For the same reason that we choose performance repertoire based on our participants, our extraordinary faculty is selected annually based on the operas/scenes to be performed and the specific needs of those participants. This means that the program is about "you" rather than "us." We select faculty members who are well known for their knowledge of current industry standards as well as for their gifts as performers and instructors.

The 2010 faculty included James Caraher and Louis Salemno, two international-level opera conductors, superb coach-pianists, both in a position to engage singers. They were joined by Laurie Rogers, a gifted collaborative pianist with comprehensive knowledge of operatic repertoire and languages. All three maestri coached and accompanied lessons and rehearsals, offering the singular experience of working one-on-one with conductors/artistic directors in hiring positions.

The 2011 faculty will be highlighted by the addition of internationally renowned conductor Alfred Savia, and virtuoso collaborative pianist Jerad Mosbey returns to the program after a two-year hiatus. These accomplished professionals, along with returning maestro James Caraher,  master teachers Mark Thomsen, Amy Johnson, and stage director Vernon Hartman will provide participants with a faculty rarely matched in breadth and depth of experience and knowledge.

Marc Verzatt maintains an active career directing opera, operetta, and musical theater throughout the United States, South America, and Europe. He began his theatrical career as a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera after studying drama at Rutgers University and ballet with New Jersey’s Garden State Ballet. After several seasons as a soloist with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, he left to continue his education in production as a stage manager with the Cincinnati Opera and Pittsburgh Opera companies.

He made his professional directing debut with a production of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann with Opera Columbus. He has since directed productions with the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and the opera companies of Fort Worth, Lake George, Madison, Arizona, Toledo, Atlanta, Kansas City, Baltimore, Idaho, and Mississippi.

In Austin, he directed both Puccini’s La Bohème and Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Mr. Verzatt has taught and directed at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts and The University of Notre Dame. He has directed several Yale Opera productions, including Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (in which he appeared in the role of Puck) for Orchestra Verdi in Milan, as well as five one-act operas in Sprague Hall, and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica, La Bohème as well as Strauss's Die Fledermaus and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at the Shubert Theater.

In 2005 he was engaged by the Metropolitan Opera for a speaking role in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. He joined the Yale faculty in 2002. At Westminster Choir College, he taught courses in Improvisation and Movement, as well in acting, directed the Opera Workshop, and staged full productions of Handel's Oreste, Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito and Il Re Pastore, Debussy's Pélleas et Mélisande and L'Enfant Prodique, Ravel's L'enfant et les sortiléges and Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites. He maintains an active career as a free-lance stage director: in 2010 he staged Don Giovanni for the Boston Youth Symphony, to which he returns in 2011 for Macbeth.

In 2006 he was named Outstanding Stage Director of the Year by Classical Singer magazine.

Opera conductor James Caraher, Artistic Director of Indianapolis Opera for the past sixteen years, continues to “wow” his audiences and critics with impressive productions. He has been acclaimed for his deliberate attention to ensemble casting and collaboration between all performers – in the pit and on stage. The success of his collaborative philosophy is well stated in these remarks about his production of Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer: “The real stars of this production, however, were Caraher and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra…the Indianapolis Opera artistic director had his players and singers integrated and balanced to near perfection.”

Often referred to as “the singers’ conductor,” Mr. Caraher is a master at controlling the reins of the many forces of grand opera while clearly communicating his musical desires to each performer. American Record Guide said of his Ballad of Baby Doe: “Caraher led a gently effective accompaniment, with careful regard for the needs of his singers.” And Opera News posted that “The Indianapolis Symphony responded to Caraher’s every wish” in Indianapolis Opera’s production of Macbeth.

Caraher’s recent seasons with the Indianapolis Opera have included performances of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Madama Butterfly, The Crucible, Falstaff, Werther, Les Contes d’Hoffman, Cosí Fan Tutte, Lucia di Lammermoor, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, The Merry Widow, Le Nozze di Figaro, Turandot, Carmen, La Fille du Regiment, Die Zauberflöte and Tosca.

