Instructors
Sylvia Stone
Sylvia Stone, mezzo-soprano, is Professor of Voice and Chair of the Voice Division at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. She teaches Voice and also German Diction, as well as French Diction for Singers. Extending her performing talents, expertise, and wisdom into the realm of teaching is a source of great satisfaction to Professor Stone. She teaches her students from an actual performer's perspective and considers herself fortunate through teaching to have the opportunity to pass on her passion for singing to talented and eager young singers.
Her training was at the Eastman School of Music (student of Julius Huehn) where she earned a B.M. (vocal performance) and M.M. (music literature) with honors, a Performer's Certificate in both voice and opera and she was a George Eastman Scholar. She completed additional studies with the German composer and Musikhochschuldirektor Hermann Reutter at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart and with Maria Wetzelsberger-Gluck.
A Fulbright scholar, Sylvia Stone was a two-time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation Grant. After making her professional debut in Germany in the role of Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Professor Stone, a mezzo-soprano, made her home there and sang with opera companies throughout the German-speaking countries. Additional engagements took her to cities in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland, and America. Professor Stone's wide operatic repertoire, spanning more than 1,300 performances, includes the roles of Dorabella in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, the lead roles in Bizet's Carmen and Gluck's Orfeo, Rosina in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Komponist in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, and Azucena in Verdi's Il Trovatore. In Reykjavik, she sang the role of Mary in Der Fliegende Holländer in the first performance there of an opera by Richard Wagner.
A frequent adjudicator and clinician, Professor Stone teaches during the summer months at Scuola Italia's Corso Lirico in Urbania and Sant'Angelo in Vado, Italy, and at the Austrian-American-Mozart-Academy in Salzburg, Austria, and most recently at FAVA Salzburg. Other activities include her tenure as co-director of the Komische-Kammer-Oper-München, an international music theater program for young singers in Germany; as director of the MONC Central Illinois District Auditions; and her frequent affiliation with the University of Miami's Summer Program in Salzburg as master class clinician. Summer of 2012 marks her ninth season as artistic director of Il Corso Estivo per Giovani Cantanti Lirici in Urbania and Sant'Angelo in Vado, Italy.
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.
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.
Alejandro Roca Bravo
Alejandro Roca was born in Colombia and is developing a career as one of the most recognized accompanists and vocal coaches of his generation in South America.
After receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in Piano at the Antonio Maria Valencia Conservatory, he moved to Barcelona where he studied at the Liceu Conservatory and specialized in vocal repertoire with teachers such as Dalton Baldwin, Angel Soler and Manel Cabero. During his time in Spain he worked as an accompanist and coach for several opera and zarzuela productions and competitions and played for the studio of Professor Carmen Bustamante (Chair of the Voice Department at the Liceu Conservatory), where he specialized in Spanish and Catalan vocal music.
He has collaborated with singers in Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, the United States, Ecuador and Colombia and has played for the masterclasses of artists such as Dawn Upshaw, William Mateuzzi, Enric Serra, Robert Mc Farland among many others. As a collaborative pianist he has worked with clarinetist Michael Collins, violinists Francesco Manara and Carlos Villa and was a member of the Kegelstatt Trio.
He currently works in Bogotá, Colombia, as pianist and Assistant Musical Director of Opera de Colombia where, since 2006, he has prepared complete productions of Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci, Don Pasquale, La Boheme, Romeo et Juliette, Madame Butterfly, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Le Nozze di Figaro and L’elisir d’amore among others, and is Director of the company’s Opera Prima Program for Young Singers.
At the Universidad Central in Bogota he is Head Vocal Coach and Musical Director of the Opera Workshop preparing operas from Monteverdi to XX century works, including several Colombian premieres.
Recently he was invited to teach a Zarzuela workshop at the Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, where he also recorded a CD of Colombian art song. In the last few years he has been part of the staff for the Scuola Italia Summer Opera Program for Young Singers in Urbania (Italy) as an accompanist and assistant coach.
Since 2011 Alejandro is also Academic Director of the Educational Program of the Cartagena International Music Festival.
Julio Mirón
AJulio Mirón was born in Puerto Rico, where he studied at the Pablo Casals conservatory in San Juan. He went on to complete bachelor and master-level study programmes in composition and conducting at the Manhattan School of Music in New York (USA).
While studying in New York, he coached at the "American Opera Center" based at the Julliard school of Music and travelled to Europe to appear as a recital accompanist at music festivals in Lausanne, St. Tropez, Paris and Marbella. Since moving to Europe Julio Mirón has participated in a host of international festivals: the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Wiesbaden's "Mai Festpiele", the Munich "Opernfestspiele," the Mozart Festival in Buenos Aires, Hamburg's "Oper im Park", the "Bregenzer Festspiele" (Austria), and the Syria International Music Festival.
Based in Munich and working at the Bavarian State Opera, Mr. Mirón played for seven seasons at the "Münchner Singschule", where he accompanied master classes with renowned international singers such as Astrid Varnay, Ingrid Bjoner, Josef Greindl, Siegfried Lorenz, Mirella Freni, Eberhard Buchner, Josef Metternich and Felicia Weathers.
As a member of the Munich Opera House, he participated in world premieres such as "Ubu Rex" by K. Penderecki, "Dunkles Haus" by H. P. Platz and "Der Traumfresserchen" by Wilfried Hiller, as well as in the Munich premiere of "The Emperor of Atlantis, or the Refusal of Death" by Viktor Ullmann. Mr. Mirón was also solo pianist in the Munich premiere of Hans van Manen's ballet with music of Prokoviev "Sarcasmen" and John Adam's "Fearful Symmetries".
He was coach and piano soloist in the Austrian premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's "Die Erorberung von Mexico", at the "Tiroler Landestheater" in Innsbruck, and in the production of "Ghosts" by Antonio Bibalo at Wiesbaden's "Hessisches Stadttheater".
In Munich, he has played cembalo, hammerklavier, organ and/or celesta with the "Bach Collegium" in oratorios such as Haydn's "The Creation" and "The Seasons", Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" and "St. John Passion", and Stravinsky's "Symphony of Psalms". He also plays with the "Da Capo Chamber Orchestra" in Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" yearly
performances with winners of international violin competitions, and has participated as coach and pianist in Hans Werner Henze's "Biennale"for contemporary musical theater .
Julio Mirón is the musical director of Munich's oldest music society – the "Bürger-Sänger- Zunft" (comprising chorus and symphony orchestra) – and of the "Stadtkapelle Germering" (symphonic wind orchestra). He became the very first Puerto Rican conductor to appear at Berlin's famous "Reichstag" last year, when the Stadtkapelle Germering was invited by the president of Germany to give a concert there. Years of coaching in a variety of opera houses, independent productions, and opera workshops have made him a well-known and experienced vocal coach, especially as
regards Italian and German repertoire (lied and opera). This is his second season at the "Scuola Italia" .
