Dean Anthony
Director of Opera
Dean Anthony draws inspiration and expertise from a comprehensive career spanning over 40 years and innumerable turns as performer, director, educator, producer and administrator. Most...
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Dean Anthony draws inspiration and expertise from a comprehensive career spanning over 40 years and innumerable turns as performer, director, educator, producer and administrator. Most recently, Mr. Anthony was named as Producing Director of Knoxville Opera along with his position as Director of Opera, at the Janiec Opera Company of the Brevard Music Center.
Frequently engaged as a stage director, Mr. Anthony’s artistic process is hallmarked by an energetic, gritty, and physical style. His portfolio stretches across the repertoire from Le Nozze di Figaro to Dead Man Walking and includes regular engagements at regional houses across the United States. In 2020, he received the Charles Nelson Reilly American Prize Stage Director Award for his work on Tom Cipullo’s world premiere opera, Mayo. Mr. Anthony’s upcoming and projects include Into the Woods with Annapolis Opera, Gianni Schicchi & Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Tampa, Le Nozze di Figaro with Omaha Opera & Opera Delaware, Sweeney Todd with Opera Tampa, Glory Denied & The Merry Widow with Knoxville Opera, and HMS Pinafore with Pensacola Opera.
A major producer and promoter of new opera works, Mr. Anthony has helped facilitate, create, and develop numerous projects including Glory Denied, Mayo, The Calling, Supper’s Ready, Falling Angel, Zoom “Stop” Bully, Sister Carrie, The Leesburg 15, Homeless, Fleecing the Flock, and Change the World, It Needs It!, a new cabaret with the Kurt Weill Foundation. In collaboration with composer Michael Ching, Mr. Anthony conceived and created the opera Speed Dating Tonight!, which garnered nationwide attention and has been booked for over 120 different productions to date. In 2020, he recreated, produced, and directed, Zoom Speed Dating Tonight!, an online version of the original production presented livestream and produced by multiple Opera Companies and Universities.
Mr. Anthony is currently in his 11th season as Director of Opera with the Janiec Opera Company of the Brevard Music Center. In his time at Brevard, he has produced and directed over 40 productions. Some of the highlights include, Street Scene, Falstaff, Threepenny Opera, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Candide, Madama Butterfly, Sweeney Todd, Turn of the Screw, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Into the Woods, and The Bernstein Mass with Keith Lockhart. A passionate educator, he has shared his insights through a unique movement and acting masterclass series at opera companies, universities, and music festivals the world over.
As a character tenor, Mr. Anthony performed over 100 roles on the operatic stage and garnered acclaim for his keen vocal, dramatic, physical, and acrobatic abilities, earning him the nickname “The Tumbling Tenor.” Some of his most praised portrayals include the roles of Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Little Bat in Susannah, Bardolfo in Falstaff, Beppe in I Pagliacci, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, and Njegus in The Merry Widow. He has graced the stages of companies across the globe from Vancouver Opera to Theater des Westens in Berlin, while frequenting North American venues including L’Opera de Montreal, San Francisco Opera, and New York City Opera, among others. Although retired from the stage, comic acting and narration opportunities have drawn him back once in a while for Frosh in Die Fledermaus and Benoit in La Boheme, Spinelloccio in Gianni Schicchi and Ambrogio in Barber of Seville. Narration’s include Peter and the Wolf, Peer Gynt, Sonnet Number 128 by Kenji Bunch, When Instruments Roam the Earth, and Into the Woods.
Mr. Anthony is also esteemed for numerous television appearances from his celebrated turn as Daniel Buchanan in Francesca Zambello’s Street Scene, to the world premiere of Robert Greenleaf’s Under the Arbor and An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan with The Boston Pops on PBS. He is featured in the Grammy-nominated recording of Amahl and the Night Visitors, produced under the NAXOS label.
Joseph Mechavich
Conductor
Conductor Joseph Mechavich’s passion and commitment to excellence in the art form has helped to forge lasting and career-defining relationships with numerous opera companies, composers...
