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OUR FACULTY
The QSVI experience provides each young artist with a strong foundation of essential tools to excel in the competitive world of vocal performance. Led by acclaimed regional and international professionals, this intensive summer program will train, motivate and inspire each young singer. Meet our distinguished faculty!
Dr. Sherry Overholt
Soprano Dr. Sherry Overholt has combined a long and successful career with operatic and concert performances in addition to her teaching positions at Queens College, Purchase College Conservatory, and recently the Curtis Institute of Music. As a private voice teacher in Manhattan and at three academic colleges, her students have been contracted by opera companies and festivals, including New York City Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and The Caramoor International Festival. Her students have also won numerous competitions, including the National Association of Teachers, Jenny Lind Competitions, and the Metropolitan Council Awards. This past summer marks the 14th season for Ms. Overholt as Artistic Director/Vocal instructor for The Westchester Summer Vocal Institute, which is dedicated to empowering emerging operatic artists. This past season she also completed her 10th season as Artistic Director/Vocal Instructor for the QueensSummer Vocal Institute, a high school classical vocal program at Queens College where she is Director of Vocal Studies. As a performer, Dr. Overholt performed for Columbia Artists Management in joint operatic concerts for ten years and sang title roles in regional opera houses. Her discographies include the title role in Frank Lewin’s opera Burning Bright for Albany Records, Vincent Persichetti’s Song Cycle: Harmonium, and Legacy of Songs of Persichetti for MSR Classics. Ms. Overholt’s received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Miami and her Master of Musical Arts and Doctorate in Vocal Performance from Yale University, studying under Metropolitan Opera Soprano Phyllis Curtin, who taught at the Tanglewood MusicCenter for 51 years.
Jennifer Grimaldi Toohey
Soprano, Jennifer Grimaldi Toohey made her European debut as the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Charlemagne Orchestra in Brussels, under the direction of Bartholomeus-Henri Van de Velde.
Recent engagements for Ms. Grimaldi-Toohey include the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Canterbury Chorale at Carnegie Hall, the soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Canterbury Chorale in NYC, both under the direction of Jonathan De Vries, and the Vierletzte Lieder of Richard Strauss at Symphony Space in New York City, with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Theresa Cheung.
Other major highlights include the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Symphony No. 2 under the baton of Carlo Miguel Prieto with the Mineria National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico City, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and the Vier letzte Lieder of Richard Strauss with the New York Repertory Orchestra, both under the direction of David Leibowitz, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Flint Symphony in Michigan under the direction of Enrique Diemecke, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Sheboygen Symphony in Wisconsin under the direction of Kevin McMahon. Recently, Ms. Grimaldi sang the role of Senta in a concert version of excerpts from Wagner’s Der fliegende Höllanderwith the Chappaqua Orchestra under the direction of Michael Shapiro.
Additional orchestral engagements include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony under the direction of David Leibowitz with the New York Repertory Orchestra and the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Mahler’s 8th Symphony with both the Nashua and Lexington Symphony Orchestras, the soprano soloist in a concert of operatic arias with the North Shore Symphony on Long Island, Mozart’s Requiem with the Reona Ito Orchestra and Chorus, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Queens College Orchestra, Bach’s Magnificat, Vivaldi’s Gloria with the New Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with The New York Repertory Orchestra in conjunction with the New York Festival Singers, Barber’s Knoxville Summer of 1915 with Agincourt Orchestra, and Mozart’s Exultate, Jubilate with the Third Street Music School Settlement Orchestra.
Jennifer Grimaldi Toohey was also heard operatically in roles including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi, Clorinda in La Cenerentola, Suzel in L’amico Fritz, Mimi and Musetta in La Bohème among others. She also created the role of Dolly in the New York City Premiere of Orpheus Descending by Bruce Saylor. Ms. Grimaldi has performed with US opera companies and festivals including Sarasota Opera, Brevard Music Festival, Intermezzo Opera Festival, Utah Festival Opera, and Raylynmor Opera, among others.
Jennifer Grimaldi has been the recipient of awards and competitions, including Friday-Woodmere Young Artist Competition, the Claire Bennet Moringiello Award, the Violet Zatkin Award for Opera, and the Paul Robeson Vocal Competition.
