Artists
Frank Almond
Violin/Tango
Violinist Frank Almond holds the Charles and Marie Caestaker Concertmaster chair at the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He returned to the MSO after holding positions as Concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Valery Gergiev, and Concertmaster of the London Philharmonic with Kurt Masur, and continues an active schedule of solo and chamber music performances in the US and abroad. He has been a member of the New York chamber group An die Musik since 1997, and is also the Artistic Director of Frankly Music, his acclaimed chamber music series.
A past prizewinner of both the Paganini Competition in Genoa and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he has recorded extensively and has appeared numerous times on NPR's Performance Today. He is also regularly featured as a soloist on the MSO's nationally syndicated radio broadcasts.
His recordings with An die Musik were twice nominated for Grammys, and his 2007 CD on the AVIE label with pianist William Wolfram was named a "Best of 2007" by the American Record Guide. His new recording with pianist Brian Zeger was recently released to much acclaim on the Innova label. In 2008 he began writing the popular online column nondivisi.
Mr. Almond holds two degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy Delay. He plays on a violin crafted by Antonio Stradivari from 1715, the "Lipinski".
Please visit http://www.frankalmond.com
Glenn Basham
Violin/Bergonzi String Quartet
Glenn Basham is concertmaster of the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and Associate Professor at the University of Miami (FL) where he teaches not only violin, but also one of the few courses in the country in improvisation for string players. He has performed as a soloist with the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra, the Miami City Ballet, and Naples Philharmonic, among others, and has served as concertmaster of the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and performed with the Chester String Quartet. As a jazz player, Glenn has performed with Ira Sullivan, Simon Salz and John Blake, and is featured on the Miami Saxophone Quartet's recording "Four More Giant Steps." Educated at the North Carolina School of the Arts and Indiana University, he received First Prize in the Renaud National Honors Competition and was the only American violinist invited to compete in the 1988 International Bach competition in Leipzig, Germany. His compact disc "Aria"was released in 2006. Glenn plays a G.B. Ceruti violin made in Cremona, Italy, in 1810.
The Bergonzi String Quartet
Chamber Musicians
The Bergonzi String Quartet, named for the famous violinmaker, Carlo Bergonzi, has been Quartet-in-Residence at PMMF since 1995. The Bergonzi Quartet was formed in 1992 and is Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL, where they are all faculty members. Prior to forming the Bergonzi Quartet, the members were part of the New World, Rowe, Chester and Ellis String Quartets and have extensive collective experience, performing in virtually every major center in the world, with concerts throughout Europe, North and South America, New Zealand and Asia. The quartet has generated enormous excitement around the world for their superb blend of seasoned and sensitive virtuosity. Each year, they appear in the internationally acclaimed Festival Miami and the Mainly Mozart Series in Coral Gables. Known for their unusual repertoire, the Bergonzi performances often include Latin American music and American jazz. Hailed by critics as "electrifying" and "masterful," the ensemble is an important cultural asset for PMMF and the Upper Peninsula.
Mary Bonhag
Eve/The Diaries of Adam & Eve
Mary Bonhag, is a 2009 winner of the Bard College concerto competition and a 2007 winner of the University of Michigan Concerto Competition. She has worked closely with numerous composers to premier new works, frequently with Michigan-based composer Curtis Curtis-Smith. This May she made her Carnegie Hall solo debut singing in David T. Little's new chamber opera Dog Days. In 2007, she created the role of "Eve" for the Pine Mountain Music Festival premiere of The Diaries of Adam and Eve, a new chamber opera by Evan Premo. Ms. Bonhag has performed as part of the Fontana Chamber Arts Festival of Kalamazoo, MI, the Maui Classical Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains, Cactus Pear Music Festival, the Lancaster Music Festival, and SongFest as a full-scholarship Stern Fellow. She has also been featured on the NPR show Performance Today. Ms. Bonhag is co-founder of "Duo Borealis" with double bassist/composer Evan Premo, performing eclectic concerts of folk, classical, and original music. She is a recent graduate from the University of Michigan, currently earning her Master's Degree at Dawn Upshaw's graduate voice program at Bard College. She studies with Edith Bers.
Roza Borisova
Cello/Tango
Roza Borisova, cello, a native of Ioshkar-Ola, Russia, has been teaching at the Academy of Music since 2003. Ms. Borisova began studies on the cello at the age of seven. After receiving her B. A. in Music Performance from the Ioshkar-Ola State Music College, she moved to Moscow where she earned a M. M. in Performance Pedagogy and a D.M.A. in String Quartet Performance from the Russian State Academy of Music (formerly Gnesin's Institute) in Moscow.
