Ravinia 2019, Issue 5, Week 10

TIFFANY CHOE, soprano Soprano Tiffany Choe was born and raised in Southern California and is currently a fellow at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute (RSMI). She is pursuing a Master of Music at Indiana Univer- sity under the tutelage of Heidi Grant Murphy. In March, Choe won an encouragement award in the Southeast Region of the 2019 Metropoli- tan Opera National Council Auditions. She was most recently seen in Indiana University’s pro- duction of Bernstein’s Mass. During her time at Indiana University, she has performed as Con- stance in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, Rosalia in West Side Story, and Laoula in Chab- rier’s L’étoile . She has also been involved in many productions at Indiana University as an opera chorus member. SHIRA BEN DAVID, soprano Israeli soprano Shira Ben David graduated with a master’s degree from the conservatory of mu- sic at Brooklyn College in 2018 and is currently a fellow at RSMI. While pursuing her degrees, Ben David performed in such roles as Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute , Valentina in John Musto’s Later the same evening , Milica in the ASHLEY DIXON, mezzo-soprano A 2018 winner of the Metropolitan Opera Na- tional Council Auditions and currently a fellow at RSMI, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon is also a second-year Adler Fellow at San Francisco Op- era and made her company main-stage debut this past fall in Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life as a First-Class Angel. This year she will be per- forming the roles of Mércèdes in Bizet’s Carmen , Third Wood Sprite in Dvořák’s Rusalka , the Ital- ian Singer in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut , and the Sandman in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel on its the stage. While a participant in SFO’s Merola Program in 2017, Dixon sang the role of Popova in Walton’s The Bear and concluded the season singing an aria from Massenet’s Cendril- lon on the Merola Grand Finale concert. She has also sung La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium with the Merola Program, Mrs. Splinters in Copland’s The Tender Land with Michigan Opera Theater, and Flora in Verdi’s La traviata with Des Moines Metro Opera, where she made her professional debut. Dixon holds an MM from the Universi- ty of Michigan and a BM from Louisiana State University. KEVIN MURPHY, piano New York native Kevin Murphy studied piano performance at Indiana University under Men- ahem Pressler and James Tocco, completing a Bachelor of Music, and later studied piano ac- companiment at the Curtis Institute, earning a master’s degree. In 1992 he was invited to be the first pianist to participate in the Lindemann Young Artist Program of the Metropolitan Op- era, where he was an assistant conductor from the following year until 2006, when he was named director of musical studies for the Paris National Opera. Murphy has played harpsichord continuo with the Metropolitan Opera Orches- tra in productions of Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Mozart’s Così fan tutte , Le nozze di Figaro , Idomeneo , La clemenza di Tito , and Don Giovan- ni (several of which he has also performed at Ra- vinia), and traveled with the company on tour to Japan, where he has played and been a musical assistant for the Seiji Ozawa Opera Project. He also regularly collaborates with such artists as Michelle DeYoung, Gary Lakes, Kathleen Bat- tle, Nathan Gunn, Bryn Terfel, Cecilia Bartoli, Frederica von Stade, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming, Gerald Finley, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Pinchas Zukerman. Murphy has been a vocal coach at San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, the International Vocal Arts Institute, Glim- merglass Opera, Tanglewood, and The Juilliard School; an opera coach for the Canadian Opera Company and Netherlands Opera; and a regular adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera Nation- al Council Auditions. He was director of music administration for New York City Opera from 2008 until 2011, when he joined the faculty of Indiana University as professor of practice and head opera coach, and in 2013 he was appoint- ed artistic consultant of the Tucson Desert Song Festival. This is Kevin Murphy’s 10th season in performance at Ravinia, where he first appeared in 2004, and his eighth year as director of Ravin- ia’s Steans Music Institute Program for Singers. New York premiere of Ana Socolovic’s Svadba , Giunia in Mozart’s Lucio Silla , and Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro . In 2018, she appeared as La Fée in Massenet’s Cendrillion at the Summer Opera Institute in Tel Aviv, and in 2017 she portrayed Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia with Norwegian National Opera as a participant in the Lidal North Opera Program. This season, Ben David was a recipient of the Israel Vocal Arts Institute Buchholz Prize and the Ronnen Foundation’s scholarship, as well as a participant in the Eva & Marc Stern SongFest– LA Opera Fellowship Program, where she per- formed in several concerts and master classes. RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 5 – AUGUST 11, 2019 94