American baritone Louis Otey has performed with leading theaters throughout the world for more than 30 years, including the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Chicago Lyric Opera, and San Francisco Opera. His many roles include Scarpia in Tosca; Count di Luna in Il Trovatore; the title roles in Don Giovanni, Falstaff, Rigoletto, and Der fliegende Holländer; Athanael in Thais; and the four villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann. He was Grandier in Penderecki’s The Devils of Loudun with the Royal Danish Opera and Warsaw Opera, and Tonio in I pagliacci with Hawaii Opera Theater. Otey performed the title role in Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero with Antonio Pappano and the orchestra of Santa Cecilia in Rome and in London. This season he returned to Covent Garden in I due Foscari, and sang Sharpless with Florida Opera Festival’s Madama Butterfly and Monfort in Verdi’s Les vêpres sicilliennes at the Royal Danish Opera. Recent performances include the title role in Carmen with the Savonlinna Festival and Lyric Opera of Chicago; Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena) at the Metropolitan Opera and Welsh National Opera; Brangäne (Tristan und Isolde) at Salzburg’s Festspielhaus; Mrs. Grose (The Turn of the Screw) with Opéra National de Lyon; and Gertrude (Hamlet) with Minnesota Opera. Goeldner has performed in concert with such prestigious orchestras as the Berlin Symphony, the Munich Radio Orchestra, and Parma’s Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini. Recordings include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Vienna Symphony, Spohr’s Die letzten Dinge with the Mozarteum Orchestra, and a recording of works commissioned by her trio, The Prairie Song Project. Future engagements include her role debut as Amneris (Aida) with Utah Opera, Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro) for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Hippolyta (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) with Hawaii Opera Theater, and the world premiere of JFK with Fort Worth Opera. English tenor Neal Cooper’s current and future engagements include Melot (Tristan und Isolde), Royal Opera House Covent Garden; Tristan (Tristan und Isolde), Longborough Festival Opera and Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern; Mark (The Wreckers), Bard SummerScape; and Paul (Die tote Stadt) and Erik (Der fliegende Holländer), Reisopera. Cooper was born in South London. He studied German literature at Durham University and singing at the Paris Conservatoire and National Opera Studio. He made his Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut as Thibault (Les vêpres siciliennes). Other engagements have included Gabriele Adorno (Simon Boccanegra), English National Opera; Radames (Aida), Riverside Opera; and Ciccillo (I gioielli della Madonna) and Nick (La fanciulla del West), Opera Holland Park. Concert appearances include the title role in extracts from Siegfried in the Wagner 200 Celebrations at Royal Festival Hall, and in the Good Friday scene of Parsifal, with John Tomlinson as Gurnemanz. Sky Ingram trained in Australia and the United Kingdom, most recently at the National Opera Studio in London (sponsored by Opera North) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She has performed with the English National Opera, English Touring Opera, Opera North, Ardente Opera, and Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Ingram made her debut at Royal Opera House in November 2014 as Lea in the world premiere of Glare, which was met with huge critical acclaim. In October and November 2015, she will perform the role of Venus in a Royal Opera House production of Rossi’s Orfeo at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a “wonderfully natural singing actor,” through his innate sense of style, command of languages, and superior acting abilities, tenor Dennis Petersen is sought after for a variety of operatic roles. He has made forays into some of the most dramatic tenor roles in the repertoire, such as Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, Florestan in Fidelio, the Captain in Wozzeck, Aegisth in Elektra, Canio in Pagliacci, and the title role in Peter Grimes. He is scheduled to return to the Metropolitan Opera as Nathanael/Spalanzani in Les contes d’Hoffmann, and for productions of Die Zauberflöte, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and The Rake’s Progress. His debut with the Seattle Opera as Mime in Das Rheingold and Siegfried brought the highest accolades from Ring fans and critics alike. He returned in 2013 and was once again praised by Opera News for his superb “tone, technique, expressivity [and] diction.” Known for his consummate portrayals of iconic characters in the operatic repertoire, baritone Michael Mayes has performed with opera companies throughout the United States. The 2013–14 season brought his role debut as Rigoletto with Boston Lyric Opera and his debut with Gotham Chamber Opera in Baden-Baden 1925, as well as reprisals of his Joseph De Rocher in Dead Man Walking with both Madison Opera and Central City Opera, and the premiere of The Canticle of the Black Madonna. Engagements for the 2014–15 season and beyond include Charlie in Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers with UrbanArias, role debuts as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Michigan Opera Theater and Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West with Opera Omaha, Joseph De Rocher with Opera Parallèle in San Francisco and Glory Denied with Memphis Opera, and the premiere of Jake Heggie’s Great Scott! in Dallas and San Diego. Mezzo-soprano Kendra Broom embraces repertoire from Haydn to Hindemith, and has been involved with productions that “move, perplex and stimulate” (New York Times). This season Broom appears as the lead in Sheila Silver’s A Thousand Splendid Suns as part of OPERA America’s New Works Forum. Other recent credits include Lakme (Mallika), alto soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the New York Master Chorale and, in New Jersey, Menotti’s Missa O Pulchritudo. Additional highlights are Barber’s Hand of Bridge (Sally), Hänsel und Gretel (Hänsel), Bloch’s Macbeth (Le Fils de Macduff), Haydn’s Orlando Paladino (Alcina), Orphée aux Enfers (Cupidon), Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner (Genevieve), The Mother of Us All (Isabel Wentworth), and Bernard Rands’s Vincent (Marguerite). Broom is a recent graduate of Manhattan School of Music, where she was awarded the Voorhis, Monell, and Birgit Nilsson Scholarships. In the fall, she will be joining Curtis Institute of Music for vocal studies. Baritone Peter Van Derick made his Metropolitan Opera debut in April 1995 in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, and returned for roles in Die Zauberflöte, Salome, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Capriccio, and Andrea Chenier. In 1997 he portrayed the title role in Gianni Schicchi with the Metropolitan Opera Guild. He has sung frequently with the American Symphony Orchestra in rare masterpieces such as Smyth’s The Wreckers and Schreker’s Der Ferne Klang (also staged at Bard’s SummerScape). Since 1994, he has been on the faculties of New York University’s Collaborative Arts Project 21, Lee Strasberg Institute, Marymount Manhattan College, and Columbia Teachers College, teaching private voice and classes in vocal technique, and serving as music director of industry showcases and productions. His private students have appeared in Broadway and national tour productions of Spring Awakening, A Chorus Line, Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime, Man of La Mancha, and The Producers, among others.

