WILL CRUTCHFIELD, Conductor
Conductor Will Crutchfield spent his teens as a vocal coach and rehearsal pianist, made his name as a writer and musicologist in the mid-1980s (becoming the youngest music critic in the history of The New York Times), and returned to his theater roots in the mid-1990s to conduct opera. After initial productions with small companies and conservatories, Crutchfield was named to two long-term positions: director of opera for the Caramoor International Music Festival (1997-present) and music director of the Opera de Colombia in Bogota (1999-2005). In 2006, he began a long-term relationship with the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, beginning with productions of Tancredi, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Guillaume Tell.

Crutchfield has accepted guest engagements in several theaters at home and abroad, including The Canadian Opera Company (Tancredi with Ewa Podles), The Washington Opera (Giulio Cesare with Hei-Kyung Hong), The Minnesota Opera (I Capuleti e i Montecchi with Sumi Jo and Vivica Genaux; La traviata with Judith Howarth), the Baltimore Opera (La Cenerentola and Werner Herzog's production of Die Zauberflöte), Florida Grand Opera (Don Pasquale), L'Opéra Français de New York (Gluck's Pélérins de la Mècque), the Mark Morris Dance Group (Dido and Aeneas), Wolf Trap Opera (La finta giardiniera), the State Theatre Pretoria (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and the Orquesta Filarmonica de la Gran Canaria (Norma).

Crutchfield has also been closely involved in training the next generation of singers. He prefers to work repeatedly with young artists he believes in so that the process can develop from production to production. He served on the faculties of all three New York conservatories (Juilliard, Manhattan, and Mannes) before devoting himself to conducting full-time, and he continues to spend the summer months with training program at Caramoor. An often-noted component of Crutchfield's research, as of his practical work with singers, has been the recovery and development of the art of ornamental improvisation.

Crutchfield has also led symphonic repertory, including works of Mahler, Strauss, Bartók, Beethoven, Britten, Schubert, and Mendelssohn with various orchestras in the U.S. and Latin America. He has also remained active as a pianist and is familiar to audiences who have heard his frequent intermission broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.

Crutchfield is currently completing a book on performance practice in Italian opera.

MICHAEL EHRMAN, Stage Director
Michael Ehrman has won acclaim for his productions at such companies as Houston Grand Opera, Greater Miami Opera, Minnesota Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Atlanta Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Chicago Opera Theater. In 2006, he staged the 50th Anniversary The Ballad Of Baby Doe at Central City Opera, a company where he has directed 18 productions, including a new Vanessa in 2005 and the world première of Henry Mollicone’s Gabriel’s Daughter in 2003. Other recent works include Falstaff for Indianapolis Opera, Otello for DuPage Opera, Street Scene for the Minnesota Opera, Noye’s Fludde for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Die Zauberflöte and The Mikado for the Colorado Symphony, and The Barber Of Seville and The Sound Of Music for Tulsa Opera. Ehrman’s staging of the musical Carnival was named on several of Chicago‘s “Ten Best” lists for 2005.

Ehrman has extensive experience as a teacher and author/director of many educational opera programs. He was director of opera at Northwestern University, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and at Roosevelt University/Chicago College of Performing Arts. He has also directed at Yale University, University of Kentucky, Hartt School of Music, and Shenandoah University. He served on the artistic staffs and was stage director/acting coach for the Young Artist programs at Central City Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Wolf Trap, Greater Miami Opera, Virginia Opera, Lake George Opera, Utah Opera, The Israeli Vocal Arts Institute, Intermezzo Young Artist Program, the Brevard Music Center, and the New National Theater, Tokyo.

Ehrman’s recent projects included the Chicago première of Ronald Perera’s The Yellow Wallpaper, Le nozze di Figaro at the Hartt School, and The Sound of Music, Carmen, La bohème, and Camelot at the Brevard Music Center. Future engagements include La bohème for Mercury Opera, and Susannah at Central City Opera and Mobile Opera. He has been a frequent guest director at Indiana University, where he has staged Faust, The Ballad Of Baby Doe, Roméo et Juliette, Manon, and Susannah.

