Faculty
About Victor Benedetti
(Stage Craft)
Baritone Victor Benedetti has quickly become known around the country
as a performer who combines his vocal gifts with an innate stage presence that enables
him to bring characters of all types to life. Mr. Benedetti made his debut with
New York City Opera in the title role of Don Giovanni, a performance that awarded
him New York City Opera's Debut Artist of the Year Award. He has also performed
with New York City Opera as Escamillo in Carmen, Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Papageno
in The Magic Flute, Father in Hansel und Gretel, Captain in HMS Pinafore, Slim in
Of Mice and Men, and a reprisal of the title role of Don Giovanni. With Washington
Opera, he has appeared as McLean in Susannah, Nardo in La Finta Giardiniera, Slim
in Of Mice and Men, John Proctor in The Crucible, and John Sorel in The Consul.
With the Lyric Opera of Chicago, he has performed Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale,
Grech in Fedora, and Guglielmo in Cosi fan Tutte.
Already this season, engagements have included the Father in Hansel & Gretel
with Arizona Opera, Slim in Of Mice & Men with Florentine Opera, Escamillo in
Carmen with the Singapore Lyric Opera, and most recently, a return to Nashville
Opera as Marcello in La Boheme. Upcoming engagements include a return to Opera Grand
Rapids as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro and a debut with Anchorage Opera as Renato
in Un Ballo in Maschera.
He recently made a number of debuts, with Fort Worth Opera as the Count in Le Nozze
di Figaro, with Opera Grand Rapids as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, with Utah Opera
as Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, with Nashville Opera as Zurga in The
Pearlfishers, and his first Germont in La Traviata with Anton Coppola. He also created
the leading role of Sandy Lincoln in the world premiere of Bruce Saylor's The Scrimshaw
Violin in New York City. Additional previous engagements have also included Enrico
in Lucia di Lammermoor with Florida Grand Opera, Marcello in La Boheme with Minnesota
Opera, and Silvio in I Pagliacci with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. He is a favorite
at The Opera Festival of New Jersey where he debuted as the title role in Don Giovanni,
and went on to perform Ford in Falstaff, and the title role in Dallapiccola's Il
Prigioniero.
Also an active concert artist, Mr. Benedetti has performed the baritone solos in
Brahms' Requiem, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, and Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony.
He performed a concert of Mozart works with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a
Rossini Gala with the Ravinia Festival. Recent concert engagements have included
his Carnegie Hall debut in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and Handel's Messiah, and Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony with the Omaha Symphony.
Mr. Benedetti received a Bachelor and Master of Music from Northwestern University
and then joined the prestigious Lyric Opera Center for American Artists of the Lyric
Opera of Chicago. There he performed numerous roles and received national and international
praise for his creation of the title role in the world premiere of Bruce Saylor's
operatic adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending. He was a competition
winner of the Liederkrantz Foundation, George London Foundation Awards, received
First Prize with the Sullivan Foundation, and was a finalist for the Placido Domingo
Operalia in Tokyo.
About Elaine Bonazzi
(Vocal Instruction & New Music)
Elaine Bonazzi's appearances in opera, oratorio, and recitals have been acclaimed
in North America, South America, and Europe for their profound characerizations
and superlative vocalism. She has appeared with many leading opera companies, orchestras,
and music festivals in the U.S. and abroad, including the Metropolitan Opera- "Mini
Met", New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Netherlands Opera, the New York Philharmonic,
the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony,and the Spoleto,
Venice, Wolf Trap, and Mostly Mozart festivals, working with such conductors as
Bernstein, Boulez, Stokowski, Edo deWaart, and Maazel. Elaine Bonazzi has presented
more operatic premieres than any other living American singer; she has been personally
selected by eminent composers, including Stravinsky, Copland, Carter, Sondheim,
Argento, Chavez, Menotti, Rorem and Thomson to perform their works.She sang the
title role in the Emmy Award winning "Trial of Mary Lincoln" by Thomas Pasatieri
on PBS-TV. Before coming to Stony Brook, Ms. Bonazzi taught at Peabody Institute
of Music, and she has presented master classes all over the world. She can be heard
on more than 25 recordings on the Columbia, CRI, Vox Candide, Vanguard and Nonesuch
labels. Elaine Bonazzi is a frequent judge in international competitions.
