Instructors
Sylvia Stone
Sylvia is a Professor of Voice (Mezzo-soprano) at University of Illinois. B.M. (vocal performance) and M.M. (music literature) with honours and the Performer's Certificate (in both voice and opera), Eastman School of Music (student of Julius Huehn); additional studies with Hermann Reutter at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart and with Maria Wetzelsberger-Gluck.
After making her professional debut in Germany in the role of Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Professor Stone made her home in that country.
She was the leading mezzo-soprano with the opera companies of Lübeck, Krefeld and Mönchengladbach. She guested in opera and concert in Stuttgart, Cologne, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Hamburg, Berlin, Kiel, and other German cities. Additional engagements took her to cities in Holland, Switzerland, and Iceland. Her wide operatic repertoire includes the roles of Dorabella in Mozart's Così fan tutte, the lead roles in Bizet's Carmen and Gluck's Orfeo, Prince Orlofsky in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, The Composer in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, and Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore.
Ms. Stone has sung with such conductors as Gerd Albrecht, Bernhard Klee, Robert Satanowski, Ferdinand Leitner, and Klauspeter Seibel, among others. A Fulbright Scholar, she was a two-time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation Grant. Professor Stone presents master classes at the University of Miami's Summer Program in Salzburg and at many American colleges and universities. She is co-director of the KomischeKammer Oper München im Theaterhof, and she also presents master classes at the Austrian-American Mozart Academy in Salzburg. Professor Stone is the recipient of the Stephens College Alumnae Achievement Award, where she was a guest commencement speaker. She is listed in Who's Who Among America's Teachers.
Rita Loving
Rita works for the Bavarian State Opera, Munich. Rita received Bachelor and Master's Degrees in Piano and Vocal Studies from Oberlin Conservatory, Manhattan and Mannes School of Music.
She has had previous coaching and singing positions at opera houses in Germany, the Netherlands, and in the United States. Rita is a regular coach and accompanist at the Bavarian State Radio for opera recordings and concerts and at Teldec Records in Germany. Rita is a member of the Faculty at the American Institute of Musical Studies; Graz, Austria; Israel Vocal Arts Institute Tel Aviv, Israel; Bayreuther Seminar: Bayreuth, Germany; Opera School. Hyland House Essex in England: Opera Seminar für Kunst und Darstellung Munich Germany.
She has given Master Classes at Manhattan School of Music, New York City; Mannes School of Music, New York City and University of Wisconsin. Rita has worked with many famous singers including Mirella Freni, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Margaret Price, Ruggiero Raimondi, Neil Schicoff, Carol Vaness, Edita Gruberova and Vesselina Kasarova. She has worked with many highly esteemed conductors including Guiseppi Patané, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Savallisch, Zubin Mehta, Fabio Luisi, Marcello Viotti, Peter Schneider Georges Pretre, and Jacques Delacote among many others. Rita has 25 years of experience of Vocal Pedagogy and Musical Coaching in English, German, Italian, and French.
Lawrence Bakst
Lawrence has made an extensive career singing a wide range of repertoire, from Italian spinto works through French and German dramatic repertoire.
He has appeared as Tannhäuser at the National Theater Weimar, as Enzo in La Gioconda at the National Theater Mannheim, as Rodolfo in La Bohème at Munich’s Gärtnerplatztheater, and as Otello at the State Opera Prague, where he also sang many performances of Il Trovatore and Turandot. He has also sung at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Teatro Real, Madrid, the Palais Garnier, Paris, the Teatro Municipal, Rio di Janeiro and in Tokyo. In Münster, he sang the role of Jean de Leyde in Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète in the year 2005 to celebrate the city’s 1200th anniversary. His success as Don Jose in Nürnberg was followed by the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier under the baton of Christof Prick. At the Leipzig Opera, he sang triumphant performances of Leoncavallo´s rarely performed La Bohème. At Vienna’s Klosterneuburg Festival in 2007, he appeared as Floristan in Fidelio. In the summer of 2008, he sang Calaf in the Greek National Opera production of Turandot directed by Renata Scotto and performed on the Herodeon on the Acropolis.