ROBERT O'HEARN, Designer
There is no American theatrical designer more closely associated with the world of opera than Robert O’Hearn. Several of the most important productions in the Metropolitan Opera repertoire since the opening of Lincoln Center in 1966, have been Robert O’Hearn productions. Highlights of his long list of Met credits start in 1960 (at the old Met) with L’elisir d’amore and include Die Frau Ohne Shatten (1966), Hansel und Gretel (1967), Der Rosenkavelier (1969) and, Porgy and Bess (1985). His productions have been the benchmark of excellence both here and abroad. His international career spans 60 years, from his first professional stage production in 1948 in Cambridge, MA, until the present IU Opera Theater production of A Wedding, his final design before retirement this spring.

O’Hearn is a native Hoosier, born in Elkhart, IN, on July 19, 1921. He is also a graduate of Indiana University, receiving his B.A. in 1943. In 1948, he became a fixture at the Harvard University Brattle Theater, designing numerous productions over the next few years. The artwork of those productions is now part of the Harvard University Theater Collection. O’Hearn remained associated with the Brattle until 1952, when he turned his attention to New York and Broadway. Starting in 1953, he served as assistant designer on such legendary productions as Kismet (1953), Pajama Game (1955), My Fair Lady (1956), and West Side Story (1958).

By 1960, he was designing in his own right at the Metropolitan Opera, where he became a regular for the next 25 years. His other U.S. credits are quite extensive, including the New York City Opera, New York Shakespeare Festival, City Center Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Boston Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Opera, Ballet West, Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, and the San Francisco Ballet.

In 1965, he designed Porgy and Bess for the Vienna Volksoper. This began a long association with European opera houses that includes Bregenzer Festspiele (Porgy and Bess), Hamburg Statsoper (Otello), Strasbourg (Swan Lake), Karlsruhe (Die Meistersinger), and the Canadian Opera Company (Der Rosenkavelier).

Before joining the Jacobs School of Music Opera Studies faculty in 1988, he served as a professor at the Studio and Forum of Stage Design in New York City (1968–88). He has also given guest lectures and classes at Carnegie Mellon University, Brandeis University, and Penn State University.

O’Hearn’s elegant and theatrically sensitive designs form the mainstay of the IU Opera Theater repertoire—Peter Grimes, Eugene Onegin, Wozzek, Falstaff, Carmen, Ariadne-auf-Naxos, Arabella, Manon, and Le nozze di Figaro, to name a few.

As a teacher, O’Hearn has been a wonderful first-hand resource for the development of opera and theatrical design during the second half of the twentieth century and is much admired by both students and fellow faculty.

During his long and impressive career, he has worked with a veritable who’s-who in opera production and performance and has brought with him to IU a great wealth of knowledge on everything operatic. O’Hearn’s 20-year tenure with Jacobs has been a significant part of the 60-year history of IU Opera Theater, and it is important to make note that he has been the first American-born principal designer to serve in that post.

As the history of IU Opera Theater continues to be written, it will no doubt remember Robert O’Hearn as a key figure in the development of even higher standards of artistic achievement.

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

Baritone Aubrey Allicock’s operatic roles include Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Ping in Turandot, the Old Doctor in Vanessa, King Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, the Unnamed Bass in Too Many Sopranos, and Marullo in Rigoletto. Allicock has also performed as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with members of the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra. He has won many vocal competitions, including the Arizona’s National Association of Teachers of Singing Award in 2003, 2004, and 2005. In 2006, Allicock made his European debut as bass soloist in W. A. Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis at Karlskirche in Vienna, Austria. Allicock recently performed as the soloist opposite Academy Award-winning actor Louis Gossett Jr. in Dvořák’s A New World Symphony: A Portrait of H. T. Burleigh for Chamber Music Plus of Arizona. Allicock previously studied voice under Gail Dubinbaum and has coached with John Massaro of Phoenix Metropolitan Opera. Allicock’s recent engagements included a house debut with Phoenix Metropolitan Opera as the Customs Sergeant in Puccini’s La bohème. Allicock currently studies with Andreas Poulimenos.

