PROF. BYRON KNUTSON
MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR, DIE WALKÜRE
MASTERCLASS
Byron Knutson studied piano, conducting, composition and acting in his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, and in the United States. After completing the Artist Diploma in Opera Coaching at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, he was appointed Visiting Professor of Song Interpretation at Albion College in Michigan.
In 1999, Mr. Knutson moved to Germany, where until 2010 he worked in the opera houses in Kiel, Halle and Augsburg, conducting operatic repertoire from baroque to contemporary, including operetta, musicals and ballet.
In 2010, Mr. Knutson took over the musical direction of the young artist program at the Komische Oper Berlin. While at the KOB, Mr. Knutson conducted works by Handel, Mozart, Weill, Ginastera and a critically acclaimed production of Phlip Glass’ Les enfants terribles directed by Felix Seiler.
Mr. Knutson’s has worked with conductors such as Paolo Arrivabeni (Bellini’s La Straniera; Theater an der Wien), Friedemann Layer (Der Rosenkavalier) Johannes Kalitzke (World Premiere, Olga Neuwirth’s American Lulu), Patrick Lange (Rigoletto), Carl St. Clair (Aribert Reimann’s Lear), Sebastian Lang-Lessing (Der Rosenkavalier, National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing), Christian Curnyn (Castor et Pollux), Lü Jia (Tannhäuser, Beijing). Mr. Knutson has also prepared the casts of Reimann’s Lear and Die Gespenstersonate for productions at Theater an der Wien and in Tokyo.
Mr. Knutson frequently gives Masterclasses in North America, Europe and China.
In 2015 Mr. Knutson was appointed Professor of Operatic Studies at the Hanns Eisler Conservatory in Berlin. He is also currently music director of the Berliner Wagner Gruppe.
MUSIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR, DIE WALKÜRE
MASTERCLASS
Byron Knutson studied piano, conducting, composition and acting in his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, and in the United States. After completing the Artist Diploma in Opera Coaching at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, he was appointed Visiting Professor of Song Interpretation at Albion College in Michigan.
In 1999, Mr. Knutson moved to Germany, where until 2010 he worked in the opera houses in Kiel, Halle and Augsburg, conducting operatic repertoire from baroque to contemporary, including operetta, musicals and ballet.
In 2010, Mr. Knutson took over the musical direction of the young artist program at the Komische Oper Berlin. While at the KOB, Mr. Knutson conducted works by Handel, Mozart, Weill, Ginastera and a critically acclaimed production of Phlip Glass’ Les enfants terribles directed by Felix Seiler.
Mr. Knutson’s has worked with conductors such as Paolo Arrivabeni (Bellini’s La Straniera; Theater an der Wien), Friedemann Layer (Der Rosenkavalier) Johannes Kalitzke (World Premiere, Olga Neuwirth’s American Lulu), Patrick Lange (Rigoletto), Carl St. Clair (Aribert Reimann’s Lear), Sebastian Lang-Lessing (Der Rosenkavalier, National Center for the Performing Arts, Beijing), Christian Curnyn (Castor et Pollux), Lü Jia (Tannhäuser, Beijing). Mr. Knutson has also prepared the casts of Reimann’s Lear and Die Gespenstersonate for productions at Theater an der Wien and in Tokyo.
Mr. Knutson frequently gives Masterclasses in North America, Europe and China.
In 2015 Mr. Knutson was appointed Professor of Operatic Studies at the Hanns Eisler Conservatory in Berlin. He is also currently music director of the Berliner Wagner Gruppe.
CAROLINE STAUNTON
STAGE DIRECTOR, DIE WALKÜRE
Caroline is currently staging Wagner's Ring Cycle for Regent's Opera, performing at the Freemason's Hall in Covent Garden. After a successful start with Das Rheingold last November, the cycle contnues in May 2023 with Die Walküre and further into 2024 with Siegfried, then Götterdämmerung, which will premier as the culmination of a week-long full cycle.
In April 2022 she co-directed a new production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser with Kornél Mundruczó at the Staatsoper Hamburg.
Based in Berlin, Caroline is a staff director at the Staatsoper Berlin. She regularly works with leading directors including Claus Guth, Dmitri Tcherniakov, David McVicar and Calixto Bieto, and is responsible for revival productions of the repertoire works.
In 2019 she directed Irish National Opera Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Wexford National Opera House/Gaiety Theatre) following her successful INO debut with Mozart’s The Opera Director in 2018 in the Gaiety Theatre.
She is also artistic director and co-founder of Berlin-based project Puccini’s Toaster, a pop-up opera company for which she has directed a series of site-specific productions, including complete versions of Dido and Aeneas and La Boheme, with a staged opera residency in La Vida Wine Bar Berlin during COVID lockdown.
STAGE DIRECTOR, DIE WALKÜRE
Caroline is currently staging Wagner's Ring Cycle for Regent's Opera, performing at the Freemason's Hall in Covent Garden. After a successful start with Das Rheingold last November, the cycle contnues in May 2023 with Die Walküre and further into 2024 with Siegfried, then Götterdämmerung, which will premier as the culmination of a week-long full cycle.
In April 2022 she co-directed a new production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser with Kornél Mundruczó at the Staatsoper Hamburg.
Based in Berlin, Caroline is a staff director at the Staatsoper Berlin. She regularly works with leading directors including Claus Guth, Dmitri Tcherniakov, David McVicar and Calixto Bieto, and is responsible for revival productions of the repertoire works.
In 2019 she directed Irish National Opera Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Wexford National Opera House/Gaiety Theatre) following her successful INO debut with Mozart’s The Opera Director in 2018 in the Gaiety Theatre.
She is also artistic director and co-founder of Berlin-based project Puccini’s Toaster, a pop-up opera company for which she has directed a series of site-specific productions, including complete versions of Dido and Aeneas and La Boheme, with a staged opera residency in La Vida Wine Bar Berlin during COVID lockdown.
Dr. LIBOR DUDAS
MUSIC COACH, DIE WALKÜRE
"I strongly believe that a complete artist must have a comprehensive knowledge of not only the music, but also the accompanying artistic, philosophic and historic context in which each composer lived and worked."
Conductor and pianist Dr. Libor Dudas is a native of Croatia. He began his musical studies at the age of 8, studying piano, organ, harpsichord, and fortepiano. Completing his high school studies at age 14, he was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Vienna (Austria) where he completed his bachelor’s degree under the tutelage of Rudolph Scholz. While a student in Vienna he performed recitals throughout Austria, Germany, and Italy.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree with Distinction, Dr. Dudas earned his master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana (USA), and his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) with the doctoral thesis Verdi’s Un giorno di regno and the end of the opera buffa tradition in Italy. While still a doctoral student he joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music.
Dr. Dudas was a long-term faculty member of the opera department of the Boston Conservatory (USA), before being recruited by the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA). At Longy, he serves as the Music Director of Longy’s Opera Experience, works as a vocal coach, and teaches classes in music history, opera, and early music.
Dr. Dudas has a particular passion for and focus on the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, particularly on introducing, coaching, and conducting young dramatic voices in that repertoire. Furthermore, Dr. Dudas’ research focuses on operas of neglected and rarely-performed composers.
In addition to his work as an educator, Dr. Dudas is active as a recitalist, collaborative pianist, and conductor throughout the United States and Europe. He serves as the Music Director of Boston’s historic Old North Church (USA), where he has conducted numerous large oratorio works.
MUSIC COACH, DIE WALKÜRE
"I strongly believe that a complete artist must have a comprehensive knowledge of not only the music, but also the accompanying artistic, philosophic and historic context in which each composer lived and worked."
Conductor and pianist Dr. Libor Dudas is a native of Croatia. He began his musical studies at the age of 8, studying piano, organ, harpsichord, and fortepiano. Completing his high school studies at age 14, he was awarded a scholarship to the prestigious Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Vienna (Austria) where he completed his bachelor’s degree under the tutelage of Rudolph Scholz. While a student in Vienna he performed recitals throughout Austria, Germany, and Italy.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree with Distinction, Dr. Dudas earned his master’s degree from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana (USA), and his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) with the doctoral thesis Verdi’s Un giorno di regno and the end of the opera buffa tradition in Italy. While still a doctoral student he joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music.
Dr. Dudas was a long-term faculty member of the opera department of the Boston Conservatory (USA), before being recruited by the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA). At Longy, he serves as the Music Director of Longy’s Opera Experience, works as a vocal coach, and teaches classes in music history, opera, and early music.
Dr. Dudas has a particular passion for and focus on the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, particularly on introducing, coaching, and conducting young dramatic voices in that repertoire. Furthermore, Dr. Dudas’ research focuses on operas of neglected and rarely-performed composers.
In addition to his work as an educator, Dr. Dudas is active as a recitalist, collaborative pianist, and conductor throughout the United States and Europe. He serves as the Music Director of Boston’s historic Old North Church (USA), where he has conducted numerous large oratorio works.
CAROL MASTRODOMENICO
VOICE FACULTY
Carol Mastrodomenico maintains an active schedule as a guest soloist with choruses, orchestras and other ensembles. She excels in the interpretation of oratorio, and has appeared recently in Poulenc’s Gloria, Beethoven’s Mass in C and Ninth Symphony, Brahms’ Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Mahler’s Second Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Fauré’s Requiem.
Ms. Mastrodomenico is an accomplished recitalist, and has recently performed programs ranging from premieres of contemporary music to cabaret programs involving interaction with the audience. She recently toured England with her production of John Morrison’s Jane Austin’s History of England singing the role of Emce. She premiered John McDonald’s Put this in your Pipe and Speech Made by Music with the Essex Chamber Players, and premiered Ellen Bender’s Five Emily Dickinson Songs during New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Festival. Other noted composers she has worked with include Robert DiDomenica and David Leisner. Ms. Mastrodomenico has a great love for Spanish Repertoire, and enjoys programing Spanish and particularly Argentinian songs to introduce the repertoire to her recital audiences.
A champion of vocal chamber music, she has worked with noted musicians premiering new works at contemporary festivals sponsored by BMOP and composer groups at Tufts University and Longy School of Music of Bard College. She has been invited to perform at the Tanglewood Music Center, Jordan Hall, Faneuil Hall, the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, the Boston Vocal Artists Series, the 1794 Meeting House concert Series in New Salem, and the Music at Noon Concert Series at the Swedenborg Chapel.
Ms. Mastrodomenico is the stage director of both the Tufts University Opera Ensemble and the Longy School of Music of Bard College’s Opera Theater at Longy. Recent productions she has directed include Le Nozze di Figaro, Der Zwerg, L’amico Fritz, Gianni Schicchi, Three Sisters who are not Sisters, Three Penny Opera, Dido and Aeneas, Old Maid and the Thief, Amelia Goes to the Ball, Riders to the Sea, Gallantry, The Telephone and Doctor Miracle. Ms. Mastrodomenico is a passionate advocate for newly composed works. With the Tufts Opera Ensemble, she commissioned and directed the world premieres of Knave of Hearts by Vartan Aghababian in 2013 and No Onions, nor Garlic by Thomas Stumpf in 2014. With the Longy Opera Workshop, she commissioned and directed the world premiere of Jane Austen’s History of England by John Morrison in 2014. It is her hope to commission a new opera work every year.
Ms. Mastrodomenico is just as passionate about vocal pedagogy and teaching voice. She has participated in panel discussions by the Boston NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) Chapter on the different elements of "Teaching Men to Sing", and was invited by the Western Massachusetts NATS chapter to give a solo presentation on Teaching Men. Her master classes at the Classical Singer Convention, Regional NATS workshops and area Colleges are widely attended. At her invitation, renowned pedagogue Ken Bozeman spoke in the Boston area about the Pedagogical Applications of Vocal Acoustics for teaching voice. She developed and annually taught a vocal curriculum for string performers at the Heifetz International Summer Institute in Staunton, Virginia, US.
Ms. Mastrodomenico’s students can be heard singing throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. They have been accepted into graduate and undergraduate programs at Julliard, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Miami, Frost School of Music, Michigan State University, University of Maryland at College Park, Ithaca College, Guild Hall and The Royal Academy of Music in London. Her singers regularly attend young artist programs at Houston Grand Opera Outreach Program, Central City, Berlin Song Festival, Edinburgh Music Festival and Halifax Opera Festival.
Ms. Mastrodomenico received her Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance and Vocal Pedagogy at New England Conservatory of Music. She is on the voice faculties of Longy School of Music of Bard College and Tufts University.
VOICE FACULTY
Carol Mastrodomenico maintains an active schedule as a guest soloist with choruses, orchestras and other ensembles. She excels in the interpretation of oratorio, and has appeared recently in Poulenc’s Gloria, Beethoven’s Mass in C and Ninth Symphony, Brahms’ Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Requiem, Mahler’s Second Symphony, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42, Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Fauré’s Requiem.
Ms. Mastrodomenico is an accomplished recitalist, and has recently performed programs ranging from premieres of contemporary music to cabaret programs involving interaction with the audience. She recently toured England with her production of John Morrison’s Jane Austin’s History of England singing the role of Emce. She premiered John McDonald’s Put this in your Pipe and Speech Made by Music with the Essex Chamber Players, and premiered Ellen Bender’s Five Emily Dickinson Songs during New England Conservatory’s Contemporary Festival. Other noted composers she has worked with include Robert DiDomenica and David Leisner. Ms. Mastrodomenico has a great love for Spanish Repertoire, and enjoys programing Spanish and particularly Argentinian songs to introduce the repertoire to her recital audiences.