Thaddeus Strassberger returns to Bard SummerScape 2015 to direct his fifth production with the festival, previously having created productions of Les Huguenots, Der ferne Klang, Le roi malgré lui, and Oresteia. He recently made his debut with the Ekaterinburg State Academic Opera, directing and designing Satyagraha, the first-ever production of a Philip Glass opera in Russia. Further debuts in 2014 included The Royal Opera Covent Garden, where he directed Placido Domingo in I due Foscari and a world premiere opera, Glare, by Søren Nils Eichberg. This past season he also directed Andrea Chénier and The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe (Staatstheater Braunschweig), I due Foscari (Theater an der Wien), and Don Giovanni (The Norwegian Opera). Notable past productions include: Hamlet (Washington National Opera/ Minnesota Opera/Fort Worth Opera/Lyric Opera of Kansas City), Nabucco (Washington National Opera/Minnesota Opera/Opera Philadelphia/Florida Grand Opera, l’Opera de Montreal), La fanciulla del West (l’Opera de Montreal, Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck), and Le nozze di Figaro and The Rape of Lucretia (The Norwegian Opera). His production of I due Foscari has recently been seen in Los Angeles and Valencia. His production of the rarely heard La Gazzetta (Rossini, in Wildbad Festival, Germany) garnered nominations for both best production and best direction from Opernwelt magazine.

