a private school for low-income families on her Virginia estate and developed a pilot educational project designed to explore new ways of integrating vital artistic and aesthetic values into school curricula. In addition to her role as Artistic Director and CEO of the Castleton Festival, founded by her late husband, Maestro Lorin Maazel, she teaches every summer at the Castleton Artists Training Seminar. Since 2013 she has been on the faculty of Rutgers University, teaching “Acting for Singers.”

Toronto-born Joshua Major, Stage Director, began his opera-directing career at the age of 23 with La Cenerentola for Opera Omaha. Soon after, he worked as an assistant to Rhoda Levine at Juilliard, Cynthia Auerbach at New York City Opera, and at the Welsh National Opera. Mr. Major has worked as a stage director for over 30 years throughout the United States and Canada, developing an impressive and diverse repertoire of productions. Recent productions include Ezio (Gluck), Sir John in Love (Vaughan Williams), Un Giorno di regno (Verdi) with Odyssey Opera, the North American premiere of Rossini's La Gazzetta, Die Fledermaus, Così fan tutte, and La Périchole (Offenbach) with the New England Conservatory, and The Cunning Little Vixen (Janáček) for both New England Conservatory and Cape Town Opera. Recent productions for IVAI include Zanetto (Mascagni), L’Amico Fritz (Mascagni), Les Mamelles de Terésias (Poulenc), L'Impressions de Pelléas (Brook/Debussy), L’Enfant et les sortilèges, and La Fille du régiment . In 2012 Mr. Major became Chair of Opera Studies at the New England Conservatory of Music after completing 20 years on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he oversaw the Opera Program, both teaching and directing. He was the Artistic Director of the Pine Mountain Music Festival from 2003 to 2014, where he produced over 300 concerts of opera, symphony, and chamber music. He continues to be a stage director and faculty member with the IVAI, where he has directed annually (Tel Aviv, New York, Montreal, Virginia) since 1993.


Born in Archangel, Russia, Metropolitan Opera soprano Olga Makarina, Voice Teacher, made her first New York appearances at New York City Opera as Lucia di Lammermoor and performed there as Gilda, Konstanze, and Olympia. Other roles include Ilia in Idomeneo (Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival), Violetta (Kirov Opera), and Eudoxie in La Juive (Opera Orchestra of New York). In 2006, she took on the demanding role of Elettra in Idomeneo at the Metropolitan Opera with James Levine conducting. She sang the role of Gilda in both the Met in the Parks and during the house season, and Elvira in I Puritani. Other roles include Adina, Norma, Lucrezia Borgia, and Lucia. She sang Marfa in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride with Olga Borodina with OONY in 2008 and returned to the Met in the following years as Manon, Thais, Gilda, Lucia, Antonia, Donna Elvira, Vitellia, Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, Violetta, Eudoxie, Elvira, and Rossignol. In 1997, Ms. Makarina debuted at the Kirov Opera as Lyudmila in Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila. In 1999, she sang her first Pamina in a series of special gala performances with OONY at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur. She also performed concerts and solo recitals in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan, and sang the opening night gala of the Cesky Krumlov Festival with the Brno Philharmonic in the Czech Republic, which was televised in Eurovision.

Born in Tel Aviv, Liora Maurer, Vocal Coach, joined the Metropolitan Opera as an assistant conductor during the 2008-09 season. She had been an assistant conductor at New York City Opera, beginning with the 1997-98 season. She was the recitative accompanist for several of their productions, including Don Giovanni. Opera News’s review stated: “Liora Maurer furnished fine harpsichord continuo,” and The New Yorker praised her playing and “witty adornments.” Ms. Maurer has also worked with Seattle Opera, Wolf Trap Festival Opera, St. Louis Opera Theater, Opera Omaha, the New Israeli Opera, and Spoleto Festival USA. She was the official pianist for the 2014 George London Foundation Competition. She was also a vocal coach for Elite Art UNESCO’s Opera Festival in Sibiu, Romania. A graduate of the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv and the Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Maurer received a merit scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Sherrill Milnes, Vocal Coach, is universally acclaimed as the foremost operatic baritone of his generation. With his powerful voice, commanding stage presence, and rugged handsomeness, he received the kind of adulation that is usually reserved for tenors. He sang over 650 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, where he was honored with sixteen new productions, seven opening nights, and ten national telecasts. As a leading artist in all the world’s great opera houses, Mr. Milnes performed and recorded with Domingo, Pavarotti, Caballé, Sutherland, Sills, Horne, Price, and Tebaldi. He won three Grammy Awards and is the most recorded American singer of his time. In 2008 he received the Opera News Award for Distinguished Achievement. Mr. Milnes has worked extensively with young singers throughout his career. He has led master classes at Juilliard, and for the Met Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, at major universities and music schools throughout the country, and at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He served on the faculty of the Yale School of Music and at Northwestern University, where he is the John Evans Distinguished Professor of Music Emeritus. Additional teaching engagements have brought him to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, Shanghai Conservatory in China, Northern Royal College of Music in Manchester, IVAI in Tel Aviv, and the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy. He has served as a judge for several international competitions, including


the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, of which he is a founding board member. With his wife Maria Zouves, he co-founded and runs the Sherrill Milnes VOICExperience Foundation and the Savannah VOICE Festival.

Since 1985, Voice Teacher Laura Brooks Rice has been teaching at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, where she is Professor of Voice. She also teaches courses in opera: The Singing Actor: Opera and Opera Auditions: Techniques and Preparation, and has also been the coordinator of the opera program. Miss Rice has a private studio and is a vocal consultant to the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Program as well as the Domingo-Cafritz Program with the Washington Opera. Her private students are currently singing as regular principal artists at the Metropolitan Opera, Washington Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Ft. Worth Opera, Minnesota Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Mobile Opera, Knoxville Opera, San Diego Opera, Mozarteum in Salzburg, and Aix en Provence, among others. Miss Rice is on the steering committee for the Singer Training Council under the auspices of Opera America and is member of the board of advisors of Astral Artistic Services as well as the Princeton Festival. She has served as a judge on the panels of the National NATSAA Competition and Astral Artistic Services Annual Auditions. Some of her notable private students include the 2004 Richard Tucker award winner, Matthew Polenzani; Kiera Duffy, winner of the Marian Anderson Competition in Philadelphia; and mezzo-soprano Reneé Tatum. Miss Rice is the co-director of one of Westminster’s newest programs the CoOPERAtive Program. She has performed with the New Jersey Symphony, Bethlehem Bach Festival, and Boulder Bach Festival. In the 1992-93 season she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Wowkle in La Fanciulla del West and often appeared with the San Francisco Opera.

For over 20 years Beth Roberts, Voice Teacher, has been a dedicated and accomplished voice teacher and music educator. She has been on the faculty of Mannes College since 1996 and has served as Coordinator of the Vocal Department since 2001. Her voice studio has produced principal artists in many national and international professional venues, and her students have been finalists and winners of major vocal competitions all over the opera world. Through her affiliation with the Metropolitan Opera Guild Education Department, she co-created a vocal pedagogy course and Professional Development Outreach for Mannes students in New York City public schools. Many of its graduates are now employed by the Metropolitan Opera Education Department and as music teachers at New York City schools. Ms. Roberts serves on the Education Committee of the Board of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She has been a vocal instructor for the Washington National Opera Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program and also served as an adjudicator for numerous competitions. A lyric soprano, she sang with many opera companies throughout the United States and performed numerous concerts. She has also recorded for radio and television. Ms. Roberts earned her B.M. from the Eastman School and her M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music.