In 1989 Ms. Borisova was selected to be cellist of the Veronika String Quartet (newly formed by Valentine Berlinsky, cellist of the Borodin String Quartet). The Quartet's international tours resulted in numerous prizes including the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, the Shostakovich String Quartet Competition, and the Russian National Competition. As an award of the Shostakovich Competition, in 1993 the Quartet was invited to study with the Fine Arts Quartet at the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and relocated to the U.S. Ms. Borisova served as Artist-in-Residence and graduate teaching assistant at various institutions in Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Colorado and earned a second M.M. in Music Performance.
As part of the Veronika String Quartet, Ms. Borisova performed regularly as cellist with various symphony orchestras and at many festivals and institutes around the world including the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Second Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters in Israel, the Britten-Pears School of Music in England, and the Lancaster Music Festival in Ohio. She currently performs with the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra, and the Woodstock Mozart Festival Orchestra, Woodstock, IL. She takes pleasure in teaching aspiring cellists and has taught at several major music institutions in the U.S.
Nell Buchman
Piano/Tango
Nell Jorgensen Buchman, native of North Carolina, is a well-known Fox Valley accompanist, adjudicator, performer, and teacher. Since receiving a Master of Music degree in piano performance and pedagogy from The University of Oklahoma in 1994, Ms. Buchman has pursued an active teaching, performing, and adjudicating career at Lawrence University, Academy of Music, and throughout Wisconsin. She has a private studio, teaches class piano, music for the very young, and coordinated the Lawrence Academy of Music’s Piano Festival for several years. She has played with the Raleigh Symphony, the Cimarron Opera Company, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra and was a guest on North Carolina Public Radio’s lunchtime concert series. She has also performed at music conventions such as MTNA and MENC. Her teachers include James Clyburn, Walter Hautzig, Andrew Cooperstock and Louis Nagel and she has participated in masterclasses with John Perry, Robert Weirich, Ruth Laredo, Paul Schenly, John Browning, and Gary Graffman.
Susan Byykkonen
Accompanist/Gala Events
Susan Byykkonen is an independent music teacher whose studio includes both piano and flute students. She is Associate Director of the Michigan Tech Concert Choir, which she has accompanied since 1994. Susan has performed with PMMF as accompanist for vocal masterclasses and for the winter concert in 2007. From 2000-2004, she served as choir director and piano instructor at Lakeland Christian School in Florida. She performs regularly in the MTU Visual & Performing Arts Department's Chamber Music Series, and plays flute and keyboard instruments for the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra. She is also active in her local church, as pianist and choir director. Susan received her bachelor of arts in music degree from Cedarville University. Susan resides in Calumet with husband, Eric and children April and Mitchell.
Ann Campbell
Chorus Master/La Traviata
Ann Campbell, Chorus master, received her B.M.E. from Northern Michigan University and her M.A. in Music Education from Appalachian State University in North Carolina. She has taught vocal music in the Houghton-Portage Township Schools since 1981 and is an active recitalist. As a PMMF performer, Ms. Campbell has sung the roles of Mrs. Gleaton in Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, Berta in Rossini's Il Barbieri di Siviglia, Annina in Verdi's La Traviata and Mother in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. She created the role of Polly in the world premiere production of The Children of the Keweenaw by Paul Seitz and Kathleen Masterson. Ms. Campbell has also served the Pine Mountain Music Festival as the Children's Chorus Master for Puccini's La Boheme and Hansel and Gretel as well as preparing adult choruses for Mozart's The Magic Flute and Bernstein's Candide. Since 2002, she has been program director of OPERAtion Imagination, an outreach program for schools which is a part of the Pine Mountain Music Festival. Ms. Campbell maintains a private vocal studio in Houghton/Hancock and studies voice with founding PMMF opera director, Christine Seitz.
Gary Decker
Lighting Designer/La Traviata
Gary Decker is a member of the University of Michigan Department of Theatre and Drama faculty. A scenery and lighting designer, he teaches classes in theatre production, the history of décor, and the history of theatre architecture and stage design. He has been a visiting faculty member at the Central-St. Martins School of Design in London, England, a faculty member and designer for the Classic Theatre Institute in Athens, Greece, and program and technical consultant for Universidad Cecilio Acosta in Maracaibo, Venezuela. Mr. Decker has designed scenery and lighting more than eighty professional theatre productions. Past Pine Mountain Music Festival designs include Don Pasquale, La Cenerentola, and The Magic Flute. Recent designs include Guys on Ice at the Plymouth Playhouse in Minneapolis, and the national tour of Same Time, Next Year. His scenic design for Fully Committed at The Century Theatre earned him the Detroit Free Press Theatre Design Excellence Award. Mr. Decker has been twice named Theatre Designer of the Year by the Detroit News, and has received 2 International Illumination Design Awards from the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America. Additionally Mr. Decker has designed scenery and exhibition display for many Fortune 500 corporations including AT&T, Lincoln-Mercury, Buick and Oldsmobile. He has designed interiors or lighting for commercial projects including: On Stage- A Restaurant and The Elwood Grill both in Detroit, The Fashion Cafe in New York City, and The Arndale Centre in Manchester, UK.