A graduate of The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, Ms. Grimaldi Toohey is the co-founder and co-owner of the Long Island Studio of Music, on the voice faculty at The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College & program coordinator and voice teacher for the Queens Summer Vocal Institute. Jennifer is also a long-time student her mentor Dr. Sherry Overholt.
Artistic Director & Voice Teacher
Program Coordinator & Voice Teacher
Louis Burkot
After completing his master’s degree at the Yale School of Music, Louis Burkot enjoyed a career as a tenor soloist with orchestras and choral societies. Performing such diverse repertoire as Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, the Evangelist in both of Bach's Passions, Mendelsohn's Elijah, Stravinsky's In Memoriam Dylan Thomas, Orff's Carmina Burana and many of the oratorios of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Kodaly and others. He has appeared as Acis in Handel's Acis and Galatea with the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, as a soloist with the New Haven Symphony, at the Blossom Festival, with the orchestras of both Vermont and New Hampshire, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, and with over 50 collegiate and regional choral societies along the East Coast. Paul Hume of the Washington Post said of his performance in Stravinsky's Mass "Of the four soloists, tenor Louis Burkot sang with beautiful tone and unerring musical instincts." Recital repertoire has included both Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin and Die Winterreise as well as Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge, Faure's La Bonne Chanson, and Rorem's King Midas.
He is best known as the long-time Artistic Director of Opera North which has been nationally recognized for its Resident Artist program that has helped launch the careers of many internationally acclaimed singers, conductors, and directors. He has conducted nearly 100 productions for Opera North. From 1993 – 1998, he was the Musical Director of Opera New England, the touring arm of the Boston Lyric Opera. Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe praised his conducting as “first-rate, capable and stylish,” and Opera News magazine notes his conducting “sparkles with verve and sensitivity to the needs of singers.” Additionally, he has guest conducted for regional opera companies in Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts, and Florida.
Louis Burkot currently teaches voice at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, a position he has held since 1981, and was awarded a Distinguished Teaching award in 2000. As director of the Dartmouth College Glee Club, he has conducted most of the major choral/orchestral masterpieces, including The Saint John Passion of J.S. Bach, the Requiems of Mozart, Fauré, Duruflé, and Brahms (performed in Carnegie Hall), Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard, Verdi's Quatro Pezzi Sacri and Rachmaninoff's All-night Vigil. Other responsibilities at Dartmouth have included coaching chamber music, and conducting operas, musicals, and ballets. He has given master classes at conservatories nationwide and served as a judge in competitions, including the semi-finals of the Metropolitan Opera Council Annual auditions, the Corbett Scholarship competition at University of Cincinnati College Conservatory, and the Lynam Competition of the University of North Carolina/Greensboro.
A longtime master teacher at the Westchester Summer Vocal Institute (now the Queens Summer Vocal Institute), he joined the faculty of the Aaron Copland School of Music in the Fall of 2021.
Ron Land
Well-versed in opera, art song, and musical theatre, Ronald F. Land is a respected vocal instructor, pianist, assistant conductor, coach, accompanist and administrator who helps singers at all levels achieve their maximum potential. He is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Voice at the Rider University/ Westminster College of the Arts and serves as a music director in the Opera Studio at Queens College. He served as Professor of Voice and Theatre at Five Towns College for eight years, where, in addition to teaching private voice lessons, he taught classes in music and theatre as Musical Director of the Theatre Department and Head of Vocal Studies. He maintains private teaching studios on Long Island and in Manhattan.
Justin Werner
Justin Werner is an operatic professional with extensive experience in production, education, and artist representation. Mr. Werner is the Founder and President of Stratagem Artists in 2018, which cultivates and represents a select roster of operatic artists through artist driven collaboration.
Between 2014-2018, Mr. Werner was a co-founder and artist manager at Couret & Werner (C&W) Artist Management. Mr. Werner gained his initial Artist Management experience at IMG Artists, where he served as an Artist Management intern.