David Rosenmeyer, Vocal Coach, Conductor, Choral Director, is the Music Director of the Fairfield County Chorale. He celebrated their 50th anniversary season with a performance of Carmina Burana in collaboration with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Now in his ninth season as the Oratorio Society of New York’s Associate Conductor, he has led the society in Carnegie Hall performances of Copland and Ives songs and the chamber orchestra in Britten’s War Requiem and Te Deum, Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine, and Stravinsky’s Mass, and also conducted the OSNY on tour in Budapest, Rome, and São Paolo. In 2009 he made his debut with the Bellas Opera Company of Mexico City, leading a gala at the Cervantino Festival. Other engagements include concerts with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and the São Carlos Philharmonic of Brazil. He is actively involved in education, as coach and conductor with IVAI and with Carnegie Hall’s WMI programs and was the music coordinator of Golijov’s La Pasión and music director and pianist for the world premiere of Cabaniss’s The Sandman. He was also Music Director of the Salzburger Marionettentheater’s production of The Sound of Music. Mr. Rosenmeyer has premiered numerous works, including some dedicated to him, such as Cuckson’s Der Gayst Funem Sturem and Cabaniss’s Three Sabbaths and My Song Is a Fire.

Jane Steele, Vocal Coach, is a freelance vocal coach and accompanist based in New York City. She earned her B.A. in music from Wellesley College while pursuing her other interests in languages and literature. She received her M.M. degree in vocal accompanying and chamber music at the Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Steele has been a coach/accompanist at the Lidalnorth Festival in Oslo, Norway; the VOICExperience Foundation in New York; the International Institute of Vocal Arts in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and IVAI in Tel Aviv. In 2002, she was a guest coach at the National Opera of China in Beijing. Ms. Steele was head of the coaching staff at IIVA in Chiari, Italy, from 1998 to 2008. She also held the position of Administrative Director of IIVA in Chiari and was the American liaison with the local Italian government. She has been the rehearsal pianist for numerous American companies, including New Jersey State Opera, DiCapo Opera, Opera Colorado, Natchez Opera, Opera Southwest, and Pensacola Opera and worked as a vocal accompanist at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. She was also a guest artist at the Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico in San Juan.

Lynn Warshow, Program Editor, is a native New Yorker. For many years she was a copy editor at the publishing firm of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, working with a number of poets and novelists, many of whom were Nobel Prize and National Book Award winners. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College. A lifelong opera lover, she has been involved with IVAI since 2006.


PIANISTS

Born in Osaka, Japan, Naoko Aita, accompanist, coach, and piano teacher, received her degree in composition at Kobe Yamate Women’s College, under the tutelage of composer Yoshinao Nakada. In the United States she switched her focus to Piano Performance and received her B.M. and M.A. from Hunter College in New York City, where she won numerous awards and prizes, including the Aria and Concerto Competition. She is a faculty member at Turtle Bay Music School and a staff accompanist at Hunter College. She has been performing with singers at various venues and has appeared in Opera Advantages, Opera Company of Brooklyn, and IVAI.

Lucas Barkley is a New York City-based freelance pianist and coach. Recent engagements include the Opera Company of Brooklyn (Elektra, Nabucco, Thaïs, La Gioconda, and Der Ring des Nibelungen), Regina Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor), and Manhattan Opera Studio (coach and pianist for their 2015 Winter Festival). He is also a staff pianist at Continuo Arts Foundation and a part-time accompanist at Mannes College. He recently relocated to New York from Pittsburgh, where he worked as a staff pianist at Duquesne University and an opera accompanist and coach at Carnegie Mellon University. Lucas studied at Duquesne (B.M. in performance) and Carnegie Mellon (M.M. in collaborative piano) as well as at the Vancouver International Song Institute. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and daughter.

Jonathan Breit is a composer, pianist, and musical director living in New York City. Recent compositions include The End of Men (Cantori New York, Dixon Place) and Voyelles (Chromatic Voice Exchange), on a text by Arthur Rimbaud. As a pianist and musical director he has accompanied singers at 54 Below, (le) poisson rouge, and the Aspen Music Festival, and has premiered pieces by Sting, pasek & paul, and Andrew Lippa. This summer he will return to Aspen as a fellowship pianist for the Aspen Opera Theatre. He sits on the board of Cantori New York, a choir specializing in new music. He holds a B.A. from Yale College and a master of music degree from Mannes College.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Peiwen Chen graduated from the National Academy of Art with highest honors. In 1992, she entered the Mannes College of Music. Shortly after her graduation from Mannes with a special piano award, Ms. Chen made her New York recital debut at the Weill Recital Hall. Frequently playing piano duos with her husband, Alexander Paley, she performs annually in the Alexander Paley Music Festival in Richmond, Virginia, and in Moulin d'Andé, France. In 2001, she made her Paris debut. In 2003, she performed Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade in the composer's own one piano-four hands version, which was broadcast live. Ms. Chen played with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra in Vilnius. In 2009, she gave a gala concert in Taipei to raise funds for young musicians. She has also performed in Kleipeda, Lithuania, and Kishnev, Moldova. As a collaborative artist, she has worked with such artists as Licia Albanese, Elly Ameling, Regina Resnik, Evelyn Lear, Diane Soviero, Deborah Voigt, and Ruth Falcon, among others. In addition, she served as a pianist for Metropolitan Opera Guild productions and Amato Opera for many seasons. Ms. Chen has been a member of IVAI’s music staff in Virginia, New York City, and Canada, as well as a member of the faculty for VOICExperience in Florida. She is a faculty member at the Mannes


College of Music. Recently she performed with Centre Symphony in New York, Washington, D.C., and Maine, as well as being a music director for Der Schauspieldirektor, The Telephone, and L’Incoronazione di Poppea.

Born in Southern California, pianist Yumi Hashimoto has performed as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and vocal accompanist throughout Southern California and New York City. Specializing in the classical repertoire, she holds a bachelor's degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills, and a master's degree from the Manhattan School of Music. She has been accompanying vocalists since 2013, specializing in the Italian operatic repertory, including bel canto and verismo. She is the main accompanist for Vera Musica Ltd. under the direction of tenor Francisco Casanova and regularly prepares and performs for their workshops and concerts.

Dura Jun is a collaborative pianist and coach in New York. She has been working at the Manhattan School of Music since 2011, and the Prelude to Performance summer program of the Martina Arroyo Foundation, La Lingua della Lyrica in Italy, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and the Savannah Voice Festival with Sherrill Milnes. This summer she will take part in the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden, Austria, where she will work with Helmut Deutsch, Roger Vignoles, Julius Drake, and Elly Ameling, among others. Her operatic experience includes Rigoletto, Falstaff, La Traviata, La Bohème, Un Ballo in maschera, Il Trovatore, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Die Fledermaus, Faust, L’Elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte.

