Soprano Cheri Stark (PAMELA) is a junior at USC’s Thornton School of Music studying opera. Born and raised in Fresno, California, Cheri started voice lessons at the age of five and has since been involved with over twenty-five theater and musical productions. She has gained valuable operatic performance experience with USC Opera, The Intimate Opera Company, Repertory Opera Company, Fresno Opera League and the California Opera Association. Her other chamber opera roles include Lucy in Menotti’s “The Telephone,” and Monica in “The Medium.” In pursuing a career as a singer, her goal is to express God as music and to uplift her audiences through the natural transfer of spiritual energy inherent in dynamic vocal performances.

Tenor Peter Schueller (ANTONIO) is currently studying voice with Prof. Gary Glaze at USC Thornton School of Music. He has attended the summer programs of the Miami School of Music in Salzburg, Austria and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, as well as the Schlern International Music Festival in the Italian Alps. Peter has performed numerous condensed productions with the Peninsula Teen Opera with roles including Camille in The Merry Widow, and Tamino in The Magic Flute. Other roles have included Alidoro in Orontea and a recital of Dichterliebe at the Music Academy of the West last year. One of Peter’s favorite experiences to date was the Older Brother (u/s) in SF Opera’s World Premier of Dead Man Walking.

Christine Utomo (PIANIST) is currently pursuing the Doctoral of Musical Arts degree in piano performance at University of Southern California under the tutelage of Professor Norman Krieger. Christine started piano at the age of four and gave her first public recital at the age of five. Since then, she has given recitals in Los Angeles, Singapore, and Indonesia. She completed her LCM (London College of Music) piano and theory examinations and earned her Yamaha Electone teaching credential during her high school senior year in Indonesia. Upon completing high school, she moved to California to pursue her undergraduate study in music industry and then graduate study in piano performance at University of Southern California. She was awarded first prize in National Yamaha Piano Competition and Yamaha Electone Festival in Indonesia, second prize in MTAC Piano Concerto Competition, honorable mention in MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition, Dean Scholarship and Teaching Assistantship from the University of Southern California.

Sarah Danielle (CONDUCTOR) is an active conductor, concert pianist and orchestrator/arranger. A native of Chicago, her teachers have included Ira Levin, Ludmila Lazar and Max Janowski in the USA and France Clidat and Jesús López-Cobos in Europe. She holds a double Bachelor of Music in piano and organ performance and a Master of Music in piano performance from Roosevelt University’s, Chicago College of the Performing Arts. She also had private studies in orchestration at the University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music. She received her conducting diploma from the Musikhochschule Luzern in Switzerland. A conducting apprentice of Jesús López-Cobos for a decade, she attended rehearsals and performances at the Opera de Paris, Covent Garden, the Gran Teatre del Liceo in Barcelona, the Auditorio National in Madrid, the Teatro de la Maestraza in Seville, the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul, Turkey, the Göteberg Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. She made her debut as concert pianist in Vevey, Switzerland at the Théâtre de Vevey and has since concertized throughout several cities in Switzerland, France and Germany. She is an active chamber music player, harpsichordist and organist. Her organist debut was in Paris, France at the Eglise de St. Augustin and she has played harpsichord with several ensembles in Switzerland. Her conducting debut was in Chicago, Illinois with the Loop Chamber Orchestra. As an orchestral and opera guest conductor, she has conducted the Mulhouse Symphony Orchestra in France, the Regio Chor in Basel, Switzerland, the Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz in Luzern, Switzerland and the Chamber Opera of the University of Southern California in a world premier of Daron Hagen’s, “Broken Pieces”. As an orchestrator, her 5 orchestrations from Tchaikowsky’s “Seasons” were well received from critics in Luzern and Engelberg, Switzerland. She was also commissioned by Hollywood composer Ebony Tay to conduct a musical submission for the film the “Divinci Code” with the Musicum Collegium Mulhouse in France.

