Podcast appearances and mentions of Dallas Opera

Tobias Picker, deemed “our finest composer for the lyric stage” by The Wall Street Journal, joins Devin Patrick Hughes on One Symphony. Tobias is a prolific composer in all genres. He has composed six operas, commissioned by Dallas Opera, LA Opera, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Opera Theatre St. Louis. Tobias Picker has composed numerous symphonic works including three symphonies, concertos for violin, viola, cello, and oboe, as well as four piano concertos and a ballet. Picker's recent honors include the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording of Fantastic Mr. Fox, and a lifetime membership at the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Thank you for joining us on One Symphony. Thanks to Tobias Picker for sharing his music and insights. Thank you to Visconti Arts for making this episode possible. You can find more info at https://tobiaspicker.com. Music Selections—all music by Tobias Picker, except for the first selection. Gian Carlo Menotti, Suite from Amahl and the Night Visitors. Performed by the Cleveland Pops Orchestra conducted by Louis Lane. First movement from Symphony No. 1; performed by the San Francisco Symphony. Edo de Waart, conductor. Awakenings, adapted from the non-fiction book by Oliver Sacks. Libretto by Aryeh Lev Stollman, produced by Odyssey Opera in 2023 of Boston in partnership with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Gil, Rose, Conductor. Directed by James Robinson. Commissioned by Opera Theatre of St. Louis. The Encantadas for narrator and orchestra. Based on the writings of Herman Melville. Sir John Geilgud, narrator; Christoph Eschenbach, conductor; Houston Symphony Orchestra. "Letter Aria" from Emmeline. Text by J.D. McClatchy Virginia Douglas, soprano Amir Farid, piano. Conducted by Modestas Pitrenas. Supported by Modestas Pitrenas. “I See A Woman” from Lili Elbe. Text by Aryeh Lev Stollman. Featuring Lucia Lucas as Lili. Performed by the St. Gallen Symphonic Orchestra. Old and Lost Rivers, for orchestra. Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Williams. Nova featuring Benjamin Hudson- Violin John Graham - Viola Fred Sherry - Cello Don Palma - Bass Tobias Picker – Piano. You can always find more info at OneSymphony.org including a virtual tip jar if you'd like to support the show. Please feel free to rate, review, or share the show! Until next time, thank you for being part of the music. https://tobiaspicker.com https://www.fox21news.com/business/press-releases/ein-presswire/674899601/devin-patrick-hughes-arapahoe-philharmonic-conductor-presents-a-new-discovery-concert-this-holiday-season/  

brassmastery.com/bergmanWhen I first approached Jason Bergman about appearing on the Brass Mastery™ podcast, the first thing I asked him was, "What do you want to talk about?"It's always best to play to the strengths of your guests when one is doing a creative endeavor such as this.Jason replied he'd like to delve into the realm of self-care as it pertains to teaching brass instrumentalists.As professor of trumpet at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, Jason has learned a thing or two on this topic (or one would assume), so I agreed to discuss this on the show, eager to hear what he has to say on the topic.The thing we ended up talking about the most is how shame affects our self-perception as musicians, hindering our musical output and progression - to the point some even get discouraged and leave music as a serious pursuit altogether.What is the root cause of this shame and deleterious effects it has on us? Jason opens up on some of his own setbacks as a performer and teacher, and shares some of the innovative teaching techniques he employs at IU to confront the many barriers we put up that inhibit our progress as musicians and play to the best of our ability. Episode highlights:-Brief rundown of Jason's academic career...03:00-Giving credit to impactful figures who don't seek the spotlight...05:15-One seemingly insignificant thing we say today may make a massive impact in the future...07:45-Jason's founding origins on trumpet and music...11:20-The students became the mentor...17:35-Self-awareness, and the need to care for one's self in order to best help those charged to our care...22:50-An examination of shame and how it affects our mindset and overall wellbeing as musicians...29:00-We get ourselves tied up in knots when we're thinking about the notes vs. the musical product...36:00-When you're "okay with being unokay" the mistakes magically dissipate...38:40-"A rising tide lifts all ships" i.e. when one succeeds, all succeed...41:40-Meat therapy, and how Jason decompresses during down time...46:10Resources mentioned:Brene Brown videosAbout the Guest:American trumpeter Jason Bergman was appointed Associate Professor of Music in Trumpet at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in 2022. He has performed throughout the United States, South America, Europe, and China. In 2008, Bergman was named Associate Principal Trumpet of the Santiago Philharmonic in Chile and more recently has been Principal Trumpet of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra and Mobile Opera. He has also performed with the Utah Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Symphony, and the Dallas Winds, including on their Grammy-nominated album featuring the music of John Williams. Additionally, Bergman has performed in concert with the Canadian Brass, Rhythm & Brass and with conductor David Robertson at Carnegie Hall as part of the Weill Music Institute. He also performed as a fellow at the Music Academy of the West. Bergman has given recitals and master classes at numerous institutions worldwide and has performed and presented at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, College Music Society, International Tuba and Euphonium Conference, Mississippi Bandmasters Association, Mississippi Music Teachers Association, Utah Music Educators Conference, International Trumpet Guild, and the Texas Music Educators Association Annual Convention. As a soloist, he has performed with the Royal Belgian Air Force Band, Garland Symphony Orchestra, Timpanogos Symphony, and the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music Wind Ensemble

In episode 91, hear how former opera singer Suzanne Vinnik designs bold, inclusive fashions that make women “feel seen” and encourage them to take up space for who they are. Knowing first hand what it is like to be exploited working in the arts, Suzanne runs her business differently. Her secret to success both on and off the stage is prioritizing community and personal relationships and paying everyone she works with living wages. Suzanne Vinnik, a distinguished figure in both classical music and the fashion world, boasts a richly diverse career path. Originally traveling the world as an opera singer, Suzanne performed at renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and notable opera houses across Europe, Russia, Norway and the United States. As a leading soprano, some of her favorite operas included "Manon Lescaut," Nedda in "Pagliacci," Mimi and Musetta"La bohème," and Violetta "La traviata," captivating audiences with her emotive performances. Parallel to her operatic endeavors, Suzanne embarked on entrepreneurial ventures, founding Shoperatic, a pioneering social media network and marketplace tailored for women in classical music. This platform served as a hub for artists to connect, collaborate, and showcase their talents, solidifying Suzanne's reputation as an innovator within the industry. Users could buy, rent, sell and promote their outside skills. Driven by her passion for fashion and a commitment to inclusivity, Suzanne transitioned seamlessly into the realm of design, launching "byVINNIK," a luxury womenswear brand celebrated for its size-inclusive ethos and ethically manufactured garments. Based in the heart of Los Angeles, Suzanne's designs have graced the frames of Classical Music luminaries, Broadway stars, and prominent figures in television and film. The impact of Suzanne's creations extends beyond the realm of entertainment, with her designs featured prominently on platforms like Disney+, Netflix, and HBOMax's acclaimed series "The White Lotus," on Jennifer Coolidge earning recognition with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Contemporary Costumes. Her work frequently adorns red carpets, editorial spreads, and stages worldwide, embodying a fusion of sophistication, elegance, and inclusivity. Suzanne holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Texas Christian University, supplemented by studies at prestigious institutions such as Mannes College of Music and Otis College of Design. She further honed her craft at the Opera Studio of Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, mentored by the late Renata Scotto, and as an Administration Fellow at The Dallas Opera's Hart Institute for Women Conductors. Beyond her artistic pursuits, Suzanne is a passionate advocate for entrepreneurship, ethical manufacturing practices, and classical music education. Her expertise as a textile connoisseur, style forecaster, and classical music aficionado has positioned her as a sought-after keynote speaker at conferences, and universities, and as an expert for popular TV Shows like Today Show and Access Hollywood. Through her inspiring journey from opera singer to fashion designer, Suzanne empowers women of all backgrounds to embrace their confidence and individuality, embodying the transformative power of artistic expression. In this episode, you'll learn: Why Suzanne left a worldwide career in opera to start a fashion brand The transformative power of owning your boldness and dressing accordingly How Suzanne created a loyal community before she even started her brand How the personal relationships she's built with her clients influences her design decisions Why ethical production and paying fair wages are so important to Suzanne The people on Suzanne's team and what they each do in the business How By Vinnik's production model has changed and why How Suzanne prioritizes her day to not burn out even though she's “bad at boundaries” What Suzanne has learned the hard way about the fashion industry Why Suzanne designs a lot of outerwear for her collection People and resources mentioned in this episode: By Vinnik website By Vinnik Instagram Do you want fashion business tips and resources like this sent straight to your inbox? Sign up for the How Fitting newsletter to receive new podcast episodes plus daily content on creating fashion that fits your customer, lifestyle, and values.

The podcast makes its third visit to Missouri, this one by way of Arkansas.  UIAAA Connection #153 – Doug “Bowtie” Killgore, CMAA, Retired Athletic Director is now available. Doug began traveling at an early age seeing as his father served in the Air Force. He spent his career as an AD in Arkansas. He spent three years early in his career singing in the Dallas Opera and later with the Arkansas Opera Theatre. He advises all Ads to pay attention to academic and of course shares how he became “Bowtie.” He shares experiences from his six years as NIAAA Secretary. Please Listen, Learn and Share! You can subscribe to UIAAA TV on YouTube! This podcast is also available on Amazon Music, Apple Podcast,  Breaker, Castbox, Google Podcast, iHeartradio, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RadioPublic, Spotify, Sticher and YouTube.

SynopsisAmerican opera composer Jake Heggie and his librettist Terrence McNally decided to follow their Dead Man Walking – a successful but harrowing opera about capital punishment – with a lighter, more comic work, Great Scott.Now, McNally winced when people called Great Scott a “comic” opera, since it deals with a serious topic – for opera lovers, at least, namely, “Does opera still matter?”Great Scott is set in a large U.S. city with a respected – but struggling – opera company. The city also has a powerhouse professional football team. In Great Scott, international opera star Arden Scott returns to her hometown to save the opera company by staging the world premiere of a long-lost Italian bel canto work, Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei. Unfortunately, the scheduled premiere falls on the same day as the home team's first Super Bowl.Does the diva save the opera company? And who wins the Super Bowl?Well, you'll just have to listen to the opera to find out!Fortunately, a Dallas Opera recording of Great Scott was made at its premiere on today's date in 2015 – featuring the powerhouse American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role.Music Played in Today's ProgramJake Heggie (b. 1961) “Rosa Dolorosa” Overture, fr Great Scott - Joyce DiDonato, mezzo-soprano; Dallas Opera; Patrick Summers, conductor Erato 9029594078

Brooke Tolley is a native of Roanoke, Virginia and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from Liberty University and a Master of Arts in Voice from Radford University. Brooke's opera roles include Kate Pinkterton in Madama Butterfly, Johanna in Sweeney Todd, the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief and Lucy in Menotti's The Telephone. As a concert soloist, Brooke has performed in Handel's Messiah, DuBois' Seven Last Words of Christ, Schubert's Mass in G, and Pepper Choplin's A Journey with the Shepherd, which she premiered at Lincoln Center in 2017. As an experienced voice teacher, she has maintained a private voice studio for students across the Roanoke Valley since 2012 and has taught lessons at Opera Roanoke, the Jefferson Center's Music Lab and Hollins University. She was a participant in Leadership Roanoke Valley's Class of 2019 and was chosen as one of only three opera administrators across the country to attend The Hart Institute for Women Opera Conductors and Administrators at The Dallas Opera in 2018. Brooke was appointed General Director of Opera Roanoke in 2019 and was chosen by The Roanoker magazine as one of Roanoke's “40 Under 40” in 2021. She is passionate about connecting audiences of all ages with opera in both traditional and non-traditional venues and believes that opera should be accessible to all.