Jerry DePuit
Director/Jerome Kern and Irving Berlin in Revue
Jerry DePuit graduated from the University of Michigan in 1972, and spent the next twelve years in New York City. As a vocal coach, he taught at New York University, the American Academy of Vocal Arts, in the studios of Ora Witte and Felix Knight, and privately. As a musical director/pianist, he worked for many New York cabarets and theatrical organizations including the Grand Finale, the Ballroom, Reno Sweeney's, the Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Player's Club. He has also musical directed and played in numerous regional theatres in Connecticut, Kentucky, and Michigan; and twice for the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in Washington, D.C. He has appeared nationwide with cabaret artists from New York City to San Francisco, on the Holland America cruise line, and on the Tomorrow and Today shows. He has accompanied artists in pop concerts and classical recitals in venues including the Little Carnegie Recital Hall. His work as an arranger and orchestrator has been heard on recordings, in pops concerts, theatres, and at the Metropolitan Opera House and Radio City Music Hall. He has written a film score, orchestrated three original musicals (one by Joe Raposo and Sheldon Harnick), arranged and orchestrated four full-scale revues and many smaller ones, helped reconstruct the score of a 1948 musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Kurt Weill, written arrangements for recordings, and done many new arrangements of extant works-both choral and instrumental. Since 1985 he has been on the faculty of the Musical Theatre Department at the University of Michigan.
Leah Edmondson Dyer
Soprano-Annina/La Traviata
Leah Edmondson Dyer has been described as someone who "sing[s] with lyrical flow and technical prowess" as she "ranges easily through many moods, adapting her light, agile soprano to convey them in the notes as well as her acting," (The Columbus Dispatch).
Ms. Dyer's operatic roles include Pamina (The Magic Flute), Calisto (La Calisto), Susanna (Marriage of Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), and Tatiana (Eugene Onegin).
Ms. Dyer's oratorio solo work includes the requiems of Brahms, Faure, and Mozart, Haydn's Theresa Mass and Paukenmesse, the Dvorak Stabat Mater, Bach Magnificat, and Handel's Messiah. She also performed in Carnegie Hall with the New York Pops for their Holiday Celebration Concert in 2005.
Leah's performance as Luisa (The Fantasticks) drew glowing reviews from the Fort Worth Star Telegram for her "gorgeous light-but-sturdy soprano, with a glorious youthful glow." In May 2010, she will play Cinderella in a Pittsburgh production of Into the Woods.
Leah received her Master's in Music at The Ohio State University, where she studied with Dr. Karen Peeler. She received her Bachelor's in Music Education at Texas Christian University, where she studied with Nancy Elledge.
Ms. Dyer currently resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she teaches over thirty private voice students.
Scott Flavin
Violin/Bergonzi String Quartet
Scott Flavin is Director of the Frost Chamber Orchestra and the UM Baroque Ensemble at the University of Miami (FL), where he is also a professor. He is concertmaster of the Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet orchestras, and Florida Classical Orchestra. Prior to joining the Bergonzi Quartet, Scott was a founding member of the Ellis String Quartet, which toured the United States and Germany and was a Quartet-in-Residence at the Aspen Music Festival. He has been heard on National Public Radio and Armed Forces Radio and is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. His recordings include chamber music on the Centaur and Naxos labels. He can also be heard on commercial recordings for Sony, EMI, and Warner Brothers, including over a dozen Grammy award-winning albums. Mr. Flavin performs on a rare Italian violin made in 1780 by Tomaso Eberle.
