Vocal program: July 1-22, 2012 string program: july 1-16, 2012
Faculty & Staff
ADMINISTRATION
Val Underwood, Artistic Director / Vocal Faculty
Mr. 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 in New York, London and California. His students continually take top honors in major vocal competitions and can be heard in opera houses worldwide. He has been artistic director of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival since its 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, and 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.
Genette Freeman, Executive Director
Juliana Gondek, Associate Artistic Director / Vocal Faculty
Juliana Gondek has sung with such giants of the music world as Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Pavarotti, and James Levine, in the world's most famous opera houses, concert and recital halls, and music festivals. Her performances at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, La Scala, the Edinburgh Festival, with the New York Philharmonic, and with over 100 symphony orchestras worldwide have won her international acclaim. She is renowned for her many prize-winning recordings on major labels, including full recordings of Handel operas with conductor Nicholas McGegan.
Professor of Voice and Opera at UCLA since 1997, her students are performing in major opera houses worldwide, and on Broadway. She is in great demand as an international competition judge and as a master teacher throughout the U.S. and in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Japan, Amsterdam, and at the Geneva Conservatory, Florence's Cherubini Conservatory, and the Shanghai Opera School.
Jason Gamer, General Manager / Faculty Artist / Musicianship
Jason Gamer is an active performing artist and educator with a broad spectrum of musical abilities and interests. A native of Los Angeles, he earned degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music (B.Mus) and the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music (M.Mus, DMA). From 2008-2010 he served as an Assistant Professor at Utah State University where he was Director of Music Theory, and taught private and group lessons in Applied Trumpet Performance. He was also a Lecturer at California State University Dominguez Hills, and in Spring 2010, was invited as a guest instructor to the Utrecht School of the Arts in Utrecht, Holland. Jason plays trumpet in several ensembles including the New West Symphony, St. Matthew's Chamber Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Solo engagements have included performances with the Chamber Orchestra of the South Bay, West Coast Composers Forum, the USU Wind Orchestra and Percussion Ensemble, and the renowned United States Continental Army Band. Jason also performs with Hollywood Klezmer, Orchestre Surreal, and on several studio recordings including a new EP with the Jason Lee Bruns Jazz Collective, featuring his original compositions and arrangements. Also an accomplished conductor, Jason has led the Los Angeles Russian String Orchestra, and in the summer of 2005 conducted during the inaugural season of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival. From 1995-2006, he served as music director and conductor of the Wild Ginger Philharmonic, which he co-founded. In 2004, Jason received the prestigious Founder's Award for Humanity in the Arts from ICAP, the International Committee of Artists for Peace.
Valerie Wheeler, Production Manager / Transportation Director
Valerie is a production stage manager based in Los Angeles. She has stage managed for theater and opera companies nationwide including Theater of the First Amendment, the New Orleans Opera, Opera Memphis, Opera Cleveland, Opera Idaho, the Music Academy of the West, the Wichita Grand Opera, the Toledo Opera, 6 seasons with the Wolf Trap Opera Company and 12 seasons with Opera Santa Barbara, including the world premiere production of Stephen Schwartz' opera, "Seance on a Wet Afternoon." Valerie is currently the stage manager for the USC Thornton Opera.
Angie Engelbart, Admissions Director / Associate General Manager
Angie resides in Los Angeles, California. Possessing a "superb coloratura voice with magical vocal flexibility," Ms. Engelbart is a former apprentice artist at the Kansas City Lyric Opera, where she debuted as Papagena in Die Zauberflote. Ms. Engelbart earned her Masters in Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and continued with post-graduate studies under Joyce Castle at the University of Kansas. Recent stage roles include Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Olympia in Les Contes d'Hoffman, Alissa in a stage version of Milhaud's song cycle Alissa for the Berlin Kurt Weill Festival, Cleopatra in Guilio Cesare, and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas. Ms. Engelbart has formerly studied with Jennifer McGregor, Joyce Castle, Un Chong Christopher and Inci Bashar. She currently studies with Val Underwood.
Ignace Jang, String Program Director, Violin & Chamber Music
The concertmaster of the newly formed Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, Ignace “Iggy” Jang is a committed teacher for all levels, for all ages. He has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in concert halls such as the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Merkin Hall in New York, the Seoul Arts Center, the Sejong Cultural Arts Center in South Korea and Bunkamura Hall in Tokyo, Japan. As a soloist he has performed with such orchestras as the Colorado Symphony, the Versailles Chamber Orchestra, l’Orchestre Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, and the Honolulu Symphony.
In addition, his extensive work as a chamber musician includes invited performances at the Colorado Music Festival, the Jeju Isle Music Festival in South Korea, the Maui Chamber Music Festival, Harvard University, the Modern Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado, Britt Festival in Oregon, and numerous festivals in his native France, including the Berlioz, Trièves, and Chirens Festivals, as well as the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics Music Festival.
