Opera Uprising

Ellen Broen is a certified life and entrepreneurship coach for creative business owners and industry leaders who are ready toi make breakthroughs in their lives and businesses.

Ellen triple-majored and graduated with a 4.0 grade average, sang operas in Italy, performed jazz in Austraila, and lived in France. She started her own busness while getting her masters and left higher education debt-free. 

Ellen is a Professional Certified Coach through the International Coach Federation with a private practice, group program, and workshop series. She's a graduate of the Accomplishment Coaching and Leadership Training Intensive, and also serves as the "Coaches's Coach" helping other coaches develop their breakthroughs businesses, and brand.

She is also the creative coach for Elizabeth.  

You can find her on the web at ellenbroen.com or on Youtube at @ellenbroen

Soprano Ann Moss is an acclaimed recording artist and champion of contemporary vocal music who performs and collaborates with a dynamic array of living composers. Often described as a "fearless performer” of some of the most challenging music of our time, her high, flexible voice has been singled out by Opera News for “beautifully pure floated high notes” and by San Francisco Classical Voice for “powerful expression” … “clear, silvery tones and passionate sweetness." Mike Telin of Cleveland Classical writes, her “long fluid lines are exquisite.” In addition to working closely with well-known composers such as Jake Heggie, John Harbison, Kaija Saariaho, Aaron Jay Kernis and David Conte, Ann seeks out and performs works by new and emerging voices at forums, festivals and concert series across the USA. She has released two portrait albums: Currents (Angels Share Records 2013) and Love Life (ASR 2016), both produced and recorded by multi-GRAMMY® award winner Leslie Ann Jones at Skywalker Sound. She can also be heard on releases from labels including Albany, Arsis Audio, Jaded Ibis Productions, Naxos, Navona Records, PARMA, and Ravello Records. Moss recently made her solo debut with the San Francisco Symphony singing the music of Mozart, Gershwin and Rogers under conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser. Highlights of the 2022-23 season include performances of Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Gérard Grisey’s Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil with After Everything Ensemble, and a concert tour in support of her newly released album Lifeline, which features re-imagined chants by Medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen recorded remotely with instrumental collaborators around the United States.

Elizabeth Rowe is a Leadership and High-Performance coach who brings the creativity, discipline, nuance and courage of a world-class performing artist into the coaching conversation.  Elizabeth's coaching practice helps high achievers across all industries learn to thrive in demanding work environments and successfully navigate career or personal transitions, all while remaining true to themselves.  She is also the principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a social justice advocate, and a public speaker. After her landmark equal pay lawsuit in 2018 The Boston Globe honored her as a Bostonian of the Year, calling her “The Fighter.” Her ongoing commitment to opening up dialogue about complex subjects led to her TEDx talk, The Lonely Onlys, where she shared her personal story of learning to embrace the powers of imagination and vulnerability to create connection and community. You can learn more about all of this at iamelizabethrowe.com

Elizabeth Bachman is THE go-to person for advanced level training in Speaking, Presentation Skills, Sales and Leadership. With a lifetime spent perfecting the art of presenting, she helps high-level clients master a message that brings * the Funding they need, * the Allies they want and * the Recognition they deserve.

A sought-after speaker and strategist in Silicon Valley – as well as nationally and internationally – Elizabeth works with leaders and influencers who need to become concise and compelling presenters. She helps them present as smart, down-to-earth, loose, friendly—even funny—and still be taken seriously.

Elizabeth has directed such luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti & Placido Domingo in more than 50 operas around the world, giving her a wealth of tools to help business professionals become respected presenters. Fluent in 5 languages, she is adept at working with presenters from many countries, bringing her global experience to her clients.

Host of the award-winning international podcast: Speakers Who Get Results, Elizabeth interviews experts from around the world on presentation skills, leadership & visibility as well as communication challenges that range from presenting internationally to gender misunderstandings.

Elizabeth is an award-winning contributing author to the international best-seller “Messages That Matter,” as well as the creator of “How to Get Booked as a Speaker: Taking Your Show on the Road” – the ultimate guide to filling your calendar with lucrative speaking gigs.

Elizabeth has been featured in numerous media interviews alongside – among others – business greats Dr. Ivan Meisner, Dan Kennedy & Steve Forbes. She presents regularly at such corporations as Bank of America, Gilead Sciences, FEMA, McKesson and Turner Construction as well as many groups for women in tech, science and law. In more than 50 operas around the world, Elizabeth has directed such luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti & Placido Domingo, giving her a wealth of tools to help business professionals become respected presenters. Fluent in 5 languages, she is adept at working with presenters from many countries, bringing her global experience to her clients.

Founder and Artistic Director of TOP Opera, a summer opera training program in the Austrian Alps, she continues to give back to the opera community.

Maren Montalbano began her vocal career with the San Francisco Girls Chorus at age seven, and has been singing ever since. A graduate of both New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University, Ms. Montalbano can be heard in three GRAMMY Award-winning albums: John Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning work, On the Transmigration of Souls (2005), and Gavin Bryars’ The Fifth Century (2018), and Lansing McLoskey’s Zealot Canticles (2019), on which she is a featured soloist. She recorded Douglas Cuomo’s opera Arjuna’s Dilemma with Anonymous 4 members Susan Hellauer and Jacqueline Horner, which was released in 2008 to critical acclaim.  She appears on over a dozen commercial recordings, including Alice Parker’s Listen Lord and The Family Reunion, Kile Smith’s Vespers, Lewis Spratlan’s Hesperus is Phosphorus, and Ted Hearne’s Sound from the Bench.

