Past & Current Judges
DAVID ADAMS: David Adams, lyric tenor, is Professor of Voice and Head of the Performance Studies Division for the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. His operatic and concert performances have taken him throughout Italy, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, and the United States. He has appeared as a tenor soloist with the Dayton Bach Society, Dayton Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Bach Society, Akron Symphony, Savannah Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, New Mexico Symphony, Orchestra of Santa Fe, Aspen Music Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and in New York's Merkin Hall. He has served on the faculty of the Aspen Music School, and is currently co-artistic director of the Opera Theater and Music Festival of Lucca (Italy). Mr. Adams is the author of A Handbook of Diction for Singers, and The Song and Duet Texts of Antonín Dvorák. His students have reached the finals of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions; others have won competitions at Houston Grand Opera and the National Federation of Music Clubs.
EDWARD ALLEY: Edward Alley became the conductor of the famed 7th U.S. Army Symphony when he was just twenty-two, later conducting and managing eighteen tours for the Goldovsky Opera Theater, followed by work at Lake George and St. Paul operas. He led more than 750 performances of operas from "Carmen" to "La Traviata," with the formative and formidable Sherrill Milnes and Justino Diaz. He then went on to become Manager of the N.Y. Philharmonic, Associate Director of the Juilliard Opera Center, Director of the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program and has known and worked with many of the great conductors of our time, including Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta. Ed often served as a judge for national and international vocal competitions, including the District and Regional MET auditions, and the Baltimore International Vocal Competition. Retired, married to June LeBell, and living in Sarasota, he has served as a Trustee of the Sarasota Opera and is the current President of Gloria Musicae, and Chair of the TDC Grant and Policy Panels of the Sarasota Arts Council.
ANGELIQUE CLAY: Heralded for her "soaring lyric soprano voice," Angelique Clay has garnered performances in the United States, Europe, and South America. Dr. Clay has recorded and toured as a soloist with the American Spiritual Ensemble throughout the United States, Spain and Brazil. She has performed with international and American orchestras such as the Slovak State Philharmonic, in Kosice, Slovak Republic, Sinfonia Warsovia in Poland, the Missouri Symphony Society, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, the Louisville Orchestra, and Arcadiana Symphony Orchestra. She was a featured recitalist at the National Opera Association Legacy Awards Celebration in Washington D.C. in 1999. A native of Louisville, KY, Dr. Clay received a bachelor of science degree from Oakwood College, and a master of music and doctor of musical arts degree in vocal performance from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Clay is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Kentucky.
PAMELA COBURN: Pamela Coburn obtained her voice education at DePauw University, the Eastman School of Music, the Juilliard School in New York and studied lieder with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. American lyric soprano Pamela Coburn has held her own among the leading international singers. She is a regular guest in the most renowned opera houses and concert halls all over the world including appearances at the Vienna State Opera, Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Opera New York, in Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Paris, Toulouse, London and Tokyo's New National Theatre as well as the Salzburg and Richard-Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Pamela Coburn has made numerous recordings, among them Gounod's Faust with Sir Colin Davis, Beethoven's Fidelio with Bernard Haitink and Leonore with Marc Soustrot, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Bruckner's Te Deum with Helmuth Rilling, Mahler's 8th Symphony with Lorin Maazel, Strauss' Gypsy Baron with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Lehar's The Merry Widow with Helmuth Froschauer, Verdi's Requiem with Enoch zu Guttenberg, and a DVD of Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus on Deutsche Grammophone with the late Carlos Kleiber. Pamela Coburn began a Distinguished Visiting Professorship in 2005 at DePauw University.
JULIA FOSTER, DMA: Dr. Julia Foster, soprano, leads the voice area at Rollins College as Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera. She is an active performer in the opera, concert, and teaching arenas, and recently co-founded the Bach Festival Summer Music Academy at Rollins College for High School voice students. Recent performances include the Soprano soloist in Mendelssohn's Elijah, the title role in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Rose Maurrant in Kurt Weill's Street Scene, and Beth in Mark Adamo's Little Women.
PHILIP FROHNMAYER: baritone, won top prize in the 1976 Munich International Competition and began his European career singing principal roles in Mozart and Verdi operas in Germany, Luxembourg, and Holland. He created the role of Frère Léon in the Dutch Radio premiere recording of Olivier Messiaen's St. François d'Assise, with performances in Madrid, Bonn, and Utrecht. He has presented recital tours in the Republic of Georgia, France, and Latin America and given recital, concert, and operatic appearances throughout the U.S. In addition to regular soloist work with the Louisiana Philharmonic, Mr. Frohnmayer has appeared in many productions with New Orleans Opera, including Carmen, Salome, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Andrea Chenier, and Turandot. A graduate of Harvard University, University of Oregon, and the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik, Mr. Frohnmayer currently has students on the rosters of the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera and San Francisco Opera, as well as several companies abroad. In addition to the Schmidt Youth Vocal Competition, Mr. Frohnmayer has also served as a judge and clinician for the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in Northern Mississippi and in Los Angeles. He currently serves on the faculty of Loyola University in New Orleans, and is at work on a book about singing as a lifetime discipline.
