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Faculty Artists
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 Val Underwood is distinctive for his equal skill in the vocal arts and as a pianist. A renowned vocal instructor, he maintains a busy teaching and Master class schedule traveling between New York, London and California. His students continually take top honors in major vocal competitions and can be heard in opera houses worldwide.
Also an accomplished pianist and chamber musician, he has collaborated with principal members of the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and with such artists as Ofra Harnoy, Glen Dicterow, Mitchell Lurie, Yehuda Gilad, Jeannine Altmeyer, Eudice Shapiro, Eduardo Delgado, Jennifer McGregor and Juliana Gondek.
He was executive director of the highly acclaimed Strawberry Creek Music Festival in Malibu for several years, where he also headed the Festival's vocal program. He has been artistic director of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival since it’s inception in 2005.
He was a full four-year scholarship student at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied piano with Dora Zaslavsky. He continued piano studies in Argentina with Arminda Canteros. He studied voice with William Horner, Ernest St. John (Jack) Metz, for seven years with the legendary French baritone Martial Singher and served as accompanist in the studios of some of the great singers of our time, including Rose Bampton, Martial Singher, George London and Lotte Lehman.
He recorded the classical piano music for and appeared in the Exxon/Mobil Masterpiece Theatre production of Willa Cather's "Song of the Lark" on PBS and recently recorded the songs of Ricky Ian Gordon with soprano Jennifer McGregor.
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Jeannine Altmeyer, soprano, first captured the attention of the opera world when, at age twenty-one, she won first prize in several major competitions, including the national Metropolitan Opera Auditions. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut the following season as the Celestial Voice in Don Carlo with Monserrsat Caballe, Fiorenze Cossotto, Franco Corelli and Robert Merrell.
The late legendary Lotte Lehmann was so impressed by her talent that she personally arranged auditions for Ms. Altmeyer with some of the leading European conductors. This resulted in numerous offers, and she soon became well-known for her interpretation of such roles as Elsa in Lohengrin, Eva in Der Meistersinger, and Elizabeth in Tannhauser. A regular performer at the Bayreuth Festival, she received international acclaim for her performance as Sieglinde in the first Ring cycle ever to be televised worldwide.
She has been praised for her portrayal of Brunnhilde in all of the Ring operas, Leonore in Fidelio and Isolde in Tristan and Isolde to mention a few. She has performed these and other roles extensively in the world's major opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Paris, La Scala, Rome, Teatro Colon, San Francisco and Chicago. She portrayed Isolde in Los Angeles Opera's landmark production of Tristan and Isolde.
Ms. Altmeyer was Guest Artist and Master class Teacher at the premiere season of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival in 2005 as well as 2007 and 2008.
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At the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Dr. Castro has developed one of the premier high school music programs in the country where he has served as “chair” for twelve years. Most recently in 2006, the LACHSA Music Program received the prestigious Grammy Signature Schools “Gold” Award given to only six high schools nationally by the Grammy Foundation. His students and ensembles continue to win awards at the national and state level. For his contribution to music, Dr. Castro has earned numerous accolades including Distinguished Teacher Award from the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. Dr. Castro also holds a Ph.D. from UCLA in composition.
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James Darrah is a stage director, production designer and visual artist/performer committed to new cross-collaborative projects and stories that merge the mediums of opera, theater, and film with innovative design.
He is the recipient of a national 2009 Princess Grace Award in Theater with work that includes Mozart, Purcell, Handel, Menotti, Brecht/Weill and Verdi, the musical theater of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Sondheim, Jason Robert Brown and the plays of Euripides, Sophocles, Shakespeare, Calderón, Genet, Orton and Churchill. He trained with the Croatian National Theater and the Split Summer Festival Opera, is an MFA candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles (2010) and most recently completed work with director Stephen Wadsworth (Handel's Ariodante) at The Juilliard School.
