Robert Breault, Tenor. Tenor Robert Breault serves as the Director of Opera at the University of Utah and teaches studio voice lessons. He also maintains an international performing career that encompasses opera, oratorio, recital, and concert work. The San Francisco Chronicle called his voice "a tenor of unwavering resonance." The Washington Post noted, "Breault’s voice has a powerful character with a sturdy range."
Highlights of Dr. Breault's concert career include over 350 performances with many of the world’s major orchestras including the San Francisco Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the National Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Phoenix Symphony, The Colorado Symphony, the Hamilton Philharmonic, The London Philharmonia, L’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, The Milwaukee Symphony, the Oregon Bach Festival, The Florida Bach Festival, The Florida Orchestra, Florida Philharmonic, National Symphony of Taiwan, and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, among others.
Dr. Breault appears frequently as a guest soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square. In addition, he performs frequently with the Utah Opera Company and Utah Symphony. Other opera appearances include Atlanta Opera, Opera Pacific, Pensacola Opera, the Opera Orchestra of New York, Opera Atelier, Michigan Opera Theatre, Madison Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Hamilton, and Opera de Nice.
Recording credits include Laurent Petitgirard's World Premier recording of Elephant Man with The Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Richard Smith’s Mountain Requiem, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with the Choeur St. Lawrence and Montreal Symphony, DeMars' American Requiem with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Berlioz Requiem with the Jerusalem Symphony and Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and three volumes of Pachelbel's Organ Works as the cantor with organist Marilyn Mason.
Dr. Breault serves as the head vocal coach for the International Children’s Choir and has given master classes throughout North America. He holds Doctorate and Masters Degrees from the University of Michigan. He earned his Bachelors Degree Magna Cum Laude from St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, his native state. He was also a participant for two years in the San Francisco Opera's Merola program and was awarded the company’s Karl Kritz Memorial Prize. He has also won awards from the National Federation of Music Teachers, the Maccabees Foundation, the National Academy of Arts and Letters, the Delta Epsilon Sigma National Honor Society, the National Council of New York Metropolitan Opera Auditions, The MacAllister Awards, and the University of Michigan. He was a national finalist in the 1992-6 Richard Tucker Competition. In 1993, Dr. Breault won the Western Regional of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist's competition. He was awarded the Harvey Ringel Award at the National Finals in Tampa. Dr. Breault is represented by Thea Dispeker Management in New York City.
Festival editions: July 2003, July 2004.
 

Joan Caplan, graduate of Boston University. Has held professorships at Boston and Oberlin conservatories and at the State University of New York. Was artist in residence at Pennsylvania State University. Three summer sessions on the faculty of Centro Studi Italiani , four with the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, two with a vocal program which sent Korean students to study in the United States. She served on the board of the Amadeus Foundation. Published in the Tulsa Opera playbill an article endeavoring to explain to a general audience the joys and perils of the bel canto singer and in Classical Singer an article titled “The Art in Yourself.” Gave several lectures for the Educational Department of the Metropolitan Opera Guild. Teaches a course at Manhattan School of Music on a survey of vocal recordings from 1907 to 1977. Her performances have included works from Bach to Verdi and have included American premieres of works from Johann Hasse and G. F. Handel to Hans Werner Henze. Appeared with the New York State Theater, Santa Fe Opera, Washington Opera Society, and the Tanglewood Festival, among others. Some of the orchestras with which she has performed include the Chicago Symphony, the National Symphony, and the Baltimore Symphony. She has sung under the batons of Aaron Copeland and Igor Stravinsky.
Festival editions: August 2000, August 2001.
 

