Laura
Alley enjoys a distinguished career in opera direction. She has a
current repertoire of over fifty operas, which she has directed throughout
the United States. Highlights include the European premiere of THE GHOSTS OF
VERSAILLES in Hannover, Germany, and the American premieres of KINKAKUJI and
THE DREYFUS AFFAIR for the New York City Opera. Among the opera companies
for which she has directed much of the standard repertoire are New York City
Opera, Syracuse, Kansas City, San Francisco, Austin, Cleveland, El Paso,
Chautauqua and Connecticut Opera and most recently The MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
for the New Orleans Opera. Miss Alley has taught and directed opera workshop
productions at Louisiana State University, the Kansas City Conservatory,
Temple University, Nebraska Wesleyan University, Converse College, Rutgers
University and New York University. She is currently associated with the
Mannes College of Music. Future engagements include a return for the third
season of Martina Arroyo’s summer program, Prelude to Performance.
Edward
Bak is an accomplished and internationally respected pianist and
vocal coach, with credits in the United States, Canada, Europe, South
America, and Asia. He has performed widely in such venues as the Philips
Collection, Tanglewood Festival, Lanaudiere Festival, Monnaie, Kolarac Hall,
and Teatro Colón. He is in high demand as vocal coach and collaborative
pianist. He has expertise in French, German, and Russian, as well as Italian
and Spanish. He is currently on the faculty of The Ohio State University
School of Music, and previously held faculty positions at the Cleveland
Institute of Music Preparatory, the Peabody Institute Preparatory. He has
given master classes at the Escuela Moderna in Santiago and the Instituto
Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón. He was a visiting professor of piano in
Seoul, South Korea.
Joseph Bascetta is
recognized for his high artistic standards and insightful direction and is
continually gaining notoriety for his productions. His 2004-2005 season
included Tosca, for the Shanghai Grand Opera for the opening of the
Shanghai Oriental Arts Center in Podong Shanghai. Mr. Bascetta’s 2005-2006
season will include, Aida for Opera Columbus, and La Boheme
for The Astra Theater in Malta. Then on to Fresno grand opera for Merry
Widow, Mobile Opera for La Boheme, and returning to Fresno Grand
Opera for Otello. International career highlights include an outdoor
extravaganza of Turandot for the renowned Pula Opera Festival in
Croatia, a production that received much acclaim and was televised
nationally. In addition, Mr. Bascetta directed Otello for the
prestigious Taipei Music Festival at the National Theatre in Taipei, Taiwan,
and a captivating production of La Sonnambula with world famous bass,
Bonaldo Giaiotti at the Festival de Opera in Tenerife, Spain. A frequent
guest of Asia’s leading opera festivals, Mr. Bascetta debuted with the
Singapore Lyric Theatre directing Faust, debuted in Seoul Korea at
the Kim Cha Kyung Opera where he was invited to stage an outdoor spectacular
of Carmen in Seoul’s Olympic Park which was televised throughout
Korea, directed Rigoletto for the National Theater of Taipei, and
directed Cavalleria Rusticana in Shanghai, China at the new
international Opera House. Mr Bascetta also made his debut in Malta as
artistic advisor as well as stage director for Macbeth, and
subsequently returned to Malta as artistic advisor and stage director for
productions of Rigoletto, Aida, and La Gioconda with
star Ghena Dimetrova.In 1999 he helped start the new Fresno Grand Opera and
soon became its Artistic Director. He directed the company’s first
production of Madama Butterfly with Maria Spacagna. He has gone on
to direct productions of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto,
and most recently Tosca and La Traviata with Fresno Opera.