The excitement is brewing!  Opera Omaha is ending this season with The Marriage of Figaro, and we had a lovely conversation with Michael Adams and Mary Feminear, who play the Count and the Countess in this beloved opera.  Mary and Michael are married in real life as well as their characters onstage, and it made for a great interview.  Our conversation was cut short because of technical problems, and we hope to talk with them again in the future. Both of these Creatives are immensely experienced and talented and it was an honor to talk with them.  Don't miss this famous and timeless opera, which is Directed by Dean Anthony and Conducted by Steven White.   Performances are March 31st and April 2nd and ticket prices begin at $19. You can get your tickets to this beloved opera, The Marriage of Figaro at ticketomaha.com.    Opera Omaha also offers their Opera in Conversation, The Art of Comedy: "Comedic Tropes at Types" which will be held at the Blackstone Theatre March 21st at 6PM.  And for a talkback after the opera, Opera in Conversation:  "After The Curtain Call" on April 4th at the Benson Theatre at 6PM.  These events are free of charge. OPERA OMAHA CONTACT INFO: For Tickets:  ticketomaha.com Website: www.operaomaha.org  Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/operaomaha/ Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/operaomaha/ Twitter:https://twitter.com/operaomaha You Tube:  https://www.youtube.com/user/operaomaha Soprano Mary Feminear returns to Opera Omaha after last performing in Opera Under the Stars. This season Ms. Feminear will also perform the title role of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah with Wichita Grand Opera and Alice Ford in Verdi's Falstaff with Maryland Lyric Opera. Her previous performances include the Countess Almaviva with Maryland Lyric Opera, Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen and Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, where she was also a member of the Troupe des Jeunes Solistes, Ginevra in a workshop of Handel's Ariodante at the Opera Omaha One Festival, the soprano soloist in Mariana Sadovska's The Wreck at the Opera Omaha ONE Festival, and Amore in Cavalli's Il Giasone at the Château de Versailles. Other opera credits include the title role in Handel's Semele at Opera Omaha and Seattle Opera, Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Pacific MusicWorks, Proserpine in Charpentier's La Descente d'Orphee aux Enfers with Gotham Chamber Opera, and Polissena in Handel's Radamisto at Juilliard.   Baritone Michael Adams returns to Opera Omaha after last performing in Opera Under the Stars. This season, Mr. Adams will also sing the Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Madison Opera, Castro in La fanciulla del West with the Cleveland Orchestra, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Idaho, and Eugene Onegin with Vallejo Festival Orchestra. Last season, he made two company and role debuts: Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Dallas Opera and Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Austin Opera. He also returned to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as the Count and Herald in Der Schatzgräber and Utah Opera for Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Other recent performances include Les pêcheurs de perles with Gran Teatre del Liceu; Eugene Onegin, Così fan tutte, and L'elisir d'amore with Seattle Opera; La bohème, Alcina, and Don Giovanni with Grand Théâtre de Genève; Die Zauberflöte, Silent Night, Alcina and The Little Prince with Washington National Opera; Manon with Des Moines Metro Opera, Pagliacci, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and La bohème with Utah Opera; and Show Boat at Glimmerglass Festival. ***** HOW TO LISTEN TO THE PLATTE RIVER BARD PODCAST Listen at https://platteriverbard.podbean.com or anywhere you get your podcasts. We are on Apple, Google, Pandora, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Podbean, Overcast, Listen Now, Castbox and anywhere you get your podcasts. You may also find us by just asking Alexa. Listen on your computer or any device on our website: https://www.platteriverbard.com. Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCPDzMz8kHvsLcJRV-myurvA. Please find us and Subscribe!   Music provided by musopen.com: Public Domain Mark 1.0 Le Nozze di Figaro - No. 11 Cavatina 'Porgi, Amor' Overture to The marriage of Figaro, K. 492 https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

How can PhD programs prepare graduate students for future paths beyond academia? This episode explores: The positive effect on students when they are prepared to graduate with multiple career options. Why most jobs for graduating students will be located outside of academia. How students can build support networks outside of their own program. The importance of graduate student internships. Taking a broader view of what constitutes a “dissertation,” a “project,” and a career. Our guest is: Dr. Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli, who is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis. Our co-guest is: Anna Valcour (she/her) is currently a Ph. D. student in Musicology at Brandeis University while simultaneously earning her M.A. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She holds a M.M. in Voice from the University of North Texas, a B.M. in Vocal Performance, and a B.A. in History from Lawrence University. Her research interests include witchcraft and demonology in Lieder, cultic groups and music, vocal pedagogy, representation in opera and its staging, and voice-based analysis. She is currently the Project Lead for the Connected PhD and is also interning with the African and African American Studies for the creation of their newsletter and alumni collective. Last year, she researched insular plainchant as an assistant under Dr. Karen Desmond. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Anna is a professional opera singer. She has been a Resident Artist for the Dallas Opera, Toledo Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, Opera MODO, Ann Arbor Opera, and Main Street Opera. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. Listeners to this episode may also be interested in: Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger, Safer and More Connected, by Petra Boynton The Field Guide to Grad School, by Jessica McCrory Calarco Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School, by Kimberly McKee and Denise Delgado, eds. Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year, by Katherine Firth. Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom, by Katina Rogers Imagine PhD, created by the Graduate Career Consortium The Field Guide to Grad School podcast This podcast on protecting your wellbeing in graduate school This podcast on finding good alt-ac jobs The podcast on dealing with rejection so you can grow your career Welcome to the Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today's knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Missed any of our episodes? You'll find more than 100 of the Academic Life podcast episodes archived and freely available to you on the New Books Network website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

How can PhD programs prepare graduate students for future paths beyond academia? This episode explores: The positive effect on students when they are prepared to graduate with multiple career options. Why most jobs for graduating students will be located outside of academia. How students can build support networks outside of their own program. The importance of graduate student internships. Taking a broader view of what constitutes a “dissertation,” a “project,” and a career. Our guest is: Dr. Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli, who is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis. Our co-guest is: Anna Valcour (she/her) is currently a Ph. D. student in Musicology at Brandeis University while simultaneously earning her M.A. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She holds a M.M. in Voice from the University of North Texas, a B.M. in Vocal Performance, and a B.A. in History from Lawrence University. Her research interests include witchcraft and demonology in Lieder, cultic groups and music, vocal pedagogy, representation in opera and its staging, and voice-based analysis. She is currently the Project Lead for the Connected PhD and is also interning with the African and African American Studies for the creation of their newsletter and alumni collective. Last year, she researched insular plainchant as an assistant under Dr. Karen Desmond. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Anna is a professional opera singer. She has been a Resident Artist for the Dallas Opera, Toledo Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, Opera MODO, Ann Arbor Opera, and Main Street Opera. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. Listeners to this episode may also be interested in: Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger, Safer and More Connected, by Petra Boynton The Field Guide to Grad School, by Jessica McCrory Calarco Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School, by Kimberly McKee and Denise Delgado, eds. Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year, by Katherine Firth. Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom, by Katina Rogers Imagine PhD, created by the Graduate Career Consortium The Field Guide to Grad School podcast This podcast on protecting your wellbeing in graduate school This podcast on finding good alt-ac jobs The podcast on dealing with rejection so you can grow your career Welcome to the Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today's knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Missed any of our episodes? You'll find more than 100 of the Academic Life podcast episodes archived and freely available to you on the New Books Network website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

How can PhD programs prepare graduate students for future paths beyond academia? This episode explores: The positive effect on students when they are prepared to graduate with multiple career options. Why most jobs for graduating students will be located outside of academia. How students can build support networks outside of their own program. The importance of graduate student internships. Taking a broader view of what constitutes a “dissertation,” a “project,” and a career. Our guest is: Dr. Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli, who is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis. Our co-guest is: Anna Valcour (she/her) is currently a Ph. D. student in Musicology at Brandeis University while simultaneously earning her M.A. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She holds a M.M. in Voice from the University of North Texas, a B.M. in Vocal Performance, and a B.A. in History from Lawrence University. Her research interests include witchcraft and demonology in Lieder, cultic groups and music, vocal pedagogy, representation in opera and its staging, and voice-based analysis. She is currently the Project Lead for the Connected PhD and is also interning with the African and African American Studies for the creation of their newsletter and alumni collective. Last year, she researched insular plainchant as an assistant under Dr. Karen Desmond. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Anna is a professional opera singer. She has been a Resident Artist for the Dallas Opera, Toledo Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, Opera MODO, Ann Arbor Opera, and Main Street Opera. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. Listeners to this episode may also be interested in: Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger, Safer and More Connected, by Petra Boynton The Field Guide to Grad School, by Jessica McCrory Calarco Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School, by Kimberly McKee and Denise Delgado, eds. Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year, by Katherine Firth. Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom, by Katina Rogers Imagine PhD, created by the Graduate Career Consortium The Field Guide to Grad School podcast This podcast on protecting your wellbeing in graduate school This podcast on finding good alt-ac jobs The podcast on dealing with rejection so you can grow your career Welcome to the Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today's knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Missed any of our episodes? You'll find more than 100 of the Academic Life podcast episodes archived and freely available to you on the New Books Network website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

How can PhD programs prepare graduate students for future paths beyond academia? This episode explores: The positive effect on students when they are prepared to graduate with multiple career options. Why most jobs for graduating students will be located outside of academia. How students can build support networks outside of their own program. The importance of graduate student internships. Taking a broader view of what constitutes a “dissertation,” a “project,” and a career. Our guest is: Dr. Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli, who is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis. Our co-guest is: Anna Valcour (she/her) is currently a Ph. D. student in Musicology at Brandeis University while simultaneously earning her M.A. in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She holds a M.M. in Voice from the University of North Texas, a B.M. in Vocal Performance, and a B.A. in History from Lawrence University. Her research interests include witchcraft and demonology in Lieder, cultic groups and music, vocal pedagogy, representation in opera and its staging, and voice-based analysis. She is currently the Project Lead for the Connected PhD and is also interning with the African and African American Studies for the creation of their newsletter and alumni collective. Last year, she researched insular plainchant as an assistant under Dr. Karen Desmond. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Anna is a professional opera singer. She has been a Resident Artist for the Dallas Opera, Toledo Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, Opera MODO, Ann Arbor Opera, and Main Street Opera. Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. Listeners to this episode may also be interested in: Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger, Safer and More Connected, by Petra Boynton The Field Guide to Grad School, by Jessica McCrory Calarco Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School, by Kimberly McKee and Denise Delgado, eds. Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year, by Katherine Firth. Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom, by Katina Rogers Imagine PhD, created by the Graduate Career Consortium The Field Guide to Grad School podcast This podcast on protecting your wellbeing in graduate school This podcast on finding good alt-ac jobs The podcast on dealing with rejection so you can grow your career Welcome to the Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today's knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Missed any of our episodes? You'll find more than 100 of the Academic Life podcast episodes archived and freely available to you on the New Books Network website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joby Talbot is the only living composer to have written the music for three full-length ballets for The Royal Ballet in London. In this sixth episode of Composing Myself Wise Music CEO and Creative Director Dave Holley and Gill Graham catch up with the genre-bending maestro to talk about his “horrible” jobs before he became a composer (Night shift at the local mortuary! Laundry at a mental institution!), working with Nigel Godrich and their close professional bond, the key differences between composing for animations versus live action projects, the culinary genesis of the Like Water For Chocolate ballet score, and the upside-down sensibility of composing for choreography - “you're trying to give a platform for the choreographer and the dancers to do their thing, without knowing what that thing is”. -----http://www.jobytalbot.comhttps://www.instagram.com/jobytalbotmusic/-----Joby Talbot was born in London in 1971. He studied composition privately with Brian Elias and at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, before completing a Master of Music (Composition) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Simon Bainbridge.Talbot's diverse catalogue includes full-length narrative ballets (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland , 2011; The Winter's Tale, 2014) and contemporary dance works (Chroma, 2007); small- and large-scale choral and vocal works (The Wishing Tree, 2002; Path of Miracles, 2005; A Sheen of Dew on Flowers, 2019); orchestral pieces (Sneaker Wave, 2004; Chacony in G Minor, 2011; Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity, 2012); concerti (Desolation Wilderness, 2006; Ink Dark Moon, 2018); and scores for the screen (The Lodger, 1999; The Dying Swan, 2002; Vampyr, 2018).Talbot's critically acclaimed first opera, Everest, was given its premiere in 2015 by The Dallas Opera. His second opera based on the true story The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a further collaboration with librettist Gene Sheer, premieres in November 2023. Like Water for Chocolate, Talbot's third narrative ballet with Christopher Wheeldon premiered in June 2022 at The Royal Ballet and will be presented by partner commissioner ABT, in March 2023 in Costa Mesa and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in June 2023. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Carolyn Watson on Conducting StudyWhile conducting music requires a specific level of technique, one's success as a conductor cannot be complete without mastering musicianship. In this episode of The Conductor's Podcast, I am beyond ecstatic to have Dr. Carolyn Watson as my guest as she enlightens young and experienced conductors alike, the essence of musicianship, musical intent and musical conviction when conducting study. Carolyn Watson is Director of Orchestras at the University of Illinois, Principal Guest Conductor of the KansasCity Chamber Orchestra, and Music Director of the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra in Indiana. Originally from Australia, she has been based in the United States since 2013 during which time she has ledperformances with Amarillo Opera, Austin Symphony, Catskill Symphony, Dallas Opera, Des Moines MetroOpera, Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra, Interlochen Philharmonic, Kansas City Ballet, Lyric Opera of KansasCity, St. Joseph Symphony and World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Carolyn's 22-23 season includes debuts with Monash Academy Orchestra (Australia), Cape Symphony, Traverse Symphony Orchestra and Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, as well as returns to the Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Kansas City Ballet. Carolynholds a PhD in Performance (Conducting) from the University of Sydney where she studied under Imre Palló. www.carolyn-watson.com