Dwight Coleman, baritone: W. Dwight Coleman, lyric baritone, is currently Coordinator of Voice and Opera at Georgia State University School of Music in Atlanta. He is also the Artistic Director of the nationally recognized Harrower Summer Opera Workshop. Prior to Georgia State he was Artist Teacher of Voice and Director of Opera at the University of Mississippi where his production of "The Saint of Bleecker Street" won the 1987 Opera Production Competition of the National Opera Association.
Maintaining an active performing career in opera, recital and oratorio, Mr. Coleman has performed leading and secondary baritone roles with the Atlanta Opera, Pensacola Opera, New Orleans Opera, Teatro di Verdi in Bussetoo, Italy, Skylite Opera, Shreveport Opera, Mississippi Opera, North Carolina Symphony and the Milwaukee Symphony. His roles include Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly", Dr. Falke in "Die Fledermaus", Silvio in "I Pagliacci", Valentin in "Faust", Germont in "La Traviata", Enrico in "Lucia di Lammermoor", Ping in "Turandot", Peter in "Hansel and Gretel" and others. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1992 in "Ein Deutsches Requiem" by Brahms with John Haberlen conducting. Two years later he was featured as baritone soloist in "Five Mystical Songs" by Vaughan Williams in Lincoln Center. Recent performances include "Chanson Madecasses" by Ravel with the Musica da Camera in Atlanta and "Carmina Burana" with the Jefferson Performing Arts Society in New Orleans.
Mr. Coleman's professional stage director credits include productions in the original language of "La Boheme", "Le Nozze di Figaro", "Carmen", "Madama Butterfly", "Don Pasquale", "L'Elisir d'Amore", "Highway I U.S.A.", "Impresario" and "Dialogues of the Carmelites". He has premiered three twentieth century operas, "Workshop" by Charles Knox and Robert Gay, "Test Tube" by Milton Granger and "Zabette" by Curtis Bryant and Mary Bullard. In addition to numerous scenes recitals, his collegiate full productions include "The Consul", "The Saint of Bleecker Street", "The Marriage of Figaro", "The Dialogues of the Carmelites", "Trial by Jury", "Talk Opera", "The Proposal", "La Divina", "The Women", "Brief Candle", "Tartuffe" and others.
His awards include: Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Chicago, 1989; Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year; Finalist in the Bel Canto Foundation competition in Italian Opera; 1996 Pro Mozart Society competition to study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, with Carlo Bergonzi and Renata Tebaldi and the 1987 Opera Production Competition of the National Opera Association.
He is currently the Vice President of Resources for the National Opera Association and Vice President on the Executive Board of the State Chapter on the National Association of Teachers. In addition, he is the State Coordinator of the Mobile Opera Rose Palmai-Tenser Scholarship Competition and a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, Alpha Chapter, and the National Honorary Music Society.
As a recitalist, Derrick Henry, the critic for the Atlanta Journal Constitution states: "He grabbed one's attention immediately with his imposing, resonant voice and his theatrical manner. What made his recital special was the ability to make a listener identify with the texts' protagonists, to feel their joys and sorrows.".
Festival editions: July 2002, July 2003, July 2004.
 

Gerald Crawford, Baritone, Professor of Singing; Director, Division of Vocal Studies, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. B.M. and M.M. degrees with a Performer's Certificate in Voice and Opera from the Eastman School of Music. Five seasons with the New York City Opera; operatic roles performed with several regional companies; soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and many regional orchestras. Choirmaster, Bethesda on the Bay Lutheran Church, Cleveland. Assistant professor of music, Southeastern Louisiana University, 1966-74; Associate Professor of Music, Western Illinois University, 1974-79; faculty member, Saratoga-Potsdam Choral Institute, 1979-85. Co-director, Oberlin Vocal Academy for High-School Students; co-founder, Oberlin Italian language and culture program, Urbania, Italy. Recordings by Mercury, Crescent, Mark IV Records.
Festival editions: June 2000, June 2001, June 2002, June 2003, June 2004.
 

