Our goal in selecting faculty for the Festival has always been to provide students with professors who are not only teachers, but also collaborators. We feel very strongly that part of our mission is best served by providing educators who will help the student understand how to improve the performance of repertoire, while creating an understanding on the part of the artist of his or her own gifts, and how to incorporate them into the music.
BARRY ALEXANDER, Voice
As a lyric baritone, Barry Alexander has earned a reputation for being as much at home with the coloratura literature of Gluck and Rossini, as the more dramatic works of Puccini and Verdi. He has been hailed by L’Orient-Le Jour as “a singer of great style and feeling,” while Dean Nolan pronounces his performances as being “of the highest type, strong and virile.” Mark Lipson is quoted as saying that “a seemingly impossible combination of talents have made Barry Alexander ‘the Great.’ ”
Mr. Alexander holds degrees from Princeton University and the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. Having made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in 1991 with works by Gluck and Mozart, that same year he also auditioned for the Warsaw Chamber Opera, and became one of only two Americans ever asked to sing with the company.
Turning his attention to more entrepreneurial pursuits in recent years, he founded Alexander & Associates, a public relations firm specializing in publicity for classical music artists. In 2008 he also launched the Barry Alexander International Vocal Competition, which has been designed as an entrée into the world of opera and song performance for those seriously interested in a professional career, culminating in a Carnegie Hall debut.
Mr. Alexander believes that it is the obligation of a teacher to maximize the unique talent of each student, and fundamental to great singing technique is the understanding that the body is the instrument, rather than the voice. “The hardest part of any vocal pedagogy for most students,” says Mr. Alexander, “is the realization that the voice is always its most beautiful when the body, not the voice, is doing the work.”
NATSUMI AOYAMA, Collaborative Piano
Known for rich and expressive playing, Ms. Aoyama has mastered a large body of piano repertoire, including solo, chamber, and orchestral works. She has performed extensively in Europe and her native Japan, and last year played in New York as part of a joint recital between American and Japanese artists.
Beginning her piano studies at age six, she later entered the Piano Department of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music. Upon graduation she enrolled in the Universität der Kunst in Berlin, where she studied under Hans Reichert. Later she moved to Switzerland and the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, studying piano under Louis Hiltbrand, and chamber music with Doris Rossiaud, who praised her as the best chamber player she had ever taught.
Among her most recent Carnegie Hall performances is a solo recital of works by Chopin and Schubert. She is a frequent guest artist with Alexander & Buono International, and often partners with Cosmo Buono in four hand repertoire. She has also performed as part of The Annual ABC Gala, and was appointed Staff Collaborative Pianist for the Festival in 2009.
COSMO BUONO, Piano
Cosmo Buono first came to international prominence with the Bradshaw & Buono piano team. Specialists in literature written for one piano four hands, and two pianos, the artists did much to restore awareness of rare works written by Chopin, Liszt, Rossini, and Schubert. By continuing a tradition of distinguished piano duos begun with Liszt-Chopin and Debussy-Casella, they played in major capitals and festivals throughout the world including New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and the Mostly Mozart Festival, all while creating a discography that includes Grammy-nominated recordings.
A native of New Jersey, Mr. Buono completed his musical studies at New York University, Bard College, and The Juilliard School. As a soloist he has been heard in North America, Europe, and Japan, including performances with the Munich Philharmonic and the Danish State Radio Orchestra.
In addition to performing, Mr. Buono has distinguished himself as one of the foremost teachers of the Leschetizky Method in the United States. Leschetizky was known for producing pianists capable of a resonant, almost voice-like quality on the piano, and it is that same technique which is part of Mr. Buono’s overall pedagogy. Advocating rich, expressive playing, he discourages students from note-perfect performances that lack enthusiasm, in favor of a complete understanding and communication of the musical idiom of the composer.
Mr. Buono continues to direct the Bradshaw & Buono Conservatory, while supervising music schools in Italy and Japan. He is Artistic Director of the Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, and a frequent collaborator with vocalists and instrumentalists for recitals.
DEIRDRE McARDLE MANNING, Flute
Founder of Maine’s Winter Harbor Music Festival, Deirdre McArdle Manning is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. Her teachers have included noted flutists Catherine Curran, Francis Blaisdell, Andrew Lolya, and Julius Baker.
Her formal solo debut was made at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and was well received by New York Times music critic Tim Page, who called her a ”…virtuosic flutist with an unusually rich and lustrous tone.” Her European debut was made at Wigmore Hall at the South Bank Centre in London where the Cadenza Society dubbed her ‘America’s answer to James Galway.’