Mr. Werner was the founder and Artistic Director of New York Opera Exchange (2011–2015), which afforded numerous opportunities for emerging singers, directors, and designers to mount critically acclaimed productions. According to Opera Today, "Artistic Director Justin Werner manages to infect others with his enthusiasm through sheer force of charisma and passion." Additionally, Mr. Werner founded the Independent Student Opera Initiative at Boston University.
A valued advisor for emerging artists, Mr. Werner is a frequent panelist for Opera America's Career Blueprints and Feedback Audition programs. He has presented masterclasses and workshops for institutions such as Emerging Leaders of New York Arts (ELNYA), Yale School of Music, the Stratford Summer Music Vocal Academy, Des Moines Metro Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Boston University, Fort Worth Opera / Texas Christian University, Oklahoma City University, the University of North Texas, the New York Opera Alliance, the University of Delaware, Opera NextGen and the Seagle Music Colony. In the spring of 2021, Mr. Werner joined the Atelier Lyrique at L’Opéra de Montréal and Mannes School of Music at The New School as an Artistic Advisor in Residence to the Mannes Opera where he will return for the 2021/2022 academic year.
In past seasons, Mr. Werner served on the adjudicating panels of the McCammon Vocal Competition, Talents of the World Annual Voice Competition, MetroWest Vocal Competition, CS Music Vocal Competition and Opera Ithaca Competition. In the spring of 2023, he will judge the finals of the Cooper-Bing Competition at Opera Columbus.
Mr. Werner earned his BM in Vocal Performance from Boston University and his Advanced Certificate in Vocal Performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. Mr. Werner is also proud to be the chair of the On Site Opera Artistic Advisory Council.
Voice Teacher
Vocal Coach/Pianist
Artist Manager
Violetta Zabbi
A native of Odessa, Ukraine, Violetta Zabbi is an accomplished pianist, conductor and coach. She received her BM and MM in "Piano Performance" and Ph.D. in “ Musicology” from Odessa State Academy of Music.
Dr. Zabbi has been involved in over 100 different opera projects while living in New York for the past 25 years. She is currently in the faculties of Adelphi University and CUNY Brooklyn College. Alongside coaching and teaching at Brooklyn College, Dr. Zabbi organizes contemporary American art song recitals within the voice department. She has also spent 10 years accompanying the graduate art song seminars taught by tenor and American art song specialist Paul Sperry. She is currently music director and conductor with Vocal Productions NYC, Slope Opera (Brooklyn, NY), New York Opera Theater, and Delaware Valley Opera. She appears as a pianist and coach with Regina Opera, Hofstra University, New Camerata Opera, Opera Manhattan Repertoire and the American Opera Project. Dr. Zabbi frequently appears in recitals both as a soloist and in collaboration, where her playing has been described as: “the image of joy and passion.”
For the past 10 seasons, she has performed with DCINY International at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. Additionally, Dr. Zabbi serves as festival faculty at the following intensive programs: UArtist Music (Kiev, Ukraine), International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia (Morelia, Mexico), Oyster Bay Music Festival (NY), AMAO American Masters Academy( Moscow, Russia and New York).
In addition to her career as a vocal coach, Dr.Zabbi served as a Piano Professor and later Vice President of Long Island Conservatory from 1998 to 2011 where she had great success teaching Piano Performance in all levels. Her students were passing all NYSSMA levels, participating and winning local and international competitions.
Cris Frisco
Cris Frisco is a collaborative musician equally at home in the worlds of classical and popular music. He is Director of Music and Director of the Handorf Company Artist Program at Opera Memphis. This season, he conducts Hansel and Gretel at Opera Birmingham and The Falling and the Rising at Opera Memphis and works on productions of Spears’s The Righteous for Santa Fe Opera and Kaminsky’s Hometown to the World for NYC’s Town Hall. He is the rehearsal pianist for vocal programs at the Philadelphia Orchestra and partners singers in recital in Los Angeles, New York, and Indiana. Currently in development, he is the music director for Anatomiae Occultii’s contemporary dance production of Sweeney Todd. A committed educator for the next generation of artists, he is the Music Staff Coordinator and Principal Coach for the Opera Program at Mannes College of Music and has served on the faculty of Westminster Choir College, Rutgers University, City University of New York, the New School for Drama, the Castleton Festival, the Mostly Modern Festival, Finger Lakes Opera, and Westminster’s CoOPERAtive. crisfrisco.com
Vocal Coach/Pianist
Vocal Coach/Pianist
Mary Pinto
Mary Pinto, an acclaimed accompanist and vocal coach, has worked with international opera singers and major American opera companies for the past 25 years. She serves as musical and artistic director at Opera at Florham.
