Faculty - Oberlin College

Daune Mahy Professor of Singing at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Director of the Oberlin in Italy Program. She has appeared frequently with opera companies and orchestras in the Mid-West and the East, including Opera Omaha, the Kentucky Opera Association, the St. Louis Municipal Opera, the Nebraska Opera Ensemble, the Kenley Players, the Stephen Foster Drama Association, the Cleveland Ch amber Symphony, the Akron Symphony, the Nebraska Sinfonia, the Opus I Chamber Orchestra, Trinity Players, and the Buffalo Philharmonic. She has also appeared with the Rome Festival Orchestra, the Louisville Bach Society, the Toledo Choral Arts Society, and the Nebraska Choral Arts Society. Ms. Mahy made her New York Debut Recital at Merkin Hall, and has also appeared at Carnegie Recital Hall and Kurt Weill Recital Hall in New York. The soprano has presented recitals in Germany, Spain, and Italy. Ms. Mahy was the soprano soloist in a nationally syndicated radio broadcast of Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” marking the 20th anniversary of that work’s first performance. Ms. Mahy holds BM and MM degrees from Westminster Choir College and a DM from Indiana University. She has had additional training at the Hamburg (Germany) Hochschule f. Musik, Academie d’Ete (France), Musik Seminar (Weimar), and Centro Studi (Italy). Her teachers include Vera Rozsa, Zinka Milanov, Margaret Harshaw, Gianna D’Angelo, Richard Miller, and Helen Hodam. Coaches include Walter Bricht, Dalton Baldwin, John Wustman, H. Schmnidt-Bolinger, Carlo Morganti, Giuseppe Giardina, and Robin Bowman. Ms. Mahy’s students have won the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions and have taken positions with the Met Young Artists Program and the Chicago Lyric Young Artist Program. Ms. Mahy's students have been selected to participate in summer programs such as the Merola Program, Santa Fe, St. Louis, Wolf Trap, and Chautauqua. In addition, she has students singing at the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, New York City Opera, and many regional theaters in the United States.

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Tenor Salvatore Champagne began his professional singing career as soloist for the European tour of Songfest, composed and conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Immediately thereafter he joined the ensemble of the Badisches Staatstheater in Karlsruhe, Germany, appearing in a wide range of lyric tenor roles including Mozart's Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Rossini's Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Strauss's Henry (Die schweigsame Frau). Guest engagements soon brought him to some of Europe's most prestigious opera houses: the Operhaus Zürich, Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg, Teatro Bellini in Catania, and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. In addition to his operatic performances, Mr. Champagne is a frequent concert and recital singer. He has appeared with the London Philharmonia, Cologne Philharmonic, and VARA radio orchestra under such noted conductors as James Conlon, Leonard Slatkin and Henry Lewis. His singing has been recognized with numerous awards, including prizes at the 1989 Mirjam Helin Competition in Helsinki and the 1990 International Vocal Competition in s'Hertogenbosch, Holland, and grants from MUSICA, the Sullivan Foundation, and the National Institute for Musical Theater. In 2004 Mr. Champagne joined the voice faculty of his alma mater, the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, as Associate Professor of Singing.

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Marlene Rosen, mezzo-soprano, is Associate Professor of Singing at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Director of the Otto B. Schoepfle Vocal Arts Center. In 2006 she served as a Master Teacher for the National Association of Teachers of Singing Intern Program. She has been featured as soloist in orchestral and oratorio throughout the United States. She has performed as soloist with conductors including Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, Bridget-Michaele Reischl, Marin Alsop, Garreth Morrell, Steven Smith with the Cleveland Orchestra, Blossom Music Festival, New Hampshire Music Festival, Round Top Festival, Bach Festival Society, Shreveport Summer Music Festival, Jefferson Performing Arts Society (New Orleans), the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Oberlin Orchestra. She received critical praise for performance with Lyric Opera Cleveland in "Little Women" in which composer Mark Adamo was stage director. The mezzo-soprano has been heard on artist series in recital and contemporary chamber music ensembles including performances at the Lincoln Center, Contemporary Directions of the Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, the Walker Arts Center (Minneapolis), and the New Music Festival (California). She toured Japan the West Coast performing a variety of chamber music works. Lorraine Manz has maintained an active teaching career and prior to joining the faculty of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, taught at the University of California, and St. Olaf College.

