MEET OUR FACULTY
Program Directors
Dolora Zajick - General Director
Rosemary Mathews - Artistic Director
Sarah Agler - Administrative Director
Kathryn LaBouff - Director of Community and Academic Relations
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COACHES
Ben Terry Lusk
Anthony Manoli
Joel Revzen
Rosemary Mathews, Stage Director
Marianne Barrett, German Diction
Dr. Kathryn LaBouff, English Diction
Daniela Siena, Italian Diction
Laura Bozanich, Acting and Stage Director
Wendy Jex, Body Movement
Larry Blackburn, Pianist
Jayne Galloway, Pianist
Ines Irawati, Pianist
| VOCAL INSTRUCTORS
Sarah Agler
Darrell Babidge
Badiene Magaziner
Rosemary Mathews
Elaine Scherperel
Cesar Ulloa
Jacob Will
Dolora Zajick
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FACULTY BIOS
COACHES
Terry Lusk has been a vocal coach with many organizations including University of Texas at Austin, Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy, Nevada Opera Seminar and Association, San Francisco Opera Center, Santa Fe Opera, Juilliard School of Music, New York City Opera and many others. He coached Leontyne Price, Luciano Pavarotti, Magraret Price, Giorgio Tozzi, Dolora Zajick, Susan Quittmeyer, Niki Li Hartliep, Ruth Anne Swenson, David Malas, Jacob Willis and Cheryl Parrish. In recital he has accompanied Sherrill Milnes, Ellen Shade, Sheri Greenawald, Lilli Choolasian, Richard Best, Alan Titus, Mignon Dunn and Dolora Zajick. He holds both a BM and MM from Northwestern University.
Pianist and Coach Anthony V. Manoli has worked with some of the leading opera companies throughout the world including the Theatre Des Champs-Elysees, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opera Lausanne, L’Opera Du Rhin, the Spoleto Festival in both Italy and the United States, The Los Angeles Opera, The Washington Opera, Opera Company of Boston, Opera New England, Lake George Opera Festival and L’Opera Français de New York. Mr. Manoli was a Fellowship coach at the Tanglewood Festival and has worked with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado, Robert Shaw, Sir Andrew Davis, Richard Bonygne and Sir Colin Davis. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Mirella Freni, Jose Carreras, Rockwell Blake and Edita Gruberova are just some of the singers with whom he has worked. Mr. Manoli is currently a coach for the Young Artists Programs at the Washington Opera and the Los Angeles Opera. He is also a faculty member of the Mannes College of Music in New York City where he lives and maintains an active coaching studio. He appears frequently in recitals with prominent singers worldwide and has been seen on the A&E channel in performance with Mezzo-Soprano Dolora Zajick along with performances on television throughout Asia with Soprano Young Ok Shin.
Maestro Joel Revzen is an award-winning conductor and pianist who has been on the Metropolitan Opera conducting staff since 1999. He has been Dean of the St. Louis Conservatory, Assistant Conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, on the conducting faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and Artistic Director of the Berkshire Opera in western Massachusetts. In 2003, Maestro Revzen was appointed Artistic Director of Arizona Opera where he guides the artistic vision of the company. Revzen has appeared as guest conductor for leading symphonies and opera companies around the world, including among others the Kirov Opera in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Prague Symphony Orchestra' Prague Chamber Orchestra; Orchestre de Radio France; the Orchestra National de Lyon; Orchestre Capitole de Toulouse; National Theatre Mannheim, Germany; Kennedy Center Chamber Players; Minnesota Orchestra; Seattle Symphony; National Symphon; and Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center. As a collaborative pianist, Revzen has appeared in recital with Jaime Laredo, Michael Tree, Sharon Robinson and the late Arleen Auger.