In the past five years, Ms. Montalbano has been a guest artist with Lyric Fest, Choral Arts Philadelphia, Network for New Music and Piffaro, the Renaissance Band. When she performed the modern premiere of Destinos vencen finezas, a 17th century zarzuela by Juan Francisco de Navas, with Philadelphia’s Baroque orchestra, Tempesta di Mare, her dramatic interpretation was hailed as “pure, suave and sensuous” (Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2015). When she premiered the role of Andy Warhol #2 in Andy: a POPera (Bearded Ladies Cabaret and Opera Philadelphia), the Broad Street Review called her singing “impeccable.”

Her debut album, Sea Tangle: Songs from the North, featuring all women composers and performers, was released in December 2016.

During the pandemic of 2020-21, Ms. Montalbano turned to the digital world. She wrote, produced, and starred in an interactive digital one-woman show called The Bodice Ripper Project, which had its world premiere at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and she started a podcast of the same name. Other pandemic world premiere projects include David Lang’s in nature (The Crossing/Warren Miller Performing Arts Center), Pete Wyer’s Spring Street Opera (American Opera Projects), and the release of six different commercial albums with various collaborators.

The 2021-22 season features Ms. Montalbano in more world premieres, both live and digital, from a podcast musical by Jennifer Rosenfeld to a work by Lansing McLoskey honoring the 100th anniversary of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Ms. Montalbano lives in New Jersey and sings professionally throughout a wide geographic area with such groups as Opera Company of Philadelphia, Trio Eos, and The Crossing. She is passionate about keeping artists employed doing what they do best. Ms. Montalbano currently studies voice with Julianne Baird.

Laura Hutchinson (Pronouns: She/They) has rarely followed the path well-trod. Some would say she has taken lots of detours, but each path she has taken has led her to new experiences and new perspectives that she is able to bring along her journey. Laura has a Master of Science in Education, focused on college student personnel and has worked closely with college students for more than a decade. She has worked in corporate finance, hospitality, retail, faith-based non-profit, and higher education. These diverse experiences have led Laura to build relationships with many types of people. The thing she has found to be common among all people, especially those who experience marginalization, is a desire to simultaneously be authentically themselves and be respected and valued.

Through her focus on intersectional LGBTQ+ support, she has learned many strategies for seeing, understanding, empowering people on the margins, and collaborating with them and those in power to affect organizational change. Laura helps communities practice proactive and authentic inclusion.

Her award-winning research on what LGBTQ+ folks actually want and expect in allies led Laura to a paradigm shift in the way we think about allyship.

Megan Ihnen is a “new music force of nature.” The act of live performance is integral to Megan’s work and her performances thrive on elaborate sound worlds and fully-developed dramatic interpretations. Through narrative and non-narrative musical storytelling, she explores the subjects of memory, nostalgia, the perception of time, and relationships. Whether through chamber music, staged recitals, opera, or large ensemble soloist work, she emphasizes the full range of vocal sounds, timbres, colors, and uses that characterize the 21st century voice.

Megan is a prolific new music vocalist who has appeared with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, Latitude49, Great Noise Ensemble, Stone Mason Projects, Rhymes With Opera, SONAR new music, and more. She has sung with many outstanding performers including Nadia Shpachenko, Michael Hall, Gregory Oakes, Nick Zoulek, Hillary LaBonte as well as premiered the work of Mara Gibson, Griffin Candey, Garrett Schumann, Christian Carey, Alan Theisen, Anna Brake, D. Edward Davis, and more.

A gifted narrative and non-narrative musical storyteller, Megan’s performance work explores the depths of memory, nostalgia, the perception of time, and complex relationships. Ihnen’s interpretations of modern and contemporary repertoire have garnered growing acclaim. She is particularly recognized as an excellent recitalist. Her This World of Yes program of contemporary music for voice and saxophone with Alan Theisen explores the themes of pathways, choices, and duality through the work of contemporary composers such as Jessica Rudman, Michael Young, and Michelle McQuade Dewhirst. This World of Yes has been performed across the United States including appearances in Kansas City, New Orleans, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Detroit, and Baltimore. With performances in Washington D.C., Baltimore, Colorado Springs, and Kansas City, Ms. Ihnen has worked with violinist Martha Morrison Muehleisen and Rome Prize winner video artist Karen Yasinsky to take audiences on a profound journey through György Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments through video and sound. Finally, Ihnen’s Single Words She Once Loved is a performance that centers around the ideas and effects of memory, dementia, and time. It is a deeply personal exploration of the dueling forces of ‘eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’ and ‘God gave us memories so that we may have roses in winter’. Single Words She Once Loved features compositions by David Smooke, Ryan Keebaugh, Daniel Felsenfeld, Jeffrey Mumford, and more.

Megan has enjoyed performing as part of Tuesdays @ Monk Space, Access Contemporary Music Thirsty Ears Festival, NEXTET, Ethos NewSound, 6:30 Concert Series, International U.S. Navy Saxophone Symposium, SPLICE Festival, Oh My Ears, Second Sunday Concert Series at Boston Sculptors Gallery, Winifred M. Kelley Music Series at Salisbury House, and more. She has appeared with Zeitgeist New Music, ÆPEX Contemporary Performance, Detroit New Music “Strange Beautiful Music Marathon”, Omaha Under the Radar Festival, Works and Process at the Guggenheim Series, Notes on Fiction Series at the Center for Fiction, New Music Gathering, Contemporary Undercurrent of Song Project, American Opera Theatre, Vivre Musicale, UCCS Music/Peak Frequency Creative Arts Collective, Harford Community College Sunday Afternoon Concert Series, and Silver Finch Arts Collective.

In the spring of 2017, Megan undertook a fundraising project for her first album, “Sleep Songs: Wordless Lullabies for the Sleepless.” She commissioned over 25 diverse composers from the United States and abroad to write brief, wordless lullabies for mezzo-soprano. Megan has also had recordings on Navona Records, Hoot/Wisdom Recordings, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN Fall 2015 Mixtape, and the CarpeDM Seize Des Moines “Music Mix: Volume III” which was featured at the 2016 SXSW Festival.

