Opera Bites 2018 Bios
Creative Team
Dan Ryan: Conductor
Maestro Daniel P. Ryan is a prized multi hyphenate musician acclaimed for his creative interpretation, nuanced conducting, and adventurous spirit. Ryan is thrilled to be making his conducting debut with Boston Opera Collaborative after recently returning from the Czech Republic where he conducted the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra under the tutelage of world-renowned Russian conductor Alexander Plianichko. Other recent engagements include the workshop of White Snake Productions' PERMADEATH and work with Sine Nomine Choral Ensemble, MetroWest Opera, In Good Company Theatre, Berkshire Choral International, MITG&SP, and The Boston Conservatory. Ryan is the associate conductor for VOICES BOSTON where he assists in the preparation of young singers for collaborations with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and more. Additionally, Ryan currently serves as Director of Choral Activities and Opera Scenes at Clark University, Conductor for the Boston City Singers, and faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp.
Adrienne Boris: Stage Director
Adrienne Boris (Stage Director) joins Boston Opera Collaborative for her fourth annual Opera Bites. Recently she co-produced and directed the world premiere of DIVAS, a new play with opera music by Laura Neill with OperaHub where she was Artistic Associate for three years. Other recent projects include Or, by Liz Duffy Adams, with Maiden Phoenix Theatre Company/Simple Machine, nominated for three Elliot Norton Awards by the Boston Theatre Critics’ Association, La bohème with Long Island Lyric Opera, and Next to Normal with Arts After Hours. She has also directed with Opera North, Opera Providence, NEMPAC, New Repertory Theatre, and others, and has assisted extensively, including Off-Broadway on the world premiere of Ring Twice for Miranda by Alan Hruska at New York City Center Stage II. Adrienne has taught acting at Boston University and provides dramatic coaching for singers at all levels. MFA Directing, Boston University. www.adrienneboris.com
Ingrid Oslund: Stage Director
Ingrid Oslund is a queer, feminist theater maker with the goal of creating bold, innovative experiences that excite and challenge audiences. As a playwright, director, choreographer and teaching artist in the Boston area, she has worked with many demographics making theater in unique settings, such as an abandoned City Sports and a corporate office mid-construction. Her previous work with Boston Opera Collaborative includes Assistant Director of Faust et Marguerite and Opera Bites: 2016, as well as choreographer of La Rondine.
Greg Smucker: Stage Director
Greg Smucker is a director and teacher of theater and opera. He studied with the late Wesley Balk, a noted pioneer in the field of singer-actor training. Greg was co-founder and artistic director of 15 HEAD, a critically acclaimed experimental theater company in Minneapolis and served as managing director of Theatre for Young America in Kansas City, a professional theater for children. Greg served for seven years on the faculty of the Opera Studies Department at New England Conservatory of Music and is currently a faculty member of the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. As a freelance director, Greg has directed productions and workshops for theaters and opera companies in Boston and the Twin Cities.
Patricia-Maria Weinmann: Stage Director
Patricia-Maria Weinmann has worked with many national opera companies and festivals including Utah Opera, Opera on the James, Syracuse Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Seagle Music Colony, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Boston, Ashlawn Opera Festival, the American Opera Project, Opera Providence, and Mississippi Grand Opera. She has collaborated on a number of premier performances including Daniel Pinkham’s The Cask of Amontillado, the staged orchestral premier of Scott Wheeler’s The Construction of Boston and Wheeler’s Democracy as a work-in-progress for the American Opera Project in New York. Recent directing engagements have included Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night, Hansel and Gretel, Cosi fan tutte, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, Cole!, Cenerentola, Carmina Burana, L’elisir d’amore, Sweeney Todd, Don Pasquale and Faust and Marguerite (BOC). Over the past 20 years, Weinmann served on the faculties of both Boston Conservatory and the New England Conservatory of Music. As a guest director and coach for Utah Opera’s Young Artist Program and a faculty member of American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, she continues to train some of the most promising young singers in the United States and abroad.
Katie Barr: Music Director
Katie Barr is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and teacher in the Boston area. Ms. Barr is a studio accompanist at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and pianist for Harvard Pro Musica and Opera on Tap. Upcoming this season, Katie will make her debuts with Boston Opera Collaborative and MassOpera. Recent opera credits include répétiteur for Manitoba Underground Opera’s Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica, and Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Alcina, The Old Maid and the Thief, and La traviata with Boston Conservatory Opera. Recent collaborations include the Brookline Symphony Orchestra, NEMPAC Opera Project, Voices Boston, and The Brookline Consort. She has spent past summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Vancouver International Song Institute, and Ballibay Performing Arts Camp teaching voice and piano. Ms. Barr graduated from Duquesne University with her B.S. in Music Education, and completed her Master’s of Music in Collaborative Piano at The Boston Conservatory.