DONALD GEORGE: Tenor, Donald George, has performed at La Scala, at the Paris Opera Bastille and Théâtre du Châtelet, Royal Opera of Brussels, Kennedy Center, the State Operas of Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna, the Festivals of Salzburg, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem, Istanbul, Perth (Australia) and Blossom USA. He has sung with Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Yehudi Menuhin, Jeffry Tate, Vladimir Jurowski, Simone Young and recorded Elijah, Verdi Requiem, Rossini's Aurelieano in Palmira and Le Nozze di Teti e Peleo (the world premiere recording), Die Schöne Müllerin among others. George is an Associate Professor of Voice at The Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam, NY; Opera Director of the International Performance Arts Institute in Germany a summer program for opera and musical singers. He is also a guest of the Schloß Laubach Opera Summer Festival in Germany for young professional singers wishing to start a career in Germany. In addition he is an Honoured Professor of the Shenyang Conservatory in Shenyang, China, the Guest Artist in Residence at West Virginia University and in the Hall of Fame of his alma mater the University of Southeastern Louisiana.
RICHARD KAGEY: Mr. Kagey most recently directed Amahl and the Night Visitors in Sante Fe, Die Fledermaus with UK Opera Theatre, and Don Giovanni for the Fort Worth Opera. Mr. Kagey returned to The Seagle Music Colony program for opera singers this past summer. He has directed for the San Francisco Opera's Merola program, The Atlanta Opera, including last year's production of Phillip Glasses' Akhnaten, Opera North Carolina and Fort Worth Opera. Mr. Kagey began his relationship with UK Opera with the world premier of Hotel Casablanca and is working on collaboration with UK Opera and Fort Worth Opera of Libby Larsen's new work A Wrinkle in Time. He has been a professor at Skidmore College, North Carolina Wesleyan College, Castleton State College- Vermont, and Frostburg State University - Maryland where he was Chair of the Division of Performing Arts. A full time freelancer, he currently makes his home in Atlanta and has joined UK Opera Theatre this year as an artist-in-residence.
HOPE KOEHLER: Soprano Hope Koehler has appeared with numerous opera companies and orchestras, such as the Nashville Opera, Tennessee Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera of the North, Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, and the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, to name a few. She has appeared as the title roles in Tosca, Carmen, Fidelio, and Madama Butterfly. Hope is a member and featured soloist with the American Spiritual Ensemble. In 2006 and 2010 she was a member of the voice faculty at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. In June of 2008 Albany Records released Koehler's recording of John Jacob Niles songs titled The Lass from the Low Countree, performed with James Douglass at the piano. Koehler received her bachelor of arts degree in vocal performance and music education at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and her master of music degree in vocal performance at the University of Alabama. She earned a DMA degree from the University of Kentucky and currently serves on the voice faculty at West Virginia University.
JUNE LEBELL: June LeBell began her career in 1973 at WQXR when she became the nation's first female classical music announcer. Over her 30 years at WQXR, the country's largest and oldest commercial classical station, she garnered more than 18 major awards for outstanding broadcasts with prestigious arts organizations including the New York Philharmonic and The Marilyn Horne Foundation, as well as interviews with almost every well-known musician in the world. A writer on classical music and food (NY Times, Gourmet and, in Sarasota, The Observer), Doubleday published "Kitchen Classics from the Philharmonic," her classical music-themed cookbook with illustrations by Al Hirschfeld. She has served on numerous arts boards as an advisor or active director. Before her radio days, June was a voice major at the Mannes College of Music and the Hartt College of Music. Her teachers included Martial Singher and she studied privately for more than seven years with Adele Addison. She resides in Sarasota, Florida, with her husband, Edward Alley.