In February, 2009, Mr. Bakst sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Japan with a chorus of 5,000 singers. The next month, he will sing the title role in Wagner’s Siegfried. Mr. Bakst studied voice at the Juilliard School with Hans J. Heinz. After winning the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, as well as the Premier Gran Prix at the Councours de Chant, Toulouse, the Gran Prix at the Vinas in Barcelona, and the Primo Premio in Vercelli, he was engaged by the Wexford Festival and soon after, accepted a position singing with the Wuppertaler Bühnen. He has been living and working in Europe ever since.
Reviews: FIDELIO “Rarely has Florestan’s “Gott, welch Dunkel hier” been so convincingly heard. Lawrence Bakst mastered the enormous vocal and expressive demands of this aria with full technical assurance and moving beauty.”--Magdeburger Volkstimme TANNHÄUSER Lawrence Bakst’s Tannhäuser was a remarkable experience. He has not only a beautiful voice, but much more, the power of economy and nuance. Thus he is still clarion in the huge choral finale of the second Act as well as of course in the Rom Erzählung, with its demands for powerful declamatory moments. DAS OPERNGLAS, Jan.07, (K.G.v.Karais)
Werner Pichler
Werner Pichler, a native of Austria, is a freelance stage director/producer.
His productions have been seen in Germany, Sweden and Austria. He is a regular at the Theatre in Ulm, where he has created ten productions to date: The Bartered Bride; Orfeo ed Eurydice, Hansel and Gretel, Countess Mariza; I Capuleti e i Montecchi; L`Elisir d`Amore, Maria Stuarda, La Traviata, Anna Bolena and Orpheus in the Underworld. Cinderella is to follow next season. His production of Hansel and Gretel at the Royal Swedish Opera House in Stockholm, was the first of Humperdinck‘s opera in over 50 years. Werner‘s production is now in its third season.
His Barber of Seville has been seen at the Opera Houses in Stralsund and Greifswald. But his work also includes contemporary operas. He staged the Austrian premiere of Trojahns Enrico for the Vienna Klangbogen Festival, and Jakob Lenz for the Opera House in Halle. Werner has taught at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and the WIFI also in Vienna. He earned a degree in electrical engineering, studied dance with Merce Cunningham as well as the Alvin Ailey Dance Centre, and acting at HB Studios in New York, where he lived from 1983 till 1992.
He performed at the Metropolitan opera as dancer and extra. He completed his studies at the opera studio in Zürich. He was assistant stage director in Klagenfurt (Austria) and Ulm (Germany) before he began his own directing career.
William Matteuzzi
William Matteuzzi was born in Bologna Italy. After some years of performing concerts he made his official opera debut in Milan in 1979 with the role of Des Grieux in the Opera “Manon” of Jules Massenet. Some years later he met the most important vocal influence of his life, Rodolfo Celletti, who was an expert of the Belcanto Style and famous for his writings about the most important period of vocal excellence in the Italian style, spanning the music of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, early Verdi etc. Following Celletti’s advice, Mr. Matteuzzi specialized in this style and became known not only for elegant and stylistic singing of this repertoire but also for his contributions to the Rossini Renaissance all over the world.
Mr. Matteuzzi has sung over 100 roles in operas, oratorios and operettas throughout world, including Europe, China, Japan, North America, South America, Belorussia, Poland, Bulgaria, etc.
He is to be heard on many recording labels such as Decca, Deutsche Gramophone, Emi, and Phillips with such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Chailly, Sinopoli, Pappano etc. In the last years he began to teach and give master classes in Accademia Chigiana (Pisa) and Accademia di Osimo (Ancona).
He began a new artistic phase as a Stage Director in Holland with “The Barber of Seville”. Recently he created an evening with his students about Monteverdi, combining classical singing and recitation which will shortly be performing on a tour throughout Italy.