Jean Anderson Collier: Music Director
Jean Anderson Collier works often with the Boston Opera Collaborative as a music director, coach, and pianist. She coaches opera, art song and diction at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee and also teaches at New England Conservatory. She is organist and choir director at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Scituate, and performs as a collaborative pianist in the United States and Europe. She teaches in the summer at Boston Conservatory’s opera program in Valencia, Spain, and has also taught and concertized in Italy, Austria, and France. Her projects with the Boston Opera Collaborative have included Werther, Our Town, Idomeneo, Mirror, and Opera Bites.
Chelsea Whitaker: Music Director
Chelsea Whitaker is a Boston-based collaborative pianist, enjoying a diverse career including art song, opera, musical theatre, and chamber work in North America and Europe. Her most recent work includes vocal coaching at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute; a staff pianist position in the voice department at Boston University; teaching fellowships at New England Conservatory in the voice, piano, and opera departments; serving as the assistant music director and keyboardist for Show Boat at the Shubert theater; Liederabend concerts with New England Conservatory and the Boston Art Song Society; a salon-style performance collaborating with Greer Grimsley and Luretta Bybee; and a New York City debut performance at Merkin Hall in collaboration with Stephanie Blythe, Alan Louis Smith, and Stephen Carroll. Chelsea holds degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Southern California, and is currently completing her DMA degree in Collaborative Piano at New England Conservatory.
Cast
Megan Bisceglia: Soprano
Soprano Megan Bisceglia sings with an impressive range and a tone that is both silvery and warm. The Boston Musical Intelligencer praised her dramatic and comedic presence on stage, calling her portrayal of Paquette in Lowell House Opera's production of Candide "torchy." In spring 2018, Megan covered the role of La Fee for Cambridge Chamber Ensemble's production of Cendrillon by Pauline Viardot-Garcia. Other recent engagements include soprano soloist with the Boston Civic Symphony, Parpignol in MetroWest Opera's regional premiere of La Femme Boheme, and solo concerts on the Block Island Summer Concert Series. Megan Bisceglia received her MM in Vocal Performance from the Longy School of Music with distinction in 2010 where she studied with Jayne West. She earned a BA in English with a minor in Music under the tutelage of Pamela Dellal at Brandeis University. Ms. Bisceglia continues to study with Jayne West. www.meganbisceglia.com
Jennifer Caraluzzi: Soprano
Hailed by Opera Today as a "polished, soaring soprano," Jennifer Caraluzzi completed her masters in vocal performance at the New England Conservatory. A versatile vocalist and educator, Jennifer serves on the voice faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education. She regularly performs with Boston Opera Collaborative and the Boston Chapter of Opera on Tap; role highlights include: Cunegonde in Candide, Stephanie in To Hell and Back, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Lucy in The Telephone, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Jennifer is also featured on the critically acclaimed recording of Seymor Barab’s children’s opera, Little Red Riding Hood on Centaur Records in the title role. She is currently pursuing her MBA in Music Business from Berklee College of Music and Southern New Hampshire University.
Junhan Choi: Baritone
Praised for his “splended baritone voice, rich and rounded”, baritone Junhan Choi is an active opera singer. In the 2017-2018 season, engagements included his role as Tideo in Medea in Corinto, as Roggiero in Tancredi rifatto with Teatro Nuovo, as Marcello in La Boheme, as Young man in Lucy with Boston Opera Collaborative, title role in Don Giovanni with North End Music and Performing Arts Center, as Melisso in Alcina with Opera del West, as Baron de Pictordu in Cendrillon with The Cambridge Chamber Ensemble, and as Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus with Harvard College Opera. In 2017, he was awarded extraordinary prizes at the 54th Viñas international voice competition in Barcelona. As a first prize recipient of Talents of the World International Voice Competition, he made his Carnegie Hall debut for ‘Tribute to Dmitri Hvorostovsky’ concert as a baritone soloist. He also won first place in MetroWest Opera’s Vocal Competition.
Carley DeFranco: Soprano
Soprano Carley DeFranco has been commended for her “sunny”and “stunningly exquisite, silvery smooth voice”. Recent solo appearances include Alexander’s Feast with the North Carolina Master Chorale, Bach’s Missa Brevis in A Major and BWV 79 at her alma mater the American University, A Night at the Opera with the Providence Singers, the weekly Bach Cantata Series with Emmanuel Music, and Frauenliebe und Leben in an immersive staging with Boston Opera Collaborative. Recent opera experience includes the title role in Alcina (Opera del West), Susannah in Le nozze di Figaro (Greater Worcester Opera), Yvette in La Rondine: Remix (BOC) and three consecutive years of world premieres in BOC’s Opera Bites. Carley has been a soloist here and abroad with Emerald City Opera, the Bach Sinfonia, Arlington Philharmonic, BACH Orchestra (Yekaterinburg), Vladimir Symphony Orchestra and the Madrigirls (Glasgow). She is the founder and director of the Side by Side Choir at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, where she also earned her MM (Vocal Performance). Carley is Emmanuel Music’s 2018-19 Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow and BOC’s co-Concert and Outreach Coordinator
Ethan DePuy: Tenor
Praised for his “masterful acting” and “fine singing,” tenor Ethan DePuy brings his unique dramatic style to works ranging from the Baroque era to now. DePuy trained as a young artist at Chautauqua Opera, where he was a recipient of the Young Artist Encouragement Award. His list of credits includes Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, the title role in Albert Herring, Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, Jaquino in Fidelio, King Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Chevalier in Dialogues of the Carmelites, the Snake in The Little Prince, and Motel in Fiddler on the Roof. His engagements have included work with Chautauqua Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Opera Sacra, Arizona State Lyric Opera Theater, Odyssey Opera, Brevard Music Center, and the Western New York Chamber Orchestra. A native of Rochester, NY, Ethan earned degrees in voice and opera performance from SUNY Fredonia and Arizona State University.