Bass-baritone Thomas Florio is a first-year master’s student in the studio of Brian Horne. This performance marks his debut with IU Opera Theater. In 2007, he graduated cum laude from James Madison University (JMU) in his native Virginia, where he studied with IU alumnus In Dal Choi. While at JMU, he performed the roles of Monsieur Choufleuri (Monsieur Choufleuri), Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), and Frank Murrant (Street Scene). In the summer of 2007, he was a member of the newly created Wolf Trap Opera Studio, where he performed as Judge No. 3 in John Musto’s Volpone, in addition to a variety of roles (including Figaro) in an all-Mozart scenes program. He will return to Wolf Trap for the summer of 2008. Florio has performed with many choral ensembles, both at JMU and in the Washington, DC, area, and served as rehearsal soloist and cover for a 2006 performance of Carmina burana in Prague with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Later this spring, he will be seen in the role of Miles Gloriosus in the IU Department of Theatre and Drama’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

Jacqueline Brecheen, soprano, is in her second year of the master’s degree program at the Jacobs School of Music. Brecheen has performed the roles of Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’Amore and Just Jeanette in Edwin Penhorwood’s Too Many Sopranos. She received a Bachelor of Music from Southeastern Louisiana University, where she studied with Scharmal Schrock. During her undergraduate years, Brecheen performed the roles of Laurie in The Tender Land, Monica in The Medium, and Dorine in Tartuffe. She also appeared as a soloist in Barber’s Prayers of Kierkegaard, Respighi’s Lauda per la natività del Signore, Saint-Saëns' Christmas Oratorio, and Vivaldi's Magnificat. Brecheen's awards include 2000 and 2001 first place finishes at the Gulf Coast Region of National Association of Teachers of Singing. She studies with Costanza Cuccaro.

From Spring, TX, soprano Valerie Vinzant studies under Carol Vaness. This summer, she will be a member of Santa Fe Opera’s Young Artist program, singing First Bridesmaid in Le nozze di Figaro. Next season, she will join the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist program with LA Opera, where her roles will include Frasquita in matinee performances of Carmen and Thrush in Braunfel’s Die Vögel, as well as covering Wren in that production. In the summer of 2007, she was featured in Wolf Trap Opera’s production of John Musto’s Volpone as Judge 1 and also in Chabrier’s comedy L’Etoile. In 2007, Vinzant won the Dallas Opera Guild’s top prize and is a two time recipient of Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions awards. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Ursula Maria Kuhar, mezzo-soprano, is pursuing her Doctor of Music in Voice at the Jacobs School of Music, where she is a recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship. A native of Columbus, OH, she received her bachelor’s degree in arts administration with honors and master’s in music education (voice) from Butler University. In October, she made her IU Opera Theater debut as Mrs. Ott in Susannah. In 2004, Kuhar studied French Linguistics, Literature, and History at Université de Paris IV (La Sorbonne) in Paris, France. Her past credits include Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas), Katisha (The Mikado), Falstaff, Carmen, and Candide. On the concert stage, she has been the alto soloist in J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody, Handel’s Messiah, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. Kuhar was the mezzo-soprano soloist for the world première of Frank Burch Brown’s Mary With Jesus with the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir and recorded the work on their album, From East to West. A 2006 Concerto Competition Winner, she performed Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah” with the Butler Symphony Orchestra. Kuhar is a student of Scharmal Schrock.

Amanda Russo, mezzo-soprano, is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Voice. This marks her IU Opera Theater debut. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Russo received her bachelor’s in vocal performance and German from Carnegie Mellon University. While studying at Carnegie Mellon, she appeared as Nancy in Britten’s Albert Herring, Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina, and Charlotte in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. She was also a featured soloist for Copland’s In the Beginning and Corigliano’s Fern Hill. Russo is looking forward to performing the role of Eve in Haydn’s The Creation in Budapest and Vienna this summer with The Robert Page Festival Singers of Pittsburgh. Russo studies with Patricia Havranek.

Texas native Chaz Nailor is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music in Voice at the IU Jacobs School of Music. He has portrayed roles that range from the Baroque to the 20th Century. In addition, Nailor has been featured in principal roles of the musical theater, including Mr. Bumble of Oliver and Uncle Vince of The Token, which had its world première in the fall of 2005.
He has worked with The University of Texas Opera Theater, Lyric Opera San Antonio, and, most recently, IU Opera Theater. His roles range from Argante of Handel’s Rinaldo to Belcore of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, extending to Junius of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Nailor’s most recent performance was his role as Count Lamoral in Strauss’s Arabella. He has also performed for the concert stage, as baritone soloist, in Handel’s Messiah, W. A. Mozart’s Requiem, J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Beethoven’s Mass in C Minor, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor, Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, and Faure’s Requiem. Nailor studies with Andreas Poulimenos and is sponsored as a recipient of the T.I.S. Tichenor Foundation Scholarship through the Society of the Friends of Music.