Other engagements include La Cenerentola for Providence Opera, Die
Fledermaus, Carmen and an Opera Gala Concert for Fresno Opera, Madama
Butterfly and Tosca for Mississippi Opera, Un Ballo in
Maschera at the Astra Theater in Malta, Die Fledermaus for Gold
Coast Opera, and Tosca for Providence Opera and Boston
Academy of Music, La Bohème for Opera Lyra in Ottawa and Madama
Butterfly for Providence Opera. Additional opera companies he has worked
with include Berkshire Opera, Buffalo Opera, Capital Artistic Opera, Chicago
Opera Theatre, Cincinnati Opera, Connecticut Grand Opera, Dayton Opera,
Hawaii Opera Theatre, Jefferson Performing Arts Society of New Orleans,
Michigan Opera Theatre, New York Shakespeare Company, Ontario Opera, Palm
Beach Opera, Pensacola Opera, Pittsburgh Opera Theatre, Saskatoon Opera, the
Shubert New Haven Opera, the Singapore Lyric Theatre, the Taipei Music
Festival in Taiwan, the Tenerife Opera Festival in Spain, Toledo Opera,
Virginia Opera, and Washington Lyric Opera. Mr. Bascetta received great
acclaim for his production of Porgy & Bess at Toledo Opera, where he
has also directed Carmen, Gianni Schicchi, and Il Barbiere di
Siviglia. At Hawaii Opera Theatre, he has directed an insightful
production of La Traviata, a spectacular Turandot, Aida,
and La Bohème. Other productions include Aida for the Buffalo
Opera commemorating their tenth anniversary season, Turandot for
Tulsa Opera, Madama Butterfly for Mississippi Opera, Faust for
the Connecticut Opera Association with Justino Diaz, Madama Butterfly
for Virginia Opera ,and La Bohème and Faust for Dayton
Opera. Mr. Bascetta began his career in New York City where he
received the coveted Show Business Award for Best Director of the Year for
his direction of Floyd’s Susannah and Ward’s The Crucible.
His background includes training with the Royal Shakespeare Company of
London, dance and performance training in vocal and choral technique,
experience as a music educator, and intensive study of Stanislavsky acting
technique with Stellar Adler. Mr. Bascetta has studied with renowned Opera
Director Frank Corsaro and established the Opera Studio of New York for the
purpose of bringing the acting values of Stanislavsky and Actors Studio to
Opera. Additional international credits include American representative and
acting teacher for the International Opera School of the Societa dei
Concerti in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy and the acting teacher for
A.I.M.S. in Graz, Austria. Mr. Bascetta has been the Artistic Director of
the Berkshire Opera, the Ontario Opera, and the Capital Artistic Opera
Company, and is now Artistic Director of Fresno Grand Opera.
Mihaela
Bogdan, a Fulbright Scholar, has recently graduated in Stage
Direction for Opera at IU Bloomington and is currently the founder and stage
director of ExArt organization. She has directed opera and theatre
productions in Romania, Germany and USA, such as The Magic Flute, and Lakme
(National Opera House Cluj Napoca) Horarius with the T-Bob company, Henze’s
Moralities, Susa’s Transformations, Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief and
the acclaimed production of Piazzolla - Maria de Buenos Aires. Her activity
as an assistant stage director includes projects with IU Opera Theater,
Vancouver Opera Company, Indianapolis Opera and her participation in the
acclaimed Festival Junger Künstler in Bayreuth, Germany.
Charles
Caine started his distinguished and illustrious career at the
Metropolitan Opera as resident costume designer. During his 16 seasons
there, he worked with many notable artists, including Jean-Pierre Ponnelle,
Franco Zeffirelli, Tyrone Guthrie, Marc Chagall, Callas, Tebaldi, Arroyo,
Horne, Price, Scotto, Pavarotti, Gedda, Tucker, Domingo, Corelli, Bergonzi,
etc. His Met designs for Luisa Miller appeared on PBS-TV. His work has also
been seen on the stages of Chicago Lyric Opera, NYCO, Houston Grand Opera,
San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, and Canadian Opera. Recent productions
have included Il Trovatore, Cavalleria Rusticana, Gianni Schicchi, and
Le Nozze di Figaro. He is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829, NYC.
Carol
Crawford has served as Artistic Director of Tulsa Opera since 1993
and was appointed General Director in 1997. During her tenure she has
expanded the repertoire of Tulsa Opera to include Oklahoma premieres of
20th-century and American operas such as Robert Ward’s The Crucible, Leonard
Bernstein’s Trouble In Tahiti, David Carlson’s Dreamkeepers, Francis
Poulenc’s Dialogues Of The Carmelites and Leoš Janáček’s The
Cunning Little Vixen, in addition to bringing Strauss Ariadne auf
Naxos and Wagner Tannhäuser back into the Tulsa Opera repertoire.
Tulsa Opera’s collaboration provided the basis for a second feature article
on her tenure in the October 2001 issue of Opera News. Tulsa Opera was cited
in the September 2003 issue of Opera News as one of that publication’s ten
favorite American opera companies.