As a chamber musician, Megan is proud to have trained at the following summer festivals: impuls International Ensemble and Composers Academy for Contemporary Music, Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (SICPP), Fresh Inc Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, and MusicX.

Her devotion to the proliferation of new music extends beyond the commissioning and performing of music to teaching, workshopping, and mentoring of emerging artists in the field. She also works to increase the visibility and influence of new music through writing on the subject for multiple online and print publications. As a curator, she selected twenty songs for mezzo-soprano and piano for the NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music. Mezzo-Soprano, Vol. 1 includes works by: Michael Betteridge, Mark Buller, Stephen DeCesare, Douglas Fisk, Matt Frey, Jodi Goble, Ricky Ian Gordon, Cara Haxo, Cameron Lam, Cecilia Livingston, Shona Mackay, Tony Manfredonia, Nicole Murphy, Eric Pazdziora, Frances Pollock, Julia Seeholzer, Alan Thiesen, Dennis Tobenski, Moe Touizrar, and Ed Windels.

Megan was honored to receive a Phyllis Bryn-Julson Award for Commitment to and Performance of 20th/21st Century Music in 2009 and a Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award in Classical Music: Solo Performance in 2014. She was an accomplished violist and drama student before pursuing degrees in music and vocal performance from Augustana University and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Ihnen has been a board member for Baltimore Concert Opera and HOWL performing arts ensemble.

Megan is a devoted teacher who recently shepherded studios at Drake University Community School of Music, Southwestern Community College School for Music Vocations, and Graceland University before taking on communications roles at Nief-Norf, Live Music Project, and New Music USA. She has also been a resident faculty artist for the UMKC Summer Composition Workshop and the Mostly Modern Festival. In addition to UMKC, Megan has presented her popular masterclasses, workshops, and lectures a Bowling Green State University, Xavier University of Louisiana, New Music Gathering, Iowa Thespian Festival, UNCG Greensboro, and Florida Atlantic University. She was also a Visiting Artist for Louisiana State University for the 2018-2019 academic year.

In addition to being an avid podcast listener, Ihnen enjoys drinking good coffee, joking around with her sisters, tweeting about contemporary poetry, and watching Law & Order. She has grand dreams that one day her dog, Hunter, will be the best dog in the neighborhood. She lives in New Orleans, LA and out of her suitcase equally.

Cass loves singing and connecting with people, and she believes that experiencing the power of the human voice can initiate emotional catharsis, joy, transformation, inspiration, and even healing. she was fortunate to grow up in a small community where the traditions of storytelling and music-making run deep. As a child, Cass would go to ceilidhs – parties – and the live music would prompt everyone in the room to jump up and step dance or square dance, joining in the fun. Cass has kept this love of music with her as she studied classical singing and embarked on her own professional performing career. She considers herself lucky to have been influenced by this kind of musical spontaneity and interactive enjoyment from a young age. Her performing philosophy is based on these early life experiences, emphasizing personal interaction and connection, joy, and healing through sharing beautiful vocal music.

Torlef Borsting’s powerful baritone fuses with sensitivity, compassion, and lyricism to lend a musical and dramatic depth to characters such as Scarpia in Tosca, Germont in La Traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West. His is a voice ideal for the commanding presence of Verdi, the emotional swell of Puccini, the flexibility and movement of Donizetti, and the nuance of Mozart.

Other leading roles in his repertoire include Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Prince Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Dr. Bartolo in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Leporello in Don Giovanni and Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, where his vocal prowess was lauded by East Bay Times as having “appropriate gusto…[moving] convincingly from rowdy full-voice banter at the saloon with his pals to sotto voce crooning to Baby Doe.”

A native of Hawaii, Torlef has spent most of his time on the West Coast, performing leading and supporting roles with companies including San Francisco Opera, Opera Parallèlle, West Bay Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera San Jose, Livermore Valley Opera, Opera San Luis Obispo, Berkeley Opera,and others. In concert, he has performed as a soloist with Pacific Chamber Symphony, Mendocino Music Festival, Oakland Symphony Chorus, Symphony Parnassus, Cantare con Vivo, and Oakland Civic Orchestra.

In 2018, Torlef made a move across the country with his family to Florida, where he now resides. He has since made company debuts with Opera Orlando, Indianapolis Opera, New York City Opera, and looks forward to his first dive into Wagner’s Ring Cycle in the summer of 2022 with Tundi Productions in Brattleboro, VT.

Torlef’s foray into classical singing happened almost by chance; a series of events and an assignment to watch Le nozze di Figaro saw him shift from being a low brass performer at the end of his undergraduate degree studies to being fully-committed toward becoming an opera singer.

As a college student, Chris assumed that winning a job in one of the world’s great orchestras came with all the standard perks (like vacations, mortgages, and college funds for his kids). So he worked hard and sacrificed free time for years and years until he won his dream job. 

And while Chris was incredibly proud and honored to play trumpet with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the high cost of living was keeping him from getting anywhere close to enjoying those perks (vacations/mortgages/college funds for his kids).

Now, the high cost of living wasn’t Chris’s only problem. You see, Chris didn’t get into the LA Phil by being a natural trumpet-playing genius. Chris got into the LA Phil by being a very good musician who was a genius strategizer.

Over the decades, Chris was strategic about improving his trumpet-playing flaws. He was strategic about his career challenges. He was strategic about his audition difficulties. Chris had faced the music about his shortcomings so many times, they gave up and went home.

And once Chris won his big job, his skill for strategy had no outlet. Sure, there was a lot of new music to learn (the LA Phil plays a LOT of world premieres), but there were no big problems to solve. No challenges to address. And still no vacations/mortgages/college funds.

