|
Administration/Staff
Bruno Casolari
Executive Director and Co-Founder
In 1997 Bruno met Monsignor Donald
Sakano, and together they created a plan to develop a music program for
the Highbridge Community of the South Bronx; and so Highbridge Voices
was born. Bruno served as the first Executive and Music Director of
Highbridge Voices from 1998 to 2003. Now in 2008, Bruno Casolari returns
to Highbridge Voices to usher the organization into its second decade of
service to the children of the Highbridge community of the South Bronx.
Trained as a music educator at the Manhattan School of Music, Bruno also
earned a graduate degree in Nonprofit Management from New School
University in 2003. He has worked with nonprofit organizations with
diverse missions in diverse settings – from creating educational
opportunities for minority youth in Seattle to building housing in post
tsunami Sri Lanka.
“Excellence is not an accident; it is a choice…and each of us has the
power to choose excellence, if someone shows us how.” This sentiment
forms the basis of Bruno Casolari’s personal philosophy, and served as
the basis for much of his work as a musician, educator, and leader.
James Bobick
Program Coordinator and Vocal Chair
James Bobick has had a versatile career, performing roles from Enrico in
Lucia di Lammermoor to Bendrix in Jake Heggie’s End of the
Affair with Seattle Opera. Mr. Bobick has been seen in over
20 roles at New York City Opera, including Kinesias in Adamo’s
Lysistrata, Ping in Puccini’s Turandot,
Faninal in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Masetto in Mozart’s Don
Giovanni, Captain Corcoran in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S.
Pinafore, and St. Brioche in Lehar’s The Merry Widow. He has
also sung in two Live from Lincoln Center telecasts, including
the Emmy-winning broadcast of Puccini’s La Bohème. Mr. Bobick has
appeared as Sharpless, Silvio, and Marcello with Connecticut Opera;
The High Priest (Samson et Dalia) and Angelotti with Opera
Omaha; Angelotti with Opera Pacific; Figaro with Opera
Delaware; Marcello with Baltimore Opera; Enrico and Figaro
with Wichita Grand Opera; Gulglielmo with Dayton and
Portland Operas; Ford, Jack Rance, and Schaunard with Central
City Opera; Schaunard with Fort Worth Opera; Figaro and
Schaunard with Opera Colorado; Escamillo, Sharpless, Marcello,
Enrico, Il Conte, and Figaro with Teatro Lirico d’Europa, and Top
(Tender Land) with the Bard Festival.
James Bobick is regularly praised
for both the quality of his singing and for his acting. When he sang
with Connecticut Opera, Opera News noted that he “was an ideal
Marcello, singing with comic point, emotionally volatile and vocally
splendid in the Act IV duet with [the Rodolfo, Raúl] Melo.” In the New
York Times, Mr. Bobick’s portrayal of Elmer Gantry garnered the mention,
“Many of the vocal performances were impressive, including that of James
Bobick as Elmer.” The Times also praised James for his “burnished sound
and incisive diction” when reviewing his performance as the Gambler in
Jack Beeson’s Hello Out There. When he bowed as Figaro in
Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with Virginia Opera, the
Washington Post singled him out for particular praise: “Among the many
good things about Virginia Opera’s production of Rossini’s
‘Barber of Seville,’ the best was baritone James Bobick as Figaro…Bobick
was a standout in a strongly cast production. He has a fine voice and
his first-act aria ‘Largo al factotum,’ was given a bravura performance.
With his good looks, excellent comic timing and strong stage presence,
he exuded confidence and joie de vivre. It is a Figaro to
remember.”
Mr. Bobick has also had a busy
concert career. At Carnegie Hall, he has been heard in Orff’s Carmina
Burana and Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht with
the Oratorio Society of New York and in 2007 in Mozart’s
Coronation Mass. Around the country, Mr. Bobick has performed
Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s
Magnificat and B-Minor Mass, Handel’s Messiah, Israel in
Egypt and in the title role of Saul, in Haydn’s Lord
Nelson Mass, and in Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio. He
has also been heard internationally in Handel’s Messiah in Prague
with the Prague Symphony; in San Jose, Costa Rica with the San
Jose Symphony in Carmina Burana and Messiah; in Tu
es Petrus in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris; and, in the Fauré
Requiem in Paris, Reims, and Chartres, with the Orchestre
Pasdeloup. Most recently, Mr. Bobick was heard once again at Avery
Fisher Hall in Haydn’s Creation and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony,
at Carnegie Hall in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, at New York City
Opera’s VOX festival in the powerfully received song cycle Soldier
Songs, as Dr. Bloom in John Eaton’s Pumped Fiction, a role he
created, and as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Teatro
Lirico d’Europa. Upcoming, James will be singing performances of
Escamillo across New England and Florida and will return to Avery Fisher
Hall where he will reprise his critically acclaimed performance of
Carmina Burana. Mr. Bobick has been the recipient of a Shoshana
Foundation Award and was a member of the Juilliard Opera Center.
Faculty
Kelly Campbell
Kelly Campbell, vocal instructor, has been performing on the
professional stage since she was 14 years old. She has performed in
featured roles at the distinguished Elgin Theater in Toronto, toured
internationally with Canada’s renowned Opera Atelier (OA), and held a
stage role in the North American Symphony 18 city orchestra tour of
Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery throughout Canada and the United
States. Ms. Campbell co-founded The Vevila Ensemble in 2000, a
two-soprano vocal ensemble that has toured New York, England, and Wales
and recently released a CD, Trust Her Not, in January 2002. She
was a member of the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus for five years,
wherein she gained her love and respect for children’s choral music. A
graduate of the University of Toronto, Ms. Campbell has established a
private voice studio and is in her third year of teaching at Highbridge
Voices.