In 2012, Ms. Pinto coached and served as rehearsal pianist for Metropolitan Opera star and international soprano Deborah Voigt as she prepared for the three Brünhilde roles for the Met's production of Wagner's Ring Cycle. In 2014, she performed with Opera Noire's Ensemble in the American Embassy in Moscow and St. Petersburg and spent the past 3 summers coaching at Masterclass d'Ischia in Italy. In March 2018 she was the official accompanist for the Deborah Voigt International Competition in Vero Beach.
Ms. Pinto has been a private coach and accompanist on the faculty of Montclair State University since 2007. In Fall 2018, she joined the adjunct faculty at SUNY Purchase College teaching Italian and French lyric diction, operatic styles, and coaching.
Vocal Coach/Pianist
Tammy Hensrud
Tammy Hensrud has appeared in opera houses throughout Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Japan, Israel, South Africa, and the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Theatre de Chatelet in Paris, Klagenfurt Stadttheater, Salzburg Festival, Cleveland Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, New York City Opera, and the Spoleto Arts Festival. Her core repertoire includes the great operatic roles of Strauss, Mozart, Rossini, Bellini, Puccini, and orchestral works of Mahler, Berlioz, and Wagner. Ms. Hensrud has sung world premieres at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, the Center for Contemporary Opera in NYC and Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis. A most versatile artist, she has performed Musical Theater, Cabaret and Kurt Weill shows at the Lucille Lortel Theater, Players Club, the Café Sabarsky Series at Neue Galerie in NYC and the National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland.
Hensrud earned her BMus in cello performance, MMus in vocal performance and MA with a concentration in German from the University of North Dakota. She continued her post-graduate studies on voice as the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in Stuttgart, Germany, where she received the Artist Diploma in Opera. Additional studies were at Salzburg's Mozarteum, the Franz Liszt Musik Akademie, and the L'ecole Hindemith in Vevey, Switzerland. She has served on the Voice Faculty of Hofstra University since 2005 and is the Coordinator of Vocal Studies.
Additionally, Hensrud was Visiting Associate Professor of Voice at St. Olaf College in MN from 2017-21 and is the Vocal Director of the Oyster Bay Summer Music Festival. She serves on the Guest Faculty of the Queens Summer Vocal Institute, ArtsBridge, Music in the Alps Summer Music Festival in Bad Gastein, Austria and the United Artist International Music Festival in Kiev, Ukraine.
Voice Teacher
Alex Paul Sheerin is the director of Opera at Queens College (Aaron Copland School of Music) where he will stage The Turn of the Screw as well as an evening of one act opera. Sheerin was a young artist director at Brevard Music Center and Opera North, and is the resident director at North Shore Music Festival (Long Island), where he directed Don Pasquale and Amahl and the Night Visitors. Alex was also young artist director in residence at Indianapolis Opera where he directed Puccini’s Madama Butterfly as well as several virtual programs including The Three little Hoosier Pigs, an opera for children. Credits include A Little Night Music (Quisisana), Cosi Fan Tutte (Queens College, Quisisana, Queens Summer Vocal Institute), The Medium (Chicago Summer Opera), Cosi Fan Tutte (abridged, Florida State Opera), Patience (Long Island Light Opera), and The Very Best of Gilbert and Sullivan (Brevard Music Center). Alex was scheduled to direct Glory Denied and L’Enfant et Les Sortiléges at Florida State University, as well as Carmen at the North Shore Music Festival. Assistant directing credits include: The Merry Widow (Dorothy Danner, Director), Cosi Fan Tutte (Jennifer Williams, Director), La Traviata (Andreas Hager, Director), Don Giovanni (Scott Skiba, Director), Of Mice and Men (Matthew Lata, Director). Street Scene (Dean Anthony, Director), Don Pasquale (David Gately, Director), The Fairy Queen (Isabel Milenski, Director), and Romeo et Juliette (Buck Ross, Director).