From Nowy Sacz, Poland, Miroslaw Witkowski, bass, is a Barbara and David Jacobs Fellowship Scholar. He received his master’s degree from Music Academy in Łódz, Poland. Witkowski has won numerous awards and competitions throughout Europe. Early this year, he earned the prestigious award “Young Poland,” from the Polish Culture Minister, for the most promising young Polish artists under the patronage of the President of Poland. He has sung the bass roles in J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor and W. A. Mozart’s Sollenes de Confessore. Before coming to study at IU, he sang in Schubert’s Conspirator and in Eugene Onegin in Aix-en Provence Opera Festival in France, as well as Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Ariodate in Handel’s Xerxes in The Grand Theatre in Łódz. Last month, he performed Cimarosa’s comic opera Maestro di Cappella with the IU Chamber Orchestra. With IU Opera Theater, he has performed the roles of Commendatore in Don Giovanni, The Bonze in Madama Butterfly, and Colline in La bohème. In 2003, he was the Young Artist with the Oper-Oder-Spree Festiwal in Beeskow Germany. Last summer, he was a Resident Artist with Cincinnati Opera, where he performed the role of Wagner in Faust. This summer, he has been invited back to Cincinnati Opera to sing the roles of the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly and the Messenger in La traviata. Witkowski is pursuing his Performer Diploma under Timothy Noble.

Angela Brower, mezzo-soprano, is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Voice under the direction of Andreas Poulimenos. Brower’s first appearance on the IU Opera Theater stage was last Spring as Kate Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Voice from Arizona State University (ASU), where she enjoyed the roles of 2nd Lady in Die Zauberflöte and Kate in Oklahoma!. During her time at ASU, she also enjoyed performing in various opera scenes, including Il re pastore (Aminta), Die Zauberflöte (3rd Lady), Hansel and Gretel (Hansel), and Le nozze di Figaro (Cherubino). Oratorio credits include W. A. Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vivaldi’s Gloria in D Major with the IU Motet Choir, Corigliano’s Fern Hill with IU’s Symphonic Choir, and Haydn’s Harmoniemesse, Telemann’s Die Tageszeiten, J. S. Bach’s Missa in A Major, and Sandström’s Magnificat with IU’s Pro Arte. This summer, Brower will be a Young American Artist with Glimmerglass Opera, where she will be covering the role of Giulio Cesare in Handel’s Giulio Cesare, as well as performing as a main stage soloist in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Mezzo-soprano Kira McGirr is pursuing a Master of Music in Voice at IU as a student of Mary Ann Hart. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Oberlin Conservatory of Music. While at Oberlin, she performed the roles of Dorabella in Oberlin Opera Theatre’s production of Cosi fan tutte and Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore, in Monte Urano and Riccone, Italy. In 2007, she participated in the Charlie Creek Vocal Workshop in Wabash, IN, with coaches from IU and the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. She also performed various scenes with IU Opera Workshop, including La clemenza di Tito, Così fan tutte, and Norma. This marks her debut with IU Opera Theater.

Wayne Hu has performed in over 20 professional stage productions, most while still enrolled as a student. He has appeared as a principal on the Equity stage in both musical and classical theatre, as well as with regional opera companies throughout the country. Recent engagements include Morales (Carmen) with The Princeton Festival, Lun Tha (The King & I) with Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Sciarrone (Tosca) with Hudson Opera Theatre (NY), and Demetrius (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) with Tri-State Actors Theatre (NJ). In 2004, he was a member of Opera North’s Young Artist Program, where he was seen as Gregorio (Roméo et Juliette) and Starveling (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and, in 2006, he was Resident Opera Artist at Pine Mountain Music Festival (MI), where he sang The Speaker (The Magic Flute). He has a BMEd from The College of New Jersey, where he performed the roles of Horace Tabor (The Ballad of Baby Doe), Fred/Petruchio (Kiss Me, Kate), Bob (The Old Maid and The Thief), and the Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance). Last October, he became the first baritone to sing the role of Lorca in the Latin American Music Center’s staged concert of Golijov’s Ainadamar. Hu made his debut with IU Opera Theater as Waldner (Arabella) last February. A master’s student, Hu studies with Timothy Noble.