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Conductor Joseph Mechavich’s passion and commitment to excellence in the art form has helped to forge lasting and career-defining relationships with numerous opera companies, composers and orchestras in the United States and abroad. Maestro Mechavich has presided over productions of Porgy and Bess for Deutsche Oper Berlin, Nixon in China for Auckland Philharmonia/New Zealand Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia for The Washington National Opera, Madama Butterfly for New York City Opera, and Dead Man Walking for Atlanta Opera. The Miami Herald lauded Mechavich’s artistry in a recent production of Werther at Florida Grand Opera: “An astute conductor realizes that Massenet’s music must be as emotive and expressive as the action on stage. Joseph Mechavich brings out the French Romantic’s lilting emphasis on strings and woodwinds in the opening strains and throughout the first act, and pushes his orchestra to full throttle for the tumultuous, dark, and dissonant third and fourth acts. Onstage the tug of war between duty and desire continues to build, while in the orchestra pit, the music heightens the tension.” His 2019-2020 season includes Il barbiere di Siviglia for Minnesota Opera, Everest for Austin Opera, Macbeth for Florentine Opera, Die Zauberflöte for North Carolina Opera, Riders of the Purple Sage for Arizona Opera, and Carmen for Kentucky Opera.
In addition to his impressive command of the standard operatic repertoire, Maestro Mechavich is also known for his deep commitment to American opera. Of his Nixon in China at San Diego Opera, Broadway World extolled “The expertise in 21st century operatic repertoire that conductor Joseph Mechavich demonstrated in 2012’s Moby-Dick has surely increased exponentially as portrayed in his rendering of John Adam’s complex score. Mechavich showed great command and sensitivity throughout, both controlling and supporting the orchestra in their task of performing parts that were most difficult and intricate.” Mo. Mechavich is a champion of the music of Carlisle Floyd and Jake Heggie. He has conducted productions of Floyd’s Susannah, Of Mice and Men, and Cold Sassy Tree and recorded Wuthering Heights. Mo. Mechavich has conducted highly acclaimed productions by Jake Heggie such as Moby-Dick, Great Scott, Out of Darkness: Two Remain, and Dead Man Walking.
Caroline Worra
Voice Faculty
Caroline Worra has been hailed by Opera News as “one of the finest singing actresses around.” She has sung over 75 different operatic roles including...
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Caroline Worra has been hailed by Opera News as “one of the finest singing actresses around.” She has sung over 75 different operatic roles including more than 20 World, American, and Regional Premieres. She was internationally acclaimed for her performances of Jenny in The Mines of Sulphur, Grammy nominated CD for Best Opera Recording, and as the title role for The Greater Good; Passion of Boule de Suif, Opera News and New York Times pick for one of the top classical CDs of the year.
Ms. Worra has worked at over 30 opera companies across the United States including The Metropolitan Opera, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Boston Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Dallas Opera, Long Beach Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Madison Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, Opera Memphis, Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Gotham Chamber Opera, Urban Arias, American Lyric Theatre, American Opera Projects, Tanglewood, Opera Saratoga, Berkshire Opera Festival, The Princeton Festival, and six seasons at both Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera. Caroline performed on two U.S. National Tours with San Francisco’s Merola/Western Opera Theatre singing Violetta in LaTraviata and Rosalinda in DieFledermaus. She gave a debut recital at Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall) and performed on the main stage of Carnegie Hall as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C, Britten’s Spring Symphony, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
Caroline is a recipient of the Shoshana Foundation/Richard F. Gold Career Grant. She grew up in Wisconsin and graduated from Onalaska High School where she also received the 2015 Wall of Excellence Award. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Piano and Vocal Performance from Luther College where she received the Distinguished Service Award in 2016. She has a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from The University of Missouri in Columbia where she received a 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Science. Caroline also has a Doctor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Indiana University with minors in Music Education and Choral Conducting.
Dale Girard
Stage Combat
Dale is an award winning Fight Director, Choreographer and author of the stage combat manual Actors On Guard. He is a third degree Black Belt...
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Dale is an award winning Fight Director, Choreographer and author of the stage combat manual Actors On Guard. He is a third degree Black Belt (Sam Dan, 1st level) in Taekwondo/Hopkido and Hydong Gumdo, a founding member of the North Carolina Stuntmen’s Association and one of only sixteen recognized Fight Masters in the United States by the Society of American Fight Directors. His breadth of work and contribution to the art of staged violence has also earned him recognition in the Canadian guild, Fight Directors Canada, and The Russian Guild of Stage Movement Directors and Teachers. His work has been featured in professional theatres and opera houses throughout North America and in numerous motion pictures. Credits include the Metropolitan Opera, The Folger Theatre, Signature Theatre, Arden Theater, San Diego Opera, Opera Carolina, Piedmont Opera, Pioneer Theatre, Studio Arena Theatre, Triad Stage, and the Chautauqua Opera. Film credits include “Eyeborgs,” “The Key Man,” “The Trial,” “10 Rules for Sleeping Around” and the critically acclaimed “Junebug.”