Chun-Wei Kang, coach/pianist, is a native of Taiwan. She has performed in concerts as both a soloist and an ensemble performer throughout the United States, Canada, and East Asia. Ms. Kang has appeared on national Taiwanese television in recitals with violinist Long-Long Kang, was broadcast in Japan with soprano Monique McDonald, and appeared on PBS SundayArts in a showcase for rising young opera singers. She has won several awards and scholarships, including the Gwendolyn Koldofsky Memorial Award, which was given to “a musician who demonstrated outstanding professionalism in collaborative piano.” She has served as staff pianist in the National Music Competition in Taiwan, Canadian Provincial Festival, the Centro Studi Italiani Opera Festival, and International Vocal Arts Institute (New York, Virginia, Puerto Rico and Montreal). A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music with a master’s degree, Ms. Kang is a vocal coach and pianist at the Manhattan School of Music and a faculty member at Long Island University and OperaWorks. She also serves as the music director for MSM’s Opera Role Preparation Workshop, directed by Mignon Dunn and has been the assistant music director for the New Choral Society since 2007. She was the assistant music director for The Tailor of Gloucester at MSM.


Kristen Kemp has been a vocal coach and accompanist for over 20 years, having worked for Cincinnati Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Sarasota Opera, Chelsea Opera, and Opera New Jersey, among others. She was also a music staff member at Sarasota Opera, beginning in 2003, as well as the Studio Artist Director for five seasons. As a member of the coaching staff for Sherrill Milnes’s VOICExperience, Ms. Kemp has been with their programs in Florida and Savannah since 2010. She received her master’s degree in vocal accompaniment and artist diploma in opera coaching from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Kenneth Griffiths and Donna Loewy.

Daniel Wilson hails from the suburbs of Philadelphia, but currently resides in New York City, where he studies philosophy and music at Fordham University. He has worked most prominently with Adelaide Roberts at Juilliard and Dr. Carl Cranmer at West Chester University. Over the past few years, he has participated in the Philadelphia International Music Festival and performed with the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra. A composition of his was performed in New York City by the Exponential Ensemble.

"Jason Wirth [spun] a gossamer web of unusual sounds on the piano," raved The New York Times in a recent review. A pianist, conductor, and vocal coach, Jason draws on his varied interests to bring new perspectives into his music-making. His recording of Poulenc's Babar, with international film star Michael Douglas narrating, has been released on the Naxos label. He has performed extensively as both a solo and a collaborative artist, including appearances with the Moscow Philharmonic and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra as a pianist. As a music director, Jason has led a number of varied projects, including Utopia Opera's recent double bill of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and King Arthur, which he led from the harpsichord. Please visit his website jasonwirth.com

Born in Shanghai, China, Haodong Wu made her debut with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra at age 9 and was selected as one of only five candidates across China to study at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she won such competitions as the Zhu Jiang Cup, the Gu Lang Yu, and the Concerto Competition. At age 18, Ms. Wu began to study at the Mannes College of Music with Pavlina Dokovska and later Cristina Stanescu and was awarded the Newton Swift Piano Award. She has graced the stages of major New York City venues, including Weill Hall, the Metropolitan Club, Steinway Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, the Union Club, Neue Galerie, and the German and Polish Consulates. Her performance of the Scriabin Piano Sonata No. 2, known as the “Sonata-Fantasy” was broadcast live on WQXR. Highlights of Ms. Wu’s recent performances include her debut as a soloist with the Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra, a chamber music recital with violinist Minghao Li at the Young Artist Forum in Schenectady, N.Y., and the David G. Whitcomb Foundation Young Performers’ concert series in Germantown, N.Y. Ms. Wu currently serves on the faculty of the Westchester Conservatory in White Plains, N.Y. and holds a staff pianist position at Mannes.


http://jasonwirth.com/
































SINGERS

Soprano Shabnam Abedi is a junior voice performance major at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. She sang the role of Marzia in Vivaldi’s Catone in Utica in collaboration with Opera Lafayette. She is a North Indian classical performer and has released three albums. She is the soprano section leader at All Souls Unitarian Church and Musica Viva. She is also a member of the Princeton Singers.

Alexis Aimé, soprano, is currently pursuing an M.M. in opera studies at the University of Maryland and was most recently seen in the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Academy of Vocal Arts with the Russian Opera Workshop. Upcoming roles include Fiordiligi, Female Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia), Euridice (Orfeo ed Euridice), and L’Opinion Publique in Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers. She received her B.M. in vocal performance from Oberlin Conservatory in 2014. Notable roles include Gretel, Rosalinda, and Lady Macduff. Alexis began her professional career with Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2013 performing the role of the Lover in Il Tabarro.

Baritone Lawson Anderson graduated with majors in music and economics from the University of Virginia in 2009, where he was actively involved with numerous opera and oratorio ensembles and sang the roles of Don Giovanni, Dr. Falke, Morales, and Marco. After graduation, he worked in management consulting, but actively continued singing with musical theater, choral, and opera companies around the Southeast. He spent the summer of 2013 in Tel Aviv singing various concerts, master classes, and Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus with IVAI before moving to New York City to pursue his MBA at Columbia Business School. Lawson has continued his vocal studies in New York while performing various roles, including Papageno, Figaro, and Belcore, with companies in the city. Past IVAI performance highlights include the roles of Don Giovanni, Silvio, Billy Bigelow, and Dover Beach with string quartet at Domaine Forget and the Chalet du Mont-Royal.

Francisco Bedoy is a Mexican lyric tenor from Jalisco. He earned his bachelor’s of music at the University of Kentucky and his master’s of music in vocal performance at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He has been heard in Le Nozze di Figaro as Bartolo, in La Bohème as Parpignol, in Dead Man Walking as a Cop, in La Traviata as Gaston, and as Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He also has an extensive repertoire as a recitalist singing Spanish and Latin American music. He has earned multiple scholarships and fellowships in the past years.


Soprano Diana Benton has performed a variety of operatic roles, including the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffman,n and Micaëla in Carmen with local companies in New York City. In 2011 she covered the role of Almera in Nico Muhly's Dark Sisters with Gotham Chamber Opera. Diana was a finalist in the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, the Career Bridges Grant Awards, and the NOA Voice Competition

Camille Brault, mezzo-soprano, was born in Paris, France. After she received her cello, solfège, and chorus diplomas at the Nadia&Lili Boulanger Conservatory, she studied voice. Camille performed as both a chorister and a soloist with several professional ensembles in such Parisian venues as the Théâtre du Châtelet with the Boston Camerata, and Notre-Dame de Paris. In 2015, she was Marguerite in an adaptation of Goethe’s Faust, Marguerite d’après Faust at the Avignon Festival. This year, she performed with the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Choir at the Metropolitan Museum, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. Camille just completed her freshman year at MSM.

Soprano Kathleen Farrar Buccleugh has a performance history in opera, oratorio, musical theater, and recital repertoire. In the 2015-16 season, she performed Frasquita in New Rochelle Opera’s production of Carmen and Giannetta in Atlanta-based Peach State Opera’s L’Elisir d’amore. She also covered Margot in Romberg’s The Desert Song with Birmingham Music Club, performed in two opera cabaret concerts with Opera Birmingham, and sang in a scenes program with Opera Breve at Opera America's National Opera Center. In April, she completed a two-week run as Rose Lennox (Lily Craven cover) in The Secret Garden with Birmingham’s Red Mountain Theatre Company.

Ukrainian-born soprano Antonina Chehovska won first prize in the Gerda Lissner International Competition and Grand Prize from the George London Foundation and the Cooper-Bing Competition. She received a Schuyler Foundation Career Bridges Grant, a Bel Canto vocal scholarship, and won the Czech and Slovak International Voice Competition and the Michigan District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Antonina performed Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Ravel’s Shéhérazade with the Dexter Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Resurrection with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s Manzoni Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Dvoràk’s Stabat Mater, and Richard Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder. She will debut with the New York Festival of Song and sing Micaela with Opera Columbus. She holds master’s degrees in performance and conducting from the University of Michigan.


