Voice Faculty

Born in Belgium, pianist and conductor Kevin Class has enjoyed much success as a soloist in many of the world’s major musical centers.  Since his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 19, he has regularly performed in venues such as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Musikverein and Geneva’s Victoria Hall.  Following several seasons of annual performances in The Netherlands and Belgium, including the complete piano sonatas of Schubert in Amsterdam in 1997, the Belgian government named Kevin a Fellow of the Flemish Community in 1998.

Kevin Class most recently served on the Opera Studies faculty of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music where he was Music Director and Conductor for Martina Arroyo’s Advanced Opera Program.  Prior to that, Kevin spent four seasons as Resident Conductor and Guest Music Director of the Illinois Opera Theatre at the University of Illinois where he conducted numerous productions ranging from the Da Ponte operas of Mozart’s to French Grand Opera.  As conductor of the Theatre’s Workshop productions, Class presided over performances of a series of American operas including Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, Hugo Weisgall’s Six Characters in Search of an Author and Russell Smith’s Unicorn in the Garden.  With more than 40 operas in his active repertoire, conducting activities have found him on the podium at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and the National Opera Studio in London, the National Opera Theatre La Monnaie in Brussels.  In orchestral repertoire he has appeared in front of the Chicago Youth Symphony, Northern Illinois Philharmonic, Peabody Conservatory Orchestra, the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, and as a resident conductor of the Illinois New Music Ensemble.  He has served as assistant conductor for productions of Rigoletto and La Cenerentola for Utah Festival Opera, and as a Principal Guest Conductor for Opera Illinois, he recently conducted Puccini’s Il Trittico to critical and audience acclaim.

FULL BIO: Kevin Class.pdf

Ms. DiSimone has sung at opera houses in America including Glimmerglass Opera, Sarasota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera and Opera Boston, New York Grand Opera, Texas Opera Theater and Des Moines Metro Opera  as well as opera houses in Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic.  She made her Carnegie Hall debut as Fenena in Verdi’s Nabucco and returned for performances of Handel, Mozart, Beethoven and Mascagni.  A finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions her repertoire includes most of the standard mezzo repertoire as well as Wagner, Strauss and contemporary works by Harbison and most recently, Elizabeth Proctor in Ward’s The Crucible. She has sung as a soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Shreveport Symphony and Hartford Symphony.  She has been on the faculty of Clark University, Wake Forest University and the Berkshire Choral Festival.

MP3 Music Samples:

• Va, laisse couler mes larmes From "Werther" by Massenet.

• Das verlassene Mägdlein by Hugo Wolf.

• Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer performed with orchestra "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht."

FULL BIO: Lorraine Disimone

Research/Creative Activity 2006: Lorraine Disimone

Carroll Freeman began performing professionally as a child with Bernstein and New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, NBC and CBS-TV.  His European debut at the Edinburgh Festival in The Postman Always Rings Twice, repeated his success in its world premiere with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.  His Ottavio in Sellars’ Don Giovanni was seen worldwide and on PBS-TV, and live in New York, Vienna, and Paris.  He performed at Tokyo’s Nissei Theater in the Japanese premiere of Joruri.  His CD H.M.S. Gilbert & Sullivan was praised by CD Review.  Winner of the NOI Award given by Beverly Sills and Harold Prince, he performed with New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Baltimore Opera, San Diego Opera, Florida Grand Opera, New Orleans Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Michigan Opera Theater.  He soloed with Dallas Symphony, Saint Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony, National Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall.  A past Artistic Director of Mississippi Opera and Opera in the Ozarks, and a Co-Director of Des Moines Metro Opera apprentice program, he stage-directed for Knoxville Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Nashville Opera, Mobile Opera, Tulsa Opera, Mississippi Opera, and Opera Aegean (Athens, Greece).

FULL BIO: CarrollFreeman.pdf

International leading soprano CECILY NALL has appeared throughout the United States with the San Francisco Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Baltimore Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Memphis, Indianapolis Opera, West Palm Beach Opera, Utah Opera, and Florentine Opera, among others. In Europe, Ms. Nall was engaged as a principal artist with the Stadttheater Aachen and Staatstheater Darmstadt, and appeared as a guest artist with numerous German theaters including Leipzig, Dortmund, Mannheimn, Hannover, Wiesbaden, Wuerzburg,and Bielefeld, to name a few. Additional international appearances have included performances as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Festival Dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, and as Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile. From 2004-2007, Ms. Nall was Assistant Professor of Voice at the College of Music, Florida State University. While there, she performed several solo and collaborative recitals at the College of Music, and appeared as soloist with the Tallahassee Community Chorus and the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra. Cecily Nall was Artist-in-Residence at the Musical Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio from 1997-2004.

