Berkshire Choral Festival E-Newsletter June 2013

BCF's 32rd season begins tomorrow as more than 150 choristers head to Sonoma State University in California to sing at the beautiful new Green Music Center! The following Saturday, another contingent of choristers begins its singing week in historic Edinburgh. Be sure to check the BCF Facebook page for daily updates and photos from both locations.

Friends and families can get tickets for the 6/15 Sonoma concert at Sonoma Tickets or for the Edinburgh 6/22 concert at Edinburgh Tickets.

 

Wondering what and where to sing in 2014? Check out the BCF website and Facebook pages next week to learn about the venues, works and conductors next season!

WOW!!! Check our former apprentice Arianne Abela and the 3Penny chorus and Orchestra on America's Got Talent 8!

MEET THE BCF SHEFFIELD FACULTY & APPRENTICES!

Kathy FitzGibbon, soprano, is Director of Choral Activities at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, where she has conducted concerts of music ranging from medieval chant to Carmina Burana to the North American premiere of a mass for chorus and Javanese gamelan. She conducts two of Lewis & Clark's three choirs, one of which toured Egypt this spring, and teaches courses in conducting and music history. Kathy is also Artistic Director of Resonance Ensemble, a professional vocal ensemble committed to exploring the resonances between music of all eras and art, politics, history, literature, and culture. Kathy's work with Resonance was cited in the Wall Street Journal as an example of innovative "alternative classical" programming in Portland and has been awarded numerous grants. Kathy has also conducted undergraduate choirs at Harvard, Boston, Cornell, and Clark Universities, and at the University of Michigan. This year's guest conducting performances included the E Himeni Kokou choral festival in Oahu, Hawaii; Oregon premieres with new music groups FearNoMusic and Third Angle New Music; and an upcoming summer sing on July 23rd with the Masterworks Chorale in Dedham, Massachusetts. She has directed secondary choral programs and adjudicated solo and choral competitions around the United States. A lyric soprano, Kathy is a frequent recitalist and concert performer of early through new music. She holds degrees from Princeton, the University of Michigan, and Boston University, and she has presented choral music research at conferences across the United States and Europe. This year is Kathy's sixteenth at BCF and her thirteenth on the faculty. While she is sorry only to be at BCF for Sonoma and the first two Sheffield weeks, she leaves early for happy reasons: she will be married in Oregon in August.

Sun Young Chang, soprano, has worked extensively both teaching voice and performing for over a decade, both in her native Korea and in the United States. She received her Master's degree and Professional Studies Diploma from Mannes College of Music and made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2006 (and returned in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010). She was named a Finalist in the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition and the Violetta Du Pont Vocal Competition, and a Semi-Finalist in
the Rochester Oratorio Vocal Competition and Joy In Singing Competition.

An active performer, Sun Young began as an apprentice at the Hot Springs Music Festival in 2008 and was asked to return the following year as a Guest Artist. She has concertized annually (since 2007) with Rangeley Friends of the Art Summer Concert Series and has made guest appearances at concert series from the Herbert Axelrod Theater to Seabrook (NJ). She has performed opera roles such as Mimi, Lauretta, Giulietta, Micaela, Donna Elvira, Pamina, Nella, Gilda, Anne Truelove, and Zerlina with such companies as Empire Opera, the Delaware Valley Symphony Orchestra, Kaye Playhouse, and the Actors Studio.

Also a Teaching Artist for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Sun Young has worked as a private voice instructor and coach since 2002. She teaches actively at Kean University, Concordia Conservatory of Music and Art, Rosedale Achievement Center, and Wartburg Adult Care Community and has been on the faculty of the Westerhoff School of Music and Art and the Joy of Singing LLC. She also volunteers actively, concertizing at Women In Need Casa Rita Drug Abuse Clinic of the Bronx and gives her time regularly for Sing for Hope.

This is Sun Young's third year on the BCF faculty.