Caraher first realized his fondness for opera while a rehearsal accompanist for Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, New York. From there he moved to The Syracuse Opera Company as assistant music director and chorus master ending his first season at the podium with a performance of Rigoletto. Showing talent and poise, the young Caraher was promoted to music director and principal conductor. He held this position until 1988 when a partnership between Syracuse Opera and Indianapolis Opera enabled him to expand his horizons to include the title and duties of music director for Indianapolis Opera. For several seasons, he assumed the additional responsibility of music director for Opera Memphis. His tenure as artistic director and principal conductor of Indianapolis Opera has been one of growing success for the company and its audiences.

In 2001, Caraher participated in a joint production of Porgy and Bess for the Indianapolis Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia. The sold-out production was proclaimed by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “one of the Opera Company of Philadelphia’s great triumphs of music and stagecraft.”

Caraher frequently serves as guest conductor for other symphonies and opera companies and has lent his talents to The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Nashville Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Memphis, New Jersey Opera Festival, Imperial Symphony Orchestra (Florida), El Paso Opera, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Youngstown Symphony, Greater Buffalo Opera and Opera Delaware. He devotes much of his time to the development of young singers while directing the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble, the company’s Young Artist Program, and has spent several summers as a music director for the Ash Lawn Highland Music Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia. In addition to symphonic literature and opera, Mr. Caraher enjoys conducting musical theater and ballet, and is an active vocal coach and accompanist.

In 1988, Mr. Caraher was honored by his alma mater, Hamilton College, in Clinton New York, with the Hamilton College Alumni Medal for significant contributions to the performing arts. In 2004, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his conducting debut, he was given the honor of being declared a Sagamore of the Wabash, Indiana’s most prestigious civic award, by then Governor Joe Kernan, and was made a Distinguished Citizen of the City of Indianapolis by Mayor Bart Peterson.

Mr. Caraher has arranged and produced two audiotapes for children. The first was a collection of safety songs called Play It Safe, and the second, Peace Is For Everyone, was a commission by the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence. He lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with his wife Denise and his two children Paige and Patrick.

http://www.indyopera.org

Daniel Beckwith’s conducting career began in 1991 in an all-Mozart concert with Virginia’s Norfolk Symphony. Only a year later, Houston Opera invited him to conduct Gretry’s rarely performed Zémire et Azor. Many important engagements followed, notably Canadian Opera Company [Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea], Glimmerglass Opera Festival [Rossini’s Le Comte Ory], The Lyric Opera of Chicago [Così fan tutte], Edmonton Opera [G.F. Handel’s Guilio Cesare], and The Opera Theatre of St. Louis [Haydn’s Armida].

Daniel Beckwith served as assistant to James Levine for six seasons at the Metropolitan Opera and was given his conducting debut with Don Giovanni in 1995 after James Levine observed his conducting of a stage rehearsal. On the strength of these performances, Daniel Beckwith was engaged for several important debuts conducting the works of Georg Frideric Handel, both nationally [Serse, Seattle Opera] and internationally [Rinaldo, Grand Theâtre du Genève, Theodora, The Glyndebourne Festival].

The operas of Mozart have figured prominently in Daniel Beckwith’s career. His return engagement to the Metropolitan, as well as his San Francisco Opera and Portland Opera debuts was with Don Giovanni; Vancouver, Baltimore, Edmonton and Arizona opera companies have all heard his performances of Le Nozze di Figaro. His Australian opera debut in 1998 was with another personal favorite, La Clemenza di Tito. His return engagement to the Seattle Opera and his debut with the Washington Opera was with Die Zauberflöte.

Daniel Beckwith’s love of, and affinity for, the Baroque, early classical, and the bel canto repertory has given him the opportunity to perform many of the cornerstone operas of these varying periods: Orphée et Euridice [Utah Opera], Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto [Wolftrap Opera Festival]; Lucia di Lammermoor [Cincinnati Opera], Il Barbiere di Siviglia [UK’s Opera North, Florida Grand Opera, Wolftrap Opera Festival], L’Italiana in Algeri [Cleveland Opera, Opera Columbus, Chautauqua Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey], and G.F. Handel’s Oreste [The Juilliard School and Spoleto Festival, Italy]. The vehicle of his April 2000 New York City Opera debut was a new production of Rameau’s Platée which featured the Mark Morris Dance Group.

