Yefim Maizel - OACSummer Program Artistic Director, Stage Director
Yefim Maizel has directed and assisted in the former Soviet Union, in Europe, in Japan and in the United States at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington Opera, Kirov Opera, Wexford Opera Festival, Saito Kinen Festival and Opera Santa Barbara. Since 1999, Mr. Maizel has worked as a Guest Stage Director for the Metropolitan Opera where, among other productions, in 2004 he directed Madama Butterfly with Placido Domingo conducting. He also directed The Merry Widow at the Opera Santa Barbara and Little Women, The Impresario and the U.S. Premier of Handel's Silla for the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI). Mr. Maizel has directed productions of: Lucia di Lammermoor, Il Trovatore, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, Rigoletto, Don Pasquale, L'Italiana in Algieri, Tales of the Nutcracker, Manon Lescaut, Luisa Miller, La Traviata, Eugene Onegin, Das Rheingold and many others. Mr. Maizel was a member of the BASOTI's faculty from 1998 through 2010 and served as Artistic Director for BASOTI in 2009 - 2010 season. He established the Opera Academy of California (OAC), where he serves as Artistic Director and Stage Director, in 2005.
David Ostwald- Stage Director
David Ostwald, a seasoned stage director of over 160 operas and author of Acting for Singers, has directed multiple productions at The Julliard School, Atlanta Lyric Opera, Chattanooga Opera, West Bay Opera and Wolftrap Opera, among others. Some of his favorites include: Postcard from Morocco, La Finta Giardiniera, La Calisto, Der Fliegende Hollander, Tales of Hoffmann, Cosi fan Tutte and Albert Herring. In addition to teaching acting, Ostwald has taught directing and modern drama at University of California, Berkeley, and was head of the opera program at SUNY/ Purchase for 15 years. He has directed over 12 productions for BASOTI, including Idomeneo, Street Scene, Gluck's Orfeo, and Don Giovanni. He directed the Abduction from the Seraglio for San Francisco Lyric Opera, and recently directed Pique Dame, Madama Butterfly and La Forza del Destino for West Bay Opera. His book, Acting for Singers, published by Oxford University Press, is rapidly becoming a standard text for opera workshops around the country.
Rod Gomez - Stage Director
Rod Gomez has served as faculty or associate faculty member of BASOTI, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Holy Names College and Summer Music West International, directing opera, operetta and musical theater. He also serves as Artistic Advisor and Resident Stage Director for New York’s One World Symphony and has directed numerous productions for the company including Carmen, Le Nozze di Figaro and Suor Angelica, among others. Recent New York-area productions include Chelsea Opera’s I Pagliacci (the direction of which the New York Times praised as “endearingly homey”), Giulio Cesare with the Opera Company of Brooklyn, West Side Story with New Jersey Concert Opera and the American premiere of British composer Joby Talbot‘s Path of Miracles at New York‘s Winter Garden. In addition, he has directed productions at California State University, Northridge and San Francisco’s Pocket Opera (this past season‘s highly-acclaimed Madame Butterfly). His work extends from the standard repertoire (Die Zauberflöte, Rigoletto) to the more obscure (Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Menotti’s The Saint of Bleeker Street, von Flotow’s Martha) and contemporary (the world premiere of John Beeman’s award-winning Law Offices). Upcoming engagements include returns to BASOTI (Dido and Aeneas, summer 2008) and One World Symphony (Peter Grimes). He holds a B.M. from California State University at Northridge and an M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
David Cox - Stage Director
Mr. Cox began his foray into stage directing in 1993 for Pacific Repertory Opera’s Don Pasquale. He has since directed several other shows for PRO including: Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Faust, Rigoletto, and Die Zauberflote. He returned to PRO in March of 2007 to direct Verdi’s La Traviata. For his first directing assignment for Opera San Jose, Mr. Cox began with an original language Eugene Onegin followed by two critically acclaimed pieces from the French repertoire: Faust and Pearl Fishers. In the new California Fox Theater he directed sold out performances of Carmen and La Boheme.
