Equally devoted to instrumental chamber music as he is to art song and operatic repertoire, César Cañón alternates his activity as a pianist with vocal coaching, teaching and conducting. He has performed in his native Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Italy, Norway and across the United States. His concert appearances include the Kennedy Center, the Norwegian National Opera, Detroit Symphony, and San Francisco Opera’s Taube Atrium Theatre at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera. He has been a guest performer and lecturer at Michigan State University, University of Michigan, Emory University, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of Texas at Austin, Universidad Central de Colombia, Universidad Sergio Arboleda, and Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Cañón is an alum of the Aspen Opera Theatre Center and the Merola Opera Program. He has also been a vocal coach and repetiteur for the Ad Astra Music Festival; assistant conductor and pianist for Opera de Colombia, the Bogota philharmonic, Teatro Colón de Bogotá and Festival Amazonas de Opera in Manaus, Brazil. Cañón was an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera in 2018 and 2019. As a fellow, he was featured in the Schwabacher recital series, in which he performed Johannes Brahms’ Die Schöne Magelone alongside baritone Christian Pursell and soprano Felicia Moore. In the summer of 2019, he conducted Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera with Accademia Europea dell’Opera in Lucca, Italy. While in San Francisco, Cañón worked with several Bay Area cultural institutions. He was music director for productions of Pocket Opera in their 2019 and 2020 seasons, pianist for the 2019 and 2022 James Toland Vocal Competition, and rehearsal pianist in selected projects with the San Francisco Symphony and Opera Parallèle. In 2021 he was awarded a Bayreuther Festspiele Stipendiat by the Wagner Society of Northern California, allowing him to attend the prestigious festival in Bayreuth. As a staff pianist, Coach and conductor for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he closely collaborated with mezzo soprano Frederica von Stade.

Cañón holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and a Master of Music and Doctorate in Collaborative Piano from the University of Michigan, where he studied with Martin Katz. He is currently part of the music staff of the San Francisco Opera and the Norwegian National Opera, where he works as staff conductor, repetiteur and assistant chorus master.

Jane Dutton has sung in many of the top opera houses in the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, English National Opera (London), Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona, Spain), and New York City Opera—first as a mezzo-soprano and then as a dramatic soprano.

A native of Indiana, Ms. Dutton made her European opera debut at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre Del Liceu as Anne Boleyn in Saint-Saëns’ Henry VIII and was reengaged by the theater for ten seasons. Other roles at the Liceu included Adalgisa/Norma, La Reine Gertrude/Hamlet, Polina/Pique Dame, La Nourrice/Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, Suzuki/ Madama Butterfly among others. She sang several seasons at London’s English National Opera (Amneris/Aida, Santuzza/Cavalleria Rusticana) eventually appearing as Kundry in Parsifal. That appearance marked the start of her career as a Wagnerian soprano, and she has since sung many of the major Wagnerian roles (Isolde, Brünnhilde, Senta) in the United States, England, Germany, and Hong Kong.

In the United States, she sang Jordan Baker in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby and Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette, as well as numerous other roles for the Metropolitan Opera. In addition to her appearances in major U.S. opera houses, she has sung with more than 25 U.S. regional opera houses, in more than 30 different major roles.

Dutton’s orchestral work highlights include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, RTE National Symphony (Ireland), Prague Radio Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Houston Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and the Korean Broadcast Symphony at the United Nations General Assembly. She has recorded under the Chandos and Albany Records labels. She has been awarded prizes in many competitions, including Placido Domingo’s Operalia. She earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University, where she studied with famed Wagnerian Margaret Harshaw. Dutton earned an Artist Diploma from Yale University studying with Doris Yarick Cross.

For the past decade, Ms Dutton has been a voice professor at the famed Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Many of her students have been invited to participate in the top young artist training programs in the US including Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, and Central City Opera to name a few. Ms. Dutton has taught at the San Miguel Institute of Bel Canto in San Miguel, Mexico and the Interlochen Arts Center.