(Vocal Instruction, European Career Management)
Described by Renée Fleming as "simply glorious", Helena Doese has enjoyed a career
that has spanned 30 years at the world's most prominent opera houses. After completing
her early vocal and stage training in Göteborg and Salzburg, Helena Döse was put
under contract with the Göteborg Opera House at the age of 24. She was scheduled
to make her debut in the autumn of 1971 as Mimi in Puccini's Bohème, but a decisive
event changed the trajectory of her career. In September of the same year, Verdi's
Aida was being staged as part of the 350th anniversary celebration in the
city of Göteborg, and Helena had been rehearsing the title role as an understudy
for Birgit Nilsson who remained one of her mentors throughout her life. She made
such a favourable impression on the opera management that it was decided to mount
an unscheduled performance featuring the young débutante in the leading role. On
that memorable night, nearly 8 000 people were able to watch a new star being born.
Since then Helena Döse has been engaged by numerous opera houses like Gothenburg,
the Royal Opera House, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Berne, Zurich, Covent Garden,
Sydney, Melbourne, Paris, Marseilles, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, Vienna,
San Francisco, Houston, Toronto, Buenos Aires and Sao Paolo. In recent years, she
has dedicated herself to the education and furthering of young singers through her
work at the Dietrich Eberhard Gross Artists Agency in Frankfurt, Germany, and through
masterclasses, outreach and regular guest appearances.
About Miah Im
(Principal Coach)
Miah Im, born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, is the Principal Coach of the Maryland Opera
Studio at the University of Maryland School of Music. She is the winner of several
awards and fellowships and was the inaugural recipient of the Marilyn Horne Foundation
Award for Excellence in Vocal Accompanying. Ms. Im had the pleasure and honour of
performing on the 9th annual Marilyn Horne Foundation Gala. Under the auspices of
the Foundation, Ms. Horne selected Ms. Im as a recitalist in her prestigious "On
Wings of Song" series at the Kosciuszko Foundation, marking Ms. Im's New York recital
debut. Most recently, Ms. Im was the principal coach for the world premiere opera
of CLARA by Robert Convery and Kathleen Cahill. In Fall 2003, she prepared both
Cosi fan Tutte and Xerxes for the Maryland Opera Studio. In addition, Ms. Im was
the children's chorus master for La Bohème , and the chorus master for Béatrice
and Bénédict at the Aspen Music Festival. Prior to joining the faculty at the University
of Maryland, Ms. Im was on the Vocal Arts Faculty at the Juilliard School as a vocal
coach and pianist where she also collaborated on the world premiere of Stephen Paulus'
opera Heloise and Abelard .
Upon graduation from the University of Michigan, Ms. Im was appointed the youngest
Music Director of the San Diego Opera Young Artists Ensemble Program. Her performances
have been featured on WQXR in New York City, NPR and on the CBC radio in conjunction
with the 32nd CBC Radio National Competition for Young Performers. She can also
be heard on the documentary The Education of an Opera Singer , and excerpts of Ms.
Im's performances have been presented on CBS Sunday Morning . Ms. Im has participated
in the vocal accompanying program at the Music Academy of the West and at the Aspen
Opera Theater Center and has worked with notable conductors such as Harry Bickett,
James Conlon, Jahja Ling, Eduardo Müller, Julius Rudel, Michael Stern and David
Zinman.
Miah Im received her advanced degrees in piano performance, accompanying and chamber
music, and Italian from the University of Michigan. Her principal teachers were
Martin Katz, Warren Jones and Louis Nagel. Ms. Im currently resides in Maryland
with her husband, cellist Michael Mermagen. This summer, she returns to the Aspen
Music Festival as a faculty member in the Aspen Opera Theater Center.
About Patricia Miller (Vocal Instruction)
Patricia Miller, Mezzo-Soprano, Director of Vocal Studies
Status: full-time, PMI professor, Artist-in-Residence
Teaching Positions: Faculty Producer of the Opera Workshop and Opera Theater Ensembles,
Vocal Literature & Performance Seminar for Singers and Accompanists I &
II, Private Music Instruction in Voice
B.M. Boston University, M.M. New England Conservatory, Artist's Diploma, Accademia
di Santa Cecilia, Fulbright Scholar, Rome, Italy; advanced studies, Artist's Certificate,
Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria. International opera, concert/recording artist, recitalist
and master class clinician, Europe, North & South America, Russia, Japan and
Korea. Consultant for the Virginia Commission for the Arts and National Endowment
of the Arts. Please view Prof. Miller's
full biography.
FRENCH Language Instruction
Pilates Instruction