Alex Paul Sheerin
Stage Director
Youn Ju Namkoong, enjoys a versatile career as a pianist, coach and teacher in her native New York City. Some career highlights include coach and assistant conductor for Don Pasquale with Opera New Jersey and La Traviata at the Aspen Festival under conductor Julius Rudel. Before joining the faculty at Queens College in 2010, Youn Ju was a young artist coach at Tulsa Opera and Opera New Jersey and was a staff pianist for a number of years at Rice and Northwestern Universities.
Youn Ju has had the privilege of performing as a soloist and chamber musician in various parts of Europe and the United States including many of the major venues in New York such as Carnegie, Weill and Merkin Halls. She has been a soloist with the Queens Symphony Orchestra and has appeared on KUHF Houston Radio.
Being an avid educator, Youn Ju maintains a very busy studio in Queens and on Long Island and currently is on faculty at the Aaron Copland School of Music, coaching voice and teaching collaborative piano. Youn Ju holds a Master of Music from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music from the Manhattan School of Music while her formative years were spent training at the Juilliard Pre-College Division.
Youn Ju Namkoong
Vocal Coach/Pianist
Jana Ballard
Jana Ballard has been on the music faculty at LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts in New York, New York since the fall of 2007. At LaGuardia High School, Ms. Ballard conducts both the Senior Chorus and Women’s Chorus and teaches group voice classes and music history. Ms. Ballard served as the Repertoire & Standards Senior High School Chair for the Eastern Division of the American Choral Directors Association from 2012-2016. Ms. Ballard frequently serves as a guest conductor and clinician for honors choirs. In addition, she has served as a clinician and guest pedagogue with the Metropolitan Opera Education Program. Ms. Ballard also conducts the New York City Labor Chorus and the Christ Church Community Youth Choir at New Brighton Episcopal Church in Staten Island.
Prior to teaching in New York City, Ms. Ballard taught in Kentucky for eight years where she was a high school choral director and private voice instructor. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Ms. Ballard was very involved in professional leadership and organization on the state level such as the Kentucky Choral Directors Association and Kentucky Music Educators Association (MENC). Ms. Ballard received both undergraduate and master’s degrees in music education from Western Kentucky University.
Stage Director
Kelly Horsted
"Gifted and versatile," pianist Kelly Horsted, is a native of Sioux City, Iowa, and enjoys an active career in NYC as an accompanist, music director and vocal coach specializing in new opera, art song, and role preparation.
An enthusiast of new music, Kelly enjoys a long standing relationship with the Brooklyn based company American Opera Projects. He has been a co-music director for AOP's Composers and the Voice series since 2006. He participated as a music director in The Stonewall Operas, and The Fort Greene Park Operas, collaborations between AOP and the Advanced Opera Lab at the NYU Tisch School, headed by Randall Eng and Sam Helfrich. Other AOP engagements have included the premiere of Beauty Intolerable : A Songbook based on the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Sheila Silver with singers Deanne Meek, and Risa Renae Harman at Symphony Space, performances of Tarik O'Regan's Heart of Darkness and music direction for several readings of Paula Kimper's opera, The Bridge of San Luis Rey. He assisted preparing the cast of Patience and Sarah for the chamber opera's premiere at the Lincoln Center Festival. Kelly was a part of the first semi-staged workshop of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Hershel Garfein directed by Mark Morris.
Kelly was music director for readings of Mark of Cain with Center for Contemporary Opera's Atelier Series. A frequent collaborator with Chelsea Opera, Kelly was part of the artistic team performing Glory Denied by Tom Cipullo, returning to the piece as part of the preparation staff for Urban Arias. His other Chelsea Opera projects have included The Medium and On Rosenstrasse. Kelly was pleased to perform on the 20th Anniversary concert for Friends and Enemies of New Music featuring Baritone Chris Pedro Trakas and works by Adams, Bolcom and Yarmolinsky. Other contemporary music performances have included Vector 5, Cutting Edge Music, Downtown Music Productions, Five Words in a Line and the Guggenheim Museum's Works and Process series.