INSTRUCTORS
Marianne Barrett was born and educated in Germany. She grew up in Munich and studied German and English literature at the Ludwig-Maximiliansuniverität in Munich. She also attended the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Munich, where she was a voice major. After immigrating to the United States, she lived in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, where she taught at the University of New Mexico, sang in recitals and oratorios, and performed many mezzo roles with AOT. She was cofounder of the German summer school in Taos, and acted as codirector and language coordinator for many years. Since coming to New York, Marianne has taught German at Hunter College and Columbia University and has been on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music since 1990 as a language instructor and German Diction coach. She holds the same position at Mannes College of Music. Since 2006 she has been on the faculty of The Juilliard School and coaches at the Metropolitan Opera when her busy schedule allows her to do so. The Santa Fe Opera has in recent years invited her to coach there whenever they have mounted a German opera. Ms. Barrett is an avid fan of Lieder, opera, chamber music, and her students.
Kathryn LaBouff has taught English Diction and English Vocal Literature at the Juilliard School of Music since 1986; the Manhattan School of Music since 1984; and the Curtis Institute of Music since 1998. She is the Assistant Chair of the Voice Faculty at the Manhattan School of Music. She has formerly taught at Yale University, Cornell University, Ithaca College, the Mannes College of Music, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta, Canada. Her book, Singing and Communicating in English - A Singer's Guide to English Diction, was published by Oxford University Press in 2008. She is currently a diction coach on the staff of the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera and the San Francisco Opera Merola program where she works on productions and gives masterclasses for their respective young artist programs. She was on the staff for Opera Theatre of St. Louis for six seasons. She has coached and prepared more than 300 opera productions in English. Other companies where she has coached productions are: the Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Glimmerglass Opera Company, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Festival of New Jersey, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and the Aspen Music Festival.
Italian native Daniela Siena is a sought-after Italian diction and language coach and has toured and worked with many well-known singers including Samuel Ramey, Justino Diaz, Wolfgang Brendel, Carol Vaness and June Anderson. She has coached at Curtis Institute of Music, Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera.
Laura Bozanich has worked as a theatre artist for over ten years. She received her master’s degree in Sydney, Australia where she was involved with numerous productions as an actor, writer, choreographer and director. A native of San Diego, she has worked extensively in her hometown. Her most recent roles were Betty and Dawn in the critically-acclaimed production of All in the Timing for Ion Theatre for which she is a resident artist. For the Diversionary, where she is also a resident artist, she played: the Queen in Valhalla, Childie in The Killing of Sister George, and all the women in Jeffrey. Other favorite roles and theaters include: Biederman and the Firebugs (Babette) for Cygnet Theatre, Story Theatre (the hound) and As Bees in Honey Drown (Amber) for the North Coast Repertory Theatre, The Ghost Sonata (young lady) for Sledgehammer Theatre, Stepping Out (Lynne) for the Avo/Moonlight, Trapped (Wren) for New Village Arts and Venus and 24/5 (for which she garnered an acting award) for the Fritz Theatre. She also performed in Cinderella (Portia), Grease (Patty) and Annie (Lily) for the Sierra Repertory Theatre. Abroad, Laura toured her own critically-acclaimed one-woman show, Eve's Tail, to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and London. She has appeared in commercials and she can be seen smiling at you as an angel in the movie, City of Angels. Along with acting, Laura has also taught drama on the college level and privately for several years.
Wendy Jex graduated from Brigham Young University with her B.A. in Dance Education in 1984. She taught at Springville High School following graduation. She later returned to Brigham Young University where she earned her Master's Degree in dance pedagogy. She was invited to stay on at Brigham Young University as part-time faculty. She has earned Best Teacher award for a graduate student for two consecutive years. She traveled extensively with the BYU Folkdancers. She has taught Modern Dance, Jazz Dance, Folk Dance, Fitness, Modeling and Character classes.