In the summers of 2004-2005 Mr. Cox directed Rigoletto and Un Ballo in Maschera for Festival Opera in Walnut Creek to great audience and critical acclaim and was asked to return in 2009 to direct a new production of Turandot. In recent seasons, he has been the principal stage director for Opera Idaho, directing Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Boheme, L’Elisir d’Amore and Lucia di Lammermoor and Cosi Fan Tutte. In the summer of 2008, Cox directed his first musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, for Cabrillo Stage. The show received rave reviews and ran for five weeks. Recently, he made his debut with West Bay Opera with a sold out production of Carmen. He also directed Don Giovanni in February of 2009, his first opera for San Francisco Lyric Opera, as well as making his debut with Livermore Valley Opera in the fall of 2009, directing Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. He finished LVO’s season with Die Fledermaus. In addition to professional opera, Mr. Cox enjoys working with young singers and has directed The Impressario, Gianni Schicchi and Cosi Fan Tutte for the USC Opera Department. Mr. Cox helped initiate, directed and sang in the first opera at the San Luis Obispo summer Mozart Festival. He directed and sang in Magic Flute, Cosi Fan Tutte and assisted with Le Nozze di Figaro.
In the summers of 2004-2005 Mr. Cox directed Rigoletto and Un Ballo in Maschera for Festival Opera in Walnut Creek to great audience and critical acclaim and was asked to return in 2009 to direct a new production of Turandot. In recent seasons, he has been the principal stage director for Opera Idaho, directing Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Boheme, L’Elisir d’Amore and Lucia di Lammermoor and Cosi Fan Tutte. In the summer of 2008, Cox directed his first musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, for Cabrillo Stage. The show received rave reviews and ran for five weeks. Recently, he made his debut with West Bay Opera with a sold out production of Carmen. He also directed Don Giovanni in February of 2009, his first opera for San Francisco Lyric Opera, as well as making his debut with Livermore Valley Opera in the fall of 2009, directing Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. He finished LVO’s season with Die Fledermaus. In addition to professional opera, Mr. Cox enjoys working with young singers and has directed The Impressario, Gianni Schicchi and Cosi Fan Tutte for the USC Opera Department. Mr. Cox helped initiate, directed and sang in the first opera at the San Luis Obispo summer Mozart Festival. He directed and sang in Magic Flute, Cosi Fan Tutte and assisted with Le Nozze di Figaro.
Jun Nakabayashi - Conductor
Jun Nakabayashi has been active in both the symphonic and operatic fields for the past twenty years. Currently Music Director for Taconic Opera (Peekskill, NY), Nakabayashi holds a repertoire of more than 100 symphonic works and 30 operas. He has conducted Bay Shore Lyric Opera (Capitola, CA), Livermore Valley Opera (Livermore, CA), West Bay Opera (Palo Alto, CA), Opera San Jose (San Jose, CA), The South Bay Chamber Ensemble (San Jose, CA), Oakland Lyric Opera (Oakland, CA), and ALEA II Contemporary Music Ensemble (Stanford, CA). In Europe, he has worked with Opera Forum (Enschede, Holland) and Vox Artis Zenei Fesztivál (Miskolc, Hungary). He was Music Director of the Riverside Orchestra (New York, NY) from 2002 to 2007.
Working since its inception, Nakabayashi contributed in ensuring the reputation of Taconic Opera as a company that can present challenging works in the highest quality. Critics and audience especially raved his productions of Macbeth, Otello, and The Medium. Always striving to bring the best out of his performers, Nakabayashi raised the 36-year-old Riverside Orchestra to a level that it had never achieved prior to his appointment. Notable soloists including Phillip Myers, Nancy Allen, and Mindy Kaufman commended his charisma and musical instinct, and enthusiastically returned for subsequent appearances. Strongly interested in working with young musicians, Nakabayashi has enjoyed conducting at San Jose State University (1997-2001), at the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute in San Francisco (1999-2001, 2003, and 2008) and at Hoff Barthelson Music School (2001-present).