Darryl Edwards - Tenor Darryl Edwards enjoys a thriving career as an accomplished singer and voice teacher. He has appeared to critical acclaim in oratorio, recital, and opera in England, Germany, France, Corsica, the United States, and across Canada. His Canadian and American radio broadcasts include works such as Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, Kodály’s Psalmus Hungaricus, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. His performances have included engagements with the Montreal Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Edmonton Symphony, the Elora Festival Singers, the CBC-Vancouver Radio Orchestra, l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Bach Festival of Mulhouse, France, the Whitehall Choir of London, the Toledo Symphonic Chorus, the Sinfonia da Camera of Urbana, Illinois, the Heidelberg Bach-Chor, the Frankfurt Cecilien-Chor, the Würzburg Bach-Chor, the Bavarian Chamber Opera, and the München Bachsolisten. Critics have praised him as a "rich-voiced, cultured tenor who mastered the high notes effortlessly" (Coburg Tageblatt, Germany, 2001), and an "effective communicator who expressed the text with sensitivity and fervour" (Hamilton Spectator, 2001).
His 2002-2003 engagements include the Britten War Requiem at Canada’s National Arts Centre, the Verdi Requiem with the London Fanshawe Symphonic Chorus, the Mozart Requiem with Symphony Nova Scotia, Orff's Carmina Burana with the Amadeus Choir of Toronto, Ruth Watson's The Last Straw with the Toronto Children's Chorus, Harry Somers’ The Fool with the Pierrot Ensemble of Ottawa, and the role of Harlekin in Viktor Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis in Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal.
Dr. Edwards holds B.Mus., B.Ed. and M.Mus. degrees from the University of Western Ontario, and a D.M.A. (Voice Performance) from the University of Michigan. He is the Ontario District Governor of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and voice columnist for the Canadian Music Educator. His voice students appear in leading roles with the Canadian Opera Company, and other major companies across Canada and in Europe. He is an Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Toronto, where he teaches singers in the B.Mus. and Mus.M. performance programs in Voice Studies and Opera.
Festival edition: July 2003.
 

Julia Faulkner, a native of Wisconsin, first came to national attention as a finalist in the 1985 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. The New York Times wrote of her participation “...if audience response could have awarded a first prize Sunday afternoon, it would have gone to Julia Faulkner, and she would have deserved it. Miss Faulkner sang with... a creamy, clear and apparently effortless soprano sound.”
In the 1991/92 Season Miss Faulkner became a leading soprano at the Vienna State Opera, where she was in residence until 1997. It was here that she gained recognition throughout the world as a Strauss and Mozart singer of the very first rank. Her many roles with the company included the title roles of Arabella and Ariadne, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, the Countess in Capriccio, the Countess in Nozze di Figaro, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, and Gutrune in Gotterdammerung. After extensive experience in Europe, she returned to America in 1994 to make her Metropolitan Opera debut in the title role of Strauss’ Arabella. Of her performance the New York Times said: “Hers is a remarkably warm and substantial soprano, accurate across the whole range, varied and characterful in tone. Among many fine expressive details, her tone of contented surrender in Act II (“und du wirst mein Gebieter sein”) stays in the memory.” Miss Faulkner’s Concert and recording career is equally distinguished and has included engagements with the Berlin Philharmonic, L.A. Philharmonic under Salonen, the Cleveland Orchestra under Dohnanyi, the Concergebouw under Chailly, the San Francisco Symphony under Tilson-Thomas, the Minnesota Orchestra under Jeffrey Tate and the Dresdener Staatskapelle under Giuseppi Sinopoli. Two of her recordings, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater on the Naxos label, and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri under Sinopoli on Deutsche Grammophon have been widely praised in the International press. Of her Alice in a recent Naxos recording of Verdi’s Falstaff it was said: “.... Most notable was the lightly scheming, even-voiced, soul-of-the-party Alice of Julia Faulkner, whose Italian is so idiomatic you’d hardly know she wasn’t native born.
She has remained on the Met roster since 1997, and took part in Der Rosenkavalier during the Metropolitan Opera’s 2001 tour to Japan . She returned for the 2001-2002 season to sing the Voice of the Falcon in the Met’s new production of Die Frau Ohne Schatten. Julia Faulkner holds both a Bachelor and Masters degrees in Voice performance from Indiana University , and has maintained a private voice studio throughout her career. Her students have won numerous awards and are singing worldwide on Opera, Concert and Music Theatre stages.
 

