Kathleen Van De Graaff, MM has been teaching voice for 20 years. She has taught all levels and ages of students in her private studio, in group voice classes, at high schools and universities and in opera workshops and musical theatre revues. Presently she teaches at Lake Forest College. She is the creator of the CD's "Winning Warm-ups for the Voice" and "More Winning Warm-ups for the Voice." These products materialized several years ago because she found that many students either didn't know how to warm-up their voices because of lack of piano skills, lack of ability or didn't have access to a piano. The 8 CD's have sold throughout North and South America as well as in Europe. She also recently published the book "A Systematic Approach to Voice Exercises" which is a compilation of 175 exercises. Many of these exercises are based on themes by Mozart, Handel, Cimarosa, Purcell and other composers. Miss Van De Graaff 's performance experience includes opera, oratorio and recital work in Europe, Asia, and Northaand Central America. She has sung with Grand Teton Music Festival, St. Louis Early Music Festival, Chicago Opera Theater, Milwaukee Opera Company, Louisiana Philharmonic, Jackson Symphony, Racine Symphony, Manitou Music Festival, Chicago String Ensemble, Music of the Baroque, Washington/Idaho Symphony, Chicago Chamber Opera, North Shore Choral Society, among others. Her operatic repertoire includes Gilda in "Rigoletto", the Queen of the Night in "The Magic Flute", Constanze in "The Abduction from the Seraglio", Antonia in "The Tales of Hoffmann", and the title roles in "Martha" and "Lucrezia Borgia". On the concert stage, some of Miss Van De Graaff's highlights include Rossini's Stabat Mater, Handel's Messiah, Haydn's Mass in Time of War and The Creation, Mozart's Solemn Vespers, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Saint-Saens' Christmas Oratorio among others. She and her bass-baritone husband, Peter, have been instrumental in bringing to light intermezzi from the 18th century. They have traveled throughout Europe obtaining scores of these early chamber operas and have since transcribed them and translated them into English. They have subsequently gained notoriety as specialists in this area, performing them throughout the United States, Japan, Costa Rica as well as on live radio broadcasts in Chicago and nationwide. "Italian Arias from 18th century comic chamber operas" for the soprano voice and the baritone/bass voice as well as "Italian Duets from 18th century comic chamber operas" were recently published which highlights some of the delightful music found in these intermezzi.

Amy Conn is in demand throughout the midwest both as a singer and as a teacher.  An experienced stage and concert performer, she specializes in early music and oratorio performance.  In recent years, she has appeared as a soloist with Music of the Baroque, Northwest Indiana Symphony, The North Shore Choral Society,  The Elgin Choral Union, Bach Chamber Choir, Lutheran Choir of Chicago and the Acanthus Chamber Orchestra.  As a founding member of the ensemble Urban Baroque,  Ms Conn has performed in festivals, concerts and radio broadcasts singing chamber music of the 17^th century with period instruments.  She was a member of Chicago a cappella for many years and has appeared as a guest artist with Ars Antigua, Trio Settecento, The Rembrandt Chamber Players and Ars Musica. Amy Conn received a Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University and has since studied song repertoire at Tanglewood and early music at programs in Europe and in the USA.  Ms Conn's students have been prize winners in NATS competitions and Fulbright recipients.  Her High School students have gone on to study at the Cincinatti Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Westminster Choir College, Yale and CalArts.  She is currently on the faculty of DePaul University and teaches privately at The Musical Offering in Evanston.  Former teaching experience includes The Chicago Academy for the Arts, a private fine arts High School.

Sarah McIntyre, Recording Secretary

fineartsvoice@yahoo.com
 

Sarah McIntyre, soprano, has appeared with the Amadeus Opern Ensemble in Salzburg, Lexington Opera, Nashville Opera, Birmingham Opera, Chicago Chamber Opera, and Chicago Folks operetta. This summer, Sarah will join Sugar Creek Sympony & Song for the main stage production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and will be heard singing Helena in scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

As a frequent concert soloist, Sarah has sung for the Greensboro Symphony, Chicago Lyric Opera Guild Concert Series, Northbrook Parisian Salon Series, was the soloist in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia singing Bortnianski's Concerto no. 33. Most recently she was heard with the Lira Ensemble at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh.

Sarah holds a Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy from Belmont University and Bachelor of Music from Samford University. In addition to her university education, she has been chosen to participate in numerous opera intensive programs including the International Vocal Arts Institute in San Juan Puerto Rico, and Voice Experience. Sarah maintains private teaching studios in Chicago and in Arlington Heights, where she is head of the vocal department at Metropolis Performing Arts Center.