On this episode, we hear from sopranos Rebecca Caine and Diana Newman, principals in THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA. Rebecca plays the role of Margaret Johnson, and Diana plays the role of Margaret's daughter Clara. This is the first time they've worked together, and watching them onstage, you'd think they were old friends. Rebecca shares how much she loves playing a woman of a “certain age,” and Diana talks about how she approaches Clara's neurodivergence. You'll hear more about how the perfect costume helps get an actor into character, how much Rebecca and Diana love being onstage with each other and their castmates, and how the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe versus Wade influenced how they thought about this story. This interview was recorded on July 7, 2022. Canadian soprano Rebecca Caine has had a career divided between Opera and Musical Theatre, making her West End debut at age 19 as Laurey in OKLAHOMA! She then sang the role of Eliza in MY FAIR LADY on the National Tour. While at Glyndebourne Opera Festival, she was asked to join the Royal Shakespeare Company where she created the role of Cosette in LES MISERABLES. She was also part of the original cast of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA as Christine. Her long career continues to span the realms opera, musical theatre, straight theatre, and cabaret in the UK, United States, and around the world.   American soprano DIANA NEWMAN brings “fresh and intense” performances to opera houses and concert stages across the United States and Europe. She has recently appeared with the Dallas Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. A recent graduate of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Ryan Opera Center, she returned this season for the company's Ring Cycle. Diana was also recently a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl for AMERICA IN SPACE in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Have questions or want to provide feedback? Email us at podcast@centralcityopera.org. To hear more stories from inside Central City Opera and buy tickets to the shows, visit us at centralcityopera.org.

On this episode, we hear from two principal singers in DIE FLEDERMAUS: mezzo-soprano Kira Dills-DeSurra who plays the role of Prince Orlofsky, and tenor William Ferguson, who plays the role of Eisenstein. Both Kira and Will are seasoned comedic performers, and their healthy senses of humor are on full display during this episode. Will and Kira talk about the magic of live performance and how much the audience influences them, how April Fools' is a recognized holiday in both their families, how they got into opera in the first place, and the role that Central City Opera plays in the context of opera in America. Kira Dills-DeSurra is a vibrant American mezzo-soprano whose magnetic stage presence communicates effortless charm and truth. A champion of new and rarely performed works, Kira has appeared in many American premieres, and she also cultivates skills in musical improvisation and circus arts as part of her broad-ranging palate of storytelling tools. She is a graduate of Roosevelt University and the University of Southern California. Tenor William Ferguson has always pushed the boundaries of opera performance through his exploration of new repertoire and through the commitment of his characterizations. A Juilliard graduate, he has sung with Santa Fe Opera, Opera Australia, New York City Opera, Salzburger Landestheater, Opéra de Québec, Opera Philadelphia, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Dallas Opera and The Metropolitan Opera, as well as symphonies around the world. Have questions or want to provide feedback? Email us at podcast@centralcityopera.org. To hear more stories from inside Central City Opera and buy tickets to the shows, visit us at centralcityopera.org. 

Dallas Opera 10 November 1972

July is just around the corner! Who could've thought that six months of 2022 had gone by so quickly? I remember so many of my New Year's resolutions and I know I have to catch up with all of these goals. However, such “chasing-the-goal” action should not compromise one's mental health and happiness. It should not also sacrifice your life's purpose.In this episode of the Conductor's Podcast, conductor Maria Sensi Sellner shares with us how she navigated life despite experiencing burnout and how you can learn from her experience as well. Conductor Maria Sensi Sellner's artistry, versatility, and reputation for innovation are making her a sought-after collaborator and an impresario for the 21st century. She is a proud alum of The Dallas Opera's Hart Institute for Women Conductors. Maria is the Artistic & General Director of Resonance Works, the multi-modal performing arts company she founded in her native Pittsburgh in 2013; and a frequent cover conductor for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. The 2021-22 season includes a growing number of company debuts - including Portland Opera, Opera Steamboat, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Raylynmor Opera, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City - conducting her favorite mix of Verdi, bel canto, and contemporary opera repertoire.

[@ 5 min] Oliver goes ‘Inside the Huddle' with soprano Joyce El-Khoury, currently starring under the baton of Riccardo Muti in “Un Ballo in Maschera” with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And that's just days after being named the Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year by Dallas Opera… [@ 33 min] In the ‘Two Minute Drill'… Both the San Antonio Symphony and Simon Estes are throwing in the towel, Bogdan Roscic is not throwing in the towel, and Barrie Kosky is kinda throwing in the towel… operaboxscore.com facebook.com/obschi1 @operaboxscore IG operaboxscore

It's ironic that the festival spawned by this podcast is the very thing that caused this podcast to go dark for the past two months, but thank you all very much for staying with us as I got thru the final months of festival planning to pull off a successful year 1 of the Savage Wonder Festival of Veterans in the Arts. That said, I knew we needed to come roaring back with a kick-ass guest. We got one. https://www.phillipkennedyjohnson.com/ (Phillip Kennedy Johnson) is an Eisner-nominated writer and musician living in the Washington, DC/Baltimore region. His comics work has been published by DC, Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Archaia, IDW, Aftershock, and Scout Comics. He is the creator of comic series The Last God from DC Black Label, Last Sons of America, Warlords of Appalachia, Smoketown, and many more. Outside of writing, Johnson has a full-time career as a soldier, trumpet player, composer, arranger, and teacher. As a Sergeant First Class in the United States Army, he regularly tours the continental United States with The U.S. Army Field Band and the Federal Brass of Washington, DC. Prior to joining the Army Field Band, he toured the world with the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 2004-2005, and has performed with the Moscow Ballet, the Dallas Opera, Washington Symphonic Brass, the Lexington Philharmonic, and the Benny Goodman Orchestra. Johnson is a devoted lover of American art forms, especially jazz, comic books, and mixed martial arts. Follow Phillip https://www.instagram.com/phillip_kennedy_johnson/ (here).

Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fiercely committed advocate for Russian masterpieces, operatic rarities, and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. She has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 16 operas, and her strength as a visionary collaborator has guided new perspectives on staged and symphonic repertoire from Carmen and Queen of Spades to Price and Prokofiev. As Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, Ms. Yankovskaya has led the Chicago premieres of Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick, Rachmaninov's Aleko, Joby Talbot's Everest, Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, and the world premiere of Dan Shore's Freedom Ride. Her daring performances before and amid the pandemic earned recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which praised her as “the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it,” while naming her 2020 Chicagoan of the Year. In the 2021/22 season, Ms. Yankovskaya makes a trio of Texan debuts, leading performances of Carmen at Houston Grand Opera, a tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg at Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and concerts featuring works by Gershwin and Dawson at Fort Worth Symphony. Elsewhere, she debuts with Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, leads a program of Brahms and Wagner at Elgin Symphony, conducts Boulanger, Debussy, and Ravel at Omaha Symphony, and makes her Pasadena Symphony debut conducting works by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Gabriela Lena Frank. At Chicago Opera Theater, she conducts the Chicago premiere of Mark Adamo's Becoming Santa Claus and a concert version of Carmen, starring Jamie Barton opposite Stephanie Blythe. Ms. Yankovskaya has recently conducted Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera, Pia de' Tolomei at Spoleto Festival USA, Il barbiere di Siviglia at Wolf Trap Opera, Ellen West at New York's Prototype Festival, and the world premiere of Taking Up Serpents at Washington National Opera. On the concert stage, she has been recently engaged with Chicago Philharmonic, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the symphony orchestras of Hawaii and Oviedo, Spain. Ms. Yankovskaya is Founder and Artistic Director of the Refugee Orchestra Project, which proclaims the cultural and societal relevance of refugees through music, and has brought that message to hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world. In addition to a National Sawdust residency in Brooklyn, ROP has performed in London, Boston, Washington, D.C., and the United Nations. She has also served as Artistic Director of the Boston New Music Festival and Juventas New Music Ensemble, which was the recipient of multiple NEA grants and National Opera Association Awards under her leadership. As Music Director of Harvard's Lowell House Opera, Ms. Yankovskaya conducted sold-out performances of repertoire rarely heard in Boston, including Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and the U.S. Russian-language premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden. Her commitment to exploring the breadth of symphonic and operatic repertoire has also been demonstrated in performances of Rachmaninoff's Aleko and the American premieres of Donizetti's Pia de' Tolomei, Rubinshteyn's The Demon, and Rimsky-Korsakov's Kashchej The Immortal and Symphony No. 1. An alumna of the Dallas Opera's Hart Institute for Women Conductors and the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, Ms. Yankovskaya has also served as assistant conductor to Lorin Maazel, chorus master of Boston Symphony Orchestra, and conductor of Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has been featured in the League of American Orchestras Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview and Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, and assisted Vladimir Jurowski via a London Philharmonic fellowship. Ms. Yankovskaya holds a B.A. in Music and Philosophy from Vassar College, with a focus on piano, voice, and conducting, and earned an M.M. in Conducting from Boston University. Her conducting teachers and mentors have included Lorin Maazel, Marin Alsop, Kenneth Kiesler, and Ann Howard Jones. Ms. Yankovskaya's belief in the importance of mentorship has fueled the establishment of Chicago Opera Theater's Vanguard Initiative, an investment in new opera that includes a two-year residency for emerging opera composers. Committed to developing the next generation of artistic leaders, she also volunteers with Turn The Spotlight, a foundation dedicated to identifying, nurturing, and empowering leaders – and in turn, to illuminating the path to a more equitable future in the arts. Recipient of Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards in 2018 and 2021, Ms. Yankovskaya has been a featured speaker at the League of American Orchestras and Opera America conferences, and served as U.S. Representative to the 2018 World Opera Forum in Madrid.