JULIE MAYKOWSKI: Dr. Julie Maykowski is the Senior Individual Giving Officer for Sarasota Opera. She previously worked for Kentucky Opera as the Director of Education. In addition to writing and directing school touring programs, she also ran the Studio Artist Program and started an Apprentice Program of artists from the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville. Dr. Maykowski earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Kansas with her dissertation topic being Poulenc's opera Dialogues of the Carmelites in addition to teaching studio voice as well as classroom courses such as IPA and Diction. She held Adjunct Faculty positions at the University of Kentucky and Washburn University. Julie was a mezzo soprano and performed a variety of opera, operetta, and musical theater roles. She has worked as a Stage Manager for such companies as Des Moines Metro Opera and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as well as Directing college and professional productions including Dialogues of the Carmelites, Le nozze di Figaro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, and The Consul.
DR. EVERETT MCCORVEY: A native of Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. McCorvey received his degrees from the University of Alabama. Dr. McCorvey holds the rank of Professor of Voice and the Lexington Opera Society Endowed Chair in Opera Studies, and is the Director and Executive Producer of University of Kentucky Opera Theatre. As a tenor soloist, he has enjoyed critical acclaim and has performed in many prestigious venues around the globe, including the Kennedy Center, Radio City Music Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, and Italy's Teatro Comunale. He established and directs the American Spiritual Ensemble, a group of 24 professional singers who tour annually throughout the United States and abroad. Dr. McCorvey is vice-chairman of the Kentucky Arts Council for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, serves on the board of the National Association of State Arts Agencies, and was recently elected as faculty representative to the UK Board of Trustees. Most recently he was named Executive Producer of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in 2010, the largest equestrian event in the history of the United States.
JEFFREY MCEVOY: American baritone Dr. Jeffrey McEvoy serves as assistant professor-in-residence of voice and opera at the University of Connecticut where he teaches applied lessons and is the resident stage director of opera. To great acclaim, McEvoy has sung Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, Escamillo in Carmen and Masetto in Don Giovanni, both roles of Figaro and the Count in Le nozze di Figaro, Germont in Traviata, Ramiro in L’Heure Espagnole, Thomas Putnam in The Crucible, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti and Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia. Noteworthy milestones include Kansas City district winner and regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and first place winner in the Midwest District of the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition in both the Graduate and Senior Men divisions. Highlights of previous seasons include engagements with Connecticut Opera, Opera Boston, Commonwealth Opera, Kansas City Lyric Opera, Sarasota Opera, Lake George Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Glens Falls Symphony, Newbury Choral Society, Nashua Choral Society, and Boston Opera Collaborative.
NICHOLAS MUNI: Distinguished Artist in Residence at CCM since 2006, he has directed over two hundred productions in North America, Europe, and Australia with companies such as San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and Opera Theater of St. Louis. In Europe he has directed for the Prague National Opera, the Kurt Weill International Festival, Theater Erfurt, Tirolerlandestheater in Innsbruck, Stadttheater Bern and Stadttheater Giessen. His revival of Jenufa at the Canadian Opera Company in winter 2003 received the prestigious DORA award for best theater production of the year. In addition, he has served as Artistic Director for the Tulsa Opera (1987-93) and Cincinnati Opera (1996-2005). Recent productions: Das Liebesverbot at Glimmerglass Opera, L'amico Fritz at San Francisco Opera Merola; Carmen at Boston Lyric Opera, Ballo delle ingrate/Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda/Trouble in Tahiti at Portland Opera. Upcoming productions: Cendrillon at Miami University; Cardillac at Opera Boston, La Vida Breve at Manhattan School of Music, Giulio Cesare at CCM.
MARI OPATZ-MUNI: Mari Opatz-Muni, mezzo-soprano, has appeared with numerous opera companies in the United States and Europe including Houston Opera, where she was in the original cast of the world premiere of Nixon in China by John Adams. The audio recording won a Grammy Award and the opera's national PBS television broadcast was honored with an Emmy. Ms. Opatz-Muni reprised the role of Nancy T'ang in performances at Washington's Kennedy Center, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Netherlands Opera and at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland. In addition, Ms. Opatz-Muni has appeared with New York City Opera, Atlanta Opera, Tulsa Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Portland Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Toledo Opera, Des Moines Opera and Mobile Opera. Along with the Emmy and Grammy, Ms. Opatz-Muni is the recipient of other prestigious awards including grants from the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation, the National Institute for Music Theatre, the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Beethoven Club. She was a semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera auditions in both New York City and in her home state of Iowa. Ms. Opatz-Muni currently serves on the faculty of Miami University (Ohio) as Associate Professor in Music and Director of the Opera Program.