He is also a founding member of two chamber ensembles, Trio Manoa, a group comprised of faculty members from the University of Hawai’i, where he teaches violin and chamber music, and the Equinox Duo, with harpist Şirin Pancaroğlu. The Washington Post praised the duo for its “excellent sense of style and impressive musicianship.” Recent appearances include tours to China, Turkey and Brazil.
Eydie Alyson, Vocal Faculty
Eydie starred as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, during its award-winning Off -Broadway run at the OrpheumTheater, directed by the show’s creator, Howard Ashman. She also starred in the highly acclaimed 1st National Tour and many regional productions, along the way winning awards in Santa Barbara, Denver, Chicago and Palm Beach, as well as collaborating with Frank Oz on the film.
Eydie was in 3 National companies of Les Miserables – the orginal LA company, the original San Francisco company and the National tour ( u/s Eponine). She originated the role of Mamie Eisenhower in the West Coast premiere of Michael John LaChiusa’s First Lady Suite and on the original cast recording (P.S. Classics/iTunes). Eydie is an accomplished yogi who also runs a private voice studio in Los Angeles, and has taught clinics on musical theater performance in Syracuse, LA, and Northern California.
Robin Buck, Vocal Faculty
Baritone Robin Buck has performed more than 50 roles with companies throughout the United States and Europe, including NY City Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Theater Basel, Opernhaus Zürich and the National Theater in Mannheim, Germany. Favorite roles include Marcello in La Bohême, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, King Alphonse in Donizetti’s La Favorite, and the title roles in Sweeney Todd and The Phantom of the Opera.
He made his Carnegie Hall solo debut with Simon Rattle and the City of Birmingham Symphony and has appeared as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic and orchestras throughout the U.S. and in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Spain and the U.K. An avid recitalist, he specializes in GermanLieder.
Recent performances include lead roles in Shostakovich’s Moscow: Cherry Town, David Lang’sThe Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Poulenc’s The Breasts of Tiresias, Martinu’s Tears of a Knifeand Nyman’s The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat with Long Beach Opera.
Mr. Buck is Professor of Music and Director of Opera at the University of California, Irvine, and has been an artist-in-residence at the Franz Schubert Institut in Austria, the Lotte Lehmann Akademie in Germany, Festival of New Music in Spain, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and L’Academie de Musique de Sion, Switzerland.
Eugene Chukhlov, String Program Assistant Dir. / Violin, Viola & Chamber Music
Eugene Chukhlov has over 24 years of performance and teaching experience as a member of the Arlekin String Quartet. The quartet has been affiliated with the chamber music program at San Francisco State University for many years. In addition to his quartet duties, Eugene is applauded regularly as a soloist and orchestral player throughout the Bay Area.
Eugene Chukhlov was born into a family of musicians —his father was concertmaster of an opera company in Russia. After winning his first competition at the age of thirteen, Chukhlov moved from Central Asia to Moscow to further his studies, earning degrees in psychology and pedagogy at Gnesin College and a Masters from the Moscow Conservatory.
His teaching commitments at Crowden School and San Domenico have earned him high praises from faculty peers, parents and students alike. He also manages private studios in the East Bay and Marin County, and plays with the New Century Orchestra, Opera, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the Berkeley Symphony. With whatever is left of his day, he cherishes the time with his wife, also a violinist, two lovely children and an impeccably well behaved Russian doberman.
Beth Dunnington, Acting for Singers
Beth is a professional (AEA, SAG) singer/actor, who moved to the Big Island from New York in 2007. After graduating with a BFA in Acting from Emerson, she landed in NYC, performing in musicals, plays, concerts, operas and TV/Radio. She studied with acting teacher Uta Hagen and opera singer Gwynne Geyer. In Hawaii Beth directs, coaches acting for singers, and performs. A favorite project: "Que Suenes Con Las Angelitas," a show she wrote and starred in at the Kahilu Theatre, in collaboration with dancer Angel Prince. They plan to take it to Buenos Aires next season. Beth has also been invited to be a vocal soloist with the Kamuela Philharmonic next season. She recently directed the "Sondheim and Friends" concert for the Teen Theatre Troupe at the Kahilu, and had the pleasure of working with both Val Underwood as musical director and Jennifer McGregor (vocal coach) on that project. She is thrilled to join the HPAF faculty.