A passionate advocate for music education, Ms. Crawford inaugurated the
Tulsa Youth Opera program in the spring of 1997 with a production of Hans
Krása’s Brundibar involving 140 students aged 8 through 18. She has
served as a member of the Tulsa Public Schools Arts Task Force and the
Mayor’s Task Force for the Arts, as a Board member of the Oklahoma Israel
Exchange (OKIE), and as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts,
OPERA America, and the American Symphony Orchestra League. Crawford was the
recipient of the 2001 Newsmaker of the Year award by the Tulsa chapter of
the Women in Communications National Organization and named one of
Oklahoma’s Most Influential Women in 2001 by Oklahoma Magazine.
Crawford has held positions as
Music Director of San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theatre, Music
Director of Houston Grand Opera’s Texas Opera Theatre, Associate Music
Director of the Virginia Opera, and Associate Conductor of the Memphis
Symphony. She has guest conducted with opera companies and orchestras
throughout the United States, including Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Portland
Opera, Minnesota Opera, the New World Symphony, and the Staatstheater,
Kassel, Germany. Maestra Crawford studied with Leonard Bernstein, Sir Georg
Solti, Otto-Werner Mueller, Boris Goldovsky, and Joan Caplan. She was
invited by Bernstein to assist in the 1984 La Scala premiere of his opera A
Quiet Place/Trouble In Tahiti. Ms. Crawford holds a Doctorate of Musical
Arts degree in orchestral conducting from Yale University in addition to
undergraduate studies at the Juilliard School, the Mozarteum in Salzburg,
Austria, and Manhattanville College.
Steven
Horak, Makeup and Wig Designer, has been on the Makeup Department
Staff of the Metropolitan Opera for twelve seasons, following twelve seasons
as a wigmaker and makeup artist at the San Francisco Opera. Prior to joining
the Met, his many years as a wig and makeup journeyman included seasons as
Wig and Makeup Designer for Chicago Opera Theatre and the Lake George Opera
Festival, and as a wig and makeup artist for the opera companies of
Philadelphia, Miami, and St. Louis. He is currently also principal wig
designer and executor for Studio EIS, a New York City company which
furnishes realistic human figures to museums across North America.
Molly
Johnson, soprano, is an active performer-teacher. Professional opera
and music theatre credits include roles with Opera East Texas, Asheville
(NC) Lyric Opera, Baton Rouge Opera, Nebraska Theatre Caravan, Music Theatre
of Wichita, and Lyric Theater of Oklahoma. Favorite roles range from the
maternal to the manly to the maniacal, including The Mother in Amahl and the
Night Visitors, Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus, Marcellina in Le Nozze di
Figaro, Ruth in Pirates of Penzance and the Old Lady in Candide. In concert,
Ms. Johnson has appeared as soloist in Handel's Messiah, Rutter's Magnificat,
Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, Tippett's A Child of Our Time, and
Mendelssohn's Elijah. Classical recitals, sacred concerts, musical theatre
cabarets, and duo programs with her husband, Mark (a tenor), are among the
smaller forms she enjoys preparing and presenting. The Johnsons have
recorded two CDs of sacred music: Simply Christmas and The Majesty of Thy
Name. When not on stage, Dr. Johnson is in the classroom or studio at the
University of Texas at Tyler, where she teaches applied voice and related
courses and is Director of the Opera Workshop. Prior appointments include
The University of North Carolina-Asheville, Montreat (NC) College, and
Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC. Dr. Johnson holds the Bachelor of
Music degree from Oklahoma City University, and the Master of Music and
Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Louisiana State University.
Joan
Krueger was named “2004 Coach of the Year” by Classical Singer
magazine. She has accompanied such artists as Cecilia Bartoli, Sumi Jo, and
Vinson Cole through her association with New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival,
and was seen on A&E’s Breakfast With The Arts, accompanying soprano Carol
Vaness. Ms. Krueger has performed collaborative recitals in Avery Fisher
Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The United Nations, Weill Recital
Hall, the Donnell Library, and numerous other venues in the New York City
area where she maintains an active coaching studio. She has been an
Assistant Conductor for the Sarasota Opera, Music Director for NYU’s Opera
Workshop, and on the faculty of the Intermezzo Opera Festival. Ms. Krueger
is the pianist for many prestigious vocal competitions including the Fritz
and Lavinia Jensen Competition, the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition,
and the Chester Ludgin Verdi Baritone Competition. She was recently a judge
for the Classical Singer Vocal Competition. Ms. Krueger is on the faculty of
Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance, Opera New York’s Making It In
Opera, and the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute. She has been a guest
artist at many U.S. Universities and Conservatories. Currently on the
faculty of SUNY Purchase, Ms. Krueger teaches French and Italian Diction,
Operatic Styles and coaches. She received her Bachelor of Music Degree from
Michigan State University and her Master’s Degree from the University of
Michigan.