Jayne Galloway has enjoyed being a professional accompanist for the past 28 years, playing for a variety of instrumentalists and vocalists. She graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Piano Pedagogy. Between student and faculty recitals and local freelance accompanying, she performs 18-20 recitals a year plus numerous auditions, competitions, master classes, lessons, and recordings. She served on the part-time faculty of the BYU School of Music as a collaborative artist for 8 years and continues now serving the music students and faculty there. Last year she served on the accompanying staff of the International Stradivarius Violin Competition held in Salt Lake City. In 2006 she accompanied competitors at the national MTNA competition in Seattle. She has played in master classes with Jean-Pierre Rampal, James Galway, and Joseph Silverstein. Currently she is the principal accompanist for Classical Ballet Academy in Provo.
Known for her expressivity and virtuosity, Ines Irawati is in demand both as a solo recitalist and a collaborative pianist. Irawati holds a Masters of Music degree from Yale University, where she studied with Claude Frank, and was coached by Peter Frankl, and Kikuei Ikeda, the second violinist of the Tokyo String Quartet. As both a solo and collaborative pianist, she has participated in master classes with such noted musicians as Emmanuel Ax, Murray Perahia, Martin Katz, Barbara Bonney, and Dawn Upshaw. Irawati has won numerous prizes from competitions including the Suburban Concerto Competition, the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, the D'angelo International Young Artists Competition, and the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus Competition. She was also invited to perform Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra at Severance Hall. She was awarded Best Accompanist by the Marilyn Horne Foundation, and was invited to collaborate with baritone Nikolai Janitzky for a New York debut. In January of 2006, Irawati was invited by the Marilyn Horne Foundation to participate in the week-long musical event presented by The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. She has collaborated with many chamber musicians such as Strings of the West, a resident quartet of the Midland-Odessa Symphony, and the Hyperion String Quartet, the resident quartet of San Diego State University, and Jeff Thayer, the concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony.
VOCAL INSTRUCTORS
Sarah Agler received her BA in violin performance from the University of Nevada at Reno and completed her MM in vocal performance at Indiana University. She has performed leading roles in opera, light opera and oratorios as well as on the concert stage as soloist with major orchestras. She sang Electra in the world premiere of The Cry of Clytaemnestra at Indiana University. Other roles she has performed include the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Susan B. in The Mother of Us All, Suor Angelica in Suor Angelia and Turandot in Turandot. She has performed with numerous opera companies, including the San Diego Opera, Long Beach Opera and the Nevada Opera Company. Ms. Agler has won several awards in different competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the San Francisco Opera Auditions, the NATS and Fuchs Auditions. She has studied with several teachers and coaches, including Ted Puffer, Vera Scammon, Brian Balkwill, Gillian Cookson, Ernest St. John Metz, Michael Carson, Greg Buchalter and George Trovillo; she continues to study with Kathleen Darragh.
Baritone Darrell Babidge graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music in the U.K. where he was recognized with four awards and performed the roles of Nottingham (Roberto Devereux), Man (Dawnpath), and Lionel (Maid of Orleans). He also received his Master’s degree from Brigham Young University and his Professional degree in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music, funded by the Birgitt Nilsson scholarship. A recent review from the Salt Lake Tribune said “On opening night, baritone soloist Darrell Babidge filled the Capitol Theater with his resonant voice”. Another review from the Opera Now journal has written “Darrell Babidge contributed smooth, polished timbre to the [role of] Almaviva”. Darrell is full-time faculty at Brigham Young University. He also teaches the Utah Opera Young Artists. Many of his students sing professionally and have also been accepted into Young Artist programs at the Metropolitan Opera and Houston Grand Opera. He has been employed by the Metropolitan Opera to teach in their Lindemann Young Artists program.
Although her career was in opera and Broadway, Badiene Magaziner has become one of the foremost experts in teaching R&B, Pop, Rock, Jazz and Gospel, as well as Opera and Musical Theater. Ms. Magaziner holds a Masters of Music in voice from the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, where she was awarded a full scholarship. Later, she appeared in many opera roles throughout Europe, including Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Eurydice in Orpheus and Eurydice, and alternately as Mimi and Musetta in La Boheme. She has also sung the role of Tosca with the New Orleans Opera, Connecticut Opera, Virginia Opera, Boston Opera and Buffalo Opera.