Erika Rauer
Erika Rauer, vocal instructor, is acclaimed for the rich sound she
brings to both song and operatic literature. As Abigail in Opera
Boston’s The Crucible, the Boston Globe praised her “strikingly
individual timbre” while Bay Windows stated, “…Erika Rauer was lovely to
look at, and to hear, soaring to thrilling high notes with dead-on
accuracy.” Of Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony, the Schenectady
Daily Gazette stated, “Rauer’s dark and sultry voice is perfectly suited
for a modern score and she sang with unbridled passion.” In her three
seasons as a Vocal Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Ms. Rauer sang
Helena in Britten’s A Midsummer Night's Dream, La Chatte,
L’Ecureuil, and Un Pâtre in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges,
and chamber music repertoire ranging from Crumb to Zemlinsky. She
covered Meg in Little Women at Glimmerglass Opera and made her
European debut as Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Snape Proms
Festival in Aldeburgh, England. Recent engagements include Beethoven’s
Ninth Symphony with the Yale Philharmonia and Copland’s
Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson in the Westminster Songfest. Ms.
Rauer received a B.A. from Swarthmore College and an M.M. from Yale
University.
Stephanie Tennill
Stephanie Tennill, vocal instructor, has performed to great acclaim in
diverse venues across the United States. She has sung with the Aspen
Opera Theater Center, Encompass New Opera Theatre, the Manhattan School
of Music Opera Theater, and has performed extensively with Union Avenue
Opera, charming audiences in such roles as Valencienne in The Merry
Widow, Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Clorinda in La
Cenerentola, and the venomous Mrs. McLean in Susannah. She
was featured at Lincoln Center as the Goddess in Johnny Johnson
with the Kurt Weill Foundation, after having been a finalist in their
2002 and 2003 Lotte Lenya Competitions. As a fellowship artist, she was
featured in An Evening of Sondheim with the Aspen Music Festival
where she was hailed by the Denver Post: “Tennill seems to have been
born to perform Broadway and was the evening’s unequivocal star.”
Recent musical theater credits include a 10 month run as Cornelia in the
critically acclaimed American Girls Revue (NYC), Deb in
Hot’N’Cole, as well as The Cabaret Singer in the world premiere of
Glad to be Unhappy, with the renowned dance troupe Dances
Patrelle. She is also active as a cabaret and recital singer and is a
founding member of THE HYREUS DUO, a soprano-piano team dedicated to
exploring, presenting and premiering innovative vocal repertoire as well
as collaborating with living composers. She has taught children and
adults of all ages at the 92nd Street Y, City and County School,
Highbridge Voices, and currently maintains a private voice studio in New
York City as well as Tenafly, NJ where she also conducts Voice and
Acting Master Classes for area high schools. She earned her MM in Voice
at the Manhattan School of Music and she continues her classical studies
with W. Stephen Smith of the Juilliard School.
Amaranta Viera
Amaranta Viera, vocal instructor, a specialist in early and
Baroque music, maintains an active performance schedule in and around
New York City. Ms. Viera has made numerous appearances with One World
Symphony and Ensemble Les Goûts Réunis, has performed at the Amherst
Early Music Festival under the direction of Andrew Lawrence-King, and
has toured as a featured soloist with Piffaro, the Renaissance Band. As
part of the first New York Early Music Celebration she was a featured
soloist with the New York Continuo Collective and with Ensemble Les
Goûts-Réunis. International appearances include a recital of French and
Italian Baroque music under the direction of Paul O'Dette and Jean-Paul
Fouchécourt at the Teatro Municipal in Vila Real, Portugal. Opera
credits include Virtù and Valletto in Monteverdi's L’incoronazione di
Poppea, Urania, Clori and Temor in Torrejón y Velasco's La
Púrpura de la Rosa and Belinda in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.
Ms. Viera’s studies of early repertoire are
complimented by extensive training in various areas of performance
practice, including Baroque gesture, early notation, and ornamentation.
She is a native of New York City, holds a degree in English literature
from Williams College, has studied Historical Performance at the Mannes
College of Music, and is the co-founder of Le Tre Grazie, a new ensemble
dedicated to the exploration and performance of 17th century
Baroque music for women’s voices.
Bryan Vargas
Bryan Vargas, music history instructor, is a graduate of New York
University with a Bachelor of Music degree. He is currently teaching
guitar instruction at the Queens Gateway High School, as well as,
teaching basic music skills to grade school children in the New York
City public school system. He and his six piece Latin jazz band, ¡Ya
Esta!, have performed in such venues as the 2000 Celebrate Brooklyn
Festival and the 1998 Texaco N.Y. Jazz Festival.
.
Terina Westmeyer
Terina Westmeyer, vocal instructor, is a talented emerging classical
singer. Having earned her BM and MM in voice performance and pedagogy
from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, she went on to
complete two years of graduate work in Acting at the Actors Studio Drama
School of New School University. Her interest in new works for the
stage, both opera and theatre, has led her to perform in a number of
original pieces, most recently as Mrs. Moideen in Sikanthini and
Aunt Mary in Hail Mary. Her operatic credits include
Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito for One World Symphony,
Agathe in Der Freischütz for NJ Concert Opera, and La Badessa in
Suor Angelica for Chelsea Opera. In 2007, she was one of three
finalists for the Paul Straney Award. She has also been awarded an
Encouragement Award by the Marian Anderson Prize for Emerging Classical
Artists, the West Virginia NATS Artist Award and the J.E. Thompson Voice
Award. She is the soprano section leader for St. Anastasia’s Roman
Catholic Church in Douglaston, NY. In May of 2008 she will sing Sarah in
Chelsea Opera’s production of The Ballad of Baby Doe.
|