Tenor Yang Chen is a second-year master's degree candidate at the Manhattan School of Music. At MSM he has appeared in Macbeth and Die Zauberflöte. His roles include Cosi fan tutte (Ferrando) and scenes from La Traviata (Alfredo), Carmen (Don Jose), and La Bohème (Rodolfo). He is a graduate of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.

Nenad Čiča, tenor, was born in Split, Serbia. He graduated from the Faculty of Music Arts in Belgrade. He has been a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation, the Serbian Military Symphony Orchestra, and the Choir of the Faculty of Music Arts, among others. Nenad won the Lazar Jovanovic and Petar Konjovic competitions. In 2011 he debuted as Leandro in Salieri's Angiolina at Festival OperOderspree in Germany and at the National Theatre of Belgrade in Aida. Other roles include: Licinius (In Hoc Signo - world premiere), Steersman, Ismaele, Lensky, Tesla, and Emperor (Melancholic Dreams of Count Sava Vladislavic - world premiere), Narraboth, Alfredo, the Duke of Mantua, and Luigi.

Evanivaldo Correa Serrano, tenor, began his voice studies in Mexico City at the Escuela Superior de Musica del INBA, in SIVAM, the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, and the Scuola dell`Opera Italiana in Bologna, Italy. In 2010 he won first prize in Las Mejores Voces del Bel Canto. He participated in Palm Beach Opera’s young artists program in 2010-12.

Brazilian soprano Carla Cottini received her master’s degree from the Joaquin Rodrigo Conservatory of Music in Valencia, Spain, where she sang the roles of Gretel, Armida, and Susanna. Winner of the New Talent Award from the Maria Callas singing competition in Brazil, she debuted in Sāo Paulo as Ida in Die Fledermaus. Other roles include Norina, Crobyle in Thais, and Musetta. Carla also performs in jazz dance, classical ballet, and musical comedy.


Brazilian-American tenor Matheus Coura is a graduate of the University of North Florida School of Music. His recent performance highlights include Raoul de Gardefeu in Offenbach’s La Vie parisienne and cabaret performances with First Coast Opera in St. Augustine, Florida. He has appeared as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil, and many of J. S. Bach’s cantatas with the UNF chorale and orchestra. In chamber music, Matheus performed Fauré’s La bonne chanson with string quintet and in Messiaen’s La Mort du nombre. This fall, he will begin his graduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Fanyong Du, lyric tenor, is currently in the Professional Studies Program at the Mannes College of Music. He lived in Ukraine from 2003 to 2013 and received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Odessa State Academy. Fanyong’s operatic roles include Gaspar in La Favorita and Lensky in Eugene Onegin, and he was a soloist in Rossini's Stabat mater. Recently he covered Malcolm in Macbeth (Bloch) at the Manhattan School of Music. His last opera role was Nemorino in a 2015 Mannes production. He has also performed in recitals, concerts, and galas in Italy, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Russia, and China.

Lisa Faieta is a soprano currently training and performing in Toronto. She graduated from McGill University in 2011 and since then has been performing regularly. Her previous roles include Micaëla in Carmen with Loose TEA Music Theatre, Frasquita (Carmen) with Carmen on Tap, Elizabeth “Baby” Doe in The Ballad of Baby Doe and Donna Elvira with Opera by Request, Elettra in Idomeneo with Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, Queen of the Night with Toronto Summer Opera Workshop, and Lucy in The Beggar’s Opera with Opera Nova Scotia.

French-Argentine soprano Eugenia Forteza recently graduated from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University with a M.M. in opera. She also holds a B.M in voice performance, summa cum laude, from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2014 Eugenia was selected to participate in the 10th Barcelona Festival of Song. Recent performance highlights include Despina with Opera at Rutgers and Duquesa Carolina in Luisa Fernanda with Concert Operetta Theater in Philadelphia. After IVAI, Eugenia will be performing Suora Genovieffa in Suor Angelica with Capitol Opera Company in Albany, New York.


Mezzo-soprano Linda Garcia is an undergraduate voice music education major at Mason Gross School of the Arts. She began training classically at the age of 15, when her high school choir teacher recommended that she consider a singing career. She then went to the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera as a chorus member. She has sung in their productions of Madama Butterfly as one of the geishas, Pagliacci, Cavelleria Rusticana, and La Traviata.

Canadian mezzo-soprano Caroline Gélinas, a graduate of the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, is currently a member of the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal. She received grants from the Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation, the Hnatyshyn Foundation, and the Fondation des Jeunesses Musicales du Canada. She recently made her Opéra de Montréal debut as Die Schleppträgerin in Elektra. Caroline sang Dorabella at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy and Dido in Dido and Aeneas. She was a soloist in Handel's Messiah and Rossini's Petite messe solennelle, among others, with the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Montréal. Future roles include the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Atelier and Carmen with Orchestre Symphonique de Longueuil.

Vincent Grana, bass-baritone, is 28 years old and a native of New Jersey. He has a B.M. magna cum laude in music education and an M.M. in vocal performance from Rutgers University. In 2013, hewas a Philadelphia District winner of the Metropolitan OperaNational Council Auditions. His credits include Papageno, Figaro(Le Nozze di Figaro), Elder Ott (Susannah), Annibale Pistacchio (IlCampanello di Notte), Nilakantha (Lakmé), and Mephistopheles(Faust). Last summer at CVAI in Montreal, Vincent sangDulcamara in a production of L’Elisir d’amore. Most recently hesang with Sarasota Opera as one of their apprentice artists for thefinal season of their Verdi Cycle.

Rachael Nolana Griffith, soprano, graduated from Boise State University with a degree in music education. She began singing with the Boise Opera Company at the age of 12 and made her debut with Opera Idaho in 2013 as Sister Berthe in The Sound of Music. She sang Berta in their production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia. She was a member of the Boise State Meistersingers, appearing as Signora Nacarelli in The Light in the Piazza and Marmee in Little Women. She was a winner of BSU's 2013 Concerto/Aria Competition. She is also the principal soloist at the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boise. She received grants from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Japanese soprano Aine Hakamatsuka won the 2013 Yokohama International Music Competition. She recently performed Gretel at the Kennedy Center with Opera Pomme Rouge and Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) with Opera Theater of Montclair. Other notable roles include Nannetta, Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor), Susanna, Barbarina, Taumännchen (Hänsel und Gretel), Lucia (The Rape of Lucretia), and Belinda (Dido and Aeneas). As a concert performer, she has been seen as a soloist in Fauré’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Bach’s Cantata No. 51. Aine received her master of music degree from the Manhattan School of Music.


French-American soprano Sandra Hamaoui completed her B.M. degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is a first-prize winner of the Art Song Preservation Society of New York's Mary Trueman Art Song Vocal Competition and the West Bay Opera League Competition. In the 2016-17 season, she will debut as Juliette in Gounod's opera with the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute and will appear in recital alongside Thomas Muraco at Opera America. Last season, Sandra was Adina in L’Elisir d'amore with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She represented the conservatory at the Kennedy Center as Adina and later reprised the role at CVAI. She has also sung Amore and Damigella in L‘Incornazione di Poppea and Papagena.