A champion of vocal chamber music, she has worked with noted musicians premiering new works at contemporary festivals sponsored by BMOP and composer groups at Tufts University and Longy School of Music of Bard College. She has been invited to perform at the Tanglewood Music Center, Jordan Hall, Faneuil Hall, the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, the Boston Vocal Artists Series, the 1794 Meeting House concert Series in New Salem, and the Music at Noon Concert Series at the Swedenborg Chapel.
Ms. Mastrodomenico is the stage director of both the Tufts University Opera Ensemble and the Longy School of Music of Bard College’s Opera Theater at Longy. Recent productions she has directed include Le Nozze di Figaro, Der Zwerg, L’amico Fritz, Gianni Schicchi, Three Sisters who are not Sisters, Three Penny Opera, Dido and Aeneas, Old Maid and the Thief, Amelia Goes to the Ball, Riders to the Sea, Gallantry, The Telephone and Doctor Miracle. Ms. Mastrodomenico is a passionate advocate for newly composed works. With the Tufts Opera Ensemble, she commissioned and directed the world premieres of Knave of Hearts by Vartan Aghababian in 2013 and No Onions, nor Garlic by Thomas Stumpf in 2014. With the Longy Opera Workshop, she commissioned and directed the world premiere of Jane Austen’s History of England by John Morrison in 2014. It is her hope to commission a new opera work every year.
Ms. Mastrodomenico is just as passionate about vocal pedagogy and teaching voice. She has participated in panel discussions by the Boston NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) Chapter on the different elements of "Teaching Men to Sing", and was invited by the Western Massachusetts NATS chapter to give a solo presentation on Teaching Men. Her master classes at the Classical Singer Convention, Regional NATS workshops and area Colleges are widely attended. At her invitation, renowned pedagogue Ken Bozeman spoke in the Boston area about the Pedagogical Applications of Vocal Acoustics for teaching voice. She developed and annually taught a vocal curriculum for string performers at the Heifetz International Summer Institute in Staunton, Virginia, US.
Ms. Mastrodomenico’s students can be heard singing throughout the United States, Europe, and South America. They have been accepted into graduate and undergraduate programs at Julliard, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Texas at Austin, University of North Texas, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Miami, Frost School of Music, Michigan State University, University of Maryland at College Park, Ithaca College, Guild Hall and The Royal Academy of Music in London. Her singers regularly attend young artist programs at Houston Grand Opera Outreach Program, Central City, Berlin Song Festival, Edinburgh Music Festival and Halifax Opera Festival.
Ms. Mastrodomenico received her Master of Music degrees in Vocal Performance and Vocal Pedagogy at New England Conservatory of Music. She is on the voice faculties of Longy School of Music of Bard College and Tufts University.
BRIAN MOLL
LIEDER COACH
Brian Moll is Chair of the Piano and Collaborative Piano departments at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he teaches classes in chamber music, vocal repertory and diction. He is also on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory and the New England Conservatory of Music, where he is instructor or repertoire courses and a coach for the opera department. As a keyboardist he has worked with Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, and the Handel & Haydn Chorus and Orchestra and has also served as Assistant Conductor for productions by Boston Lyric Opera, Opera North and Boston Midsummer Opera. He has appeared in the ‘Strings in the Mountains Festival” in Colorado, and at the New Hampshire Music Festival and has been on the summer faculty of the Lied Austria Program in Graz.
A magna cum laude graduate of Hamilton College, Moll earned further degrees from the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria and the University of Michigan School of Music, where he studied with Martin Katz. While in Vienna, he earned diplomas with distinction in piano and organ and also taught as a Fulbright teaching assistant. He has given recitals as a pianist and organist in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, France, and throughout the United States, and has appeared with singers Barbara Kilduff, Barbara Quintiliani, Sheri Greenawald, Wolfgang Brendel, Sir Thomas Allen, Kevin Deas, Yeghishe Manucharyan, and Kelly Kaduce. Moll has appeared in such prestigious halls as Vienna’s Mozartsaal, the Haydnsaal at the Esterhazy Castle in Eisenstadt, Austria, Tokyo’s Lilia Hall, and Boston’s Jordan Hall.
Brian Moll is the Whiting Fellowship Recipient (Harvard University).
LIEDER COACH
Brian Moll is Chair of the Piano and Collaborative Piano departments at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he teaches classes in chamber music, vocal repertory and diction. He is also on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory and the New England Conservatory of Music, where he is instructor or repertoire courses and a coach for the opera department. As a keyboardist he has worked with Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, and the Handel & Haydn Chorus and Orchestra and has also served as Assistant Conductor for productions by Boston Lyric Opera, Opera North and Boston Midsummer Opera. He has appeared in the ‘Strings in the Mountains Festival” in Colorado, and at the New Hampshire Music Festival and has been on the summer faculty of the Lied Austria Program in Graz.
A magna cum laude graduate of Hamilton College, Moll earned further degrees from the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria and the University of Michigan School of Music, where he studied with Martin Katz. While in Vienna, he earned diplomas with distinction in piano and organ and also taught as a Fulbright teaching assistant. He has given recitals as a pianist and organist in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Bulgaria, France, and throughout the United States, and has appeared with singers Barbara Kilduff, Barbara Quintiliani, Sheri Greenawald, Wolfgang Brendel, Sir Thomas Allen, Kevin Deas, Yeghishe Manucharyan, and Kelly Kaduce. Moll has appeared in such prestigious halls as Vienna’s Mozartsaal, the Haydnsaal at the Esterhazy Castle in Eisenstadt, Austria, Tokyo’s Lilia Hall, and Boston’s Jordan Hall.
Brian Moll is the Whiting Fellowship Recipient (Harvard University).
ALEXANDRA VON ROEPKE
GERMAN LIBRETTO & DICTION COACH
Alexandra von Roepke is a versatile, internationally-recognised mezzo-soprano from Berlin, at home both on opera stages in Europe and Asia, as well as in concert halls such as Leipzig's Gewandhaus and Berliner Philharmonie and other venues including the Vatican.
While training as an actress at the Volksbühne in Berlin she by chance discovered she possessed a rich vocal talent. She spent twelve years in Italy, where she completed an extensive period of study, including at the renowned Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome from which she
graduated with exceptionally high academic and artistic merit, and under the private tutelage of the incomparable Christa Ludwig, Sergio Oliva, a renowned conductor at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, and Francesca Patanè, the world famous soprano. Her ability to intimately identify with a range of musical roles, both vocally and as a performer, is outstanding, as audiences and critics regularly agree to be the case. Her repertoire is extensive, from Pergolesi to Belcanto to Verdi, Mozart to Wagner and Richard Strauss to John Cage, although lately she has focused more specifically upon late romantic and modern repertoire. Alexandra von Roepke has appeared in numerous productions to date, mainly in Italy and Germany (including at Berliner Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin and Berliner Philharmonie), but also outside Europe, including in Japan.
As a writer of librettos she has enjoyed the privilege of collaborating with several composers and won a prize for the Youth Opera „Inside Out“. She has been demonstrating her vast experience of both Italian and German music and language since 1996, when she also began teaching the German language and translating from and to both Italian and English, alongside her already
burgeoning career as an opera singer. She has additionally been a vocal teacher since 1999. During this period she has taught both privately and in language schools (including in partnership with companies such as Bosch, Siemens, Fiat and BMW and with several international embassies, including those of Canada and New Zealand), as well as at Freie Universität Berlin and with music schools and academies in Germany and Italy, and conducted numerous masterclasses, both language-focused and musical. Lately she has directed academic programs in Berlin on the works of Richard Wagner and has given concert lectures on Gustav Mahler’s Lied von der Erde in the United States, in New York City and Concord/NH in 2018 and 2019 respectively. In 2021, she also collaborated with several Japanese universities and conservatoires to provide five intensive courses on the subject of diction and pronunciation in the German Lieder repertoire via Zoom to students and professors alike.
In her teaching she not only aims to convey the words, structures and skills necessary for speaking the German language, but also a deep knowledge of their origins and the reasons for their unique characteristics, to allow her students to profoundly master and own this language, among the most spoken and musically performed languages globally.
GERMAN LIBRETTO & DICTION COACH
Alexandra von Roepke is a versatile, internationally-recognised mezzo-soprano from Berlin, at home both on opera stages in Europe and Asia, as well as in concert halls such as Leipzig's Gewandhaus and Berliner Philharmonie and other venues including the Vatican.
While training as an actress at the Volksbühne in Berlin she by chance discovered she possessed a rich vocal talent. She spent twelve years in Italy, where she completed an extensive period of study, including at the renowned Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome from which she
graduated with exceptionally high academic and artistic merit, and under the private tutelage of the incomparable Christa Ludwig, Sergio Oliva, a renowned conductor at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, and Francesca Patanè, the world famous soprano. Her ability to intimately identify with a range of musical roles, both vocally and as a performer, is outstanding, as audiences and critics regularly agree to be the case. Her repertoire is extensive, from Pergolesi to Belcanto to Verdi, Mozart to Wagner and Richard Strauss to John Cage, although lately she has focused more specifically upon late romantic and modern repertoire. Alexandra von Roepke has appeared in numerous productions to date, mainly in Italy and Germany (including at Berliner Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Komische Oper Berlin and Berliner Philharmonie), but also outside Europe, including in Japan.
As a writer of librettos she has enjoyed the privilege of collaborating with several composers and won a prize for the Youth Opera „Inside Out“. She has been demonstrating her vast experience of both Italian and German music and language since 1996, when she also began teaching the German language and translating from and to both Italian and English, alongside her already
burgeoning career as an opera singer. She has additionally been a vocal teacher since 1999. During this period she has taught both privately and in language schools (including in partnership with companies such as Bosch, Siemens, Fiat and BMW and with several international embassies, including those of Canada and New Zealand), as well as at Freie Universität Berlin and with music schools and academies in Germany and Italy, and conducted numerous masterclasses, both language-focused and musical. Lately she has directed academic programs in Berlin on the works of Richard Wagner and has given concert lectures on Gustav Mahler’s Lied von der Erde in the United States, in New York City and Concord/NH in 2018 and 2019 respectively. In 2021, she also collaborated with several Japanese universities and conservatoires to provide five intensive courses on the subject of diction and pronunciation in the German Lieder repertoire via Zoom to students and professors alike.
In her teaching she not only aims to convey the words, structures and skills necessary for speaking the German language, but also a deep knowledge of their origins and the reasons for their unique characteristics, to allow her students to profoundly master and own this language, among the most spoken and musically performed languages globally.
BORAM AHN
MUSIC COACH, DIE WALKÜRE
Boram Ahn is a collaborative pianist based in Berlin. As an experienced opera répétiteur, she has played and coached a wide range of operatic repertoire in German theaters. She was engaged as Solorepetitorin at Theater Osnabrück (Fidelio, Der Bettelstudent), Landestheater Detmold (Der Fliegende Holländer, Rigoletto, Elegies für Junge Liebende by Hans Werner Henze), Thüringer Schlossfestspiel Sondershausen (Anatevka) and Theater Nordhausen (Salome, Anatevka, Luisa Fernanda). She has also taken part in several summer programs and festivals as a pianist and repetiteur including Canadian Vocal Art Institute, Brevard Music Festival, Lyric Opera Studio Weimer, and Narnia Vocal Art Festival.
In Berlin, Boram is actively involved in local projects and collaborates with various musical organizations and groups. She worked as a pianist for Kammerakademie Potsdam’s educational project ‘Stadtteil Macht Oper’, Opera Programs Berlin, Passaggio Oper, Berlin Wagner Gruppe,
Dramatic Voices Program. In August 2023 she’ll join the faculty team of Berlin Opera Academy, where she’ll be working with young artists on Ariadne auf Naxos, Cosi fan tutte, and other operatic repertoires. Maintaining a busy private studio in Berlin, she greatly enjoys supporting singers of different levels in their preparation for roles, auditions, recording sessions, concerts, and Lieder projects.
Boram Ahn was born and raised in South Korea and studied composition, piano performance, and collaborative piano at McGill University. During her time at McGill as a student and later on as a staff pianist, she has served as répétiteur in numerous Opera McGill productions: La Boheme, Dido and Aeneas, Volpone (Canadian premiere), The Rake’s Progress, Turn of the screw. Her mentors and teachers include Jean Lesage, Brian Cherney, Richard Raymond, Kyoko Hashimoto, Michael McMahon, Patrick Hansen, and Julian Wachner.
MUSIC COACH, DIE WALKÜRE
Boram Ahn is a collaborative pianist based in Berlin. As an experienced opera répétiteur, she has played and coached a wide range of operatic repertoire in German theaters. She was engaged as Solorepetitorin at Theater Osnabrück (Fidelio, Der Bettelstudent), Landestheater Detmold (Der Fliegende Holländer, Rigoletto, Elegies für Junge Liebende by Hans Werner Henze), Thüringer Schlossfestspiel Sondershausen (Anatevka) and Theater Nordhausen (Salome, Anatevka, Luisa Fernanda). She has also taken part in several summer programs and festivals as a pianist and repetiteur including Canadian Vocal Art Institute, Brevard Music Festival, Lyric Opera Studio Weimer, and Narnia Vocal Art Festival.