Ruth Golden was leading soprano with the New York City Opera from 1985 to 1991, and is currently director of vocal studies at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. While adding 31 of the 50 United States to her itinerary, Miss Golden appeared internationally with the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Orchestra Pasdeloup in Paris, Chartres, and Rheims, the Prague Philharmonic in Prague, and the Orchestra Royale of Madrid in both Madrid and Lisbon. From 1995 to 2001, Miss Golden appeared as artist/faculty with Martin Katz and Graham Johnson at Songfest, hosted in Southern California. She has also served as artist/master teacher in concerts and master classes throughout South Korea, as well the U.S. at the Julliard School, Indiana University, McGill University, The Chautauqua Institution, Belmont University with Regina Resnik Presents, Hebrew Union College, and the University of California, Irvine during the John Harbison Residency. As a member of the Koch International Classics family of distinguished recording artists, Miss Golden's discography includes works of Delius, Warlock, Vaughan-Williams, Rodrigo, and Barber. Also recorded for Koch is a disc of songs by Erich Korngold with pianist Dalton Baldwin. During the past few seasons, she has worked with over 2000 high school students in New York, in clinics and master classes sponsored by New York OffStage. Miss Golden served on the panel for the 1999 Poulenc Plus Competition, served as Mistress of Ceremonies for the PBS telecasts of the 1997-99 MacAllister Opera Awards, and served three seasons on the panel for the Jenny Lind Awards. Miss Golden is an active member of the adjudicating panel for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Festival edition: June 2004.
 

Cecilia Mieko Hata. Born in Tokyo, Japan, she initially began studying classical dance and traditional Japanese dance. As a child soprano she appeared in the operas “Yuuzuru”, “Carmen” and “ Sogno d’estate”.
During secondary school she developed an interest in singing and began studying at a music school for singing where she received a prize for oriental Japanese singing.
In 1968 she won third prize at the 4th “Italo-Giapponese” competition. She then continued her studies in Italy at the conservatorium “A.Boito” in Parma, where she studied Italian opera and early music under E. Campogalliani. She completed her diploma in 1971 and continued advanced studies at “L’Accademia Virginiana” in Mantova where she specialised in Italian opera and the technical traditions of classical singing.
Ms. Hata has worked with R. Scotto and C. Gallico concentrating on the music from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. She has also studied with A. Sollegina and E. Furlotti.
In 1976 she founded a duo for voice and guitar with repertoire covering a multitude of styles including Italian music, Japanese song, Spanish song and German Lied. She has appeared as soloist in Japan and has been involved in many performance projects including “Italia in Giappone 2001”.
She is a professor of singing at the University of the Arts in Nagoya and teaches privately in Nagoya and Tokyo. At present she is planning a course for advanced Japanese singers with Italian singers and teachers. In September 2004 she will be artistic director of a course in Urbania, Italy, at the “Centro Studi Italiani Opera Festival” for Japanese and Korean singers on the art of singing in Italian, the course is titled “LINGUA E LIRICA ITALIANA”. E-mail: info@ssdc.info.
Festival edition: September 2004.
 