Kimberly Hann, mezzo-soprano, has performed such roles as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Cecilia March in Little Women, Maestra delle Novizie in Suor Angelica, and scenes as the title role in Carmen, Charlotte in Werther, and Maddalena in Rigoletto. At the Castleton Festival, she appeared in a production of Otello. This summer she will perform as an Advanced Artist with OperaWorks in Los Angeles. Kimberly has performed extensively in the Chicago area, where she was awarded a Bravo Award from the Bel Canto Foundation. She graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University and is currently earning her master’s degree at the Mannes College of Music.

Sarah Heilman, soprano, has performed operatic roles such as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Ida in Die Fledermaus, and Berginella in La Périchole. She was a young artist at the Amalfi Coast Music and Arts Festival in Maiori, Italy, and the Franco-American Vocal Academy in Périgueux, France. Sarah has been a featured soloist with the North Carolina Master Chorale and the Vanderbilt University Chorale. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the Mannes School of Music. She graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a B.M. in vocal performance and psychology in 2015. This season, she will be performing scenes from Don Pasquale (Norina) and Little Women (Amy) with the Mannes opera department.

Baritone Evan Henke is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he received his master of music degree. This summer he will perform as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro with the Narnia Arts Festival in Italy. Previous credits include: Cendrillon (Pandolfe), Albert Herring (Vicar), L’Elisir d’amore (Belcore cover), A Little Night Music (Mr. Lindquist), and Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro cover). Henke has trained at the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute and IVAI. He holds a bachelor of music from Southern Methodist University and has studied conducting and German history at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. In addition to solo recitals, he has been a featured soloist in New Mexico and Texas.


Japanese bass Hidenori Inoue is a first-year master’s degree candidate at the Manhattan School of Music (President’s Award), where he sang the role of Le Monstre Cathos in Persèe et Androméde by Jacques Ibert. He has performed Wurm in Luisa Miller, Nilakantha in Lakmé, Chevalley in The Leopard by Michael Dellaira (American Opera Project), and Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro. He also participates in a program that brings opera to the New York City School system.

After completing her bachelor’s degree in vocal performance, soprano Camille Jasensky made her debut with Opera Colorado as Papagena. She also performed as Rapunzel in Into the Woods and was the soprano soloist for Saint-Saëns Oratorio de Noël and Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle in Denver, Colorado. Camille attended the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, where she performed the roles of Zerlina, Laurie in Oklahoma!, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, and the soprano solo in Fauré's Requiem. Last season Camille sang Johanna in Sweeney Todd with Townsend Opera and Fresno Grand Opera. She is currently based in New York City.

Korean baritone Sol Jin sang Giorgio Germont in La Traviata at Carnegie Hall. He reprised the role with San Francisco Opera’s Merola program. He also appeared with Merola as Rodrigo in Don Carlo, the title role in Gianni Schicchi, and Prince Yeletsky in Pique Dame. He sang the title role in Macbeth with the Manhattan School of Music and Germont and Il Conte in Le Nozze di Figaro with Long Island Opera. He received first prize in the Gerda Lissner competition and second prize in the XIV Altamura/Caruso International Voice Competition. Most recently, Sol was named a national winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions. He will be joining Houston Grand Opera as a Studio Artist, making his HGO debut as Valentin.

Soprano Juri Jung was born in Seoul, Korea, and is a first-year master's degree candidate at the Manhattan School of Music. Previous credits include Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Blonde), Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna), Così fan tutte (Despina), and Hänsel und Gretel (Dew Fairy).


Megan Kalberer, mezzo-soprano, is an undergraduate majoring in music education at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she will be a senior in the fall. Megan most recently sang the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte and Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier in opera scenes. Other credits include Trial by Jury, Acis and Galatea, and Candide.

Marisa Karchin, soprano, completed her master’s degree in vocal performance at the Mannes School of Music in 2016, after earning a B.A. from Yale University. While at Mannes, she sang with Utopia Opera and the Mannes Sounds Festival, and will perform in a new production of Robert Ashley’s Dust in the fall. Marisa recently appeared with the Kronos Quartet, the Mannes Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, and C4: The Choral Composer-Conductor Collective. This summer she will join the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh SummerFest as a studio artist.

Soprano EphiGenia Kastanas is a master’s graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. She graduated summa cum laude and received her bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the Hartt School of Music. Her credits in the United States and Europe include MSM’s 2016 production of L’Enfant et les sortilèges (L’Enfant cover), Papagena, Erster Knabe, the title role in Bagatelle, Le Mariage aux Lanternes (Catherine), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Antonia understudy), La Périchole (Brambilla), and scenes from Carmen (Frasquita), Die Fledermaus (Adele, Rosalinda), and Le Nozze di Figaro (Susanna).

A second-year master’s student at the Manhattan School of Music, Korean bass-baritone Geeseop Kim’s credits include Così fan tutte (Alfonso) with New York Summer Opera, Macbeth by Ernest (Lennox), Luisa Miller (Walter), and Albert Herring (Budd) with MSM, Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro) with Chugye University, and the title role in Don Pasquale with Hanyang University. Scene work includes Dulcamara, Don Giovanni, and Leporello with the Seung Eum Voice Ensemble. Geeseop was a finalist in the 2016 Verismo Opera Competition, a third-place winner in the 2016 New Jersey State Opera Competition, and a second-place winner in the 2016 Ades Vocal Competition at MSM.


Soprano Jaeyeon Kim earned her bachelor’s degree in music from Ewha University and will receive her master’s degree in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music in 2016. Her credits include Pamina in Die Zauberflöte. She has appeared with the Korean National Opera and studied at CoOperative. She has also participated in the Indiana University Music Festival and the Music Journal Rookie Concert.

Soprano Sujin Kim is currently completing her master of music degree at the Manhattan School of Music, where she recently sang soprano soloist in Bach’s Cantata No. 68. Sujin debuted with the Opera House di Roma as Mimì. She has performed the roles of Adina with the Garden State Opera and Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte in Korea. She sang soprano solos with the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra and the Daejeon Civic Youth Choir, and participated in various concerts and recitals at the Seoul Art Center, Sejong Art Center, Daejeon Art Center, and CBS Christian broadcast. Sujin studied at Sungshin University, the Accademia Internazionale di Musica "Opera House" di Roma, and the Musik Hochschule Mannheim Music Academy.

Soprano Zoe Chunghui Kim is a first-year master's student. She graduated from Ewha Woman's University in 2014 with a bachelor of music degree in classical voice. She has participated in several scene works and given solo and joint recitals at Indiana University and UC Davis. She also appeared in variety of concerts in Seoul, Korea, and performed as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem and Verdi's Requiem.

Russian-born soprano Elizaveta Kozlova is pursuing her bachelor’s degree at the Mannes School of Music. She appeared as a soloist at the Moscow International House of Music, performing Lilacs by Rachmaninoff and Quia Respexit from Bach’s Magnificat in 2015. Elizaveta is a first-prize winner of Canada’s Kiwanis International Music Festival and a recipient of the Best Senior Vocalist Trophy from Toronto’s North York Music Festival. Her first professional performance was as a member of the Bolshoi Theatre’s Children Chorus, singing in Turandot. Elizaveta performed the role of First Witch in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas in an MSM production.