Recognized by Opera News as “one of the finest singers of his generation,” American bass-baritone Ryan McKinny has earned his reputation as an artist with something to say. His relentless curiosity informs riveting character portrayals and beautifully crafted performances, reminding audiences of their shared humanity with characters on stage and screen. This season, McKinny brings his agile stage presence and comedic skill to performances of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro on both U.S. coasts. He first appears as the titular Figaro in a Richard Eyre production at New York City's Metropolitan Opera, with an all-star cast that includes Golda Schultz, Lucy Crowe, Isabel Leonard, and Adam Plachetka. He then makes his Seattle Opera debut reprising the role in a Peter Kazaras production, under the baton of Alevtina Ioffe. In between productions – and coasts – McKinny joins collaborative pianist Kathleen Kelly for a recital at the Lied Center of Kansas, featuring works by Schumann, Debussy, Mahler, and Kurt Weill. In summer 2022, he joins the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood as the title character in Don Giovanni, with Andris Nelsons on the podium. He concludes the season with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, appearing as soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Offstage, McKinny continues to adapt the beauty of his art form to the film screen, collaborating on a documentary with Jamie Barton and Stephanie Blythe. Through his work with Helio Arts, he commissions artists to write, direct, and film original stories, leveraging his personal power to help elevate new voices and visions in the classical performing arts world. During the pandemic, he has partnered with artists like J'Nai Bridges, Russell Thomas, John Holiday, and Julia Bullock to create stunning and innovative performances for streaming audiences at Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, On Site Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival. McKinny's recent debut as Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's Dead Man Walking at Lyric Opera of Chicago was hailed by the Chicago Tribune as an “an indelible performance...an acting tour de force buttressed by a warmly inviting voice.” He has also appeared as the title character in Don Giovanni (Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera), Escamillo in Carmen (Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg, Houston Grand Opera), and Mozart's Figaro (Washington National Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Houston Grand Opera). McKinny made a critically acclaimed Bayreuth Festival debut as Amfortas in Parsifal, a role he has performed around the world, including appearances at Argentina's Teatro Cólon, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and Dutch National Opera. Other Wagnerian roles include Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company), Biterolf in Tannhäuser and Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, both at the Metropolitan Opera, Wotan in Opéra de Montréal's Das Rheingold, Donner/Gunther in Wagner's Ring cycle (Washington National Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera), and the titular Dutchman in Der fliegende Holländer (Staatsoper Hamburg, Milwaukee Symphony, Glimmerglass Festival, Hawaii Opera Theater). McKinny is a frequent guest artist at Los Angeles Opera, where he has sung Count Alamaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Stanley Kowalski in Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Renée Fleming as Blanche DuBois, and at Santa Fe Opera, where he has appeared as Jochanaan in Salome and Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic. An alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Mr. McKinny has made a number of important role debuts on the HGO mainstage, including the iconic title roles of Don Giovanni and Rigoletto. McKinny is a long-time artistic collaborator of composer John Adams and director Peter Sellars, having appeared in Sellars productions of Adams' Girls of the Golden West (San Francisco Opera, Dutch National Opera) and Doctor Atomic (Santa Fe Opera), in addition to Adams' Nixon in China with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also performed under Sellars' direction in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex (Sydney Festival), Tristan und Isolde (Canadian Opera Company), and Shostakovich's Orango with the London Philharmonia and Los Angeles Philharmonic, the latter comprising Esa-Pekka Salonen's final concerts as music director. Other recent orchestral engagements include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and a double bill of Michael Tilson Thomas' Rilke Songs and Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with San Francisco Symphony, Mahler's Symphony No. 8 and Bernstein's Mass with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony, Rossini's Stabat Mater at Grant Park Music Festival, Britten's War Requiem with Marin Alsop and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Oedipus Rex with Chicago Symphony. McKinny benefited from early educational opportunities at the Aspen Music Festival, where he sang his first performance of Winterreise accompanied on the piano by Richard Bado, and at the Wolf Trap Opera Company, where he sang Barone di Kelbar in Verdi's Un giorno di regno, Le Gouverneur in Rossini's Le comte Ory and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. McKinny made his Carnegie Hall debut in Handel's Messiah with the Musica Sacra Orchestra while still a student at the Juilliard School. The first recipient of Operalia's Birgit Nilsson Prize for singing Wagner, McKinny has also received the prestigious George London-Kirsten Flagstad Award, presented by the George London Foundation to a singer undertaking a significant Wagnerian career. McKinny represented the United States in the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, where he was a finalist in the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize, and he was a Grand Finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, captured in the film The Audition.

Whether it's building a career or establishing successful working relationships, the importance of networking as a music professional cannot be undermined.In today's episode, stage director Stephanie Havey provides aspiring music professionals with the knowledge and first-hand experience. She discusses the inner workings of a stage director, her love for the art, the importance of artist collaborations, the shifting world of opera, navigating through collaborations with varying ideas, and her advice to anyone interested in directing.Winner of the Adelaide Bishop award for artistic quality and winner of the Opera America Director-Designer Showcase, Stephanie Havey has staged productions for Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Arizona Opera, Opera de Montreal, Atlanta Opera, Opera Omaha, New York City Opera, and Hawai'i Opera Theatre, among others.  Ms. Havey has created new productions for Boston Lyric Opera, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera, the Lyrique-en-mer International Festival de Belle-Ile, The Curtis Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Charlottesville Opera, and Tulsa Opera.  She has also been a member of the staging staff at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and The Santa Fe Opera. Upcoming engagements include debuts with Utah Opera, Dallas Opera, and Madison Opera, as well as returning to Opera de Montreal, Pittsburgh Opera, Atlanta Opera, Arizona Opera, Charlottesville Opera, and Finger Lakes Opera. Ms. Havey is a frequent collaborator for the development of new opera, staging new works with Opera Philadelphia for their Double Exposure event, OPERA America's New Works Forum, and three seasons as the Resident Stage Director for North American New Opera Workshop.

As a tenor specializing in 21st century repertoire, Jonathan Blalock created over a dozen roles in world premieres with companies including the Dallas Opera, Washington National Opera, the Center for Contemporary Opera, Fort Worth Opera, the PROTOTYPE Festival, and UrbanArias. In 2019, he was featured in the new opera recordings of Paul's Case (by Gregory Spears) and the Grammy Award winning Fantastic Mr. Fox (by Tobias Picker). In concert, Jonathan recently performed with Winston Salem Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Opera Hong Kong, Arizona MusicFest, Wichita Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Syracuse Symphoria, Washington Chorus, and the Guggenheim Museum. A native of Burlington, Blalock earned Master of Music degrees in both vocal performance and choral conducting from UNC Greensboro.  Soprano Kinneret Ely is a freelance opera singer based in New York City and Tel Aviv. She was a young artist with Teatro Grattacielo's Camerata Bardi Vocal Academy in 2021. As part of it, she sang Ilia in IDOMENEO ALLA BREVE at the Rhodes International Festival in September 2021. She covered the roles of Anna in Catalani's LORELEY and the Fata Azzurra in Respighi's LA BELLA DORMENTE NEL BOSCO in Teatro Grattacielo's 25th Anniversary Concert in September 2019. She sang Violetta in LA TRAVIATA in July 2018 at the Jerusalem International Opera Masterclass (JIOM). She rejoined Teatro Grattacielo for their film production of Giordano's FEDORA as Un Piccolo Savoiardo, and covering the role of Dimitri. Her performed roles also include Gilda in RIGOLETTO, Madame Cortese in IL VIAGGIO A REIMS, and Rosina in IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA. She was a semifinalist in the Premiere Opera Foundation + NYIOP International Vocal Competition and Camerata Bardi International Vocal Competition in 2021, and also in the Premiere Opera Foundation + NYIOP International Vocal Competition and the Rochester International Vocal Competition in 2020. Her YouTube channel has more than 38,000 views. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Special Honors from Hunter College, from which she graduated cum laude, designing her own degree there in languages, history, and literature through their Thomas Hunter Honors Program. She studied Italian at the Società Dante Alighieri in Siena, French at the Alliance Française in Paris, German at the Goethe Institut in Berlin, and Russian at the Derzhavin Institute in St. Petersburg.  Kinneret's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/KinneretEly Jonathan's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jblay100  

Today's episode is one that I'm personally excited about, as my guest today Elizabeth Askren was on my guest list way before I started this podcast. Elizabeth and I met when we were both fellows for the Dallas Opera Hart Institute for Women Conductors, and she has since continued to mentor other conductors and artists through the Dallas Opera program and also the Transylvanian Opera Academy that she founded in Cluj, Romania. In today's episode, Elizabeth will speak with me on one topic that I found really important and somehow under-explored during conservatory training -- networking tips. If networking doesn't come as natural to you, or if you are always awkward speaking to strangers like me, today's episode is for you.Elizabeth Askren has built a fast-rising career by empowering musicians around the world, whether from the podium as a conductor of leading ensembles, as an educator with her Transylvanian Opera Academy, and as a speaker on issues of leadership, diversity and more. Her recent performances include débuts in Europe with the Transylvanian State Philharmonic, the Romanian National Opera of Cluj-Napoca, and France's Victor Hugo Franche-Comté orchestra, and in the United States with the Dallas Opera and Kentucky Opera. She has also performed with the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on recent recording projects.For all show notes and transcripts, check out my website: chaowenting.com/podcast, and please leave a review and subscribe if you are loving the show!

For Video Edition, Please Click and Subscribe Here: https://youtu.be/BsFCkds8WUQ Ken has designed nearly 100 Broadway productions including Act One, Chaplin, Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway, The Scottsboro Boys, Sondheim on Sondheim, [Title of Show], The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe starring Lily Tomlin, Footloose, Candide (1997), Annie (1997), Annie Warbucks, Inherit the Wind, Moon Over Buffalo, The Red Shoes, Fiddler on the Roof (1990, 81,76), Lettice and Lovage, Tru, Meet Me in St. Louis, On the 20th Century, Side by Side by Sondheim among others. He has been honored with seven Tony award nominations and received the 1997 Tony Award for his work on Chicago.  For a complete list of Broadway shows go to www.idbd.com. For a more complete list go to www.lortel.org/lla_archive Ken works in all forms of theatrical lighting including opera, dance, concerts and spectaculars. 13 productions for the NY City Opera including: Candide, the American premiers of Silverlake, The Voice of Ariadne and Ashmedai. Other companies include Dallas Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, La Scala, Theatro Real in Madrid and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Some of the great entertainers that Ken has lit include Hugh Jackman, Ann-Margret, Shirley MacLane, Liberace, Sigfried and Roy, Juliet Prowse, Chita Rivera and Lisa Minelli to name just a few. For 27 years the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular had lighting by Ken Billington as well as the annual Easter Show. Other spectaculars include the relighting of Jubilee at Bally's Las Vegas in 2004, Fantasmic! at Disneyland, Shamu Night shows at the Seaworld Parks and Illuminights at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. 

Synopsis Ever wonder how composers choose the stories for their operas? Here's one answer, courtesy of the American composer Tobias Picker: “My sister was dusting her bookshelf in 1998, and a copy of Emile Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin fell off. She picked it up, read it and then recommended it to me for my next opera.” And so three years later, on today's date in 2001, the Dallas Opera premiered Thérèse Raquin, a new opera by Tobias Picker. Zola's novel is a clinical examination of adultery, murder, and a double suicide. “The novel,” said Picker, “exudes ‘opera' from every page.” In Picker's setting, traditional harmonies spiral off into atonality, just as the ordered world of the opera's characters gradually falls apart. Picker has written successfully in both styles, so combining the two seemed only natural. “That tension has always been there in my music,” says Picker. “I think the opera made some people uncomfortable,” said Picker. “It affected people strongly and in different ways. One woman came up to me at the third and final Dallas performance and said: ‘I just love this. It's the third time I've seen it.' Perhaps she had experienced the same catharsis that I had when I composed it!” Music Played in Today's Program Tobias Picker (b. 1954) — Therese Raquin (Dallas Opera Orchestra; Graeme Jenkins, cond.) Chandos 9659

Episode 8: Tim Welcomes internationally acclaimed tenor, Russell Thomas.   Tim drinks a Chimay and Russell a fancy lemonade. Tim and Russell reminisce about their first meeting at The Aspen Music Festival, and how that summer was pivotal for Russell on his artistic path. Russell tells how he fell in love with Opera by flipping through radio stations. They discuss Russell's approach to technique, the importance of being able to ask questions during the learning process, and just how far he's willing to go to work with the right teacher. They chat about what Russell thinks about while singing an aria and his complex internal balancing act. Russell also shares about his ‘big break' and the long process of putting himself out there. Russell speaks about his time at the Metropolitan Opera and the disparity in how he was treated there. He speaks to the impact that James Levine, John Fisher, and Ken Noda had on his artistic development. Russell talks about growing up in a primarily Cuban neighborhood in Miami, coming to understand his racial identity until he entered the classical music community and moved away/lived on his own, and repeatedly being pulled over by the police for driving in his own neighborhood. Russell shares a response to an early audition, and how this comment fueled Russell's drive to succeed. They discuss whether things are changing for BIPOC people and the general futility of hosting panels as a supposed action, the importance of white people joining the conversation about race today, and how white outrage is not enough. Russell talks about his new position at Los Angeles Opera as Artist in Residence. He reveals how he got the job and his vision for his work there. They talk about Russell's hopes for someday running an opera company, how racial disparity in the operatic world affects the makeup of general directors at companies across the country, and how this appointment at impacts his trajectory. More information on the program Russell is developing as part his tenure there, the HBCU Opera Career Comprehensive, can be found on the Los Angeles Opera Website here: https://www.laopera.org/about-us/hbcu-opera-career-comprehensive/ Tim shares more about the history and etymology of the Mvskoke and Seminole peoples in this episode during the land acknowledgement at the opening of the show. At the beginning of every episode, Tim and Russell perform a land acknowledgement, and Russell comments on how his ancestors were not brought to this land willingly as part of his acknowledgement. If you want to know more about land acknowledgments, and the original tenants and cultures of your current location, Tim suggests using the Native Land App https://apps.apple.com/us/app/native-land/id1194356597 or at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.nativeland.NativeLand&hl=en&gl=US We heard a clip of Russell singing Roberto Devereux with San Francisco Opera info on that production can be found here: https://sfopera.com/devereux Russell talked about Vanished, a project with Ryan McKinney and Dallas Opera. Here is the info on that: Vanished – The Dallas Opera (NOW) Ryan McKinney has taken the last year to transform himself into a fully-fledged filmmaker and his latest work, “Vanished” might be his most impressive yet. The work, starring Russell Thomas and John Holiday, explores music by Gluck, Monteverdi, and Janáček assembled into a new narrative. https://www.thedallasopera.tv/products/vanished The story Tim mentioned for CBS Sunday morning is a story on interracial marriage for the anniversary of the Supreme Court Case Loving vs. Virginia, which did away with racial barriers in marriage. The link to that story is here: https://www.cbsnews.com/sunday-morning/ You can find Tim's Website here: timothylongmusic.com Special Thanks to Martha Redbone for her permission to use her song “Medicine Man” for the opening credits. More of her work can be found here and you can subscribe to her Youtube channel here. More information on Foundry Arts, the producer of Unequal Temperament, is available at www.thefoundryarts.com Foundry Arts is a lab for opera using collaboration and partnership to invest in artist development, dialogue, and expression, to sustain a rich, diverse, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable cultural landscape.