Brad Ellis, Music Director
is best known as Brad the Pianist on Fox TV's GLEE. Other TV: GILMORE GIRLS, GIRLS NEXT DOOR, OPRAH, THE VIEW, THE MIDDLE, THE 2009 ACADEMY AWARDS, and THE GLEE PROJECT. Film: CHICAGO, DELOVELY, and BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Brad has conducted and performed in over 6,000 performances of more than 400 different musicals in NY, LA and internationally, and orchestrates for the LA Phil, the Hollywood Bowl and the Philadelphia Orchestras. He's written for the off-Broadway shows PLAID TIDINGS and TIN PAN ALLEY RAG. He's been the leader on 35 albums for RCA, DRG and Varese Sarabande. In the last few months, he's been profiled by CNN, NPR, and People Magazine.
Aurelien Eulert, Coach
Hailing from Alsace, France, Aurelien regularly performs throughout Europe and the United States. Aurelien has studied with pianists Jean-Louis Hauenauer, Amy Lin, Fred Karpoff, Peter Serkin and Earl Wild. He has worked for five years as staff pianist for the French Flute festival Flutissimo held every summer since 2005. He performs regularly with opera star Rod Gilfrey, and has been musical director of the Chamber Opera of USC since 2008 and coach / rehearsal pianist with the USC Thornton School of Music Opera program since 2009. Aurelien also performs in professional and university orchestras, under conductors such as James Conlon, Robert Spano, Carl St.-Clair and John Williams. Aurilien holds degrees form the Conservatoire National de Strasbourg, Syracuse University and the University of Southern California, and attended the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2010. He is currently pursuing his DMA degree in Keyboard Collaborative Arts at USC with Kevin Fitzgerald.
Michael Haber, String Faculty, Cello / Chamber Music
A former disciple of Gregor Piatigorsky and Janos Starker, Michael Haber has been on the cello and chamber music faculties of Oberlin College, Indiana University, The New England Conservatory of Music, the Eastman School of Music and Boston University and the University of Akron. He also taught and performed at many summer festivals including Aspen, Marboro, Yellow Barn and Musicorda.
Mr. Haber was a member of The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell, the Casals Festival Orchestra under Pablo Casals and The Mostly Mozart Orchestra at Lincoln Center in New York City. With the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, he toured and recorded throughout Europe, the USA and Asia.
His chamber music career includes international tours as the cellist of The Composers Quartet, in residence at Columbia University in New York, cellist of The Gabrielli Trio for 20 years, together with violinist James Buswell, and hundreds of other programs at music festivals and concert series throughout the USA.
Among the comments for Mr. Haber’s performances, the New York Times spoke of
“ the lyricism and perfection of his playing “, the London Times called him “ a romantic cellist “ and The Cleveland Plain Dealer called him “ a superb musician.”
Richard Harrell, Stage Director
Richard Harrell is a recognized leader in the field of opera training and production. Currently he serves as Director of the Opera Program for the San Francisco Conservatory and visiting faculty for the Opera Studio of the Netherlands. Previously, he was the Director of the Juilliard Opera Center, the Director of the San Francisco Opera Center, Artistic Advisor and Head of Faculty for the Training Program of the New National Theatre in Tokyo and Artistic Consultant and Principal Stage Director for the Bangkok Opera.
He also studied opera performance in the graduate program of the Manhattan School of Music, and his Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance is from the Catholic University of America.
Gary Hickling, String Faculty, Bass
Gary Hickling will forever remember performing under the baton Leopold Stokowsky with the American Symphony Orchestra, and Rudolph Kempe with the Munich Philharmonic. Other memories he enjoys sharing are experiences with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Graunke Symphony Orchestra (Germany), the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Manila Symphony Orchestra, Mexico's Bellas Artes, and 15 years with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra. Recent festivals include Chamber Music Northwest, Yale's Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and of course most recently the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.
Gary received his bachelor degree from UCLA where he studied bass with Peter Mercurio. At Manhattan School of Music, he studied bass with David Walter and earned an MM and an MMEd.
Chee-Yun, String Program Artistic Advisor, Violin / Chamber Music
Chee-Yun's visit to the Big Island this past summer left colleagues, students and audiences raving about her wonderful playing, artistry and engaging personality. Reciprocally, the Avery Fisher career grant recipient fell in love with the festival's enthusiasm, high quality and gorgeous scenery. She is looking forward to providing her artistic input for 2012.
Chee-Yun's flawless technique, dazzling tone and compelling artistry have enraptured audiences on five continents. Charming, charismatic and deeply passionate about her art, Chee-Yun continues to carve a unique place for herself in the ever-evolving world of classical music. Winner of the 1989 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the 1990 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chee-Yun performs regularly with the world's foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with such distinguished conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Pinchas Zukerman, Neeme Järvi, Jaap van Sweden, James DePriest, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Hans Graf, Krzysztof Penderecki, among numerous others.