Melissa Attebury, mezzo-soprano, is a native of Kansas. She has performed numerous operatic roles including the title role in Carmen, Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte), Lelia (Iolanthe), Kate (Pirates of Penzance), Pitti Sing (Mikado), Melissa (Princess Ida), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Phoebe (Yeomen of the Guard), Stephano (Romeo et Juliette), and Orlovsky (Die Fledermaus) and Mrs. Noye (Noye's Fludde). She made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Philharmonic singing Rosalia in West Side Story. Solo concert engagements include Messiah, Lord Nelson Mass, Purcell Te Deum and Jubilate, Bach Mass in B Minor, Mozart Requiem and Mass in C Minor, and the Monteverdi Vespers. She was a featured soloist on the 2013 GRAMMY-nominated recording of Israel in Egypt with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street. Recent solo performances include Bach's St. Matthew Passion, several Bach cantatas as part of Trinity Wall Street's Bach@1 series, Handel's Messiah at Alice Tully Hall, and the Stravinsky Festival of his late sacred works. She has performed as a soloist at BCF in Elijah. In addition to singing, Melissa manages Music Education and Outreach at Trinity Wall Street, conducts the Trinity Youth Chorus, and maintains a private voice studio. A complete performance schedule can be found at www.melissaattebury.com. Melissa joins BCF's faculty for the fourth time, this year in Sheffield Weeks 3 and 4.

Ory Brown, mezzo-soprano, has sung a variety of operatic roles with Sarasota Opera, Nashville Opera, Oswego Opera, and the Caramoor Opera Festival, including roles in The Medium, Falstaff, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Jenufa. She has been involved in several ongoing projects with American Opera Project (Kimper's Bridge of San Luis Rey, Patience and Sarah, Hamer's The Lost Childhood, and most recently, Stephen Schwartz's Séance on a Wet Afternoon). Active on the concert stage, Miss Brown has appeared as soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, American Symphony Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society of NY, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, Hartford Symphony, Spoleto Festival, Voices of Ascension, Kalamazoo Bach Festival and the Mark Morris Dance Company. In 1998 she sang Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Berkshire Choral Festival. Recent debuts include performances at the Bard Festival, the Center for Contemporary Opera, Dessoff, the South Dakota Symphony, and the S.E.M. Ensemble. Other interesting ventures include The Late Show with David Letterman, the Salt Lake Olympics, several appearances with P.D.Q Bach, and most recently, Bravo's Project Runway. Ms. Brown holds a graduate degree in Choral Conducting and an undergraduate degree in Church Music from Westminster Choir College. She has been on the faculty of University of Richmond, Longwood College, the Brearley School and Bloomsburg State College. This is her third year with BCF, where she will be on faculty in Sheffield the whole season.

Jason McStoots, tenor, has performed around the world and throughout the US in opera, oratorio, and recital. He has been described by critics as "a natural, a believable actor and a first-rate singer," "light and bluff, but neither lightweight nor bland, and with exemplary enunciation" and as having "a silken tenor voice" and "sweet, appealing tone." Recent appearances include Apollo in Monteverdi's Orfeo with the Boston Early Music Festival, Pedrillo in Abduction from the Seraglio by Mozart with the Connecticut Early Music Festival, soloist for Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 with the Green Mountain Project, soloist for Bach's Christmas Oratorio with Emmanuel Music and with the Cape Cod Symphony for Handel's Messiah. Hehas appeared with such groups as Boston Lyric Opera, Pacific MusicWorks, Boston Camerata, Handel Choir of Baltimore, New Haven Symphony, Tragicomedia, and the Tanglewood Music Center.

Jason is a core member of the up-and-coming Renaissance vocal ensemble Blue Heron. He can be heard on recordings with them as well as Cut Circle and Coro Allegro. In addition he has been featured on the Grammy-nominated recording of Lully's Pysché and on the newly released discs of works of Charpentier and John Blow with the Boston Early Music Festival on the CPO label.

Upcoming appearances include the role of Tabarco in Handel's Almira with the Boston Early Music Festival, Ixion in BEMF's revival and tour of Charpentier's Orphée, concerts of new world Baroque music with Chatham Baroque in Pittsburgh, as well as numerous concerts with Blue Heron and the NYC based ensemble TENET. Jason is also a voice teacher and up-and-coming stage director. He teaches at Brandeis University ,where he recently restarted the dormant opera workshop project. He has served as stage director for productions of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Strauss's Die Fledermaus, and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors. This is Jason's sixth year with BCF as a faculty member, this season in Sheffield's Weeks 3 and 4. www.jasonmcstoots.com

Daniel Molkentin, tenor, enjoys an active schedule performing solo and ensemble works ranging from the 16th to 21st centuries. Highlights of past seasons include Schubert's Winterreise and Die schöne Müllerin, Schumann's Dichterliebe, Wolfgang Rihm's Das Rot, Marschner's Der Vampyr (Gadshill), Mozart's Requiem, Handel's Judas Maccabaeus, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (arr. Schönberg).