Working since its inception, Nakabayashi contributed in ensuring the reputation of Taconic Opera as a company that can present challenging works in the highest quality. Critics and audience especially raved his productions of Macbeth, Otello, and The Medium. Always striving to bring the best out of his performers, Nakabayashi raised the 36-year-old Riverside Orchestra to a level that it had never achieved prior to his appointment. Notable soloists including Phillip Myers, Nancy Allen, and Mindy Kaufman commended his charisma and musical instinct, and enthusiastically returned for subsequent appearances. Strongly interested in working with young musicians, Nakabayashi has enjoyed conducting at San Jose State University (1997-2001), at the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute in San Francisco (1999-2001, 2003, and 2008) and at Hoff Barthelson Music School (2001-present).
Michel Singher - Conductor
In addition to distinguished careers on the concert podium and as a teacher, Maestro Singher has conducted some 60 operas in hundreds of performances for European and American companies. These include, among many others, Hamburg State Opera, Arizona Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera San José and Utah Festival Opera. At the specific request of Sir Charles Mackerras, Singher was his understudy for two productions at San Francisco Opera. He returned to West Bay Opera in October 2010 to conduct La forza del destino. In May 2011, he will conduct La fille du Regiment for Opera Idaho.
On the symphonic podium, Maestro Singher has led, among others, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony. Professor Singher was for several years head of the orchestral and conducting curricula at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and also taught at the University of Washington, NYU and San Jose State University, from which he has just retired after five years as Coordinator of Opera. For a decade he maintained a busy vocal coaching studio in New York, where his clients included singers on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. He has previously been a member of BASOTI's faculty in 1996, 2006, 2007 and 2010.
On the symphonic podium, Maestro Singher has led, among others, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony. Professor Singher was for several years head of the orchestral and conducting curricula at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and also taught at the University of Washington, NYU and San Jose State University, from which he has just retired after five years as Coordinator of Opera. For a decade he maintained a busy vocal coaching studio in New York, where his clients included singers on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. He has previously been a member of BASOTI's faculty in 1996, 2006, 2007 and 2010.
Alexander Katsman - Conductor
Five seasons at BASOTI; conductor, Suor Angelica (2002), Old Maid and the Thief and The Telephone (2003). Coach and chorus master, Merola Program; assistant conductor, Rigoletto and L'Italiana in Algieri. Conducted more than 40 musical stage works in the San Francisco Bay Area: Faust (Opera San Jose), A Masked Ball (West Bay Opera); Don Giovanni (Bay Shore Lyric Opera). "La Boheme" (Livermore Valley Opera). Mr. Katsman is the Music Director of the Livermore Valley Opera as well as a member of the coaching staff at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Jonathan Khuner - Conductor
Jonathan Khuner is assistant conductor and prompter at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and San Francisco Opera. Last summer he conducted a condensation of Wagner's epic Ring of the Nibelung at Berkeley Opera. Khuner is music director there, having served as artistic director from 1985 to 2009. Last August he also conducted Don Giovanni for Open Opera at John Hinkel Park in Berkeley. Mr. Khuner has conducted performances of the New Israeli Opera, San Francisco Opera Center, West Bay Opera, Pacific Repertory Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, California Opera, and the Tel Aviv Symphony. He has appeared also with the Bayreuth Wagner Festival, Santa Fe Opera, Miami Opera, Opera Barga, Italy, and the Israel Philharmonic. For several years, Mr. Khuner taught the Opera Workshop at the University of California, Berkeley, where he re-inaugurated this course at the invitation of the Music Department. He also appears frequently in the bay area as recital accompanist and lecturer, for example giving talks for San Francisco's Opera Guild and that company's pre-curtain lectures.
Ryan Murray - Conductor
Ryan Murray is the principal conductor of Townsend Opera Players, Modesto’s Opera Company, as well as the Choral Director of the Music in the Mountains Festival Chorale. Since joining Townsend Opera Players, the company has seen tremendous growth, including an increase in size of the orchestra, and a partnership with the Adler Fellows of San Francisco Opera. Mr. Murray is also the Assistant Director and Director of Vocal Activities of the Academy at All Hallows orchestra and chorus of Sacramento.