This was a puzzle—the students he worked with weren’t a great match for his teaching. The people who really needed him were too far away. By the time these students paid for plane tickets and hotel rooms, Chris couldn’t bring himself to charge much for their actual lessons. 

There was a lot of frustration, a lot of time wasted, a lot of money spent, and not much income earned.

In 2017, Chris got the idea to create a website that could reach anyone, anywhere. He hired a graphic designer, a website developer, and bought a lot of video equipment. 

Chris spent a lot of time on this new idea. He also spent a lot of money. So much money.

When he finally launched his first course, it looked professional. The information was good. The price was a value. So how did people respond? They didn’t. You could hear the crickets.

He kept talking to this coach and he started implementing some of her suggestions. Almost immediately, his ideas got more traction. He reached more people. He earned more money. He was having fun and his new clients seemed thrilled. 

Chris was truly shocked at the year that followed. His talent for facing the music brought him immense enjoyment and the perks of vacations/mortgages/college funds for kids for the first time.

When the pandemic hit, Chris’s strategizing became a lifeline for him and for his clients. While so many musicians were sitting around, wondering when the world would go back to normal, Chris’s clients were striking out into the future, creating new methods of reaching their audience and generating income.

Rising tenor Limmie Pulliam continues to thrill audiences with his captivating stage presence and his “stentorian, yet beautiful,” sound.  Pulliam was recently praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for his "full-throated vocal power, and intimate lyricism,,' with his recent debut at Livermore Valley Opera in Verdi's Otello.

The 2021/22 season has been highlighted by his highly-anticipated L..A. Opera debut as Manrico in Verdi's Il Trovatore where he was lauded by the Los Angeles Times for his "healthy, focused, ringing tenor."  He followed that with a successful role debut as Turiddu in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana with Vashon Opera.  Upcoming performances include his company debut with Livermore Valley Opera in the title role Verdi's Otello,  his company debut in Fort Worth Opera's A Night of Black Excellence Concert, and his rescheduled appearance with The Memphis Symphony Orchestra as the tenor soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. He is set to take the stage once again as Verdi's Otello in his highly-anticipated debut with The Cleveland Orchestra. 

Soprano and librettist Jennifer Cresswell has recently been heard as Der Trommler in Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Magda Sorel in The Consul, Hannah After in As One, as a soloist with the Toledo Symphony, and in concerts featuring the music of George Gershwin and Kurt Weill with tenor George Shirley. She is dedicated to singing in her native tongue and finding the beauty and humanity in otherwise unsympathetic characters.

As a librettist, she has translated and created six opera reductions for school outreach tours, and has written one original opera libretto, Respectable Woman, with composer Kristi Fullerton.

Jennifer is currently a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, where she has been named a Presidential Graduate Fellow by the Rackham Graduate School and an Elsie Choy Lee Scholar by the Center for the Education of Women.

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.

Sarah Fritz is a writer, singer, and public musicologist. Her passionate advocacy on social media seeks to change the dialogue around marginalized musicians and composers in classical music. An expert on the history of Clara Schumann, her popular Twitter account is dedicated to telling truths and debunking myths around the infamous composer/pianist. She’s an in-demand speaker and lecturer, most recently at Northeastern University and at the launch of the Cambridge University Press book, Clara Schumann Studies.

Her writing on Clara Schumann re-examines with a modern lens one of the most powerful musicians in classical music history. Fritz places Schumann’s music and life in relevant context using overlooked research that includes fresh perspectives on Schumann’s personal and professional relationships with her husband, Robert, and her close professional friend, Johannes Brahms.

Fritz’s work has appeared in numerous publications including VAN Magazine, The Schubertian, and American Guild of Organists Magazine. She maintains an in-depth research blog and a monthly newsletter on Clara Schumann with a novel forthcoming.

Under her singer hat as mezzo-soprano Sarah Sensenig, she is a member of the voice faculty of the Westminster Conservatory at Rider University. She sings in the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Symphonic Choir, this season’s highlights including Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Carnegie Hall and the world premiere of Puts’s The Hours. She holds an M.M. from Eastman School of Music and B.M. from Westminster Choir College. Sarah debuted with the New York Lyric Opera Theatre in the title role of Handel's Alcina, and her other operatic roles include Fiordiligi in Mozart's Cosí fan tutte, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Nancy in Albert Herring, Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas. She enjoys giving recitals with her pianist husband, especially in singing the Lieder of her favorite composer, Clara Schumann.

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.

Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, is a classical composer, citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma and is dedicated to the development of American Indian classical composition. His Washington Post review states that “Tate is rare as an American Indian composer of classical music. Rarer still is his ability to effectively infuse classical music with American Indian nationalism.”

Tate is Guest Composer/Conductor/Pianist for San Francisco Symphony Currents program Thunder Song: American Indian Musical Cultures and was recently Guest Composer for Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Balcony Bar program Home with ETHEL and Friends, featuring his commissioned work Pisachi (Reveal) for String Quartet.

Recent commissions include Shell Shaker: A Chickasaw Opera for Mount Holyoke Symphony Orchestra, Ghost of the White Deer, Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra for Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Hózhó (Navajo Strong) and Ithánali (I Know) for White Snake Opera Company. His music was recently featured on the HBO series Westworld.

His commissioned works have been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Ballet, Canterbury Voices, Dale Warland Singers, Santa Fe Desert Chorale and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

Tate has held Composer-in-Residence positions for Music Alive, a national residency program of the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA, the Joyce Foundation/American Composers Forum, Oklahoma City’s NewView Summer Academy, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation and Grand Canyon Music Festival Native American Composer Apprentice Project. Tate was the founding composition instructor for the Chickasaw Summer Arts Academy and has taught composition to American Indian high school students in Minneapolis, the Hopi, Navajo and Lummi reservations and Native students in Toronto.