Daniel is on the voice faculty of the Mannes College of Music Extension Division, where he also teaches English and German diction. He has served as the German diction coach for many ensembles, including the Bard Summer Music Festival, Berkshire Choral Festival, Clarion Music Society, Liederkranz Opera Theatre, Manhattan School of Music Symphonic Chorus, Oratorio Society of New York, and Westchester Choral Society. Through his work with these ensembles he had the opportunities to collaborate with conductors Leon Botstein, Stephen Fox, Vance George, Jane Glover, Liz Hastings, Frank Nemhauser, Stephen Smith, and Kent Tritle on a wide range of works. Daniel's passion for teaching diction led him join forces with Trudy Weaver Miller to co-found and develop SingersBabel, a website dedicated to providing singers and musicians with lyric diction resources and tools for preparing texts in foreign languages. His translations and pronunciation guides of German choral and solo works such as Matthäus Passion, Die Schöpfung, Ein deutsches Requiem, Dichterliebe, and Winterreise are being used with increasing frequency around the United States.

This will be Daniel's eighth year at BCF, where he will be the tenor faculty in Sheffield's Weeks 1 and 2.

Richard Giarusso, bass, is a versatile musician with practical and scholarly experience in a wide range of repertoire. After undergraduate study in music and English at Williams College, where he worked closely with Kenneth Roberts, he earned the PhD in historical musicology from Harvard University, completing his dissertation under the supervision of the late Reinhold Brinkmann. His research focuses on the music of Schubert, Bruckner, Mahler, and Vaughan Williams, and he currently serves on the musicology faculty at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. In addition to his work at Peabody, he also offers interdisciplinary classes in music and literature at the Johns Hopkins University. A frequent lecturer for arts organizations in the mid-Atlantic, he has presented talks for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Baltimore Symphony, the Washington Bach Consort, the Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Shriver Hall Concert Series, and the Baltimore Museum of Art.

In addition to his academic work, Richard maintains an active career as a singer and conductor throughout the Northeast. Since 2009, he has served as artistic director of the Maryland Choral Society. He has studied voice with Keith Kibler, Pamela Dellal, and Elizabeth Daniels and conducting with E. Wayne Abercrombie and Bradley Wells. In addition, he has performed in master classes with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, Mitsuko Shirai, and Hartmut Höll and has coached German art song with Robert Levin, Malcolm Bilson, and John Shirley-Quirk. An experienced ensemble singer, he was a regular member and frequent soloist with the Choir of the Church of the Advent (Boston). Praised by The Washington Post for his "expressive and perfectly controlled voice," he currently performs with the Washington Bach Consort, the Choir of St. Paul's Church, K Street, and Cathedra, the vocal chamber ensemble of the Washington National Cathedral. Solo engagements during the 2012-13 season include a joint recital with soprano Allison Mondel, a recital of Schubert lieder at Georgetown University, and appearances with the Washington Bach Consort and the Cathedral Choral Society. As a conductor, he led the annual productions of The New Opera (Williamstown, MA) from 2004 through 2007 and served as music director for the inaugural season of the Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre (Cambridge, NY) in 2008. He returned to the Berkshires in January to lead staged performances of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro at Williams College, and he made his conducting debut with the Washington Bach Consort in April. This is his seventh season at BCF, where he will be bass faculty in Edinburgh as well as Weeks 1 and 2 in Sheffield.

Sean Taylor, bass, recently earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Over the past year, he has been on the faculty of Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania and Central State University in Ohio. While a student at CCM, he served as assistant conductor of the CCM Chorale and Chamber Choir under Earl Rivers and as music director of the UC Cabaret Singers. At Knox Presbyterian Church, he is the assistant director of the Knox Choir and director of the Handbell Choir and Youth Ensemble. In addition to extensive freelance solo work, Sean sings with the Cincinnati Opera Chorus, Cincinnati May Festival, and the Vocal Arts Ensemble, Cincinnati's professional chamber choir.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Sean earned a Master of Music in Conducting from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was assistant conductor to Robert Page. While in Pittsburgh, Sean was a Conducting Assistant and member of the professional corps of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, directed by Betsy Burleigh. He was also a member of the Pittsburgh Opera Chorus and professional choir of Third Presbyterian Church.

