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About the Opera Company
of the Highlands
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Opera for Everyone
In spring 2005, the founding board for the Opera
Company of the Highlands was established, and we are
pleased to announce that the company will operate as
an independent non-profit, professional performing
arts company, taking organizational leave of
Festival Theatre of New York, but never departing
from its original spirit of excellence and service
in the arts.
Opera for Performers
In 2006, the Opera Company of the Highlands will
reach out to area performing artists through vocal,
diction and acting workshops. To help potential
performers develop a full range of skills, Opera
Workshops for Adults and Opera Workshops for Young
Performers will offer people with special interest
in classical performing arts and opportunity to
nurture their artistic expertise and gain practical
performance experience.
Opera for the Future
Opera is a unique art form with something for
everyone, especially those interested in theatre
arts, and it presents some of the finest music ever
written. But many young audiences have little
exposure to opera. While performing for general
audiences throughout the Hudson Valley, we are also
establishing ongoing relationships with local school
districts in the region.
We launched this opera education initiative by
inviting middle and high school students from
several local school districts to enjoy dress
rehearsal performances of our debut creation, Die
Fledermaus. We will continue and expand this
educational outreach throughout our 2006 season and
beyond.
We believe that introducing children to professional
opera stimulates their interest in the art form –
both as listeners and performers – and helps to
secure adult audiences for the future.
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Board of
Directors
2008 - 2009 |
President:
Claudia Cummings
Secretary:
Robbie Bertola
Rev. David
Lee Mason
Sandi
Scopteuolo
Rose Wolvek
Marianna
Kennedy
Conductor:
Marcus J. Parris |
Founding
Board
of Directors, 2005 |
President: Claudia Cummings
Treasurer: Karen
Byers
Secretary: Kathy
Lawrence
Lillie Mikesell
Terry Schommer
Sandi Scopteuolo |
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About the Board |
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Claudia Cummings
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Founding Artistic Director and President,
is an opera singer who has appeared all over
the world singing the leading ladies in such
operas as Lucia, La Traviata, Die
Fledermaus, The Marriage of Figaro, Don
Giovanni, Lulu, The Tales of Hoffman and
Satyagraha, to name a few. In her
twenty-five year opera career, Ms. Cummings
performed as a principal singer in the New
York City Opera for ten years, and sang with
the Chicago Lyric Opera and San Francisco
Opera, among many others. She has sung with
many symphony orchestras and chamber music
groups. Ms. Cummings has also starred in
musicals, and played the Mother Abbess in
The Sound of Music on Broadway and in
its tour of 60 cities of the United States
and Canada. In appreciation of her talent,
Mount Saint Mary College recently conferred
upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of
Humane Letters. Ms. Cummings is also the
Producing Director of Festival Theatre of
New York and the Conductor of The Newburgh
Symphonic Chorale. |
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Robbie Bertola |
Secretary, is employed at Mount Saint Mary
College as a secretary for the Mathematics
and Information Technology Division. She
holds a BS in Music Therapy from College
Misericordia and is a life long resident of
Orange County. She has been part of the
Newburgh Symphonic Chorale since its
inception and has been an enthusiastic
performer in the Opera of the Highlands
chorus for the last 3 years. |
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Marianna R.
Kennedy |
Marianna R.
Kennedy is a partner in the law firm of
Drake, Loeb, Heller, Kennedy, Gogerty, Gaba
& Rodd, PLLC, in New Windsor, with a
practice in the areas of commercial and
business law, real estate and banking. She
received a doctor of laws degree, magna cum
laude, from Pace University and a bachelor
of science degree in business management and
administration from Mount Saint Mary
College. She also serves on the Board of
Directors of the St. Luke's Cornwall
Hospital Foundation and The Greater Hudson
Valley Family Health Center, and is a member
of the Board of Trustees of Mount Saint Mary
College. |
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Rev.
David Lee Mason
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Board member,
is Pastor of The Union Presbyterian Church,
Newburgh, NY since 2001. In addition to
being a fine musician, playing keyboard,
organ and cello, Rev. Mason studied voice
professionally for eight years with Dr.
Lawrence Bond, now music director at
Vanderbilt University. He was a cast member
in one of the opera company’s earliest
productions, The Marriage of Figaro. As
President of the Greater Newburgh
Ministerial Association, he has brought
strong leadership and resource development
skills to the table for a number of
important Hudson Valley community projects.
As chair of fundraising for Newburgh’s
Project Life, a non-profit homeless shelter
for transitional families, he instigated the
development of the annual fundraiser, Bat
for Life earning almost $15,000 for the
organization in 2005. In addition to his
many community involvements, he is an
Adjunct Professor at Mount Saint Mary
College. He holds a BA with a double major
in German and American History from
University of the South, Sewanee, TN and a
Master of Divinity from Louisville
Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
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Sandi Scopteulo |
Founding Member
is an entrepreneur in Orange County, N.Y.,
where she is a director, independent
distributor and trainer for Earth Essence,
Inc., an organization focused on natural
products for health and beauty. She is the
owner of Legacy for Life and a member of the
Business Network International.
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Rose Wolvek |
Board member is
a life-long foreign language educator having
taught Spanish, French, Italian and Hebrew
at the secondary level. She is an adjunct faculty at both Mount
Saint Mary College and SUNY Orange. Her love
of opera began as a child in New York City
and through a later association with Nico
Castel, house diction coach at the
Metropolitan Opera, she started her own
artists’ management company, RPA Management
in 1985. She represented Mr. Castel, as well
as other singers and conductors traveling on
their behalf and securing engagements at
some of the largest opera houses in the
world. One of the highlights of her operatic
managerial career was working with Luciano
Pavarotti in 1991. Her tenor, Cesar
Hernandez, was selected to appear with
maestro Pavarotti on a Live from Lincoln
Center broadcast of Pavarotti Plus! Ms. Wolvek has secured stage auditions for
clients at Convent Garden, Paris Opera, and
La Scala. She has secured contracts with New
York City Opera, The Met, San Francisco
Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, Dallas
Opera, and the San Diego Opera among others. |
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We
thank you for your ongoing support