Ms. Chee-Yun studied at the Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay. In August 2007, she was appointed Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Violin at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Chee-Yun plays the Stradivarius "Ex-Strauss" (Cremona, 1708), which is on loan through the generous efforts of the Samsung Foundation of Culture of Korea and the Stradivari Society of Chicago, Illinois.
Ann Krinitsky, String Faculty, Conductor
As Director of the Marin Symphony Youth Performance programs, Ann Krinitsky conducts the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra. As Music Director of the Virtuoso Program at San Domenico School, she conducts the Orchestra da Camera. Ms. Krinitsky completed her tenure as Music Director of the Nova Vista Symphony in June 2010.
A frequent guest conductor with the Honolulu Symphony, Ms. Krinitsky led community and educational concerts on Oahu as well as on tour to the neighbor islands of Hawaii and Kauai. She returned to the islands in December 2011 for her fourth appearance as conductor of Ballet Hawaii's Nutcracker. She has also appeared as guest conductor with the Maui Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Chamber Music Hawaii, the Women's Philharmonic, the Camellia Symphony, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Marin Chamber Orchestra, and the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra.
In addition to her conducting duties, Ms. Krinitsky has performed nationally as a violinist and is a published music transcriber, arranger and copyist.
Jennifer McGregor, Vocal Faculty / Stage Director / Coach
Jennifer McGregor began her career in her native city, Sydney,
performing leading roles in musical theatre. She joined Opera Australia and
performed Adele in Die Fledermaus with Dame Joan Sutherland. She has also
performed with Sherrill Milnes and was the first soprano to appear as Lucia in
Lucia di Lammermoor following Dame Joan Sutherland. She currently resides in
London with her husband and daughter.
Laurence Paxton, Vocal Faculty
Laurence Paxton, Professor Voice at the University of Hawai'i since 1985, is a tenor educated at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and a recipient of a performance degree from Indiana University. He has performed more than 30 operatic roles with the companies of Santa Fe Opera, Memphis, Dallas, Fort Worth, St. Louis and Hawaii. His credits also include modern opera world premieres and telecasts and appearances with such symphony orchestras as San Francisco, Dallas, Indianapolis and Honolulu. He has alos performed at the Sydney Opera House. Prof. Paxton won the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions, was a finalist in the San Francisco Merola Competition, and took first place in the Beethovan Vocal Competition.
Equally at home in musical theatre, he has established himself as an award-winning director whose Diamond Head Theatre shows have included Sunday in the Park with George, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Jesus Christ Superstar.Critics have praised his performances with Grand Hotel at Manoa Valley Theater, West Side Story at the University of Hawaii's Kennedy Theatre, the title role in Sunday in the Park with George and the the lead role of Guido in a specially mounted production of Nine at Diamond Head Theatre.
Sergei Riabtchenko, String Faculty, Cello
Sergei Riabtchenko received a Bachelors degree from Pushkin Music College in Russia, where he was the Grand Prix winner of the Moscow Young Musicians Festival. He received his Masters from the Moscow Conservatory of Music with a degree in cello performance and teaching, and a minor in composition. Sergei performed with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra until 1990.
Upon moving to the United States, Mr. Riabtchenko taught for three years at San Francisco State University and currently performs with the Russian Chamber Orchestra and the Arlekin String Quartet. Currently Mr. Riabtchenko conducts and composes music for two choirs for the Russian Orthodox church of San Francisco. He began teaching at San Domenico in summer 2000.
Stephen Stubbs, Vocal Faculty
After a thirty year career in Europe, Stephen Stubbs returned to his native Seattle in 2006 to establish his new opera company, Pacific Musicworks. The company received rave reviews for its inaugural production of Monteverdi’s Return of Ulysses in the production by South African artist William Kentridge with the Handspring Puppet Company in March 2009.
He is also the artistic co-director of the Boston Early Music Festival. BEMF’s recordings of Conradi’s Ariadne, Lully’s Thesee, and Psyché were nominated for Grammy awards in 2005, 2007, and 2009.
Highlights of the 2011-2012 season: Steffani’s Niobe for the Boston Early Music Festival and Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers in Seattle, his conducting debut with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Handel’s Esther and Acis and Galatea for the American Handel Society Festival.
In 1997 Stubbs founded an early opera course called the Accademia d’Amore now in Seattle as the educational component of Pacific Musicworks and a new program in early music at the Cornish College of the Arts under his direction. As a conductor he is represented by Schwalbe and partners.
STAFF
Carole Chillingworth, Director of Housing
Beth Dunnington, Hawai'i Recruitment Liaison
Amy Loftus, Librarian
Heather O'Brien, Massage Therapist / Driver
Mo Safren, Intern
Irma Singer, Treasurer