For a detailed bio, please click on the faculty member's name.

 

Administration:

 

Juliana Gondek, Founder & Artistic Director
Festival Director and Voice faculty; international opera and concert soprano/mezzo-soprano, Baroque authority. (Metropolitan Opera, NYCO, Edinburgh Festival, Netherlands Opera, operas of San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, St. Louis, Miami; Voice faculty - UCLA, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Astoria Festival, Pacific Music Festival Baroque Vocal Academy)

Dean Southern, Associate Director
Associate Director, Voice faculty, Director - Music in the House: Kurt Weill & Marc Bliztein; opera and concert baritone, stage director. (Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto; Voice faculty, Cleveland Institute of Music; author and lecturer - “Distant Voices: Listening to Singers of the Past")

Kristin Heller, Production Coordinator
Production Coordinator, Associate stage director, Choreographer, Director - Music in the House: Kurt Weill & Marc Bliztein; dance/movement coach, acting/stagecraft coach, stage manager (Director - Opera Theater Oregon, Sherwood Foundation of the Arts, Ping and Wolf Opera, Portland State University, Bowling Green State University;  Faculty – Tyrolean Opera Program)

 

Stage Directors:

 

 

Kari Coleman
Stage director: Amelia Goes to the Ball; Actor: Film - The Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2, Multiplicity; TV - Zach Stone is Gonna be Famous, Scandal, Sons & Daughters, Switched at Birth, NCIS, Grey’s Anatomy, Glee, Seinfeld, Charmed, ER, Veronica Mars; Stage: Permanent Ensemble - Impro Theatre Company, LA Theatresports.

Kristin Heller
Associate stage director, Choreographer, Director - Music in the House: Kurt Weill & Marc Bliztein; dance/movement coach, acting/stagecraft coach, stage manager (Director - Opera Theater Oregon, Sherwood Foundation of the Arts, Ping and Wolf Opera, Portland State University, Bowling Green State University;  Faculty – Tyrolean Opera Program)

Michael Scarola
Stage Director - Serse, acting / stagecraft instructor. Member of the Directing Staffs of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera. Director - Dallas Opera, Utah Symphony and Opera, Arizona Opera, Boston Pops, Academy of Vocal Arts, Visiting Guest Director at the University of Utah, International Vocal Arts Institute, Tel Aviv.

Omari Tau
Director/stagecraft instructor. Broadway, classical, jazz singer-actor-dancer. (Houston Grand Opera, The Alley Theater, Voix Nouvelles Festival - France, Sacramento Opera; Director of Opera - Sacramento State University)

 

Conductors/Coaches:

Jeffrey Brown
Music Director-Coach - Music in the House: Kurt Weill & Marc Blitzstein. Pianist. (Performances at the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, the Kennedy Center, chamber music tours in China, and summer festivals in France, Germany, Austria, and Italy; Piano Faculty, Western Illinois University)

William Hobbs
Conductor -Serse. (Founder-Artistic Director of Opera Slavica (NYC); conductor/coach for San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Salzburg Festival, Aspen Festival, Gotham Chamber Opera, and operas of Paris, Monte-Carlo, Seattle, Washington National; Faculty: Head of Opera - Westminster Choir The Juilliard School)

Dana Sadava
Conductor-Coach - Amelia Goes to the Ball. (Artistic Director of Pasadena Opera, Music Director of the Community Women’s Orchestra. Conductor and coach at Wexford Festival Opera, Banff Opera as Theatre, Indianapolis Opera, Pensacola Opera, BASOTI, and the Comic Opera Guild.)

Derek Tam
Harpsichordist, coach. (American Bach Soloists, Asst. Conductor-Symphony Napa Valley and Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra, founding member MUSA early music ensemble)

 

Composers

Kurt Erickson
Director - NAPA Composer Intensive; Composer, pianist, lecturer. (Commissions, residencies, premieres: Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Girls Chorus, American Guild of Organists, Composer-in-Residence - LIEDER ALIVE!, San Francisco Grace Cathedral, The National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi, Sacramento Philharmonic)

 

 

Voice Faculty:

Juliana Gondek
Voice faculty; international opera and concert soprano/mezzo-soprano, Baroque authority. (Metropolitan Opera, Edinburgh Festival, Göttingen Handel Festival, Carnegie Hall, operas of Netherlands, San Francisco, Houston, Seattle, NYCO, St. Louis; Voice faculty - UCLA, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Astoria Festival, Pacific Music Festival Baroque Vocal Academy)

Robert Chafin

 


Heidi Moss
Co-Director - NAPA Teen Vocal Track, Voice faculty; operatic and concert soloist. (San Francisco Opera, Opera Memphis, Dicapo Opera Theater, San Francisco Pocket Opera, Ensemble Paralelle, LIEDER ALIVE!)

David Pittman-Jennings
Voice faculty; international opera, oratorio, and concert baritone. (Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Paris Theatre du Chatelet, Puccini Festival Torre del Lago, operas of Vienna, Berlin, Parma, Netherlands, Hamburg, Rome, Leipzig, Munich; Voice faculty, SUNY Potsdam)

Dean Southern
Voice faculty, Director - Music in the House: Kurt Weill & Marc Bliztein; opera and concert baritone, stage director. (Weill Recital Hall, Kennedy Center, Festival dei Due Mondi, Spoleto; Voice faculty, Cleveland Institute of Music; author and lecturer - “Distant Voices: Listening to Singers of the Past")

Richard Zeller
Voice faculty; international opera, oratorio, and concert bass-baritone. (Metropolitan Opera, NYCO, Edinburgh Festival, operas of Chicago, Philadelphia, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Bordeaux; Voice faculty - Biola University, Portland State University)

 

 

Faculty and administration subject to change without notice.