Carina DiGianfilippo: Soprano
Soprano Carina DiGianfilippo, praised for her “playful” and “vibrant” voice, was most recently seen as a young artist with the iSing! International Young Artist Festival in China, performing in concerts at the Suzhou Arts and Culture Center, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Beijing National Theater. She has worked as a young artist with Opera Maine and the Natchez Festival of Music in Mississippi, where she performed as Queen Guinevere in Camelot. Miss DiGianfilippo is excited to return to BOC for a second season, having portrayed Musetta in Puccini’s La BoheÌme last season to great acclaim. This year, she will perform in Opera Bites, singing in a new work by composer Jonathan Bailey Holland entitled Bull Run. Other Boston credits include Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Nempac Opera, a role she performed once before at the Estates Theatre in Prague under the direction of Sherrill Milnes. For more credits, please see www.carinadigianfilippo.com
Mitch Fitzdaniel: Baritone
Mitch FitzDaniel, baritone, is a Boston-based singer originally from the central coast of California. In May of 2017 he received his Master of Music from Boston University, where he was featured as the Baritone in the BU Opera Institute’s production of Philip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox and sang various ensemble and comprimario roles during the ’15-’16 and ’16-’17 seasons. Mr. FitzDaniel has performed with the Boston Opera Collaborative on several occasions, appearing in Dangerous Liaisons, Opera Bites, and as Schaunard in their recent La Boheme. Mr. FitzDaniel is also an enthusiastic advocate and interpreter of contemporary American art song, having sung for the New Music on the Point Festival in Vermont, Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, and as a featured performer for the Boston Art Song Society. Mr. FitzDaniel currently resides in Boston, where he continues his studies under James Demler.
Ann Fogler: Mezzo
Ann Fogler, mezzo-soprano, has performed with Opera Hub, Boston Art Song Society, Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point, OC Ars Vocalis Academy in Rome, Italy, and the Music Festival of the Adriatic in Duino, Italy as a soloist. Recent roles include: Olga (Eugene Onegin), Mrs. Patrick DeRocher (Dead Man Walking), Ruth (Dark Sisters), and Bradamante (Alcina) with The Boston Conservatory. Ms. Fogler has also participated as a young artist in the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation program at Central City Opera for the past two summers, where she performed the role of Announcer (Gallantry), and was featured in scenes as Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), the title role in La Cenerentola, and Dorabella (Così fan tutte).
Ms. Fogler earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Dickinson College (‘15) and her Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee ('17) under the tutelage of Marilyn Bulli.
Celeste Godin: Soprano
Celeste Godin is pleased to return to Boston Opera Collaborative, having appeared last season as Mimi (La bohème). She regularly performs locally with groups like Odyssey Opera and BYSO (chorus), Mass Opera (as Miss Havisham in Miss Havisham's Wedding Night, Kayla (cover) in the orchestral workshop of Taking Up Serpents, and Rodolfo in La Femme Bohème), Lowell House Opera (Echo, Ariadne auf Naxos), Promenade Opera Project (Annio, Clemenza di Tito), White Snake Productions (Ku cover, Gilgamesh), NEMPAC (Donna Anna, Don Giovanni), Opera Brittanica (Andeng, Noli Mi Tangere), and Barn Opera (Fiordiligi, Così fan tutti). This summer she participated in Teatro Nuovo's Resident Artist program, having covered the role of Creusa (Medea in Corinto), and next spring she will appear in concert as a soloist with the Commonwealth Chorale and the Pioneer Valley Symphony. She recently graduated from New England Conservatory (MM, Vocal Pedagogy, GD, Vocal Performance).
Emily Harmon: Mezzo
Mezzo-soprano Emily Harmon has appeared with companies including Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Beth Morrison Projects, Boston Opera Collaborative, MetroWest Opera, and the Worcester Youth Symphony Orhestra. Some of her favorite past operatic roles include Amastre (Xerxes), the Marquise de Merteuil (The Dangerous Liaisons), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), the Old Lady (Candide), Cherubino and Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), Mercédès (Carmen), and Ruth (Dark Sisters). In concert, Emily has performed the alto solos in works including Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and Arvo Pärt's Stabat Mater. An avid performer of new music, Emily has frequently appeared as a featured soloist with the Time's Arrow New Music Ensemble and made her Jordan Hall debut singing the world premiere of Kati Agòcs' Hyacinth Curl with Hub New Music. She holds both an M.M. and a B.M. in Vocal Performance from Boston University.