Shirley Close
Shirley Close was born in Oklahoma and received a Master of Music degree in Voice from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Olivet Nazarene University. She has received many honors for her singing including the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation. She was a winner of the San Francisco Opera Regional Auditions, the Oratorio Society of New York Competition, and the NATS Singer of the Year (Southern California Chapter). Ms. Close has spent the majority of her career as a mezzo-soprano, but on the advice of Sir George Solti made the transition to dramatic soprano.
She has performed opera, concerts and oratorio for the past thirty years in Europe, America and Asia. Highlights of her operatic career include performances at the Bavarian State Opera (Munich), Cologne Opera, Bayreuth Festival, Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Düsseldorf, Duisburg, Salzburg, National Theater of Mannheim, Opera du Rhin (Strasbourg), Opera de Nantes, Opera de Nice, Festival d’Orange, the opera companies of Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, Glimmerglass, Mobile and others. She covered Isolde at the Seattle Opera, Brünnhilde at the Chicago Lyric Opera, Kostelnicka in “Jenufa” at the San Francisco Opera and at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan (Ozawa). Additional roles she has performed are Kundry, Ortrud, Tosca, Santuzza, Elizabeth and Venus, and in concert: Brünnhildie.
As a mezzo-soprano, she performed Amneris, Aldagisa, Azucena, Fricka, Waltraute, and Fenena. She has sung under many renowned conductors including Ricardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Wolfgang Sawallisch, James Conlon, Pinchas Steinberg, Michel Plasson, John Nelson, Dennis Russell Davies, Julius Rudel, Michael Gielen, Sir David Willcocks, Louis Langrée, Hans Graf, David Atherton, Egon zu Gutenberg, Marek Janowski.
Ms. Close is currently Associate Professor of Voice at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She was honored in 2003 as the recipient of the Maggie Sloan Crawford Award given by Olivet Nazarene University to women who have excelled professionally and who are a role model to young women. Other recipients have been Sandra Day O’Connor and Elizabeth Dole.
Michael Schlüter-Padberg
Michael Schlüter von Padberg was born in Germany, he studied law in Salamanca (Spain), Vienna and Cologne. Additionally, he graduated from the Folkwang-Hochschule with a degree in theater and opera stage direction. After three years as assistant to the renowned stage director Günter Roth at the Musiktheater im Revier in Gelsenkirchen, he was engaged as Director of Opera at the Bühnen der Hansestadt Lübeck.
From that point on, he directed more than 100 productions in opera houses throughout Germany, France and Italy and was widely revered for his innovative staging of works by Monteverdi and Mozart, as well as his outstanding productions of the classical operettas. In 1976, he was invited to join the faculty of the Hochschule für Musik and Theater in Hamburg as Director of the Opera Theater School and remained in this position until 2001.
The premier periodical reviewing musical productions in Europe and America “Opernwelt” awarded him in 1988 the much coveted High Point of the Year Prize (“Höhepunkt des Jahres”) for his work in Hamburg and especially for his production of Così fan tutte. Since 1987, Professor Schlüter-Padberg has lived in Lucca (Italy). From there his activities as opera and Italian diction coach take him to important opera houses and universities throughout Europe such as the Staatsoper in Hamburg, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Music School of the University of Bremen, as well as the opera house in that same city, and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
June Card
Ms. Card’s career as a singer of international stature spans decades. She has sung - among other theatres - at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Vienna State Opera, La Fenice in Venice and in the most important opera houses in Germany. She has received titles and honours for her performances for her vocal and for her theatrical abilities. Her intuitive sense of drama and her experience with all aspects of music theatre have made her a highly qualified stage director.
She has directed operas in Germany, France and America, has led opera workshops and taught voice.