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With performances that have been called poetic, earthy, vigorous and highly individual, conductor Ari Pelto is in demand in opera houses throughout the United States. Since his debut in 2004 conducting Verdi's La Traviata at the New York City Opera, Mr. Pelto has been engaged as a regular guest conductor for the company, Conducting Madama Butterfly, Carmen and La Boheme in subsequent seasons. Highlights from his most recent season include Romeo et Juliet at Minnesota Opera, Magic Flute at Portland Opera, La Boheme at Boston Lyric Opera and the Cunning Little Vixen at Chautauqua.

Mr. Pelto works regularly at some of the country's most prestigious conservatories and young artists' programs. In 2005 he conducted Don Giovanni at Wolf Trap and returned in 2006 to conduct a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro. At San Francisco Opera's Merola Program he conducted Benjamin Britten's Rape of Lucretia in 2004. He has conducted operas at the Oberlin and San Francisco Conservatories, the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute of Music. He has also been engaged as a regular faculty member and conductor at the New National Theatre in Tokyo where in the spring of 2008 he conducted Le Nozze di Figaro.

Mr. Pelto spent the fall of 2002 conducting 30 performances of La Boheme in 20 states with the Western Opera Theater (San Francisco Opera's national touring company), after bringing Cosi Fan Tutte to 21 states the previous year. In 1999 he made his international debut in Germany with the Bochumer Symphoniker, and the same year conducted Lucia di Lammermoor at the Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, CA, returning the next year to lead Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He returned to Festival Opera in 2006 to conduct Tosca. In recent seasons he has had repeat engagements with the Florida Orchestra, the Toledo Symphony, and the Atlanta Ballet.

At age 24 he became Assistant Conductor of the Spoleto Festival USA, where he led symphonic and chamber orchestra programs to critical acclaim and was responsible for the musical preparation of productions of Fidelio, Janacek's Excursions of Mr. Broucek, and Britten's Curlew River. From 2000-2002 he served as Assistant Conductor of the Florida West Coast Symphony in Sarasota, FL, conducting over 30 concerts there.

Mr. Pelto has had the good fortune to work with a number of the world's finest teachers of conducting including Robert Spano, Jorma Panula, and Mendi Rodan. At the Indiana University School of Music he studied with the eminent conductor Imre Pallo. While pursuing his degree there, he also served as Assistant Conductor of the Opera Theater, where he led many performances including those of Don Pasquale, the Marriage of Figaro, Idomeneo, Orpheus in the Underworld, and Falstaff.

He holds a degree in violin performance from Oberlin Conservatory, and has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral violinist in Europe, China, and throughout the United States.

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Edward Crafts brings to his work with Oberlin in Italy students the rare combination of training and professional activity as both a stage director and a singer. He holds degrees in Voice from Curtis and in Opera Stage Directing from Indiana, and has practiced in both fields through out a distinguished career. Mr. Crafts was the founder of the Maryland Lyric Opera, for which he directed a dozen productions in half a dozen years. Before that, he directed the University of Nebraska Opera Theater and instructed young professional singers in the apprentice program of the Santa Fe Opera. His directing work with US regional companies has included such major challenges as Aida and Falstaff. As a singer, Mr. Crafts has performed for many years at the Metropolitan Opera and with major companies across the country, and also at Covent Garden, the Vienna Staatsoper, Rome Opera and elsewhere in Europe. His repertoire includes most of the leading Wagner baritone characters, including two complete Ring cycles as Wotan, French roles such as Golaud in Pelleas and the villains in Hoffmann, and the major Italian buffi. Among his many operatic premieres, he takes special pride in Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place, which he has also recorded for DGG.