Sean received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education with an emphasis in voice from Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA and taught music in the Beaver Local School District in Lisbon, OH, before returning to graduate school. Recently, he led performances of Handel's Messiah, Faure's Requiem, Mozart's Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Schubert's Mass in G and J.S. Bach's motet Jesu, Meine Freude in Cincinnati and Beethoven's Mass in C, Haydn's Creation (part 2) and Kurt Weill's opera Street Scene in Pittsburgh. This is Sean's sixth season with BCF, where he's serving as bass faculty in Sonoma and both staff conductor and bass faculty in Sheffield.

Mitchell Vines, pianist, has an active performing career that has taken him to Europe, South America, Asia and throughout the United States. The German newspaper Hessiche-Niedersachsische Allgemeine wrote "The sensitive playing of American pianist Mitchell Vines captivated the audience. He performed with virtuosity and bravura."

Mitchell's teaching and performing experience includes positions with the Aspen Music Festival, Mannes School of Music, Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, Harlem School of the Arts, Berkshire Choral Festival, New York Summer Opera Scenes, Cunard Cruise Lines, and CantaLyrica Chamber Choir. He was twice soloist with the New York Repertory Orchestra, performing Bartok's 3rd piano concerto and Milhaud's Le Carnaval d'Aix. Mitchell is highly in demand as a collaborative pianist and is a music director for theater, opera and cabaret. He is the artistic director of Afternoon Music, a concert series in Summit, NJ.

Mitchell can be heard on the CD "American Music for Trumpet and Piano" on Capstone Records, and he is featured on a CD of vocal chamber music by North German composers on the Syrinx label. Recent recordings include a CD of compositions by Paul Zeigler and a recital with Japanese soprano Selena Miyazaki.

A native of Portland, Oregon, Mitchell holds a Bachelor of Arts from Portland State University and a Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman, he held a fellowship in accompanying and received the Performer's Certificate, the conservatory's highest honor. Previously music director of Bay Ridge United Methodist Church, he is currently music and choir director of the Unitarian Church in Summit and Temple Israel in New York City. This is his third year with BCF, where he will serve as accompanist in Weeks 2, 3, and 4 in Sheffield.

Patrick T. Waters, tenor, (B.M. Manhattan School of Music; M.S.M. Boston University), has enjoyed the benefits of a diverse musical background, holding degrees in composition, conducting, and sacred music, along with studies in piano and vocal performance. Mr. Waters has studied conducting with Dr. Ann Howard Jones, Bruce Hangen, Robert Isaacs, and Paul Brantley, and has worked in master classes with John Alexander, Jane Glover, Frank Nemhauser, and Kathy Saltzman Romey. He is currently pursuing a Performance Diploma in voice at Boston University, studying with James Demler. Iin 2009, he was a featured soloist in Berkshire Choral Festival's performance of Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil. Patrick performs regularly with Cambridge Concentus, earning acclamation with the group in their landmark performance of Haydn's Mariazellermesse at Boston University's Haydn & Landon Musicology Conference in 2009, and in his critically-praised performance of Bach's cantata Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben in 2011. He has performed with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and the Boston Youth Symphony, and recently sang the role of the tenor soloist in the Back Bay Chorale's recent performance of Orff's Carmina Burana. Since 2009, he has collaborated extensively with Music at Boston University Marsh Chapel, where he is a member of the music staff. He returns to BCF for the fifth year, where he will be a staff conductor for the whole Sheffield season.

Joseph Baldwin, baritone, is the Iva Dee Hiatt Distinguished Assistant Director of Choral Activities and lecturer in music at Smith College. He is conductor of the Smith College Chorus and teaches conducting, musicianship, and studio voice.

From 2010 to 2012, Joseph served as Founding Artistic Director & Conductor of the Community Chorus of Detroit. Under his artistic leadership, the regional chorus became known for its engaging, imaginative performances of a sophisticated, diverse repertoire. Joseph has conducted a wide variety of collegiate ensembles at the University of Michigan; he has prepared choruses for performances under the baton of Leonard Slatkin, Jerry Blackstone, and Kenneth Kiesler.

