Ravinia Steans Music Institute 2019

RAVINIA’S STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE 31 former Visiting Associate Professor of Voice at Rutgers University and remains on the voice faculty of Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music. Since 2001 he has maintained a private voice studio in New York City where his students continue to excel and have been chosen for young artist programs including Chautauqua Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Ashlawn-Highland Opera Festival, Sarasota Opera, Utah Festival Opera, Santa Fe Opera Apprenticeship Program, Ohio Light Opera, Sarasota and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program. His students are past winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Councils auditions as well as numerous competitions in the United States and Europe. He has given masterclasses through the United States, Europe and the Middle East. Bass-baritone Mark Schnaible has sung with Oper Leipzig, Theater Lübeck, Bergen National Opera, Polish National Opera, Athens Megaron Theater, Wien Modern, Zürich Opera, Choregies d’Orange Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and with such notable conductors as Bertrand de Billy, Edo de Waart, Christoph Eschenbach, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson and Franz Welser-Möst. He holds an honorary Doctor of Music degree for his contributions to performance and teaching. Mark Schnaible lives in New York City with his wife Patricia and their miniature Havanese Panda. Melissa Wegner , Career Development Melissa Wegner joined the artistic staff of the Metropolitan Opera in 2011 and currently serves as Executive Director of the National Council Auditions (MONC). Additionally, she hears artists in stage and screening auditions at the Met and is responsible for casting the Met’s New Opera Commissions workshops. Ms. Wegner has adjudicated the Belvedere Competition, the SAI Vocal Competition, the McCammon Voice Competition and this summer she judges the inaugural Nicola Martinucci Competition and the Prague Summer Nights Voice Competition Finals. Ms. Wegner has been visiting faculty for Bard College’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, and is a frequent guest speaker at conservatories, universities and summer festivals. She worked at New York City Opera as a Supertitles Associate and continued this work on a freelance basis with organizations including Carnegie Hall, BAM, Lincoln Center, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Wegner is a member of Families of FANAWNY, which supports the orphanage in Colombia from which she was adopted. She is a Trustee of the Foundation Board of SUNY Potsdam, an Advisory Board Member of the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and a founding member of its Vocal Arts Program Alumni Association. Susan Youens , Scholar SusanYouens, who received her Ph.D. fromHarvard University in 1976, is the J.W. Van Gorkom Professor of Music at the University of Notre Dame, where she has taught since 1984. She is the author of eight books on German song—Retracing a Winter’s Journey: Schubert’s Winterreise (Cornell UP, 1991), Schubert’s poets and the making of lieder (Cambridge UP, 1996), Franz Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (Cambridge UP, 1992), Hugo Wolf: The Vocal Music (Princeton UP, 1992), Hugo Wolf and his Mörike Songs (Cambridge UP, 2001), Heinrich Heine and the Lied (Cambridge UP, 2007), and Schubert, Müller, and Die schöne Müllerin (Cambridge UP, 1997)—as well as over 50 scholarly articles. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Humboldt Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Humanities Center, and has taught at the Aldeburgh and Bard Festivals, among others. She has delivered lectures in Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, England, and Ireland—most recently for the Oxford Lieder Festival in October 2014—and she regularly writes program notes for song recitals at Carnegie Hall. She is currently working on A Social History of the Lied. Jonathan Gmeinder Jonathan Gmeinder is a newly Chicago based pianist from Hartland, WI. He recently completed his second year as a Studio artist and staff pianist at Houston Grand Opera where he worked as a coach on La bohème, Don Giovanni, Les pêcheurs de perles, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Norma, La traviata, and the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The House Without a Christmas Tree. Previously Jonathan worked as a piano fellow at the Juilliard School in their opera department, as well as a coach at the Manhattan School of Music where he earned his master of music degree in vocal accompanying under the tutelage of Warren Jones. He also enjoyed two summers at the Aspen opera center, where in 2017 he had the pleasure of coaching the workshop production of pop star Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian. Art song has always been at the core of Jonathan’s piano playing life. During his school years he performed dozens of recitals with his colleagues and continued this as a freelancer in New York and as a Studio artist in Houston. Daniel Gerzenberg Daniel Gerzenberg is a German-Russian-Jewish artist based in Berlin. In 2009, he began his international career, forming a successful piano duo with his brother Anton Gerzenberg, consequently appearing at major festivals and venues such as Progetto Martha Argerich, Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival and Klavierfestival Ruhr, National Concert Hall Taipei, Auditorio Bolzano, Philharmonie im Gasteig Munich, Philharmonie Essen and Laeiszhalle Hamburg. Alongside his professional career as a musician, Daniel is a professional poet, award-winning translator, actor and recitator; he speaks 6 languages, has published two books, and is currently professor of poetry at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. In 2016, he began his studies of song accompaniment under the tutelage of Professor Wolfram Rieger at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin. He has quickly established a reputation as an accomplished lied pianist, having won the Prix de Lied at the 9th Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Voice-Piano Competition with soprano Sophia Burgos, as well as winning second prize at the International Song Competition Franz Schubert and Modern Music. This season, he performs at the Pierre-Boulez Saal, Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, as well as engagements at Konzerthaus Berlin, and a solo debut with Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra playing Shostakovich Second Piano Concerto. Nikolay Verevkin Collaborative pianist Dr. Nikolay Verevkin (Chisinau, Moldova) returns for his fourth season at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. He has appeared in opera and concert productions with Music Academy of the West, Pittsburgh Opera, Saratoga Opera, The Bohemians, SongFest, the Julliard School, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and Toronto Summer Music Festival. Recently relocated to New York City, Verevkin currently serves as a staff pianist at the Juilliard School and Mannes School of Music at The New School. Highlights from this season include concert performances with the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) and Carnegie Hall City Wide Concert Series. Previously, Verevkin was a visiting asssiant professor and postdoctoral scholar at the IU RSMI SINGERS COLLABORATING PIANISTS RSMI SINGERS FACULTY