In Berlin, Boram is actively involved in local projects and collaborates with various musical organizations and groups. She worked as a pianist for Kammerakademie Potsdam’s educational project ‘Stadtteil Macht Oper’, Opera Programs Berlin, Passaggio Oper, Berlin Wagner Gruppe,
Dramatic Voices Program. In August 2023 she’ll join the faculty team of Berlin Opera Academy, where she’ll be working with young artists on Ariadne auf Naxos, Cosi fan tutte, and other operatic repertoires. Maintaining a busy private studio in Berlin, she greatly enjoys supporting singers of different levels in their preparation for roles, auditions, recording sessions, concerts, and Lieder projects.
Boram Ahn was born and raised in South Korea and studied composition, piano performance, and collaborative piano at McGill University. During her time at McGill as a student and later on as a staff pianist, she has served as répétiteur in numerous Opera McGill productions: La Boheme, Dido and Aeneas, Volpone (Canadian premiere), The Rake’s Progress, Turn of the screw. Her mentors and teachers include Jean Lesage, Brian Cherney, Richard Raymond, Kyoko Hashimoto, Michael McMahon, Patrick Hansen, and Julian Wachner.
CAROLINE DOWDLE
MASTERCLASS
Caroline Dowdle was born in South Africa and studied music at the University of Cape Town, where she was taught by the eminent chamber musician Lamar Crowson. There she qualified with a Masters in Music before moving to England to study at the Royal Northern College of Music as a solo pianist, under Renna Kellaway. She was awarded a fellowship in accompaniment at the college, a post which she held for 2 years, before moving to London to begin her career as a freelance pianist. For many years she was a staff pianist at the Britten Pears School in Aldeburgh, where she worked alongside many of the most eminent singers and instrumentalists of their generation, and studied many of the Britten operas.
Since then she has performed widely in Britain and in Europe, giving recitals with singers and instrumentalists at the South Bank and Wigmore Hall, London, in Paris for Radio France, in Vienna and in Moscow.
Since the summer of 2008 she has run the Opera Academy at the Verbier International Music Festival. She has also performed in the Festival itself.
Recently she has appeared in numerous recitals with the esteemed baritone, Sir Thomas Allen.
She has worked for Opera de Rouen in 2009 and 2011 as “chef de chant” and as pianist in performances of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Albert Herring, both in Rouen and at the Theatre Comique, in Paris.
She works regularly as a coach with the singers on the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and was appointed as a professor to the faculty of the Royal College of Music in 2015. She is the Musical Director of both the Samling Academy for young singers in the North-east of England, and the Academy of French Song and Opera, a course run in France each summer.
In 2016 Caroline worked as a vocal coach in Beijing with students from the Central Conservatoire there, and was also appointed as a regular guest.
MASTERCLASS
Caroline Dowdle was born in South Africa and studied music at the University of Cape Town, where she was taught by the eminent chamber musician Lamar Crowson. There she qualified with a Masters in Music before moving to England to study at the Royal Northern College of Music as a solo pianist, under Renna Kellaway. She was awarded a fellowship in accompaniment at the college, a post which she held for 2 years, before moving to London to begin her career as a freelance pianist. For many years she was a staff pianist at the Britten Pears School in Aldeburgh, where she worked alongside many of the most eminent singers and instrumentalists of their generation, and studied many of the Britten operas.
Since then she has performed widely in Britain and in Europe, giving recitals with singers and instrumentalists at the South Bank and Wigmore Hall, London, in Paris for Radio France, in Vienna and in Moscow.
Since the summer of 2008 she has run the Opera Academy at the Verbier International Music Festival. She has also performed in the Festival itself.
Recently she has appeared in numerous recitals with the esteemed baritone, Sir Thomas Allen.
She has worked for Opera de Rouen in 2009 and 2011 as “chef de chant” and as pianist in performances of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Albert Herring, both in Rouen and at the Theatre Comique, in Paris.
She works regularly as a coach with the singers on the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and was appointed as a professor to the faculty of the Royal College of Music in 2015. She is the Musical Director of both the Samling Academy for young singers in the North-east of England, and the Academy of French Song and Opera, a course run in France each summer.
In 2016 Caroline worked as a vocal coach in Beijing with students from the Central Conservatoire there, and was also appointed as a regular guest.
KS TICHINA VAUGHN
MASTERCLASS
Tichina Vaughn is an outstanding American mezzo-soprano, celebrated for her luxuriously rich voice as well as her electrifying stagecraft. She began her career as a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and made her European debut as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff at Staatstheater Stuttgart where she was awarded the title Kammersängerin. Recent successes include her Staatstheater Hannover debut as Begonia in The Young Lord, Filipyevna in Eugene Onegin at Spoleto Festival USA, her Teatro alla Scala debut as Maria in Porgy and Bess, as well as Clytemnestra in Elektra, Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and The King’s Children, and Ice Queen in Schwanda the Bagpiper at Semperoper Dresden.
Upcoming appearances include Herodias in Salome, the Mother in Il prigioniero and Brigitta in Die tote Stadt at Semperoper Dresden, her role debut as First Maid in Elektra at the Metropolitan Opera and debuts with English National Opera and Dutch National Opera as Mariah in Porgy and Bess. Vaughn is a recipient of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award, Opera Index Vocal Award, Robert M. Jacobson Study Grant, Birgit Nilsson Foundatin Award, Living Heritage Foundation Award, and the Consul General’s Award for Cultural Diplomacy from the Consulate General Milan.
In previous seasons, Tichina Vaughn was AMNERIS in Aida at Arena di Verona,Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, National Opera Hong Kong,Teatro Rome alla Caracalla, Teatro Padova, Detroit Opera, Seattle Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Michigan Opera; AZUCENA in Il Trovatore at Arena di Verona, Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Festival Arturo Toscanini Bussetto, Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa, Greek National Opera, Budhapest National Opera and the Sacramento Opera; and ULRICA in Un Ballo in Maschera with San Francisco, Hamburg Opera, Opera Graz, Salerno Opera, Verona Opera, Palermo, Ancona, and at the Semper Opera Dresden. Further guest engagements have taken her to the opera houses of Los Angeles, („Il Trittico“) as well as the Finnish National Opera, Augsburg Opera, Opera Kassel, ( Erda „The Ring Cycle“), Frankfurt National Opera, („Don Carlo“) („Il Trittico“), the Bregenz Festival („Porgy and Bess“), and Las Palmas Opera, („Salome“), among others. From 1998 to 2006 Tichina Vaughn was a principal artist at the State Opera of Stuttgart and was awarded the title Kammersängerin for her successes in such roles as as Eboli ("Don Carlo"), Azucena ( "Il Trovatore"), Widow Begbick ( "Mahagonny"), Venus („Tannhauser“), Arnalta ( Poppea), Herodias ( "Salome"), Fricka ( "The Walküre"), Waltraute ("Götterdämmerung ") and Erda (" Siegfried "and" Das Rheingold ").
In crossover she was a guest at SWR Big Band, SWR 4 Band, Tango 5, and in numerous crossover concerts and festivals, as well as the 50th anniversary of the State of Baden-Württemberg. Her discography includes the Stuttgart Ring Cycle with appearances as Fricka in („Die Walküre“) and Waltraute in („Die Götterdämmerung“), which was filmed for the Euro Arts distributed DVD and recorded on the Naxos label as well as her solo portrait CD entitled "Christmas At My House". Additionally she appears on the NEW RELEASE Live from the Semperoper 2012: Schwanda the Bagpiper. Since the 2010/11 season Tichina Vaughn is a principal artist at the Semper Opera Dresden, where she has been heard as Azucena ( "Il Trovatore"), Venus ("Tannhauser" ), Ulrica ( "Un Ballo in Maschera "), Ortrud ( "Lohengrin"), Eboli ( "Don Carlo"), Prince Orlofsky ( "The Bat"), Isabella ( "L'italiana in Algeri"), Suzuki ( "Madama Butterfly"), High Priestess ( "La Vestale"), Ursula ("Feuersnot"), Herodias ( "Salome"), The Witch ( "Hansel and Gretel"), Ice Queen ( "Švanda dudák! /! Schwanda the Bagpiper"), Cornelia ("Giulio Cesare in Egitto"), and Filipjewna ("Eugene Onegin") to name a few. Recent Crossover and Jazz engagements have included appearances at the Jazz Festival Dresden and in a Germany wide tour with Klazz Brothers & Cuba Percussion.
In addition to her many operatic engagements, Tichina Vaughn performs symphonic concerts, chamber concerts and recitals in many prestigious concert halls around the world. Featured works include („Verdi Requiem“), („Beethoveen’s 9th“), Bernstein’s („Jerimiah Symphony“), and the symphonies of Mahler. Orchestra and conductors include the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony, the Dublin National Symphony, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic in collaboration with Maestros Placido Domingo, Sir Simon Rattle, James Conlon, Fabio Luisi, James Levine, Nello Santi, Mislahv Rostropovich, Nicola Luisotti, Daniel Oren, Bobby McFerrin, Lorin Maazel and Yves Abel to name a few.
Tichina Vaughn completed her studies at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Georgia State University, and the American Institue of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.American mezzo soprano Tichina Vaughn has established an important presence among the world’s leading opera houses, concert halls and theaters. As an outstanding singing-actress versatile in opera, operetta, musical theater, and jazz, Vaughn continues to garner both popular and critical acclaim. This versatile artist began her operatic career as a member of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Program and made her European operatic debut as Mistress Quickly in FALSTAFF at the Stuttgart State Theater where she was a member of the ensemble from 1996-2006 and was awarded the title of Kammersängerin.
In season 2021-2022, Ms. Vaughn makes her role debut as the Innkeeper in BORIS GUDONOV at the Metropolitan Opera as well as reprises roles in ELEKTRA and PORGY AND BESS. Additionally, she is scheduled to make her Boston Lyric debut as Emelda Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s CHAMPION.
Engagements for season 2020-2021 included Maria in PORGY AND BESS at Theater an der Wien, Mary in THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Maria in PORGY AND BESS at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg conducted by Alan Gilbert.
Ms. Vaughn’s 2019-2020 season opened with a return to the Metropolitan Opera for performances of PORGY AND BESS, the Fortune Teller in Prokofiev’s FIERY ANGEL at Theater an der Wien(cancelled), Jezibaba in RUSALKA at Cincinnati Opera (cancelled), and Mama Lucia in performances of CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA at Seattle Opera (cancelled).
Season 2018-2019 included debuts at English National Opera and Dutch National Opera as Maria in a new production of PORGY AND BESS followed by a return to the Metropolitan Opera for performances in DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Additionally Vaughn was the High Priestess/Mother in the world premiere of CARUSO A CUBA with Dutch National Opera and appeared with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in performances of Juliette by Martinu.
Highlights from season 2017/18 season included critical success in her role debut as The Mother in Dallapiccola's IL PRIGIONIERO under Erik Nielsen, as Herodias SALOME under Omer Meir Welber and as Brigitta DIE TOTE STADT under Dimitri Jurowski at the Semper Opera Dresden. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Elektra with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and made her house debut with the State Opera Hannover as Begonia in Henze’s DER JUNGE.
Ms. Vaughn's 2016/17 season included her Teatro alla Scala debut as Maria PORGY AND BESS, reprisals of Klytemnestra in ELEKTRA, the Witch in Humperdinck KÖNIGSKINDER and HÄNSEL UND GRETEL, as well as the Ice Queen in Weinbergers SCHWANDA THE BAGPIPER at the Semperoper Dresden. Further appearances included her return to Spoleto Festival USA as Filipyevna EUGENE ONEGIN and performances of her solo jazz program BILLIE, ELLA, SARAH AND ME.
In previous seasons, in North America Ms. Vaughn has appeared as Azucena IL TROVATORE with Sacramento Opera, Amneris AIDA with Michigan Opera Theater, Tulsa Opera, Seattle Opera, and Orange County Opera, Ulrica BALLO IN MASCHERA at San Francisco Opera, and La Frugola IL TABARRO with Los Angeles Opera.
Internationally, Ms. Vaughn made her Italian debut as Azucena IL TROVATORE under the baton of Nicola Luisotti at the Teatro Verdi Trieste where she was later heard as Ulrica BALLO IN MASCHERA opposite Marco Berti. She became a regular guest at the Arena di Verona where she performed more than fifty performances of Amneris AIDA as well as Azucena IL TROVATORE. Additional successes in Italy include Amneris and Ulrica at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Azucena and The Old Lady CANDIDE at the Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, Azucena at the Festival Arturo Toscanini Busseto, Ulrica at the Teatro Massimo Palermo, Teatro Verdi Salerno, Teatro delle Muse Ancona and the Teatro Filarmonico Verona, as well as Amneris at the Baths of Caracalla for Teatro dell' Opera di Roma and at the Festival Veneto. Further international engagements have included Azucena IL TROVATORE at the Budapest National Opera and the Greek National Opera, Amneris AIDA at Opera Hong Kong, Herodias SALOME at Las Palmas Opera, Erda DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN at the Finnish National Opera, Augsburg Opera, and the State Opera Kassel, Ulrica BALLO IN MASCHERA and Venus TANNHÄUSER at the Hamburg State Opera, Maria PORGY AND BESS at the Bregenz Festival, as well as Klytemnestra ELEKTRA, La Zia Principessa SUOR ANGELICA, and Princess Eboli DON CARLO with Oper Frankfurt.