First of three episodes this week for the program all about TV. Our guests: David Lomeli, director of artistic administration at the Dallas Opera, and overseer of Dallas Opera TV, the new programming service distributed via smart TV sets and devices, and popular TV/technology commentator Shelly Palmer, owner of The Palmer Group.  

What an honor to spend some time in conversation with legendary costume designer, Jane Greenwood! Jane and Hal spoke about how she approaches the same show twice, the ethos for design she imparts on her students, and how American theatre has changed over her nearly sixty years in the industry. Jane Greenwood has been designing on Broadway for more than fifty years. Originally from Liverpool, England, Ms. Greenwood was educated at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. She began her career at the Oxford Playhouse. She has designed for theater, opera, dance, film and television, including 130 productions for Broadway since The Ballad of The Sad Café in 1963. Recent Broadway credits include Long Day’s Journey into Night, Bright Star, Act One, You Can’t Take It With You, and A View From The Bridge. Her Off-Broadway credits include Belle Epoque, A Man of No Importance, Burn This, House/Garden, Vita and Virginia andThe Lisbon Traviata. Films include Arthur, Glengarry Glen Ross, Oleanna and the cult classic Can’t Stop the Music. She has designed over a dozen productions at the American Shakespeare Festival Theater in Stratford, CT, The Public Theater, and Shakespeare in the Park. Ms. Greenwood has also done extensive work at the Metropolitan Opera, Center Theatre Group, The Guthrie Theater, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, The Dallas Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Her awards include 21 Tony nominations (winning for Little Foxes), a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, the Maharam/Henry Hewes Design Award for Tartuffe and Sylvia, the Lucille Lortel Award for Sylvia and Old Money, and the Helen Hayes Lifetime Achievement Award. Ms. Greenwood was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2003. She has also served as a Professor of Design at Yale School of Drama since 1976. Jane’s next design for Broadway, a revival of Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite, is due to open early 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Delilah Buitrón Arrebola “Delilah Muse” is a native Texan from Laredo and received her BA in Theatre and Television Communications from the illustrious Hofstra University in New York. Upon graduation, Delilah moved to Spain where she studied Spanish Classical and Flamenco at the Isabel Quintero Conservatory as well as at the internationally acclaimed Amor de Dios school of Flamenco. Delilah has since performed in Mexico City’s production and tour of Carmen,The Dallas Opera’s production of La Vida Breve under the direction of Maria Benitez, as well as portrayed the Cuban Salsa Legend “La Lupe” in Martice Enterprise’s musical production of La Lupe: My Life, My Destiny. Other Dallas theater credits include her portrayal of Gerarda in SMU’s production of La Discreta Enamorada, Shakespeare Dallas' musical production of A Midsummers Night’s Dream and As you Like It. She has been seen in Ochre House productions Ex Voto: The Immaculate Conceptions of Frida Kahlo, MEAN, and Cicerone and was featured in the Dallas Flamenco Festival and Ochre House Theater’s productions of Perro y Sangre, El Conde Drácula, Buñuel Descending and Picasso: Matador de Målaga. Delilah was a recipient of a 2013 “Dallas Observer Mastermind Award” for excellence in artistic endeavors.

Call me Ishmael... Birge. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul, then, I account it high time to get to the nearest Starbucks as soon as I can. With apologies to Hermann Melville, today marks anniversary of the opening of the first Starbucks coffee shop in Seattle, Washington, Now, since Starbucks gets its name from the first mate of the Pequod, the whaling ship made famous in Melville’s classic American novel “Moby Dick,” in addition to a steaming hot cup of Mr. Starbuck’s coffee, we celebrate composer Jake Heggie’s ambitious “Moby Dick” opera, which premiered in Dallas in 2010. “When I write an opera, at a certain point the characters start singing to me,” Mr. Heggie said about wrestling with his great white whale. “But this was the first piece where I felt there was a physical cost, an exhaustion ... ‘Moby Dick’ deserved that.” And no doubt the Dallas Opera stage director, Leonard Foglia, needed more than a few cups of Mr. Starbuck’s coffee to bring Melviille’s epic drama to life on stage. He said, “I had to sink the ship in eight bars of music.”

Call me Ishmael... Birge. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul, then, I account it high time to get to the nearest Starbucks as soon as I can. With apologies to Hermann Melville, today marks anniversary of the opening of the first Starbucks coffee shop in Seattle, Washington, Now, since Starbucks gets its name from the first mate of the Pequod, the whaling ship made famous in Melville’s classic American novel “Moby Dick,” in addition to a steaming hot cup of Mr. Starbuck’s coffee, we celebrate composer Jake Heggie’s ambitious “Moby Dick” opera, which premiered in Dallas in 2010. “When I write an opera, at a certain point the characters start singing to me,” Mr. Heggie said about wrestling with his great white whale. “But this was the first piece where I felt there was a physical cost, an exhaustion ... ‘Moby Dick’ deserved that.” And no doubt the Dallas Opera stage director, Leonard Foglia, needed more than a few cups of Mr. Starbuck’s coffee to bring Melviille’s epic drama to life on stage. He said, “I had to sink the ship in eight bars of music.”

Today's podcast is with SMU First Lady, Gail Turner! Gail Turner is a civic-minded leader in Dallas, Texas, and a member of several nonprofit organizations that serve the needs of women. Much of her time is spent on the campus of Southern Methodist University, where her husband, R. Gerald Turner, has been president since 1995. Mrs. Turner is on the board of the Shelter Ministries, Austin Street Homeless Shelter, Genesis Women's Shelter, Dallas Symphony Women's League, Charter 100 and the Women's Board of the Dallas Opera; she is past chair of the New Friends New Life Ministry aiding women and their children. At SMU she serves on the Executive Board of the Meadows School of the Arts, the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, and the Archives of Women of the Southwest at SMU's DeGolyer Library. She is a member of the SMU Woman's Club and life member of the SMU Mother's Club. Reared in Graham, Texas, Mrs. Turner earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology at Abilene Christian University and received a secondary teaching certificate from The University of Texas at Austin. For 13 years she taught in public and private schools. Dr. and Mrs. Turner are devoted parents and grandparents. Mrs. Turner is an active congregant at the Preston Road Church of Christ in Dallas. Her passion for helping women and children in need, her graciousness in serving the SMU community alongside her husband, and her joy in being a mother and grandmother identify her as a woman of character and distinction.

This week we look at the future of work and art, by stepping into the world of Joyce Goss. Joyce Goss is the Executive Director of The Goss-Michael Foundation, which is internationally renowned for its Goss-Michael Collection of important contemporary and modern British art. She is a leading philanthropist and activist in the art world and has served in executive positions, a board member and chair of key events for The Family Place, MTV RE:DEFINE, U.S. Fund for UNICEF, Dallas Women’s Foundation, The Nasher Sculpture Center, Planned Parenthood of North Texas, The Dallas Contemporary and the Dallas Opera among others. If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving us a short review. It really makes a difference! For show notes and past guests, please visit: wndyr.com/podcasts/ For transcriptions of this episode visit: wnydr.com/podcasts/Joyce_Goss Follow Wndyr: LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/wndyrsocial/ Twitter: twitter.com/wndyrsocial Facebook: facebook.com/wndyrsocial

Soprano Jennifer Youngs began her 2019-2020 season with an appearance as Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo with The American Baroque Opera Company. Jennifer made her main stage Dallas Opera debut as Olimpia in Argento’s The Aspern Papers and was seen in the role of Laurette in the Dallas Opera Outreach production of Bizet’s Dr. Miracle. Opera roles include Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Birdie in Regina, Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito, Casilda in The Gondoliers, and Clorinda in La Cenerentola. She has been a featured soloist for Mahler’s 4th Symphony, Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Bach’s Cantata #110, Brahms Requiem, Mozart’s Exsulate, jubilate, and Mozart Requiem. She has been a featured soloist with The Dallas Symphony, The Dallas Opera Orchestra, Abilene Philharmonic, Winston-Salam Symphony, Richardson Symphony, and University of North Texas Symphony orchestras. Jennifer is a champion for living composers and has been featured on recitals with composers Jake Heggie, Tom Cipullo, Dominick Argento, S. Andrew Lloyd, Paul David Thomas, Lisa Despain,, and Dave Brubeck. Jennifer also is a member of the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble, The South Dakota Chorale. Jennifer has been nominated for a Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant in NYC. She is the winner of the Lois Alba Aria Competition, winner of the Kansas City District of the Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions, winner of the concerto competition at The University of North Texas, and a semi-finalist in the Loren Zachary Vocal Competition. In the fall of 2020, Dr. Youngs joined the faculty of Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah. Previously, Jennifer was an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Vocal Studies at Texas Woman’s University, in Denton, Texas. She earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance and Pedagogy as well as a Master of Music degree in Performance and Opera from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Music degree in Performance from the Conservatory of Music at University of the Pacific. “The standout in the Rinaldo cast was Jennifer Youngs, who vividly portrayed Armida’s vulnerability as well as ferocity. Her substantive soprano alternately raged, flickered and delicately touched in high notes.” -The Dallas Morning News

Please welcome Jo Rowan and Associate Dean Melanie Shelley from my Alma Mater!Both inspirations to me and my growth as a dancer, I am excited to share their expertise and values at OCU. Jo is the head of the dance department and has been since 1981. Dean Melanie attended school their shortly after and they have been a team ever since. Melanie Shelley, Associate Dean and Professor of Arts Management, has served the Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Arts Management in many capacities over three decades. She enjoys working with dance and entertainment business students as the Student Success Coordinator and preparing students for professional careers. Dean Shelley serves as Costume Consultant, choreographer, company manager, and professor at OCU. Her choreography has been performed both in the United States and internationally, in Beijing and Taipei, China and her costume designs have been included in the New York City Toy Show. Dean Shelley has been named to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers for multiple years, was named Oklahoma City University’s Exemplary Teacher of the Year for 2000, and served as Faculty Fellow and Interim Chair of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning for Oklahoma City University’s Academic Affairs Office in 2006-2007.-------------------------------------------Jo Rowan is a nationally known master ballet teacher and performer and is professor of dance and chairman of the Dance Department within Oklahoma City University’s Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Entertainment.Rowan, who was trained at the School of American Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet in Moscow, holds degrees in design and dance from University of Cincinnati and has performed with Cincinnati Ballet, Dallas Ballet, Garden State Ballet, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, Dallas Opera, Philadelphia Opera, Tulsa Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and as a soloist at Radio City Music Hall. She has been a guest artist with the Baltimore Symphony, Kansas City Philharmonic, and Cincinnati Symphony orchestras. A member of Actors’ Equity Association, Rowan has appeared in more than 60 musicals. She has performed in New York City, as well as at Actors Theatre in Louisville, Maine State Theatre, Playhouse in the Park, Kansas City Civic Center, and Kansas City Starlight Theatre, to name a few. She has also appeared in numerous television commercials and was a regular on the PBS TV show, Consumer Survival Kit. Rowan performed at Lyric Theatre in Grand Hotel as ballerina Grushinskaya and recently choreographed the Dream Ballet in Lyric’s production of Oklahoma!. She was the chief researcher for How To Make It In Musicals, Michael Allen’s authoritative book on developing a successful career as a musical theatre performer.Formerly ballet mistress of Dallas Ballet, Rowan has taught for all major dance organizations in the United States and has been invited to serve as an Artist-in-Residence for Oklahoma. She has conducted master classes at the St. Louis and Detroit Tap Festivals, has toured America as a ballerina with Dance Olympus, has taught for Dance America and Boston Ballet, and has adjudicated for the North American Ballet Festival Competition in Boston and the State of Tennessee’s Individual Artist Fellowship Award in Dance-Choreography.In both 2018 and 2019 Rowan was selected as one of the Journal Record's 50 Making a Difference during "The Woman of the Year" event. In April of this year, Rowan received The Governor's Arts Award in recognition of her longtime leadership and significant contributions to the arts across Oklahoma.Support the show (https://www.instadancecoach.com/thank-you-for-supporting-my-podcast-colleges-and-careers/)

The American opera composer Jake Heggie and his librettist Terrence McNally decided to follow their “Dead Man Walking”–a successful but harrowing opera about capital punishment–with a lighter, more comic work, entitled “Great Scott.” Now, librettist McNally winced when people called “Great Scott” a “comic” opera, since it deals with a serious topic– for opera lovers, at least, namely, “Does opera still matter?” “Great Scott” is set in a large American city with a respected–but struggling–opera company. The city also has a powerhouse professional football team. In “Great Scott,” international opera star Arden Scott returns to her hometown to save the opera company by staging the world premiere of a long-lost Italian Bel Canto work, “Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei.” Unfortunately, the scheduled premiere falls on the same day as the home team’s first Super Bowl. Does the diva save the opera company? And who wins the Super Bowl? Well, you’ll just have to listen to the opera to find out! Fortunately, a Dallas Opera recording of “Great Scott” was made at its premiere on today’s date in 2015–featuring the powerhouse American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role.