Brad
Lemons (Fight Director) Metropolitan Opera House: Carmen, Otello,
Wozzeck, Simon Boccanegra, Forza del Destino; Connecticut Opera Company:
Carmen; Prelude to Performance:
Les Contes D’Hoffman, Don Giovani; Broadway: Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang (assistant to B.H. Barry); Off-Broadway: Evil Dead: The
Musical, A Stone Carver; New York City Theatre: Romeo &
Juliet, The Wild Party, Laundry & Bourbon/ LoneStar, Macbeth,
Zastrozzi, Rashomon, Payment, Electra Votes, looking4sex, Richard III,
Samuel the Fourth, Seeking Eden, Agrippina, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Once
Upon a Mattress, Random Violence, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The Witch
of Edmonton. Regionally: Othello, American Buffalo,
Murder in the Cathedral, Klonsky and Schwartz, Tilt Angel, Ten
Percent of Molly Snyder, Old Clown Wanted, Lemonade, A Real Cowboy, As Bees
in Honey Drown, Hamlet. Film: Elevator Music, Bust, Sandwich,
Paralysis. TV: “All My Children,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” He
has taught at Cornell University, The Martina Arroyo Foundation, HB Studios,
Southern Connecticut State University, the New York Film Academy, and is
currently teaching “Broadway Classroom: Behind the Scenes Broadway” and at
Circle in the Square Theatre School.
Robert
Lyall is the General and Artistic Director of the New Orleans Opera
Association, a position he has filled since December of 1998, and has also
served as the Artistic Director of Opera Grand Rapids in Michigan since
1989. During his active career as a conductor and arts administrator, he has
received frequent recognition for artistic achievement with these companies
and in the other positions that he has held: General Director of the
Knoxville Qpera Company, Artistic Director of the Mississippi Opera, and
Music Director of both the Victoria Symphony Orchestra and the Oak Ridge
Symphony Orchestra. From 1998-2000, Mr. Lyall also served as the Principal
Guest Conductor of the Istanbul State Opera in Turkey. He made his Carnegie
Hall debut in 1998 with the New England Symphony. Recent European guest
appearances include performances of Giselle for Italys Arena of
Verona, Nabucco with the Bulgarian State Opera’s tour of the Netherlands,
and his Russian debut in 2002 at the Rostov State Musical Theatre with
Madama Butterfly. The production of Butterfly was nominated for
Russia’s leading arts award, “The Golden Mask,” for which he also conducted
performances in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2003. This season he will be
returning to Russia to conduct in the Rostov State Musical Theatre’s
Anniversary celebrations and next season will return to Russia to conduct
that country’s premiere of Thomas Pasatieris opera The Seagull. For
this special occasion, Robert Lyall has transcribed the English-language
musical score created by Thomas Pasatieri and librettist Kenward Elmsley
into the original Russian of Anton Chekov’s celebrated play.
Christian Poggioni
Ellen
Rievman has a performing career spanning nearly three decades. For
twenty-four years, as a member of the Metropolitan Opera, she performed in
over 100 productions alongside some of our generation's greatest opera
stars. Since leaving the Met in 1995, she has worked with singers to coach
the drama, explore the text, and incorporate these skills with gesture,
movement, stagecraft, and physical eloquence. Ms. Rievman coaches privately,
directs, and also presents on-going classes and workshops in audition
preparation, dramatic presentation, song/aria interpretation and
performance.
A partial list of her accomplishments includes teaching Master Classes for
Apprentice Artists of the Santa Fe Opera, Sarasota Opera, National Opera
Company, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National and
Regional Conventions, Metropolitan Opera Guild, Manhattan School of Music,
the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Utah Festival Opera, UNC,
Greensboro, and New York Singing Teachers' Association (NYSTA) National
Symposium. April, 2006, she was featured in an interview in Classical Singer
Magazine and presented two Master Classes in May, 2006, for the Classical
Singer Convention in Philadelphia. July, 2007, features her in Opera News
Magazine. Ms. Rievman is a former board member of NYSTA and was a consultant
and coach to the Richard Tucker Foundation in assisting participants in this
annual competition.