Soprano Christine Goerke has appeared in many of the most prestigious opera houses of the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Royal Opera House, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Saito Kinen Festival. She has sung much of the great soprano repertoire, beginning with the Mozart and Handel heroines and now moving into dramatic Strauss and Wagner roles.

Ms. Goerke has also appeared with leading orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Radio Vara, the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms, and both the Hallè Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Symphony at the Edinburgh International Festival. She has worked with some of the world's foremost conductors including James Conlon, Sir Andrew Davies, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Claus Peter Flor, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons, Seiji Ozawa, David Robertson, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, the late Robert Shaw, Patrick Summers, Jeffery Tate, Christian Thielemann, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Edo de Waart.

Ms. Goerke's recording of Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Classical Recording and Best Choral Performance. Her close association with Robert Shaw yielded several recordings included the Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes, Poulenc's Stabat Mater, Szymanowski's Stabat Mater, and the Grammy-nominated recording of Dvorak's Stabat Mater. Other recordings include the title role in Iphigenie en Tauride for Telarc and Britten’s War Requiem, which won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.

Ms. Goerke was the recipient of the 2001 Richard Tucker Award, the 2015 Musical American Vocalist of the Year Award, and the 2017 Opera News Award.

"Martin Katz must surely be considered the dean of collaborative pianists," said the Los Angeles Times, and Musical America magazine created an award expressly for him: Accompanist of the Year. One of the world's busiest collaborators, he has been in constant demand by the world's most celebrated vocal soloists  for more than five decades. He was fortunate to accompany Marilyn Horne for almost all of that time. He has also appeared and recorded regularly with Frederica von Stade, David Daniels, Jose Carreras, Karita Mattila, Cecilia Bartoli, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle, Piotr Beczala, Joseph Calleja to name just a few. Season after season, the world's musical capitals figure prominently in his schedule. 

Mr. Katz is a native of Los Angeles, where he began piano studies at the age of five. He attended the University of Southern California and studied the specialized field of accompanying with its pioneer teacher, Gwendolyn Koldofsky. While yet a student, he was given the unique opportunity of accompanying the classes and lessons of such luminaries as Lotte Lehmann, Jascha Heifetz, Pierre Bernac, and Gregor Piatigorsky. Following his formal education, he held the position of pianist for the US Army Chorus in Washington, D.C. for three years, before moving to New York where his international career began in earnest in 1969.     

In more recent years, invitations to conduct orchestral evenings and operas have come with increasing frequency. Mr. Katz has partnered several of his soloists on the podium for orchestras of the B.B.C., Houston, Washington, D.C., Tokyo, New Haven and Miami. He has also been pleased to conduct several staged productions for the University of Michigan's Opera Theatre, the Music Academy, and San Francisco Opera’s prestigious Merola program. 

Finally, the professional profile of Martin Katz is completed with his passionate commitment to teaching. For four decades, the University of Michigan has been his home, where he has been happy to chair the School of Music's program in collaborative piano, and also play an active part in operatic productions. He has been a pivotal figure in the training of countless young artists, both singers and pianists, who are now working  all over the world. The University of Michigan has recognized this important work, awarding him the first Artur Schnabel professorship, and more recently named him a Distinguished University Professor. He chose to name this award after his teacher, Gwendolyn Koldofsky, herself a cornerstone at the Music Academy for many decades. In addition to his work at his home school, he is a regular guest teacher at Helsinki's Sibelius Academy, Songfest, Chicago College of Performing Arts, Canadian Operatic Arts Academy, and the New National Theatre of Tokyo.  

Mr. Katz’s comprehensive guide for accompanists, “The Complete Collaborator,” published by Oxford Press, is widely seen as the seminal work on this subject.

Mr. Katz attended the Music Academy in 1964, and was named a recipient of the Academy’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1999.

London-based conductor William Long continues to showcase his “masterful command of challenging, multi-stylistic works” (Opera News) with some of the world’s premier musical institutions. Recent highlights include his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican, conducting Washington National Opera’s production of Carmen and the world premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up In My Bones with Opera Theater Saint Louis and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.