Cynthia Hoffman is a member of the voice faculties of Manhattan School of Music, where she also teaches a class in vocal performance, and The Juilliard School, where she has served as chairperson since l995. She directed the Judith Raskin Opera Class at the 92nd Street Y School of Music from 1984–92 and has been a summer voice faculty member of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria; the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy; the Yong Pyong Music Festival in Korea; the Bowdoin Music Festival in Maine; the Centro Studi Italiani program in Urbania, Italy; the Aria International program; and the University of Miami School of Music program in Salzburg, Austria.
Ms. Hoffmann has presented master classes at colleges and universities across the United States, including several for various regions of the National Association of the Teachers of Singing; the AIMS program; the University of Miami (Ohio and Florida); the San Francisco Conservatory of Music; and recently for the University of Southern California, Chapman College, and the University of Redlands. She has been a frequent master teacher for the Voice Foundation's symposia on the care of the professional voice. She has also been a recitalist and master teacher at Kang Nung University in Kang Nung, Korea. Ms. Hoffmann maintains a professional voice studio in New York City. Her students have appeared with the Metropolitan and New York City operas, as well as with other major opera companies in the U.S. and abroad, including those in Berlin, Chicago, Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, Houston, and Los Angeles; as well as Paris, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, Zurich and Wolf Trap. Her students have been winners of Metropolitan Opera National Council awards; Richard Tucker Foundation study grants; Sullivan, George London and Puccini Foundation grants; the Joy in Singing award recital; the Marilyn Horne Foundation recital awards “On Wings of Song”; the Belvedere Competition; and the Placido Domingo Operalia competition.
Ms. Hoffmann received her academic degrees from the University of Redlands and Columbia University, with professional study at the University of Southern California. Her coaches have included Hugues Cuenod, Judith Raskin, Gerard Souzay, Ralf Gothoni, Robert Evans, and Martin Katz. She has studied voice with Margaret Schaper, Vera Rozsa, Margaret Harshaw, Beverley Peck Johnson, Daniel Ferro, Oren Brown, and Larra Browning. She has also participated in the professional acting classes of Sanford Meisner, the former director of the Neighborhood Playhouse, and Wynn Handman, director of the American Place Theater. Ms.Hoffmann has studied the Alexander Technique for more than 15 years and considers it an important part of her work. She has studied and completed one year of teacher training under Ann Rodiger and has also worked with Troup Matthews, Misha Magidov, Marjorie Barstow, Richard Levine, Judah Catalan, and Laurie Schiff.
Ms. Hoffmann has been heard in recital and opera on both the East and West coasts.She has also appeared in several Off-Broadway plays. She has recorded for the Vanguard Label and has been heard on radio and television in Boston and New York, as well as on NBC Television in Los Angeles. Ms. Hoffmann lives in New York City and Carversville, Pennsylvania, with her husband, John Ditsler, a lawyer and avid music lover.
Ms. Hoffmann received an honorary doctorate in music from the University of Redlands in 2002.
Festival edition: August 2001.

Ava June has had an illustrious carrer as one of England's leading sopranos, spanning more than 25 years. She worked with many celebrated conductors including Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir Georg Solti, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Charles Mackerras Sir John Pritchard, Sir Edward Downes, Sir Alexander Gibson, Sir Charles Groves, James Lockhart, David Atherton, Mark Elder, Richard Armstrong and Steuart Bedford.
She was a principal soprano with Sadlers Wells Opera Company from 1956-1963 and a company principal with English National Opera from 1970-1983. She also sang regularly with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera, as well as in France, Germany, Belgium, former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Russia, Bulgaria and the USA. She made many broadcasts for BBC TV and Radio, and recordings of La Traviata, The Bartered Bride and The Turn of the Screw.
Her wide repertoire embraced many of the operatic heroines such as Mozart's Pamina, Countess, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira and Ilia; Verdi's Violetta, Elisabetta and Aida; Puccini's Mimi, Cio-Cio San and Tosca; Wagner's Eva, Freia, Sieglinde and Gutrune, as well as Leonora (Fidelio), Agathe (Der Freischutz), Micaela (Carmen), Marguerite (Faust), Nedda (Pagliacci), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), Judith (Duke Bluebeard's Castle), and the title role Katya Kabanova.
She worked with Joan Cross who was her teacher of singing at the London Opera School (later to become the National Opera Studio) and became well known as an interpreter of most of the Benjamin Britten roles which Joan Cross created: Ellen Orford (Peter Grimes), Elizabeth (Gloriana), Lady Billows (Albert Herring) and Mrs Grose (The Turn of the Screw).
Ava June studied singing from the age of 16 with Kate Opperman. She later studied with Clive Carey, Dame Eva Turner and Denis Dowling. Her prizes include the Gold Medal and First Prize at the 1963 International Competition for Young Opera Singers in Sofia, Bulgaria.
In 1983, she started to coach young professionals at ENO and to teach young singers. She worked at Morley College, the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music until in 1985 she joined the staff of the Royal Northern College of Music where she has been a Professor for fourteen years. She also taught singing for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama between 1986 and 1988.
Since 1999 Ava June has been coaching operatic roles with students at the Royal Northern College of Music. After her successful debut as producer of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette for the Wilmslow Opera Company in 1997, she returned the following year to produce La Traviata and in 1999 produced Nabucco for the same opera company.
More recently, she has given masterclasses for the Wagner Society and the National Opera Studio and has adjudicated for the Britten/Pears school and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Ava June continues to teach privately and returned to Bulgaria to adjudicate the International Singing competition in 2000. Throughout 2001, Ava June has been involved in masterclasses and coaching operatic roles with groups from the Royal Northern College of Music, National Opera School Studio, and Clonter Opera Theatre. She has also performed for Sky TV and in concert in the USA.
In 1999 Ava June became a Member of the Board of the Carl Rosa Company where she is involved with fund-raising and education projects and in December 2000, she directed Die Fledermaus for the Carl Rosa Opera Company. From 2000, she has been directing a choir of senior citizens for the University of the Third Age. Ava now teaches at Canterbury, Christ Church University one day a week where she works in particular with very young singers. In 2002 she is also teaching at Centro Studi Italiani Opera festival in Italy.
Festival Editions: September 2002.
 