Tenor Taehwan Ku graduated from the Manhattan School of Music. He was Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in Martina Arroyo’s Prelude of Performance Program in 2015. And he also portrayed Rodolfo with Yonsei University and MSM. He sang the role of Persée in Persée et Andromede in 2016 with MSM. Taehwan was a Grand Prize winner at the Music Journal Competition and Korea Young Artist Competition.

Alexei Kuznetsov, tenor, was born on May 28, 1991, in Ukraine. The winner of the X Factor and of the Junior Boxing Championship, he sang in his church choir. At the age of 17, he entered the Donetsk Musical College and was later an intern at the Donetsk National State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. Alexei sang opera arias on the main square of Ukraine and at charity concerts and was invited to perform at Pierre Cardin’s anniversary. He sang the Ukrainian National Anthem at EURO 2012 and at the World Boxing Association Championships, and performed in Switzerland, Romania, China, Russia, and Austria. Alexei sings in nine languages.

Mexican-Italian baritone Omar Lara studied at the National School of Music and Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli in Mexico City. He sang Melchior in Amahl and the Night Visitors with CONACULTA. Other roles include El Rey in Montsalvatge’s El Gato con Botas in the 39th Cervantino International Festival, Don Alfonso with Oberlin in Italy, Gasparo in Donizetti’s Rita in Guadalajara, and Gianni Schicci with the Zacatecas Philharmonic Orchestra. He sang Marcello with the Bellas Artes Opera Company alongside Ramón Vargas and Ainhoa Arteta. He won first prize and the Bellas Artes Opera Award in the 7th International Sinaloa Singing Competition. He is a second-year resident artist of the SIVAM Opera Workshop in Mexico City. Future engagements include the roles of Belcore and Gasparo with Bellas Artes and Escamillo in Tequila’s International Operatic Festival 2016.

Soprano Xiao bin Ma is a graduate of Shadong University of the Arts. She has won a number of awards, including first prize in the Hong Kong International Vocal Contest. She was on Shandong TV children’s channel in their 2013 June gala and participated in other musical events in China.


Elizabeth Madama, soprano, recently sang solos in Rossini’s Petite Messe at the Rossini Opera Academy, Canada, and attended the Accademia Rossiniana, Pesaro Rossini Festival. Last season she sang solos in Mozart’s C Minor Mass with Canticum Novum and the Mozart Requiem with West Village Choral Society, as well as Musetta with New York Lyric Opera and Giunone in La Calisto with the Baroque Opera Workshop. Additional roles include Susanna and Zerlina, Amor (Orfeo ed Euridice), and Virtù (L’Incoronazione di Poppea). Elizabeth was a 2015 Rossini finalist, Palm Springs Guild; semifinalist at the Jensen Foundation; and 2013 semifinalist for the New York Oratorio Society. An honors graduate of the University of Chicago, she also studied in Berlin and Rome.

Daniela Magura is a mezzo-soprano who just finished the second year of her undergraduate degree at the Mannes College of Music. She has performed in numerous opera scene roles, including the Sorceress/Spirit in Dido and Aeneas this past April. She previously attended the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy.

Adam Margulies is a classically trained baritone who has performed onstage in professional companies, festivals, and recital series internationally and is a winner of the UNESCO-sponsored Orfeo Competition. Recently he produced the film The Bohemians, in which he sang the role of Marcello. Adam has written for several publications as a critic and has also written and published poetry and screenplays. He is currently working on a book on the development and maintenance of the heldentenor voice.

Tereza Marshall is a soprano from Prague, Czech Republic. She studied in the Prague Conservatory of Music. She worked in the Merola opera program and joined the Verismo Opera Company in Vallejo, California. Tereza attended the Summerfest at the Curtis Institute of Music and an international vocal program in Carlsbad, Czech Republic. She performed in various concerts around the Czech Republic, singing international anthems for the Continental Hockey League. She also worked in the Prague Cabaret. She performed Christine in a Phantom of the Opera production in Prague. Tereza will attend the Mediterranean Opera Studio in Sicily, working on the role of Violetta.


Kelly Miller is a soprano from Rockaway, New Jersey. She is a first-year M.M. opera student at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she recently performed the role of the Plaintiff in Trial by Jury. Kelly received her B.A. from New York University in Classical Voice Performance and performed the role of Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. She also was Christine in the national regional premiere of The Phantom of the Opera. In 2011 Kelly won the N.Y. Mets National Anthem Search and sang at Citi Field.

Maudee Montierre, soprano, is a Ph.D. student at the South African College of Music, University of Cape Town. She received her master’s cum laude from the Royal Academy of Music. Maudee was a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the Wilhelm Stenhammar International Singing Competition in Norrköping, Sweden. She sang Maria Stuarda for Cape Town Opera and appeared as Contessa di Folleville (Il Viaggio a Reims) and Lady with a Hand Mirror (Postcard from Morocco). She sang the Queen of the Night for Brent Opera in London and Gretel for Opera Holloway in Edinburgh. This year she sang Konstanze and Donna Anna for the Darling Music Experience and Musetta for Wig Opera Company.

Andrew Moore, a bass-baritone from Point Pleasant, New Jersey, is currently working for his B.M. in education at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Andrew recently sang Guglielmo in the Rutgers production of Così fan tutte. His previous credits include Bernstein’s Candide and Handel’s Acis and Galatea. Andrew also performed as a soloist with the Rutgers University Glee Club in their European tour in 2015.

Emily Mwila is a soprano of New Zealand and Zambian heritage. She holds a B.A. in modern languages and Asian Studies from Victoria University, Wellington. While completing her degree, she studied classical singing privately and made a living as a freelance vocalist performing at various concerts and events. Last year she was selected as a semifinalist in the McDonald’s Aria contest in Sydney, Australia. In August she will make her operatic debut as Zerlina in a production of Don Giovanni held in her hometown, Wellington. She plans to further her operatic studies in the United States in the coming year.


A second-year master’s student at the Manhattan School of Music, Korean soprano Jungwon Na’s previous credits include Despina with Manhattan K Studio Opera. Her scene work includes Gilda and Despina with New York Summer Opera and Pamina at MSM. She was the first-prize winner in the Forte International Music Competition, 2015-16.

Australian-Armenian bass and pianist Christopher Nazarian is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His credentials include a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in piano performance and a diploma and master’s in opera performance. As a concert pianist, Christopher credits his five performances of piano concertos with orchestra as highlights of his pianistic career to date. He has been a finalist and prizewinner of several Australian national singing competitions, such as the Opera Foundation for Young Australians, and performed as choral soloist at the Sydney Opera House. He is currently an adjunct performer with Sydney's Pacific Opera Company.

Baritone Marko Pantelić is a native of Belgrade, Serbia. He is a junior at the Belgrade University of the Arts, School of Music. Marko made his professional debut singing the role of Zoroastro in Handel's Orlando with New Belgrade Opera. He sang baritone solos in Durufle's Requiem and Messe Cum Jubilo, as well as Ramirez’s Misa Criolla. Marko has received prizes in several international competitions in Serbia and Croatia, and has performed in Montenegro, Bosnia, Romania, Greece, Spain, and Russia.

Soprano Sara Papini is currently completing a post-graduate degree at the Mannes College of Music. Her operatic performances include Musetta, Norina, Gilda, Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro), Donna Anna, Princess (L’Enfant et les sortileges), Micaëla, Tina in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, and, most recently, Adina with Mannes Opera. Sara’s orchestral experience includes performances with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra and as a featured artist with the Greater Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra.