Austin Kness’ performances at IU Opera Theater include the title role in Don Giovanni, The Unnamed Bass in Edwin Penhorwood’s Too Many Sopranos, Escamillo in Carmen, and Eddie Carbone in the collegiate première of William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge. In 2006 and 2007, he participated in the Des Moines Metropolitan Opera Apprentice Program, where he performed the role of Morales, while covering Escamillo, in Carmen and Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, in addition to performing in many scenes, recitals, and mainstage chorus. In 2007, Kness performed with the Cedar Rapids Opera Theater in the role of Fiorello in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and, in 2005, as Morales in Carmen. Kness’ other credits include finalist in the West Palm Beach Voice competition in 2007, bass soloist in the Jacobs School of Music performance of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in 2007, and participant in the Kennedy Center Conservatory Project, in which he represented the Jacobs School of Music. This coming summer, Kness will be a participant in the San Francisco Opera Center’s Merola Young Artist program, where he will reprise the role of Don Giovanni. Kness is a student of Timothy Noble and Patricia Stiles.

Carmund White recently made his debut with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater as Monastatos in Die Zauberflöte. He debuted with Indianapolis Opera last May as Dr. Caius in Falstaff and will return this April in the roles of Cochenille and Nathaneal in Les contes d’Hoffmann. His other operatic roles include Simon Stimson (Our Town), El Rememdado (Carmen), Njegus (The Merry Widow), Goro (Madama Butterfly), Guillot de Morfontaine (Manon), Borsa (Rigoletto), Tom Snout (Midsummer Night’s Dream), The Grand Consul (From the Towers of the Moon), and Bartley (Riders to the Sea) with the LongLeaf Opera Company. In the summer of 2007, White travelled to South Africa to perform the role of Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Other theater roles include Sam Semela (Master Harold…and the boys) and William (Lobby Hero). White is currently a doctoral student with Timothy Noble. He received a Master of Music from the Jacobs School of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. White has been a soloist at the Kennedy Center and has sung with the Berkshire Choral Festival, where he serves on the faculty. He is the associate instructor and vocal coach for the African American Choral Ensemble.

Caleb Winsor, tenor, is a first-year master’s student. This marks his debut with IU Opera Theater. He recently graduated from Northern Arizona University in his hometown of Flagstaff, AZ, where his roles included Gabriel von Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Prince Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Ralph Rackstraw (H.M.S. Pinafore), Der Kaiser Overall (Viktor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis), and, most recently, Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). He is a recipient of the Arizona Opera League Award and the Lloyd and Sally Hanson Award for Excellence in Vocal Performance. Winsor studies with Carlos Montané.

Soprano Elizabeth Baldwin is a Doctor of Music in Voice candidate, studying with Timothy Noble. Baldwin holds a Master of Music in Voice from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, OH, where she studied voice with Myra D. Merritt. Baldwin previously appeared on the IU Opera Theater stage as Cousin Hebe in the summer production of H.M.S. Pinafore, Mrs. Webb in the world premiére of Ned Rorem’s Our Town, and, most recently, as the title role in Richard Strauss’ Arabella. Baldwin has participated in master classes with Carol Vaness, Marilyn Horne, Robert Ward, Nancy Gustafson, and Richard Hundley, to name a few. She recently sang the soprano solos in Mendelssohn’s Elijah (Indianapolis Bach Chorale), Mendelssohn’s Drei Psalmen (Op. 78, No. 1), Eleanor Daley’s Requiem, J. Michael Haydn’s Missa Sancti Hieronymi, John Rutter’s Requiem, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, Fauré’s Requiem, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. She was a guest soprano soloist at the Paroisse de la Cathédrale in Monaco for its New Year’s Day Royal Mass Celebration. Her numerous awards include a recent Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Tri-State Region win. This summer, Baldwin will perform the role of Micaëla in the Pine Mountain Music Festival’s new production of La Tragédie de Carmen.

Soprano Siân Davies is pursuing her Master of Music in Voice at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In the summer of 2008, she will be covering this same role with Santa Fe Opera. Davies made her IU Opera Theater debut in the fall of 2006 as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and, in 2007, as Madame Pompous in Edwin Penhorwood’s Too Many Sopranos. Oratorio engagements at IU include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Robert D. Levin’s completion of W. A. Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, K.427, and J. S. Bach’s Magnificat in D Minor, BWV 243. Davies has been seen elsewhere on the operatic stage in Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (Bel Canto Northwest), Puccini’s La Bohème (Michigan State Opera Theatre), and Maury Yeston’s Nine (Michigan State Opera Theatre). Past oratorio engagements include performances of W. A. Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, K.339; W. A. Mozart’s Requiem, K.626; and Vivaldi’s Gloria in D Major, RV 588. Davies graduated from Michigan State University with Bachelor of Music degrees in voice performance and music education. In 2006, Davies participated in her first young artist program as a studio artist with Central City Opera. She is a current student of Costanza Cuccaro.