Joseph is an active area soloist and currently sings with the Yale Choral Artists. He has most recently been an ensemble soloist in the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the UMS Choral Union, conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and an ensemble member of the Great Lakes Festival Singers, in collaboration with composer Chen Yi and eighth blackbird. His primary teachers include Herbert Burtis, Karen Brunssen, and Daniel Washington.

A strong advocate for the choral arts at all levels, Joseph is a frequent guest conductor and clinician and has conducted the National High School Music Institute Chorus at Northwestern University. He represents Massachusetts as the national board member for the National Collegiate Choral Organization and is a proud member of the American Choral Directors Association and Chorus America.

Originally from Washington, Georgia, Joseph received a Master of Music in Conducting at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Jerry Blackstone. He holds a Bachelor of Music (cum laude) with a double major in Voice & Opera Performance and Choral Conducting Studies from Northwestern University.
Joseph first came to BCF as a conducting apprentice two years ago and this year will serve as a staff conductor Weeks 3 and 4.

Matthew Abernathy, tenor, is currently a senior at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY. He began his conducting career at Onondaga Community College, where he served as the Assistant Conductor to the Concert Choir. At Crane, Matthew has helped to prepare the Men's Ensemble, as well as Crane Chorus for their recent performance of Britten's War Requiem under the baton of Christof Perick. He is also the founder and director of a student-run chamber choir. Matthew has conducted in master classes with Dr. Timothy Mount, Frank Battisti, Christof Perrick and Dr. Jerry Blackstone. After graduation, he intends to pursue a master's degree in Choral Conducting. A native of Cazenovia, NY, Matthew comes to BCF as a conducting apprentice for the first time.

Amanda Bistolfo, alto, graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2011 with a B.A. in Psychology, cum laude, and a minor in Theatre Arts. For the last two years she served as the Choral Assistant at MHC under former BCF apprentice Lindsay Pope, as well as taught aural skills and voice lessons. She has performed as a chorister and mezzo-soprano soloist with the MHC choirs and orchestra, and with various ensembles in central Massachusetts including the UMAss Amherst Chamber Choir, Valley Light Opera, Lutheran Emmanuel Church, and Deerfield Choral Society. She studied voice with Cheryl Cobb and conducting with Lindsay Pope and Tian Hui Ng. This fall, she will attend Western Michigan University for her M.M. in Choral Conducting and will serve as the Choral Conducting Graduate Assistant. This is her first year as a conducting apprentice at BCF.

Michael Carney, bass, has completed his first full year of teaching at Glenbrook Middle School in Longmeadow, MA. He teaches chorus and general music and enjoys the Longmeadow School District, which has a rich history of music making. Michael recently finished studies in Music Education and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At UMass, he studied piano performance, conducting, and trumpet performance. This summer marks his first experience with BCF.

Paul Conrad, bass/accompanist, from Maplewood, NJ, is an undergraduate Piano Performance major at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. His most recent instructors include Dr. Karina Bruk and Professor Paul Hoffmann. He participates in the Rutgers University Kirkpatrick Choir and is in high demand as an accompanist for both undergraduate and graduate vocalists and instrumentalists at Mason Gross. Notable repertoire he recently performed with the Kirkpatrick Choir include Bach's Mass in B minor, William Schuman's Carols of Death, Ralph Vaughn William's Dona Nobis Pacem, and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass. Paul performed solo at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall as part of a 200-year Franz Liszt Anniversary Recital, under the direction of Mason Gross professor Min Kwon. While at Mason Gross, he has also had the honor of participating in master classes with Dorian Leljak, George Kern, and Edna Stern. He first attended BCF as a Berkshire Scholar in 2011 and returned last year as an accompanying apprentice.

Brady Ketelsen, tenor, is originally from the small town of Osmond, Nebraska. He will be a senior at the University of South Dakota in the fall. There he has studied voice with Dr. Tracelyn Gesteland and conducting with Dr. David Holdhusen. At USD, Brady conducted the university's Men's and Women's Chorus and served as the musical director for the USD Theatre production of a new musical called Mirror Princess, Pyung-gang. As a member of USD's choral ensembles, he has performed multiple times with the Sioux City Symphony for works including Mozart Requiem and Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony, in addition to performing with the small chorus involved with their production of Video Games Live. As a participant in USD's theatrical productions, he was an ensemble member for Sondheim's Sweeney Todd and with USD Opera in the chorus of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Also a clarinetist and flautist, Brady has played in the pit for Brigadoon, Menotti's opera The Medium, and Annie. In addition to ensemble involvement, Brady belongs to every choir the university offers as well as the Symphonic Orchestra, the Symphonic Band, and the illustrious Bea Arthur Memorial Clarinet Quartet. He has also receiving training in cello and piano from Dr. Marie-Elaine Gagnon and Dr. Susan Keith Gray. Brady has made presentations on Debussy and Rossini for scholarship and for the school's academic festival Ideafest. He comes to BCF for the first time as a conducting apprentice.