Brett Pardue, tenor, was born in North Carolina, where he performed regularly with the Asheville Lyric Opera. In 2012, he studied at the Bel Canto Institute in Florence, Italy, and won the Performance Prize. Before attending UGA to study with former Metropolitan Opera baritone Frederick Burchinal, he worked for Cincinnati Opera during the 2014 season. In recent years, he has won both the Atlanta Music Club Competition and Mobile Opera's Madame Rose Scholarship. Brett performs with Capitol City Opera, UGA Opera Theatre, and the Athens Choral Society.

Lyric soprano Katja Pennypacker is a high school junior at North Penn High School in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. She performs regularly and has been a soloist with her high school chorus, Women’s Choir, and Chamber Choir. She recently placed first chair in the National Association for Music Educators All-Eastern Honors Ensembles after placing second chair in the 2016 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association All-State Chorus Competition. In recent years she attended the Solo Vocal Artist summer program at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Music Horizons program at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

Nicholas Petroski, tenor, is a student at the Mason Gross School of the Arts. He has been involved with their opera program for three years, performing in Falstaff, Candide, and Lakmé. He was a participant in the Castleton Festival in 2015, performing in Roméo et Juliette, as well as scenes from Falstaff (Bardolfo) and L’Enfant et les sortilèges (Black Wedgwood). He has also performed with the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir in Alice Tully Hall and toured in 2015 with the Rutgers Glee Club around England, Wales, and the Netherlands.

Soprano Yulan Piao was last seen performing as Mimì at the Manhattan School of Music. She is a second-year master’s student at MSM. Previous credits include Gilda and Fiordiligi. Her opera scene work includes Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor (Frau Fluth) and the title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor and Manon. She also performed at the 11th Kukminilbo Young Artist Concert. Her prizes in competitions include third prize in the 22nd Music Journal Concours, fourth prize in the 44th Nanpa National Music Concours, and first prize in the Concurso Internacional de Canto 2012 Teatro Colón Korea regional round. She also sang the title roles in Luisa Miller and Magda in an opera scene of La Rondine at MSM.


Soprano Meghan Picerno recently made her Kennedy Center debut as the Sandman in Hänsel und Gretel and her David Geffen Hall and role debut as Lucia di Lammermoor. She was a quarter-finalist in the Operalia competition in London and performed the Queen of the Night at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. She sang at Alice Tully Hall and in Beijing, China, as a young artist of I Sing Beijing. Meghan received first prize in the Arkadi International Vocal and New York Lyric Opera’s vocal competitions and the Forte International Competition; second prize in the American Prize vocal competition; and awards from the Alfredo Silipigni, Benjamin Matthews competitions, and the Career Bridges grant program.

Baritone Ivan Plazačić, from Belgrade, Serbia, holds a bachelor's degree in music pedagogy from the University of the Arts, School of Music, and is currently completing a degree in vocal performance. He sings regularly at the Madlenianum Opera as Papageno, Belcore, Lesgle (Les Miserables), and Gindelbach (Wiener Blut). Other roles include Mercutio and Guglielmo. Ivan won awards in opera courses in Beeskow, Germany, and Gmunden, Austria (Baroque Akademie). Other activities include music type setting and arranging, design, photography, video and audio recording, and nonprofit work.

Mezzo-soprano Margaret Potter’s recent engagements include Charlotte in Werther for Martha Cardona Opera, Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte for Festival of the Arts BOCA, and Tebaldo in Don Carlo for Vocal Productions NYC. Her other roles include Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking), Mercedes (Carmen), Flora Bervoix (La Traviata), Zita (Gianni Schicchi), and Meg Page, Concepcion (L’Heure Espagnole), and the beggar woman (Sweeney Todd). Margaret is a recipient of awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Council and the Young Musicians Foundation. She has been a featured soloist at the Kennedy Center, the Washington National Cathedral, and the OK Mozart International Festival.

Visnja Radosav, a mezzo-soprano from Belgrade, Serbia, is a graduate of Belgrade University of Arts, School of Music, where she obtained her bachelor's and performance certificate degrees. She performed as Fenena (Nabucco) and Suzuki with the Belgrade Opera National Theater and Maddalena with Macedonian Opera in 2013-16. Her other concert and stage appearances have taken her to Rome, Berlin, Moscow, Yerevan (Armenia), Skopje (FYR of Macedonia), and Piran (Slovenia). She has won awards from many competitions, including the Ronaldo Nicolosi (Rome), Bruna Spiler (Montenegro), and the 38th Jeunesse Musicales (Belgrade).


Mezzo-soprano and Washington, D.C., native Kati Claire Richer is currently attending the Mannes School of Music for her M.M. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014 with a bachelor of fine arts in vocal performance and an Advanced Music Certificate. Kati has appeared as Suzuki, Bradamante (Alcina), Florence Pike (Albert Herring), Ma Moss (The Tender Land), and premiered roles in two new operas with Co-Opera Pittsburgh. She has also performed in scenes as Hänsel, Charlotte (Werther), and Anna (Les Troyens). Kati has participated in summer programs, including SongFest in Los Angeles, California, and VOICExperience in Savannah, Georgia.

Tenor Benito Rodriguez was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and began to pursue a career in opera after finishing his studies in industrial engineering in 2010. In 2011 he successfully debuted in New York City in an opera concert, Revealing Mexico. In the same year he was awarded a Plácido Domingo scholarship and was selected to take part in the international operatic training program SIVAM in Mexico City. That same year he sang Rodolfo. Notable performances also include Rodolfo with Vancouver Opera, Don José (La Tragédie de Carmen) with Florida Grand Opera, Mario Ruopolo (Il Postino) in its New York premiere, Fritz (L’Amico Fritz), and Alfredo with Stockton Opera. In addition, his repertoire includes leading roles in L’Elisir d’amore, Faust, Die Zauberflöte, and Die Fledermaus.

Mezzo-soprano Gina Ruzhansky is currently a sophomore at the New England Conservatory. She is a member of the Undergraduate Opera Studio Program at the New England Conservatory and was the soloist in this past year's performance of Leonard Bernstein's Missa Brevis.

Elizabeth Sarian, mezzo-soprano, is pursuing her master’s degree in vocal performance at Peabody Conservatory. This season, she performed as Mae Jones in Weill’s Street Scene, Third Lady in Die Zauberlöte, and premiered the role of Hattie Lawton in The Baltimore Plot by Kyle Krause. Elizabeth was also a finalist in Peabody’s concerto competition, performing selections from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn. This summer, she will be Cherubino at the Amalfi Coast Festival in Italy. She previously attended Songfest and the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute.


Soprano Sladjana Saric studied at the National Theater, Belgrade, Serbia; the Opera Studio Borivoje Popovic; the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest, Hungary; and the Faculty of Music, Belgrade. She has a master’s in vocal performance and in flute performance. She was a finalist in the 2011 Grandi Voci competition in Salzburg. Her roles include Senta, Suor Angelica, Mimì, and Giorgetta in Il Tabarro.

Virginia Sheffield, a soprano from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a senior at Carnegie Mellon University, School of Music. She is a soprano section leader in the Shadyside Presbyterian Church Chancel Choir in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has appeared as a soloist with the Carnegie Mellon Chorus. Virginia’s operatic roles include the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Russian Opera Workshop, Donna Anna in a program of Mozart scenes, and, most recently, Diana in Cavalli’s La Calisto at Carnegie Mellon.