Ross Harbaugh
Cello/Bergonzi String Quartet
Ross Harbaugh (cello/Bergonzi String Quartet) is Professor of Cello and Chamber Music at the University of Miami (FL). He studied with Janos Starker, Leonard Rose, Peter Howard in the United States, and Andre Navarra at the Paris Conservatory. Ross won the Naumburg Chamber Music Prize and a Prix du Disque with the New World Quartet, and has performed in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and London's Wigmore Hall. He has appeared as soloist with many orchestras, including the Atlanta, Cincinnati, Keweenaw, Grand Rapids, and Canadian Chamber Orchestras. He has recorded for VOX, CRI, Musical Heritage, MCA Classics, Centaur, Fleur de Son, and IMP Masters. Ross was formerly principal cellist of the Grand Rapids and Toledo Symphonies, artist in residence at Harvard University, and has published articles on Ensemble Communication and "Tai Chi for Cellists," which explores balance, natural movement, and momentum in string playing. Ross performs on a Domenico Montagnana made in Venice in 1734.
Bernard Damon Holcomb
Tenor- Alfredo/La Traviata
Bernard D. Holcomb will be recognized as a 2009 Pine Mountain Music Festival Resident Opera Artist, he is excited to be back for another season. He was recently an Apprentice with the Sarasota Opera where he sang the role of the Villager in I Pagliacci, and performed in several scenes concerts. He was featured as Federico in L'Amico Fritz with Sarasota last season. Bernard has performed several roles with the University of Michigan Opera Theatre including Rodolfo in La Boheme, Jenik in The Bartered Bride, Lyric Tenor in Postcard from Morocco, and Lensky in Eugene Onegin. Bernard was also featured in the roles of Nelson and Crabman in Michigan Opera Theater's main stage production of Porgy & Bess, as well as Gastone in La Traviata. In the summer of 2008 he was featured in an international tour of Porgy & Bess which toured Russia, Poland, Greece, Latvia, Estonia, and Germany. Orchestral engagements include performances of the Verdi Requiem with the University Symphony Orchestra (Michigan), the Holland Symphony, the Pontiac-Oakland Symphony, scenes from Die Zauberflote with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as his Detroit Symphony Orchestra debut.
Joshua Major
Artistic Director
Toronto-born Joshua Major (Artistic Director) began his opera stage directing career at the age of 23 with La Cenerentola for Opera Omaha. Soon after, Mr. Major worked as an assistant to Rhoda Levine at Juilliard, Cynthia Auerbach at both Chautauqua Opera and New York City Opera and William Gaskill at the Welsh National Opera. Mr. Major has worked as a stage director for over 25 years throughout the United States and Canada developing an impressive repertoire of productions. Recent engagements include The Cunning Little Vixen for the Cape Town Opera; Lucia di Lamermoor for the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, L'Impressions de Pelleas in Tel Aviv, La Traviata for the Jacksonville Symphony; L'elisir d'amore for Cleveland Opera; The Tales of Hoffmann and Lucia di Lammermoor for Indianapolis Opera. Mr. Major is in his 18th year on the faculty of the University of Michigan where he oversees the Opera Program, both teaching and directing. Recent productions at the University of Michigan include, Armide, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Eugene Onegin, L'Amico Fritz, and Postcard from Morocco. He continues to be a stage director and faculty member with the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, where he has directed annually since 1993. Mr. Major currently resides in Ann Arbor, MI.
Pamela McConnell
Viola/Bergonzi String Quartet
Pamela McConnell (Professor of Viola at the University of Miami, Florida), is recognized as a concert violist, an adjudicator and master teacher. She has recently gained notoriety as a result of her arrangements for String quartet of the much loved orchestral works, Saint Seans' Carnival of the Animals, and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. She has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout North and South America, Europe, South Africa, Australia, Japan, and Korea, and in the United States at such prestigious venues as the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the Gardner Museum of Boston, the Free Library of Philadelphia, Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh, and Kleinhans Hall in Buffalo. She has been a member of the faculties of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the State University of New York at Buffalo, where, as a member of the Rowe Quartet, she shared a Peabody Award. McConnell serves as violist in the Bergonzi String Quartet, the quartet, in residence at the University of Miami Frost School of Music in Coral Gables, Florida, the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Upper Peninsula Michigan, Music Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut, Rocky Mountain Music Conservatory in Colorado. She has also been a resident faculty performer at Sewanee Summer Music Center in Tennessee and Bowdoin Music Festival in Maine. She serves as Coordinator of String Chamber Music at the University of Miami. She is Founder and Director of The University of Miami String Academy, a preparatory department at the Frost School of Music. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University and an M.M. degree from the University of Texas at Austin, studying under such luminaries as Walter Trampler, Leonard Shure, George Neikrug, and Andor Toth. Ms. McConnell can be heard on the Orion, Fleur de son, Naxos, Living Artist, Audiofon, and Centaur labels.