From 1998 to 2006 Tichina Vaughn was a principal artist at the State Theater Stuttgart where she was awarded the title of Kammersängerin for her successes in such roles as Eboli DON CARLO, Azucena IL TROVATORE, Widow Begbick MAHAGONNY, Venus TANNHÄUSER, Giulietta TALES OF HOFFMAN, Arnalta L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA, Herodias SALOME, Fricka DIE WALKÜRE, Waltraute GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, and Erda SIEGFRIED and DAS RHEINGOLD.
From 2010 to 2018 Ms. Vaughn has been a principal artist with Dresden Semper Opera where she was heard as Azucena IL TROVATORE, Venus TANNHAUSER, Ortrud LOHENGRIN, Klytemnestra ELEKTRA, Eboli DON CARLO, Prince Orloffsky DIE FLEDERMAUS, Isabella L'ITALIANA IN ALGERI, Suzuki MADAME BUTTERFLY, Grand Vestale LA VESTALE, Herodias SALOME, Cornelia GIULIO CESARE, and Filipyevna EUGENE ONEGIN among others.
In addition to her many operatic successes, Tichina Vaughn has performed symphonic concerts, chamber concerts, and recitals in many prestigious concert halls around the world. Featured works include Verdi Requiem, Beethoven 9th Symphony and Bernstein Jeremiah Symphony. Orchestras and conductors include the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra Kennedy Center, the Jerusalem Symphony, and the National Symphony of Ireland in collaboration with maestros Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Bobby McFerrin, Sir Simon Rattle, Nello Santi, Roberto Abbado, and Mstislav Rostropovich to name a few.
Her discography includes the Grammy nominated Metropolitan Opera recording of the Gershwins: Porgy and Bess, Stuttgart State Theater DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN which include her acclaimed appearances as Fricka DIE WALKÜRE and Waltraute DIE GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, filmed by Euro Arts for DVD and recorded for Naxos. In 2005 Tichina released her solo portrait CD entitled "Christmas at My House". Additionally she appears on the release SCHWANDA THE BAGPIPER - LIVE FROM THE SEMPEROPER.
In addition to her title as Kammersängerin, Tichina Vaugh has received many awards and honors during her distinguished career including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award, the Richard Tucker Foundation Study Grant Award, the Opera Index Vocal Competition Award, a Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Award, and a Birgit Nilsson Foundation Award. Most recently she was presented the Consul General's Award for Cultural Diplomacy from the Consulate General in Milan. Tichina Vaughn completed her studies at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Georgia State University, and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.
MASTERCLASS
Tichina Vaughn is an outstanding American mezzo-soprano, celebrated for her luxuriously rich voice as well as her electrifying stagecraft. She began her career as a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program and made her European debut as Mistress Quickly in Falstaff at Staatstheater Stuttgart where she was awarded the title Kammersängerin. Recent successes include her Staatstheater Hannover debut as Begonia in The Young Lord, Filipyevna in Eugene Onegin at Spoleto Festival USA, her Teatro alla Scala debut as Maria in Porgy and Bess, as well as Clytemnestra in Elektra, Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and The King’s Children, and Ice Queen in Schwanda the Bagpiper at Semperoper Dresden.
Upcoming appearances include Herodias in Salome, the Mother in Il prigioniero and Brigitta in Die tote Stadt at Semperoper Dresden, her role debut as First Maid in Elektra at the Metropolitan Opera and debuts with English National Opera and Dutch National Opera as Mariah in Porgy and Bess. Vaughn is a recipient of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award, Opera Index Vocal Award, Robert M. Jacobson Study Grant, Birgit Nilsson Foundatin Award, Living Heritage Foundation Award, and the Consul General’s Award for Cultural Diplomacy from the Consulate General Milan.
In previous seasons, Tichina Vaughn was AMNERIS in Aida at Arena di Verona,Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, National Opera Hong Kong,Teatro Rome alla Caracalla, Teatro Padova, Detroit Opera, Seattle Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Michigan Opera; AZUCENA in Il Trovatore at Arena di Verona, Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Festival Arturo Toscanini Bussetto, Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa, Greek National Opera, Budhapest National Opera and the Sacramento Opera; and ULRICA in Un Ballo in Maschera with San Francisco, Hamburg Opera, Opera Graz, Salerno Opera, Verona Opera, Palermo, Ancona, and at the Semper Opera Dresden. Further guest engagements have taken her to the opera houses of Los Angeles, („Il Trittico“) as well as the Finnish National Opera, Augsburg Opera, Opera Kassel, ( Erda „The Ring Cycle“), Frankfurt National Opera, („Don Carlo“) („Il Trittico“), the Bregenz Festival („Porgy and Bess“), and Las Palmas Opera, („Salome“), among others. From 1998 to 2006 Tichina Vaughn was a principal artist at the State Opera of Stuttgart and was awarded the title Kammersängerin for her successes in such roles as as Eboli ("Don Carlo"), Azucena ( "Il Trovatore"), Widow Begbick ( "Mahagonny"), Venus („Tannhauser“), Arnalta ( Poppea), Herodias ( "Salome"), Fricka ( "The Walküre"), Waltraute ("Götterdämmerung ") and Erda (" Siegfried "and" Das Rheingold ").
In crossover she was a guest at SWR Big Band, SWR 4 Band, Tango 5, and in numerous crossover concerts and festivals, as well as the 50th anniversary of the State of Baden-Württemberg. Her discography includes the Stuttgart Ring Cycle with appearances as Fricka in („Die Walküre“) and Waltraute in („Die Götterdämmerung“), which was filmed for the Euro Arts distributed DVD and recorded on the Naxos label as well as her solo portrait CD entitled "Christmas At My House". Additionally she appears on the NEW RELEASE Live from the Semperoper 2012: Schwanda the Bagpiper. Since the 2010/11 season Tichina Vaughn is a principal artist at the Semper Opera Dresden, where she has been heard as Azucena ( "Il Trovatore"), Venus ("Tannhauser" ), Ulrica ( "Un Ballo in Maschera "), Ortrud ( "Lohengrin"), Eboli ( "Don Carlo"), Prince Orlofsky ( "The Bat"), Isabella ( "L'italiana in Algeri"), Suzuki ( "Madama Butterfly"), High Priestess ( "La Vestale"), Ursula ("Feuersnot"), Herodias ( "Salome"), The Witch ( "Hansel and Gretel"), Ice Queen ( "Švanda dudák! /! Schwanda the Bagpiper"), Cornelia ("Giulio Cesare in Egitto"), and Filipjewna ("Eugene Onegin") to name a few. Recent Crossover and Jazz engagements have included appearances at the Jazz Festival Dresden and in a Germany wide tour with Klazz Brothers & Cuba Percussion.
In addition to her many operatic engagements, Tichina Vaughn performs symphonic concerts, chamber concerts and recitals in many prestigious concert halls around the world. Featured works include („Verdi Requiem“), („Beethoveen’s 9th“), Bernstein’s („Jerimiah Symphony“), and the symphonies of Mahler. Orchestra and conductors include the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony, the Dublin National Symphony, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic in collaboration with Maestros Placido Domingo, Sir Simon Rattle, James Conlon, Fabio Luisi, James Levine, Nello Santi, Mislahv Rostropovich, Nicola Luisotti, Daniel Oren, Bobby McFerrin, Lorin Maazel and Yves Abel to name a few.
Tichina Vaughn completed her studies at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Georgia State University, and the American Institue of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.American mezzo soprano Tichina Vaughn has established an important presence among the world’s leading opera houses, concert halls and theaters. As an outstanding singing-actress versatile in opera, operetta, musical theater, and jazz, Vaughn continues to garner both popular and critical acclaim. This versatile artist began her operatic career as a member of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Program and made her European operatic debut as Mistress Quickly in FALSTAFF at the Stuttgart State Theater where she was a member of the ensemble from 1996-2006 and was awarded the title of Kammersängerin.
In season 2021-2022, Ms. Vaughn makes her role debut as the Innkeeper in BORIS GUDONOV at the Metropolitan Opera as well as reprises roles in ELEKTRA and PORGY AND BESS. Additionally, she is scheduled to make her Boston Lyric debut as Emelda Griffith in Terence Blanchard’s CHAMPION.
Engagements for season 2020-2021 included Maria in PORGY AND BESS at Theater an der Wien, Mary in THE FLYING DUTCHMAN at Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Maria in PORGY AND BESS at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg conducted by Alan Gilbert.
Ms. Vaughn’s 2019-2020 season opened with a return to the Metropolitan Opera for performances of PORGY AND BESS, the Fortune Teller in Prokofiev’s FIERY ANGEL at Theater an der Wien(cancelled), Jezibaba in RUSALKA at Cincinnati Opera (cancelled), and Mama Lucia in performances of CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA at Seattle Opera (cancelled).
Season 2018-2019 included debuts at English National Opera and Dutch National Opera as Maria in a new production of PORGY AND BESS followed by a return to the Metropolitan Opera for performances in DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Additionally Vaughn was the High Priestess/Mother in the world premiere of CARUSO A CUBA with Dutch National Opera and appeared with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in performances of Juliette by Martinu.
Highlights from season 2017/18 season included critical success in her role debut as The Mother in Dallapiccola's IL PRIGIONIERO under Erik Nielsen, as Herodias SALOME under Omer Meir Welber and as Brigitta DIE TOTE STADT under Dimitri Jurowski at the Semper Opera Dresden. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Elektra with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin and made her house debut with the State Opera Hannover as Begonia in Henze’s DER JUNGE.
Ms. Vaughn's 2016/17 season included her Teatro alla Scala debut as Maria PORGY AND BESS, reprisals of Klytemnestra in ELEKTRA, the Witch in Humperdinck KÖNIGSKINDER and HÄNSEL UND GRETEL, as well as the Ice Queen in Weinbergers SCHWANDA THE BAGPIPER at the Semperoper Dresden. Further appearances included her return to Spoleto Festival USA as Filipyevna EUGENE ONEGIN and performances of her solo jazz program BILLIE, ELLA, SARAH AND ME.
In previous seasons, in North America Ms. Vaughn has appeared as Azucena IL TROVATORE with Sacramento Opera, Amneris AIDA with Michigan Opera Theater, Tulsa Opera, Seattle Opera, and Orange County Opera, Ulrica BALLO IN MASCHERA at San Francisco Opera, and La Frugola IL TABARRO with Los Angeles Opera.
Internationally, Ms. Vaughn made her Italian debut as Azucena IL TROVATORE under the baton of Nicola Luisotti at the Teatro Verdi Trieste where she was later heard as Ulrica BALLO IN MASCHERA opposite Marco Berti. She became a regular guest at the Arena di Verona where she performed more than fifty performances of Amneris AIDA as well as Azucena IL TROVATORE. Additional successes in Italy include Amneris and Ulrica at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Azucena and The Old Lady CANDIDE at the Teatro Carlo Felice Genova, Azucena at the Festival Arturo Toscanini Busseto, Ulrica at the Teatro Massimo Palermo, Teatro Verdi Salerno, Teatro delle Muse Ancona and the Teatro Filarmonico Verona, as well as Amneris at the Baths of Caracalla for Teatro dell' Opera di Roma and at the Festival Veneto. Further international engagements have included Azucena IL TROVATORE at the Budapest National Opera and the Greek National Opera, Amneris AIDA at Opera Hong Kong, Herodias SALOME at Las Palmas Opera, Erda DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN at the Finnish National Opera, Augsburg Opera, and the State Opera Kassel, Ulrica BALLO IN MASCHERA and Venus TANNHÄUSER at the Hamburg State Opera, Maria PORGY AND BESS at the Bregenz Festival, as well as Klytemnestra ELEKTRA, La Zia Principessa SUOR ANGELICA, and Princess Eboli DON CARLO with Oper Frankfurt.
From 1998 to 2006 Tichina Vaughn was a principal artist at the State Theater Stuttgart where she was awarded the title of Kammersängerin for her successes in such roles as Eboli DON CARLO, Azucena IL TROVATORE, Widow Begbick MAHAGONNY, Venus TANNHÄUSER, Giulietta TALES OF HOFFMAN, Arnalta L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA, Herodias SALOME, Fricka DIE WALKÜRE, Waltraute GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, and Erda SIEGFRIED and DAS RHEINGOLD.
From 2010 to 2018 Ms. Vaughn has been a principal artist with Dresden Semper Opera where she was heard as Azucena IL TROVATORE, Venus TANNHAUSER, Ortrud LOHENGRIN, Klytemnestra ELEKTRA, Eboli DON CARLO, Prince Orloffsky DIE FLEDERMAUS, Isabella L'ITALIANA IN ALGERI, Suzuki MADAME BUTTERFLY, Grand Vestale LA VESTALE, Herodias SALOME, Cornelia GIULIO CESARE, and Filipyevna EUGENE ONEGIN among others.