This upcoming season, Long returns to The Metropolitan Opera to cover Terence Blanchard’s Champion, San Francisco Opera for the world premiere of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra and concerts with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra & Chorus, and Washington National Opera for La bohème. Long will also continue his relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra as a Cover Conductor where he has assisted in a wide variety of programs since 2020, working with Sir Simon Rattle, Gianandrea Noseda, and John Wilson. He also continues his posts at the prestigious Music Academy in Santa Barbara, California.

Long’s previous work has included appearances as Cover Conductor at the Kennedy Center for productions of Eugene Onegin, Candide, and the world premieres of Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up and Terence Blanchard’s Champion. A native of California, he has worked extensively with San Francisco Opera as Assistant Conductor on productions of Arabella, Hänsel und Gretel, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, and with Los Angeles Opera as Cover Conductor for Gordon Getty’s Usher House and The Canterville Ghost.

From 2013-2018 Long served as Assistant Conductor at San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle, where he prepared productions of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and At the Statue of Venus, Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Tarik O’Regan’s Heart of Darkness, and Philip Glass’ Les enfants terribles, among other projects.

Long holds a B.A. in Piano Performance and an M.A. in Conducting from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he studied with Maria Ezerova and Nicole Paiement. He also studied with Harold Farberman at the Conductor’s Institute at Bard College and Vance George at Westminster Choir College.

Italian-American pianist, coach, and conductor, Mario Antonio Marra currently serves as the Head of Music and Director of the Resident Artist Program at Minnesota Opera. He has served on the music staff at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, and Oper Frankfurt, among others. Recent conducting credits include gala concerts with Opera San Antonio, CMI San Antonio, and Minnesota Opera’s production of Don Giovanni. Passionate in his work nurturing and coaching the next generation of singers and pianists, Marra has served on the faculties of numerous summer training programs including the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco where he returns for his fourth summer in 2025.

An active recitalist, he has recently performed with many of today's most sought-after singers, including Željko Lučić, Eric Owens, Quinn Kelsey, Ramón Vargas, David Leigh, and Stephanie Blythe. He has been presented at prestigious venues internationally, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Palazzo Davanzati in Florence, Oper Frankfurt, and the Civic Opera House in Chicago.

Lauded by the legendary Marilyn Horne for his "superb technique," Marra was a winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition at Music Academy where he was a fellow in 2013 and 2014. He is a graduate of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center young artist program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. His mentors and teachers include Norma Verrilli, Marilyn Nonken, and Warren Jones.

Kristine McIntyre has directed more than 100 operas with a focus on new, contemporary and American works, including the world premieres of Laura Kaminsky and Kimberly Reed's Hometown to the World at the Santa Fe Opera and Town Hall NYC, Kristin Kuster and Mark Campbell's A Thousand Acres for Des Moines Metro Opera based on the Pulitzer-Prize winning novel by Jane Smiley, the planetarium opera Galaxies in Her Eyes by Mark Lanz Weiser and Amy Punt, and the opera film Unknown for UrbanArias based on the song cycle by Shawn Okpebholo and Marcus Amaker. Her recent technologically innovative immersive production of Bluebeard's Castle, a collaboration with world-famous visual composer Oyoram, was met with great critical and audience acclaim. Her new production with Oyoram of The Cunning Little Vixen will premiere at Des Moines Metro Opera in the summer of 2025, the first in a multi-year series of planned works together.