An active performer, Kelly was music director and conductor for Carlisle Floyd's Of Mice and Men, and Erwartung at Madison Lyric Stage, directed by Marc Deaton. As pianist he joined Deaton for his original mono-drama, We Lived Only for the Music : Max Lorenz and the Third Reich, and Hotel Fables: Episodes in a life. Kelly performed works by Randolph Coleman and Carlisle Floyd at Zankel Hall with Remarkable Theater Brigade. Kelly participated in the Wintergreen Festival under Stephen Osgood, where his performances included Respighi's adaptation of Monteverdi's O,feo as well as two Liederabends. Kelly was assistant conductor for Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore at New Jersey Opera Theatre and pianist for Menotti's The Medium and Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci with Opera Company of Brooklyn. He spent two years as a faculty member at Intermezzo Opera as assistant conductor for L 'Enfant et !es Sortileges, in West Palm Beach, Florida, under the baton of J. David Jackson and as head coach for performances of Mark Adamo's opera, Little Women under the baton of Steven Osgood at the Hartt School in Connecticut. Mr. Horsted was music director for performances of Casi fan Tutte at Merkin Concert Hall with director Janet Bookspan, and for Harrisburg, PA's Opera in the Park. He performed at Wall to Wall Bernstein at Symphony Space. Kelly was music director and a founding member of the New York based opera company The CoOperative for six years. Kelly performed community outreach programs regularly as part of Trinity Church's Concerts to Go, Concerts in Motion, and as music director of La Piccola Opera with Arts Horizons. On the lighter side, Kelly enjoys a regular relationship with the Long Island Concert Pops under the direction of Dean Karahalis, and is often featured as a soloist with the group.
Kelly's recent recording with Baritone Robert Barefield on Albany records Light Enough, featuring works by David Conte and premieres by Sandra D'Ercole, Larry Alan Smith and Scott Wheeler has received extensive critical acclaim. He can also be heard on selections from the Opera America Songbook.
Dedicated to the development of singers and musicians, Kelly has been a frequent thesis project collaborator at NYU's Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Program. Kelly was faculty member at Ann Baltz's ground breaking Operaworks training program in California for seven summers. As a visiting lecturer, Kelly music directed Hunter College's flagship mixed bill, The Sisters of Nikolas Flagello and M. Choujleuri of Offenbach. Kelly was an Artist/ Teacher at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, CT. As a coach at the Mannes College of Music, he served as music director for performances of Ned Rorem's Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters, and Mozart's Zauberjlote. Kelly was a staff accompanist at the International Workshops in Graz, Austria, and at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine. Mr. Horsted is a current faculty member at Five Towns College, in Dix Hills where he serves on the voice and techniques of music faculty.
Mr. Horsted's other notable performances include appearances at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and the prestigious Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, as well as Fountainbleau, France and NBC's Weekend Today Show. He earned both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Eastman School of Music, where he was a fellowship recipient and 1st place winner in the Kneisel Lieder Competition.
