Students & Teachers: Opera For All
2008-2009 TEACHING ARTISTS
Chicago Opera Theater takes great pride in the in-depth focus and individual attention of the Opera for All program. Our young and dynamic teaching fellows visit selected partner schools throughout the entirety of an academic year to teach weekly opera and violin classes.
Teaching Artist position available for 2008-2009 school year. Click here for more information.
Linden Christ, Soprano, Voice and Student Production Director at McKinley Park Elementary, Von Humboldt Elementary, and Reilly Elementary
Linden Christ made her international debut as Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel with the Rome Opera Festival in 2005. Christ has appeared as a concert soloist with the Rome Opera Festival, North Shore Choral Society of Chicago, The Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, Peoria Municipal Band, and Music by the Lake Singers in Wisconsin. She made her professional American debut this winter as First Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre. Christ completed her Master's Degree in Vocal Performance and Musicology from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, where she was also the music history department’s teachers assistant for two years. Her roles include: Erste Dame in Die Zauberflöte, Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw, Euridice in Orpheus in the Underworld, Rosa Bud in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dew Fairy and Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, and the Woman in the Wall in The Yellow Wallpaper.
Lisa Golda, soprano, Voice & Student Production Director at Von Humboldt Elementary and Clinton Elementary
Lisa Golda is a graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (MM Vocal Performance 2006). Originally from Portland, Oregon, her onstage and backstage credits include education outreach performances for Portland Opera and Seattle Opera as various Mozart heroines, including Pamina, Donna Elvira, the Countess, and Susanna, and student costuming for over 20 productions at Indiana University Opera Ballet Theater. She is currently an adjunct voice instructor at University of Wisconsin--Green Bay and also teaches voice privately. She is looking forward to performing the role of Rose in Sheboygan Theater Company's production of Bye Bye Birdie in fall of 2008. Lisa is also a freelance writer and has been published in Classical Singer magazine. This is her first teaching season with COT.
Marta Johnson, Pianist, Vocal Coach and Music Director at After School Matters, Gallery 37 (Spring semester)
Pianist Marta Johnson is active as a collaborator and accompanist in Chicago. In addition to beginning the position of teaching fellow with Chicago Opera Theater and After School Matters this spring, she has worked with organizations such as Music of the Baroque, Elgin Orchestra, Community Chorale at Symphony Center, Light Opera Works, Bowen Park Opera Theater, American Opera Group, Opera for the Young and Interactive Opera. She also has been a member of the faculty at Black Hills State University Summer Institute for the Arts, as well as an apprentice at VOICExperience with Sherrill Milnes, and at International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy.
Danielle McCormick-Knox, soprano, Voice & Student Production Director at McKinley Park Elementary and Reilly Elementary
Danielle McCormick-Knox received a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance with High Distinction from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. She then moved on to complete a Masters Degree in Opera from Binghamton University where she taught voice and theory to undergraduate students. During her stay in Binghamton, Danielle became a leading soprano with the Tri-Cities Opera and performed the roles of Rosina in Il barbieri di Siviglia, First lady and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Musetta in La boheme, Frasquita in Carmen, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. While at Tri-Cities, Danielle became involved with the Tri-Cities Opera Outreach Program performing for various schools throughout New York State. Danielle is equally at home with Operetta and Musical theater. She has sung numerous roles with the Ohio Light Opera and Atlanta Lyric Theater. Danielle can be heard on the Ohio Light Opera cast recordings of The Sorcerer, The Brigands, Maytime, and Robin Hood. This marks Danielle’s first season as a Teaching Artist for Chicago Opera Theater’s Opera for All program.
Francesco Milioto, Conductor, Music Director at After School Matters, Gallery 37 (Fall Semester)
Francesco Milioto is excited to begin this season with new positions as Music Director of the Skokie Valley Symphony and Principal Conductor of the Highland Park Strings. Mr. Milioto will lead the SVSO in concerts featuring symphonies by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Brahms as well as Mascagni’s powerful opera Cavalleria Rusticana. Following three years as assistant conductor he will now lead the HPS, as principal conductor, in works by Mahler, Beethoven, Schumann, Corelli, and Bach. Mr. Milioto will also collaborate with clarinetist David Shifrin on Mozart’s clarinet concerto for an HPS benefit concert in Bennett-Gordon recital hall at Ravinia. Mr. Milioto returns to Opera Elgin as Music Director for Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore. For this production Mr. Milioto will lead the New Millennium Orchestra, an ensemble he helped found in 2005. This season will also include a second appearance at DePaul University. Mr. Milioto has enjoyed much successful collaboration with the NMO both as a pianist, and conductor of concert and operatic repertoire.
This past summer has included a wide variety of opportunities for Mr. Milioto. In his 4th year as a pianist/assistant conductor at the Ravinia Festival he played for Lynn Harrell, Sir James Galway, and assisted James Conlon on a production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Mr. Milioto also made his debut at Music by the Lake as an assistant for Romberg’s The New Moon. To mark his 6th summer as Music Director of the Chicago Cultural Center’s Summer Opera, he led a production of the rarely heard one-act comedy Il Signor Bruschino by Rossini, accompanied by the New Millennium Orchestra. Mr. Milioto is looking forward to continuing the Opera Theater Workshop for Teens with Chicago Opera Theater and After School Matters. He is also eager to being touring his school show “Not Just Figaro!” in collaboration with Urban Gateways.
Olga Katkova-Trevino, Violin, Violin Teaching Artist & Opera for All Ensemble Director at Von Humboldt Elementary and McKinley Park Elementary
Olga Katkova-Trevino studied music since the age of five in her native Bulgaria. She won a number of national competitions, toured Europe, and was featured on Bulgarian National Television. Olga came to the U.S. on a full musical scholarship to pursue a degree in Violin Performance. She is currently a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra and the Rockford Symphony. This is Olga's second consecutive year working with Opera for All. At Von Humboldt Elementary, Olga teaches violin lessons to small groups of 10, with a total of 50 students (2 nd -5 th grade). In the past, Olga's students in the Opera for All Violin Program provided a strings accompaniment to the Opera for All student production.
A.J. Wester, Director, Voice & Student Production Director at After School Matters, Gallery 37 and Clinton Elementary
A.J. Wester is a staple of Chicago's music scene. She is an active teacher, performer and director, with a range of stage experience from musical theater to symphonic chorus to opera. For the past five years she has conducted in the Chicago Children's Choir in-school program throughout the city. At the Intimate Opera company she recently served as director and set designer, and costume designer for Cosi Fan Tutte. For three years she has directed the DePaul Musical Theatre Workshop as part of Community Music at DePaul University. A.J. holds degrees in vocal performance from Roosevelt University and DePaul. She was in the chorus of Philip Glass' Akhnaten in Chicago Opera Theater's production directed by Mary Zimmerman.