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John Greer is an active vocal coach, accompanist, conductor and composer and is heard in these capacities throughout the United, States, Canada and abroad, in recital and on various CBC broadcasts. He is an honoured music graduate of both the University of Manitoba where he studied piano and composition with Boyd McDonald and of the University of Southern California where he was a student of pianists Gwendolyn Koldofsky and Brooks Smith and harpsichordist Malcolm Hamilton. James Fraser-Craig, Boris Goldovsky and David Effron were all important conducting mentors.

As a faculty member of the University of Toronto opera division Mr. Greer made his conducting debut in 1983 and has since worked for many other Canadian companies including the Canadian Opera Company. Previously Coach and Conductor at the University of Toronto Opera Division (1980-1994), Music Director of the Eastman Opera Theatre in Rochester, New York (1996-2001) and Music Director of the Opera Studio at the University of Maryland (2001-2003), Mr. Greer is currently the Director of Opera Studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston. For ten seasons his summers were occupied with his duties as General Manager and Head of Music Staff for the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina. He has also appeared as head coach and continuo player for Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto at the Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown, New York and on the music staff of the Chautauqua Opera, New York.

Mr. Greer’s compositions include ten song cycles, two one-act children’s operas and various other works for voice and chorus with diverse instrumental accompaniments. for more information, consult his webpage at www.johngreermusic.com

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Sally Stunkel, presently, one of foremost acting teachers for opera singers in America, has directed for Sacramento Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Skylight Opera, the Aspen Music Festival, Kentucky Opera and Four Corners Opera and has over 90 productions to her credit as a director As a former opera singer, she has sung with the Colorado Springs Opera, Skylight Opera and Baltimore Opera. From over 15 years in dance training, she has also choreographed various operas. A graduate of Cincinnati Conservatory (where she received the National Opera Association’s award for best opera for her productions of The Consul and Postcard from Morocco), she has headed the Opera programs at the former St. Louis Conservatory of Music, the University of Tennessee, the University of the Pacific in California and the University of Iowa, where she won 1st place for her Marriage of Figaro from the National Opera Association. She was a visiting Associate Professor at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music for two years where her production of Dialogues of the Carmelites was nominated by Cleveland Live for best music theater production of 2006. She has taught and directed with the Apprentice Programs at the Des Moines Opera, Chattauqua Opera, the Banff Center in Alberta, Canada and the Aspen Music Festival.

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Born in Seravezza, Marco Balderi completed his studies in piano at the L.Boccherini Musical Institute of Lucca, before entering the L.Cherubini Conservatory of Florence, where he obtained the diplomas of choir conductor, harpsichord and organ. He then entered the S.Cecilia Conservatory of Rome, where he completed studies of orchestra conductor, and obtained the degree with honors.

Between 1984 and 1989, Balderi worked as an assistant to many distinguished conductors, such as C. Abbado, R. Chailly, C.M. Giulini, J. Levine, Z. Mehta, R. Muti, G. Patanè, W. Sawallisch, in theatres such as the Teatro alla Scala or the Salsburg Festival. From 1992 to 1996, Marco Balderi conducted the choir of the Florence Opera House, which gave him the opportunity to collaborate with Z. Mehta and S. Bychkov in numerous productions. He also gained a deep knowledge of the opera vocality.

Marco Balderi began his career as orchestra conductor after winning the International Competitions of Salzburg and Alessandria. He toured Austria, China, Corea, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain and Switzerland, conducting the following orchestras : the Radio France Orchestra, the New Symphony Orchestra of Boston, the Rai Symphonic Orchestras of Milan, Roma and Turin, the Radiotelevision Orchestra of Italian Switzerland, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Tokyo, the Orchestras of the Cagliari, Bologna, Rome and Verona Theatres, the Symphonic Radiotelevision Orchestra of Moscow, the European Orchestra of Vienna, the Radiotelevision Orchestra of Bucarest, the Academia S. Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, the Padova Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsche Oper Orchestra of Berlin, the St. Gallen Symphonic Orchestra.