The American opera composer Jake Heggie and his librettist Terrence McNally decided to follow their “Dead Man Walking”–a successful but harrowing opera about capital punishment–with a lighter, more comic work, entitled “Great Scott.” Now, librettist McNally winced when people called “Great Scott” a “comic” opera, since it deals with a serious topic– for opera lovers, at least, namely, “Does opera still matter?” “Great Scott” is set in a large American city with a respected–but struggling–opera company. The city also has a powerhouse professional football team. In “Great Scott,” international opera star Arden Scott returns to her hometown to save the opera company by staging the world premiere of a long-lost Italian Bel Canto work, “Rosa Dolorosa, Figlia di Pompei.” Unfortunately, the scheduled premiere falls on the same day as the home team’s first Super Bowl. Does the diva save the opera company? And who wins the Super Bowl? Well, you’ll just have to listen to the opera to find out! Fortunately, a Dallas Opera recording of “Great Scott” was made at its premiere on today’s date in 2015–featuring the powerhouse American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato in the title role.

New York-based African American mezzo-contralto Bonita Hyman has performed on some of the world’s leading stages, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Dallas Opera, the Opéra Comique in Paris, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Leipzig Opera, and with a repertoire that includes Maria (Porgy and Bess), Erda (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Azucena (Il trovatore), Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), Bradamante (Alcina), and Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande). She first approached Richard Strauss’ Elektra and the role of the Erste Magd in 2013 with the acclaimed Patrice Chéreau production that went on to have eight revivals at La Scala, Milan (2014 and 2018), the Metropolitan Opera in New York (2016), the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki (2016), the Berlin State Opera (2016 and 2019) and the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (2016). This ninth staging is a new production by Krzysztof Warlikowski, presented in this year's 100th anniversary of the Salzburg Festival. In the interview, she compares the two stagings of Elektra, her collaboration with UNICEF this month, and dives deep into the different effects of female oppression that lay at the foundation of this opera.

In this two-part episode we hear from both a young singer at the beginning of his career (Jermaine Woodard Jr.) and a singer who has had an international career and now teaches and conducts, in addition to performing (Cailin Marcel Manson). In this, the second part, Cailin expands on his plans for his new opera company, modeled on the fest houses of Germany, and how it will help to address some of the iniquities in the business. Cailin's Website and Instagram. To get in touch, you can also email him at cailin@cailinmarcelmanson.com Part one of the round table discussion on Dallas Opera's Facebook page, featuring both Jermaine and Cailin, can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3068984973182487&extid=MFxT4JFzl8pFCwp4 Follow Young Artist Podcast on Instagram @youngartistpodcast and on Twitter @youngartistpod Theme music composed and produced by Nick Gish. Visit his Soundcloud for more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/youngartistpodcast/message

This week Inwood Art Works On Air Live N' Local welcomes opera singers Lori Phillips and Mary Phillips. Soprano Lori Phillips debuted at the Metropolitan Opera as Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer in 2010, which was also the year she appeared (in a role debut) as Brünnhilde in Die Walküre with the Hawaii Opera Theater. Since then she’s performed to tremendous accolades throughout North America and Europe. Mezzo-soprano Mary Phillips has performed most of the mezzo roles in Wagner’s Ring cycle, including Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde for Dallas Opera and Schwertleite in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Die Walküre. In 2012 she received a Grammy for her solo work in the Met’s recording of Wagner’s Der Ring Des Niebelungen. Mary has sung throughout North America and Europe, including Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and the Library of Congress. Incidentally, Lori and Mary are not just sisters, but identical twins. For this episode Aaron is joined by Gordon Ostrowski, recently retired stage director and assistant dean at the Manhattan School of Music.

Ken (kbany.com) has designed nearly 100 Broadway productions including Act One, Chaplin, Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway, The Scottsboro Boys, Sondheim on Sondheim, [Title of Show], The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe starring Lily Tomlin, Footloose, Candide(1997), Annie (1997), Annie Warbucks, Inherit the Wind, Moon Over Buffalo, The Red Shoes, Fiddler on the Roof (1990, 81,76), Lettice and Lovage, Tru, Meet Me in St. Louis, On the 20th Century, Side by Side by Sondheim among others. He has been honored with seven Tony award nominations and received the 1997 Tony Award for his work on Chicago. His Tony nominations include: Sunday in the Park with George(2008), The Drowsy Chaperone (2006), End of the World (1984), Foxfire(1982), Sweeney Todd (1979), Working (1978), and The Visit (1973). For a complete list of Broadway shows go to www.idbd.com. Off-Broadway he has many productions to his credit including Nikolai and the Others, Fame, The Thing About Men, Sylvia, London Suite, Annie Warbucks, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, The Lisbon Traviata, Snoopy and Fortune in Men’s Eyes. For a more complete list go to www.lortel.org/lla_archive Ken works in all forms of theatrical lighting including opera, dance, concerts and spectaculars. 13 productions for the NY City Opera including: Candide, the American premiers of Silverlake, The Voice of Ariadne and Ashmedai. For the Houston Grand Opera 31 productions including the world premier of Willie Stark and Aida for the opening of the Worthem Center Brown Theatre. Other companies include Dallas Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, La Scala, Theatro Real in Madrid and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Some of the great entertainers that Ken has lit include Hugh Jackman, Ann-Margret, Shirley MacLane, Liberace, Sigfried and Roy, Juliet Prowse, Chita Rivera and Lisa Minelli to name just a few. For 27 years the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular had lighting by Ken Billington as well as the annual Easter Show. Other spectaculars include the relighting of Jubilee at Bally’s Las Vegas in 2004, Fantasmic! at Disneyland, Shamu Night shows at the Seaworld Parks and Illuminights at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Ken has been received many awards including the Ace Award for Television Lighting, the Luman Award for Architectural Lighting and many theatre awards including the Tony, NY Drama Desk, Los Angeles Drama Critics and Boston Drama Critics, to name a few.

Christine Seitz, Teaching Professor of Music, joined the faculty at the University of Missouri in the fall of 2008, where she is Director of Show-Me Opera and a member of the Voice Faculty. She was a member of the stage directing staff for the Apprentice Artist Program at Des Moines Metro Opera from 2006 through 2013, and she was the founding Opera Director for the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, directing and producing operas there from 1992 through 2002. She has been a guest director for the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, the Florentine Opera of Milwaukee (educational outreach productions), the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Luther College. She has created original translations and supertitles for productions at the Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, the Pine Mountain Music Festival, the University of Wisconsin Madison, the Dubuque Symphony and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Christine Seitz is an established dramatic soprano, and she recently appeared with the Des Moines Metro Opera, singing the role of Madame Larina in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. She has also sung operatic roles with the Seattle Opera, the Dallas Opera, Madison Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Toledo Opera, Kentucky Opera, the Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, Central City Opera, and in Europe with the Wuppertaler Bühnen and the Stadttheater Bern. She sang the leading role of Anna Clemenc in the world premiere of The Children of the Keweenaw, by composer Paul Seitz and librettist Kathleen Masterson, at the 2001 Pine Mountain Music Festival. She has also sung in concert with the MU Choral Union, the Waukesha Symphony, the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the Caramoor Festival, the Germanfest Symphony in Milwaukee, the Cincinnati May Festival and the Las Vegas Philharmonic. She has sung in numerous recitals in New York City and throughout the Midwest, collaborating with pianists Steven Blier and Jessica Paul, and she has presented voice workshops and master classes in Houghton, Michigan, and the University of California-Irvine. Professor Seitz is the past Central Region Governor of the National Opera Association, and a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She received B.Mus. degrees in both applied voice and music education and an M.Mus. in applied voice from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, she was a two-time winner of the Eastern Wisconsin Metropolitan Opera District Auditions.

Wiadomości dnia w Radio RAMPA – dzisiaj jest 25 września 2019 roku1)Polonia: W poniedziałek w Nowym Jorku Pierwsza Dama dołączyła do polonijnych uczniów i nauczycieli czytających wspólnie nowelę „Sachem” Henryka Sienkiewicza, lekturę należącą do tegorocznej edycji Narodowego Czytania. Pierwsza Dama odwiedziła rodaków z Nowego Jorku w siedzibie Konsulatu Generalnego RP, gdzie odbyła się czytelnicza akcja, w której wzięli udział uczniowie i nauczyciele niektórych ze zrzeszonych w Centrali Polskich Szkół Dokształcających w Ameryce placówek. CPSD współpracuje także z Polsko-Słowiańską Federalną Unią Kredytową, z której Prezesem, Bogdanem Chmielewskim, rozmawiała w poniedziałek Małżonka Prezydenta. (Prezydent.pl)2)NYC: Skandal z legendą opery Placido Domingo. Metropolitan Opera ogłosiła we wtorek, że Placido Domingo zgodził się na odwołanie swoich zaplanowanych wystepów, po tym jak kilka kobiet oskarżyło go o molestowanie seksualne. 58-letni Domingo powiedział, że już nigdy więcej nie wystąpi w Metropolitan Opera. Śpiewak zaprzecza postawionym mu zarzutom. W swoim oświadczeniu napisał, że rezygnuje z występów, nie chcąc odwracać uwagi od cieżkiej pracy swoich kolegów po fachu – w środę, Placido Domingo miał po raz kolejny wystąpić w sztuce Macbeth Verdiego. Domingo dodał, że jest zaniepokojony panującym klimatem, w którym ludzie są skazani bez sprawiedliwego procesu. Domingo w Mets wystąpił 706 razy jako śpiewak i 169 razy jako dyrygent. Występy Domingo odwołały także Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Opera i Dallas Opera. 3)USA: Spiker amerykańskiej Izby Reprezentantów Nancy Pelosi ogłosiła wszczęcie formalnego śledztwa w sprawie impeachmentu prezydenta Donalda Trumpa. Nancy Pelosi powiedziała, że chodzi o podejrzenie wywierania nacisków przez Donalda Trumpa na prezydenta Ukrainy Wołodymyra Zełeńskiego w celu zaszkodzenia politycznemu rywali Joe Bidenowi. „W tym tygodniu prezydent przyznał, że poprosił prezydenta Ukrainy o podjęcie działań, które przyniosłyby mu korzyści polityczne. Działania Donalda Trumpa ujawniły nieuczciwość jego prezydentury, zdradę jego przysięgi urzędowej, zdradę naszego bezpieczeństwa narodowego i sprzeniewierzenie się uczciwości naszych wyborów,” powiedziała Pelosi. Donald Trump twierdzi, że te zarzuty nie mają podstaw. "Całkowite polowanie na czarownice!" - napisał na Twitterze. Śledztwo ma ustalić, czy amerykański prezydent domagał się od władz Ukrainy pomocy w poszukiwaniu informacji, które mogłyby zaszkodzić Joe Bidenowi - jego potencjalnemu rywalowi w przyszłorocznych wyborach prezydenckich. (IAR)4)ŚWIAT: Sąd Najwyższy w Wielkiej Brytanii jednogłośnie orzekł, że premier Boris Jhonson złamał prawo zawieszając parlament. Boris Johnson mówi, że nie zgadza się z decyzją, ale ją uszanuje. W bezprecedensowym w historii kraju wyroku sędziowie stwierdzili, że decyzja miała na celu utrudnić lub uniemożliwić kontrolę rządu przez parlament i jest nieważna. Opozycja wzywa szefa rządu do dymisji. Dzisiaj - posłowie wracają do ław (IAR)5)Polska: Rząd zatwierdził projekt ustawy budżetowej. Najważniejsze założenia budżetu państwa na przyszły rok to zrównoważone dochody i wydatki, czyli brak deficytu, wzrost gospodarczy na poziomie 3,7 procent oraz spadające zadłużenie i malejące koszty obsługi długu. / Tymczasem w Nowym Jorku, Prezydent Andrzej Duda zaapelował do przywódców świata o stanowczą postawę wobec agresorów, respektowanie prawa międzynarodowego i dbałość o środowisko. Tymczasem, Polski prezydent przemawiał na forum 74. Zgromadzenia Ogólnego Organizacji Narodów Zjednoczonych. Andrzej Duda na początku swojego przemówienia przypomniał o obchodzonej niedawno 80. rocznicy wybuchu II wojny światowej. Podobnie jak 1 września na placu Piłsudskiego w Warszawie, apelował do światowych przywódców, by nie byli obojętni wobec agresywnych zachowań niektórych państw i nie powtarzali błędów sprzed ośmiu dekad, gdy Zachód nie podjął realnych działań, gdy doszło do na agresji Niemiec na Polskę. (IAR)