Matthew Leese, Baritone, is fast becoming known as a versatile baritone, voice teacher and director, specializing in early music, art song and opera. He has founded three critically acclaimed ensembles, the 'Otago Camerata', 'the bath street studio' and most recently Millikin University's early music ensemble 'Gravitación'. Extensive performing experience includes numerous recital and oratorio credits, as well as lead roles in 'Dido and Aeneas', 'l'Euridice', 'Venus and Adonis', 'Cephale et Procris', 'The Tide' and 'The Telephone'. In New Zealand Matthew has premiered the contemporary roles of Frank in 'Outrageous Fortune' by Gillian Whitehead and Man in 'The Trapeze Artists' by Anthony Ritchie. Other ensemble experience includes work with the Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana, Ensemble Lipzodes and Fenix de los Ingenios. Matthew holds the MM in Early Music from Indiana University, a GPDip (Distinction) in Historical Performance from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge and a MusBHons from the University of Otago in New Zealand. He serves on the Voice and Opera faculty at Millikin University.
Festival Editions: July 2006.

Daune Mahy, Professor of Singing at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. She has appeared frequently with opera companies and orchestras in the Midwest and the East, including Opera Omaha, the Kentucky Opera Association, the St. Louis Municipal Opera, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Akron Symphony and the Buffalo Philharmonic. She made her New York Recital debut in 1984 at Merkin Concert Hall. Ms. Mahy was the soprano soloist in a nationally syndicated radio broadcast of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem marking the 20th anniversary of that work's first performance, and in 1982 she made a highly acclaimed recital tour of Spain. In 1997 she performed the Oberlin premier of George Walker's 1996 Pulitzer Prize winning composition "Lilacs" for soprano and orchestra. Ms. Mahy has concertized in Germany, France, and Italy. She holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and Indiana University. She is the Director of the Oberlin in Italy Program.
Festival editions: June 2000, June 2001, June 2002, June 2003, June 2004.
 

Lorraine Manz.
Associate Professor of Singing Associate Director of the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center.
Education: B.A., Kalamazoo College, 1975; M.M., University of Michgan, 1977. Additional studies as a doctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
Teachers and Master Classes: Elizabeth Mannion, Elisabeth Mosher, Jan DeGaetani, Adele Addision, Gerhard Hüsch, Gerard Souzay, Flor Wend, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Eugene Bossart, David Garvey.
Performances: Orchestral, oratorio, chamber music, recitals, operatic performaces, and appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor; Lincoln Center, Aspen Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, Shreveport Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Walker Arts Center, the Bach Festival Society (Michigan), Round Top Festival, Santa Barbara Symphony, and Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra. Tour of Japan, Hawaii, and Seattle with Inoue Chamber Ensemble. Member, NATS. Former faculty member, St. Olaf College (1977-82), University of California (1987-93).
Recordings: Recording on the CRI label.
Radio: National Public Radio.
 