Timur Bekbosunov (STAGE DIRECTOR) is a Russian tenor and actor from Kazakhstan. He is a graduate student at USC, studying voice with Gary Glaze. He received his Masters degree in Boston, at the New England Conservatory, under the instruction of Patricia Craig and John Moriarty and his Bachelors degree at WSU, under Dr. Dorothy Crum. He has appeared with many opera and theatre companies including ARTiSHOCK, the post-modern mime theatre in Kazakhstan (Cabaret-Moralite), OPERA BOSTON (Nixon in China), Harvard University's LOWELL OPERA (Eugene Onegin) and Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra (Fidelio). He has premiered the tenor part composed by Evan Ziporyn (Bang on a Can All-Stars), at the American Repertory Theatre production of Oedipus, directed by Robert Woodruff and premiered the revised version of Jeffrey Brody's Jabberwocky (Salem Philharmonic). Most recently, he portrayed the role of Tom Rakewell at USC Thornton Opera production of Stravinskys The Rakes Progress, directed by Ken Cazan. This summer, he performed  at the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival and took part in the International Laureates Festival (Los Angeles). As a founder and artistic director of The Chamber Opera of USC, Timur produced the world-premiere of Daron Aric Hagen's Broken Pieces. He serves as a creative consultant to the Art of Opera foundation, and as a production assistant to Ken Cazan. In August 2005 together with Anastasia Nemirovich-Danchenko, he opened a season of Beverly Hills Public Library series of Sunday at Two with a recital of Russian Romances. In his spare time he listens to the punk-cabaret The Dresden Dolls and translates the plays of Velimir Hlebnikoff, a Russian avant-garde writer of the early 20th century. Most recently, he collaborated with Roy Firestone on a theme-song for an independent feature film Mostly Unfabulous Life of Ethan Allan.

ROBERT FRANKENBERRY (ANTONIO) leads a multi-faceted career as a tenor, pianist and conductor. His roles have ranged from Mozart in Amadeus to John Adams in 1776 to Pollione in Norma. He has performed in early dramatic works by Monteverdi, Strozzi, Charpentier, Sartorio and Handel in New York City, Palm Beach and at Yale University as a fellow of Millennial Arts Productions’ Baroque Opera Institute, and with Chatham Baroque for the Pittsburgh R&B Society. A champion of contemporary works, Mr. Frankenberry has created the roles of John Biddle in Jeremy Beck’s The Biddle Boys and Mrs. Soffel; Spirit Master in Roger Zahab’s Uncovered by Night; and Madame Witch in Seymour Barab’s Sleeping Beauty. Recent singing engagements have included Cavaradossi in Tosca; Don Jose in Carmen; Tenor Soloist in Carmina Burana; and the title role in Don Carlo. At the piano, he is a member of the University of Pittsburgh? s Music on the Edge Ensemble and the Pittsburgh-based IonSound Project. He has worked in various pianistic capacities for the Pittsburgh Symphony, Pittsburgh Opera, Carnegie Mellon University and Chatham College. Mr. Frankenberry’s credits in music direction include productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, Madrigals of Love and War, La Serva Padrona, The Old Maid and the Thief and La Clemenza di Tito for the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh; the premiere of Daron Hagen’s Vera of Las Vegas for the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York; and The Tales of Hoffmann for Mercyhurst College and New York City’s After Dinner Opera Company. Upcoming projects include a program of piano trios by David Kebberle, Lee Hyla, Roger Zahab and Judith Weir (Nov ’05, NYC); the premiere of Frank Oteri? s as long as forever is in collaboration with Gilda Lyons (Dec ’05, NYC); and the title role in Poliuto for Da Corneto Opera (June ’06, Chicago). A graduate of Mercyhurst College and Carnegie Mellon University, Mr. Frankenberry has studied voice with Louisa Jonason, John Shirley-Quirk, Judith Natalucci and Diana Walters.

GILDA LYONS (PAMELA) is active both as composer and vocalist. Her one-act opera, The Walled-Up Wife, will receive its concert premiere on 30, 31 March 2007, presented by American Opera Projects. Commissions in the 2006/07 season include new works for the voice and piano duo Two Sides Sounding (13 March 2007, St. Peter's Church, NYC); the string quartet Sweet Plantain (20 February 2007, The Cutting Room, NYC); countertenors Daniel Gundlach and Mark Crayton (29 September 2006, St. Matthew & St. Timothy, NYC); and Amy Pivar Dances (21, 22, 23 April 2006, Dance New Amsterdam, NYC). She is the Artistic Director of The Phoenix Concerts series on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Her music is published by E.C. Schirmer.

As vocalist, Dr. Lyons performs regularly with Elaine Valby and Robert La Rue as the voice and cello trio Seraphim; the trio has commissioned new works by composers Hayes Biggs and Paula Kimper to be premiered on 27 April 2007. In June 2007, Dr. Lyons will sing the role of Nora Barnacle in Daron Hagen's The Antient Concert, the centerpiece of Symphony Space's Bloomsday on Broadway XXVI; she appeared as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic in their semi-staged concert production of Hagen’s opera Shining Brow in fall 2006. Dr. Lyons made her professional debut as composer and vocalist with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra in 1997, performing the world premiere of her orchestral song cycle Feis. She received her Ph.D. in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Bard College. Dr. Lyons has studied composition with Anne LeBaron, Eric Moe, Daria Semegen, Joan Tower and Roger Zahab; conducting with Roger Zahab; and voice with Arthur Burrows, Barry Busse and Elaine Valby. (www.gildalyons.com).