Marco Balderi was the artistic director of the Ongakoyoku Festival of Nijgata in Japan for twelve seasons, and of the Puccini Festival of Torre del Lago for two years. Among his recent engagements, the most important are his acclaimed conducting of Madama Butterfly at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, and at the Opera Bastille in Paris, with the direction of Bob Wilson (January 2006).

Marco Balderi has an incredible energy and passion for music, he has studied a wide repertoire including all of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Schumann symphonies, and 200 operas (out of which he already has conducted more than 40). He has dedicated special attention to modern and contemporary music.

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Enza Ferrari was born in Milan where, at age fifteen, she received her Diploma in Piano Studies from the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory. She graduated in Composition from the same institution a few years later. She has also studied Orchestral Direction under the mentorship of Maestro Antonino Votto. She received five grants from the City of Milan and three other endowments from the Project "Vacanze Musicali" in Venice. Her work and performances have been broadcasted and documented by radio and television stations in Italy, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Mexico. She participated at numerous Festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, Holland, Macau, and Italy (Estati Musicali di Verona, Fiesole, Citta' di Castello, Valle d'Itria, and several others). She works with publishing houses and record labels such as Curci, Fabbri, Ensayo, Rivo Alto, and others. She collaborated and accompanied on piano singers like Maria Callas, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Renato Capecchi, Nicola Rossi Lemeni, Bianca Maria Casoni, Ghena Dimitrova, Nicola Martinucci, Maria Chiara, Maria Luisa Nave, Alfredo Mariotti, Vincenzo Bello, Gianfranco Cecchele, Beniamino Prior, Giovanni Furlanetto, Roberto Scandiuzzi, Giorgio Surian, Elisabetta Tandura and, among the upcoming new talents, Walter Fraccaro, Young Ok Shin, Vivica Genaux, Kathy McCalla.

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Howard Lubin Howard Lubin earned a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Arts degree in German literature from Oberlin’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1975. At the completion of his graduate studies at the Juilliard School, he was awarded the Roeder Prize for outstanding pianistic achievement. He was subsequently hired to teach at the Juilliard School’s American Opera Center. His work in European opera houses led to engagements as head music coach at the Cologne Opera and at the Bregenz and Spoleto festivals. Mr. Lubin has accompanied master classes for such renowned artists as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Renata Scotto, and the master classes he accompanied for Sherrill Milnes were released as a commercial videocassette. He teaches piano at the University of Oklahoma, and is a vocal coach at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

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Danielle Orlando is currently the principal opera coach at The Curtis Institute of Music and serves as master vocal coach on the music faculty of The Academy of Vocal Arts. Ms. Orlando has collaborated with renowned tenor Luciano Pavarotti as accompanist, judge, and artistic coordinator for all of the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competitions. She spent nine seasons working with Gian Carlo Menotti for the Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy as an assistant conductor and coach. She is associated with a long list of opera companies, festivals, and young artist programs which include the Metropolitan Opera; Washington Opera; Michigan Opera Theater; Opera Company of Philadelphia; Pittsburgh Opera; Wolf Trap Opera Company; Festival dei due Mondi in Charleston, South Carolina; American Institute for Music Studies in Graz, Austria; European Center for Vocal Arts in Belgium; the Merola Program at San Francisco Opera; and the Portland Opera Performing Institute. She has also acted as a guest judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Ms. Orlando began her music studies at the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia and continued at the Eastman School of Music in New York. She earned a master of music degree in piano performance at Temple University and performs frequently as an accompanist in the United States and abroad. Ms. Orlando accompanies internationally recognized artists such as Marcello Giordani, Alessandra Marc, Kallen Esperian, and Aprile Millo. She has been seen on Good Morning America, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, Live by Request on A&E and the Rosie O’Donnell Show.