Alyssa Hensel: Soprano
Soprano, Alyssa Hensel is a second year member with the Boston Collaborative Opera. Her recent performances include: solo appearance with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus (Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms), Assistant B (Womb with a View), April #2 (Symposium), Vitellia (La Clemenza di Tito), Eliza (Dark Sisters) and Louisa Berry (A Letter to Vanguard, new commission). Ms. Hensel attended Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.M. ‘14, Voice) and The Boston Conservatory (M.M. ‘17, Voice). For more info and updates on Ms. Hensel’s performance schedule, please visit: www.alyssahensel.com
Stephanie Hollenberg: Soprano
This upcoming season Stephanie’s will perform the role of Holly in the new opera Rapture by David Wolfson with Boston Opera Collaborative. This past season she made her Italy debut as Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) at the Music Academy International Trentino Festival, where she also covered the role of Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and appeared as an Esprit (Cendrillon). Stephanie also performed the role of Tibrino in Cesti’s Orontea at the Haymarket Summer Opera Course. Previously, Stephanie has also appeared in Hansel & Gretel (Sandman), An Embarrassing Position (Eva), Dido & Aeneas (Dido), and Gianni Schicchi (Zita). She has also made chorus appearances in Boston Opera Collaborative's productions of Our Town and Idomeneo, and Boston Camerata's The Night's Tale and Daniel: A Medieval Masterpiece Revisited. She has sung under the direction David Gately, Anne Azéma, Greg Smucker, Zeffin Quinn Hollis, and with conductors Ryan Turner, Neil Goren, and Christopher Larkin. Stephanie is a student of Carol Mastrodomenico and received her MM from Longy School of Music of Bard College.
Wes Hunter: Tenor
Tenor Wes Hunter, praised for his "drama, heart, and shining tone,” regularly performs both standard and new repertoire. He most recently sang the title character in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory (Lowell House Opera), Oronte in Handel’s Alcina (Opera del West), Laurie in Adamo’s Little Women (MetroWest Opera), Michael the Archangel in the workshop of Julian Wachner's Rev 23 (Beth Morrison Projects), and premiered as Eugene in Leo Hurley’s The Body Politic (Juventas New Music Ensemble). Other credits include Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Nika Magadoff in The Consul, and Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte. Mr. Hunter has also performed as a soloist in concert repertoire across the east coast including Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music, Handel's Messiah, Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb, and Schubert's Mass in G. Mr. Hunter received degrees from The Boston Conservatory and the University of Maryland, College Park.
Rebecca Krouner: Mezzo
Mezzo-soprano Rebecca Krouner is thrilled to join her second season at BOC. The Boston Glove praised her performance last season as Hannah After in As One, writing that she “unleashed a torrent of expression, exulting in wordless curlicues of sound in joyful moments, and snarling and weeping during the violent scene.” Rebecca was a resident artist at Opera San Jose and holds an MM from Manhattan School of Music and a BA from Brown University. Roles performed include Carmen, Komponist, Azucena and Orlofsky. She's performed locally with Odyssey Opera, MetroWest Opera, Lowell House Opera, Panopera, the Boston Civic Symphony, the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra, Grand Harmonie, and the Paul Madore Chorale.
Andrew Miller: Baritone
American Baritone, Andrew Miller, is known for his "warm, robust baritone" and "fine comic sensibilities". Andrew made his BOC debut as Vicomte de Valmont in The Dangerous Liaisons. Previous credits include: Escamillo with Opera Theater Cape Cod; Fiorello with Boston Midsummer Opera; Hannah before and Marcello with Boston Opera Collaborative; The Inquisitor with Odyssey Opera; Ogre and Dr. Rappaccini with OperaHub; Don Pizarro, Don Magnifico and Alcindoro/Benoit with NEMPAC Boston; The Steward, The Marquis, Antonio, Schaunard, and Papageno with The Boston Conservatory; The Marquis at Teatro Magnani in Fidenza, Italy; Beethoven 9 soloist with New Hampshire Philharmonic; Mozart and Brahms Requiem soloist; the title roles of Don Giovanni and Gianni Schicchi, King Melchior and multiple engagements with the Janiec Opera Company and Fort Worth Opera. Andrew trained as a young artist at the Brevard Music Festival, and completed his B.M. at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Andrew is a native of Arlington, TX.
Fran Rogers: Tenor
Tenor Fran Rogers’ recent opera credits include Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Boheme, Art in Solitro’s Triangle (world premiere), Dos Senores in I Am Easily Assimilated from Bernstein’s Candide (concert performance with Frederica von Stade and the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Ruggero in Puccini’s La Rondine, Danceny in Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons, and Ramiro in Rossini's La Cenerentola. Fran recently made his Boston Symphony Hall solo debut singing a collection of songs by Pavel Haas and Gideon Klein. He is a regular national anthem soloist for Boston sports teams including the Celtics, Red Sox, and Patriots, having performed on multiple occasions for live audiences of up to 70,000 and international television audiences of up to fourteen million.
