IVAI & Mannes College The New School for Music June 5 – June 25, 2016 Cover Art: Melissa Gerstein A Warm Welcome to our 2016 IVAI participants! It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the International Vocal Arts Institute in cooperation with the Mannes College of Music The New School. We hope that this year's session is exciting and fulfilling for all of you. With numerous performances, master classes, and individual lessons, we have arranged a full schedule that will surely be stimulating! Our superb faculty is eager to help "get you to the next level" and to develop your special qualities. While IVAI over the years has taken place in many wonderful locations, it is particularly exciting to host our program in our home base, one of the world's cultural capitals. We hope this summer is a truly memorable learning experience for each of you! Paul Nadler, Music Director Joan Dornemann, Artistic Director On behalf of The Mannes School of Music The New School, I would like to extend my heartfelt welcome to all International Vocal Arts Institute students, faculty, staff, patrons, and friends. The Mannes School of Music and IVAI share a deep commitment to music, education, and artist development. In hosting IVAI this season, Mannes and the greater New York City communities will have the tremendous benefit of access to the many concerts and master classes that will take place during IVAI. IVAI brings together student musicians from around the globe who possess an extraordinary level of artistry and provides them with unparalleled opportunities for developing their craft. I am proud to say that many of those students are also students and alumnae of the Mannes School. We look forward to many years of making music together! Richard Kessler Dean, The Mannes School of Music Executive Dean, College of Performing Arts at The New School IVAI 2016 Summer Program in New York City - Page 1 of 35 www.ivai.org IVAI BOARD OF DIRECTORS Paul Nadler, President Lynn Warshow, Treasurer Rina Mosseri, Secretary Sharon Azrieli Perez Eileen Birnbaum Joel Birnbaum Joan Dornemann Naomi Houminer Diane Levy Tsvia Rosenthal Joshua Major, Associate Artistic Director Blair Boone-Migura, Administrative Director Beth Roberts, IVAI Vocal Program Coordinator Lynn Warshow, Program Editor ADVISORY BOARD Thomas Hampson Marlena Malas Sherrill Milnes Eve Queler Julius Rudel (deceased) Renata Scotto Diana Soviero Cesar Ulloa Deborah Voigt IVAI 2016 Summer Program in New York City - Page 2 of 35 www.ivai.org PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE June 07 Master Class Simon Saad 12 p.m. June 08 Master Class Diana Soviero 12 p.m. June 08 Master Class Bernard Uzan 12 p.m. June 09 Master Class Steven Eldredge 12 p.m. June 10 Master Class Djordje Nesic 12 p.m. June 10 Master Class Sherrill Milnes 7:30 p.m. June 13 Master Class Ira Siff 12 p.m. June 14 Master Class Tom Muraco 12 p.m. June 15 Master Class Dr. Daniel Kuhn 12 p.m. June 15 Opera Duets, Trios, Ensembles 7:30 p.m. June 16 Master Class Christian Sebek 12 p.m. June 16 International Song Concert 7:30 p.m. June 17 Master Class Deborah Birnbaum 12 p.m. June 18 Roméo et Juliette 7:30 p.m. June 20 Master Class Marni Nixon 12 p.m. June 21 Master Class Olga Makarina 12 p.m. June 21 Master Class Joan Dornemann 7:30 p.m. June 22 La Bohème (Puccini) 7:30 p.m. June 23 La Bohème (Leoncavallo) 7:30 p.m. June 25 American Music Concert 7:30 p.m. IVAI 2016 Summer Program in New York City - Page 3 of 35 www.ivai.org To learn more about IVAI, please be sure to like us on facebook and visit our site: www.ivai.org FACULTY Joan Dornemann, Artistic Director and Assistant Conductor, is one of the most highly respected opera coaches in the world today. In her position as Assistant Conductor with the Metropolitan Opera, she has prepared the most prominent international artists for their performances at the Met. She has worked with such singers as Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Sherrill Milnes, Kiri Te Kanawa, Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Neil Shicoff, Juan Diego Flórez, and Anna Netrebko, among others. She has also collaborated with outstanding opera singers as an accompanist for many solo performances. Ms. Dornemann has been associated with the Gran Liceo in Barcelona, the Spoleto Festival, and the New York City Opera. At the Met she worked with such conductors as James Levine, James Conlon, and Carlos Kleiber. She prepared singers from the Kirov Opera for a recording of La Forza del destino and performances of Carmen and Aida under the baton of Valery Gergiev, and she was in charge of musical preparation for La Bohème and La Cenerentola at the Opéra de Paris. Ms. Dornemann was awarded an Emmy for her contribution to the highly acclaimed “Live from the Met” telecast of La Bohème with Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto. She also teaches master classes