Baritone Daniel Thomas Lentz is finishing his first year of studies as a master’s student at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice from The College of Wooster, where he studied with baritones James Mismas and David Templeton. While there, Lentz was awarded the Pi Kappa Lambda Prize in Music Performance and Honors on his senior recital. As a recitalist, he has performed works such as An die ferne Geliebte by Beethoven, Liederkreis, Op. 39 by Schumann, Don Quichotte à dulcinée by Ravel, and Five Mystical Songs by Vaughan Williams. He has toured throughout the New England, Midwest, and Southern regions of the U.S. performing as a soloist with The Wooster Chorus in works such as the Requiems of Fauré and W. A. Mozart. He was nominated for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarship in 2003 for his performance in Antigone: The Rock Musical by The College of Wooster Theater Department. His operatic debut was with Akron Lyric Opera in the 2003 production of The Mikado and Antonio is his first role in an opera company. His past oratorio performances include Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and works by Bach. He has sung professionally for the past three years as a choral scholar for churches in Ohio and presently serves as a choral scholar at Trinity Episcopal Church in Bloomington. Lentz is a student of Dale Moore.

Jesse Malgieri, a junior, is a native of Rochester, NY. Malgieri has won the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Artist Vocal Competition and has appeared as a soloist at the Rockefeller Center for the Arts and the Chautauqua Institution, singing the title role in scenes from Sweeney Todd and has been seen as Cervantes/Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. While at the Jacobs School, Malgieri has appeared as a soloist with the University Chorale, under the direction of William Jon Gray, the Motet Choir, and the Symphonic Choir as the bass soloist in Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht. For the past two summers, Malgieri has been a member of the Charley Creek Vocal Workshop, an intense program of art song and aria performance and study, led by Timothy Noble with Mary Ann Hart. This fall, Malgieri was selected to participate in a German Lieder Masterclass with the Canadian Opera Company’s head coach Liz Upchurch. He made his debut with IU Opera Theatre last spring as Zio Bonzo in Madama Butterfly and appeared this fall as Monterone in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Malgieri is a student of Timothy Noble.

Chris Cheung, tenor, a native of Hong Kong, is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Voice and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He was previously seen with IU Opera Theater as Zanni in Busoni's Arlecchino. He is a student of Paul Kiesgen.

Jason Thomas, from Houston, TX, is a first-year master’s student. He received his BM degree from Indiana University in May 2007. His past performances include scenes as Lorenzo in Lorenzo de Medici, a new opera by P. Q. Phan. This is his first role on the MAC stage, but he has appeared in many of the opera choruses since 2004.

Melissa Block, mezzo-soprano, is a sophomore from Commack, NY, pursuing degrees in voice and spanish. This is her operatic debut. Block began her studies with Judy Leopold and has spent her IU singing career as a student of Patricia Stiles. She was a soloist in the Metropolitan Youth Chorale of New York. In June 2007, she performed the roles of Meg Page in Verdi’s Falstaff, Pitti-Sing in The Mikado, and the Third Lady in W. A. Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in the IU Summer Opera Workshop Scenes program. Following this, Block attended the University of Miami at Salzburg Summer Music Program, studying voice with Dr. Esther Jane Hardenbergh, and coaching with Mutsumi Moteki and Thomas Enman.

Meredith Taylor, soprano, hails from Solon, IA. Her credits at IU include Poussette in Manon (2006) and Sister Anne of the Cross in Dialogues of the Carmelites (2005). Taylor made her professional debut with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre in 2004, performing the role of Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro. She has since returned to Cedar Rapids to sing the roles of Nannetta in Falstaff (2005) and Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore (2007). She has been a frequent participant in the company’s Young Artist program, participating in 2003, 2004, 2005, and, in 2007, as Little Red Ridinghood in Into the Woods. In 2003, Taylor traveled to Urbania, Italy, to participate in La Musica Lirica International Music Festival, covering the role of Nella in Gianni Schicchi and performing as Gheradino in the same production. Taylor received her BM in Voice from Millikin University, graduating summa cum laude. She received her MM in Voice from IU in May 2007, again graduating summa cum laude. She is now pursuing her DM in Voice, studying with Scharmal Schrock.