 VIEW MORE >> Leon Botstein is now in his 23rd year as music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra. He has been hailed for his visionary zeal, often creating concert programs that give audiences a once-in-a-lifetime chance to hear live performances of works that are ignored in the standard repertory, and inviting music lovers to listen in their own way to create a personal experience. At the same time he brings his distinctive style to core repertory works. He is also artistic codirector of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, which take place at The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where he has been president since 1975. He is conductor laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director from 2003–11.  VIEW MORE >>

Erhard Rom was named as a finalist in the Designer of the Year category of the 2015 International Opera Awards in London. He has designed settings for over 200 productions across the globe; his design work has been displayed in the Prague Quadrennial exhibition and at the National Opera Center in Manhattan. He teaches design at Montclair State University. His credits include: San Francisco Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Seattle Opera, Vancouver Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Minnesota Opera, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin, Fort Worth Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Atlanta Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Boston, and Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. In 2014 he designed the European premiere of Kevin Puts’s opera, Silent Night. The production received the audience choice and best opera production awards at the 2015 Irish Times Theatre Awards ceremony.

JAX Messenger has lit productions for such companies as Bard SummerScape (Oresteia); Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Laurencia, Waltzpurgisnacht, Majisimas); Merola Opera (Barber of Seville); Washington Ballet (Sleeping Beauty, Fluctuating Hemlines, WAM2, Shostakovich Concerto); WAM! (Don Quixote); San Francisco Opera (Requiem, The Elixir of Love for Families). He has recreated the designs of Tony Tucci, Mark McCullough, Nick Phillips, Keven Meek, Nacho Duato, Jeff Bruckerhoff, and Jennifer Tipton. His associate and assistant Broadway work includes Of Mice and Men, The Heidi Chronicles, and The Visit. As an assistant lighting director he managed the creation of four operas for New York City Opera and 48 for the San Francisco Opera. As lighting supervisor he produced tours for the Washington Ballet and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in venues around the world, including the John F. Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.; Théatre du Chatelet, Paris; Teatro degli Arcimboldi, Milan; and Victorian Arts Center, Melbourne.

Kaye Voyce’s work has previously been seen at Bard SummerScape in productions of Osud, Rocket to the Moon, The Wild Duck, and Judgment Day. Her Broadway credits include The Real Thing, The Realistic Joneses, and Shining City. Other recent credits include Il turco in Italia (Teatro Regio Torino, Festival d’Aix); Enemies, A Love Story (Palm Beach Opera); The Mystery of Love and Sex (Lincoln Center Theater); The Evening (Walker Art Center, The Kitchen); The Wayside Motor Inn (Signature Theatre); Dialogues of the Carmelites (Opera Theatre of St. Louis); Luna Gale (Goodman Theatre and Kirk Douglas Theatre); and Trisha Brown’s final two dances, I’ll toss my arms—if you catch them they’re yours and Rogues.

Hannah Wasileski is a visual artist and projection designer from Berlin whose work spans theater, opera, music, and installation. Her recent design work includes Albany Symphony’s American Music Festival (with Sleeping Giant and Theo Bleckmann), architectural projection design for La Celestina (Metropolitan Museum of Art, with Manual Cinema and Opera Erratica), The World Is Round (BAM), Livin’ La Vida Imelda (Ma-Yi Theatre prose du Transsiberien (Yale Beinecke), ReAnimator Requiem (Abrons Arts Center), the world premiere of Dear Elizabeth (Yale Rep and Berkeley Rep), and The Strange Tales of Liaozhai and My Life in a Nutshell (HERE Arts Center). She is the recipient of an Obie Award. Her installation and video art have been exhibited in London, Brighton, and Glasgow. Hannah holds an M.F.A. in design from Yale.

Broadway designs include The Visit, The Real Thing, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Motown, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, Peter and the Starcatcher, All About Me, and Next to Normal. Recent off-Broadway designs include The Tempest (Shakespeare in the Park), Pretty Filthy, A Month in the Country, Allegro, Passion, and Bad Jews. TV/films include Inside Amy Schumer, 30 Rock, Lola Versus, Gilded Lilys, Six by Sondheim, and Angelica. James Bagwell maintains an active international schedule as a conductor of choral, operatic, and orchestral music. In 2009 he was appointed music director of the Collegiate Chorale and principal guest conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra, leading them in concerts at Carnegie Hall during the 2013–14 season. In July 2012 he prepared the Collegiate Chorale for concerts with the Israel Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival under Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti. This August he will return as chorus master for the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center and the Bard Music Festival. He has recently begun a collaboration with singer Natalie Merchant, appearing with her and major orchestras throughout the United States. Bagwell is professor of music at Bard College and codirector of the Graduate Conducting Program at The Bard College Conservatory of Music.