Upcoming projects include a new production of Poulenc’s La voix humaine in Los Angeles, co-production design for Cavalli‘s Giasone with Opera UCLA, Peter Brook's Bizet adaptation La tragédie de Carmen in Hawaii, and the U.S. West Coast premiere of Jonathan Dove’s highly acclaimed Flight at the UCLA Freud Playhouse.
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Juliana Gondek has performed with over 120 orchestras and opera companies throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, in collaboration with such legendary musicians as Aaron Copland, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Kleiber, James Levine, and Yehudi Menuhin.
Hailed internationally as a leading interpreter of Baroque, Mozart, Italian bel canto, and contemporary music, she has sung such leading roles as Mimi, Micaela, Hoffmann’s four heroines, Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco, Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda, Mozart’s Vitellia, Countess, Donna Elvira, Pamina, Aspasia, and Fiordiligi, and a dozen Handel roles at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Scottish Opera, Netherlands Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, and the opera companies of Dallas, St. Louis, Miami, Baltimore, San Diego, Hawaii, Utah, and the Kennedy Center.
Engagements at the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals, the Göttingen and Halle Handel Festivals, Japans' Pacific Music Festival, Antibe’s Bel Canto Festival, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, and the Avignon, Aldeburgh, Marlboro, Caramoor, Bard, Newport, Bowdoin, and Santa Fe Music Festivals have made her an audience favorite worldwide.
Gondek is a frequent soloist with major orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Netherlands Radio Symphony and has recorded more than 20 commercial CDs – 5 winning international prizes - for such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, Teldec, Naxos, and Channel Classics. She has sung dozens of premieres of roles written for her by some of the world’s most celebrated composers.
Formerly a professional violinist, Ms. Gondek gained the international spotlight by winning the “Prix Patek Philippe” and back-to-back Gold Medals in the Geneva International Singing Competition and the Barcelona “Francisco Vinas” International Opera Competition. She chairs the Division of Voice Studies at UCLA, and maintains an active private studio in Los Angeles. She frequently judges national and international competitions, teaches master classes at top music schools and conservatories worldwide, and serves as Visiting Artist at international conservatories and training programs in the U.S., Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Japan. www.julianagondek.org.
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Helen Goode graduated from the Royal Northern College of Music, England with an Honors Degree and a Professional Performers' Diploma in clarinet. She furthered her studies at the Royal College of Music where she received the Artist's Diploma. While in London she performed with several European orchestras, including the BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata and Sud-Bayerische Philharmonie, Germany.
Ms. Goode moved to Los Angeles to study with Gary Gray at UCLA where she obtained an MFA in Clarinet Performance and then began studies at USC on a DMA with Yehuda Gilad and Michele Zukhovsky.
Ms. Goode freelances regularly with Mozart Camerata, Santa Barbara Symphony, Redlands Symphony, Inland Empire Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She is also very active in the recording field, playing on many jingles and several movies. Ms. Goode coaches woodwind ensembles and teaches music theory at Los Angles County High School for the Arts.
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 The Australian-born musician Peter Grunberg moved to California in the early 1990's to take up the position of Head of Music Staff at the San Francisco Opera. Since then, he has collaborated frequently with the San Francisco Symphony, where he has been conductor, pianist, and recently also pre-concert lecturer. He has directed orchestras in concert at the Moscow Conservatory, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Sydney Opera House. Mr Grunberg delights in making music in smaller venues, and was a founding advisor and performer with Chamber Music San Francisco. He has accompanied many renowned artists in recital, including Deborah Voigt, Thomas Hampson, Joshua Bell and Laura Claycomb. This month he appears with Frederica von Stade in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's LaSalle Bank Chamber Music Series.
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 The concertmaster of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra since 1997, Ignace Jang has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Mr. Jang has appeared for the Hawai’i Public Radio, the Kauai Concert Association, the Hawai’i Concert Society, the Maui Symphony, Ebb & Flow Arts and Chamber Music Hawaii. Jang is currently a faculty member at the University of Hawai’i, the Brigham Young-Hawaii University and teaches chamber music at the Punahou School and the Hawaii Youth Symphony.