Other recent productions include Moby Dick, Dark Sisters, Flight, Wozzeck, Dead Man Walking, Billy Budd and Manon (regional Emmy awards), the world premieres of The Place Where You Started, Mirror Game, Jane Eyre and John Brown; new productions of Peter Grimes, Jenüfa, Sweeney Todd, Trouble in Tahiti, The Seven Deadly Sins, Street Scene, As One, Glory Denied, Soldier Songs, Florencia en el Amazonas, The Coronation of Poppea, Semele, Vanessa, Of Mice and Men, The Human Voice, The End of the Affair, Three Decembers, The Turn of the Screw, Eugene Onegin, La bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, La cenerentola, Cosi fan tutte, Un ballo in maschera, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Werther and Les Contes d'Hoffmann, as well as the world premieres of Louis Karchin's Jane Eyre for the Center for Contemporary Opera, The Place Where You Started by Mark Lanz Weiser and Amy Punt at Art Share LA, Mirror Game by Celka Ojakangas and Amy Punt, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant by Evan Meier and E.M. Lewis and Kirke Mechem's John Brown for Lyric Opera of Kansas City

Upcoming projects include a revival of her film-noir inspired Don Giovanni, the world premiere of Woman With Eyes Closed by Jennifer Higdon and Jerre Dye, La bohème at Opera Colorado, and a new co-production of Of Mice and Men led by Houston Grand Opera and her first engagement with Music Academy in Summer of 2025.

In addition to her opera film Unknown, Kristine has directed many other projects for the digital realm, including the Studio Artist Showcase for Houston Grand Opera in 2020 and 2021, a recital series for the Portland Opera's Resident Artist program and the Women in Politics recital featuring works by Stacey Garrop and Jake Heggie for Portland Opera at Home. She collaborated with several companies on the filming of her bilingual Spanish-English adaptation of The Barber of Seville, one of the many operas she has adapted and directed for education and community opera programs throughout the country.

Passionate about the training of the next generation of opera artists, Kristine has also taught and directed in many young artist programs, including those at Houston Grand Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Portland Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and The Santa Fe Opera. She regularly mentors young directors, composers and librettists and serves on the steering committee of the Women's Opera Network at Opera America.

Kristine began her opera career at the San Francisco Opera and then spent eight years on the directing staff of the Metropolitan Opera where she directed numerous revivals. With a background in theater, Kristine founded and was the artistic director of everyman, a San Francisco-based theater company. She also collaborated with Rebecca Salzer Dance Theater with whom she co-created pieces of dance / spoken word theater including Skywatch! and Bird Lady, which explores the life and work of street photographer Vivian Maier. For many years, she was a reader and educator for the Playwrights Project, critiquing plays as part of their California-wide playwriting competition. Kristine holds a B.A. in English Literature from Georgetown University, spent her junior at Oxford University studying and directing Shakespeare and has an M.A. in Theatre from the University of Hull in England.

Chief Conductor of the Gävle Symphony Orchestra, GRAMMY® Award-winning artist Christian Reif has established a reputation for his natural musicality, innovative programming and technical command.

Since 2022, Reif has served as Music Director of the Lakes Area Music Festival, a month-long summer festival in Minnesota featuring the nation’s top classical performers in programming that ranges from opera and chamber music to symphonic performances along with commissioned new works. LAMF believes that high quality arts experiences should be accessible to all and operates on a name-your-price ticket model.

Highlights of Reif’s 2024/25 season include debut performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Phoenix Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra. He leads the Cincinnati Symphony in the world premiere of Fantastica, a newly commissioned work by composer Jimmy López Bellido dedicated to Reif based on The Neverending Story, originally a fantasy novel by the German writer Michael Ende and later a major motion picture. He returns to SWR Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia and conducts his own arrangement of John Adams’ El Niño with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Gävle Symphony, and the American Modern Opera Company in December 2024. Reif and his wife, soprano Julia Bullock, also bring Bullock's original program History's Persistent Voice to performances at Lincoln Center and Yale University’s Schwarzman Center in February 2025.

In 2024, Reif won a GRAMMY® for the Nonesuch Records album Walking in the Dark, the debut solo album of classical singer Julia Bullock in which he accompanied her on piano and led London's Philharmonia Orchestra. The album was praised by Gramophone Magazine as “illuminating” and described Reif as providing “excellent support” for Bullock. In 2020 during the pandemic, Reif and Bullock recorded a series of at-home virtual “Songs of Comfort”, ranging from Carole King’s classic “Up on the Roof” to Schubert’s Wanderers Nachtlied. NPR Music featured the duo in a “Tiny Desk Concert” for their special quarantine edition of the series, and The New York Times highlighted them on their “Best Classical Music of 2020” list.