In addition to solo performances across the country and the globe, Fran is in his third season as a roster artist with the Boston Opera Collaborative. Fran has been critically acclaimed for his “luscious tenor voice that stole the show every time he opened his mouth”, "open, free, and effortless high notes", his "athleticism", and "raw strength and natural timbre".
For more information and details on upcoming performances, please visit franrogerstenor.com.
Tamara Ryan: Soprano
Soprano Tamara Ryan has been hailed by The Boston Globe as a "breathtakingly solid" soprano,” by the New England Theater Geek as "a performer of note," and by the Boston Musical Intelligencer as having "the comedic genius of Madeline Kahn" and a "captivatingly expressive strength.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer finds her "charming" and "fearless.” Tamara sang her first Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) alongside Sandra Piques Eddy, Keith Miller, and Morgan Smith under the stage direction of Keturah Stickann. Other recent engagements include performances with MetroWest Opera (Noémie), Longwood Opera (Musetta), OperaHub (Della/Malwina, Leonora, Titania/Hippolyta), the Crested Butte Music Festival (Bubikopf cover, Marcello Giordani Young Artist) the Harvard Early Music Society (First Witch), Opera Fayetteville (Controller, Kitty Hart, Amy March, The Rose, Sibyl Vane), Opera Brittenica (Governess), Lowell House Opera (Ofelia), Boston Opera Collaborative (Stephanie) and the Savannah Children's Choir. In 2016/17, she premiered the title role in Daniela DeMatos' Ondine and sang Madame de Tourvel in Conrad Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons.
Orchestra
David Angelo: Clarinet
David Angelo is a Boston-based clarinetist, interested in performing the music of our time. In his effort to encourage the growth of new music, David has premiered over 70 pieces. Highlights of his performances include playing in Sound Icon and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, winning the Cortona Sessions Contemporary Performance Competition in 2015, and attending the Toronto Creative Music Lab in 2017 and 2018. In February of 2018, he premiered “Bass Cathedral,” a concerto for clarinet and wind ensemble by Sid Richardson. David recently completed a Master’s Degree in Classical Contemporary Music Performance at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, studying with Michael Norsworthy.
Katie Barr: Piano
Katie Barr is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and teacher in the Boston area. Ms. Barr is a studio accompanist at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and pianist for Harvard Pro Musica and Opera on Tap. Upcoming this season, Katie will make her debuts with Boston Opera Collaborative and MassOpera. Recent opera credits include répétiteur for Manitoba Underground Opera’s Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica, and Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Alcina, The Old Maid and the Thief, and La traviata with Boston Conservatory Opera. Recent collaborations include the Brookline Symphony Orchestra, NEMPAC Opera Project, Voices Boston, and The Brookline Consort. She has spent past summers at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Vancouver International Song Institute, and Ballibay Performing Arts Camp teaching voice and piano. Ms. Barr graduated from Duquesne University with her B.S. in Music Education, and completed her Master’s of Music in Collaborative Piano at The Boston Conservatory.
Billy Jewell: Trumpet
Trumpeter Billy Jewell began his musical exploration with piano at age 5. He later redirected his focus to trumpet when he was 11 while continuing to study piano as well as guitar. Billy graduated cum laude from Belmont University in Nashville with degrees in Trumpet Performance and Classical Composition. He then earned his Master’s in Modern American Music at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. While at Longy was recognized as a Centennial Scholar and received the Patricia Sherman award. After graduation, Billy traveled the country performing with the swing ensemble Moonshine Rhythm Club, culminating in a recording with Duffy Jackson, former drummer of the Count Basie Orchestra. He is currently working as the manager of Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music. Billy has studied under Dr. Bill Purcell, Dr. Mark Volker, Dr. Joel Treybig, Steve Emery, and Greg Hopkins.
Rebecca Miller: Viola
Rebecca Miller is a Boston-based violist, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While in the Milwaukee area, Rebecca studied viola with Lewis Rosove. She received her Bachelor of Music degree at the Boston Conservatory, where she studied with Rictor Noren. Rebecca has performed with varying ensembles throughout the greater Boston area, including the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of Indian Hill, New England Symphony, Cape Ann Symphony, Belmont Festival Orchestra, Apollo Ensemble, New England Philharmonic, Ambient Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, MetroWest Opera Company, and Commonwealth Lyric Opera. In addition to being a chamber and orchestral musician, Rebecca is committed to the educated performance of contemporary works, and dedicates much of her time to rehearsing and performing new works. She has performed for several contemporary ensembles, including the Chimera New Music Project, JANVS Project, The Fourth Wall, and Ambient Orchestra, as well as countless premieres of new works on the Composer Recital Series at The Boston Conservatory.