With an increasingly diverse repertory, Daniel Beckwith has had many return engagements with The New York City Opera [Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, The Rape of Lucretia, G.F. Handel’s Alcina, revival of Platée], The Washington Opera [The Crucible], The Cincinnati Opera [Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette], Calgary Opera, [Susannah, Don Pasquale], Canadian Opera Company [Mozart’s Il Re Pastore], Edmonton Opera [The Rape of Lucretia, Turandot], Wolftrap Opera Festival [Falstaff, Die Entführung aus dem Serail]. From 1999 to 2001, he was Artistic Director of the Lake George Opera Festival, during which time he conducted performances of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Govanni, Così fan tutte, Madama Butterfly, Il Ré Pastore and Struass’ Ariadne auf Naxos.

His concert appearances have included performances with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society in a program of J.S. Bach, G.F. Handel and the world premiere of Dan Welcher’s JFK: the Voice of Peace; an all-Handel concert with the Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall; orchestral and vocal repertory from Mozart to Wagner with Metropolitan Opera soprano Youngok Shin at the LG Arts Center in Seoul, South Korea. He made his debut with Chicago’s Music of the Baroque in performances of G.F. Handel’s Israel in Egypt. A return to Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival featured mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore in a concert of Bel Canto rarities; his first appearance at Spain’s Santander Festival with soprano Renée Fleming included orchestral and vocal repertory drawn from the 17th to 20th centuries. In celebration of the Mozart year, Daniel Beckwith conducted an all-Mozart orchestral concert for the Princeton Festival. A December concert tour with Renée Fleming included debuts with the Hartford Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. Future engagements include a return to Calgary opera for Georges Bizet’s Carmen.

In demand as a partner in recital, Daniel Beckwith has appeared in the USA and Europe accompanying artists such as Renée Fleming, Benita Valente, Carol Vaness, Nancy Gustafson, Marilyn Horne, Frederica von Stade, Jennifer Larmore, Denyce Graves, Susanne Mentzer, Jerry Hadley, Ben Heppner, Richard Leech, Nathan Gunn and Samuel Ramey. His television credits [with Renée Fleming] include Good Morning America, The View, Martha Stewart Living.

Alfred Savia enjoys an internationally respected career as conductor, orchestra builder and teacher. Under his leadership the Evansville (IN) Philharmonic has expanded its activities to include a comprehensive Youth Orchestra program, the incorporation of the Philharmonic Chorus, Children’s Choirs and the Eykamp String Quartet. He initiated many new concert programs including Gospel Night, Family/Casual Classics Series, Outdoor Concerts in and around Evansville, annual Messiah and Nutcracker performances, Music Alive (residency with composer David Ott), a Side-By-Side program with the professional and Youth Orchestras, and Chamber Orchestra concerts in nearby Vincennes and New Harmony. The inclusion of fully-staged opera in many of the past seasons has become one of the highlights of the cultural scene in Evansville.  Maestro Savia’s many collaborations with stage director Vernon Hartman include Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Carmina Burana, Porgy and Bess, Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto, La bohème, Le nozze di Figaro and The Pirates of Penzance.  The 2005 production of Brundibar garnered unparalleled local, regional and national attention, through a featured story on CNN, as a community-wide effort to use this children’s opera in teaching the lessons of the Holocaust.  Similarly, the Philharmonic’s performance of Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony, a musical setting of poetry about the massacres at Babi Yar in Ukraine, brought Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko (through the sponsorship of the University of Evansville) to Indiana for that week, putting the EPO in the national orchestral spotlight.  Savia’s innovative programming skills and his ability to connect with audiences everywhere have been documented in profiles in Musical America and Symphony Magazine.  Maestro Savia was the recipient of the 2004 Mayor’s Arts Award in Evansville.