In addition to her many operatic successes, Tichina Vaughn has performed symphonic concerts, chamber concerts, and recitals in many prestigious concert halls around the world. Featured works include Verdi Requiem, Beethoven 9th Symphony and Bernstein Jeremiah Symphony. Orchestras and conductors include the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra Kennedy Center, the Jerusalem Symphony, and the National Symphony of Ireland in collaboration with maestros Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Bobby McFerrin, Sir Simon Rattle, Nello Santi, Roberto Abbado, and Mstislav Rostropovich to name a few.
Her discography includes the Grammy nominated Metropolitan Opera recording of the Gershwins: Porgy and Bess, Stuttgart State Theater DER RING DES NIBELUNGEN which include her acclaimed appearances as Fricka DIE WALKÜRE and Waltraute DIE GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG, filmed by Euro Arts for DVD and recorded for Naxos. In 2005 Tichina released her solo portrait CD entitled "Christmas at My House". Additionally she appears on the release SCHWANDA THE BAGPIPER - LIVE FROM THE SEMPEROPER.
In addition to her title as Kammersängerin, Tichina Vaugh has received many awards and honors during her distinguished career including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award, the Richard Tucker Foundation Study Grant Award, the Opera Index Vocal Competition Award, a Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Award, and a Birgit Nilsson Foundation Award. Most recently she was presented the Consul General's Award for Cultural Diplomacy from the Consulate General in Milan. Tichina Vaughn completed her studies at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Georgia State University, and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.
Dr. CHRISTOPHER WHITE
MASTERCLASS
Dr Christopher White is Studienleiter (Head of Music) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a position he has held since 2017, after joining the Company in 2014. Prior to that, he held Music Staff positions at English National Opera and Opernhaus Zürich. He studied piano and piano accompaniment, and completed his Doctoral work on the music of Gustav Mahler, at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from which institution he holds the title of Associate (ARAM).
Christopher’s current work involves short- and long-term coordination of rehearsals and coachings at one of the busiest opera houses in Europe, as well as advising on casting, hearing auditions and liaising with conductors and directors. He works daily with the thirty-eight ensemble members at Deutsche Oper in role preparation, ensemble rehearsals and staging rehearsals, as well as advising young singers on career development.
Guest engagements as a musical assistant have taken him to, amongst others, the Munich Opera Festival, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Bayreuth Festival, the latter for Parsifal and the Ring of the Nibelung.
In addition to this work, Christopher is also an active solo and chamber pianist. He played Saint-Saens’ Second Piano Concerto at the Philharmonie in Berlin in November 2016, and his recording of a solo piano arrangement of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony remains available on the Divine Arts label.
Christopher is music staff at the Salzburg Festival. He was appointed Head of Vocal Faculty Opera at the Royal Academy of Music London commencing in Autumn 2023.
MASTERCLASS
Dr Christopher White is Studienleiter (Head of Music) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a position he has held since 2017, after joining the Company in 2014. Prior to that, he held Music Staff positions at English National Opera and Opernhaus Zürich. He studied piano and piano accompaniment, and completed his Doctoral work on the music of Gustav Mahler, at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from which institution he holds the title of Associate (ARAM).
Christopher’s current work involves short- and long-term coordination of rehearsals and coachings at one of the busiest opera houses in Europe, as well as advising on casting, hearing auditions and liaising with conductors and directors. He works daily with the thirty-eight ensemble members at Deutsche Oper in role preparation, ensemble rehearsals and staging rehearsals, as well as advising young singers on career development.
Guest engagements as a musical assistant have taken him to, amongst others, the Munich Opera Festival, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the Bayreuth Festival, the latter for Parsifal and the Ring of the Nibelung.
In addition to this work, Christopher is also an active solo and chamber pianist. He played Saint-Saens’ Second Piano Concerto at the Philharmonie in Berlin in November 2016, and his recording of a solo piano arrangement of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony remains available on the Divine Arts label.
Christopher is music staff at the Salzburg Festival. He was appointed Head of Vocal Faculty Opera at the Royal Academy of Music London commencing in Autumn 2023.
CLAY HILLEY
MASTERCLASS
Praised in The New York Times for his “vocal heft, clarion sound and stamina,” heldentenor Clay Hilley has appeared on many international stages in the most demanding operatic repertoire. At age 39 he sang the title role of Wagner’s Siegfried in Stefan Herheim’s new production at Deutsche Oper Berlin, under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles. He returns in Fall 2021 for debut performances of Siegfried in Götterdämmerung, and for his first complete Ring Cycles as the young hero. The 2021-2022 season features Clay Hilley in two other prominent debuts: with Dutch National Opera as the title role of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg in a new production by Nanouk Leopold, which heralds the arrival of the company’s new Music Director, Lorenzo Viotti; and at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl as Siegmund in a new production of Die Walküre directed by KS Brigitte Fassbaender. He sings the title role of Samson et Dalila in a fully-staged presentation at Bob Jones University. A vibrant concert schedule includes Aida Act 3 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicola Luisotti, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and Siegfried Act 3 with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra led by Chief Conductor Erik Nielsen. Highlights of last season include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, a concert presentation of Tristan und Isolde (Act 2) with Edward Gardner leading the Orchestra of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and the role of Phoebus in Schmidt’s Notre Dame at Theatre St. Gallen. Clay Hilley joined Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2019-20 for performances of Dead Man Walking and to cover Siegfried in Der Ring des Nibelungen. Other engagements that season included the Drum Major in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production by William Kentridge of Wozzeck, and a semi-staged presentation of Die Tote Stadt at Bard SummerFest. Clay Hilley has performed the title role of Dvořák’s Dimitrij in a new production by Anne Bogart for the Bard Music Festival conducted by Leon Botstein, the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo both in a new production by Arila Siegert at the Salzburger Landestheater under the baton of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and at the Theater Würzburg in a production by Stefan Suschke conducted by Enrico Calesso, Radamès in Aida with Opera Southwest and Baltimore Concert Opera, Canio in Pagliacci with Virginia Opera, and Erik in Der fliegende Holländer with Austin Lyric Opera. Concert experience includes performances of Beethoven’s Fidelio with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, with John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra, as well as Das Lied von der Erde with The Apollo Orchestra of Washington, D.C. Emerging as a world class Straussian tenor, he has sung Menelaus in Die ägyptische Helena with Gil Rose and Odyssey Opera and Gundelfingen in Feuersnot with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The tenor received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education at the University of Georgia, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Georgia State University, a Professional Studies Certificate from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Performer’s Certificate from the Opera Institute at Boston University.
MASTERCLASS
Praised in The New York Times for his “vocal heft, clarion sound and stamina,” heldentenor Clay Hilley has appeared on many international stages in the most demanding operatic repertoire. At age 39 he sang the title role of Wagner’s Siegfried in Stefan Herheim’s new production at Deutsche Oper Berlin, under the baton of Sir Donald Runnicles. He returns in Fall 2021 for debut performances of Siegfried in Götterdämmerung, and for his first complete Ring Cycles as the young hero. The 2021-2022 season features Clay Hilley in two other prominent debuts: with Dutch National Opera as the title role of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg in a new production by Nanouk Leopold, which heralds the arrival of the company’s new Music Director, Lorenzo Viotti; and at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl as Siegmund in a new production of Die Walküre directed by KS Brigitte Fassbaender. He sings the title role of Samson et Dalila in a fully-staged presentation at Bob Jones University. A vibrant concert schedule includes Aida Act 3 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nicola Luisotti, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and Siegfried Act 3 with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra led by Chief Conductor Erik Nielsen. Highlights of last season include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, a concert presentation of Tristan und Isolde (Act 2) with Edward Gardner leading the Orchestra of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, and the role of Phoebus in Schmidt’s Notre Dame at Theatre St. Gallen. Clay Hilley joined Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2019-20 for performances of Dead Man Walking and to cover Siegfried in Der Ring des Nibelungen. Other engagements that season included the Drum Major in the Metropolitan Opera’s new production by William Kentridge of Wozzeck, and a semi-staged presentation of Die Tote Stadt at Bard SummerFest. Clay Hilley has performed the title role of Dvořák’s Dimitrij in a new production by Anne Bogart for the Bard Music Festival conducted by Leon Botstein, the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo both in a new production by Arila Siegert at the Salzburger Landestheater under the baton of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and at the Theater Würzburg in a production by Stefan Suschke conducted by Enrico Calesso, Radamès in Aida with Opera Southwest and Baltimore Concert Opera, Canio in Pagliacci with Virginia Opera, and Erik in Der fliegende Holländer with Austin Lyric Opera. Concert experience includes performances of Beethoven’s Fidelio with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, with John DeMain and the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra, as well as Das Lied von der Erde with The Apollo Orchestra of Washington, D.C. Emerging as a world class Straussian tenor, he has sung Menelaus in Die ägyptische Helena with Gil Rose and Odyssey Opera and Gundelfingen in Feuersnot with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. The tenor received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education at the University of Georgia, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Georgia State University, a Professional Studies Certificate from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Performer’s Certificate from the Opera Institute at Boston University.
GUNDULA HINTZ
MASTERCLASS
Born in Berlin, Gundula Hintz studied at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin with professors such as Aribert Reimann and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. She has appeared as an opera and concert singer at numerous German and international venues (Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Naples, Venice, St. Gallen, London, Toronto), at the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, the Venice Biennale and the Berlin Festival Weeks.
Gundula Hintz has worked with conductors such as Constantin Trinks, Gerd Albrecht, Ralf Weikert, Anna Skryleva, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Ulf Schirmer, Anthony Bramall, Josep Caballé Domenech, Patrick Lange and Jessica Cottis.
After first engagements with jugendlich-dramatisch roles (among others the Baroness Liddy in the highly acclaimed world premiere of Detlev Glanert's opera "Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung"), the Sieglinde in the "Walküre" marked the entrance into the Wagner Fach.
In 2011 she made her debut as Fricka in Wagner's "Ring" at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. There she also performed as Herodias in Strauss' opera "Salome" in 2013. In the same year she sang the 1st alto part in Mahler's 8th Symphony in the Berliner Philharmonie.
From 2012 to 2015 Gundula Hintz could be heard as Fricka ("Rheingold" and "Walküre"), Waltraute/2nd Norn ("Götterdämmerung") in the Ring tetralogy of the Theater Halle and Ludwigshafen.
The Royal Opera House Covent Garden engaged her in August 2014 for Turnage’s opera "Anna Nicole" in London. In the same season she made her Halle debut as Adelaide in Strauss' "Arabella". In January 2015 she made her debut at Leipzig Opera House as Fricka in "Rheingold", where in December 2015 she performed Dämonia in Humperdinck's fairytale opera "Sleeping Beauty".
Gundula Hintz played Fräulein Schneider in Kander’s musical "Cabaret" at the Staatstheater Augsburg on the open-air stage Freilichtbühne am Roten Tor in summer 2016.
In March 2017 she sang Mahler's "Lied von der Erde" in the Berliner Philharmonie. The mezzo-soprano made her North American debut in Toronto in autumn 2017. The Canadian Opera Company engaged her as Adelaide in Tim Albery's production of Strauss' "Arabella".
At the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London in June 2018 she performed the leading role of Esther in the world premiere of Na'ama Zisser's opera "Mamzer/Bastard". In the 2018/19 season she made her debut as Zita in "Gianni Schicchi" at the Staatsoperette Dresden. The role of Kabanicha in Lydia Steier's new production of "Katia Kabanowa" brought her to the Staatstheater Mainz in January 2019.
Numerous radio and television recordings document her successful work. With Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the woodwind instrumentalists of the Berliner Philharmoniker she made a CD recording of Mozart terzets. In addition to her solo engagements, her voice studio in Berlin, in which she coaches numerous professional opera singers and provides technical support for them, as well as international master classes in Bayreuth, Düsseldorf, Tallinn, London and New York are further focal points of her activities.
MASTERCLASS
Born in Berlin, Gundula Hintz studied at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin with professors such as Aribert Reimann and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. She has appeared as an opera and concert singer at numerous German and international venues (Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Naples, Venice, St. Gallen, London, Toronto), at the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, the Venice Biennale and the Berlin Festival Weeks.
Gundula Hintz has worked with conductors such as Constantin Trinks, Gerd Albrecht, Ralf Weikert, Anna Skryleva, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Ulf Schirmer, Anthony Bramall, Josep Caballé Domenech, Patrick Lange and Jessica Cottis.
After first engagements with jugendlich-dramatisch roles (among others the Baroness Liddy in the highly acclaimed world premiere of Detlev Glanert's opera "Scherz, Satire, Ironie und tiefere Bedeutung"), the Sieglinde in the "Walküre" marked the entrance into the Wagner Fach.
In 2011 she made her debut as Fricka in Wagner's "Ring" at the Staatstheater Darmstadt. There she also performed as Herodias in Strauss' opera "Salome" in 2013. In the same year she sang the 1st alto part in Mahler's 8th Symphony in the Berliner Philharmonie.
From 2012 to 2015 Gundula Hintz could be heard as Fricka ("Rheingold" and "Walküre"), Waltraute/2nd Norn ("Götterdämmerung") in the Ring tetralogy of the Theater Halle and Ludwigshafen.