Canadian tenor Josh Lovell is a perspective young vocalist, well known in Ottawa, Chicago and now Vienna, where his professional journey continues. Stanford Olsen. Previously, he was a student of Benjamin Butterfield at the University of Victoria. Josh Lovel is a winner at the 52nd Annual International Vocal Competition, Dallas Opera competition and was a 2017 semi-finalist with the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. His repertoire consists of such roles as Trojan in Idomeneo, Odoardo in Ariodante, Le Doyen de la Faculté in Cendrillon, The Emperor Altoum in Turandot, Orpheo in Orphée et Eurydice, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, etc. Musicologist Ona Jarmalavičiūtė has conducted an interview with a singer on such topics as antique mythology, the impact of the opera to the society and the struggles with funding.

American conductor Roger Nierenberg is the creator of The Music Paradigm which has brought him to the podium of The London Philharmonic, The Residentie Orkest, The New Zealand Symphony, The National Symphony, the symphony orchestras of Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and Baltimore. He has collaborated with musicians from more than one hundred orchestras around the world. Nierenberg enjoyed long tenures as Music Director of both The Jacksonville Symphony (Florida) and the Stamford Symphony (Connecticut). His career began with an auspicious debut at Lincoln Center with the Pro Arte Chorale and subsequent performances at the Mostly Mozart Festival. Numerous guest conducting engagements followed with many of the great American orchestras, including the symphony orchestras of Austin, Baltimore, Charleston, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, New Jersey, San Diego, St. Louis, and Utah, as well as New York's American Symphony Orchestra, Washington D.C.'s National Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Abroad, he has recorded with the London Philharmonic and has conducted concerts at the Prague Spring Festival with the Czech Radio Orchestra and at the Beijing Festival with the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. Other performances include engagements with the London Mozart Players, Mexico's National Symphony Orchestra, the Nova Scotia Symphony, and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra.Nierenberg has conducted operatic performances with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Chautauqua Opera, the American Opera Center at Lincoln Center and opera in concert with the Dallas Opera (with Frederica von Stade) and the Santa Barbara Symphony (with Ms. Von Stade and Thomas Hampson). He has appeared at numerous summer festivals including the Tanglewood Institute, the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Colorado Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, and the Madeira Bach Festival. The Music Paradigm is a powerful learning experience that uses symphonic music to illuminate compelling insights about people at work. Participants are seated directly amongst the orchestra musicians where they gain fresh understandings about the opportunities and challenges faced by their own organization. Over the past twenty years, Nierenberg has presented to hundreds of different organizations, from civic groups to Fortune 500 companies, in two dozen different countries. Show Highlights I don't have a single mentor, but there are many many people who I've learned from. Both musicians and businesspeople —Roger NierenbergAs a conductor, you get a lot of feedback instantaneously, so you see the impact of your leadership in real time, and you have time to contemplate why did that not work or why did that work? —Roger NierenbergYou want people who believe in themselves and have strong ideas, so you have to view big egos as an asset. The challenge is to get them to buy in and understand the big picture. —Roger Nierenberg It's not about me, it's about them. I'm an agent in helping businesses collaborate. I help people expand their circle of awareness. —Roger NierenbergChallenges are an inevitable part of life. It happens to everyone. When it happens, don't feel like it's the end of the world, this is part of the process of making something good. —Roger NierenbergIt will likely take time to learn lessons from a setback. Allow yourself that time and the space to be curious. —Roger Nierenberg When something goes wrong, the first thing to ask is "what happened?" The second thing is, "What role did I play?" —Roger Nierenberg I look for opportunities to grow and they're abundant. I stay alert for that and that's a good attitude. —Roger NierenbergIf you want to keep mental acuity growing, study a musical instrument. And do it as an adult. —Roger NierenbergFill your life with the right people. Locate the people who are bringing you down and eliminate them if you can. —Roger Nierenberg

Originally from Maine, Tony Award winning lighting designer Tyler Micoleau has lived in Brooklyn for the last 24 years. He has designed extensively throughout New York as well as regionally and internationally, for world premiere plays, musicals and operas as well as outdoor spaces and touring pieces.His work can currently be seen on Broadway in The Band’s Visit at the Barrymore Theater and Be More Chill at the Lyceum Theater.Other New York designs for Lincoln Center Theater, the Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theater Club, Atlantic Theater, Signature, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Vineyard Theatre, New Georges, Epic Theatre Ensemble, Page 73, Rattlestick, Barrow Street Theater, Foundry Theatre, The Play Company, Soho Rep and many others.Regional designs for the Huntington Theater, Alley Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Dallas Theater Center, the Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theater, Kansas City Rep, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Wilma Theater, Pig Iron Theatre, the Folger, Long Wharf Theater and many others.Opera designs for palm beach Opera, Dallas Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, PORTopera, Curtis Opera, Manhattan School of Music, and Connecticut Grand Opera.Dance design for Eliot Feld’s Mandance Project at The Joyce Theater, Neil Greenberg and The Chase Brock Experience.Fine art installation projects include 2×4 Tree (PIFA Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts), Åhus Sommaren 1974 (Bellwether Galleries, Chelsea NYC), Beneath the Floorboards (Ohio Theater Gallery, Soho NYC).Tyler has served on the faculty at Sarah Lawrence College and has been a visiting artist at Dartmouth College, Yale University, Bates College and his alma matter, Bowdoin College.

Buckle up folks... In this two part interview, I sit down with former world-class Tenor turned front office guru, David Lomeli. He shares his incredible story for this first time with the Hook, Push and Pray audience. 

Woody first established Pirtle Design in Dallas, Texas in 1978 and over the next 10 years produced some of the most celebrated graphic design work of the decade for clients such as The Dallas Museum of Art, TGI Friday’s, Dallas Opera, Simpson Paper Company and more. In 1988 Woody merged Pirtle Design with Pentagram and for the next 18 years was a partner in the New York office and worked on some of the firm’s most prestigious projects for clients such as Brown-Forman, Bacardi, Flying Fish Brewing Company, IBM, Champion International Corporation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Nine West, Knoll International, Wellesley College, Princeton University, and Amnesty International, plus many others. In 2005 Woody left Pentagram to re-establish Pirtle Design where he continues to create compelling designs with a conceptual twist. Visit www.pirtledesign.com to see his work.

A picture may paint a thousand words, but nothing compares to the intimacy and immediacy of a handwritten letter. Hearing the "Letter Aria" from Jules Massenet's Werther will prove it. From an opera based on the Goethe novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, this scene finds the tortured heroine Charlotte re-reading the letters of the doomed poet. In this episode, host Rhiannon Giddens welcomes soprano Isabel Leonard, pianist Mary Dibbern and author Peter Bognanni to explore why the words we write to each other have so much power – sometimes even more than the ones we say aloud. They'll reflect on Massenet's talent for showing Charlotte's deep connection to Werther and you'll even get a real-life story about how email brought two people together. Then you'll hear Isabel Leonard sing the complete scene onstage at the Metropolitan Opera. The Guests Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard can handle many different roles – this season she's sung everything from Nico Muhly to Claude Debussy – but describes Charlotte as one of her most challenging. "The vocal writing is relentless," she says. "Massenet had a way of expressing a very deep understanding of Charlotte's complex struggle." Pianist Mary Dibbern began her love affair with French opera began in Paris more than 30 years ago. Since then, she’s translated a biography of Jules Massenet and is currently the Music Director of Education for the Dallas Opera. Minneapolis-based Peter Bognanni fell in love with his wife over email. He is also the author of Things I’m Seeing Without You, a modern-day story about two teens who fall in love over text messages and email.

In Episode 19 of the Time To Be You Podcast, Hila Plitman, Grammy award winning vocalist, teaches her listeners exactly how to tap into their creative flow, citing the importance of just getting the process started and putting work out into the world, “even if you think it’s junk.” Besides her work in opera and contemporary classic music, Hila is an active songwriter, actress and mother of a young teenager. While juggling all these roles can prove difficult, Hila is no stranger to putting in the hard work necessary to fulfill all the roles she pleases. Hila has been working in the music industry since she herself was fourteen, and works smart, outsourcing the tasks she doesn’t gain energy from.   -- Questions asked in this episode: 1. Give us a brief background of yourself and what you do? 2. When writing and singing, how do you tap into your creative side when you are also a mother and so many things? 3. How does tapping into your creativity help run your business? 4. In songwriting I know artist tend to have a lot of self-judgement, how do you come from a place of just creating and not thinking about who will or will not like it? 5. How do you tap into the feelings of your body to create? 6. What would you say to someone that hasn't tapped into their creative energy or buried it for a long time, how do they get it back and nurture it?   --   Bio: Grammy award-winning vocalist Hila Plitmann is a glittering jewel on the international music scene, known worldwide for her astonishing musicianship, light and beautiful voice, and the ability to perform challenging new works. She has worked with many leading conductors, including Leonard Slatkin, Esa- Pekka Salonen, Thomas Adès, Carl St. Clair, Giancarlo Guerrero, Robert Spano and JoAnn Falletta, performing with the likes of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra. Hila is also emerging as a unique crossover artist, and her own songs and arrangements can be heard on YouTube and in live concert. She has accumulated an impressive catalogue of varied recordings, including Hans Zimmer's Grammy winning soundtrack for The Da Vinci Code, Eric Whitacre’s Good Night Moon with the LSO, and Oscar winner John Corigliano’s song- cycle Mr Tambourine Man with the Buffalo Symphony (for which she won a best female vocalist Grammy).   Some of her recent discs are Richard Danielpour’s Toward A Season of Peace and Corigliano's Vocalise, both released to critical acclaim on NAXOS. In constant demand as a singer of new and contemporary music, Hila Plitmann has appeared as a soloist in numerous world premieres, including: Pulitzer Prize winner David Del Tredici’s Paul Revere’s Ride with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; Frank Zappa’s orchestral staged version of 200 Motels with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Dallas Opera world premiere of Mark Adamo's Opera Becoming Santa Claus; Richard Danielpour's Darkness in the Ancient Valley with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra; and Yuval Sharon and Annie Gosfield’s War of the Worlds with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and lives with her son and their cat in Los Angeles. www.hilaplitmann.com   -- Follow Laura on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/laura_loveandfit/

Ian Derrer leads the Kentucky Opera, fueled by a lifelong love of opera. He became the fifth general director in Kentucky Opera history in 2006 and leads the organization in their mission to entertain and educate a broad and diverse audience by producing opera of the highest quality. Derrer joined the organization after serving in his previous role as artistic administrator and a member of the senior management team of the Dallas Opera. Bitten by the opera bug as a young child, Derrer has worked with opera companies throughout the U.S. and in Italy. His experience from serving operas in Dallas, New York, Santa Fe and Charlotte has given him an opportunity to learn from leading general directors in the field. Their lessons on fundraising, audience development, branding, and community involvement give him a unique advantage. Derrer’s prior experience includes working as a scheduling coordinator for the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy. He also interned at Columbia Artists Management, Inc. in the office of Ronald A. Wilford. Derrer received masters’ degrees in opera production, voice, and performing arts management from Northwestern University and Brooklyn College. He also completed a Bachelor of Music degree in voice performance from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University.