Mr. Savia, was Associate Conductor of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from 1990-1996, and he returns regularly.  He frequently appears as a guest conductor throughout North America and around the globe. His American appearances have included performances with the St. Louis, Detroit, Phoenix, Savannah, Alabama, Southwest Florida (Ft. Myers), Columbus, Illinois, Memphis, Winston-Salem, Roanoke, Battle Creek, San Antonio, Spokane, Duluth-Superior and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Louisville Orchestra and Dayton, Naples (FL), Rhode Island and Fresno Philharmonic Orchestras. Internationally he has conducted the Montevideo Philharmonic, Korea Philharmonic Orchestra, State of Mexico (Toluca) Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina in Florence, Radio & Television Serbia (Belgrade) Symphony Orchestra, Denmark’s Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Ankara, Turkey, the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra in Germany and the Symphony Orchestra of Xalapa, Mexico. Recent summer festival appearances have included Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony, Summer Music at Harkness Festival in New London, Connecticut, Lucius Woods Performing Arts Center in Wisconsin, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony On the Prairie. He has recorded Russell Peck’s The Thrill of the Orchestra with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

A native of Livingston, New Jersey, Alfred Savia graduated from Butler University’s Jordan College of Fine Arts. He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and privately with Otto Werner Mueller. Conducting studies at the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Institute of Orchestral Studies and the Tanglewood Music Center led to his first professional appointment as Assistant Conductor of The Omaha Symphony. Subsequently, he served as Resident Conductor of the Florida Philharmonic and New Orleans Symphony Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Florida Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Orlando Opera. He also played an integral role in the emergence of the Orlando Philharmonic, serving as its Artistic Director and Principal Conductor from 1995 to 2000.  Last season he returned for concerts with the Indianapolis Symphony during the regular season as well as summer concerts at Symphony on the Prairie and throughout the state.  He also conducted the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (New Orleans) in one of their first post-Katrina concerts in March of 2006, and returned for concerts there again in the 2006-07 season.  In May of 2006 he conducted the Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari (Italy) and was immediately invited back to conduct in 2007-2008.

One of America’s finest singing actresses, soprano Amy Johnson continues to expand her activities beyond the scope of her acclaimed stage and concert career. As a performer, she exhibits a unique combination of versatility, stage magnetism and striking physical beauty, able to portray youth yet having ample vocal brilliance and power to soar over the largest orchestra. The aforementioned versatility can be affirmed by a glance at her extraordinary repertoire - the title role in Salome, Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Fiordiligi in Cosí Fan Tutte, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Mimi in La bohème, the title role in Aïda, Leonora in Il Trovatore, the title role in Madama Butterfly, Marguerite in Faust, the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Liù in Turandot, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Nedda in I Pagliacci, Desdemona in Otello and Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. She has performed these roles throughout the world in such companies as Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, New York City Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Portland Opera, Toledo Opera, Orlando Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Tampa, Knoxville Opera, Bardavon Opera, Pamiro Opera and Piedmont Opera. Ms. Johnson has earned special praise for her portrayal of the title role in Puccini’s Tosca, which she has performed with Glimmerglass Opera, New York City Opera (also broadcast on PBS' Live from Lincoln Center), Palm Beach Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Indianapolis Opera, Spier Festival in South Africa, Arizona Opera, Nashville Opera, Kentucky Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Greensboro Opera, El Paso Opera, Kentucky Symphony, Rockford Symphony and Opera Tampa.