From 2016 to 2019, Christian was Resident Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, after being the Conducting Fellow at the New World Symphony from 2014 to 2016 and at Tanglewood Music Center in 2015 and 2016.

Prior to joining the prestigious Shepherd School of Music as Artist Teacher of Opera Studies in the fall of 2023, Georgian pianist Nino Sanikidze spent nearly two decades at Los Angeles Opera (LAO) - both as a Head Coach for the renowned Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program, and as a principal coach, pianist, and prompter for LAO’s main-stage productions.

Highly in demand as a guest coach, pianist, and prompter, Dr. Sanikidze has been engaged for numerous productions at Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain; Teatro di San Carlo in Napoli, Italy; Royal Opera House Muscat, Oman; Teatro Municipal di Santiago, Chile; Bard Summerscape Festival in New York; Wichita Grand Opera, and Cleveland Opera.

A frequent collaborator with the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, her notable concert appearances include recitals with tenor Marcelo Álvarez and mezzo-soprano Elina Garanča. She has also performed in recital with world-renown guitarist Ángel Romero at “Palm Springs Life Festival”, mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera on Canary Islands’ “Zarzuela en el Mundo” recital tour and, most recently, with superstar tenor Joseph Calleja at “Festival del Sole”. Since 2008 Dr. Sanikidze has been an official pianist for the “Operalia” World Opera Competition and in this capacity has performed on some of the world's most celebrated stages.

Dr. Sanikidze serves on a judging panel of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and Richard Tucker Music Foundations’ Study and Career Grant Auditions, as well as the Daegu International Opera Awards, Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, Classical Singer Convention, Music Center Spotlight Awards, and Center Stage Opera Competition. A sought-after clinician, she regularly visits Universities and Conservatories for masterclasses and residencies. She has served on the faculty at the Music Academy of the West since 2014.

Dr. Sanikidze is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Marilyn Horne Foundation Award for Excellence in Vocal Accompanying.

“Technically nimble and supportive pianist” (New York Times), “Accompanist with wondrous tact and virtuosity” (San Francisco Chronicle), “Vigorous and versatile” (Washington Post) and “Extraordinarily sensitive collaborative synch throughout the evening” (VOICE Magazine) Tamara Sanikidze gave her first performance with the Georgian Symphony Orchestra at age eight and has since appeared as soloist and chamber musician throughout the Republic of Georgia, Russia, Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Since 2009, in capacity of an official pianist for Plácido Domingo’s annual World Opera Competition “Operalia” Dr. Sanikidze has performed in such renown opera houses as Hungarian State Opera house in Budapest, La Scala in Milano, Galina Vishnevskaya's Opera Centre in Moscow, Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, Royal Opera house in London, Dorothy Chandler Auditorium in Los Angeles, Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, São Carlos in Lisbon, and National Theater in Prague.

As a winner of the Marilyn Horne Foundation Award for Excellence in Vocal Accompanying she has performed regularly in the Marilyn Horne Foundation’s “The Song Continues…” and “On the Wings of Song”. Active Song Recitalist she has partnered with such luminaries as Thomas Hampson, Nino Machaidze, Isabel Leonard, Quinn Kelsey, Marjorie Owens, Elizabeth Futral, Nicole Cabell, Leah Crocetto, Nadine Sierra and Amanda Majeski in New York City’s Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall and other prestigious venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. By the special invitation, she has traveled to Beijing, China to perform with Mo. Plácido Domingo and also has performed at the White House for President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
In May 2019 Sanikidze joined the much acclaimed Camerata Pacifica ensemble for a concert tour throughout South California.