As a director, she has staged scenes, directed cabaret acts, produced and
directed opera evenings of such contemporary composers as Seymour Barab,
William Mayer and Philip Hagemann, directed concerts and recitals, and
worked for 3 years with the Manhattan School of Music's Baroque Aria
Ensemble in their annual productions. The summer of 2006 she directed Don
Pasquale and Falstaff for Martina Arroyo's summer program,
Prelude to Performance. This summer she will direct Cosi’ Fan Tutte.
In addition to directing, teaching and coaching for Prelude to Performance,
she is faculty, director and consultant to Arlene Shrut's New Triad For the
Collaborative Arts and in November, 2006, she directed a recital workshop
for New Triad. In February, 2007, through New Triad, she presented a
workshop for the River City Brass Band in Pittsburgh, and May, 2007, she
directed a piano recital performed at the Icosahedron Gallery in Soho. Ms.
Rievman is a Senior Coach and Associate at TAI Resources, The Actors'
Institute, in New York City.
Born
in Toulouse, France, Audrey Saint-Gil began her musical studies at
the age of six. She attended the Conservatoire National de Musique de
Toulouse where she was awarded three first prizes with distinction in piano,
chamber music, and coach/accompanist. She continued her doctoral studies at
the University of Toulouse and graduated in 2004 with a PhD in Music. Audrey
Saint-Gil made her professional debut in 1998, coaching Offenbach's Les
Contes d'Hoffmann, La Belle Hélène, and Barbe-Bleue at Le
Théâtre de Castres in France. She soon worked as a pianist and vocal coach
for several famous French opera house such as the Théâtre du Capitole in
Toulouse (2005) and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris (2006). In 2006, she
began her international coaching career in the Konzerthaus in Vienna,
Austria, with a production of Dukas' Barbe-Bleue under the direction of
Bertrand de Billy. The same time she was appointed Vocal Coach of the Ecole
Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot, starting her collaboration with
the baritone Jean-Philippe Lafon during his master classes. In 2006, Ms.
Saint-Gil was hired as a coach and pianist by the New York Opera Society for
their first tour in France (Castres), presenting Puccini's La Bohème
conducted by Lucy Arner. To further her international career, she worked as
a French vocal coach at Detroit Opera House on the Di Chiera's new opera,
Cyrano, in 2007. She is currently the official pianist of Diana Soviero's
studio in New York. Upcoming engagements include Verdi's Il Trovatore in New
York and Mozart's Don Giovanni in New Hampshire. Next season, Audrey
Saint-Gil will divide her time between New York and Florida.
Damien
Sneed, a
sought after pianist, organist, vocal coach, conductor, composer, arranger,
lecturer and producer is a native of Augusta, Georgia. Damien is a
professor of music at The Queensborough Community College of the City
University of New York, a staff accompanist at The Juilliard School and
serves as the Music Director of the Greater Allen Cathedral of New York with
over 24,000 members. Damien's conducting debut took place April 10 - 12,
2008 at Jazz at Lincoln Center where he conducted the world premiere of
Wynton Marsalis' Mass for the entire Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and a
150-voice choir. These performances aired on NBC, LIVE on XM Satellite Radio
internationally and on WBGO in the New York City area respectively. He is
currently working as an arranger, composer and conductor on a Broadway
musical with songwriting legends Ashford & Simpson due to be premiered in
the late summer of 2008. Damien is a graduate of
Howard University with
a Bachelor's Degree in Piano Performance. Shortly after graduating from
Howard University, he did post-graduate study at the Peabody Conservatory of
Johns Hopkins University in Piano Performance and Composition. In May 2006,
Mr. Sneed graduated from New York University with a Master's Degree in Music
Technology with a focus on Scoring for Film and Multimedia.