NICHOLAS PERNA: Tenor Nicholas Perna has performed throughout the United States in opera and oratorio. Operatic credits include leading tenor roles in Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, L'Elisir d'amore, and The Magic Flute. He has won awards from the Florida District Metropolitan Opera National Auditions and The Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera. Concert appearances include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Mahler's Das Lied von Erde, Schubert's Mass in C and Mass in G, and Handel's Messiah. He received the DMA degree in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Miami and the MM degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Houston. His teachers include tenor Joseph Evans, mezzo-soprano Nina Hinson, and baritone David Alt. Dr. Perna was awarded a Presser Music Foundation award in 2007, which funded his doctoral essay "Effects of Nasalance on the Acoustics of the Tenor Passaggio and Head Voice." This research was presented at the 38th Annual Voice Foundation Symposium on the Care of the Professional Voice, and the 2010 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) national conference in July. Dr. Perna is currently Assistant Professor of Voice at West Virginia University where he teaches studio voice and vocal pedagogy.
CONSTANCE ROCK: Dr. Constance Rock, soprano, serves as coordinator of vocal studies and associate professor of music at the University of Connecticut. Her recital and master class schedule includes appearances in Connecticut, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Nebraska. In 2007, Rock premiered the song cycle Rise and Fall, composed for her by Jake Heggie. Rock received the bachelor's degree in music performance and education from the University of Nebraska and the master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Nebraska. She received the doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Connecticut in 2005. Sought after for her expertise in vocal pedagogy, Rock's students sing professionally throughout the United States and Europe and are winning such prestigious competitions as the Metropolitan Opera Guild Competition, Richard Tucker Awards Competition, Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, Jenny Lind Competition, Amici Vocal Competition, Sullivan Awards Competition and the Liederkranz Competition, among others.
BENJAMIN SMOLDER: Bass-baritone Benjamin Smolder has enjoyed a varied regional and international performance career. He has performed principal roles in Prague, Vienna, Lucca, Madrid and Cairo. In the US, he has performed with the Spoleto Festival, Santa Fe opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Nevada Opera, Central City Opera and Dayton Opera. As a soloist, he has performed with the Cincinnati Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, Cincinnati May Festival, and the Lexington Philharmonic. In 2008, he made debuts with the prestigious Santander Festival Internacional, Festival Internacional de Música Pau Casals, and the Teatre Principal de Mao in Spain. Smolder received the distinguished Alumni Award in 2007.
STEPHANIE SUNDINE: Stephanie Sundine's career as a soprano took her to three continents and many of the world's leading opera houses in major roles with some of opera's most prominent directors and conductors. After retiring from her distinguished singing career, she began directing opera 12 years ago. She has directed productions in many regional theaters, as well as working with numerous young artists in master classes and acting workshops across the U.S. She has judged several competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Ms. Sundine has written supertitles for many productions and is a partner in the supertitle company, Words for Music.
STELLA ZAMBALIS: Stella Zambalis, Soprano, is a regular guest of leading opera companies throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and South America, as well as frequenting the recital and concert stage. She has created several new roles for the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera and for La Scala in Milan to name a few. She has sung with the Houston Symphony, Radio Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, the Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra in Berlin, and the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra, to name a few. On recordings, Ms. Zambalis may be heard as Juliet in Tchaikovsky's unfinished work: Romeo and Juliet: Overture Fantasy (completed by Taneyev) with the Moscow Radio and Television Orchestra for Bridge Records (a division of Koch International) sung in Russian, and a solo album featuring three complete solo song cycles by Dvorak (Gypsy Songs, Biblical Songs and Love Songs) sung in Czech for the Opus label. Ms. Zambalis was the first to record Dvorak's Love Songs.
DELORES ZIEGLER: American mezzo-soprano, Delores Ziegler, studied at the University of Tennessee. After beginning her career with concert engagements, Delores Ziegler made her operatic stage debut in Knoxville as Verdi's Flora She made her European operatic debut in Bonn as Dorabella. With a repertoire that extends from bel canto to verismo, Delores Ziegler has appeared in the world's greatest opera houses. With numerous companies including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Teatro La Scala, Dresden and Cologne Opera, and the Bolshoi Opera, she has sung leading roles in Ariadne auf Naxos; Idomeneo; Così fan tutte; Le nozze di Figaro; Der Rosenkavalier; I Capuleti e i Montecchi; Orfeo; Faust; La clemenza di Tito; La damnation de Faust; and Falstaff. Her festival credits include the Salzburg Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, Aix-en-Provence, Athens Festival, and the Florence May Festival. Delores Ziegler is the most recorded Dorabella in operatic history. She has recorded Così fan tutte and many other works under the distinguished batons of Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink, James Levine, Robert Shaw, James Conlon, Claudio Schimone, and Armen Jordan. She recently recorded Sara in Roberto Devereux, Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena, and Ned Rorem's song cycle, Evidence of Things Not Seen.