Between 2007- 2012 Ms. Sanikidze was a Young Artist Coach at the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera and an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera, where she served as an Assistant Conductor and Coach for productions of Don Giovanni (Mo. Plácido Domingo), Rigoletto (Mo. Giovanni Reggioli), Hansel and Gretel (Mo. Steven Gathman), La Traviata (Mo. Plácido Domingo and Mo. Dan Ettinger), Carmen (Mo. Julius Rudel), Turandot(Mo. Keri-Lynn Wilson), Falstaff (Mo. Sebastian Lang-Lessing), La fanciulla del West (Mo. Nicola Luisotti), Aida (Mo. Nicola Luisotti), The Makropulos case (Mo. Jiří Bělohlávek), Die Walküre (Mo. Donald Runnicles), Carmen (Mo. Nicola Luisotti), and Xerxes (Mo. Patrick Summers).

Upon finishing the prestigious Adler Fellowship Program, Sanikidze joined the Music Staff at both San Francisco Opera and Los Angeles Opera where she works closely with Mo. Plácido Domingo, Mo. James Conlon and Mo. Nicola Luisotti. In the capacity of a Pianist, Prompter, Coach and an Assistant Conductor she has prepared and performed a wide range of operatic repertoire, including Simon Boccanegra starring Plácido Domingo, Tosca, Der fliegende Holländer, La Cenerentola, Falstaff, Evgeny Onegin, Die Zauberflöte, Billy Budd, Lucia di Lammermoor, Madama Butterfly, Un ballo in maschera, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Aida, Turandot, Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Rusalka, and Manon Lescaut.

Ms. Sanikidze is a prize-winner of numerous national and international piano competitions. She has received top scholarships, including a personal scholarship from the former president of the Republic of Georgia Edward Schevardnadze. She has also received the Vocal Piano Fellowship Award from the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and participated in summer programs at Wolf Trap Opera Company, Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, SongFest, Cleveland Art Song Festival and Aspen Music Festival. She has made several recordings for the Excelsior label and her performances have been broadcast on NPR, as well as Georgian and Russian National Television and Radio.

Sought after for her coaching skills and extensive experience, Ms. Sanikidze has been invited to work with young singers at the Merola Opera Program, Wolf Trap Opera Center, and the Young Artist Programs both at Washington National Opera and Los Angeles Opera.

In 2015 Tamara joined faculty of Butler School of Music at University of Texas, Austin and Music Academy of the West.  In January 2019 Ms. Sanikidze became Director of Butler Opera Center.

Tamara Sanikidze holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Nicolò Sbuelz is a pianist, vocal coach, educator, and assistant conductor from Udine, Italy. Based in New York City, he is currently an Italian diction coach, as well as Staff Music Coach for the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, at The Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Sbuelz taught at the Manhattan School of Music from 2018 to 2022. In 2021, he joined The Juilliard School’s Vocal Arts faculty. Previously, he has worked with Teatro alla Scala, Opéra National de Lyon, Holland Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Houston Grand Opera, Charleston Opera Theater, Sarasota Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and Santa Fe Opera. A sought-after coach, he has been on staff at several Young Artist Programs, such as Wolf Trap Opera, Calgary Opera, Maryland Opera Studio, and joined the faculty of Aspen Music Festival in 2022 after being a coaching fellow in 2015. Mr. Sbuelz is a graduate of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala and received undergraduate degrees in piano and composition from the Conservatorio Giuseppe Tartini in Trieste, Italy. He has a Master’s Degree in Musicology with a concentration in Aesthetics and the Cross-Cultural Reception of Music and Languages from the University of Pavia, and was an Apprentice Coach with the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, California.

Bill Schuman is internationally celebrated as one of the world’s leading teachers of singing. His students represent some of the most important names in the music world.

A native of Portland, Oregon, Mr. Schuman began his vocal studies under B. Gibner King, the coach of such Met luminaries as Ezio Pinza and Margaret Harshaw. Following his studies with Margaret Woodward at Brigham Young University and with Rita Streich at the Conservatory of Music in Vienna, he became a protégé of the famed vocal pedagogue, Luisa Franceschi Verna, herself the teacher of Zinka Milanov, among others. He finished his studies in New York, studying Italian style and repertory with Rita Saponaro Patanè.