Ashley Putnam - Miss Putnam made her debut with the New York City Opera as Violetta (La Traviata) and has sung with all the major international opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, Covent Garden Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera. She has also been guest soloist with the major symphony orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony and the Montreal Symphony. In recital she has been heard with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. At the invitation of Presidents Carter and Reagan she has performed in concert at the White House.
She joined the voice faculty at the Manhattan School of Music in 2001 and has served on the voice faculties at the Eastman School of Music, DePaqul University. She also maintains her private voice studio in New York City.
Festival edition: August 2003.
 

Marlene Ralis Rosen - Associate Professor of Singing. B.Mus.Ed., Temple University; M.M., University of Illinois. Teachers and coaches: Richard Miller, Helen Hodam, Margaret Hoswell, Dalton Baldwin, Hugues Cuenod, Yolanda Marculescu, Gerard Souzay and Paul Ulanovsky. Winner: Rossana M. Enlow Award for Voice; Metropolitan Opera regional auditions. Opera Performances: Wildwood Center (Little Rock, Arkansas)-Don Giovanni (Donna Anna), Tosca, Turn of the Screw (Mrs. Grosse); New York Opera Project-Tosca. Recitals: New York Debut Recital, Merkin Hall; Performance with The Quintet of The Americas , Merkin Hall; Institute of Vocal Pedagogy (Oberlin); University of Illinois; Cleveland Art Museum; Milwaukee Performing Arts Center; various colleges and universities. Soloist with Brooklyn Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Brazilian Festival Orchestra, University of Evansville Oratorio Society, Canton Symphony and New Music Associates of Cleveland. Numerous premieres and performances with the Plum Creek Chamber Ensemble, the Quintet of the Americas, the Fischer Duo and the Ensemble Pierrot; recitals with pianists Benton Hess and Russell Miller, recitals in Germany, Holland, Finland and Beijing, China. Collaborations with Pierre Boulez, George Crumb, John Harbison, Luciano Berio and John Cage. Former faculty member: University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Wisconsin College/Conservatory of Music; Western Reserve Academy; University of Evansville; Kenyon College; Eastman Conservatory of Music. Recordings for Bayerische Rundfunk and CD with Cleveland Chamber Orchestra on Albany label. (Appointed 1989)
Festival editions: June 2000, June 2001, June 2003.
 

Jerold Siena, Tenor: Jerold Siena is a tenor of international acclaim who has appeared regularly at the Metropolitan Opera, and the world's leading opera houses, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Monnaie in Brussels, The Bayerische Staatsoper, Rome Opera, New York City Opera and Teatro di San Carlo of Naples. He has appeared under such conductors as James Levine, Daniel Barenboim, Andre Previn, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Robert Shaw, James Conlon, George Szell, and Erich Leinsdorf. Stage directors with whom Professor Siena has collaborated include Franco Zeffirelli, Harold Prince, Jonathan Miller, Frank Corsaro and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. In concert and oratorio he has appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Oratorio Society of New York, the Bach Festivals of Carmel, Bethlehem and Baldwin Wallace and with the National Symphony of Washington. He has performed over 30 different recital programs and has sung important premiers of works by Benjamin Britten, Ned Rorem and Dominick Argento. Before coming to the University of Illinois, Professor Siena held professorships at the University of Arizona and the Yale School of Music. Professor Siena is recognized internationally as a master teacher who teaches each summer in Salzburg, Austria and Urbania, Italy. He is much in demand for master classes, which he has presented for the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, the American Opera Center of Chicago Lyric Opera and Westminster Choir College. Several of his students appear regularly at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera and major opera and concert venues around the world. Professor Siena is a 2004 recipient of a College of Fine and Applied Arts Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Festival editions: July 2002, July 2004.
 