Mr. Tate is a three-time commissioned recipient from the American Composers Forum, a Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program recipient, a Cleveland Institute of Music Alumni Achievement Award recipient, a governor-appointed Creativity Ambassador for the State of Oklahoma and an Emmy Award winner for his work on the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority documentary, The Science of Composing.

In addition to his work based upon his Chickasaw culture, Tate has worked with the music and language of multiple tribes, such as: Choctaw, Navajo, Cherokee, Ojibway, Creek, Pechanga, Comanche, Lakota, Hopi, Tlingit, Lenape, Tongva, Shawnee, Caddo, Ute, Aleut, Shoshone, Cree, Paiute and Salish/Kootenai.

Among available recorded works are Iholba‘ (The Vision) for Solo Flute, Orchestra and Chorus and Tracing Mississippi, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, recorded by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, on the Grammy Award winning label Azica Records.

Tate earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Northwestern University, where he studied with Dr. Donald Isaak, and his Master of Music in Piano Performance and Composition from The Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Elizabeth Pastor and Dr. Donald Erb. He has performed as First Keyboard on the Broadway national tours of Les Misérables and Miss Saigon and been a guest pianist and accompanist for the Colorado Ballet, Hartford Ballet and numerous ballet and dance companies.

Mr. Tate’s middle name, Impichchaachaaha’, means “his high corncrib” and is his inherited traditional Chickasaw house name. A corncrib is a small hut used for the storage of corn and other vegetables. In traditional Chickasaw culture, the corncrib was built high off the ground on stilts to keep its contents safe from foraging animals.

As a child from a military family, Kelli Butler was raised in a multitude of locales, including Germany & the Eastern US, where her love of opera blossomed at an early age. Since attending the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, training with Renata Scotto, and apprenticing with Bel Canto at Caramoor, she has become a familiar face in New York’s opera scene and beyond!

Kelli performs regularly across the tri-state area and across the country, while continuing her studies with Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Shirley Love and the acclaimed Canadian soprano Susan Eichhorn Young. She currently reside in New York with her husband Justin and their highly illogical pets, Bones & Scotty.

Socials for Melissa Dunphy: Websites: www.melissadunphy.com www.boghouse.thehannah.org www.gonzalescantata.com

Born in Australia and raised in an immigrant family, Melissa Dunphy herself immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has since become an award‐winning and acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political, and theatrical music. She first came to national attention when her large‐scale work the Gonzales Cantata was featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, National Review, Fox News, and on The Rachel Maddow Show. Other notable works include the song cycle Tesla's Pigeon, which won first place in the NATS Art Song Composition Award, and choral work What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? which won the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Competition and has been performed nationally by ensembles including Chanticleer and Cantus. Dunphy is the recipient of a 2020 Opera America Discovery Grant for Alice Tierney, a new opera commission by Oberlin Conservatory set to premiere in 2023. She has been composer‐in‐residence for the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra, Volti, and the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, and her commissions include works for VOCES8, Mendelssohn Chorus, and the Kennett Symphony. Dunphy is also a Barrymore Award‐nominated theater composer and is Director of Music Composition for the O'Neill National Puppetry Conference. Dunphy has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and is on faculty at Rutgers University. She is president of the board of directors for Young Women Composers and serves on the board of Lyric Fest. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Matt; the Dunphys are currently the owners and developers of the Hannah Callowhill Stage, a new performance venue in Old City Philadelphia which they hope to open in 2022, and co‐hosts of the popular podcast The Boghouse about their adventures in Philadelphia colonial archaeology.

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Saturday, February 26th, 2022 from 12:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.  EST

Socials for Melissa Dunphy: Websites: www.melissadunphy.com www.boghouse.thehannah.org www.gonzalescantata.com

Born in Australia and raised in an immigrant family, Melissa Dunphy herself immigrated to the United States in 2003 and has since become an award‐winning and acclaimed composer specializing in vocal, political, and theatrical music. She first came to national attention when her large‐scale work the Gonzales Cantata was featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, National Review, Fox News, and on The Rachel Maddow Show. Other notable works include the song cycle Tesla's Pigeon, which won first place in the NATS Art Song Composition Award, and choral work What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach? which won the Simon Carrington Chamber Singers Competition and has been performed nationally by ensembles including Chanticleer and Cantus. Dunphy is the recipient of a 2020 Opera America Discovery Grant for Alice Tierney, a new opera commission by Oberlin Conservatory set to premiere in 2023. She has been composer‐in‐residence for the Immaculata Symphony Orchestra, Volti, and the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, and her commissions include works for VOCES8, Mendelssohn Chorus, and the Kennett Symphony. Dunphy is also a Barrymore Award‐nominated theater composer and is Director of Music Composition for the O'Neill National Puppetry Conference. Dunphy has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.M. from West Chester University and is on faculty at Rutgers University. She is president of the board of directors for Young Women Composers and serves on the board of Lyric Fest. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, Matt; the Dunphys are currently the owners and developers of the Hannah Callowhill Stage, a new performance venue in Old City Philadelphia which they hope to open in 2022, and co‐hosts of the popular podcast The Boghouse about their adventures in Philadelphia colonial archaeology.

Sign up for the Creating Infinity Workshop!

