Daune Mahy
Salvatory Champagne
Lorraine Manz
Marlene Ralis Rosen
Kristofer Johnson
Alan Montgomery
Jennifer Bertoni
Abra K. Bush
Soprano
Daune Mahy—whose voice has been
praised for its “beautiful, clear, and crystalline timbre” — has
been an active performer in opera, musical theater, oratorio, and recital.
She has appeared frequently with opera companies and orchestras in the
East and Midwest, including Opera Omaha, the Kentucky Opera Association,
the St. Louis Municipal Opera, the Nebraska Opera Ensemble, the Omaha
Symphony, Nebraska Sinfonia, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Opus I Chamber
Orchestra, and the Akron Symphony. In 1985, she appeared as soloist with
Julius Rudel and the Buffalo Philharmonic in the East Coast premiere
of Warren Darcy’s “Beyond the Dream.” In 1997 she performed
the Oberlin premiere of George Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning
composition—“Lilacs” for soprano and orchestra. In
1982, Ms. Mahy was the soprano soloist in a nationally syndicated radio
broadcast of Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” marking
the 20th anniversary of that work’s first performance.
Significant recitals include her 1986 New York Merkin Hall debut, and
collaborative recitals at New York’s Carnegie Recital Hall and
Kurt Weill Recital Hall. She made a highly acclaimed recital tour of
southern Spain and has concertized widely in Italy, Germany, and France.
Ms. Mahy’s students appear with the Metropolitan Opera, New York
City Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, as well as many regional theaters across
the United States. A Professor of Singing at the Oberlin Conservatory
of Music, Ms. Mahy is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Oberlin
in Italy Program.
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Tenor Salvatore
Champagne began his professional singing career as soloist
for the European tour of Songfest, composed and conducted by
Leonard Bernstein. Immediately thereafter he joined the ensemble
of the
Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany, appearing in a
wide range of lyric tenor roles including Mozart's Tamino (Die
Zauberflöte),
Rossini's Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Strauss's Henry
(Die schweigsame Frau). Guest engagements soon brought him to some
of Europe's most prestigious opera houses: the Operhaus Zürich,
Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, Teatro Bellini in Catania,
and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. In addition to his operatic
performances, Mr. Champagne is a frequent concert and recital
singer. He has appeared with the London Philharmonia, Cologne
Philharmonic,
and VARA radio orchestra under such noted conductors as James
Conlon, Leonard Slatkin and Henry Lewis. His singing has been
recognized
with numerous awards, including prizes at the 1989 Mirjam Helin
Competition in Helsinki and the 1990 International Vocal Competition
in s'Hertogenbosch, Holland, and grants from MUSICA, the Sullivan
Foundation, and the National Institute for Musical Theater. In
2004 Mr. Champagne joined the voice faculty of his alma mater,
the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, as Associate Professor
of Singing.
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 Lorraine Manz, mezzo-soprano, is Associate Professor of Singing at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Director of the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center. In 2006 she served as a Master Teacher for the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program.
She has been featured as soloist in orchestral and oratorio throughout the United States. She has performed as soloist with conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Bridget-Michaele Reischl, Marin Alsop, Garreth Morrell, Steven Smith with the Cleveland Orchestra, Blossom Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, Round Top Festival, Bach Festival Society, Shreveport Summer Music Festival, Jefferson Performing Arts Society (New Orleans), the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Oberlin Orchestra. She received critical praise for performance with Lyric Opera Cleveland in "Little Women" in which composer Mark Adamo was stage director.
The mezzo-soprano has been heard on artist series in recital and contemporary chamber music ensembles including performances at the Lincoln Center, Contemporary Directions of the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, the Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis), and the New Music Festival (California). She toured Japan the West Coast performing a variety of chamber music works.
Lorraine Manz has maintained an active teaching career and prior to joining the faculty of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, taught at the University of California, and St. Olaf College.
Some of her students have been professionally engaged including: the Metropolitan Opera, NYCO, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera as well as other major and regional opera companies. Additional students are active performers of early and contemporary music.