Mr. Murray is a summa cum laude graduate of CSU Sacramento where he obtained a bachelor’s in bassoon and voice performance. While enrolled at CSUS, Mr. Murray was the assistant conductor of the Orchestra and the Opera programs. He studied conducting with Professor Leo Eylar. Along with conducting the orchestra on many occasions, Mr. Murray also performed the Weber Bassoon Concerto as a guest soloist with the orchestra, and continues to freelance as a professional bassoonist throughout Northern California.
Mr. Murray is a summa cum laude graduate of CSU Sacramento where he obtained a bachelor’s in bassoon and voice performance. While enrolled at CSUS, Mr. Murray was the assistant conductor of the Orchestra and the Opera programs. He studied conducting with Professor Leo Eylar. Along with conducting the orchestra on many occasions, Mr. Murray also performed the Weber Bassoon Concerto as a guest soloist with the orchestra, and continues to freelance as a professional bassoonist throughout Northern California.
Sheri Greenawald - Guest Master Voice Teacher
Sheri Greenawald, San Francisco Opera Center Director, has had a distinguished international operatic singing career as a soprano, noted in particular for her enormous range of roles. She has sung featured roles with (among others) San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Venice’s La Fenice, the Munich State Opera, Paris’s Châtelet Theater, Welsh National Opera, Seattle Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, the Netherlands Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Naples’s Teatro San Carlos and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. She has worked with most of opera’s great conductors and directors, and she is featured on several recordings, including singing the title role of Blitztein’s Regina conducted by John Mauceri and recorded on Decca. A graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, Greenawald completed the Professional Studies Program at the Juilliard School of Music and has received a Rockefeller Grant, NEA Grant, and was Seattle Opera Association’s Artist of the Year in 1998. She has taught privately, was a visiting artist at the University of Charleston, an Artist in Residence at the University of Northern Iowa, was the vocal coach of the Santa Fe Apprentice Program in 1999 and opera director of the program in 2000, and has given master classes the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. She was engaged in 2000/2001 as a professor of voice and opera at the Boston Conservatory, with a full vocal studio, coursework on English and American Song Repertory, and directed for the Opera Studio. Since May 2002, she has been the Director of the Opera Center for the San Franicsco Opera, and Artistic Director for the Merola Opera Program, both of which are young artist training programs.
Erie Mills- Master Voice Teacher
Erie Mills has received critical and popular acclaim throughout the world. She has performed in the world's major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Vienna Staatsoper, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New York City Opera and many others. As a concert artist, Ms. Mills has appeared with the orchestras of Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. Her performance of Cunegonde at the New York City Opera was seen on a national telecast on PBS’ “Live from Lincoln Center.” From 1998-2008 she was on the voice faculty at San José State University. Since 2004 she has worked as the English diction specialist for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and also works in this capacity for the Metropolitan Opera and the Santa Fe Opera. In 2004 she became the first singer to join the board of directors of Opera America. She is a graduate of The College of Wooster in Ohio, the University of Illinois, and the Houston Opera Studio.
Jane Randolph - Master Voice Teacher
Jane Randolph's 25 years of experience teaching voice to students has led her across North America: from L'Atelier de L'Opéra de Montréal and L'Université de Montréal to establishing private studios in San Diego, San Francisco and New York. Her students have sung in major national and international opera companies and have been winners of countless prestigious competitions, such as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the San Francisco Opera Auditions and the Operalia-Domingo Competition. After completing her studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of California at Los Angeles and the Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg, Germany, Ms. Randolph spent four seasons as a coloratura soprano at the Staatstheater in Luzern, Switzerland. She subsequently enjoyed an extensive career in opera, recital and oratorio in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Ms. Randolph is renowned for her commitment to her students as well as her passion for the art of singing.