Saturday, February 26th, 2022 from 12:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.  EST

In this episode of Opera Uprising we talk about: * Libretto Creation * The Priestess of Morphine  * Voice type inclusivity * Writing for Trans Voices * Including LGBTQIA+ Stories

Find out more about Aiden Feltkamp Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices, Vol. 1 

Website: aidenkimfeltkamp.com Twitter: @TransCherubino 

Bio: Aiden K. Feltkamp (they/he) began their artistic life at the age of 5 playing a quarter-size cello and now they’re "upending preconceptions about voice and gender" (New York Times) as a trans nonbinary writer.   Aiden’s written work spans the serious and the ridiculous, the real and the surreal. Some of their favorite projects include: an opera with Dana Kaufman about Emily Dickinson’s queerness, an interactive fiction experience about alien communication coded in Javascript (“Hello, Aria”), new English translations of Jewish lesbian erotic poet Marie-Madeleine’s work (The Priestess of Morphine with Rosśa Crean), and a four-part series decoupling gender and voice types. Most recently, their work has been commissioned by Cantus, Amherst College, and the International Museum of Surgical Sciences, and has been published in Crêpe & Penn, Bait/Switch, and NewMusicBox.   Before pursuing their medical transition, Aiden performed opera professionally, specializing in Baroque opera and new music. Their most fulfilling roles include Hansel, Prince Orlofsky, Cherubino, Ottavia in L’incoronazione di Poppea (especially in a Baroque gesture production with director Drew Minter), and Elizabeth in the World and NY premieres of Griffin Candey’s Sweets by Kate. They continue to train their new voice and have recently performed as Figaro in ChamberQUEER’s abridged Le Nozze di Figaro.   As an equity and inclusion specialist, they consult for performing arts organizations, funders, universities, and businesses. Aiden has worked with Johnson & Johnson, Yelp, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, OPERA America, the League of American Orchestras, and the LA Phil. Currently, they wrangle composers and arts administrators as the first-ever Director of Emerging Composers and Diversity for the American Composers Orchestra.

Aiden is a Turn the Spotlight fellow (20/21 cohort), mentoring with Kathleen Kelly. As part of the fellowship, they curated New Music Shelf's Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices, Vol. 1. They graduated from Bard College Conservatory’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program (under the direction of Dawn Upshaw) with a Masters of Music, and received their B.S. in Vocal Performance from Hofstra University. They hold certifications in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (Cornell University) and Data Science (BrainStation). They currently live in Jersey City with their partner, cat, parrots, and robot dog. 

Talk about mindset: “What do I want to learn next?”

And we answer the question “What can musicians do to empower themselves?”

We talk deeply about the creative process, sitting with discomfort, and artist empowerment through entrepreneurship. Her journey from “ I’m not a real musician” to producing her own composition is incredibly inspiring to so many people. 

Jennifer Rosenfeld helps musicians build exceptional teaching and coaching businesses that scale their expertise, provide a solid financial foundation, and give them the freedom to pursue creative projects.

Her career bridges artistic work (she’s writing musicals) and business. I love helping clients discover that business can be a meaningful creative outlet and that an artistic career is enhanced by the authentic implementation of foundational business skills.

Above all, her mission is to help professionals in the arts unleash their creative potential and design a career business structure that is uniquely tailored to support their lives.

You can find her Podcast about the creation of White Rose Diaries 

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Books we Mentioned:

Overcoming Underearning

Tapping Into Wealth

We also mentioned:

Jenny Clift

For Part I of the interview, please see Previous Post With a shared passion for Music, Text & Story, we talk about the many hurdles young musicians face in getting the support they need to succeed. We talk about the impact of the pandemic and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. Most importantly we talk about the soul-deep need for community that is the human experience, and how we can use music to connect.

New music powerhouse Dr. Lisa Neher (pronouns: she/her, last name pronounced "NEER") is an award-winning composer, mezzo-soprano, and actress on a mission to transform audiences through sound, story, and vulnerability. Described as a “maestro of beautifully wacky noises” (Oregon ArtsWatch) and a composer of “varied and imitable” vocal lines (Contemporary Classical), Lisa writes music inspired by female athleticism, the tender love of friends, the ambiguities of death, and the eerie mystery of deep ocean life. Praised as “a small woman with a very big voice” and “especially alive” (Oregon ArtsWatch), Lisa captivates audiences as a performer with her electrifying dramatic commitment and unforgettable vocal colors. Lisa’s musical-theatrical fluency and passion for contemporary music have led to engagements such as Reciter for William Walton's Façade with the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere of Space Station 189: A Micro-Opera for Instagram at New Music Gathering, the first staged version of Sun Songs: Three Micro-Operas by Augusta Read Thomas with the Center for New Music, the world premiere of Aaron Israel Levin’s Fiumana, for mezzo-soprano singing while playing the bass drum, and the leading role of Jennifer in the world premiere of Rita Ueda’s chamber opera One Thousand White Paper Cranes for Japan with the Singaporean ensemble Chamber Sounds. Her recent engagements include performances with Third Angle New Music, the Resonance Ensemble, Opera Theatre Oregon, Queer Opera, and the International Saxophone Symposium. Lisa is an active advocate for new music, frequently premiering new works as well as established masterworks of the last fifty years. She is the creator of the One Voice Project, a one-woman performance combining contemporary poetry and new musical works for unaccompanied voice chosen through a call for scores initiative. ​Lisa is in high demand as a concert soloist. Her credits include Duruflé’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, and Coronation Mass, Bach’s Magnificat and Ascension Oratorio, and Arvo Part’s Pässio, with groups such as the Central Iowa Symphony, the Grinnell Oratorio Singers, and the Chamber Singers of Iowa City. Her operatic credits include Dorabella in Così fan tutte with Iowa City Concert Opera, Dolores in The Gondoliers, Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Annio in La clemenza di Tito with Martha-Ellen Tye Opera Theatre, the Student in the premiere of the chamber opera The Nightingale and the Rose by Li Kai Han Jeremiah with Helianthus Ensemble, and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with the Midwest Institute of Opera. Lisa was a Young Artist with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and the Vancouver International Song Institute. Lisa’s compositions include solo and chamber music for instruments and vocal works in the operatic, song, and choral genres. Her particular passion for text and poetry has led to works such as her chamber operas Sense of Self, about a triathlete struggling with a breast cancer diagnosis and White Horizon, about a nineteenth-century Arctic expedition gone wrong. Lisa's major song cycle, No One Saves the Earth from Us But Us speaks the the urgency of the global climate crisis. Her commissioners include Third Angle New Music, Third Angle New Music, Opera Elect, Opera Theatre Oregon, Coe College Symphony Orchestra, Kirkwood Community College Choirs, the Glass City Singers, tenor Zach Finkelstein, pianist Michael Kirkendoll, and flutists Rose Bishop and Hal Ide. Lisa was selected to be part of the inaugural year of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Lisa is a member of the Iowa Composer’s Forum, Cascadia Composers, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and ASCAP. In addition to her creative work, Lisa coaches singers on technique, acting, and interpretation, and composers on writing and marketing their music. Recognized in particular for her deep knowledge of the voice and extended techniques, she frequently teaches workshops on composing for singers. Lisa has served on faculty at Lewis & Clark College, Coe College, Kirkwood Community College, and Grinnell College. ​Lisa graduated summa cum laude from Lewis & Clark College with degrees in vocal performance, music composition, and theatre, and holds a master's degree in music composition from the University of Kansas and a Doctor of Musical Arts in voice performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa. Her doctoral essay explores the chamber vocal works of composer Gabriela Lena Frank. She is a vocal student of Julia Nielsen, Stephen Swanson, Katherine Eberle, Julia Broxholm, and Susan McBerry, and studied composition under the tutelage of Michael Johansen and Forrest Pierce. Born just south of Seattle, Lisa is an outdoor enthusiast and triathlete. She spends her free time distance running, watching science fiction movies, and baking delicious treats involving copious amounts of chocolate.​