JOCELYN DUECK (PIANIST) is a native of Kleefield, Manitoba. She has appeared on national broadcasts of Music da Camara with the MacPhail Trio, in recital at the fortepiano for the Schubert Club's Courtroom Concert Series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and at Seiji Ozawa Hall as a Tanglewood Fellow. This summer, Jocelyn was an apprentice coach and pianist for Glimmerglass Opera's productions of Lucia de Lammermoor and Death in Venice. She was an assistant conductor and pianist for the Tanglewood Music Center's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2004. A frequent performer of new music, she collaborated on the Princeton Atelier premiere of The Antient Concert by composer Daron Hagen and poet Paul Muldoon, and was the pianist for the east coast premiere of Hagen's one act opera Broken Pieces. In the fall of 2003, Jocelyn was awarded a grant from the University of Minnesota Graduate School and traveled to Paris to meet with the family of French composer Louis Durey, a member of Les Six. She continues to document and perform the unpublished song cycles of Durey, a generous gift of his daughter, Arlette Durey. Jocelyn completed the D.M.A. in Accompanying and Coaching under Professors Margo Garrett and Karl Paulnack at the University of Minnesota in March 2004. Together with her pianist siblings, Byron Dueck and Valerie Dueck, Jocelyn has formed a trio known as Dueck Three that specializes in solo, four- and six-hand works for the piano. The featured young artist for the Steinbach Arts Council Young Artists in Concert series this past winter, Jocelyn performed alongside her brother and sister to a sold-out crowd. She lives in New York City with her husband, Nathan Dyrud, where she works as a freelance coach and pianist. (www.jocelyndueck.com).

ROBERT FRANKENBERRY (ANTONIO) leads a multi-faceted career as a tenor, pianist, actor and conductor. He has performed roles ranging from Mozart in Amadeus and John Adams in 1776 to Cavaradossi in Tosca and Pollione in Norma. Recent operatic engagements have included Don Jose in Carmen for Erie Opera Theater, 1st G’Bich in Twilight of the Gods for Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and the dual position of assistant conductor and cover for the title roles of Don Carlo and Poliuto for daCorneto Opera. Other credits in music direction include productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors, Madrigals of Love and War, La Serva Padrona, The Old Maid and the Thief and La Clemenza di Tito for the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh; the staged premier of Daron Hagen’s Vera of Las Vegas for the Center for Contemporary Opera; and The Tales of Hoffmann for Mercyhurst College and New York City’s After Dinner Opera Company. At the piano, Frankenberry is a member of the IonSound Project and the University of Pittsburgh’s Music On The Edge Ensemble. Devoted to new and recent works, he has participated in the premieres of solo and chamber music by such composers as Roger Zahab, Eric Moe, Bruce Taub, J. H. Kwabena Nketia, Dennis Riley and Barbara White. In 1999, Robert gave one of the first performances in the United States of Judith Weir’s Piano Concerto and last season played the North American premiere of her Piano Trio Two with violinist Roger Zahab and ‘cellist David Russell. Mr. Frankenberry holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Mercyhurst College, where he studied piano with Sam Rotman and conducting with Walter Hendl; and a Master’s Degree from Carnegie Mellon, where he was a student of John Shirley-Quirk. .

GILDA LYONS (PAMELA) is active both as composer and vocalist. Her one-act opera, The Walled-Up Wife, will receive its concert premiere on 30, 31 March 2007, presented by American Opera Projects. Commissions in the 2006/07 season include new works for the voice and piano duo Two Sides Sounding (13 March 2007, St. Peter's Church, NYC); the string quartet Sweet Plantain (20 February 2007, The Cutting Room, NYC); countertenors Daniel Gundlach and Mark Crayton (29 September 2006, St. Matthew & St. Timothy, NYC); and Amy Pivar Dances (21, 22, 23 April 2006, Dance New Amsterdam, NYC). She is the Artistic Director of The Phoenix Concerts series on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Her music is published by E.C. Schirmer.