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 Marlene
Ralis Rosen Widely praised for her rare and versatile artistry,
lyric soprano Marlene Ralis Rosen has been consistently applauded by critics
and audiences alike for the beauty of her voice and for the sensitivity of
her interpretations. A highly versatile and individual artist, Ms. Rosen
is equally at home singing the music of Bach, Händel, Mozart, Rachmaninoff,
Strauss, and Debussy as she is with contemporary composers such as John Cage,
Luigi Dallapiccola, Luciano Berio and Joseph Schwantner. Throughout the United
States, the soprano is well known for her many appearances in oratorio, chamber
music, and solo recitals. Among orchestral appearances, she was soloist with
the Brooklyn Philharmonic under the direction of Robert Spano and has appeared
as soloist with the Milwaukee Symphony and the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra
with whom she recently released a CD on the Albany Label. She has also collaborated
with such composers as Lukas Foss, John Harbison, Luciano Berio and George
Crumb. In addition, she worked with Pierre Boulez in a performance of Improvisations
sur Mallarmé with the New Music Associates of Cleveland. No stranger
to the operatic stage, Ms. Rosen has sung in Don Giovanni, Tosca, Turn Of
The Screw, Carmen, Cosi Fan Tutte, Die Fledermaus and others. Significant
recital appearances include her New York solo recital debut at the Merkin
Recital Hall in 1992, recitals at the Cleveland Art Museum, and a concert
with the Quintet of the Americas again at Merkin Hall in New York. She was
also soprano soloist for several seasons with the William Appling Singers
performing such works as the Fauré Requiem, Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes,
Haydn Theresa Mass, the Bach B minor Mass and the Handel Messiah. She is
also soprano soloist with the Ensemble Pierrot, a faculty ensemble at Oberlin
Conservatory. Ms. Rosen has also been heard in Europe with frequent appearances
in Holland, Germany, Italy and Finland - notably the Turku Music Festival
in 1988 - and was privileged to concertize and offer Masterclasses in Beijing,
China at the Central Conservatory. She also teaches at the Oberlin in Italy
Program in Urbania, Italy. Marlene Ralis Rosen holds a Masters Degree from
the University of Illinois and was Midwest Regional Winner of the Metropolitan
Opera National Auditions. She is also the recipient of the Rosanna M.Enlow
Award for Voice. Ms Rosen is Professor of Voice at the Oberlin Conservatory
of Music since 1989. She was also a Visiting Instructor of Voice, 1996-97,
at the Eastman School of Music.
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Kristofer Johnson serves as director of vocal studies at Proctor Academy in Andover, NH where he teaches voice and conducts the Alice Fowler Singers and Blackwater Chorale. Kris has taught voice and music at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and Canterbury School. An active performer, he maintains a schedule of recitals and conducting appearances throughout the eastern United States. Kris holds the Bachelor of Music degree from Oberlin in Voice Performance and a Master of Music degree from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in Choral Conducting. This summer marks his twelfth year teaching at VAHS.
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Alan
Montgomery has been Assistant Music Director of the Oberlin
Opera Theater since 1979. He has conducted several operas including Bastien
und Bastienne, Signor Deluso, Street Scene and The
Tender Land, was Assistant Music Director for Porgy and Bess,
and has also conducted over 50 musicals. This will be his fifth year with
the Vocal Academy, for four summers he served as vocal coach with the
Young Artists Vocal Institute at the University of California-Santa Barbara
and in 1998, was on the faculty of the Vocal Arts Institute at the University
of Indianapolis. He holds the D.M. degree from Indiana University.
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Jennifer
Bertoni is an Oberlin alumna and earned
a master's degree in opera production at Florida State university. From
1993 to 1995, she served as production stage manager for the Florida
State Opera. From 1996 to 2000, she was stage manager and assistant
director of the Oberlin Opera Theater. A Cleveland natice, jennifer
has worked backstage and onstage with several Ohio arts organizations,
amoung them Lyric Opera Cleveland, The Beck Center for the Cultural
Arts, Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, and Ohio Light Opera.
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Soprano Abra K. Bush made her professional opera debut as Drusilla in L’incoronazione di Poppea at Opera Columbus with Boston Baroque. Her operatic roles encompass works from all periods of opera including Paix in Les Arts Flourissants, Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Michaëla in Carmen, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, and Laurie in The Tender Land. Along with pianist Philip Everingham, Bush regularly performs recitals across the Midwest and during the summer of 2007, performed the world premiers of songs by Ricky Ian Gordon and John Harbison.
Bush earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice and Master of Music in Opera Theater from Oberlin Conservatory and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Voice from the Ohio State University. She has won the state and regional NATSAA Competition, the VARN Art Song Competition and the Columbus Symphony Young Musicians Competition.
She is currently Assistant Professor of Voice at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.
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