As a master teacher, Mr. Girard has instructed classes and seminars in stage combat, acting, and dramatic movement at colleges and universities throughout North America. Based in North Carolina, he is a full Professor on faculty for the School of Drama at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he serves as Director of Stage Combat Studies and the Assistant Dean of Academics and Administation. Previous teaching experience includes Yale’s Schools of Drama and Music, the National Theatre Conservatory and the Hartt School.
Dale Girard IMDb Page
Sidney Outlaw
Voice Faculty
Lauded by The New York Times as a “terrific singer” with a “deep, rich timbre” and the San Francisco Chronicle as an “opera powerhouse” with...
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Lauded by The New York Times as a “terrific singer” with a “deep, rich timbre” and the San Francisco Chronicle as an “opera powerhouse” with a “weighty and forthright” sound, Sidney Outlaw was the Grand Prize winner of the Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballe in 2010 who delights audiences in the U.S. and abroad with his rich and versatile baritone and engaging stage presence. A graduate of the Merola Opera Program and the Gerdine Young Artist Program at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, this rising American baritone from Brevard, North Carolina recently added a GRAMMY nomination to his list of accomplishments for the Naxos Records recording of Darius Milhaud’s 1922 opera trilogy, L’Orestie d’Eschyle in which he sang the role of Apollo.
In the 2018-2019 season, Mr. Outlaw sang Dizzy Gillespie in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with both Atlanta Opera and Arizona Opera, returned to the Baltimore Symphony as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Minnesota Opera for the world premiere of The Fix, sang Fauré’s Requiem at Augustana College, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem at Cornell University, and made his debut with Mill City Summer Opera as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. The 2019-2020 season includes his San Francisco Opera debut as the First Mate in Billy Budd, Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra, Tommy McIntyre in Fellow Travelers with Madison Opera, Dizzy Gillespie in Yardbird with New Orleans Opera, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Colorado Symphony, and Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer with the Toledo Symphony.
Mr. Outlaw has been a featured recitalist with Warren Jones at Carnegie Hall and performed Elijah with the New York Choral Society. He traveled to Guinea as an Arts Envoy with the U.S. State Department, where he performed a program of American music in honor of Black History Month and in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King. Mr. Outlaw made his English National Opera debut in the 2011-12 season as Rambo in The Death of Klinghoffer and joined the Metropolitan Opera roster in 2014- 2015 also for The Death of Klinghoffer. Recent engagements include Tommy in Fellow Travelers with Minnesota Opera, Frank Lloyd Wright in Shining Brow with UrbanArias, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Madison Opera, Dandini inLa Cenerentola with Greensboro Opera, Vaugh Williams’ Dona nobis pacem with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Fauré’s Requiem and Mechem’s Songs of the Slave with Manhattan Concert Productions at Carnegie Hall, Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Oratorio Society of New York, his Spoleto Festival debut as Jake in Porgy and Bess, Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero with the New York Philharmonic, Schaunard in La bohème with the Ash Lawn Festival, and Guglielmo in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with North Carolina Opera. Other roles include Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Atlanta Opera, the title role in Moses with the American Symphony Orchestra, Malcolm X at New York City Opera, Prince Yamadori in Madame Butterfly at Opera on the James, Ariodante in Handel’s Xerxes and Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the International Vocal Arts Institute, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte and his international debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, in both Germany and Israel.
A sought-after concert singer and recitalist, Mr. Outlaw made his Schwabacher Recital debut at the San Francisco Opera center with pianist John Churchwell and collaborates regularly with renowned pianists Warren Jones, Carol Wong, Steven Blier, and Michael Barrett. His concert and recital appearances include debuts of renowned works at major concert halls: Haydn’s The Creation and Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at Avery Fisher Hall, Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen with Music Academy of the West and “Wednesday At One” at Alice Tully Hall, John Stevens in the world premiere concert of H. Leslie Adam’s opera Blake at the prestigious Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, and the world premiere of Wayne Oquin’s A Time to Break Silence: Songs inspired by the Words and Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., commissioned by The Juilliard School.
Mr. Outlaw won 2nd Prize in the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s International Competition, 2nd Prize in the 2011 Gerda Lissner Foundation Awards, National semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, semi-finalist in the Francisco Viñas International Singing Competition, finalist in both Concours International Musical de Montreal and George London Foundation, and grand prize in the Florida Grand Opera/YPO Vocal Competition. He holds a Bachelor’s in music performance from the University of North Carolina and a Master of Vocal Performance from The Juilliard School. Mr. Outlaw holds voice faculty positions at Ithaca College and Queens College in NY.