Joseph Mechavich
Conductor/La Traviata
Praised as a conductor of "authority and warmth" and known for his thoughtful and idiomatic interpretations, Joseph Mechavich is one of North America's foremost conductors. Recently Maestro Mechavich was named Principal Conductor and Music Director for Kentucky Opera where he has led their productions of Werther, Of Mice and Men, Il trovatore and The Pearl Fishers. He has conducted Madama Butterfly for New York City Opera, Porgy and Bess for Deutsche Oper Berlin, Il barbiere di Siviglia for The Washington National Opera, and Cendrillon for the Aspen Music Festival. Maestro Mechavich has also paced productions for Utah Opera, Dayton Opera, Opera Birmingham, Tulsa Opera, Lake George Opera Festival, Fargo-Moorhead Opera and Virginia Opera. Equally at home on the concert stage as in the opera pit, Maestro Mechavich has appeared with the Orlando Philharmonic, Hartford Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Waterbury Symphony, Virginia Symphony and Sarasota Orchestra. Future engagements include L'elisir d'amore and Madama Butterfly for Kentucky Opera and La fille du regiment for Dayton Opera.
A native of Long Lake, Minnesota, Joseph Mechavich studied at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the Yale University School of Music. Maestro Mechavich has held a variety of positions such as serving as Principal Conductor of Opera Birmingham for six seasons, cover conductor for The Santa Fe Opera for four seasons, Director of Music for Orlando Opera and Assistant Conductor for The Minnesota Opera.
Lucy Thrasher
ROA Program Director
Soprano Lucy Thrasher has performed throughout the Upper Midwest as soloist in opera, oratorio, recital and symphonic works. Favorite opera roles include Susanna (Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro), Musetta (Puccini's La Boheme), Gretel (Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel) and the title role in Lehar's The Merry Widow. She is assistant professor of voice and opera workshop at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN and since 1998 has also been the Director of the Resident Opera Artist Program at the Pine Mountain Music Festival. At PMMF, Lucy has been heard as Susanna and Musetta, and as soloist in Sibelius' Luonnotar with the Pine Mountain Symphony. Recently Lucy has sung the roles of Zerlina and Frasquita with the Fargo-Moorhead Opera, and appeared as soprano soloist in Mahler Symphony #4 with the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony.
Stas Venglevski
Bayan/Tango
His brilliant artistry, dazzling technical command, and sensitivity have brought "Stas" Venglevski increasing acclaim as a virtuoso of the bayan. Stas' varied repertoire includes a broad range of classical, contemporary and ethnic music plus original compositions.
Two-time first prize winner of bayan competition in his homeland, he graduated from the Russian Academy of Music in Moscow where he received his Master Degree in Music under the tutelage of famed Russian bayanist, Friedrich Lips. In 1992 he immigrated to the U.S., obtained his citizenship, and lives in Brookfield, WI.
He has toured extensively as a soloist throughout the former Soviet Union, Canada, Europe, and the U.S. including performances with Doc Severinsen, the late Steve Allen, Garrison Keillor on the Prairie Home Companion Show, and various symphony orchestras. Performances include the world premiere of Concerto No. 2 by Anthony Galla-Rini as well as several world premieres of music composed specifically for him. Stas is a regular participant of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's Arts in Community Education Program; has done television commercials and theatre productions; produced 11 recordings including transcription of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite for bayan, and original compositions. Additionally, he has published multiple books of original compositions. He is past president of the Accordionists & Teachers Guild International.
Suzanne Young
Costume Designer/La Traviata
Born in England, Suzanne Young trained as a costumer at the Wimbledon School of Art and Design. She spent a number of years in London working extensively for television, film and stage after which she continued her career in Boston, MA, where she designed "Madama Butterfly" and "The Barber of Seville" for Sarah Caldwell's Opera Company of Boston, Wagner's "Ring Cycle" and "Ariadne Auf Naxos" for John Balme's Boston Lyric Opera, "Hansel and Gretel" for The Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, "Albert Herring" for The University of Connecticut, and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" for Boston University among other productions.
Suzanne now resides in Ann Arbor, MI where she designed the Civic Theatre's "The Merchant of Venice", Ann Arbor Dance Works' site-specific dances including "Heathdale Celebration", "In The Garden", and "Mapping The River" for choreographer Jessica Fogel, "Young Mozart" for the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Jeff Duncan director, and numerous productions for the Wild Swan Theatre including "A Christmas Carol", "Along the Tracks", "Twelfth Night" and "The Wizard of Oz": Director Hilary Cohen. She is currently in the process of designing the costumes for the 100th anniversary celebration of the University of Michigan's dance department.