Ms. Johnson first received international recognition when composer Thea Musgrave personally chose her to create the role of Manuela in the world premiere of Simón Bolívar for Virginia Opera, which Ms. Johnson subsequently reprised in London (BBC Proms Concerts at Royal Albert Hall) and in Glasgow and Edinburgh (Scottish BBC). She also sang the world premiere of Ms. Musgrave’s Three Women with the Women’s Philharmonic of San Francisco. Ms. Johnson made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2006 singing the Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in a benefit for the South Asia earthquake victims alongside instrumentalists from the New York Philharmonic and other major orchestras. Other orchestral engagements include the Long Island Philharmonic, West Virginia Symphony, Evansville Philharmonic, Waterbury Symphony, Glacier Symphony, Riverside Symphonia, Rockford Symphony and Kentucky Symphony, with Ms. Johnson performing not only complete operas and operatic excerpts but also challenging concert repertoire, most notably the Four Last Songs of Richard Strauss. In operatic, concert and recital appearances, Ms. Johnson has been fortunate to collaborate with many of the world’s finest conductors, directors and accompanists, notably the late Silvio Varviso, Anton Coppola, Joseph Rescigno, George Manahan, Paul Wynne Griffiths, Steven Mercurio, James Caraher, Steven White, Raymond Harvey, Peter Mark, Paul Nadler, Valery Ryvkin, Louis Salemno, Stewart Robertson, Bruno Aprea, Emmanuel Plasson, Stephen Lord, Norman Johnson, Willie Anthony Waters, Mark Flint, Thomas Conlin, Randall Craig Fleischer, Alfred Savia, Steven Larsen, David Wiley, Robert Lyall, Apo Zhu, Joshua Greene, Hugh Keelan, Kamal Khan, Jerad Mosbey, David Rebhun, Mark Lamos, Fabrizio Melano, Robert Carsen, Marthinus Basson, Marc Verzatt, Vernon Hartman, Kay Walker Castaldo, Bodo Igesz, Mario Corradi, Linda Brovsky, John Hoomes, James Marvel, Sonja Frisell, Harold Prince, Lillian Garrett Groag, Michael Ehrman, Joshua Major, David Morelock, Tomer Zvulun, Lillian Garrett Groag, Claudia Zahn, Bliss Hebert, John Copley and Arvin Brown.

Ever expanding her artistic and vocal horizons, Ms. Johnson (in collaboration with Impresario Productions and Video Ideas Productions) recently created a new, cutting-edge and experimental idea – Twisted Sisters (www.twistedsistersmadscenes.com). In a fully staged evening of operatic “mad scenes” performed with orchestra, incorporating interactive projected film images, the artist again exhibits her singular versatility in excerpts from Lucia di Lammermoor, Mefistofele and Salome. The project premiered this past January to critical acclaim in performances with Kentucky Symphony, J. R. Cassidy conducting.

Ms. Johnson’s busy schedule the past two seasons included Bernstein’s Sumphony No. 3 (Kaddish) for the Winston-Salem Symphony (alongside narrator Jamie Bernstein), the title role in Salome with Toledo Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera (telecast on Iowa Public Television), an opera gala with the Cheyenne Symphony, a series of recitals (Five Languages of Love), and her first full Wagnerian role (Freia in Das Rheingold) in a co-production of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and Indianapolis Opera under the baton of Mario Venzago. She also recorded her first solo CD, Amy Johnson in Red, White and Blue, featuring a remarkable cornucopia of operatic selections in seven languages, with the MAV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest conducted by Steven Mercurio. The CD is scheduled for worldwide release by Hungaroton in 2010.

Her recent achievements away from the stage are natural outgrowths of her profile as a singer. Ms. Johnson is co-principal of Impresario Productions, LLC, a production company specializing in innovative, cost-effective ways of producing operas, concerts, galas and fundraisers, not only for existing opera companies but also for symphony orchestras, presenter houses, schools and other arts organizations. (www.impresarioproductions.com). Ms. Johnson, also a much sought-after voice teacher, works with aspiring professionals who travel from all over the country for study. Based on these diverse accomplishments, Ms. Johnson was appointed in 2008 as Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice at The University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Ms. Johnson was born in Chariton, Iowa and later moved to Elgin, Illinois. She is a graduate of Grinnell College and holds a Masters degree from Manhattan School of Music. She is a past winner of the Bel Canto National competition, and Baltimore Opera Competition, and a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

www.amysjohnson.com

One of America’s most accomplished and acclaimed tenors, Mark Thomsen enjoys a successful career in the United States and abroad. The Dallas Morning News describes him as having “a strong Italianate voice and a physical presence to match.” Mark has been busy making headlines at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he stepped in at the last minute on opening night in 2005 to perform the role of Don José in Carmen, opposite Denyce Graves. Mark also recently performed with this season’s baritone, Gaétan Laperrière, in Thais at Palm Beach Opera.