The Royal Opera House Covent Garden engaged her in August 2014 for Turnage’s opera "Anna Nicole" in London. In the same season she made her Halle debut as Adelaide in Strauss' "Arabella". In January 2015 she made her debut at Leipzig Opera House as Fricka in "Rheingold", where in December 2015 she performed Dämonia in Humperdinck's fairytale opera "Sleeping Beauty".
Gundula Hintz played Fräulein Schneider in Kander’s musical "Cabaret" at the Staatstheater Augsburg on the open-air stage Freilichtbühne am Roten Tor in summer 2016.
In March 2017 she sang Mahler's "Lied von der Erde" in the Berliner Philharmonie. The mezzo-soprano made her North American debut in Toronto in autumn 2017. The Canadian Opera Company engaged her as Adelaide in Tim Albery's production of Strauss' "Arabella".
At the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London in June 2018 she performed the leading role of Esther in the world premiere of Na'ama Zisser's opera "Mamzer/Bastard". In the 2018/19 season she made her debut as Zita in "Gianni Schicchi" at the Staatsoperette Dresden. The role of Kabanicha in Lydia Steier's new production of "Katia Kabanowa" brought her to the Staatstheater Mainz in January 2019.
Numerous radio and television recordings document her successful work. With Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the woodwind instrumentalists of the Berliner Philharmoniker she made a CD recording of Mozart terzets. In addition to her solo engagements, her voice studio in Berlin, in which she coaches numerous professional opera singers and provides technical support for them, as well as international master classes in Bayreuth, Düsseldorf, Tallinn, London and New York are further focal points of her activities.
STEPHANIE WEISS
MASTERCLASS
VISITING VOICE FACULTY
Stephanie Weiss, mezzo-soprano, was a Regional Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation from Mannes College of Music. As the winner of the American Berlin Opera Foundation Competition, she became a member of Deutsche Oper Berlin as a Stipendiatin, where in her first season, while still a soprano, she sang Frasquita (Carmen), Musetta, Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Gerhilde (Die Walküre), and Schlafittchen in the Berlin premiere of Das Traumfresserchen.
Ms. Weiss continues to be a regular guest at Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she has sung Marianne Leitmetzerin (Der Rosenkavalier), Aufseherin (Elektra), Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Grimgerde (Die Walküre), Johanna [cover] (Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna), and Venus [cover] (Tannhäuser) in the company’s tour to Beijing. Other appearances include Opera Orchestra of New York under Eve Queler at Carnegie Hall as Rose (Lakmé), Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden as Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro) and Marthe (Faust), at Oper Frankfurt as Musetta, and at Stadttheater Bern, San Diego Opera, Oper Dortmund, and Oper Köln as Marianne Leitmetzerin. She debuted with the Berlin Philharmonic as the Cook in Le Rossignol under the baton of Pierre Boulez. Other notable performances have included Venus (Tannhäuser) with Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, Berta (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Suzuki (Madama Butterfly) with Opera Las Vegas, and a return to the San Diego Opera as Giannetta (L´elisir d´amore). Concerts include Wesendonck Lieder with the Henderson Symphony Orchestra, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Symphony No. 4 with the L’viv Philharmonic (Ukraine), and Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) with Singakademie Potsdam. Recent appearances include Grimgerde (Die Walküre) at Oper Leipzig, Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas) with Opera Company of Middlebury, a return to Deutsche Oper Berlin to sing Zweite Dienerin (Die Ägyptische Helena) and Aufseherin (Elektra), and the title role of Johanna (Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna) by Walter Braunfels at Oper Köln. In the 2017/2018 season, she sang Aksinja in Lady Macbeth of Mzensk at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and returned to Oper Leipzig to sing Grimgerde in Die Walküre.
Along with operatic and orchestral concert repertoire, Ms. Weiss is an avid performer of art song and new music. She has performed recitals in the US, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia, singing the music of award-winning American and German living composers. With pianist Christina Wright-Ivanova, she has sung the world premieres of several song cycles, including Jonathan Stark’s “Passageway”, and Daron Hagen’s “Jaik’s Songs”. In 2018, the duo will release their debut CD of the songs of Daron Hagen.
In addition to her singing, Ms. Weiss is Assistant Professor of Voice at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts School of Music. She holds degrees from New England Conservatory (B.M. voice), Tufts University (B.S. biology and drama), University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M), Mannes College of Music (Prof. Studies Dipl.), and University of Nevada, Las Vegas (D.M.A.). Previously, she was Assistant Professor of Voice at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Teaching Fellow with the Metropolitan Opera Education Department, and serves on the faculties of COSI (Centre for Opera Studies in Italy) in Sulmona, Italy and AIMS in Graz.
MASTERCLASS
VISITING VOICE FACULTY
Stephanie Weiss, mezzo-soprano, was a Regional Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and recipient of a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation from Mannes College of Music. As the winner of the American Berlin Opera Foundation Competition, she became a member of Deutsche Oper Berlin as a Stipendiatin, where in her first season, while still a soprano, she sang Frasquita (Carmen), Musetta, Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Gerhilde (Die Walküre), and Schlafittchen in the Berlin premiere of Das Traumfresserchen.
Ms. Weiss continues to be a regular guest at Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she has sung Marianne Leitmetzerin (Der Rosenkavalier), Aufseherin (Elektra), Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Grimgerde (Die Walküre), Johanna [cover] (Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna), and Venus [cover] (Tannhäuser) in the company’s tour to Beijing. Other appearances include Opera Orchestra of New York under Eve Queler at Carnegie Hall as Rose (Lakmé), Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden as Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro) and Marthe (Faust), at Oper Frankfurt as Musetta, and at Stadttheater Bern, San Diego Opera, Oper Dortmund, and Oper Köln as Marianne Leitmetzerin. She debuted with the Berlin Philharmonic as the Cook in Le Rossignol under the baton of Pierre Boulez. Other notable performances have included Venus (Tannhäuser) with Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, Berta (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and Suzuki (Madama Butterfly) with Opera Las Vegas, and a return to the San Diego Opera as Giannetta (L´elisir d´amore). Concerts include Wesendonck Lieder with the Henderson Symphony Orchestra, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Symphony No. 4 with the L’viv Philharmonic (Ukraine), and Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) with Singakademie Potsdam. Recent appearances include Grimgerde (Die Walküre) at Oper Leipzig, Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas) with Opera Company of Middlebury, a return to Deutsche Oper Berlin to sing Zweite Dienerin (Die Ägyptische Helena) and Aufseherin (Elektra), and the title role of Johanna (Szenen aus dem Leben der Heiligen Johanna) by Walter Braunfels at Oper Köln. In the 2017/2018 season, she sang Aksinja in Lady Macbeth of Mzensk at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and returned to Oper Leipzig to sing Grimgerde in Die Walküre.
Along with operatic and orchestral concert repertoire, Ms. Weiss is an avid performer of art song and new music. She has performed recitals in the US, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Australia, singing the music of award-winning American and German living composers. With pianist Christina Wright-Ivanova, she has sung the world premieres of several song cycles, including Jonathan Stark’s “Passageway”, and Daron Hagen’s “Jaik’s Songs”. In 2018, the duo will release their debut CD of the songs of Daron Hagen.
In addition to her singing, Ms. Weiss is Assistant Professor of Voice at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts School of Music. She holds degrees from New England Conservatory (B.M. voice), Tufts University (B.S. biology and drama), University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.M), Mannes College of Music (Prof. Studies Dipl.), and University of Nevada, Las Vegas (D.M.A.). Previously, she was Assistant Professor of Voice at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Teaching Fellow with the Metropolitan Opera Education Department, and serves on the faculties of COSI (Centre for Opera Studies in Italy) in Sulmona, Italy and AIMS in Graz.
CHRISTINA HAGER, OVATIONS DIGITAL
BUILDING & DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Christina Hager is the President and Founder of Ovations Digital, a social media & digital marketing consultancy, as well as a member of the 2021 Forbes Communication Council, and a published writer for Forbes.com. Her insights and ideas regarding social media marketing have appeared in Inc.com, People Maven Magazine, National Jewelry, Social Media Today, and numerous podcasts, and she is a highly sought after executive speaker on social media and digital tactics and strategy. With a long-standing reputation as a master communicator due to her former career as a professional opera singer, Ms. Christina Hager has leveraged her innate gift for messaging and storytelling into becoming an adroit digital marketing strategist, helping companies enhance their market position through digital and social media communication.
She holds consultant positions with numerous businesses and individual projects in the B2B and B2C industries, including health and wellness, executive and change advisory, beauty, skincare, construction, SaSS, business consulting and career services, e-commerce, restaurants, luxury goods, not-for-profits, and the performing arts.
Ms. Hager also assists corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, from small-business owners to Fortune 500 executives, and excels at developing thought leadership credentials for her clients through her ability to promote their insights in top industry outlets like Forbes, Inc.com, U.S. News and World Report, Business.com, and Thrive Global.
Ms. Hager is a proud champion of the arts, as well as an active board member and volunteer. After spending 10 years in NYC as a professional opera singer, she is happy to call Kansas City home.
BUILDING & DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Christina Hager is the President and Founder of Ovations Digital, a social media & digital marketing consultancy, as well as a member of the 2021 Forbes Communication Council, and a published writer for Forbes.com. Her insights and ideas regarding social media marketing have appeared in Inc.com, People Maven Magazine, National Jewelry, Social Media Today, and numerous podcasts, and she is a highly sought after executive speaker on social media and digital tactics and strategy. With a long-standing reputation as a master communicator due to her former career as a professional opera singer, Ms. Christina Hager has leveraged her innate gift for messaging and storytelling into becoming an adroit digital marketing strategist, helping companies enhance their market position through digital and social media communication.
She holds consultant positions with numerous businesses and individual projects in the B2B and B2C industries, including health and wellness, executive and change advisory, beauty, skincare, construction, SaSS, business consulting and career services, e-commerce, restaurants, luxury goods, not-for-profits, and the performing arts.
Ms. Hager also assists corporate leaders and entrepreneurs, from small-business owners to Fortune 500 executives, and excels at developing thought leadership credentials for her clients through her ability to promote their insights in top industry outlets like Forbes, Inc.com, U.S. News and World Report, Business.com, and Thrive Global.
Ms. Hager is a proud champion of the arts, as well as an active board member and volunteer. After spending 10 years in NYC as a professional opera singer, she is happy to call Kansas City home.
ANASTASIA NIKOLOVA-INNISS,
PROGRAM FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
CASTING DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
VOICE FACULTY
Anastasia Inniss started her arts education at the age of 5, studying piano. She was a member of the Bulgarian National Theater Youth Ensemble, where she was cast in children's roles in numerous main stage and touring productions. Her training at the National Theatre included acting, improvisation, Latin and folk dance. She also studied percussion and classical guitar.
In addition to her musical interests, Ms. Inniss showed a keen interest in the visual arts & design. Before the age of 10, her watercolor paintings and color pencil drawings were selected for numerous solo and group art exhibitions. At the age of 8, she was the recipient of the City of Plovdiv Portrait Drawing Award having been selected from thousands of entries city-wide.
Ms. Inniss commenced her vocal training in Bulgaria and continued it at the Longy School of Music at Bard College (Cambridge, Massachusetts) as a recipient of the Janet Irving Scholarship for Vocal Studies. She was a member of the Central Florida Lyric Opera Young Artists Program and was later invited to return as a main stage Resident Artist with the company.
Opera roles include: Judith in A kékszakállú herceg vára (Grimeborn Opera Festival London); Woglinde in Das Rheingold (Berliner Wagner Gruppe); Elsa in Lohengrin (Berliner Wagner Gruppe); Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Violetta in La Traviata (Central Florida Lyric Opera; New London Opera Players, Fine Arts Chorale & Orchestra) Governess in Turn of the Screw (Opera Seria), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Opera Seria, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Nedda in Pagliacci (Central Florida Lyric Opera), Micaëla and Frasquita in Carmen, under the directorship of late legendary soprano Licia Albanese (Central Florida Lyric Opera); Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro (Central Florida Lyric Opera), Serpina in La serva padrona (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal, concertante).
Ms. Inniss is a champion of new music. She has premiered works by prominent American and British composers such as Vartan Aghababian, Michael Djupstrom, Victoria Ellis, Heather Gilligan and Eric Sawyer; some of these works were written and dedicated to her. In addition to numerous song cycles and solo concert works with orchestra, she also created the role of Anna von Mildenburg in the new theater piece Geboren Alma Schindler (Berliner Opern Verein); the role of Member of the Chamber in the premiere performance of Eric Sawyer's Our American Cousin (Composers in Red Sneakers); and the title role in the world premiere of Victoria Ellis' opera Darling (One of Us Foundation).