Kathryn Wright
Kathryn Wright is an American coach/prompter currently living and working in Germany. After training at McGill University in Montreal and finishing her studies at Columbia University in New York she became apprentice and assistant to Ms. Joan Dornemann, who taught her many of the subtleties of working with singers and a great deal about the operatic repertoire.
Ms. Wright freelanced extensively in New York and worked with various regional theaters in the US until she moved to Germany in 1989.Her credentials include four years at the Oper der Stadt Köln under James Conlon, two years at the Semper Oper in Dresden under Giuseppe Sinopoli, and four years as a guest artist at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, working with conductors such as Peter Schneider, Adam Fisher, Carlo Rizzi, Placido Domingo and James Levine, as well as artists such as Deborah Voigt, Jennifer Larmore, Roberto Alagna, Bryn Terfel, Ben Heppner among many others.
From 1996 to 2003 she was also a guest in Sydney for the Winter Season of the Australian Opera, where she prepared, assisted and prompted for many individual productions as well as coaching for their Young Artists Program. She has been on the musical staff of the Deutsche Oper Berlin since 2001 where again she has been privileged to collaborate with many of the well-known singers and conductors of our time, including Christian Thielemann and currently, Donald Runnicles.
Alexander Stevenson
In 1968 Alexander Stevenson was awarded a voice scholarship to New England Conservatory in Boston. Following his studies at New England, Stevenson was engaged by Boris Goldovsky to sing Cavaradossi in his touring production of TOSCA, as well as Pinkerton in MADAME BUTTERFLY and Alfredo in LA TRAVIATA. Stevenson has appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Opera and the Opera Company of Boston and worked with Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, Giuseppe Patané and Sir Colin Davis. His appearances as Tenor soloist at the Tanglewood Festival in Sir Michael Tippetts Oratorio A CHILD OF OUR TIME [with Tippett conducting] as well as his debut at the Aspen Music Festival in the Title-role of Mozart’s IDOMENEO led to a United Nations Scholarship to study at the Zurich Opera Studio.
Stevenson has been engaged as soloist at the opera houses in St. Gallen, Switzerland and Frieburg, Germany, the State Theatre in Karlsruhe, the State Theatre in Kassel and the Gärtnerplatz Theatre in Munich. Parallel to these engagements he appeared as guest soloist in the theatres of Stuttgart, Cologne, Frankfurt and the National Theatre in Munich. At the Hamburg State Theatre he sang the title-role in Mozart’s IDOMENEO in the 1991 and 1992 seasons and in 1993, the role of Jim in Kurt Weill’s MAHAGONNY. In 1994 Stevenson sang the title-role in the premiere of Antonio Salieri’s CATILINA at the State Theatre in Darmstadt. Concert appearances include two seasons at the Salzburg Festival as well as the Ludwigsburg and Heidelburg Festivals.
Stevenson’s CD recordings include Mendelssohn’s PAULUS, Händel’s MESSIAH, Verdi REQUIEM, Haydn’s THE SEASONS [with Hellmuth Rilling] and THE CREATION. In addition, he has recorded Bach’s ST. JOHN PASSION [Evangelist], Mozart’s C MINOR MASS and Orff’s CARMINA BURANA.
Stevenson’s opera repertoire includes nearly 100 roles and nearly 90 concert pieces, from all epochs, Baroque to the modern.
In 1988 Stevenson was praised in OPERNWELT for his portrayal of Cavaradossi in the Freiburg Theater’s TOSCA production: “…a tenor who sings Puccini with the ease of Mozart. Vocal ease, culture and beauty- the top notes delivered direct from the vocal line, without pressure but with piano. A way of singing that I swear I have not heard here since di Stefano”. Sir Peter Pears praised Stevenson’s interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s SAINT NICOLAS CANTATA, calling it “true and excellent”.
Since 1997 Stevenson is on the faculty of the Music Academy in Kassel as assistant professor for voice instruction as well as vocal pedagogy. Since 2001 he has been the assistant professor of voice at the Hochschule [University] für Musik in Cologne, at the branch in Wuppertal.
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