Robert Britton - Alexander Technique Specialist
Teacher, Alexander Technique, San Francisco Conservatory since 1984; BASOTI since 2000. Private teaching practice, San Francisco and Marin County; also Alexander Training Institute of San Francisco, Chairman of the American Society for the Alexander Technique, 1997-1999. Studies in Buddhist meditation, Zen practice and Asian martial arts. Mr. Britton is on the Faculty Executive Committee at the Conservatory and serves on the Board of Directors at BASOTI.
Marcie Stapp - Lyric Diction
Marcie Stapp, author of The Singer's Guide to Languages, is a well-known vocal coach, accompanist and translator whose operatic translations are performed by leading music schools and professional companies across the country. She taught English and French at the Mangold Institute in Madrid, served as conductor/coach for the Academy of Vocal Arts, the Curtis Institute of Music, Indiana University, the Mozart Opera Studies Institute in Austria, Japan's Osaka College of Music and Sakai City Opera, the Gernot-Heindl Opera Studio of Munich, San Francisco Opera Center and Hawaii Opera Theatre among others. Ms. Stapp has accompanied the master classes of Margaret Harshaw, Renato Capecchi, Max Rudolf, Jess Thomas and Gerhard Hüsch, and has appeared in recital with members of the Metropolitan, San Francisco and New York City Opera companies. The Metropolitan Opera's renowned diction coach Nico Castel selected her as the editor of his popular Opera Libretti Series and the two collaborate annually on the Castel-Stapp Master Classes in San Francisco.
Robin Fisher - Audition Technique Specialist
Robin Fisher, lyric coloratura soprano, has performed to critical acclaim in such cities as Paris, Vienna, Prague, Hamburg, Chicago and Dallas. Press reviews remark on her “amazingly precise coloratura, melting diminuendos, splendid high notes and delightful musicality” (Opernwelt) and her “mature timbre and total self-assurance…. an extremely exciting singer-actress” (Westdeutsche Zeitung).In 2008, Robin Fisher performed Bach’s Motet “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen” with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, in Washington. Following this was a performance of the Dvorak Mass in D with the Napa Valley Chorale and a Broadway concert with the Bear Valley Music Festival. This season she will make her debut with Sacramento Opera as Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and her debut with Townsend Opera Players as Pamina in The Magic Flute. She sings the soprano solos in Mendelssohn's Elijah with the UC Davis Symphony and Chorus at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts on March 8, and the following weekend in a program of late-Renaissance music from England with the Sex Chordae Consort of Viols at Sacramento State University on March 13 and at Las Positas College on March 14. With the Sacramento Choral Society & Orchestra, she sings an all-Bach concert at the Mondavi Center on March 22. In May, Fisher will turn to more contemporary repertoire as she performs Barber's Knoxville, Summer 1915 with the orchestra of the Academy at All Hallows in downtown Sacramento.
Hatem Nadim - Collaborative Pianist
Mr Nadim was born in Cairo (Egypt). At the age of ten he visited old the Cairo Conservatoire, where he studied solo piano with R. Yassa, V. Fedorovtzew and V. Samaliotow and graduated with honors. Later, as a music scholarship winner at the University at Frankfurt (Germany), he continued his post-graduate studies in chamber music and vocal accompaniment, with Professors Joachim Volkmann and Rainer Hoffmann, where he earned his degree. He held the position of faculty member at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz teaching solo piano. And at the University of Music in Mannheim, where his responsibilities included those of collaborative pianist, chamber music coach and piano accompaniment teacher. Hatem Nadim has performed extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Korea and the Middle East. In September 2006, Mr. Nadim was appointed staff accompanist at California State University in Fresno.
Robert Anderson - Lighting Designer
Robert Anderson has worked in the bay area for over ten years. Companies include West Bay Opera, The Willows Theatre, Oakland Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, Berkeley Opera, Lamplighters, St. Mary's College, City of Pleasanton, Tri Valley Rep Company, Ron Guidi Dance Company, Western Ballet, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Oakland Ballet, Crossroads Theater, Savage Jazz Dance Company, and Lily Cai Dance Company.
