Lei Ma, soprano. Born on 18th December 1975 in Henan, China, she graduated from the Pekin conservatory in 1998. Since 1999 she has been working at the National Chinese Theatre and has participated in the International Festival of Macao.
In 2000 she won a scholarship from M° Sergio Segalini to attend the Osimo Opera Academy for two years. During her time there she performed in the Osimo Theatre the roles of Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan Tutte and Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. During these two years she also performed at the Martina Franca Festival, in many operas, including Piccini’s Roland, and multiple concerts. It was in 2002, when she began attending the Chigiana Academy, that she began to study under Raina Kabaivanski. She has also performed at the theatre in Rieti in 2003 in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and at the Siena and Pisa Theatres in Lehar’s Merry Widow. She begins her performances abroad in October 2004, starting in Spain.
Festival edition: August 2004.
 

Laquita Mitchell - soprano. A native of New York, soprano Laquita Mitchell joined the Houston Grand Opera Studio in September 2002. She won first prize in the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers in February 2002 and also won the audience choice award. During the 2002-2003 season, her roles with Houston Grand Opera included Valencienne in The Merry Widow with fellow Manhattan School of Music graduate Susan Graham, as well as the role of Javotte in Manon and the role of Water in the world premiere of The Little Prince by Rachel Portman, produced by Francesca Zambello and conducted by Patrick Summers.
In summer 2002, Ms. Mitchell was a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program where she sang the role of Mimi in La Bohème. At the Manhattan School of Music, Ms. Mitchell sang Violetta in La Traviata, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus and Female Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, conducted by Julius Rudel. Other roles include, Micaela in Carmen, Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito, conducted by Julius Rudel.
Ms. Mitchell was the First Prize Winner of the 2003 Wiener Kammer Oper Prize as well as the Hugh Ross Award and the 2000 Panasonic Harmony Scholars Award. This award allowed her to make her debut at the Alice Tully Hall. She has performed in recital in Italy and studied with Maestro Ubaldo Fabbri of the Rossini Opera Festival. She has also studied with Warren Jones and Joan Patenaude-Yarnell. Ms. Mitchell completed her Masters of Music and the Professional Studies Program at the Manhattan School of Music and received a Bachelor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College.
In the 2003-2004 season Ms. Mitchell will sing the role of the First Lady in The Magic Flute and the role of Barena in Christopher Alden’s production of Jenùfa at the Houston Grand Opera. Her cover assignments include Cleopatra in Julius Ceasar, the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute and the role of Liù in Turandot.
Laquita is currently under contract at the Houston Grand Opera, Texas, USA.
Course for international opera singers in Urbania.
Festival editions: August, 2000, 2001, 2003.

Ellen Kessie Moeller

Sinéad Mulhern
Courses for international opera singers in Urbania: 1997, 1998.

Matthew Rose - British bass. Born 1978, British bass Matthew Rose studied at Christ Church College, Canterbury with Sheila Amit Luxon and the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia with Marlena Malas. He has attended courses at the Britten-Pears School, Chautauqua Vocal Institute and Centro Studi Italiani. Student roles include Noye, Noye’s Fludde; Collatinus, The Rape of Lucretia; Abbot, Curlew River; Arkel, L’Impression de Pélleas; Il Commendatore, Don Giovanni; Don Alfonso, Così Fan Tutte; Seneca, L’incoronazione di Poppea; Doctor, Vanessa; Bartolo, Le nozze di Figaro; Nick Shadow, The Rake’s Progress; and title role Gianni Schicchi. Other opera performances include Wolfgang, Three Little Pigs; Sprecher/Second Priest, Die Zauberflöte; Yamadori, Madama Butterfly; Dr Grenvil, La Traviata; Doctor/Apparition, Macbeth; Truffaldin, Ariadne auf Naxos, for Opera Company of Philadelphia and Basilio, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, for Opera Festival of New Jersey. He will make his Royal Opera debut as Jonas Fogg, Sweeney Todd, followed by Steward/Sentry Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Schlemil, Les Contes D’Hoffmann, Collatinus, The Rape of Lucretia; Wagner Faust and Sciarrone Tosca. He will also understudy the King Aida and Count Lamoral Arabella. Matthew was contracted in 2003 by the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, London.
Student of the Centro Studi Italiani: August 1997.
Festival Edition: August 2002.