Often working repetitively with major companies, Mr. Thomsen has performed to much success with New York City Opera in the title role in La clemenza di Tito, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Alfredo in La traviata, Camille in The Merry Widow, and Nadir in Les pecheurs de perles.

He is a house favorite at the Santa Fe Opera where he has performed in more than fifteen productions, and at Dallas Opera where he has performed the Doctor in Argento’s The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, as well as with Houston Grand Opera as Don Ottavio, Faust, Tamino, Ferrando, Belmonte, and Des Grieux. Most recent engagements include Nicias in Thais with Boston Lyric Opera, Don José in Carmen with Dallas Opera, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Carolina, Rodolfo in La bohème with Indianapolis Opera, Belmonte in The Abduction from the Seraglio with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Cleveland Opera.

www.markthomsen.com

Vernon Hartman is Founder and President of Impresario Productions, LLC, an independent production company serving all aspects of the arts industry. To this task he brings over thirty-five years of experience as performer, director, producer, and administrator. For the better part of two decades Mr. Hartman was a stalwart at the Metropolitan Opera, where his many appearances included Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Valentin in Faust, Silvio in I Pagliacci, Ping in Turandot, Mercutio in Romeo et Juliette, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut and Redburn in Billy Budd. He has produced and directed opera and musical theater for well over twenty organizations both here and in Europe , and holds or has held such titles as Producer of Opera, General/Artistic Director, Executive/Coordinating Producer and Artistic Advisor for numerous opera companies, orchestras, and presenter houses. In the last four seasons Mr. Hartman has overseen productions of La bohème and Tosca for the Rockford (IL) Symphony, L'elisir d'amore with Opera Santa Barbara and Greensboro Opera, Porgy and Bess and The Pirates of Penzance for the Evansville (IN) Philharmonic, Il Tabarro/Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi and Le Nozze di Figaro at the Teatro Bramante in Urbania, Italy, Die Fledermaus at Kent State University and The University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Carmen for Opera Santa Barbara and the Fox Valley Symphony, La Traviata for Greensboro Opera, and Rigoletto with Greensboro Opera and the Dubuque Symphony.

His many producing/directing credits include Cosi Fan Tutte (Toledo), Dialogues of the Carmelites (Carnegie-Mellon), Die Fledermaus (Durham, Evansville, Trenton), Don Giovanni (Birmingham, Poughkeepsie), Il Trovatore (Green Bay, Trenton), Cavalleria/Pagliacci (Poughkeepsie, Green Bay), Carmen (Evansville), La Traviata (Poughkeepsie), Carmina Burana (Evansville), Madama Butterfly (Trenton, Evansville, Poughkeepsie), Faust (Trenton), Otello, Trouble in Tahiti and Turandot (all in Tampa).

His guest appearances as a singer have taken him throughout Europe and North America. Highlights include creating the role of defense attorney Fred Moore in the world premiere of Anton Coppola’s epic Sacco and Vanzetti for Opera Tampa; Pentheus in a major revival of H. W. Henze’s The Bassarids at Madrid’s Teatro Real, a co-production with Semper Oper, Dresden; Amonasro in Aida for Opern Air Gars in Austria; Scarpia in Tosca in Bergen, Norway, a co-production of the Bergen Philharmonic and West Norwegian Opera; Carmina Burana for the National Symphony; Ralph Vaughn-Williams’ Sea Symphony with the West Virginia Symphony; the world premiere of a new work (The Passion according to King David by Richard O. Faulk) with members of the Houston Symphony; and a series of Christmas concerts with both the Riverside Symphonia and the Norddeutsche Rundfunk in Hannover. Mr. Hartman has sung leading roles with most of North America’s top regional opera companies including Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Carolina, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Dayton, Des Moines, Fort Worth, Grand Rapids, Greensboro, Hawaii, Knoxville, Long Beach, Milwaukee, Montreal, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Seattle, Tampa, Utah and Virginia.

