Vocal program: July 1-22, 2012 string program: july 1-16, 2012
Vocal Faculty
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 German Lieder.
Recent performances include lead roles in
Shostakovich’s Moscow: Cherry Town, David Lang’s The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, Poulenc’s The Breasts of
Tiresias, Martinu’s
Tears of a Knife
and 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.
DR. WILLIAM NIELD CHRISTENSEN, Vocal Faculty
Dr. Christensen holds the B.A., M.A., M.M. and the D.M.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara with additional vocal training at the School of Music at Indiana University, the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Stuttgart, the Opernschule Stuttgart, and the Chor und Konzertverein International Operastudio Meran. Dr. Christensen has studied voice with Donna Roll, Elizabeth Mannion, Carlos Montané, Luisa Bosabalian, and Elizabeth Mosher. He has worked with Master Teachers James King , David L. Jones, Virginia Zeani, Warren Jones, Anne Epperson, Klaus Nagora, and Martial Singher. Currently a member of the voice faculty at Oklahoma City University, Dr. Christensen has taught voice at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of California at Santa Barbara Summer Sessions Young Artist Vocal Institute, Westmont College, the School of Music at Indiana University, the Cate Preparatory School, the Key West Symphony Young Artist Program and happy to return to the faculty of the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival after an absence of four years.
A frequent soloist, Dr. Christensen has performed with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Fort Smith Symphony, Rose State Live, Brightmusic Society of Oklahoma, the Key West Symphony Young Artist Program, the Distinguished Artist Series at Oklahoma City University, the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Choral Society, Grand Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Santa Barbara, the Adriatic Music Festival, and the Würtembergishe Philharmonie Reutlingen. He has sung many leading roles including the Tenor Soloist from Verdi’s Requiem, Siegmund from Die Walküre, Don Josè from Carmen, Max from Der Freischütz, and Cavaradossi from Tosca.
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.
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.
Paul Floyd, Coach
Currently, Paul works as an Assistant Conductor with the Los Angeles Opera. In addition to his duties as a pianist and coach, he has been a regular lecturer for pre-concert talks hosted by the LA Opera League. During the summers he has held similar positions with The Santa Fe Opera, the Central City Opera, and the Aspen Music Festival. He is a frequent accompanist for the Western Region finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
His education includes the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from the University of Colorado, Boulder as well as degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Southern California where he graduated summa cum laude. His primary teachers have included Robert Spillman, Nelita True, and James Bonn.
In 1991 he was the MTNA National Collegiate Artist winner in piano. He has appeared as soloist with the University of Colorado Symphony, the Ventura County Symphony, the Saddleback College Orchestra, and the Florida Bach Festival.
His movie credits include an appearance with Julie Andrews and Anna Netrebko in Princess Diaries II, and a Disney Hall performance with Vivica Genaux in Anthony Hopkins’ Fracture
Paul is an avid outdoorsman, and when not seated at the piano, he can be found riding his surfboard or his road bike, or hiking with his partner Greg Norton and their greyhound, Whitman.
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.
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.
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.
Mark Lamanna, Stage Director / Acting Teacher
Equally at home in musical theater and opera, he most recently staged productions of the musical She Loves Me (Cal State LA) and the opera
Dido & Aeneas (Orange County High School of the Arts). He created
several Musical Theater Under The Stars concerts for Opera New Jersey,
and co-created A Bernstein Celebration for Ridgefield Opera. Favorite productions include Lee Hoiby's This Is The Rill Speaking (CSULA),
Candide and Applause (in his hometown Syracuse, NY), The Mikado and La Traviata (Intimate Opera). In 2007, Classical Singer Magazine named him Stage Director of the Year.
Mark performed for ten years in regional theater. Favorite roles include the Emcee in Cabaret, Motel in Fiddler on the Roof, Paul in A Chorus Line, Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs, and
Gene in the drama I Never Sang For My Father. In the original Broadway cast of the Alan Jay Lerner/Charles Strouse musical Dance a Little Closer, he understudied several roles, coached
the understudies in their musical staging, and was leading man Len Cariou's personal dance captain. Seeing where Mark's abilities and strengths lay, Mr. Lerner's team encouraged him to pursue directing, a profession he has enjoyed for the past decade.
Known for imaginative productions that have both dramatic and musical integrity, Mark's work reflects his eclectic and diverse professional training in New York City. Moving there at 17 on
a scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet, he also studied voice with James Carson and speech with George Rose, and attended acting programs at HB Studios and the T. Schreiber Studio. He won
a second scholarship to Balanchine's School of American Ballet, and took years of Broadway
dance classes with Chuck Kelley, Phil Black, and Miguel Godreau. Mark is thrilled to be back in
Hawaii for a second summer with HPAF.
James Lent, Coach
Pianist and Vocal Coach James Lent received the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Yale University, and is currently on the staff at UCLA as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach for the instrumental and vocal music departments. He frequently performs throughout Southern California in venues including the House of Blues, LA Live, the Ritz Carlton Hotel, the Studio City Hilton Hotel, and Hollywood's Boulevard 3. On Friday nights he regularly performs at the oldest piano bar and cabaret in Los Angeles which
is located just off Sunset Blvd. at 2538 Hyperion Ave, 90027, where he has performed for 10 years. He has also served on the summer faculty at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA and as last summer at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival.
As a musical director he has directed and played for productions of Edges, Grease, Seussical, Sweet Charity, Willy Wonka, West Side Story, Sondheim Unscripted, for the LA Stage Star Competition and for numerous headlining shows at Sterling's Upstairs at Vitello's in Studio City. As a pianist he has performed for productions of Cabaret, Chess, A Chorus Line, The Fantasticks, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Little Shop of Horrors, Oklahoma, The
Boyfriend, Lady in the Dark, Merrily We Roll Along, and in 2011 for the world premeire of the chamber version of Jonathan Sheffer's Blood on the Dining Room Floor for the National
Classical Singers Convention.
As a concerto soloist, Mr. Lent made his Alabama Symphony debut performing Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 to critical acclaim on 24 hours' notice to replace Andre Watts. James' numerous piano awards include prizes in the New York Concert Artists Guild International Competition,
the National Chopin Competition, the Washington International Piano Competition at the
Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., the Olga Koussevitsky Piano Competition in New York, the Salon de Virtuosi Awards in New York, the Houston Symphony Ima Hogg National Young Artist Competition, and the title of Top Instrumentalist in the World Championships for the Performing Arts in Burbank, CA. Mr. Lent's other orchestral appearances include the Vancouver Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the Shanghai Philharmonic, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Torrence Symphony, Orchestra X, the Ocean City Pops, the Utah Symphony and the Florida
West Coast Symphony. His solo recital appearances include performances at Weill Recital Hall
at Carnegie Hall, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Lubeck, Germany; for the National Chopin Foundation in Miami, a Boston recital debut at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum,
and at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where he gave the world premiere of a new work written
for him by noted contemporary American composer Frederic Rzewski. His performances have been heard on New York's WQXR and National Public Radio's Performance Today. Mr. Lent was invited to participate in the Pierre Boulez Workshop for Instrumentalists and Conductors at Carnegie Hall where he performed with the renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain under the direction of Maestro Boulez in a sold-out concert at Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Lent was a fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal.
Mr. Lent is a native of Houston where he attended the Houston High School for the Performing
and Visual Arts and the University of Houston. Since completing his Doctor of Musical Arts from Yale in 2001, Mr. Lent has been based in Los Angeles.
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.
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.
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.