Aija Rēķe: Violin
Aija Rēķe is a violinist, chamber musician and pedagogue. She graduated Boston University (MM, 2015) with CFA Full Tuition Scholarship, and Rotterdam Conservatory (BM, 2013) in the Netherlands. Winner of “Solo Bach Competition” at Boston University (2014), a member of Pi Kappa Lambda, American National Music Honor Society since 2015 and a recipient of the Boston Latvian Cultural Heritage award (2014). She has performed extensively in Europe, USA and Canada as a soloist, chamber musician and in numerous orchestras. Aija is a founding member of “Theia Piano Trio”, which toured in the USA and a violinist of “Baltic Duo”. She is a Violin Teaching Artist at the “El Sistema” program in Somerville and Violin Faculty at the Ip Piano School. Her second instrument is Baroque violin. She performs regularly with ALEA III - Contemporary Music Ensemble in Residence at Boston University, as a first violinist of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and Boston Modern Orchestra Project and is Acting Concertmaster of Wellesley Symphony Orchestra under direction of Max Hobart. Aija is the Artistic Coordinator of the High Street Concert Series, concert series at the Latvian Lutheran Church of Boston. Her collaboration with several composers led to multiple world premieres, including microtonal “Musings” for violin solo by Lara Poe and “double images” for violin and piano by Ketty Nez. Lara Poe wrote a large scale microtonal Violin Concerto (2017) for Aija Rēķe and John Manuel Pacheco dedicated his Second Violin Sonata (2018) to her.
Anna Seda: Cello
Cellist Anna Seda performs and records locally and internationally in chamber, opera, orchestral, and musical theatre settings. Primary opportunities include section playing with the Singapore Symphony, a live broadcast with National Public Radio, a guest appearance at Peru’s international Bienal De Violoncello, musical theater with the Greater Boston Stage Company, and original chamber music programming at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Locally, Anna teaches at the Kingsley Montessori and maintains a relationship with more than 20 arts organizations. Anna holds a Bachelor of Music from University of Colorado At Boulder, Master of Music from the Boston Conservatory, and studied Suzuki pedagogy at the University of Denver.
Mike Williams: Percussion
Hailed by The Boston Globe as “one of the city's best percussionists,” Mike Williams has performed throughout North America and Europe and is based in Boston. An advocate for contemporary music, he is a member of Sound Icon, Callithumpian Consort, and is artistic director of Guerilla Opera. Williams has worked with leading composers of our time including Pierluigi Billone, Philippe Leroux, Salvatore Sciarrino, Gunther Schuller, and Roger Reynolds. He was a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center and has performed at festivals including the Festival de Mexico, Gaudeamus Music Week, Monadnock Music, Festival Internacional Cervantino and SICPP at New England Conservatory. Williams studied at Boston Conservatory, winning top prize in the concerto competition, and the Amsterdam Conservatory during which time he performed with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra under Peter Eötvös. Williams is on faculty at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
Composers
Marti Epstein (Absent Grace)
Marti Epstein is a composer whose music has been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, The Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, Ensemble Modern, and members of the Boston Symphony. She has completed commissions for the Foxborough Musical Association, the Fromm Foundation, The Munich Biennale, the Iowa Brass Quintet, the CORE Ensemble, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Longy School of Music, the Ludovico Ensemble, Guerilla Opera, the Radius Ensemble, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Callithumpian Consort. In 2005, she was a recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant. Marti has been a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center (1986, 1988), and has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony (1998, 1999). Marti was Composer-in-Residence for the Radius Ensemble in 2009 and 2010. Cellist Rhonda Rider recently premiered and recorded so near, so far, a piece Marti wrote for Rhonda’s recent residency at the Grand Canyon. Marti’s new string quartet, Hidden Flowers was commissioned by the Tanglewood Music Center for the 2012 Festival of Contemporary Music 2012, where it was premiered in August 2012. In November 2015, Marti released Hypnagogia, a CD of her chamber music. During the 2017-2018 concert season, Marti’s work was featured extensively alongside the work of Anton Webern on the Trinity Wall Street’s Time’s Arrow Festival. Marti is Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music and also teaches composition at Boston Conservatory. http://marti-epstein.squarespace.com/
Jonathan Bailey Holland (The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry)
Jonathan Bailey Holland’s works have been commissioned and performed by numerous ensembles, including the orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Memphis, Minnesota, Philadelphia, San Antonio, and St. Louis; as well as the Da Capo Chamber Players, Eighth Blackbird, Radius Ensemble, Transient Canvas, and many others. A recipient of a 2015 Fromm Foundation Commission, he has received honors from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, American Music Center, ASCAP, the Presser Foundation, and more. During the 2018-2019 season he will serve as Composer-in-Residence for the Cincinnati Symphony, which will feature the premiere of a new work for chorus and orchestra. Holland serves as Chair of Composition, Contemporary Music, and Core Studies at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and faculty co-chair of the Low-Residency MFA program in Music Composition at Vermont College of Fine Arts. www.jonathanbaileyholland.com
Eva Conley Kendrick (Misfortune)
Eva Conley Kendrick writes in many mediums including opera, musical theatre, chamber music, song cycles and orchestral works. Awards include the Judith Lang Zaimont Prize from the International Alliance of Women in Music, 16 ASCAPLU$ awards, and grants from the American Composers Forum and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She received an Honorable Mention from The American Prize in the Opera/Theater Division (2016) and has also been a Semi-Finalist (2017) and was a Semi-Finalist in the Chamber Music Division (2016). She is the Chair of the Music Theory & Composition Department at the Community Music Center of Boston, where she is Composer-in-Residence; Music Director of First Parish Unitarian Universalist of Medfield; Professor of Voice and Music Theory at Dean College, and Director of the Eva Kendrick Voice Studio. She holds a Masters of Music in Composition with Distinction from the Longy School of Music. For more, please visit www.evakendrick.com.