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Announcing Something About Isolation, a series of web releases Nov 8-20

Lisa is selected as one of 10 composers for this season's NATS Mentoring Program for Composers

Lisa's opera with Kendra Preston Leonard Par for the Course​ programmed on New Opera West's Pop-Up Festival 2022!

Lisa's choral work Three Basho Haiku chosen for Project: Encore Catalog

Lisa is the winner of the 2021 Iowa Composer's Forum / Iowa Choral Directors Association Composition Contest for Three Basho Haiku

Lisa and Kendra Preston Leonard release new Halloween songs for young singers

​Read Now: BRINGING GRIT AND GUTS TO OPERA, a profile of Lisa in Oregon ArtsWatch

Read Now: MUSICAL READINGS ON A BROKEN WORLD, the story behind Red Vespa's commission of Upon a Broken World in Women's Song Forum

With a shared passion for Music, Text & Story, we talk about the many hurdles young musicians face in getting the support they need to succeed. We talk about the impact of the pandemic and the lessons we’ve learned along the way. Most importantly we talk about the soul-deep need for community that is the human experience, and how we can use music to connect.

New music powerhouse Dr. Lisa Neher (pronouns: she/her, last name pronounced "NEER") is an award-winning composer, mezzo-soprano, and actress on a mission to transform audiences through sound, story, and vulnerability. Described as a “maestro of beautifully wacky noises” (Oregon ArtsWatch) and a composer of “varied and imitable” vocal lines (Contemporary Classical), Lisa writes music inspired by female athleticism, the tender love of friends, the ambiguities of death, and the eerie mystery of deep ocean life. Praised as “a small woman with a very big voice” and “especially alive” (Oregon ArtsWatch), Lisa captivates audiences as a performer with her electrifying dramatic commitment and unforgettable vocal colors. Lisa’s musical-theatrical fluency and passion for contemporary music have led to engagements such as Reciter for William Walton's Façade with the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere of Space Station 189: A Micro-Opera for Instagram at New Music Gathering, the first staged version of Sun Songs: Three Micro-Operas by Augusta Read Thomas with the Center for New Music, the world premiere of Aaron Israel Levin’s Fiumana, for mezzo-soprano singing while playing the bass drum, and the leading role of Jennifer in the world premiere of Rita Ueda’s chamber opera One Thousand White Paper Cranes for Japan with the Singaporean ensemble Chamber Sounds. Her recent engagements include performances with Third Angle New Music, the Resonance Ensemble, Opera Theatre Oregon, Queer Opera, and the International Saxophone Symposium. Lisa is an active advocate for new music, frequently premiering new works as well as established masterworks of the last fifty years. She is the creator of the One Voice Project, a one-woman performance combining contemporary poetry and new musical works for unaccompanied voice chosen through a call for scores initiative. ​Lisa is in high demand as a concert soloist. Her credits include Duruflé’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, and Coronation Mass, Bach’s Magnificat and Ascension Oratorio, and Arvo Part’s Pässio, with groups such as the Central Iowa Symphony, the Grinnell Oratorio Singers, and the Chamber Singers of Iowa City. Her operatic credits include Dorabella in Così fan tutte with Iowa City Concert Opera, Dolores in The Gondoliers, Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Annio in La clemenza di Tito with Martha-Ellen Tye Opera Theatre, the Student in the premiere of the chamber opera The Nightingale and the Rose by Li Kai Han Jeremiah with Helianthus Ensemble, and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro with the Midwest Institute of Opera. Lisa was a Young Artist with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and the Vancouver International Song Institute. Lisa’s compositions include solo and chamber music for instruments and vocal works in the operatic, song, and choral genres. Her particular passion for text and poetry has led to works such as her chamber operas Sense of Self, about a triathlete struggling with a breast cancer diagnosis and White Horizon, about a nineteenth-century Arctic expedition gone wrong. Lisa's major song cycle, No One Saves the Earth from Us But Us speaks the the urgency of the global climate crisis. Her commissioners include Third Angle New Music, Third Angle New Music, Opera Elect, Opera Theatre Oregon, Coe College Symphony Orchestra, Kirkwood Community College Choirs, the Glass City Singers, tenor Zach Finkelstein, pianist Michael Kirkendoll, and flutists Rose Bishop and Hal Ide. Lisa was selected to be part of the inaugural year of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Lisa is a member of the Iowa Composer’s Forum, Cascadia Composers, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and ASCAP. In addition to her creative work, Lisa coaches singers on technique, acting, and interpretation, and composers on writing and marketing their music. Recognized in particular for her deep knowledge of the voice and extended techniques, she frequently teaches workshops on composing for singers. Lisa has served on faculty at Lewis & Clark College, Coe College, Kirkwood Community College, and Grinnell College. ​Lisa graduated summa cum laude from Lewis & Clark College with degrees in vocal performance, music composition, and theatre, and holds a master's degree in music composition from the University of Kansas and a Doctor of Musical Arts in voice performance and pedagogy from the University of Iowa. Her doctoral essay explores the chamber vocal works of composer Gabriela Lena Frank. She is a vocal student of Julia Nielsen, Stephen Swanson, Katherine Eberle, Julia Broxholm, and Susan McBerry, and studied composition under the tutelage of Michael Johansen and Forrest Pierce. Born just south of Seattle, Lisa is an outdoor enthusiast and triathlete. She spends her free time distance running, watching science fiction movies, and baking delicious treats involving copious amounts of chocolate.​