Marc Stingley is highly regarded for his impressive musical background. "The solo vocal parts were taken to fine effect and beautifully sung," The New York Times wrote of Mr. Stingley. The Chicago Tribune said, "He has a clear, pure tenor voice that never waivers." He received his Bachelor of Music Degree at the University of Kansas and worked on his Masters Diploma at both the St. Louis Conservatory of Music and Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, Austria. Prior to his tenure in Vienna, he twice received vocal fellowships from the Tanglewood Festival. While at Tanglewood, he received the High Fidelity/Musical America Award and performed a Stephen Paulus world premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He sang the role of Tamino in a European Tour of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and was the tenor soloist for numerous concerts and recitals, including a performance of Schumann's Dichterliebe with pianist Jorg Demus. Mr. Stingley has recorded an Austrian National Radio broadcast singing Italian arias. He has sung roles with Aspen Opera Theater Center, Lake George Opera Festival, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Knoxville Civic Opera, Mississippi Opera, Chicago Opera Theater and sang a recital series in Boston and Chicago for UNICEF. Mr. Stingley has been tenor soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, New York Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, as well as winning the Nakamichi Vocal Competition and finalist in the MacAllister Opera Awards. Most recently he sang Händel's Messiah with the New York Chamber Orchestra and Elmhurst Choral Union, Haydn's Season's with Downer's Grove Choral Society, Britten's St. Nicolas with Naperville Chorus and Orchestra, a recital for Evanston's "First Night" celebration, musical theater concerts with Grand Rapids Symphony, Wheaton Symphony and Elgin Symphony Orchestra, a series of "Three Tenors" concerts on Pawleys Island, South Carolina and for the Lyric Opera of Chicago Guild, and Nathanael in Chicago Opera Theater's The Tales of Hoffmann. He recorded arias written by women composers for an Austrian National Radio broadcast and performed as a tenor soloist for Vienna's millennium celebration. Upcoming engagements include tenor soloist in a world premiere of the oratorio "Novena" by Nancy Galbraith. In addition Mr. Stingley has received critical acclaim for his many performances of musical theater with symphony orchestras and as the National Anthem soloist for the Chicago Bulls. He maintains a very successful voice studio and is in demand as a clinician, adjudicator and teacher.

Victoria Holland, Treasurer
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Elizabeth Hale Knox is an accomplished mezzo-soprano.  She has performed as a soloist with the Chattanooga Opera, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Bach Festival, the Evansville Indiana Symphony Orchestra and the Lafayette Bach Chorale Singers.  In the Chicago area, she has appeared as a soloist with the DuPage Opera Theatre, Lincoln Opera, Chamber Opera of Chicago and the Tower Chorale. Ms. Knox has been a full-time member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago Chorus and the Grant Park Music Festival Chorus. She currently sings in Chicago with Music of the Baroque. Ms. Knox has won scholarships to both the Aspen Music Festival and the Blossom Music Festival. She received her Master's and Bachelor's Degrees in Vocal Performance from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.  She received an undergraduate scholarship in Voice and Graduated with Distinction.  Ms. Knox began singing professionally at the age of 19. Ms. Knox maintains a private voice studio in River Forest, Illinois. She has helped a diverse body of students including professional singers, college students, high-school students and beginners. Her students have won professional contracts, been awarded college scholarships and performed numerous roles in community and student musical theater productions. Ms. Knox has taught at Benedictine University and The Chicago Academy for the Arts.

