VOICE AND OPERA FACULTY
Jennifer Trost, Vocal Literature and Opera Literature, Area Coordinator
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FACULTY BY AREA Bands Brass Choirs Composition/Technology Conducting Jazz Studies Keyboard Music Education Musicology Orchestras Percussion Strings Theory Voice, and Opera Woodwinds |
Ted Christopher has been the artistic director of Penn State Opera Theatre since 2008. He has overseen and directed several successful and innovative operatic performances at Penn State, including Hansel and Gretel (2009), The Marriage of Figaro (2010), The Coronation of Poppea (2010), and Gianni Schicchi (2011). He has also expanded the artistic relationship between the School of Music and the School of Theatre, and several of Opera Theatre’s productions have been held up as models of collaboration and interdisciplinarity, which is a hallmark of Penn State’s mission and work.
Dr. Christopher received baccalaureate and master’s degrees in vocal performance and opera from the Curtis Institute of Music, where his teachers included Mikael Eliasen and Marlena Malas. He supplemented his studies as a member of the Juilliard Opera Center, where he worked with Frank Corsaro, and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, where he coached with renowned soprano Regine Crespin. He received his doctorate in musical arts (performance and literature) from the Eastman School of Music in 2009.
He has engaged in a wide and diverse career as a singer, actor, director, and teacher. In opera and concert, he has appeared throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. His operatic repertoire spans five centuries, from Monteverdi to Hiram Titus, and includes appearances with such companies as Cleveland Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Vancouver Opera, Anchorage Opera, Skylight Opera Theater, the Ash Lawn/Highland Festival, Western Opera Theater, San Francisco Opera Center, and the Ohio Light Opera. In concert, he has appeared with ensembles such as the Seattle Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic, the Berlin Rundfunksinfonie Orchester, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Singers, in such venues as the Kennedy Center, the Rudolfinum (Prague), the Schauspielhaus (Berlin), and Carnegie Hall.
His discography consists of recordings with the Albany, Naxos, and Newport Classics labels, including several recordings under the auspices of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. He has appeared off-Broadway with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players and the New England Lyric Operetta.
Dr. Christopher has been a featured member of the Ohio Light Opera (OLO), the only professional company in the United States dedicated to the performance and preservation of light opera, since 1997. With the company, he has appeared in and/or directed more than fifty productions of both obscure and standard operetta, including the complete Gilbert and Sullivan canon. Dr. Christopher served OLO as general director from 2007 to 2009, and this season was named principal guest director of the company. His reputation as an authority on the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan led to his appointment this year as artistic director of The Savoy Company, the oldest Gilbert and Sullivan society in the United States. In the summer of 2012, he will oversee a production of The Mikado for The Savoy, which will be performed at Philadelphia’s historic Longwood Gardens and the Dupont Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware.
Dr. Christopher has served on the faculties of the Eastman School of Music and the University of Memphis as director of opera. Additionally, he has been an instructor of voice and director of high school operetta at the Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Festival.
For more on Ted Christopher's recordings, see Solo Recordings and Recordings with Other Ensembles.
Richard Kennedy, tenor, has sung with the Boston Symphony, the American Chamber Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the Utah, Charlotte, Richmond, Green Bay, La Crosse, and Wheeling symphonies, among others. He has appeared as soloist in New York City with the St. Cecilia Chorus, in Boston with the Masterworks Chorale, the John Oliver Chorale, the Cantata Singers, and the M.I.T. Chorale, in Philadelphia with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and in Washington, D.C. with the Cathedral Choral Society. He has also appeared with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, the Bach Festival Choir in Rochester, New York, the Detroit Oratorio Society, the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte, and with the Los Angeles Master Chorale as aria soloist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
Internationally, he has given solo recitals in England, Germany, Austria, Italy and Canada. In the United States, he has appeared as recitalist at Carnegie Recital Hall and the National Arts Club in New York City, at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, at Wynmoor Recital Hall in Florida, at the San Francisco Conservatory, at the San Francisco Community Music Center, and at many colleges and universities throughout the United States. He is often asked to give master classes in conjunction with recitals.
Mr. Kennedy has been a winner of the Franz Schubert Prize for Singers awarded in Austria, a second-place winner of the 1981 National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards, an international finalist in the Opera Company of Philadelphia/Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, and a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council New England Regional Auditions.
He has toured as vocal soloist with the Mantovani Orchestra performing in concerts from coast to coast in the United States, as well as in Canada, Japan, and Taiwan. The concerts of music from Viennese operetta and American musical theatre afforded performances in major performing halls, including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, and Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis, among many others.