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LeAnn Overton has enjoyed a busy freelance schedule since moving to New York fourteen years ago. Currently on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and the CW Post campus of Long Island University, Ms Overton has also served on the faculties of the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the Chautauqua Voice School, The New York Actor's Studio and the Mannes School of Music. Ms. Overton has worked as musical director/coach for serveral opera companies and summer festivals including Oberlin in Italy, Vocal Arts Symposium of Colorado Springs, Opera Theater and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy, Cincinnati Opera, Tulsa Opera. In addition to her coaching and teaching, Ms Overton works at the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic as surtitle operator. In the fall of 2005 she recorded the cd "Race for the Sky" with soprano Lisa Holsberg featuring music commissioned for the anniversary of 9/11. Ms. Overton has collaborated on several occasions with Alexander Technique instructor Bill Connington in classes specifically for the singer. Ms. Overton earned her Master's degree in Vocal Coaching/Accompanying at the University of Illinois with John Wustman.

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Timothy Weiss has gained critical acclaim for his performances and adventurous programming throughout the United States and abroad. As an active guest conductor, he has conducted concerts with the New World Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony in Glasgow, Scotland, ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble) in New York’s Miller Theatre, and in San Francisco’s Hertz Hall as well as concerts with the Toledo Symphony, the Quad City Symphony, San Angelo Symphony, the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and with Synergy at the Almeida Opera Festival in London, England.In his sixteen years as music director of the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble he has brought the group to a level of artistry and virtuosity in performance that rivals the finest new music groups. After a recent concert with the ensemble in Carnegie Hall Anthony Aibel of the New York Concert Review wrote, “under the direction of Timothy Weiss [the ensemble] presented unbelievably polished, superb performances—impeccable performances—of extremely challenging recent music…Each work on the program had something vital to say, something profound, and [Weiss] was able to communicate the music’s message with vitality and insight, despite its extreme difficulty and somewhat foreign language.” Recent or ongoing collaborations include performances with the ensemble eighth blackbird and the artists Ursula Oppens, Jenny Koh and Marilyn Nonken.A committed educator, he is Professor of Conducting and chair of the Division of Conducting and Ensembles at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He is also the Music Director of the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra, a position he has held since July of 2007. He holds degrees from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, from Northwestern University and the University of Michigan.

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Scott Skiba has sung with the Indianapolis Opera, Opera Circle Cleveland, Oberlin Opera Theater, Olney Theater Center, DuPage Opera Theater, Indiana University Opera Theater, Opera Western and the Pittsburgh Opera where his performance credits include the title roles in Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro and Eugene Onégin, Escamillo (Carmen), Iago (Otello), Mandryka (Arabella), Pirate King (Pirates of Penzance), Giorgio Germont (La Traviata), Baron Zeta and Cascada (The Merry Widow), Eisenstein (Die Fledermaus), Marcello (La Boheme), King Melchior (Amahl and the Night Visitors) and Michele (Il Tabarro). Skiba is also an accomplished performer of new and 20th century operatic and musical theater works including the title role in Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Tarquinius (The Rape of Lucretia), Captain Balstrode (Peter Grimes), Horace Tabor (The Ballad of Baby Doe), Archibald Craven (The Secret Garden) and Marco (A View From the Bridge). His concert and Oratorio performances include soloist in Carmina Burana, the St. John Passion, Israel in Egypt, Messiah, In Terra Pax and Christmas Oratorio, andfeatured soloist with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, Akron Symphony, Cleveland Philharmonic, Oberlin Black River Singers, Cleveland Choral Arts Society, Columbus Symphony and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Skiba has recently joined the faculty of the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera Workshop. Previously he was as Assistant Instructor of Voice at Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music where he also recently completed doctoral coursework in voice with Timothy Noble, and opera stage direction with Vince Liotta. Skiba began his vocal training with Mr. Greg Biddle in Pittsburgh, Pa and earned a bachelor of music degree in vocal performance with Daune Mahy and a master of music degree in opera theater with Jonathan Field from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Skiba will be on the voice faculty of the Baldwin-Wallace Summer Musical Theater Intensive in July and will perform Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Circle Cleveland in November.

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