FULL BIO: CecilyNall.pdf

Tenor Andrew Skoog recently performed Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and in 2006, reprised the work in his International debut with the Bergen Philharmonic in Bergen, Norway.  He made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall in Handel’s Messiah with the Brooklyn Philharmonic and has also performed with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall.  Other recent orchestral credits include the Minnesota Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Toledo Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Shreveport Symphony, Tulsa Symphony, and Baton Rouge Symphony.  His made his operatic debut with the Lyric Opera of San Antonio as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.  A regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and the Dallas Opera Career Development Grant Auditions, his operatic credits include such roles as Sam Polk in Susannah, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Pong in Turandot, Camille in The Merry Widow, as well as roles in Carmen, The Pirates of Penzance, Rita, Werther, Savitri, L’Enfant et Les Sortileges, and The Love for Three Oranges. 

MP3 Music Samples:

• Olim lacus colueram from Carmina Burana
• Not While I'm Around from Sweeny Todd by Stephen Sondheim

FULL BIO: Andrew Skoog

Research/Creative Activity 2006: AndrewSkoog

Stephens made her professional debut with the Graz Opera, Austria where she earned critical acclaim for both her vocal refinement and finesse as well as her genuineness on stage. She has appeared on Austrian National Radio and has charmed audiences with her performances in regional opera companies throughout the United States including representative performances in roles such as Cio-cio san (Madame Butterfly), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Countess (The Marriage of Figaro), Marguerite (Faust) Gilda (Rigoletto) and Hanna (The Merry Widow). Demonstrating a singular versatility, Ms. Bennett Stephens’ growing list of operetta credits include The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance, Yeomen of the Guard and Iolanthe. She was praised in the midwest premier of Offenbach’s Christopher Columbus as “a lady of superb voice” - Columbus Dispatch. Her most recent Columbus Light Opera acclaim accompanied her performance of Rose Maybud (Ruddigore) in which she was credited for leading the ensemble in ‘vocal strength and beauty’ as well as ‘exquisite diction’. Among her competition credits are the prestigious International Belvedere Competition in Vienna, Austria. and the nationally renowned Opera Columbus Competition. Marjorie was recently heard at Steinway Hall in New York City where she was praised for her ‘rich, sensitive, and magical’ performances of the hauntingly beautiful Edvard Grieg song cycle "Haugtussa" sung in Norwegian and received similar recognition for her performance of Libby Larsen songs at the National Women in Music Conference. She has just completed a successful tour of Russia where she won accolades for her concert performances and master classes at the Moscow Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Ms. Bennett Stephens maintains a busy schedule as an oratorio soloist as well. Her students are singing professionally and teaching at major universities throughout the United States. Most recent student competition accomplishments include first place in Opera Birmingham (role of Gilda in Rigoletto), NATSAA Mid-South Regional winner to compete this July for the national title, National Opera Association Finalist, Orpheus finalist, NATS Mid-South Regional winners. Stephens works closely with the Knoxville Opera Studio of young singers. She has held similar positions at The Ohio State University, Ohio University, Capital University, and Kenyon College. Before moving to Knoxville in 2001 Marjorie was chair of the voice area and head of the graduate vocal pedagogy program at Ohio University while serving as president of the Ohio chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Research/Creative Activity 2006: Marjorie Stephens

One of the most active bass-baritones in the U.S., Mr. Wentzel has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, Theatre of St. Louis, Florida Grand Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, San Diego Opera, and Washington Opera, in such roles as Don Giovanni, Leporello, Figaro, Basilio, Colline, Méphistophélès, Escamillo, Olin Blitch, and Banquo. A popular concert singer and recitalist, he appears regularly with major symphony orchestras including the Boston Symphony and the National Symphony. During the summer of 2006 Mr. Wentzel appeared in the world premier of Stephen Hartke's The Greater Good at Glimmerglass Opera. The production has been recorded on the Naxos Era label. He also recorded Berlioz' L'Enfance du Christ with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony on the Decca label. Mr. Wentzel's other recordings include the Dvorák Te Deum with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on the Koss label, and the role of Godoy in Menotti's Goya, recorded live at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, on the Nuova Era label. His performance of Shojo in the world premiere of Minoru Miki's Joruri with Opera Theatre of St. Louis is available on Videodisc and VHS.  He is also the official "Anthem Man" of the University of Tennessee VOLS football games.

MP3 Music Samples:

• Word Like Fire
• Lord God of Abraham

FULL BIO: Andrew Wentzel

Research/Creative Activity 2006: AndrewWentzel