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taken part in productions of French operas abroad
at the Berlin and Vienna State Operas, Théâtre des
Champs-Elysées, and the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo.
Such record labels as Sony, Deutsche Grammophon,
and Decca—as well as orchestras in Montreal,
Cleveland, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia—
have contracted her as a vocal coach for opera
recordings and performances. A faculty member at
Juilliard since 1999, she also taught at the Curtis
Institute from 2006 to 2012, and since then has
worked with the young singers of the Lindemann
Young Artist Development Program at the Met.
For the past few years, she has been involved
in the summer programs at the Internationale
Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, Germany,
and the Music Academy of the West in Santa
Barbara, California.
Patricia McCaffrey
,
mezzo-soprano
Patricia McCaffrey is currently
on the faculties of the Brooklyn
College Conservatory of Music,
Curtis Institute of Music,
LidalNorth in Oslo, Norway,
Berlin State Opera Studio, New
Israeli Opera Studio, and the
Metropolitan Opera Lindemann
Young Artist Program, and she maintains a private
studio in New York City. Her students sing regularly
at the major opera houses, festivals, and concert
halls of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera
and Lyric Opera of Chicago, and have distinguished
themselves as winners of numerous competitions and
awards, including the Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions, Tucker Foundation Awards, Pope
Foundation Awards, George London Competition,
Marian Anderson Competition, MacAllister
Competition, Aria Awards, and Grammy Awards.
She has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, New York
City Opera, Miami Opera, Zürich Opera, and other
venues around the world.
Gerald Martin Moore
,
voice teacher
Residency made possible by a
gift from Searle to the RSMI
endowment
Gerald Martin Moore is an
internationally renowned singing
teacher and a vocal consultant.
He has worked closely with
Renée Fleming for many years
since first collaborating on the production of Alcina
with William Christie at the Palais Garnier in Paris.
He has worked in such houses as Covent Garden,
La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco,
Opera de Bastille, Champs-Elysees and Chatelet
in Paris as well as the Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh
and Glyndebourne Festivals. Since moving to NYC
in 2008 he has been on the teaching faculty of the
Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann program and is also
on the adjunct faculty at Curtis Institute of Music .
He regularly gives masterclasses at Glyndebourne,
Merola, Washington National Opera, COC in
Toronto, Atelier Lyrique Montreal, LAOpera, and the
Ryan Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago. An authority
on vocal technique, Mr. Moore is a frequent guest
on multiple radio programmes and was honoured
with an hour-long special interview on BBC Radio
3’s Voices, focused particularly on American singers
and child stars. Mr. Moore may currently be heard
as a regular host of the Metropolitan Opera Quiz,
and is also in demand as a judge for prestigious
vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera
regional auditions. He is a frequent recitalist, most
notably with Renée Fleming.
Heidi Grant Murphy
, soprano
A native of Bellingham,
Washington, Heidi Grant
Murphy began vocal studies
while
attending
Western
Washington
and
Indiana
Universities. Her graduate
studies were interrupted when
she was named a winner of the
Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions
and engaged by James Levine to participate in
the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist
Development Program. Today she has established
a reputation not only for her musicianship and
impeccable vocal technique, but also for her warm
personality and generosity of spirit. Heidi has
appeared with many of the world’s finest opera
companies and symphony orchestras. In 2011 she
was appointed to the faculty of Indiana University’s
Jacobs School of Music as an adjunct professor of
practice. She has been a featured guest on NPR’s
Morning Edition
and
All Things Considered,
A&E’s
Breakfast with the Arts
, and BBC Radio 3.
Jay Nordlinger
, Music Critic
Jay Nordlinger is the music
critic of The New Criterion, and
also a senior editor of National
Review. Since the early 2000s,
he has hosted a series of public
interviews with prominent
musicians at the Salzburg
Festival. He does a variety of
podcasts and is the author of
a history of the Nobel Peace Prize and a study of
dictators’ children. A native of Michigan, he has long
lived in New York.
J.J. Penna
, piano and coach
J.J. Penna has performed
extensively with a variety of
eminent singers, including
Kathleen Battle, Harolyn
Blackwell,
Measha
Brueggergosman,
David
Daniels, Denyce Graves, Ying
Huang, Susan Narucki, Roberta
Peters, Florence Quivar, and
Andreas Scholl. He has held fellowships at the
Tanglewood Music Center, Banff Center, Norfolk
Chamber Music Festival, Music Academy of the
West, and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera
Program. He received his training under Martin Katz,
Margo Garrett, and Diane Richardson. Devoted to the
teaching of classical song literature, he has been on
the faculties of the Yale University School of Music,
the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Bowdoin
Festival, and Vancouver International Song Institute.
He currently teaches at Westminster Choir College of
Rider University and the Juilliard School.
Jennifer Ringo
, language and
diction
Residency made possible by a
gift from Searle to the RSMI
endowment
Jennifer Ringo has worked
with the New York City Opera,
Houston Grand Opera, Arizona
Opera, Cincinnati May Festival,
and Aspen Opera Theater, as
well as the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists
Program at the Los Angeles Opera. She has taught
vocal diction at Bard College and the University of
Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. She
has sung leading soprano roles with the San Francisco
Opera, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Grand Théâtre
de Genève, Houston Grand Opera, and the Canadian
Opera Company, among others. She holds degrees
in voice from the University of Iowa and attended
the Juilliard School. Jennifer studied diction with
Nico Castel, Robert Cowart, Janine Reiss, and Pierre
Vallet, and she maintains vocal studios in New York
and Los Angeles.
Melissa Wegner
,
Career Development
Melissa Wegner is the Associate
Director of the Metropolitan
Opera
National
Council
Auditions in addition to
returning as a faculty member
of the Ravinia’s Steans Music
Institute Program for Singers.
Melissa has been a frequent
guest at conservatories, universities, and summer
festivals, lecturing on auditioning, finance, and
careers in the arts. In addition to the district and
regional auditions of the Met’s National Council
Auditions, Melissa has also adjudicated the SAI
Vocal Competition, McCammon Voice Competition,
and Belvedere Competition in South Africa and
Russia. As a soprano, Melissa has performed opera,
concerts, and recitals in the United States and Europe.
She joined New York City Opera as a supertitles
associate and continues this work on a freelance basis
with such organizations as BAM, Carnegie Hall, and
Lincoln Center. Melissa is a member of Families
of FANA WNY, which raises funds to support the
orphanage in Colombia from which she was adopted.
She is an associate trustee of the Foundation Board of
SUNY Potsdam and a member of the advisory board
of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Melissa
holds degrees from Bard College, the Manhattan
School of Music, and the Crane School of Music at
SUNY Potsdam.
SINGERS FACULTY
RSMI