throughout the world and is the author of Complete Preparation: A Guide to Auditioning for the Opera. She was honored by the city of Tel Aviv, which issued a commemorative stamp bearing her picture, and she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Montreal. Maestro Paul Nadler, co-founder and Music Director of IVAI, has distinguished himself as one of the world's most respected symphonic and operatic conductors. Since his debut in 1989, he has led more than 60 performances at the Metropolitan Opera, conducting such stars as Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo. At the Met he conducted Dvořák's Rusalka (Renée Fleming and Piotr Beczala) as well as a new production of Strauss's Die Fledermaus. Other Met performances include Eugene Onegin (Renée Fleming, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Ramon Vargas) and Roméo et Juliette (Anna Netrebko and Matthew Polenzani), as well as Tosca in Montreal and Naples, Florida, among others. Additional credits include his debut with the National Opera of Bucharest in Carmen and Don Giovanni, as well as productions with opera companies in Indianapolis, Utah, Calgary, Minnesota, Syracuse, Orlando, and Glimmerglass. Maestro Nadler returned to Opera Montréal for performances of Turandot and conducted La Bohème at Indiana University as well as The Merry Widow and Ernani at the Metropolitan Opera. He is principal guest conductor of the Filarmonica de Stat Iasi (Romania) and also conducted gala performances in Beijing and in Alice Tully Hall for I Sing Beijing. He led concerts with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra de Navarra, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, and the orchestras of Bucharest, Iasi, and Brasov (Romania). His international engagements include conducting the Hong Kong Opera as well as performances in Plovdiv, Varna, and Russe (Bulgaria). In December 2002, he conducted at the Kennedy Center Awards ceremony in honor of James Levine. In 1974, Maestro Nadler founded the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, where he remained as music director and conductor through 1983. IVAI 2016 Summer Program in New York City - Page 4 of 35 www.ivai.org Lucy Arner, Conductor, was appointed Music Director and Conductor of New Jersey Verismo Opera in the fall of 2015, becoming the first woman to hold this position in the company’s history. She has conducted all over the world and was the first woman to conduct opera in Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes. She served as the Artistic Director of the New York Chamber Orchestra and the Principal Conductor of the Asociación Bel Canto in Lima, Perú. She received Florida Grand Opera’s Henry C. Clarke Award as the season’s outstanding conductor for her work on Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Prior to her concentration on conducting, she was on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera and the Liceu in Barcelona. She has coached and taught master classes all over the world, most recently in Moscow and Reykjavik, Iceland. Ms. Arner is currently on the coaching faculty of the Mannes College of Music and is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Canto Vocal Programs, offering professional training for singers in Toulouse and Zagreb. Israeli native Omer Ben Seadia, Stage Director, has quickly established herself as one of the fresh new voices in opera. Her recent production of L’Italiana in Algeri at Opera Santa Barbara was hailed as a “directorial triumph,” praising “her subtle sense of humor, clever sight and sound gags and unerring staging.” She is currently part of the directorial staff at Houston Grand Opera and remounted John Caird’s production of Tosca in May 2016. Other upcoming engagements include directing for the Merola Opera Program. Her credits also include A Streetcar Named Desire at Opera Santa Barbara, Così fan tutte at the University of Michigan, Pursuing the Dream and Let’s Cook Up an Opera at Cincinnati Opera, Surviving the Amazing Opera Race at Dayton Opera, a double bill of Der Kaiser von Atlantis/Brundibár with the Cincinnati Chamber Opera, as part of the Theresienstadt Opera Project, The Sound of Music at the Crested Butte Music Festival, The Coffee Cantata with the Barrocade Orchestra, and The Golden Vanity with the Cincinnati Boy Choir. Ms. Ben Seadia began working at the Israeli Opera at the age of 15. She studied theater directing and also received her teaching degree from the School of Performing Arts at Seminar Ha’Kibuzim, and she has had extensive experience working in repertoire, fringe, and festival theater across Israel. She attended the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she directed numerous productions, including Don Pasquale, Le Docteur Miracle, Saint John’s Passion, and Don Carlos. Three of her productions made the Best of Cincinnati list in 2013 and 2014.