As a solo
pianist and collaborative artist, Mr. Sneed has played for many master
classes and opera productions including: Sherrill Milnes, Marcello Giordani,
Misha Dicter, Andre Watts, Awadagin Pratt and Opera Ebony's world-premiere
of the opera Harriet Tubman. Recently Damien performed as an accompanist
and also served as orchestra contractor for the Opera Noire 2007 Gala held
at the Manhattan Center's Grand Ballroom which was hosted by Lynn Whitfield
to air on PBS and BET. He also wrote, arranged and performed music for a
Ford Motor Company commercial and was asked by NBC to arrange two songs for
Fantasia Barrino (American Idol Winner) for the Today Show and NBC's "Fourth
of July" TV Special. Damien has taught at the Baltimore School of the Arts,
Peabody Preparatory of Peabody Conservatory, the Choir Academy of Harlem
(Boys Choir of Harlem & Girls Choir of Harlem), the Harlem School of the
Arts and the Professional Performing Arts School of New York City. Professor
Sneed has the ability to shift between different musical genres and styles;
from classical to jazz to gospel to opera to secular and more. Damien has
been afforded the opportunity to perform with many other musical legends and
entertainment moguls such as Stevie Wonder, the St. Louis Symphony
Orchestra, the Minneapolis Symphony, Darin Atwater and Soulful Symphony,
Lorna Myers, Opera Ebony, Wycliffe Gordon, Eric Reed, the Boys Choir of
Harlem, the Oakwood College Aeolians and many other notable world-class
performers. His musical prowess has allowed him to be featured at the
Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Peabody
Conservatory, London, England, Japan, the United States Virgin Islands,
South America, as well as 42 states in the US. Damien's most music has
recently been featured on several major record labels, television
commercials and internationally syndicated television award shows.
Sergio
Stefani was born in Bologna, Italy and grew up in Rome, where he
studied Liberal Arts at Liceo “Pilo Albertelli” and Law at the University of
Rome, before coming to the United States. About twenty years ago, he devised
a unique approach for teaching his native language - the opportunity of
learning at one’s own pace - a teaching program that must be the student’s
learning program - individual lessons to cover grammar or special individual
needs - conversation classes to hone one’s skills - diction and role
interpretation to opera singers. Sergio has enjoyed being a supernumerary at
the Metropolitan Opera and he is proud to have had, among his students, some
members of that company. Today, his activity is concentrated on special
programs
Warren
George Wilson Since completing his erudition with a Master of
Science Degree from the Juilliard School of Music, Mr. Wilson has pursued a
multi-faceted career as conductor, pedagogue, vocal coach and vocal chamber
music partner on the inter national stage. Further studies with Pierre
Bernac in Paris, France and with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen, Colorado Music
Festival, eventually led to artistic collaborations with innumerable
internationally renowned artists among whom are Alexan der Kipnis, William
Warfield, Shirley Verrett, McHenry Boatwright, Anna Moffo, Mary Costa,
Leopold Simoneau, Reri Grist and Jennie Tourel. Mr. Wilson has been the
recipient of many important awards among which are grants from the Hattie M.
Strong Foundation, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation, the National
Association of Negro Musicians, and a John Hay Whitney Fellowship.
For nine years Mr. Wilson was the Music Director of the Opera Theatre at
Boston University, at which institution over time, he con ducted multiple
performances of 27 operas as well as semi-annual scene recitals.
His conducting activities have taken him from the world of opera at Wolf
Trap (at which institution he inaugurated the then new Barns Theatre), to
the Academia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and an auspicious debut with the
Moscow Philharmonic at Tschaikowski Hall in Moscow. His impressive debut
with the Dallas Symphony afforded Mr. Wilson the Key to the City presented
by the Mayor of Dallas.
In acknowledgement of his extensive artistic capabilities, Mr. Wilson has
been privileged to perform at state dinners at the White House for the
Italian Premier and the Japanese Prime Minister.
Maestro Wilson’s operatic/orchestral repertoire is both varied and extensive
and includes many important rarities including “Calisto” and L’Egisto of
Francesco Cavalli and the “Chamber Symphony” of Howard Swanson and the
“Organ Concerto” of Francis Poulenc.
In culmination of a mutually fulfilling musical liaison in excess of twenty
years, Mr. Wilson has become conductor and Department Chairperson at the
Choir Academy of Harlem (the school of the Boys’ Choir of Harlem, Inc.).
During his tenure at the Choir Academy of Harlem, Mr. Wilson was able to
create an opportunity for gifted students over a ten-year period to receive
full scholarships to the prestigious Tanglewood Festival Youth Program;
affording them the opportunity to partake of the quality training so
necessary for students with artistic aspirations.
Coupled with his relatedness to the music of the past, Mr. Wilson has a
profound affinity for the music of today. He has commissioned or been
responsible for the commissioning of important works for the vocal and
orchestral repertoire by outstanding composers of our time, among whom are
George Walker, Thomas Pasatieri, Henri Sauget, Ned Rorem and Hale Smith.
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