Since beginning his teaching career, Mr. Schuman’s success has been completely unique in the opera world. His operatic students are not only major stars in the great opera houses around the world, but they have won an unprecedented number of international vocal competitions and awards. For four years in a row, his students were honored with the Richard Tucker Award, America’s most prestigious award for opera singers. Three of his students were also consecutively bestowed the Beverly Sills Award.

Over the years, Mr. Schuman has also maintained his work with non-classical singers, where his students have included some of the biggest stars from the Broadway, film, TV and popular music worlds and have included numerous Tony, Grammy and Emmy award winners and Academy Award nominees.

Mr. Schuman has been associated with the Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Program, the Curtis Institute of Music and was personally invited by Placido Domingo to be one of the inaugural teachers at the Washington Opera Young Artist Program. Since 1989, Mr. Schuman has been on the faculty of the Academy  of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he has exclusively based his academic career.

Mr. Schuman is in demand worldwide for master classes and lectures. He has been featured in numerous articles and books on the art of singing and has been the subject of articles in various publications including Opera News and the Wall Street Journal. In 2008, Mr. Schuman was honored by the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation, becoming the youngest voice teacher to ever receive their coveted Lifetime Achievement Award.

American pianist Howard Watkins is a frequent associate of some of the world’s leading musicians on the concert stage and as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera.   His appearances throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, Russia, and Israel have included collaborations with Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee, Diana Damrau, Thomas Hampson, Kathleen Battle, Grace Bumbry, Mariusz Kwiecien, Anna Netrebko, and Matthew Polenzani at such venues as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Spivey Hall, Kennedy Center, the United States Supreme Court, Alice Tully Hall, the three stages of Carnegie Hall, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

His current and former faculty affiliations include The Juilliard School, the Bard College Conservatory of Music, the Merola Opera Program, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program, the Yale School of Music as a Visiting Presidential Fellow, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Mannes School of Music, the North Carolina School of the Arts, the International Vocal Arts Institute (Israel, Japan, and China), IIVA in Italy, the Brancaleoni Music Festival in Italy, the Tokyo International Vocal Arts Academy (TIVAA) as a founding member, and VOICExperience in Orlando, Tampa, and Savannah.  Currently a guest Master Coach for the Cafritz Young Artists of Washington Opera and the Opera Theater of St. Louis, Mr. Watkins has worked on the music staffs of Palm Beach Opera, the Washington National Opera, and the Los Angeles Opera.

A native of Dayton, Ohio, Mr. Watkins completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Accompanying and Chamber Music at the University of Michigan.  Honored as the 2004 recipient of the Paul C. Boylan award from the University of Michigan for his outstanding contributions to the field of music, he is also the 2019 recipient of the Lift Every Voice Legacy Award from the National Opera Association.  He was recently recognized as one the 2022 Top Professionals of the Year by Musical America in part for his work to celebrate the music of Black composers and singers.

Mr. Watkins appears courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.

Chinese-born stage director Mo Zhou is a visionary force in opera and theater, celebrated for her innovative and dynamic productions that transcend traditional boundaries. As a faculty member at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, she revitalizes the classical canon while championing cutting-edge projects. Her work has graced esteemed stages worldwide, including Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Elbphilharmonie, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in China.

The 2024-2025 season showcases Ms. Zhou's versatility and ingenuity with several exciting company debuts. These include directing the Butler Studio Showcase at Houston Grand Opera, reviving her acclaimed "Madama Butterfly" with Florentine Opera and Kentucky Opera, directing Così fan tutte at The Juilliard School, La Bohème at Arizona Opera, and returning to Virginia Opera for a new production of Così fan tutte. She will also make her Canadian directing debut with Madama Butterfly at Vancouver Opera.