Rachel J. Peters (Steve)
Rachel J. Peters’s operas: Rootabaga Country (Sarasota Opera), The Wild Beast of the Bungalow (Center for Contemporary Opera), Companionship (Fort Worth Opera) Pie, Pith, and Palette (The Atlanta Opera), Monkey Do (Rhymes With Opera). Musicals: Only Children (NYU Tisch Mainstage), Tiny Feats of Cowardice (NYC Fringe), Write Left (Playwrights Horizons Theatre School), Tomato Red (UC Irvine), Octopus Heart (NYU Steinhardt). Scores for plays: Stretch (a fantasia) (New Georges), Tania in the Getaway Van (Flea Theater), Transatlantic (Arkansas Rep), The Bacchae (Asolo Rep Conservatory). Concert works: Ethel Smyth Plays Golf in Limbo (Semperoper Dresden), Jack's Vocabulary (Hartt SPASM), And Then (BayPath College), and Fronds: The Wisdom of Fanny Fern(Walt Whitman Project). Songs performed at Lincoln Center, National Opera Center, Symphony Space, cabarets/theatres nationwide. Contributor to The AIDS Quilt Songbook. Residencies: Kimmel Harding Nelson, Yaddo, Brush Creek Arts. Fellowships: New Dramatists Composer-Librettist Studio, American Opera Projects, John Duffy Institute for New Opera. www.racheljpeters.com
Tony Solitro (A Case of Anxiety)
Tony Solitro composes concert and stage music that is “fraught with tension” and “amusingly intricate.” His mythology-infused comedy Triangle will be presented during the National Opera Association’s 2019 Conference in Salt Lake City as one of three finalists for the Dominick Argento Chamber Opera Competition. Awarded the Grand Prize in the David Walter Composition Competition (International Society of Bassists), Tony’s string quintet Shadow Confrontations was composed for bassist Joseph Conyers (Assistant Principal, Philadelphia Orchestra) and recorded with the Daedalus Quartet. He was awarded fellowships and artist residencies at Yaddo, Brush Creek, Kimmel Harding Nelson, and VCCA. He earned his PhD as a recipient of the George Crumb Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania and his MM from the Longy School of Music on a Nadia and Lili Boulanger Scholarship. www.tonysolitro.com
Scott Wheeler (Midsummer)
Scott Wheeler’s four full-length operas have been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera/Lincoln Center Theatre, Washington National Opera, White Snake Projects and Boston Lyric Opera. Scott’s 2017 violin sonata, The Singing Turk, was commissioned and premiered by Sharan Leventhal, and will be performed on the Boston Celebrity Series in November 2018 by Gil Shaham and Akira Eguchi. Scott’s most recent CDs include Portraits and Tributes, featuring pianist Donald Berman, on Bridge, and Light Enough, featuring baritone Robert Barefield and pianist Kelly Horsted, on Albany. Other Wheeler CDs include Crazy Weather, with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project conducted by Gil Rose, Wasting the Night -- songs for voice and piano, and the opera The Construction of Boston, both available on Naxos. Scott is Senior Distinguished Artist in Residence at Emerson College in Boston, where he teaches musical theatre and songwriting. www.scottwheeler.org
Sam Wilson (Sunshine Girl)
Samuel is a composer, arranger and freelance musician who recently graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Whilst at Guildhall, Samuel composed for several of the school’s top musicians and ensembles. He also wrote a short opera in collaboration with the London Transport Museum and Workshopera. Additionally, he worked alongside the drama department as a composer and advisor on several productions and founded the ever-popular and still-running Guildhall Pops Orchestra. In 2014 Samuel was appointed Composer in Association for the City Chamber Choir, and after several successful commissions has been appointed Composer in Residence. Recent projects have included a Christmas work for choir and piano, ‘I Heard the Bells’, and a work for choir and chamber orchestra, ‘Spring’. As an arranger Samuel has recently worked with the Tower of London, RADA, the Almeida Theatre, the London Musical Theatre Orchestra and the Maltese Philharmonic. His arrangements have ranged in scale from popular tunes for flute and harp, to medium-sized chamber and pop groups, all the way to symphonic re-imaginings in varying styles. He has also acted as a score editor and copyist for a variety of individual clients. He is the music co-ordinator for Crossway, a new church plant in Stratford, and lives in London with his wife, Sara.