An active concert artist, Mr. Hartman has appeared at Carnegie Hall as Pentheus in H. W. Henze’s The Bassarids (Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting) and in the much-publicized revival of William Bolcom’s massive Songs of Innocence and Experience conducted by Leonard Slatkin. His New York Philharmonic appearances include Bernstein’s Songfest, Copland’s Old American Songs and “A Tribute to Lenny”, concerts celebrating the 75th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth and coinciding with the release of the BMG/RCA Red Seal recording of Songfest featuring Mr. Hartman and conducted by Mr. Slatkin. He has sung with many of North America’s foremost orchestras and festivals including those of St. Louis, New York, Cleveland, Washington, Pittsburgh, Blossom, Houston, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Grant Park, Montreal, Minnesota, West Virginia, Erie, Cherry Hill, Great Woods, Indianapolis, Riverside (NJ), San Antonio, Springfield, Evansville, Kalamazoo, Amherst, Lakeland, Wichita, Stamford, Waukesha and Dayton.

M r. Hartman returned to his original calling, musical theater, tackling Emile de Becque in South Pacific (alongside Tony Award nominees Susan Egan and Gary Beach) for Sacramento Music Circus, later repeating the role opposite former Olympian and Tony nominee Cathy Rigby at Houston’s Theatre Under the Stars. Much in demand for master classes, lectures and other educational activities, Mr. Hartman recently spoke at Teachers College, Columbia University, discoursing on “The Performer’s Perspective,” and he conducted seminars and master classes at Kent State University, Ashland University, Clarke College, Southwest Texas State University, Birmingham-Southern College, The University of Evansville, Bowling Green State University and The Governor’s School for the Arts at Old Dominion University.

Mr. Hartman was born in Dallas, Texas and raised at San Marcos in the central Texas hill country. He attended Southwest Texas State University and North Texas State University and received an Artist’s Diploma from the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. After extensive experience as an athlete, professional musician and broadcaster, he made his professional stage debut at Fort Worth’s Casa Mañana in South Pacific, followed by his operatic bow with the Fort Worth Opera in Salome. He first drew attention as Rigoletto with Shreveport Opera at age 22, and soon was touring with Western Opera Theater as Mozart’s Figaro and Olin Blitch in Susannah. Following a debut as Silvio in I Pagliacci, Mr. Hartman spent five years with the New York City Opera, including two coast-to-coast tours as Germont in La Traviata, before joining the roster of the Metropolitan Opera (for Rossini’s Figaro) in 1981. His European debut was Guglielmo in Cosí fan Tutte at the 1977 Spoleto Festival.

www.impresarioproductions.com

Benita Ryan joins the staff of The Professional Advantage as administrator, production coordinator and “mentor.” She brings a varied wealth of experience to her duties from her background in fundraising, project management, arts administration, concert production and tour coordination. Ms. Ryan served from 1996 – 2002 as Executive Director of The Riverside Symphonia, one of New Jersey’s premier arts organizations based in Lambertville, and she previously served as Board President for seven years. She has spearheaded fundraising and development projects for organizations such as International Hotels Group, Russell Byers Charter School, James Michener Art Museum, Trinity Episcopal Church Princeton, the “Miles of Mules” public art project in Bucks County, and many others. Ms. Ryan managed the United States tour of the Wroclaw Philharmonic in 2005, coordinating all logistics and on-site management. Her Renaissance-woman talents also encompass the management of a 110-acre agricultural farm (Jericho Mountain Orchards, New Hope, PA) whose gardens are often featured on tours and photo shoots, and where she still resides. An experienced pianist and church organist, Ms. Ryan holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Wheaton College, a Master of Arts in education from Bucknell University and Music Therapy certification from Montclair State University.