As vocalist, Dr. Lyons performs regularly with Elaine Valby and Robert La Rue as the voice and cello trio Seraphim; the trio has commissioned new works by composers Hayes Biggs and Paula Kimper to be premiered on 27 April 2007. In June 2007, Dr. Lyons will sing the role of Nora Barnacle in Daron Hagen's The Antient Concert, the centerpiece of Symphony Space's Bloomsday on Broadway XXVI; she appeared as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic in their semi-staged concert production of Hagen’s opera Shining Brow in fall 2006. Dr. Lyons made her professional debut as composer and vocalist with the American Symphony Chamber Orchestra in 1997, performing the world premiere of her orchestral song cycle Feis. She received her Ph.D. in Music Composition from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Bard College. Dr. Lyons has studied composition with Anne LeBaron, Eric Moe, Daria Semegen, Joan Tower and Roger Zahab; conducting with Roger Zahab; and voice with Arthur Burrows, Barry Busse and Elaine Valby. (www.gildalyons.com)..

ROGER ZAHAB's (Conductor) multifaceted career as composer, violinist, conductor, teacher and writer has been encouraged by living in one of the most interesting vantage points of Time. His work straddles so many areas of endeavor that there are suspicions of a band of clones working all over the country under his identity.

He has written much chamber, vocal and orchestral music in addition to work in dance, theater and video. Recently, recordings on Albany Records have been made of levitation of pianos during a waltz played by pianist Eric Moe, and Earth’s Jig and Silence Orchids played by pianist Bennett Lerner. These recordings and others are also available on iTunes. Recent works include Ohio transparence for piano trio, ardent life for trumpet and orchestra, and Ohio entelechron, a multi-media performance work which uses various kinds of Time to explore the connections between identity, history and community.

As a violinist, Zahab has premiered more than a hundred works by such composers as John Cage, Daron Hagen, Gilda Lyons, Steven Mackey, Ursula Mamlok, Eric Moe, J.N. Kwabena Nketia, Dennis Riley, Tison Street, Orianna Webb and Christian Wolff. Recordings as violinist and composer are available on the Truemedia, Albany and Koch International Classics labels. His version of John Cage’s Thiurteen Harmonies for violin and keyboard instrument is published by C.F.Peters Corporation.

His conducting repertoire encompasses the history of ensemble music from Andrea Gabrielli up to the present. As conductor of the both the Music on the Edge Chamber Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra at the University of Pittsburgh he seeks to give students a well-rounded overview of Western music while exploring increasingly porous boundaries.

Zahab was awarded the first Louis Lane Scholarship (given by the Akron Symphony Orchestra) in 1978 and received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Grant in 1995 and an Individual Artist Fellowship in 2005. Zahab has been Director of the Orchestra and instructor at the University of Pittsburgh since 1993 and became a full-time Lecturer in 1999. At home in Akron he helps foster the ideal of communal music-making with the Highland Square Philharmonic. (www.rogerzahab.net).

Angela Gooch,
Christian Figueroa,
and Glorivy Arroyo,
the terrific cast of the Boston premiere.

For more information about these artists and Boston Opera Underground, click here.

BARBARA GRECKI (LIBRETTIST) is a screenwriter, playwright and poet. She was one of the co-writers of September 11th: In Our Own Words, which was performed at the West End Theatre, NYC and Nantucket, MA. Her one act plays, Broken Pieces, and Just For The Night, have been produced in NYC by Emerging Artists Theatre for their One Act EAT Festival. Her screenplay, Being Loved By You, was a finalist in the 1998 Empire Screenwriting Competition, in Los Angeles, as well as receiving an honorable mention at the Slamdance Festival.

DARON HAGEN (COMPOSER) Daron's music is variously described as "utterly brilliant" (New York Times), "dazzling," (The New Yorker), "big, bold, and glittering" (The Los Angeles Times), and "of considerable artistic achievement and of uncompromising seriousness" (Times of London Literary Supplement). He has been described as "an inspired melodist" (Fanfare), possessed of "a sophisticated, wide-ranging musical mind" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), and the creator of "dangerously beautiful melodies" (New York Post). "Daron is music." (Opera News). The composer of orchestral, chamber, choral, and vocal compositions, as well as film scores and five internationally-performed operas, Hagen's work has been a programming staple of world-class orchestras and soloists since his debut as a composer (Philadelphia Orchestra, 1983) and as a concert pianist (Denver Chamber Orchestra, 1986); the New York Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, the United States Marine Band, the American Composers Orchestra, pianist Gary Graffman, the Kings Singers, cellist Sara Sant'Ambrogio, and flautist Jeffrey Khaner have all championed his work. Awards and fellowships include two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residencies, an Opera America Grant, the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bearns, Nissim, and Barlow Foundation Prizes. A graduate of the Curtis Institute and of Juilliard, Hagen currently serves as President of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.