Solo concert engagements include J.S. Bach Jauchzet Gott in alles Landen (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal), Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (Old North Concert Series), Magnificat in D (Fine Arts Chorale), Missa brevis in A (Fine Arts Chorale); Mozart's Requiem (Fine Arts Chorale), Missa Brevis in F (Sommerville Choir), Exultate Jubilate (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal), Vesperae solennes de confessore (Somerville Choir); Händel's Messiah (College Park Players), L'Allego, il Pensieroso, ed il Moderato (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal); Pergolesi Stabat mater (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal); Schubert Mass in G (Highnam Choir and Orchestra); Dubois Seven Last Words of Christ (College Park Players); Vivaldi Gloria (Old North Concert Series); Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem (Tufts University Orchestra, cover); Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream (Longy Chamber Orchestra); Berg Sieben frühe Lieder (Kirchberg Chamber Music Festival); Mahler Rückert-Lieder (Berlin Song Festival); Strauss Vier letzte Lieder (Berlin Song Festival, Kirchberg Chamber Music Festival, Walbrook Music Trust, Galerieforum am Meer); Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasilieras No.5 (Kirchberg Chamber Music Festival) among others.
As a concert artist, Ms. Inniss has also given numerous concert and solo recitals in the United States and in Europe.
Ms. Inniss is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Opera Programs Berlin and Dramatic Voices Program Berlin. She is also the founder and executive director of Lanzarote Opera Festival & Academy. Previously, she was the Artistic Director of the Berlin Song Festival and an Artistic Consultant for The Opera Stage (now folded into Classical Singer Magazine). She has worked as an educator in higher education as well as in leadership positions in the arts for the last 15 years, both in the United States and in Europe.
Among her directing credits are pieces such as Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years as well as a wide range of scenes from the operatic and musical theatre repertoire. She has served as a casting director and producer for Wagner's Das Rheingold, Wagner's Lohengrin, Strauss' Elektra, Wagner's Die Walküre and Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. She also designed costumes for Purcell's Dido & Aeneas and Rorem’s Our Town.
Ms. Inniss is a consummate educator with over 20 years of experience teaching voice, vocal pedagogy, vocal diction, opera and song repertoire, audition preparation, branding and marketing. She was taught at a college level as well as privately, in an individual and classroom settings. In the last 6 years, her focus has shifted on teaching professionals and emerging professionals. She has guided the voices of numerous transgender voice professionals, and is particularly adept to training voices with complex landscape.
Ms. Inniss is a leader in the classical music industry. She has co-produced and hosted roundtable panel discussions on patterns of discrimination in the classical music industry - Singing While Black In Germany, Race in Opera and Ageism in Opera. In addition, she has spear-headed, produced and hosted Trans*Voices - a series of masterclasses and performance opportunities for transgender and non-binary artists. She often advocates and produces fundraisers for organisations such as Save the Children, Berliner Aids-Hilfe, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler CoronaCare, Black Lives Matter, Chineke! Foundation, Artist Relief Tree.
PROGRAM FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
CASTING DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
VOICE FACULTY
Anastasia Inniss started her arts education at the age of 5, studying piano. She was a member of the Bulgarian National Theater Youth Ensemble, where she was cast in children's roles in numerous main stage and touring productions. Her training at the National Theatre included acting, improvisation, Latin and folk dance. She also studied percussion and classical guitar.
In addition to her musical interests, Ms. Inniss showed a keen interest in the visual arts & design. Before the age of 10, her watercolor paintings and color pencil drawings were selected for numerous solo and group art exhibitions. At the age of 8, she was the recipient of the City of Plovdiv Portrait Drawing Award having been selected from thousands of entries city-wide.
Ms. Inniss commenced her vocal training in Bulgaria and continued it at the Longy School of Music at Bard College (Cambridge, Massachusetts) as a recipient of the Janet Irving Scholarship for Vocal Studies. She was a member of the Central Florida Lyric Opera Young Artists Program and was later invited to return as a main stage Resident Artist with the company.
Opera roles include: Judith in A kékszakállú herceg vára (Grimeborn Opera Festival London); Woglinde in Das Rheingold (Berliner Wagner Gruppe); Elsa in Lohengrin (Berliner Wagner Gruppe); Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Violetta in La Traviata (Central Florida Lyric Opera; New London Opera Players, Fine Arts Chorale & Orchestra) Governess in Turn of the Screw (Opera Seria), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Opera Seria, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Nedda in Pagliacci (Central Florida Lyric Opera), Micaëla and Frasquita in Carmen, under the directorship of late legendary soprano Licia Albanese (Central Florida Lyric Opera); Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro (Central Florida Lyric Opera), Serpina in La serva padrona (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal, concertante).
Ms. Inniss is a champion of new music. She has premiered works by prominent American and British composers such as Vartan Aghababian, Michael Djupstrom, Victoria Ellis, Heather Gilligan and Eric Sawyer; some of these works were written and dedicated to her. In addition to numerous song cycles and solo concert works with orchestra, she also created the role of Anna von Mildenburg in the new theater piece Geboren Alma Schindler (Berliner Opern Verein); the role of Member of the Chamber in the premiere performance of Eric Sawyer's Our American Cousin (Composers in Red Sneakers); and the title role in the world premiere of Victoria Ellis' opera Darling (One of Us Foundation).
Solo concert engagements include J.S. Bach Jauchzet Gott in alles Landen (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal), Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (Old North Concert Series), Magnificat in D (Fine Arts Chorale), Missa brevis in A (Fine Arts Chorale); Mozart's Requiem (Fine Arts Chorale), Missa Brevis in F (Sommerville Choir), Exultate Jubilate (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal), Vesperae solennes de confessore (Somerville Choir); Händel's Messiah (College Park Players), L'Allego, il Pensieroso, ed il Moderato (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal); Pergolesi Stabat mater (Berliner Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal); Schubert Mass in G (Highnam Choir and Orchestra); Dubois Seven Last Words of Christ (College Park Players); Vivaldi Gloria (Old North Concert Series); Vaughan Williams Dona nobis pacem (Tufts University Orchestra, cover); Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream (Longy Chamber Orchestra); Berg Sieben frühe Lieder (Kirchberg Chamber Music Festival); Mahler Rückert-Lieder (Berlin Song Festival); Strauss Vier letzte Lieder (Berlin Song Festival, Kirchberg Chamber Music Festival, Walbrook Music Trust, Galerieforum am Meer); Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasilieras No.5 (Kirchberg Chamber Music Festival) among others.
As a concert artist, Ms. Inniss has also given numerous concert and solo recitals in the United States and in Europe.
Ms. Inniss is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Opera Programs Berlin and Dramatic Voices Program Berlin. She is also the founder and executive director of Lanzarote Opera Festival & Academy. Previously, she was the Artistic Director of the Berlin Song Festival and an Artistic Consultant for The Opera Stage (now folded into Classical Singer Magazine). She has worked as an educator in higher education as well as in leadership positions in the arts for the last 15 years, both in the United States and in Europe.
Among her directing credits are pieces such as Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years as well as a wide range of scenes from the operatic and musical theatre repertoire. She has served as a casting director and producer for Wagner's Das Rheingold, Wagner's Lohengrin, Strauss' Elektra, Wagner's Die Walküre and Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. She also designed costumes for Purcell's Dido & Aeneas and Rorem’s Our Town.
Ms. Inniss is a consummate educator with over 20 years of experience teaching voice, vocal pedagogy, vocal diction, opera and song repertoire, audition preparation, branding and marketing. She was taught at a college level as well as privately, in an individual and classroom settings. In the last 6 years, her focus has shifted on teaching professionals and emerging professionals. She has guided the voices of numerous transgender voice professionals, and is particularly adept to training voices with complex landscape.
Ms. Inniss is a leader in the classical music industry. She has co-produced and hosted roundtable panel discussions on patterns of discrimination in the classical music industry - Singing While Black In Germany, Race in Opera and Ageism in Opera. In addition, she has spear-headed, produced and hosted Trans*Voices - a series of masterclasses and performance opportunities for transgender and non-binary artists. She often advocates and produces fundraisers for organisations such as Save the Children, Berliner Aids-Hilfe, Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler CoronaCare, Black Lives Matter, Chineke! Foundation, Artist Relief Tree.
STEPHAN REINEKE, AGENT, REINEKE ARTISTS, TACT INTERNATIONAL
VISITING FACULTY
Stephan studied law, musicology and cultural administration at the universities in Bayreuth, Mainz, Cologne and Berlin. After early lessons in piano, he became a member of a chorus working with conductors such as Sergiu Celibidache, Sylvain Cambreling and Michael Gielen and orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London and the SWR Symphonieorchester.
He gained valuable experience working in the artistic administration of Komische Oper Berlin, as Assistant to the Director of the Radio Chorus Berlin and as Personal Assistant to the Intendant of Dortmund Opera.
In 2004 he embarked on his career as an Artist Manager for singers and conductors and during the subsequent years worked for different agencies before joining the team of TACT International Art Management in 2012. For many years, he was also Managing President of a non-profit foundation in Berlin supporting young and talented artists.
In addition, Stephan was a member of the jury of the International Singing Competition Debut and the Jerusalem International Opera Competition. He gives lectures at the Berlin Summer University of the Arts and works in audition trainings with students at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, at the Dutch National Opera Academy Amsterdam, and for further vocal academies and programs.
http://www.tact4art.com/
VISITING FACULTY
Stephan studied law, musicology and cultural administration at the universities in Bayreuth, Mainz, Cologne and Berlin. After early lessons in piano, he became a member of a chorus working with conductors such as Sergiu Celibidache, Sylvain Cambreling and Michael Gielen and orchestras such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London and the SWR Symphonieorchester.
He gained valuable experience working in the artistic administration of Komische Oper Berlin, as Assistant to the Director of the Radio Chorus Berlin and as Personal Assistant to the Intendant of Dortmund Opera.
In 2004 he embarked on his career as an Artist Manager for singers and conductors and during the subsequent years worked for different agencies before joining the team of TACT International Art Management in 2012. For many years, he was also Managing President of a non-profit foundation in Berlin supporting young and talented artists.
In addition, Stephan was a member of the jury of the International Singing Competition Debut and the Jerusalem International Opera Competition. He gives lectures at the Berlin Summer University of the Arts and works in audition trainings with students at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin, at the Dutch National Opera Academy Amsterdam, and for further vocal academies and programs.
http://www.tact4art.com/
JULIE WYMA,
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CASTING DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
CAREER CONSULTATIONS
Julie Wyma has been described as a Renaissance Woman of opera, having worked in both Europe and the United States as a singer, director, stage manager, wig/makeup artist, costume designer, producer, and educator.
As a soprano she has appeared in more than 20 roles, including die Königin der Nacht and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Gilda in Rigoletto, Marie in Die Verkaufte Braut, Musetta in La Bohème, Sophie in Werther, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Norina in Don Pasquale. Of her Norina, the Kansas City Metropolis said: “soprano Julie Wyma sparkled with a self-confident air and a strong, beautiful voice.”
Recent performances have included the roles of Marie in Die verkaufte Braut, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto with the Brandenburgisches Konzertorchester Eberswalde at Kloster Chorin, Germany; Musetta in La Bohème and Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Puccini's Toaster in Berlin; the Soprano solos in Mozart's Requiem, Händel’s Messiah, and Fauré's Requiem, all in Berlin; a concert of music by the American expatriate author and composer Paul Bowles in Magdeburg and Berlin, Germany with tenor Laurent Martin; Lovers’ Quarrels, a concert of operatic duets and arias with her husband, Peter Furlong, in Concord, New Hampshire and Niemegk, Germany; Three Tenors and a Soprano concerts in Cornish and New London, New Hampshire; and Viva Divas!, a concert of operatic arias, duets, and trios in Cornish, New Hampshire, Phoenix, Arizona and Berlin, Germany. She recently produced a concert of The AIDS Quilt Songbook as a benefit concert for the Berliner Aids-Hilfe e.V.
Ms. Wyma has produced and directed operas including Wagner’s Lohengrin, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre (Berlin Wagner Gruppe), Massenet’s Werther (Irrational Entertainment), Händel’s Semele (Midwest Early Opera Works), Jonathan Stinson’s The Three Bears and Ryan Oldham’s The Emperor’s Madness (University of Missouri-Kansas City), as well as Jason Robert Brown’s musical The Last Five Years (Voci Inglesi) and numerous opera scenes programs. She has assistant directed Albert Herring and Giulio Cesare at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, La Traviata at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Carmen at Opera North, and she assistant stage managed La Rondine at Indiana University.
As a costume designer Ms. Wyma worked for Dicapo Opera Theatre in New York for the 2011-2012 Season, which included Tosca, The Consul, Iolanta, The Most Happy Fella, La Cenerentola, Beauty and the Beast, and La Traviata. She has also worked as a bridal alterations specialist in Bloomington, Indiana and New York City. As a student she worked as a costume assistant/stitcher for the University of Arizona on Le nozze di Figaro and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and for Indiana University on Die Zauberflöte, The Nutcracker, and La Rondine. Ms. Wyma has worked as a Wig and Makeup Assistant for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, in operas including Giulio Cesare, La Bohème, and John Brown, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in productions including La Bohème, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, and The Man of La Mancha, and for a national tour of Hairspray. As a young artist, she was a set construction assistant at Opera in the Ozarks in 2004.
As an educator, Ms. Wyma’s passion lies in helping singers make the transition from student to professional, and in guiding talented people to the places where they are needed. She has served as a vocal coach, preparing singers for auditions and talent competitions, as well as an audition panelist and advisor. With organizations such as Irrational Entertainment, Midwest Early Opera Works, Voci Inglesi, Berlin Wagner Gruppe and Berliner Opernverein, she has facilitated performance opportunities for singers seeking additional stage experience and the chance to hone their craft in a supportive, professional environment.
FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
CASTING DIRECTOR & PRODUCER
CAREER CONSULTATIONS
Julie Wyma has been described as a Renaissance Woman of opera, having worked in both Europe and the United States as a singer, director, stage manager, wig/makeup artist, costume designer, producer, and educator.
As a soprano she has appeared in more than 20 roles, including die Königin der Nacht and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Gilda in Rigoletto, Marie in Die Verkaufte Braut, Musetta in La Bohème, Sophie in Werther, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Norina in Don Pasquale. Of her Norina, the Kansas City Metropolis said: “soprano Julie Wyma sparkled with a self-confident air and a strong, beautiful voice.”
Recent performances have included the roles of Marie in Die verkaufte Braut, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto with the Brandenburgisches Konzertorchester Eberswalde at Kloster Chorin, Germany; Musetta in La Bohème and Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with Puccini's Toaster in Berlin; the Soprano solos in Mozart's Requiem, Händel’s Messiah, and Fauré's Requiem, all in Berlin; a concert of music by the American expatriate author and composer Paul Bowles in Magdeburg and Berlin, Germany with tenor Laurent Martin; Lovers’ Quarrels, a concert of operatic duets and arias with her husband, Peter Furlong, in Concord, New Hampshire and Niemegk, Germany; Three Tenors and a Soprano concerts in Cornish and New London, New Hampshire; and Viva Divas!, a concert of operatic arias, duets, and trios in Cornish, New Hampshire, Phoenix, Arizona and Berlin, Germany. She recently produced a concert of The AIDS Quilt Songbook as a benefit concert for the Berliner Aids-Hilfe e.V.
Ms. Wyma has produced and directed operas including Wagner’s Lohengrin, Das Rheingold and Die Walküre (Berlin Wagner Gruppe), Massenet’s Werther (Irrational Entertainment), Händel’s Semele (Midwest Early Opera Works), Jonathan Stinson’s The Three Bears and Ryan Oldham’s The Emperor’s Madness (University of Missouri-Kansas City), as well as Jason Robert Brown’s musical The Last Five Years (Voci Inglesi) and numerous opera scenes programs. She has assistant directed Albert Herring and Giulio Cesare at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, La Traviata at the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Carmen at Opera North, and she assistant stage managed La Rondine at Indiana University.
As a costume designer Ms. Wyma worked for Dicapo Opera Theatre in New York for the 2011-2012 Season, which included Tosca, The Consul, Iolanta, The Most Happy Fella, La Cenerentola, Beauty and the Beast, and La Traviata. She has also worked as a bridal alterations specialist in Bloomington, Indiana and New York City. As a student she worked as a costume assistant/stitcher for the University of Arizona on Le nozze di Figaro and The Merry Wives of Windsor, and for Indiana University on Die Zauberflöte, The Nutcracker, and La Rondine. Ms. Wyma has worked as a Wig and Makeup Assistant for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, in operas including Giulio Cesare, La Bohème, and John Brown, at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in productions including La Bohème, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, and The Man of La Mancha, and for a national tour of Hairspray. As a young artist, she was a set construction assistant at Opera in the Ozarks in 2004.
As an educator, Ms. Wyma’s passion lies in helping singers make the transition from student to professional, and in guiding talented people to the places where they are needed. She has served as a vocal coach, preparing singers for auditions and talent competitions, as well as an audition panelist and advisor. With organizations such as Irrational Entertainment, Midwest Early Opera Works, Voci Inglesi, Berlin Wagner Gruppe and Berliner Opernverein, she has facilitated performance opportunities for singers seeking additional stage experience and the chance to hone their craft in a supportive, professional environment.
CLARE GHIGO
ASSISTANT STAGE DIRECTOR, DIE WALKÜRE
Clare Ghigo is a highly accomplished mezzo soprano with an impressive operatic repertoire and a
versatile approach to both theater and music.
With a passion for both classical and contemporary works, she has performed numerous roles in
operas by Mozart, Puccini, Humperdinck, Monteverdi, Bizet, Rossini, and others, as well as
contemporary pieces by renowned composers such as Schoenberg, Morten Feldman, Luciano Berio,
Reuben Pace, Karl Fiorini, Euchar Gravina, and Veronique Vella.
In addition to her operatic performances, Clare has also given recitals in various cities around the
world, including San Francisco, London, Paris, Berlin, Bethlehem, and Luxembourg. Due to the
ongoing events, she has also participated in several video productions, including an adaptation of
Beethoven's Fidelio/ Leonora with The Strada Stretta Concept, Trouser Girl, a superhero film with the Teatru Manoel Toi Toi project for Ziguzajg, and chorus in Ravel L'enfant et les sortileges with Virtual Opera. Her most recent project, the Stabat Metric project, was created in collaboration with the Gozitan visual artist Joseph Calleja and funded by the Malta Arts Council.
Clare has participated in various operatic competitions and has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades. She won the Malta International Singing Competition and was a semifinalist of the Alfredo Kraus Vocal Competition, a finalist in the Hans Gabor Belvedere competition, and a semifinalist in the London Handel Competition 2016 and Vincero Competition 2021.
Throughout her career, Clare has had the privilege of working with acclaimed singers such as Joseph Calleja, Bryn Terfel, Anna Tomova Sintova, Nelly Miriciu, Monserrat Caballe, Daniela Dessi, Richard Bonynge, Luciana Serra, Jennifer Larmore, and Anna Bonitatibus. She has also collaborated with various ensembles, including the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique, Guildhall Consort, Karlsruhe duo, Rossini Ensemble, Ensemble Télémaque, La Mancha Philharmonic, Re: Orchestra, and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.
Currently, Clare forms part of the English National Opera chorus, as well as being an ENOA (Aix en Provence) and a Solti Accademia Del Bel Canto scholar. With her dedication to both the classical and contemporary repertoire and her impressive achievements as both a singer and researcher, Clare Ghigo is a true standout in the world of opera.
ASSISTANT STAGE DIRECTOR, DIE WALKÜRE
Clare Ghigo is a highly accomplished mezzo soprano with an impressive operatic repertoire and a
versatile approach to both theater and music.
With a passion for both classical and contemporary works, she has performed numerous roles in
operas by Mozart, Puccini, Humperdinck, Monteverdi, Bizet, Rossini, and others, as well as
contemporary pieces by renowned composers such as Schoenberg, Morten Feldman, Luciano Berio,
Reuben Pace, Karl Fiorini, Euchar Gravina, and Veronique Vella.
In addition to her operatic performances, Clare has also given recitals in various cities around the
world, including San Francisco, London, Paris, Berlin, Bethlehem, and Luxembourg. Due to the
ongoing events, she has also participated in several video productions, including an adaptation of
Beethoven's Fidelio/ Leonora with The Strada Stretta Concept, Trouser Girl, a superhero film with the Teatru Manoel Toi Toi project for Ziguzajg, and chorus in Ravel L'enfant et les sortileges with Virtual Opera. Her most recent project, the Stabat Metric project, was created in collaboration with the Gozitan visual artist Joseph Calleja and funded by the Malta Arts Council.
Clare has participated in various operatic competitions and has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades. She won the Malta International Singing Competition and was a semifinalist of the Alfredo Kraus Vocal Competition, a finalist in the Hans Gabor Belvedere competition, and a semifinalist in the London Handel Competition 2016 and Vincero Competition 2021.
Throughout her career, Clare has had the privilege of working with acclaimed singers such as Joseph Calleja, Bryn Terfel, Anna Tomova Sintova, Nelly Miriciu, Monserrat Caballe, Daniela Dessi, Richard Bonynge, Luciana Serra, Jennifer Larmore, and Anna Bonitatibus. She has also collaborated with various ensembles, including the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique, Guildhall Consort, Karlsruhe duo, Rossini Ensemble, Ensemble Télémaque, La Mancha Philharmonic, Re: Orchestra, and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra.
Currently, Clare forms part of the English National Opera chorus, as well as being an ENOA (Aix en Provence) and a Solti Accademia Del Bel Canto scholar. With her dedication to both the classical and contemporary repertoire and her impressive achievements as both a singer and researcher, Clare Ghigo is a true standout in the world of opera.
JAHMAI INNISS
LINGUISTIC CONSULTANT
GRANT RESEARCHER & WRITER
2023 PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Born and raised in Kiel, Germany to immigrant parents from Trinidad and Ireland, Jahmai Inniss showed keen aptitude towards language and music very early on.
Brought up in a truly bi-lingual environment, he has worked as a classroom and a hybrid educator and linguist in the past 25 years. Having extensively studied French, Latin, German and English, as well as phonetics and literature, Mr. Inniss has been described as 'the word wizard' because of his knowledge of the interconnectedness and cultural context of language.
His education included an internship at the United Nations (NYC, New York, US, 2010) and a Train-the-Trainer Certificate at the Oxford Aviation Academy (Oxford, UK, 2009). He went to Christian-Albrecht-Universität Kiel (Kiel, Germany) where he studied English Linguistics (BA), Psychology (BA), Musicology (BA) and Business Administration (BA).
Since 2014, he has worked as a linguist and an educator in a wide variety of organisations in in-person and virtual classroom setting - general, business and IT English & general and business German for WBS Training AG (nationwide, Germany); individual and group language classes for Mont Blanc (Hamburg, Germany), Sp&Se GmbH (Hamburg, Germany), dateup GmbH (Hamburg, Germany); medical English and German for Universitätskrankenhaus Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel, Germany). In addition he has worked as a Speech Optimisation Specialist for Hamburg Airport (Hamburg, Germany) and Blohm & Voss KG (Hamburg, Germany). He has served as a translator and interpreter for both corporate and non-profit organisations for the past 25 years.
Mr. Inniss has also held positions as a marketing, regional and event manager for vivawasser.de AG (Kiel, Germany), 1und1.de (Norddeutschland, Germany), Winzereibetrieb Kapellenhof (nationwide, Germany), Bergmann Gruppe (Norddeutschland, Germany) and Diaz-Soto Events (Kiel, Germany).
In the last 20 years, Mr. Inniss has successfully prepared thousands of students for the following exams and certificates - TOEFL, LCCI, IELTS, Cambridge Certificate and VPED.
He currently splits his time between Berlin, London and Lanzarote (Canary Islands). He spends his free time swimming, enjoying spontaneous travel and long drives, as well as learning Spanish and Bulgarian.
LINGUISTIC CONSULTANT
GRANT RESEARCHER & WRITER
2023 PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Born and raised in Kiel, Germany to immigrant parents from Trinidad and Ireland, Jahmai Inniss showed keen aptitude towards language and music very early on.
Brought up in a truly bi-lingual environment, he has worked as a classroom and a hybrid educator and linguist in the past 25 years. Having extensively studied French, Latin, German and English, as well as phonetics and literature, Mr. Inniss has been described as 'the word wizard' because of his knowledge of the interconnectedness and cultural context of language.
His education included an internship at the United Nations (NYC, New York, US, 2010) and a Train-the-Trainer Certificate at the Oxford Aviation Academy (Oxford, UK, 2009). He went to Christian-Albrecht-Universität Kiel (Kiel, Germany) where he studied English Linguistics (BA), Psychology (BA), Musicology (BA) and Business Administration (BA).
Since 2014, he has worked as a linguist and an educator in a wide variety of organisations in in-person and virtual classroom setting - general, business and IT English & general and business German for WBS Training AG (nationwide, Germany); individual and group language classes for Mont Blanc (Hamburg, Germany), Sp&Se GmbH (Hamburg, Germany), dateup GmbH (Hamburg, Germany); medical English and German for Universitätskrankenhaus Schleswig-Holstein (Kiel, Germany). In addition he has worked as a Speech Optimisation Specialist for Hamburg Airport (Hamburg, Germany) and Blohm & Voss KG (Hamburg, Germany). He has served as a translator and interpreter for both corporate and non-profit organisations for the past 25 years.
Mr. Inniss has also held positions as a marketing, regional and event manager for vivawasser.de AG (Kiel, Germany), 1und1.de (Norddeutschland, Germany), Winzereibetrieb Kapellenhof (nationwide, Germany), Bergmann Gruppe (Norddeutschland, Germany) and Diaz-Soto Events (Kiel, Germany).
In the last 20 years, Mr. Inniss has successfully prepared thousands of students for the following exams and certificates - TOEFL, LCCI, IELTS, Cambridge Certificate and VPED.
He currently splits his time between Berlin, London and Lanzarote (Canary Islands). He spends his free time swimming, enjoying spontaneous travel and long drives, as well as learning Spanish and Bulgarian.
THE PROGRAM HAS NO AGE LIMIT
⚬
ALL ACCEPTED ARTISTS WILL RECEIVE A PARTIAL SCHOLARSHIP
⚬
THE HARRIET T. BARTLETT SCHOLARSHIP
⚬
THE JOSH KILLINGSWORTH SCHOLARSHIP
⚬
ALL ACCEPTED ARTISTS WILL RECEIVE A PARTIAL SCHOLARSHIP
⚬
THE HARRIET T. BARTLETT SCHOLARSHIP
⚬
THE JOSH KILLINGSWORTH SCHOLARSHIP