Mr. Jang was a grand prize winner at the 1989 Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition, held in Italy, where he was also the recipient of the Jury’s Special Prize for outstanding musical personality. Jang also won prizes at the Lion’s Club of France Violin Competition and the Eastern Music Festival. He received the early part of his training from Professor Flora Elphege, before entering the class of Gerard Poulet at the Paris Conservatory. In 1985, he obtained the Premier Prix as the youngest laureate of that year. Various grants from the Franco-American Commission and the French Ministry of Culture allowed him to further his studies under the tutelage of Franco Gulli at Indiana University.
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 New York City based vocal coach Ben Malensek has worked on the music staffs of the Metropolitan Opera ( assistant conductor), Opera Theatre of Saint Louis ( beginning there in 1987 and now Principal Coach / English Diction specialist), Dallas Opera ( Head of Music Staff - Eleven Seasons), San Francisco Opera ( Merola Program and Adler Fellow and returned as Guest Master Coach for Merola), Washington National Opera, New York CIty Opera , Wolf Trap Opera and the Zurich Opera ( Internationales Opern Studio).
He has worked with most of the major singers today such as Neil Shicoff, Samuel Ramey, Frederica von Stade, Ileana Cotrubas, Paul Groves,Carol Vaness and many more either privately or in production. He has been invited to coach the young singers in the Ensemble Program of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto this winter and will also be coaching the apprentice singers of the Santa Fe Opera this summer. He also has been a guest coach with the Chautauqua Institution Vocal Program directed by Marlena Malas for several summers.
Frequently asked to judge the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, he has also taught at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia & the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts.
He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music & his Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He also studied with the legendary Metropolitan Opera Coach Alberta Masiello in her Master Classes for singers & pianists.
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 Soprano Jennifer McGregor began her professional career in her native Sydney, performing leading roles in music theater. Upon hearing her, Richard Bonynge invited her to join Opera Australia as one of his proteges. Her first role with the company was Fe-a-nich-ton in Offenbach's Ba-ta-clan. She went on to sing Ophelia with Sherril Milnes, Adele in Die Fledermaus with Dame Joan Sutherland, Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflote, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Xenia in Boris Gudonov, Musetta in La Boheme, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor, (the first soprano to appear in that role following Dame Joan Sutherland), Rosina in Barber of Seville, Manon in Massenet's Manon, Blondchen in Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Oscar in Ballo in Maschera, Marie in La Fille du Regiment, Norina in Don Pasquale, Zerlina in Fra Diavolo, Juliette in Romeo and Juliette, and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Invited to Heidelberg as principal guest soprano, she added to her performance repertoire leading roles in Lulu, Die Schweigsame Frau, Rigoletto and Julius Caesar. Returning to Australia, she sang the Australian premier of the three-act version of Alban Berg's Lulu, Leila in Les Pecheurs de Perles, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Lakme in Lakme, Violetta in La Traviata, the four heroines in Les Contes D'Hoffmann and Cleopatra in Julius Caesar. In the 2002-2003 season she sang her first Nedda in Pagliacci and in 2003-2004 sang the title role in Die Lustige Witwe and was invited to sing on the golden wedding anniversary gala for Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge.
In addition to her numerous performances with Richard Bonynge, she has appeared with such conductors as Edo de Waart and Sir Charles Mackerras and Simone Young. Her concert repertoire includes: Beethoven 9th Symphony, Mahler 4th Symphony, Bach B Miinor Mass, Gorezki 3rd Symphony, Verdi Requiem, Poulenc Gloria, Mozart Exultate Jubilate, Orff Carmina Burana, Villa Lobos Bachianas Braziliaras No. 5, Ravel Scherherazade and numerous others. She recently recorded a CD of the songs of Ricky Ian Gordon with pianist Val Underwood. She lives in London.
2007 will be her third season with the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.
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