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Instagram

Announcing Something About Isolation, a series of web releases Nov 8-20

Lisa is selected as one of 10 composers for this season's NATS Mentoring Program for Composers

Lisa's opera with Kendra Preston Leonard Par for the Course​ programmed on New Opera West's Pop-Up Festival 2022!

Lisa's choral work Three Basho Haiku chosen for Project: Encore Catalog

Lisa is the winner of the 2021 Iowa Composer's Forum / Iowa Choral Directors Association Composition Contest for Three Basho Haiku

Lisa and Kendra Preston Leonard release new Halloween songs for young singers

​Read Now: BRINGING GRIT AND GUTS TO OPERA, a profile of Lisa in Oregon ArtsWatch

Read Now: MUSICAL READINGS ON A BROKEN WORLD, the story behind Red Vespa's commission of Upon a Broken World in Women's Song Forum

Hailed as “the Steve Jobs of classical music” (Observer) and “the Sheryl Sandberg of the symphony” (LA Review of Books), Aubrey Bergauer is known for her results-driven, customer-centric, data-obsessed pursuit of changing the narrative for the performing arts. A “dynamic administrator” with an “unquenchable drive for canny innovation” (San Francisco Chronicle), her leadership as Executive Director of the California Symphony propelled the organization to double the size of its audience and nearly quadruple the donor base.

Bergauer’s ability to cast and communicate vision moves large teams forward and brings stakeholders together across the institution, earning her “a reputation for coming up with great ideas and then realizing them” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Her drive to see opportunity in place of unsolvable challenges or irreversible trends produces different results than the norm, secures new revenue streams, and galvanizes audiences and donors. Bergauer builds strategic plans and organizations, leverages technology and new media to elevate and extend the brand, and prioritizes diversity and inclusion to create a stronger product on stage and off.

A graduate of Rice University with degrees in Music Performance and Business, her work and leadership has been covered in national publications including Entrepreneur, Thrive Global, Wall Street Journal, and Southwest Airlines and Symphony magazines, and she is a frequent speaker at universities and conferences across North America, including Adobe’s Magento, TEDx, Opera America, the League of American Orchestras, and Orchestras Canada. In 2020, she launched the Center for Innovative Leadership at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music while continuing her consulting practice empowering large nonprofits to deliver game-changing results.

And Yet She Persisted,

Much Like the characters she plays Carrie Hennessey is outdoing herself and performing up a storm in 2021. We talk about the preparation process for big projects, what it feels like to return to singing and LAUGH! We also talk about solutions to the problems Opera is facing as stages reopen and opportunities to innovate along the way. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did!

Known for her soaring voice and richly nuanced characters, soprano Carrie Hennessey is consistently thrilling audiences and critics in opera and concert appearances around the world. Ms. Hennessey’s much awaited debut in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire “gave us a Blanche that let us burrow into her character’s soul, even into the darkest crevices…Hennessey, using a one-two punch of music and drama, made it resonate in a way that equaled the finest stage performances of the part I’ve seen.” (Fresno Bee) Ms. Hennessey’s embodiment of the title role in the West Coast Premiere of Tobias Picker’s opera Emmeline earned her a Bay Area Broadway World Awards for “Best Leading Actress in a Musical” nomination. Praised for bringing her signature “exquisite vocal purity and range to the title role”and was “nothing short of sensational” (San Francisco Classical Voice). As Mimì in La Bohème, Ms. Hennessey “..possessed of a full, powerful lyric soprano, which delivers Puccini’s arias and duets richly. Her “Mi chiamano Mimì” (Yes, they call me Mimì) in Act 1 is gorgeous”. (San Francisco Classical Voice) On only one day’s notice, Ms. Hennessey made her debut with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, as soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, to great acclaim.

The 2021/2022 joyous return to the stage includes title role debut in Kát’á Kabanová by Leoš Janáček with West Edge Opera and Rose in At the Statue of Venus with Festival Opera accompanied on piano by composer Jake Heggie. Ms. Hennessey will appear in the inaugural season of the Capitol Public Radio Garden Concert Series, as soloist of operatic arias with the Cleveland Philharmonic, as well as numerous recitals, chamber music concerts and continuous music education projects.

You can read more about Carrie HERE

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n our premiere episode, we speak with Rosśa Crean about his music, the inspiration behind it, and how his life experiences have driven his compositions.