Rosemary Mathews in addition to having been Dolora Zajick's first voice teacher, has performed over twenty leading operatic roles including Mimi, Santuzza, Tosca, Butterfly, Countess (Le Nozze di Figaro), Violetta (La Traviata), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus) and Leonora (Il Trovatore). She has also done considerable recital work in the western United States and has taught at various colleges and universities in Nevada, California, Oregon and Utah. Ms. Mathews has directed many musical productions from opera to musical theater, including Gianni Schicchi, Cosi Fan Tutte, Amahl and the Night Visitors, 1776, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Beauty and the Beast and Les Miserables. In 1996, Ms. Mathews became a music educator in public schools. She has had great success working with choirs, including many honors at national festivals. In 2006, her A Cappella Choir was selected to perform at the Western Division of the American Choral Director's Convention. In 2003 and 2005, she toured internationally as a conductor with the Utah Ambassadors of Music where the choirs performed in cathedrals and basilicas throughout Europe.
Soprano Elaine Scherperel has sung opera, oratorio, and art songs in the U.S. and Europe. Her teachers were Phyllis Curtin, Chloe Owen, Betty Jeanne Chipman, and dramatic soprano Marjorie Lawrence. For nine years she was the general director of Washington East Opera, a professional regional opera company in Washington State. She has taught at several colleges and now maintains a private studio in Washington.
After an international opera and concert career of more than fifteen years, tenor César Ulloa devotes his time to the development of opera singers around the world. He is presently on the teaching staff of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco Opera Merola and Adler programs and the Placido Domingo-Thornton young artist program at the Los Angeles Opera. He has served on the faculties of Palm Beach Atlantic University, New World School of the Arts (Miami, Florida) and the University of Montréal School of Music. For over eight years he has served as vocal instructor and musical consultant for S.I.V.A.M., Mexico’s most prominent young artist program, as well as being the principal voice instructor and consultant for L’Atelier Lyrique de L’Opéra de Montreal and Palm Beach Opera Young Artist Studio. He has given master classes at young artist programs, music conservatories and opera companies throughout the United States, China, Mexico and Canada, as well as being an adjudicator and vocal consultant to several musical institutions and foundations in the US and Canada.
An experienced concert artist, bass-baritone Jacob Will has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and at the International Bach Festival of Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Equally at home on stage, Mr. Will has sung frequently with Zürich Opera, New York City Opera, Vancouver Opera, Bavarian State Opera and San Francisco Opera. Mr. Will is a member of the voice faculty at the University of South Carolina.
Dolora Zajick is that rare voice type, a true dramatic Verdi mezzo; she has sung the three big Verdi roles, Azucena, Amneris and Eboli (in Il Trovatore, Aida and Don Carlo respectively) all over the world with such companies as the Metropolitan, Chicago’s Lyric, the San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Italy’s La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, London’s Covent Garden, Berlin’s Staatsoper, etc. She has appeared in opera and in concert with some of the world’s foremost conductors. Marilyn Horne, the reigning mezzo-soprano of the previous generation, called Zajick “A force of nature - and it’s not just her amazing voice; it’s what she can do with her voice because of her superb technique and dedication.” The great operatic soprano Birgit Nilsson said that Zajick is “the only one (mezzo-soprano) existing today without any competition in the world.” Ms. Zajick graduated from the University of Nevada with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music before going to New York for further musical studies at the Manhattan School of Music. After winning the Bronze Medal at the 7th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and being accepted into the San Francisco Opera’s Merola program, she made her operatic debut with the San Francisco Opera as Azucena in Il Trovatore, which launched her into international stardom.
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