Mark Crayton is praised by critics and audiences for the pure beauty of his voice, his interpretative insight and natural musicality. In May 2004, he was awarded 1^st prize in the professional division at the first USA Classical Singer Vocal Competition. Mark Crayton's operatic career includes the role of  Bacchus in the premiere of Alexander Goehr's critically acclaimed Arianna for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Amore in Claudio Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Ericlea in Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria with Music of the Baroque. Philip Glass invited him to sing in the world premiere performances of Glass's opera Galileo Galilei in Chicago, New York City and London; Glass wrote the role of Autumn Oracle for Mark Crayton's voice. Mark Crayton also took the roles of Inquisitor and Cardinal.  For the Lyric Opera of Chicago, he covered the role of Armindo in G F Handel's Partenope. He created the character of the First Minstrel, another role specially written for him, in the Holland Festival's production of Peter Onnes' opera/theatre piece Pantagruel et Gargantua.  In 2006 Mark Crayton will sing the role of Nireno in San Diego Opera's production of Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto. In musical comedy, Mark Crayton was asked by Kander and Ebb to sing the role of Louis Perch in their new musical The Visit, starring Chita Rivera, at Chicago's Goodman Theatre. Mark Crayton's first appearance at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall was in Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with the National Chorale. He has performed this work more than 150 times. He returned to Avery Fisher Hall in Handel's Messiah, again with the National Chorale. In Chicago, he has sung works by Giovanni Gabrieli and Dietrich Buxtehude with the ensemble Music of the Baroque. Since his 1995 debut at the Ravinia Music Festival, Mark Crayton's regular recital partner has been fortepianist James Janssen. They have appeared at New York's Weill Recital Hall and in a live radio and internet broadcast by Chicago's classical radio station WFMT. In 2003-2004, the duo's engagements included recitals at Sarasota, FL, in the Music at St Boniface series as well as in Amsterdam, London and Chicago. Their engagements for 2005 include a recital in Northeastern Illinois University's Jewel Box series, to be simulcast on WFMT and on the internet and performances in Washington DC at the Phillips Collection. Crayton and Janssen return to London and Amsterdam in the fall of 2005 with a program of newly composed music setting texts by English and American poets. Mark Crayton is a regular guest soloist with the Chicago-based period instrument ensemble Haydn by the Lake.  Their 2005 program featured works by Purcell, Blow and Gibbons. Mark Crayton regularly sings the concert and oratorio repertoire in the United States and Europe. He first sang at the Kennedy Center in Purcell's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day with the Washington Chamber Symphony under Stephen Simon and he is a guest soloist with the Concord Ensemble. He sang Handel's Messiah at Chicago's Orchestra Hall with the Apollo Chorus under Steven Alltop. At Carnegie Hall he has sung alto solo in J S Bach's Magnificat and W A Mozart's Regina Coeli. He was invited to Prague, Czech republic, to appear in Mozart's Requiem. A native of Indianapolis, Indiana, Mark Crayton attended Butler University and the University of Tennessee, followed by advanced studies with Nina Belavin Kor and Max van Egmond. He currently studies with Judith Haddon. Like most singers of high international repute, he is frequently requested to give classes to other singers. Mark Crayton is a member of the music faculty of Roosevelt University, Chicago, Illinois. Mark Crayton sings songs by Phillipp Heinrich Erlebach with the Chicago Baroque Ensemble on a CD for the Centaur label: Harmonic Joys (TCLB623942).

Karen Bauer is Head of the Voice Department and Professor of Music at North Park University in Chicago. She served as the Director of the School of Music for seven years and has distinguished herself as a voice teacher whose students now sing in opera houses both in this country and in Europe. Dr. Bauer was the primary author of North Park's Master of Music in Vocal Performance, now entering its fourth year. She is a former President of the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and now returns to serve on the Board.  Her training in opera was under Boris Goldovsky and Robert Gay, and she directed the North Park opera program for fifteen years.  She has soloed with the Chicago Symphony, Rockefeller Chapel Choir and members of the Chicago Symphony, the Chicago Baroque Ensemble, the Northwest Symphony, and on BBC radio in London.  As a professional choral singer she sang under Robert Shaw, Leonard Slatkin, Georg Solti, Carlo-Maria Giulini and many other notable conductors.  As conductor of the North Park Chamber Singers she toured in the United States and in South Korea.  In 2001 she was invited back to Korea for a solo tour of master classes in vocal technique for both the solo and choral singer. She has done numerous other master classes in U.S. colleges and universities including Valparaiso, Illinois Wesleyan, Wheaton, Bradley and Lawrence Universities. For two seasons, she taught at the Operafestival di Roma where she staged opera and taught applied voice and Italian diction. She presented master classes at the Classical Singer Convention and College Expo in 2005, 2006, and 2007, in New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco respectively. She recently presented a master class in vocal technique for the Illinois Music Educator's State Conference in Peoria, IL.  Her two-part article on the Baroque Solo Cantata appeared in the January/February and March/April, 2007, issues of the NATS Journal of Singing.