Kent Smith - The American baritone, Kent Smith has performed and continues to perform throughout the Unites States in a varied repertoire which includes much of the standard repertoire (Così Fan Tutte, La Boheme, Die Fledermaus, L'Heure Espagnole) as well as several modern works (Trouble in Tahiti, Black Water, Six Characters in Search of an Author).
Mr. Smith is a native of Parkersburg, WV, and has appeared in opera, operetta, musical theatre, and on the concert stage with companies such as Opera Festival of New Jersey, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Cleveland Opera, Opera at Florham, American Music Theatre Festival, Natchez Opera Festival, The National Opera Company, New York City Opera, Stamford Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He was part of the acclaimed national tour of the Tony Award Winning Play, Master Class, as well as performing the same play with TheatreWorks in the Bay area, both of which he was Musical Director.
This past season, he made his Carnegie Hall Debut and will sing with the Syracuse Symphony and West Virginia Symphony in 2003. He has served on the voice faculties at Princeton University and Hunter College (NYC) and joins the Summer Voice Faculty at the Performing Arts Institute of Wyoming Seminary (Pa).
Festival editions: August 2000, August 2001, August 2002, August 2003.
 

Sebastian Vittucci. Born in New York, he graduated Magna cum Laude from the Eastman School of Music and completed his Masters Degree in Voice at the University of Michigan. At both universities he was nominated for the Pi Kappa Lambda honor society. A Rotary Foundation International Fellowship furthered his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna with Anton Dermota and Gerhard Kahry, receiving his Diploma in Lied and Oratorio. During this time he was the recipient of both a Fulbright Fellowship and a scholarship from the Vienna Ministry of Science and Research. He was trained intensively in the Feldenkrais Method® and received official license as a Practitioner in 1995 by the International Feldenkrais Foundation.
He has performed in all of the major concert halls of Vienna as a soloist with orchestra with many well known conductors (Luciano Berio, Lothar Zagrosek, Erwin Ortner). He has performed and recorded with the "Josef Mertin Early Music Ensemble", and "Klangforum", which have been transmitted by the Austrian Radio (ORF).
He has performed leading roles in various opera productions of Vienna such as Monteverdi`s "Orfeo", and " Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda" , Mozart`s "L'Oca del Cairo", and a world premiere of "Und all seine Mörder" in Vienna's Künstlerhaus.
He made his debut as a soloist at the Salzburg Music Festival in 1985, performing in the opera "St. Francis of Assisi" by Olivier Messiaen, with the composer present. The cast included Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Robert Tear and Kenneth Riegel. This performance has recently been released on CD and was reviewed by the New York Times, in which critic Paul Griffiths wrote "Sebastian Vittucci makes a special, beautiful moment of Brother Bernard's prayer to Francis not to die."
Further CD recordings include the opera "Die Blinden" by Beat Furrer, commissioned by the Vienna State Opera.
In 1995 he sang the Vienna premiere performance of a song cycle by Mauricio Kagel with the composer present at the University of Vienna.
Over the past ten years he has received much recognition as a teacher of singing as several of his students have enjoyed much international success in both opera and musicals. Several of his students have won international vocal competitions.
For six years he served as Head of Vocal Studies at the Conservatory of Vienna (Konservatorium Wien) and in 2003 was appointed University Professor of Voice at the Vienna University for Music and Performing Arts (former Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien). His approach is a unique combination of Bel Canto singing principles combined with specifically designed exercises based on strategies of the Feldenkrais Method®. He developed and taught the course "Feldenkrais for Singers” at the Vienna Conservatory.
e-mail: vittucci@utanet.at
Festival editions: February and August 2004.
To enrlol for his program "VOCE E BEL CANTO" please send an e-mail to: vittucci@utanet.at