Tim Sarris, was born in Virginia, U.S.A. and graduated from the University of Maryland and the Curtis Institute of Music of Philadelphia. His opera debut started with the Wolftrap opera Company, as a baritone in Don Giovanni. Whilst he was attending the Curtis Institute he was personally chosen by Gian Carlo Menotti to play the main role in Amelia al ballo at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.
In 1989 he began as a solist in Ned Rorem’s Mourning Scene in the New York “Alice Tully Hall” of the Lincoln Center. Sarris then returned to the Wolftrap Opera Company for the Barber of Seville and The Love for Three Oranges. He has performed main roles as an operatic baritone for The San Francisco opera, Opera Pacific, Sarasota Opera, Cleveland Opera, New Jersey Opera Festival, the Little Orchestra Society of New York, Avery Fischer Hall and Central City Opera and abroad with The Montevideo Symphony, Caracas Opera and L’Opera de Montreal. Continuing his exploration of operette, he went on tour with The San Francisco Opera Theatre as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus and with the Connecticut Opera as Danilo in La Vedova Allegra, for his zwischenfach repertoire.
Sarris officially began as a tenor in the role of Rodolfo in La Behème with The Orchestra X of Houston. He immediately followed this as Tamino in The Magic Flute with the Commonwealth Opera, then Fernando in Granados’ Goyescas with the Monmouth Civic Chorus. He then returned to the Calgary Philharmonic for the Mozart and Salieri of Rimsky-Korsakov, following his success the previous season as Il Celebrante in Bernstein’s Messa. His interpretation of Alfredo in La Traviata with The Verismo Opera Company was acclaimed by critics and he was then chosen to be the tenor soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah for the Fairfax Choral Society. He has recently interpreted the role of Prince Karl Franz in Il Principe Studente for the New Rochelle Opera.
On the concert stage Sarris has sung with the San Francisco Symphony, the Svannah Symphony, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the Birmingham Symphony, the Kansas City Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, the Long Beach Symphony and the Concerto Soloist of Philadelphia under Max Rudolf’s direction. More recently he debuted as tenor with the Avery Fischer Hall in A Tribute to the Helenic Spirit with Ted Lambrinos and Anton Coppola. His performance in Ten Inventions by Dimitri Mitropoulos was recorded at the Merkin Hall.
He performed some extracts of Daniel Catan’s La hija de Rappacino for a television programme on Mexican Public Television.
Sarris has also won the following competitions: the National Society of the Arts and Letter Voice Competition and the Maria Lanza Voice Competition.
Festival edition: August 2003.

Kelly Sawatsky
Canadian soprano Kelly Sawatsky is currently a member of the Young Artists Ensemble at Caramoor International Music Festival for the 2004 summer season. In addition to performing Argelia in L’Esule di Roma with Caramoor last summer, Ms. Sawatsky also participated in Centro Studi Lirica in Urbania, Italy where she performed scenes from L’amico Fritz, Le Nozze di Figaro, and La Bohème.
In December 2002, Ms. Sawatsky made her solo debut at Avery Fisher Hall in Handel's Messiah. A graduate of Manhattan School of Music's Masters degree program, she was featured in scenes from Eugene Onegin, Vanessa, Amelia Goes to the Ball, and created the role of Momoolie in The Araboolies of Liberty Street. Ms. Sawatsky received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Manitoba. Other roles include Cio Cio San, Komponist, Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito), and many others in various scenes programs.
Ms. Sawatsky has sung a number of roles in contemporary American and Canadian opera. In 2000, she was invited as one of twelve singers to participate in the Banff Centre for the Art’s Contemporary Opera Program where she performed Susie in The Silver Tassie and Camille in Thérèse Raquin. Later, she created the dual role of Diana/Artemis in Chamber Opera West’s new production of The Master’s Stroke.
In addition to her operatic work, she has been a soloist with Richmond Choral Society, The National Chorale, Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, Southern Manitoba Choral Association and the Winnipeg Singers.

Shane Shinuk Kim
Cooming soon.
Course for international opera singers in Urbania: 1997.