A respected singing actor, Marc Embree was a principal singer with the New York City Opera for several seasons and has performed throughout the United States, in Mexico, Canada and Europe. He has sung with many regional houses including Edmonton, New Orleans, St. Louis, Houston, Sarasota, Omaha, Kansas City and Virginia. His extensive repertoire boasts such roles as Wotan, Iago, Conte d'Almaviva, Don Giovanni, Scarpia, the Four Villains in Les contes d'Hoffman and many more. Mr. Embree received critical acclaim for his performance of Frank Marraunt in the Berlin/ Ludwigshafen production of Kurt Weill's Street Scene; filmed for television, it has been released on DVD and broadcast in Europe, Japan, Mexico and on the BRAVO Channel in the United States. Recent highlights include live television broadcasts of Wozzeck (Doctor) and Das Rheingold (Fasolt) from the Bellas Artes in Mexico City; Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe with the Augusta Opera and Peter Maxwell Davies' The Lighthouse with the Nashville Opera and Hindemith's Das Nusch-Nuschi at Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra. His recordings include Carlos Chavez's The Visitors, Kurka's The Good Soldier Schweik, and the recently released Lincoln Center Production of Rain by composer Richard Owen. In the fall of 2006, he joined his wife, Jane Bunnell, as a member of the voice faculty at the DePaul University School of Music in Chicago.

Canadian born, mezzo-soprano, stage director, and educator, Dorothy-Jean Lloyd began her advanced studies at the University of British Columbia. She continued at The Juilliard School of Music and the American Opera Center, where she was a featured member in numerous opera productions. Upon winning a career grant from the Canada Council, Ms. Lloyd relocated to Paris and was an apprentice at L’Opéra de Paris for two seasons, singing French repertoire at the Opéra Comique. Additionally she made her concert debut at the Theatre Champs Elyseé under the baton of Manuel Rosenthal, and toured the country for Jeunesses Musicales. Ms. Lloyd has sung with opera companies in Canada, including The Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg. She has been a frequent participant in summer festivals and has sung with the orchestras of l’Opéra de Paris, l’Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris, Montreal Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. She has toured the US as an affiliate artist for Columbia Artists. Her mentors and teachers have included Léopold Simoneau, Elizabeth Grümmer, Ellen Repp, Judith Natalucci, Martin Isepp, Gwendolyn Koldofsky and Armen Guzelimian. Equally at home in recital repertoire, Ms. Lloyd has collaborated with a host of instrumentalists and Chamber ensembles. “In luxuriant and understated performances of Schubert, Schumann, Ives and Copland, mezzo-soprano Dorothy-Jean Lloyd revealed impressive vocal gifts and intelligence.” – Los Angeles Times. Ms. Lloyd returned to school and completed a Masters Degree and Doctoral Degree from UCLA, becoming the manager for “Opera UCLA” where she produced and directed a highly acclaimed production of Francis Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias. In 2004, Ms. Lloyd was a contributing writer and consulting editor for Billboard Books Encyclopedia of Opera. Currently, she teaches from her home in Highland Park and her studio at the Lake Forest Symphony School of Music.

Soprano Linda Ogden Hagen, is well known in the Chicago area as a church, oratorio, opera, recital, and chamber music performer.  Among her numerous solo appearances she has performed with the DuPage Symphony Orchestra, the Naperville Chorus and Festival Orchestra, and the Downers Grove Choral Society, as well as the Chicago Baroque Ensemble, the Fox River Valley Symphony, the Oak Park-River Forest Symphony and Chorus, and the Fox Valley Symphony Chorus.  Performed works include Poulenc’s Gloria, Elijah by Mendelssohn, the Bach Magnificat, Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, the Mass in G by Schubert, Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise, Haydn’s Mass in B Major, and Brahm’s Requiem, among others.  In opera, she has performed with the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Chicago and the DuPage Opera Theatre appearing in productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Die Fledermaus by Strauss, and Rossini’s Barber of Seville.  She has also performed the role of Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music.  Ms. Ogden Hagen has been featured with East Meets West performing at North Central College and at the Chinese New Years annual banquet at the Chicago Hilton.  She also presents frequent faculty recitals, has been featured on area library series, and has performed a one-woman show portraying Lillian Russell.  In collaboration with the Dorian Opera Theatre Artistic Director, Jessica Paul, she has performed two programs featuring music by women composers.  Recently, she was a featured artist on the Ward Smidl Memorial Concert Series at First United Methodist Church in Palatine.

Ms. Ogden Hagen is currently Associate Professor of Voice at North Central College and is coordinator of vocal studies.  She also teaches in the College’s Preparatory Division of the Center for Community Education.  She received her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati after completing a Bachelor of Music Education degree from North Central College in Naperville.  She is a frequent adjudicator for state vocal contests and does workshops at area high schools.  Ms.  Ogden Hagen is a member of the Chicago Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and a past president of that organization.  She has also served on the Board of Directors of the DuPage Symphony Orchestra coordinating their Young Artist Auditions.