David Sytkowski is based in New York City. Recent engagements include Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner and Von Schillings’s Mona Lisa with the American Symphony Orchestra, Weber’s Euryanthe with Bard SummerScape, the world premiere of Paul Richards’s Biennale at The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, guest coach at the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program, and Opera Moderne’s production of Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Before moving to New York, he served as vocal coach for University of Wisconsin Opera in Madison, as well as pianist for various Madison Opera productions and outreach. In addition to his operatic work, he frequently collaborates with singers and instrumentalists, and has performed with tenor James Doing, soprano Mimmi Fulmer, and violinist Felicia Moye.

R. B. Schlather is pleased to return to the Richard B. Fisher Center’s SummerScape festival after previously assisting on Euryanthe and Die Liebe der Danae. His recent directing credits include Norma at the Gran Theatre del Liceu, and Orlando and Alcina as open process art exhibitions at Whitebox Art Center in Manhattan—called in the New York Times “a valuable project that deserves enthusiastic support” and “a gift given to the New York cultural scene.” In the 2015–16 season, Schlather makes his directing debut with Boston Lyric Opera on a new production of Philip Glass’s In the Penal Colony, returns to his alma mater to direct Semele for the Ithaca College Department of Theater Arts, and prepares for an exhibition of Ariodante in New York City. His work has been presented by CATCH, and published in Emergency INDEX 2011.

Zachary Schwartzman has conducted around the United States and in Brazil, Mexico, England, and Bosnia. His orchestral performances have been featured on NPR, including a national broadcast on Performance Today. He has received a career development grant from the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation and served as assistant conductor for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opera Atelier (Toronto), Berkshire Opera, Opera Français de New York, L’Ensemble orchestral de Paris, Bard SummerScape, Gotham Chamber Opera, and Opera Omaha, among others. He was associate conductor for two seasons with New York City Opera, as well as conductor in their VOX series, and has been associate/assistant conductor for 15 productions at Glimmerglass Opera, where he conducted Carmen and Jeanine Tesori’s A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (world premiere). His credits as assistant conductor include recordings for Albany Records, Naxos Records, and a Grammy-nominated, world-premiere recording for Chandos Records. He has been music director of the Blue Hill Troupe since 2004.

Lynn Krynicki just finished her 15th consecutive season at Washington National Opera (WNO) at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. This summer she enjoys her 12th consecutive season as opera stage manager for Bard SummerScape. At WNO, her opera stage managing credits include Florencia en el Amazonas, Der fliegende Holländer, Siegfried, Werther, Anna Bolena, Madama Butterfly, and La forza del destino. Other notable stage management credits include the Latino Inaugural 2013 at the Kennedy Center; the first non-Russian premiere of Taneyev’s Oresteia at Bard SummerScape; North American premiere of The Picture of Dorian Gray at Florentine Opera; Carmen, performed in Van Andel Arena for Opera Grand Rapids; and the world premiere of Gabriel’s Daughter at Central City Opera. Among the other companies for which she has worked are Seattle Opera, Central City Opera, Nashville Opera, Milwaukee Ballet, Chautauqua Opera, Pine Mountain Music Festival, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Madison Opera.

David Burke is a freelance costume assistant and supervisor, working primarily in opera. He spent 15 years as costume director for the Santa Fe Opera, where he started his career. Recent credits include Acis and Galatea, Isaac Mizrahi design for Mark Morris; The Magic Flute, Isaac Mizrahi design for Opera Theatre of St. Louis; and Peter and the Wolf, Isaac Mizrahi design for the Guggenheim Museum’s Works and Process. For Bard SummerScape, Burke has supervised costumes for Oresteia, Mattie Ullrich design, and Euryanthe, Jessica Jahn design. Burke has an M.F.A. from New York University, Tisch School for the Arts, and is a member of USA Local 824, Costume Design.

The American Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski, with a mission of making orchestral music accessible and affordable for everyone. Music Director Leon Botstein expanded that mission when he joined the ASO in 1992, creating thematic concerts that explore music from the perspective of the visual arts, literature, religion, and history, and reviving rarely performed works that audiences would otherwise never have a chance to hear performed live.  VIEW MORE >>