Spending time with Jack Unzicker was a major highlight of my trip to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  Jack is an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Arlington and is one of the most professionally active bassists in the region. We dig into all kinds of topics, like: what Jack's professional life looks like where the bass is headed what possibilities look like for music students private teaching modalities of practice Links to Check Out: Jack's Website Jack's UT-Arlington Faculty Page Jack and Jason chatting for Viva el Bajo Live in 2017 (YouTube) More About Jack: Jack Unzicker is the Assistant Professor of Double Bass at the University of Texas at Arlington and is a sought-after performer and educator. He has extensive and varied experience in all performance areas, from early music to contemporary, solo, chamber, and orchestral, as well as jazz and electric bass. He maintains an active performing schedule, over 300 performances since his appointment at UT Arlington in 2012. Raised in Juneau, Alaska, he began his musical studies with piano, guitar, and percussion and began performing as a professional bassist and teaching private lessons at the age of fourteen. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from the University of North Texas, where he studied solo and orchestral performance, orchestral conducting, jazz studies, and early music with Jeff Bradetich, Paul Sharpe, Bill Clay, Anshel Brusilow, Lynn Seaton, and Lenora McCroskey. Dr. Unzicker earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Western Washington University where he studied jazz studies, performance, and contemporary music with Chuck Israels, Anna Doak, and Roger Briggs. Dr. Unzicker continued his studies at the Henry Mancini Institute, working with Bertram Turetzky, Christian McBride, and John Clayton, the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors, and the Pirastro Strings Elite Soloists Program. In 2016, Dr. Unzicker was a featured soloist with the Dallas Chamber Symphony, performing Hindemith’s Trauermusik. Upcoming projects include a recording for commercial release in 2017, of an ongoing duo project. This duo project is in collaboration with Dr. Martha Walvoord, UT Arlington violin professor, and contemporary composers to commission, perform, and record new works for violin and double bass. Composers include six-time Grammy-award winner Michael Daugherty, Roger Briggs, Andrea Clearfield, Tom Knific, George Chave, and Daniel M. Cavanagh. The duo will perform a recital at the International Society of Bassists 2017 Convention in Ithaca, NY on June 10, 2017. Dr. Unzicker’s recent chamber music performances include the Adams Chamber Symphony, Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, 2, 3, & 6, Beethoven Septet, Bruch Octet, Ginastera Variaciones Concertantes, Prokofiev Quintet, Stravinsky L’Histoire du soldat, and Brahms Sextet in B-flat Major, Svendsen Octet, and Schubert Octet with members of the Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, and professors from Rice University and the University of North Texas. Dr. Unzicker is also principal double bass of the Dallas Chamber Symphony and Santa Fe Pro Musica. As an orchestral musician, Dr. Unzicker has performed with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, Dallas Opera, Dallas Symphony, Fort Worth Opera, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Holland Symphony, Waco Symphony, and as principal of the AIMS Festival Orchestra (Austria), Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Divertimento (Costa Rica), and Plano Symphony Orchestra. He has worked extensively with conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, as well as Jaap Van Zweden, Otto Werner-Mueller, Larry Rachleff, Rossen Milanov, James Conlon, Anshel Brusilow, and Gunther Schuller. As a pedagogue, Dr. Unzicker serves on the board of the Bradetich Foundation, a double bass performance and education organization, and is the Bass Forum Editor for the journal American String Teacher. He has been featured in articles on playing and teaching the double bass in The Strad, Bass World, American String Teacher, and Strings Magazine and frequently performs, adjudicates, and presents at the International Society of Bassists, American String Teachers Association, and Texas Music Educators Association Conventions. In the summers, he performs and teaches as Artist Faculty and as the Assistant Director of the Annual Bradetich Double Bass Master Classes. Current and former students of Dr. Unzicker have been accepted to undergraduate, graduate, and summer programs at the Colburn School, Juilliard School, University of Southern California, Boston University, Indiana University, University of North Texas, Florida State University, University of Texas, North Carolina School of the Arts, New World Symphony, Curtis Institute of Music Summerfest, Aspen Music Festival and School, National Orchestral Institute, National Repertory Orchestra, Interlochen Arts Camp, Round Top Music Festival, Texas Chamber Music Institute, and the WaBass Institute. The double bass studio at the University of Texas at Arlington has proudly hosted many guest artists recently, including Artist-In-Residence Eddie Gomez, Ira Gold, Milton Masciadri, Jeff Bradetich, Brian Perry, Aaro Heinonen, and the Bassinova Quartet. Dr. Unzicker performs primarily on instruments by Daniel Hachez and Albert Jakstadt, and a bow by Reid Hudson. Contrabass Conversations is sponsored by:   The Upton Bass String Instrument Company.  Upton's Karr Model Upton Double Bass represents an evolution of our popular first Karr model, refined and enhanced with further input from Gary Karr.  Since its introduction, the Karr Model with its combination of comfort and tone has gained a loyal following with jazz and roots players. The slim, long “Karr neck” has even become a favorite of crossover electric players. Check out this video of David Murray "auditioning" his Upton Bass! The Bass Violin Shop, which  offers the Southeast's largest inventory of laminate, hybrid and carved double basses. Whether you are in search of the best entry-level laminate, or a fine pedigree instrument, there is always a unique selection ready for you to try. Trade-ins and consignments welcome! Subscribe to the podcast to get these interviews delivered to you automatically!

This week on Sounds from the Keep, Travis Wiley McGuire sat down to talk with me about the Dallas Opera, the children's education program, and the splintered definitions of music.

Episode No. 8 features acclaimed British violinist, conductor and educator, Peter Manning. Having served as concert master of the orchestra of the Royal Opera House since 1999, Peter has also recently been appointed as Guest Conductor for the Dallas Opera in Texas. He is also the Founder, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Manning Camerata and in addition to his work in the UK, Peter also spent 3 years as Music Director of Musica Vitae and last year he was appointed Artistic Director of the 3 Palaces Festival in Malta. This interview was recorded in Malta last November at the Manoel Theatre during the 3 Palaces Festival.

Episode 33: Being patient - A Conversation with Dr. Jason Crafton Jason Crafton is Assistant Professor of Trumpet at Virginia Tech and he directs both of the large jazz ensembles. Prior to this appointment he held positions at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, North Central Texas College, the University of Northern Colorado, and in various Dallas-Fort Worth area public schools. In addition, he has performed with a variety of ensembles including the Roanoke Symphony, Ash Lawn Opera, Dallas Wind Symphony, and Dallas Opera. jcrafton@vt.edu  

If you’ve never heard a Heldentenor with a good ol’ boy East Texas accent, you haven’t lived. We go ‘Inside the Huddle’ with tenor Jay Hunter Morris. He’s currently rehearsing Jake Heggie’s opera “Moby Dick” at the Dallas Opera. We talk Cowboys, Cubs and opera careers... Also, Toby and George do a mid-season check in on what’s happened in Operaland so far this Fall, and Oliver plays ‘Monday Evening Quarterback’ on the production of Donizetti’s “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Plus, you get all your opera headlines in ‘The Two Minute Drill’...

After the second American Civil War, Kentucky is an occupied nation within U.S. borders. When a single father and mechanic accidentally sparks a rebellion, he finds himself on the path to becoming the first feudal warlord of Appalachia. Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson joins Graphic Policy Radio for the first time to discuss his brand new upcoming comic book series Warlords of Appalachia being published by BOOM! Studios. Phillip Kennedy Johnson is a musician and writer living in the Washington, DC/Baltimore region. He is the writer of the comic series Last Sons of America, The Lost Boys of the U-Boat Bremen, Killing Marcus, and the upcoming Warlords of Appalachia from BOOM! Studios. He also writes the BAND! cartoon strip for Musicomic.com. Outside of writing, Johnson has a full-time career as a trumpet player, composer, arranger, and teacher. As a Sergeant First Class in the United States Army, he regularly tours the United States with The U.S. Army Field Band and the Federal Brass of Washington, DC. Prior to joining the Army Field Band, he toured the world with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. He has also performed with the Moscow Ballet, the Dallas Opera, Washington Symphonic Brass, the Lexington Philharmonic, and the Benny Goodman Orchestra. He earned a Master of Music degree from the University of North Texas, where he served as Teaching Fellow for the Department of Jazz Studies, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Eastern Kentucky University. Tweet us your questions @graphicpolicy.

A chance encounter. A room full of interesting people. A serendipitously assigned dinner seat. All culminated at the Dallas Opera opening night in October to allow my meeting with Edo Popken. Immediately noticing his distinguished looks and outstanding stylish dress, and realizing he was a sponsor to the event, I was intrigued and so inquired about his line of work. I soon learned he was the proud descendant of four generations of clothiers but had his own story to tell, one I was eager to hear. In this interview, we hear Edo Popken describe his early yearning to design automobiles only to harken back to clothing, why he so fervently believes in the work he does designing upscale men's clothing, how he positions international travel to stimulate his creativity, and what he hopes to lend to the clothing industry in his own entrepreneurial quest. Edo Popken is approachably real while living a zestful life, purposeful yet playful, and completely driven by his own values as a businessman.

A chance encounter. A room full of interesting people. A serendipitously assigned dinner seat. All culminated at the Dallas Opera opening night in October to allow my meeting with Edo Popken. Immediately noticing his distinguished looks and outstanding stylish dress, and realizing he was a sponsor to the event, I was intrigued and so inquired about his line of work. I soon learned he was the proud descendant of four generations of clothiers but had his own story to tell, one I was eager to hear. In this interview, we hear Edo Popken describe his early yearning to design automobiles only to harken back to clothing, why he so fervently believes in the work he does designing upscale men's clothing, how he positions international travel to stimulate his creativity, and what he hopes to lend to the clothing industry in his own entrepreneurial quest. Edo Popken is approachably real while living a zestful life, purposeful yet playful, and completely driven by his own values as a businessman.

The West Coast Premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's new opera, Great Scott, is coming to San Diego Opera in May, 2016! Its World Premiere production at Dallas Opera is currently in rehearsal. In this podcast, Nic Reveles introduces us to the creators, the cast and the story of this wonderful new opera.

Since winning Southwest Review’s Morton Marr Poetry Prize in 2008, Lisa Huffaker’s poems have been published or are forthcoming in Southwest Review, Poet Lore, Measure, Southern Poetry Review, Mezzo Cammin, The Texas Observer, Able Muse, and Southern Humanities Review, which recently nominated her for the Pushcart Prize. Lisa’s primary background is classical singing; she holds a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory, and has sung with The Dallas Opera since 1999. She teaches creative writing at Yavneh Academy of Dallas. Lisa Huffaker's poem, "Sun Swallowers" was recorded at the Margo Jones Theatre, Dallas, Texas, April 20, 2015.

Bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu has had a meteoric rise in the opera world. This singer from a Samoan family in New Zealand is a favorite with conductors and audiences because of his natural presence, friendliness and, of course, his sumptuous voice. In this interview with Nicolas Reveles, Director of Education and Outreach, Jon talks about his background, his training and the role of Queequeg which he debuted at the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick at Dallas Opera in 2010.

Recognized worldwide as one of today's most exciting vocal stars, Denyce Graves continues to gather unparalleled popular and critical acclaim in performances on four continents. USA Today identifies her as "an operatic superstar of the 21st Century," and the Atlanta Journal Constitution exclaims, "if the human voice has the power to move you, you will be touched by Denyce Graves."Her career has taken her to the world's great opera houses and concert halls. The combination of her expressive, rich vocalism, elegant stage presence, and exciting theatrical abilities allows her to pursue a wide breadth of operatic portrayals and to delight audiences in concert and recital appearances. Denyce Graves has become particularly well-known to operatic audiences for her portrayals of the title roles in Carmen and Samson et Dalila. These signature roles have brought Ms. Graves to the Metropolitan Opera,Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Washington Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Arena di Verona, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opernhaus Zürich, Teatro Real in Madrid, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Los Angeles Opera, and the Festival Maggio Musicale in Florence. Patrick D. McCoy, "The African-American Voice in Classical Music" will speak with Ms. Graves about her special friendship with the late contralto Marian Anderson, the role of African-American Church in her development as a singer and her role in the special commemorative recital honoring the historic Grace Bumbry White House recital during the Kennedy administration.