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RAVINIA’S STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE
at all three conservatories in the classroom and on
their German opera productions. During the summer
she coaches German operas at the Santa Fe Opera
and works with its apprentice program. In addition
to her conservatory schedule, Marianne holds the
position of German coach at the Metropolitan
Opera, where she most recently coached Mozart’s
Die Zauberflöte
, R. Strauss’s
Der Rosenkavalier
and
Die Frau ohne Schatten
, and Wagner’s
Der
Ring des Nibelungen
, as well as Berg’s
Wozzeck
and
Wagner’s
Die Meistersinger
under James Levine, to
name a few highlights. At the Met, she also coaches
the young singers of the Lindemann Young Artist
Development Program. Future engagements include
Strauss’s
Salome
in Santa Fe and preparing the
Westminster Symphonic Choir for a performance
of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Berlin
Philharmonic under Simon Rattle.
Helmut Deutsch
,
piano and coach
Helmut Deutsch ranks among
the finest, most successful,
and in-demand song recital
accompanists of the world. He
was born in Vienna, where he
studied at the Conservatory,
the Music Academy, and the
University. He was awarded
the Composition Prize of Vienna in 1965 and
appointed professor at the age of 24. Although he
has performed with leading instrumentalists as a
chamber musician, he has concentrated primarily
on accompanying in song recitals. At the beginning
of his career he worked with the soprano Irmgard
Seefried, but the most important singer of his early
years was Hermann Prey, whom he accompanied
as a permanent partner for 12 years. Subsequently
he has worked with many of the most important
recital singers and played in the world’s major
music centers. His collaborations with Jonas
Kaufmann, Diana Damrau, and Michael Volle are
currently among his most important. Deutsch has
recorded more than 100 CDs. In recent years the
development of young talent has been especially
close to his heart. After his professorship in Vienna
he continued his teaching primarily in Munich at
the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, where he
worked as a professor of song interpretation for
28 years. In addition he is a visiting professor at
various other universities and is sought-after for an
increasing number of master classes in Europe and
the Far East. The young Swiss tenor Mauro Peter
was one of his last students in Munich and has
become one of his favorite recital partners.
Cori Ellison
, dramaturg
Cori Ellison, a leading
creative figure in the opera
world, has served as staff
dramaturg at Glyndebourne
Festival Opera and New
York City Opera. Active in
developing
contemporary
opera, she teaches dramaturgy
for American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist
Development Program and was the first dramaturg
invited to participate in the Yale Institute for Music
Theatre. At New York City Opera she was a curator
of the annual VOX American Opera Showcase and
co-founded and led City Opera’s “Words First”
program for the development of opera librettists.
In addition, she is a sought-after dramaturgical
consultant to numerous composers, librettists, and
commissioners, including Glyndebourne, Canadian
Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Fort Worth Opera,
Pittsburgh Opera, and Beth Morrison Projects. She
is a member of the vocal arts faculty at the Juilliard
School and Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute and
has taught and lectured for schools, performance
venues, and media outlets worldwide. She creates
supertitles for opera companies across the English-
speaking world and helped launch Met Titles, the
Met’s simultaneous translation system. Her English
singing translations include
Hansel and Gretel
(NYCO),
La vestale
(English National Opera)
and Shostakovich’s
Cherry Tree Towers
(Bard
Summerscape). She has often written for the
New
York Times
, and has contributed to books including
the
New Grove Dictionary of Opera
.
John Henes
, Alexander technique
John Henes’s biography appears in the Piano and
Strings Faculty section.
Walter Huff,
piano and vocal coach
Walter Huff is a renowned vocal
coach, conductor, and pianist,
having worked with singers,
choral ensembles, and opera
companies across the United
States and abroad. Maestro
Huff served as longtime chorus
master and coach with Atlanta
Opera until 2017, and has also worked with San
Diego Opera, Washington National Opera, Opéra-
Comique, Spoleto Festival, Indiana University
Opera, Peabody Opera Theater, Tanglewood Music
Center, Brevard Music Center, and many others.
He is currently Professor of Choral Conducting
and Faculty Director of Opera Choruses at Indiana
University, while also maintaining a private
coaching studio in Atlanta. As one of the nation’s
most celebrated opera chorus masters, Mr. Huff
has prepared ensembles for more than one hundred
fifty productions, ranging from the majority of
mainstream opera titles to musical theater and
prominent contemporary works. Mr. Huff has
performed in recital with singers in such venues as
Alice Tully Hall, Town Hall, Merkin Concert Hall,
Spivey Hall, Phillips Collection, and has premiered
vocal works by the likes of Ned Rorem and Stephen
Paulus. Earning degrees from Oberlin and Peabody
Conservatories, Mr. Huff studied piano, conducting,
and voice, while also focusing on collaborative piano
and vocal literature. He is a frequent clinician for
vocal master classes and choral workshops, focusing
on areas of interpretation, audition preparation,
diction, and choral rehearsal techniques.
Susan Manoff
,
piano and vocal coach
Pianist Susan Manoff was born
in New York of Latvian and
German descent. She studied
at the Manhattan School of
Music and at the University of
Oregon. Intensive studies with
Gwendoline Koldofsky in the
art song repertoire led her to
become one of the most sought-after pianists of her
generation. In addition to her interest in the vocal
repertoire, Susan Manoff is a passionate advocate
of chamber music. She performs regularly at major
international festivals and concert halls such as
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Théâtre du Châtelet,
Salle Gaveau, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw,
Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Musikverein,
Oji Hall... Susan Manoff is a regular guest of France
Musique. Musical curiosity and love for theatre
have inspired Susan Manoff’s involvement in the
creation of numerous programmes blending music
and text. Her partners have been Jean Rochefort,
Fabrice Luchini and Marie-Christine Barrault and
she has been directed by Hans Jürgen Syberberg
and Joël Jouanneau. Susan Manoff has recorded
for the labels Alpha Classics, Naïve, Decca, Virgin,
Arion, Valois, Aparte. In 2007 she recorded her first
CD with Sandrine Piau, entitled ‘Evocation’, and a
second recording, « Après un Rêve », was released
in March 2011 (Naïve.) Susan Manoff’s recording
with long term musical partner Nemanja Radulovic
is dedicated to the violin and piano sonatas of
Ludwig van Beethoven (Decca, 2010). Her album,
“La Belle Excentrique”, with soprano Patricia
Petibon, was released in autumn of 2014 (Deutsche
Grammophon). Other recent recordings include «
Néère » (winner of the prestigious Gramophone
Award 2016) with partner Véronique Gens (Alpha
Classics) and the all new « Chimère » with partner
Sandrine Piau (Alpha Classics). Susan Manoff was
assistant chorus director at the Bastille Opera and is
presently a professor at the Conservatoire National
de Musique et de Danse de Paris. In 2011, she was
named Chevalier des Arts et Des Lettres by the
Cultural Ministry of France.
Denise Massé
, French
Residency made possible in part
by the Rhoades Foundation
Trained as a concert pianist,
Denise Massé took an early
interest in opera, working with
Mario Bernardi at the Ottawa
National Arts Center in 1975
and later at Montreal Opera
from 1980 to 1993, when she
was hired as a vocal coach at the Metropolitan
Opera, specializing in French repertoire. Over the
ensuing two decades at the Met, she has worked
with Plácido Domingo, René Pape, Bryn Terfel,
Piotr Beczala, Anna Netrebko, Susan Graham,
Deborah Voigt, Renée Fleming, Stephanie Blythe,
and many others. She has collaborated with the Los
Angeles, Washington, and Santa Fe Operas, and has
RSMI
SINGERS FACULTY