As a chamber music player, she has performed with members of the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the American Symphony. She spent many years as a freelance orchestral player in Manhattan, most notably with the New York City Opera and the New York City Ballet. Currently she is principal flutist with the Orchestra of the 92nd Street Y.
Many successful professional flutists have studied with Professor McArdle-Manning, most notably Lady Jeanne Galway, Heather Holden, winner of the Haynes International Flute Competition, Alaunde Copley-Woods, and Nora Lee Garcia. Currently a faculty member of the Long Island Conservatory, SUNY Old Westbury, Ms. McArdle-Manning has served on the flute and chamber music faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and Bowdoin College. Composers David Loeb, Elliott Schwartz, Phillip Thomas and Daniel Paget have honored her with dedications of new compositions for the flute.
KAREN PARKS, Voice
Karen Parks enjoys a reputation as one of the world’s leading sopranos. With a career that has taken her to the stages of nearly every major European opera house, as well as the great recital halls of the United States, she has distinguished herself in opera, oratorio, chamber music and operetta, as well as on the London Broadway stage. Her discography includes recordings that have premiered at the top of the Billboard Classical charts, as part of collaborations with EMI, Sony, and Time Warner.
In addition to being a Fulbright scholar, Ms. Parks is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi national academic honor society Mu Phi Epsilon, Classical Singer, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She is the recipient of the Cadeau Foundation Grant, which she used for study with Renata Scotto. Having been mentored for many years by Licia Albanese, she made her Alice Tully Hall debut as the winner of the Puccini Competition.
Of no less distinction is Ms. Parks’ teaching career. She is a National Panelist for the Vocal Division of YoungArts, the core division of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and serves on the Presidential Advisory Council of Furman University.
As founder of Ottimavoce, Inc., Ms. Parks established the recording and production company in order to help operatic artists further their careers. Her other company, The Studio for Vocal Refinement, offers clients worldwide advice and counsel on technique, style, and all aspects of vocal pedagogy. Her full biography is available at www.karenparks.com.
THOMAS OSUGA, Piano
An internationally acclaimed solo and chamber artist, pianist Thomas Osuga continues to garner accolades for everything from his “legendary sight-reading abilities” to his “prodigious talent.” As founder and artistic director of Aurista Chamber Music, he has distinguished himself in residencies at New York University, Youngstown State University in Ohio, and the Interactive Media Performing Arts Collaborative Technology (IMPACT). Having received recent appointments as Piano Preparatory Co-Chair for Mannes College The New School for Music, he is also on the faculty of Germany’s InterHarmony International Music Festival.
An enthusiastic advocate of new music, Mr. Osuga is known for collaborations with composers from around the world, among them Eleanor Cory, Youngmi Ha, Steven Sacco, David Loeb and Robert Rollins, who dedicated “Intermezzo,” based on Czech composer Victor Ullmann’s opera Emperor of Atlantis, to him. Mr. Osuga, in addition to curatorial duties for concert series, also adjudicates for many music festivals and competitions.
CAROL WINCENC
Carol Wincenc is one of the most respected and acclaimed flutists performing today. She appears with orchestras worldwide, and has premiered works written for her by numerous prominent composers.
Ms. Wincenc's musicianship is matched by a deep commitment to expanding the flute repertoire. With the Detroit Symphony, she gave the world premiere of a flute concerto written for her by Pulitzer Prize winner Christopher Rouse. She also gave the world premiere of Henryk Gorecki's Concerto-Cantata at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw and the U.S. premiere with the Chicago Symphony. She has premiered concerti by Peter Schickele, Joan Tower, Paul Schoenfield and Tobias Picker, who composed The Rain In The Trees, a double concerto for her and soprano Barbara Hendricks.
Ms. Wincenc has appeared with the St. Louis, Atlanta, and Seattle Symphonies; the Los Angeles and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras; and at the Mostly Mozart, Santa Fe, Spoleto, Caramoor, Marlboro, Sarasota, and Music @ Menlo festivals. Overseas, she has given acclaimed performances with the London Symphony, the English Chamber Orchestra, and at the Aldeburgh, Budapest, Tivoli and Frankfurt international music festivals.
Equally sought after as a chamber musician, Ms. Wincenc has collaborated with the Guarneri, Emerson, Tokyo and Cleveland String Quartets; performed with sopranos Jessye Norman and Elly Ameling; pianist Emanuel Ax; and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
We are pleased to announce Ms. Wincenc will be conducting a masterclass as part of this year's Alexander & Buono Festival.
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