Canadian mezzo-soprano Michelle Siemens spent the 2016 winter season with the Sarasota Opera Apprentice Artist Program. She has been a finalist in the Alan M. & Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition and the Canadian Opera Company’s Gala Competition. Previous credits include The Magic Flute (Third Lady), Ernest Bloch’s Macbeth (Third Witch and Third Apparition), Verdi and Mozart Requiems (mezzo-soprano soloist), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Hermia), Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino), and Dido and Aeneas (Dido). Michelle has performed with Opera on the Avalon and the Halifax Summer Opera Festival, as well as the Yorkshire Opera Workshop and the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy.

Olivia Smith, soprano, is a young artist and teacher in New York City. Her concert work has included the Lord Nelson Mass, Ein Deutsches Requiem, The Messiah, and Ceremony of Carols. She has performed in the Westchester Arts, the AIMS Lieder, and the Sherrill Milnes VOICExperience Festivals. Prior roles include Casilda (The Gondoliers), Fiordiligi, Bea (Three Decembers), Papagena, and Drusilla (L’Incoronazione di Poppea). Olivia holds a bachelor of music degree from Vanderbilt University and a master of music from the Mannes College of Music.


Canadian soprano Olivia Smith, 17 years old, is currently a high school student in British Columbia. She began singing classically at the age of 7 and is currently a grade 10 Royal Conservatory and Conservatory student. She received a gold medal from the Royal Conservatory of Music. In 2015 Olivia performed her first operatic role as Barbarina in Opera Kelowna's production of Le Nozze di Figaro. She also performed the part of Mary in the commissioned cantata Childhood of Christ by Canadian composer Arnold Draper, as well as numerous solo performances for Opera Kelowna events.

A master’s graduate of the Russian Academy of Music in 2015, tenor Pavel Suliandziga is now completing his professional studies diploma at the Mannes College of Music. His roles include Trike and Lensky in Eugene Onegin with the Russian Academy of Music, Tamino with RAM in collaboration with ESMUC in Barcelona, Spain, Peter Quint (The Turn of the Screw), and Nemorino with Mannes. Pavel was also a solo performer in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the RAM Orchestra. He was the first-place winner in 2013 and 2014 with AADGT in New York, performing in Carnegie Hall, and third-prize winner in the Bella Voce competition in Moscow. He was also a participant in the Vianden Festival in Luxembourg.

Soprano Lee Hyun Sung hails from Seoul, South Korea. Previous roles include Donna Anna, Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, Fiordiligi with the Merkava Singers, Nursing Sister in Suor Angelica with the New School, and Gilda with Seoul National University. She has received awards from the Korea Voice, the Sejong-Maekyung, the Seil Korean Art Songs, the Sung-Jung, the Hanyang, and the Kyungwon competitions. She is a P.S.D. student at the Mannes College of Music.

Louisa Rose Tringali, soprano, is pursuing her bachelor of music degree in vocal performance at Peabody Conservatory. At Peabody, she has appeared in productions of Dialogues des carmélites, Cendrillon, and as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. Louisa has been a guest soloist with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra twice. In 2016 she was a guest artist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in their weekday concert series. Last summer, Louisa was a scholarship recipient at Songfest.


Morgan Whitney, soprano, has played Nannetta (Falstaff), Sandman (Hänsel und Gretel), First Knitter (A Game of Chance), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief), and Zerlina. She has also appeared in scenes from Cendrillon, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and Orlando. This July she will be seen as Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites at the Midwest Institute of Opera. Morgan earned her master of music in vocal performance at Westminster College of the Arts in May 2016.

Born in New Zealand of Samoan descent, Benson Wilson, baritone, completed his B.Mus. (Hons) in 2014 at the University of Auckland. He recently sang Schaunard in La Bohème. In 2015 Benson won three prizes in the finals of the IFAC Australian Singing Competition, including the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Award, which will allow him to study in London in 2016. In 2014, he was a finalist in three major competitions: the North Shore Aria, the New Zealand Aria in Rotorua, and the Lexus Song Quest, New Zealand’s most prestigious singing competition. He won third prize in the New Zealand Aria and second prize in the biennial Lexus Song Quest.

Soprano Yun Xie (Melody) is a second-year master’s degree candidate at the Manhattan School of Music. She made her debut as Zhuoma in Encounter in the National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing. Previous credits include Musetta and Macbeth (Attendance). Scene work includes Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Adina, and Violetta. She was a third-prize winner in the National Conservatory Art Song Competition in Beijing.

Baritone Young Kwang Yoo was born in South Korea, where he graduated from Seoul National University. He got his master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Young Kwang was a first-prize winner in the Osaka International Competition, Japan. Previous credits include Rigoletto with Seoul National University; Marcello, Frederic in Lakmé, and Miller in Luisa Miller with MSM; Ben in The Telephone with Te Art Ro Productions; and Sharpless with the Martina Arroyo Foundation. He also performed in Ibert’s Persée et Andromède as Le Monstre Cathos in the U.S. premiere with MSM. He made his Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center debuts in Carmina Burana as a baritone soloist.


Wenjie Zhang, mezzo-soprano, is a graduate of Hangzhou Normal University and is currently a student at the Manhattan School of Music. She is a winner of the Silver Prize of the 5th International Chinese Arts Festival. Her roles include Cherubino, Nicklausse, Siebel, Rosina, Beppe, Sesto, and Orlofsky.

Mezzo-soprano Daiyao Zhong comes from Guangzhou, China. She is a freshman at the Manhattan School of Music. She was a performer in the opening and closing ceremonies of the 16th Asian Games and Guangzhou 2010 Para Games. As a competitor, she won the Golden Prize in the National Youth Art Competition, The Stars of Huaxia, in Beijing. She participated in the 8th World Choir Games in Latvia and won the Champion of the Music of Spirit and Faith Group with her high school choir.

Greek-American soprano Maria Eleni Zollo is entering her senior year at the Mannes School of Music. She is the co-founder of Opera in the Works, as well as choir director and organist at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Brooklyn, N.Y. In April, Maria Eleni made her debut as soloist with the Metro Chamber Orchestra, singing Mozart’s “Exultate Jubilate” and the Benedictus from Haydn’s Mass No. 7. Maria Eleni is also a soloist with the Alexiad Chorale, performing in the Archbishop Iakovos Memorial Concert as well as in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. She sang the roles of Gherardino in Mannes Opera’s Gianni Schicchi and First Page in Tannhäuser with Apotheosis Opera.


With our deepest gratitude we recognize our greatest and most devoted sponsors as well as pillars of our music community who have donated their time and resources.

The Lynn Warshow Charitable Fund Dr. Daniel Kuhn Ira Siff William Sussman, Esq. Mannes School of Music Rutgers School of Music, Mason Gross School of the Arts

We wish to express our appreciation to Beth Roberts, Robert Kessler, William Gustafson, Erik Bestmann, Ryan Anselmi, and Pamela Sabrin of the Mannes School for all their help with this program. Thank you to everyone! In loving memory of those who contributed so generously to the development of the vocal arts

Valerie Chernow Sheldon Glabman, M.D. Randolph Mickelson William Woodruff

To learn more about IVAI, please be sure to like us on facebook and visit our site:www.ivai.org.


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