Voice study was accomplished at Indiana University, where he earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Music and the Master of Music degree in Vocal Pedagogy, and at Boston University where he earned the Artist Diploma as a student of Phyllis Curtin. Further advanced study was accomplished at the Franz Schubert Institute in Austria where he coached repertoire with Ernst Haefliger, Walter Berry, and Hans Hotter, and at the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada where he coached with Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin. He has also coached with Elly Ameling, Richard Miller, Jörg Demus, Martin Katz, John Wustman, Timothy Cheek, and Kelly Hale, and studied privately with Carol Webber.
Notable performances include recitals in England, Germany, Austria, Italy, Canada, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco, and appearances as the Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Providence, Rhode Island, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Acclaimed oratorio performances include those of Mendelssohn's Elijah in North Carolina, Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, Mozart's Mass in C Minor with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and Handel's Messiah with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, with the Handel Oratorio Society in Rock Island, Illinois, and with the Rochester Oratorio Society in New York.
Professor Kennedy's voice students have been accepted at prestigious institutions for advanced study (The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, University of Michigan, Indiana University,the Manhattan School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The Peabody Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Mannes College of Music, the University of Delaware, McGill University, Ithaca College, Shenandoah Conservatory, Brigham Young University, American Institute of Musical Studies, Chautauqua Music Festival, and Aspen Opera Center, among others). Some have pursued teaching careers(the University of Delaware, Shippensburg University, Messiah College, Lycoming College, Brewton-Parker College, and Seton Hill College), and some are pursuing performing careers (Pittsburgh Opera Center, Washington Opera, Savoy Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Opera Delaware, Lancaster Opera Company, Junge Kammeroper Köln, Theater Nordhausen, Weston Playhouse, and the Aldeburgh Festival). Still others have been awarded music teaching positions in the public schools throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states at the high school, middle school, and elementary school levels.
Norman Spivey joined the School of Music faculty in 1992 and teaches singing and courses in voice pedagogy. In fall 2011, he and Penn State Musical Theatre voice colleagues will launch a new M.F.A. in Voice Pedagogy for Musical Theatre, the first degree of its kind. He also participates in the workshop Bel Canto/Can Belto: Learning to teach and sing for musical theatre.
An active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), he has served as president of the Allegheny Mountain Chapter, governor of the Pennsylvania District, and national vice president for workshops, and currently serves on the board of the NATS Foundation and as Eastern Region governor. He was selected as a master teacher for the 2010 NATS Intern Program, and his writings have appeared in the Journal of Singing. He was recently forwarded as the candidate for NATS president-elect.
Professor Spivey received a B.M. from Southeastern Louisiana University, a M.M. from the University of North Texas, and a D.M.A. from the University of Michigan. A Fulbright grant to Paris, where he worked with renowned baritones Gabriel Bacquier and Gérard Souzay, led to concert and opera engagements throughout France, as well as a tour of France and Canada as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. While in France, he was also awarded the Harriet Hale Woolley Award as artist-in-residence at the Fondation des Etats-Unis. He has sung Schubert’s Winterreise at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and performed the American premiere of Poulenc’s rediscovered Quatre Poèmes de Max Jacob. His most recent performance project, Écoute: pieces of Reynaldo Hahn, was an original one-man show on the life and music of the French composer that toured around the country. Spivey has received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival and the Institute for Advanced Vocal Studies in Paris; in 2003 he received the prestigious Van L. Lawrence Fellowship awarded jointly by The Voice Foundation and NATS. In 2011, Spivey was invited to join the American Academy of Teachers of Singing.
Click here for more on Norman Spivey.
Jennifer Trost joined the School of Music faculty in 2005 to teach studio voice and courses in vocal literature at both the undergraduate and graduate level. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education at Albion College in Albion, Michigan; a Master of Music degree in applied voice at Michigan State University; and took advanced courses at the doctoral level at the University of Southern California. Prior to coming to Penn State, Professor Trost taught studio voice for several years at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, Germany followed by a year as a visiting associate professor of voice and acting head of the voice area at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Professor Trost is a young-dramatic soprano and had a fifteen-year career as an opera singer. Her first professional engagement was as a resident artist at the Los Angeles Opera from 1989-1991. She was an apprentice artist at the Santa Fe Opera in 1990. From 1991-2004, her career was based in Germany where she spent four years as a soloist at the Wuppertal Opera and nine years at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. She was privileged to work regularly with well-known conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, James Levine, and especially Zubin Mehta, the General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. Trost sang as a guest artist at the Komische Oper in Berlin, the National Theater in Mannheim, the Salzburg Music Festival, the Opera de Paris Garnier, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy, the British Broadcasting Corporation (Proms) in London, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Munich Radio Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic. She sang the role of Magdalena (a role specifically composed for her) in the world-premiere of Aribert Reimann's "Bernarda Albas Haus."