Playwrights
Claudia Barnett (Absent Grace)
Claudia Barnett won the Andaluz Award Jury Prize from Fusion Theatre in 2016. She’s developed five plays with Venus Theatre, where Witches Vanish premiered as part of the Washington, D.C. Women’s Voices Theater Festival in 2015. Her plays have also been developed and performed at 5th Wall Productions, the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage Festival, MultiStages, Nashville Repertory Theatre, Stage Left Theatre, and the Tennessee Playwrights Studio. Her current project is Kingdom (a play about Snow White and climate change). She’s a professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University and the author of I Love You Terribly: Six Plays (2012) and No. 731 Degraw-street, Brooklyn, or Emily Dickinson’s Sister: A Play in Two Acts (2015), both published by Carnegie Mellon University Press. www.claudiabarnett.net
Liz Bartucci (Steve)
Liz Bartucci is a screenwriter and playwright from Brooklyn NY. A graduate of the Actors Studio MFA Program, for which she was awarded a full scholarship to attend, Liz went on to receive a highly coveted spot in the prestigious Walt Disney Studios/ABC Entertainment Screenwriting Fellowship
“Steve" is published in Smith & Kraus' The Best 10 Minute Plays (Contemporary Playwrights Series) and is currently being developed as a film.
Mark Harvey Levine (A Case of Anxiety, Misfortune)
Mark Harvey Levine has had over 1600 productions of his plays everywhere from Bangalore to Bucharest and from Lima to London. This is the first time they've been turned into operas, though. His next play will have more Toreadors. His work has won over 35 awards and been produced in ten languages. Evenings of his short plays have been seen in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Seoul, Sao Paulo, Amsterdam, Sydney, Mexico City, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and other cities. A Spanish-language movie version of his play “The Kiss” (“El Beso”) premiered at Cannes, showed at the Tribeca film festival, aired on HBO and DTV (Japan). Mark recently moved from LA to Indianapolis. It has less traffic but more mosquitoes. He's not sure if it's a good trade-off.
Don Nigro (Midsummer)
Don Nigro is the author of over four hundred plays, nearly half of which are published by Samuel French in 57 volumes. His plays have been translated into many languages and produced all over the world, including recent productions in Spain, Greece, Russia, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, Moldova, Belarus, Ukraine, England and Argentina. He has written the long cycle of Pendragon plays, which trace American history from the eighteenth century to the present through the experience of one Ohio family; a Russian cycle of plays tracing the struggles of Russian writers from Pushkin through Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky to Mandelstam, Tsvetaeva and Pasternak; and a series of plays about the intersecting lives of Yeats, Joyce, Eliot, Beckett, Woolf, and other Modernist writers.
Lila Palmer (Sunshine Girl)
Lila’s commissioned produced operas include Harbour (2015); Dead Equal (2016); Two-Step (2016); Sunshine Girl (2017); Changing Stations (2017); Heard (2017); The Jewel Merchants (2017) and Scraww (2018) and Julie (2019 upcoming). Her first play, The Suffrage, is in production. She is a co-director of music theatre company Not White Noise; co-director at Producer Gaggle Haus and house soprano for Four Corners Ensemble. Lila recently completed Tapestry Opera’s biannual LibLab intensive. Upcoming projects include a film opera commission on the life of Julie D’Aubigny for New Camerata Opera and the UK stage premier of her opera Dead Equal in partnership with the British Army. She is currently an artist-in-residence with American Lyric Theater, NYC and divides her time between New York and London.
Carol Real (The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry)
Carole Real’s one-act The Battle of Bull Run Always Makes Me Cry has had over 100 productions in the US, Canada, England, Australia and Asia. It was included in Take Ten: New Ten-Minute Plays, edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, Janet Burroway, Penguin Academics, and has been translated into Chinese. Other one-acts include Don’t Say Another Word, produced at 59E59th St. Theatre in New York and The Guard Will Escort You to Ruff-Ruff, produced by EST/LA. Why the Beach Boys Are Like Opera, also a one-act, was developed at Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York and produced at the Fountain Theater and the Met Theater in LA. Full length plays include Doesn’t Anyone Know What a Pancreas Is?, The Bad Friend and We Used to Be Fun. Carole is a Yale graduate and a lifetime member of Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York.
Production Team
Becca Bly (Assistant Stage Manager)
Becca Bly is a second year Master’s student in Vocal Performance at Longy School of Music.
Luisamaria Hernandez (Assistant Stage Manager)
Luisamaria Hernandez is a Boston based soprano who recently graduated from Longy School of Music of Bard College with a M.M. in Vocal Performance. She studies with Carol Mastrodomenico, and while at Longy performed the roles of Infantin in Alexander Zemlinsky’sDer Zwerg and Louise in Franz Von Zuppe’s The Finishing School . Luisamaria has performed with the Opera Tampa Chorus in productions of La Traviata, Madame Butterfly, and Rigoletto.Her past scene credits include Rosalinda, Fiordiligi, Pamina, and Romilda.This coming season, Luisamaria will be choreographing Longy's production of Countess Maritza as well as performing locally.
Daneille Smith (Stage Manager)