Scott Skiba, baritone. Plain Dealer music critic Donald Rosenberg has called Scott Skiba’s baritone “properly dark and menacing,” in his “dashing” portrayal of Nick Shadow in the Oberlin Opera Theater production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress. Skiba’s other roles at Oberlin included Tarquinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Kecal in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Michele in Puccini’s Il Tabarro, Eisenstein in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and Der Kaiser Overall in Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.
Skiba has performed the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Urbania, Italy, Morales in Bizet’s Carmen with the Akron Symphony Orchestra and sung the Prince of Persia in Pittsburgh Opera’s production of Turandot.
His oratorio performance includes Pilatus and Baritone Soloist in Bach’s St. John’s Passion with the Oberlin Black River Singers, soloist in Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Cleveland Choral Arts Society and bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah at Our Savior Luthern Church in Louisville Kentucky.
He has sung Samuel Barber’s Melodies Passagères in an Oberlin Conservatory honors recital performance and was featured on The McGraw Hill Companies' Young Artists Showcase, on 96.3 WQXR - The Classical Radio Station of the New York Times, in what host Robert Sherman called ‘A beautiful performance of excepts of Schumann’s Dichterliebe.’ He is a native of Pittsburgh, where he is an active recitalist, and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette called him a “riveting presence” after his performance as Archibald Craven in the Stage 62 Pittsburgh production of Simon’s The Secret Garden.
Skiba is the winner of the 2003 Akron Symphony Chorus John MacDonald Scholarship for Voice, the 2003 Dayton Opera Guild College Voice Competition, the Akron Tuesday Music Club Mary S. Bowers Scholarship for Male Voice, the Civic Light Opera Guild of Pittsburgh’s Constance Rockwell Scholarship, the Oberlin Conservatory Dean’s Talent Award and is a two-time winner of the Margaret Blackburn Scholarship from the Tuesday Musical Club of Pittsburgh.
Skiba began private voice lessons with Greg Biddle in Pittsburgh, Pa and received a bachelor of music degree in vocal performance and a master of music degree in opera theater from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he was a student of Daune Mahy. He now studies with the internationally acclaimed baritone, Timothy Noble, on a full scholarship at the Indiana University School of Music where he has performed The Baron Zeta in Lehar's The Merry Widow and Horace Tabor in Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe. His upcoming engagements include Captain Balstrode in Britten's Peter Grimes with the Indiana University Opera Theater, a guest recital performance of Schubert's Winterreise at The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Giorgio Germont in La Traviata with the DuPage Opera Theater and concert performances with the Cincinatti Pops Orchestra.
Festival editions: June 2002, June 2003.

Gregory M. Smith, baritono.
www.gregorymsmith.com
Festival editions: July 2003, July 2004.

Nigel Smith
Cooming soon.
Course for international opera singers in Urbania: 1998.
Visiting artist Festival edition: 2000.

Senka Soldatovic - soprano. Born on 16th of June, 1978. in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. Graduated on the Primary Ballet school in Novi Sad and on the Secondary school for Musical education (solo singing department) in Novi Sad. Currently she attends final year of solo singing studies (class of professor Vera Kovac-Vitkai) on the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad.
Since 1998. she has performed on numerous occasions. Take a look at her main performances or listen some of her recent roles.
On the Solo singer competition in Belgrade she won I-first prize. Since december 2001. she is a member of the Serbian National Theatre Opera in Novi Sad. In august 2002. she attended "Meisterkurs fur Gesang" with professor Ghazarian in Baden, Austria. Currently working as a teacher of solo singing in music school "Isidor Bajic", Novi Sad.
Download her detailed resume. Senka Soldatovic http://senkas.on.neobee.net
Festival edition: September 2003.

Natasha Steinhardt, soprano, performed last Spring on New York radio station WNYC CM in an hour long program featuring Schubert songs, a Brahms violin sonata, and two songs for voice, violin, and piano by Massenet and Rachmaninov. On this broadcast, Pianist Thomas Muraco and first violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet, Arnold Steinhardt joined her. During the summers of 1998 and 1999, Ms. Steinhardt appeared in recital tours throughout the Mache region of Italy. In the spring of 1998, she performed various recitals including her debut at the Landon Gallery at Lincoln Center. Ms. Steinhardt has participated and performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Chautauqua Institute, and Centro Studi Italiani in Urbania, Italy. Ms. Steinhardt has sung in Master Classes with Benton Hess, Pierre Valet, Ken Merrill, Thomas Muraco, Cynthia Hoffman, and Marlena Malas. She has coached with Nico Castel, Robert Cowart, Mikael Eliasen, Anthony Minoli, Glenn Morton, Thomas Muraco, Dona D. Vaughn, and Brian Zegar. Ms. Steinhardt studies voice with Joan Patenaude-Yarnell and is currently completing her Masters Degree in vocal performance at the Manhattan School of Music.