Trost is a frequent recitalist and has collaborated regularly with Arlene Shrut. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the National Opera Association. She is a member of the Artist Faculty at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.
Click here for more on Jennifer Trost's recordings
Click here for Jennifer Trost's website
Beverly Patton joined the School of Music in 2006 from the Penn State School of Theatre where she spent the previous eight years as Coordinator of Musical Direction for the BFA Musical Theatre program. She now serves as Musical Director/Conductor for the Penn State Opera Theatre and as Musical Theatre Voice Specialist. Dr. Patton received the BM in Music Education and MA in Vocal Performance from California State University, Chico, and the DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Southern California. She received an Instrumental Conducting Fellowship to The Aspen Music School where she studied with Rodney Eichenberger and Murray Sidlin. Formerly Director of Opera and Musical Theatre at Ithaca College, Dr. Patton has also taught at the University of California, Irvine and Irvine Valley College. She is a veteran conductor of musical theatre and opera productions including Gianni Schicchi, The Bartered Bride, Ragtime, Into the Woods, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. She has been Artist-in-Residence at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Summer Arts Camp. With Mary Saunders she presented the workshop "Bel Canto or Can Belto" at the Internationaler und Interdisziplinarer Kongress und Festival: BROADWAY AN DER RUHR in Dortmund, Germany, and with Norman Spivey she was Co-Director of the NATS Winter Workshop "Musical Theatre and the Belt Voice: Part II" in New York. She has presented her workshop, “New Century Sounds” in Essen, Berlin and Hamburg, Germany. Dr. Patton is a member of the National Opera Association (having formerly served as Regional Governor of the NOA Northeast Division) and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
Click here for more on Beverly Patton's published compositions
Raymond Sage received a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from Baylor University and a master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), followed by doctoral and post-graduate work also at CCM. Before joining the musical theatre voice faculty at Penn State, Sage was on the voice and musical theatre faculties of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts' prestigious musical theatre conservatory, Collaborative Arts Project 21, Inc. (CAP 21). He remains on the voice faculty of the CAP 21 Professional Musical Theatre Summer Institute. His students have been seen in many Broadway productions, such as Follies, Titanic, Beauty and the Beast, Steel Pier, High Society, Cats, Scarlet Pimpernel, and many more.
As a performer, Sage appeared in the Broadway and national touring productions of Camelot, Beauty and the Beast, and Titanic, as well as in regional theatres across the country, such as Paper Mill Playhouse, Sacramento Theatre Company, and Dallas Summer Musicals. He has made television appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, The Howie Mandel Show, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Sage is also a founding member of Monday Off, a jazz vocal quartet specializing in vocal jazz with a Broadway flair. Monday Off often appears at Carnegie Hall with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops Orchestra and at many other concert halls and jazz clubs across the United States.
Mary Saunders-Barton is head of voice instruction for Penn State's B.F.A. Musical Theatre program. She holds an M.A. degree from Middlebury College and the Sorbonne, Paris, in French language and literature. She studied French art song with Pierre Bernac and received a diploma from the Ecole Normale de Musique. She received her B.A. cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa in French/music from Mount Holyoke College.
An active performer with Broadway, off-Broadway, film, and television credits, Saunders-Barton has recently concentrated on the creation and performance of one-woman cabaret shows, the first of which, Stop, Time, played to sold-out houses in New York City. She maintains a studio in Manhattan for professional singers. In this and recent seasons her students have been seen on Broadway in Wicked, Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown, The Producers, Kiss Me Kate, Seussical-The Musical, Cabaret, Follies, 42nd Street, Hairspray, Rent, Mamma Mia, West Side Story, Hair, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. In 2007, she published a video tutorial, “Bel Canto/Can Belto: Teaching Women to Sing Musical Theatre,” which was well received by the professional community. She is frequently invited to present workshops and seminars on musical theatre vocal technique for convocations of singers and teachers of singing in the United States and Europe. In 2009, Saunders-Barton was inducted into the prestigious American Academy of Teachers of Singing in New York City. In fall 2011 she will launch a new M.F.A. in the pedagogy of musical theatre singing, the first of its kind.
Click here for Mary Saunders-Barton's website
Click here for more about the MFA program in Voice Pedagogy for Music Theatre.