Her 2023-2024 season featured the world premiere of The Big Swim at Houston Grand Opera and Asia Society Texas Center, a reimagined Madama Butterfly set in post-WWII Allied-occupied Japan at Virginia Opera, Tosca with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, and La Calisto at Glimmerglass Festival. Previous highlights include a sold-out Rinaldo at Minnesota Opera and the critically acclaimed Iphigénie en Tauride with Boston Baroque, praised by Forbes for its digital innovation. She is a recipient of the OPERA America Grants for Women Stage Directors and Conductors as well as OPERA America Robert Tobin Director-Designer Prize.

An advocate for young talent, Ms. Zhou has taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, and has served as guest dramatic faculty at prestigious programs like the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Butler Studio at Houston Grand Opera, and Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

Ms. Zhou received her training at The Juilliard School, Merola Opera Program, Wolf Trap Opera, and Glimmerglass Festival. She has also worked on the directing staff at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Dallas Opera. She holds an MFA in Stage Directing from Columbia University, where she studied under Anne Bogart, and a BA in English and Theater from Bowdoin College.

Collaborative pianist Maureen Zoltek enjoys a diverse career working with leading vocalists, instrumentalists, orchestras, and opera companies across the United States.

Dr. Zoltek currently serves as the Music Director of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. She was previouly an assistant conductor, vocal coach, and orchestral keyboardist on the staff of San Francisco Opera and as a member of the Vocal Institute Faculty at the Music Academy of the West. Her 2020-21 scheduled engagements (pre-Covid cancellations) included a return to San Francisco Opera for productions of Ernani, Rigoletto, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Der Zwerg, to Opera Omaha for Eugene Onegin, and to the Music Academy of the West for Ellen Reid’s Odysseus Cycle and Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles. An active proponent of new music, she recently served on the music staff for the world premieres of Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber, and John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West, as well as the west coast premiere of Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life.

Dr. Zoltek is a graduate of the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center and has collaborated with the Lyric Opera of Chicago on several productions, including La clemenza di Tito, Tosca, Idomeneo, and the world premiere workshop of Jimmy López and Nilo Cruz’s Bel Canto. At the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis she served as music staff, pre-concert lecturer, and keyboardist for Puccini’s La rondine, as well as a coach for Tobias Picker’s Emmeline. Dr. Zoltek has also been an assistant conductor at Canadian Opera Company (Elektra) and Opera Omaha (Les enfants terribles, Die Enfürung aus dem Serail).

As an orchestral keyboardist, Dr. Zoltek has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with major conductors including Boulez, Salonen, Conlon, Dudamel, Gilbert, and Gergiev, in addition to premiering works by composers-in-residence of the CSO Augusta Read Thomas and Marc Anthony Turnage. She has appeared with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Chicago’s Latino Music Festival, and at the 2010 Fischoff Competition, in which she was a semi-finalist.

Dr. Zoltek attended both the Aspen Music Festival and School (2009) and Music Academy of the West (2010, 2012). During her second summer as a fellow at the Music Academy, she won first prize in the pianist division of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. Her association with Marilyn Horne also includes participation in the legendary mezzo-soprano’s series “The Song Continues” (2011, 2012), with performances and masterclasses held through Carnegie Hall’s “Marilyn Horne Legacy” program. Among the other star performers with whom Zoltek has recently collaborated are mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, soprano Patricia Racette, bass-baritone Eric Owens, and Welsh singer-songwriter Katherine Jenkins. Ms. Zoltek is also featured alongside mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges in Nicole Miller’s new commission and installation, “To the Stars,” a multi-sensory work that weaves together film, sound, and laser light at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Phyllis Wattis Theater.

Dr. Zoltek completed her D.M.A. degree at the Manhattan School of Music, and holds a master’s degree in piano performance and musicology from Roosevelt University in addition to a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from DePaul University. Her teachers include Mary Sauer and Warren Jones. When she is not in rehearsal, Zoltek enjoys true crime podcasts, baking various and sundry desserts, and going out and about with her standard poodle and travel companion, Henry.