Jonathan King, tenor, received his BM in Piano Performance from the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, and is pursuing a dual master's degree in Piano Chamber Music and Choral Conducting from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance, where he studies with Christopher Harding and Jerry Blackstone. At Wheaton College, Jonathan received the Virginia Grossman Prize (2008), the Ben Heppner Prize (2008), and the Phemister Prize in Piano (2010), and was a member of two award-winning chamber ensembles. As a pianist, Jonathan has appeared with the Binghamton Community Orchestra, the Olivet Nazarene University Orchestra, and the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra. In March 2012, Jonathan founded the Michigan Mozart Players, a chamber orchestra comprised of students at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater, and Dance, and soloed with the ensemble while conducting from the keyboard.

Jonathan is assistant conductor of the Community Chorus of Detroit. While at the University of Michigan, he served as assistant conductor of the Orpheus Singer and the UM Chamber Choir. His conducting mentors include Simon Carrington, Paul Vermel, Donald Nally, and John Nelson. This summer is Jonathan's first as a BCF apprentice.

Kyle Sackett, baritone, graduated from SUNY Fredonia in 2012 with a BM in Music Education. Kyle is actively involved in opera with credits including Schaunard (La Boheme), The Four Villains (Les contes d'Hoffmann), and Herr Fluth (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor), all with the Hillman Opera Company, as well as Guglielmo (Cosi fan tutte) and Mr. Kofner (The Consul) with The Western New York Chamber Orchestra. In 2009, Kyle was a part of Lyric Arts International, with which he traveled and performed in various opera scenes across Italy. During Kyle's term as President of Fredonia's Student Opera Theatre Association, he worked closely with the late Lee Hoiby and organized what ended up being the composer's final public performance. Kyle is currently a member of Buffalo's premier vocal ensemble, Vocalis Chamber Choir. As a conductor, he served as the Assistant Music Director of the Hannah Hasbrouck Petersen Concert Series in Fredonia, NY and as chorus master for the 2012 Hillman Opera production of Suor Angelica. A native of Rochester, NY, Kyle currently works as the Operations Manager of the Western New York Chamber Orchestra and a substitute teacher in several Chautauqua County school districts. This fall, Kyle will begin graduate school pursing a Master's in Vocal Performance at Northwestern's Bienen School of Music. This is Kyle's second year as a BCF apprentice.

Diane Walters, soprano, of Dayton, Ohio, has s varied performing career. Her opera credits include Lisaveta in A Month in the Country and Monica in The Medium with Temple University Opera Theater, Despina in Cosí fan tutte, Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, and Yum-Yum in The Mikado with Capital University Opera/Musical Theater. As a concert soloist, Diane has performed excerpts from Mozart's Mass in C minor with Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Vivaldi's Gloria, excerpts from Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, Purcell's Come Ye Sons of Art, and Handel's Messiah, all with Temple University, and was the rehearsal soloist for Capital University's Carmina Burana. Diane has given numerous recitals in the Columbus and Dayton, Ohio, and Philadelphia areas.

She recently sang as a core member of Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia under the direction of Alan Harler and with Paul Jones and the Philadelphia Chamber Choir. She is a cantor at Church of the Ascension in Kettering, Ohio, and a cantor and choir member at St. Mary's Church in Dayton. Other choral credits include core member and soloist with Canticum Novum, soprano soloist and section leader with the Chancel Choir at the United Methodist Church of Bala Cynwyd, PA, Capital University Chapel Choir, where she was a section leader, and Temple University Concert Choir.

Diane holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance and a Professional Studies Diploma from Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance in Philadelphia and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, Cum Laude, from the Capital University Conservatory of Music in Columbus. She returns to BCF as a vocal apprentice for the second year.

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