Vocal Coach/Pianist
Peter Randsman
Peter Randsman who is the Founder and President of Randsman Artists Management INC was born in Long Beach Hospital, in Long Beach, Long Island, New York, on July 11th. He shares his birthday with Nicolai Gedda, Herman Prey, Yul Brynner, Ebi Stignani, John Quincy Adams and Giorgio Armani. Peter spent his first 13 years of life, living in Harbor Isle, a suburb of Island Park, Long Island, New York. In the early 1960’s Peter met his childhood, “Best Friend” Ricky Ian Gordon, the world renowned composer, and they went on to “discover” opera together and spent each weekend attending star-studded performances of operas at both The Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera. He attended first Nassau Community College as a Drama Major and next Hofstra University as a Drama Major. Peter’s Broadway and National Tour credits include singing the song Liza Liza , as a duet, with film legend Ruby Keeler on Broadway and a national tour of Kismet with Metropolitan Opera star, John Reardon. Additional productions included the roles of Clifford Bradshaw in Cabaret, Charley in Charleys Aunt, Dick in Dames at Sea and Gabey in On the Town which was Peter’s personal favorite role. Mr. Randsman sang with the New York City Opera for 4 seasons at the New York State Theater in Lincoln Center, and performed in LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER in the PBS telecast of Mefistofele with Samuel Ramey, conducted by Julius Rudel. Peter’s Film and television credits include the National commercial appearing as Burger King’s “Whopper Boy” and Minolta’s “Camera Boy. Artistic Director positions included National Grand Opera at the Tilles Center at C.W. Post in Long Island, and currently with the New York Opera Collaborative. After nearly fifteen years as a professional singer /actor, Peter has fulfilled 2 life-long dreams by working 1 season as artistic director of an opera company (National Grand Opera, at The Tillis Center for the Performing Arts at C.W. Post Campus in Long Island) and by also starting his own company, “Randsman Artists Management”. He is happy to be responsible for the careers of 50 internationally active opera singers. In addition to Randsman Artists Management, Mr. Randsman is in high demand for Master classes and Career counseling and consulting, where he has taught Master classes in over 20 major opera companies in the United States and all over the world. In addition, Peter Randsman offers private sessions of both role and aria preparation to artists who are preparing for auditions, career engagements and Video submissions to opera companies. www.randsman.com Office: 212-244-5874 Cell: 917-494-6654 randsman@aol.com www.randsmanartistmanagement.com
Artist Manager
Ken Benson
Ken Benson, long respected as a leading representative of classical singers, is returning to Artists Management to guide and develop the careers of exceptional young talent.
For 25 years, he headed his own Division as Vice President at Columbia Arti ts Management, Inc. Known for his deep knowledge of singing and vocal repertoire, he developed and built the careers of some of the leading singers and stage directors of the time.
Ken Benson regularly gives masterclasses, workshops, lectures, and private consultations at leading music conservatories and Young Artists Programs across the country. He is in great demand as an adjudicator of many leading vocal competitions. Ken has served as Career Consultant with Washington National Opera's Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program. He frequently acts as a lecturer, interviewer, and writer about opera. A long-time regular panelist and host of the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, he has interviewed opera icons and given lectures on Wagner's Ring Cycle on the stage of the Met.
Artist Manager
Jennifer Barsamian
Jennifer Barsamian, mezzo-soprano, pianist and educator is a professional Opera Singer that has sung extensively throughout the US. Jennifer has been teaching voice and piano for over 20 years. In addition to maintaining a private studio, Jennifer has served as professor of voice and Five Towns College where she worked with musical theatre majors. Jennifer is co-owner and co-founder of the Long Island Studio of Music, which provides exceptional music instruction in your home throughout Long Island, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Westchester.
www.LongIslandStudioofMusic.com.
She has also served on the music faculty of Music Academy of Garden City, the Greenwich House Music School in Manhattan, Lucy Moses School in Manhattan, the Loomis Chaffee School in CT, the community division at The Hartt School of Music, and the community music school at North Carolina School of the Arts.
As a performer, she has been praised as “a consummate artist with a winning personality and a deep, rich, strong, vocalism.” Described as the “quintessential Carmen” she has sung the title role several times throughout the United States. On the operatic stage she has sung with the Belleayre Music Festival, Opera Western Reserve, Asheville Lyric Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Company of the Highlands, Utah Festival Opera, New Jersey Verismo Opera, and the Spoleto Festival USA. Jennifer’s students all receive outstanding NYSSMA scores and go on to study at top music schools and conservatories throughout the US. Jennifer holds a Master’s Degree in Music from North Carolina School of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Westminster Choir College, where she began her studies as a pianist. She has also earned two post graduate certificates in Voice and Opera from both the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute and the Hartt School of Music. Jennifer is thrilled to be returning to the QSVI voice faculty this summer!
Voice Teacher
Korliss Uecker
The Financial Times (London) acclaimed that "Korliss Uecker, a bright and pretty American soprano, was charming, crystalline of voice and sparkling as an actress."
Uecker has sung over 140 performances at the Metropolitan Opera including Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro (international broadcast), Marzelline in Fidelio, Oscar in Masked Ball, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Clorinda in La Cenerentola. At the Met, she also sang Giannetta in The Elixir of Love with Lucianno Pavarotti and Frasquita in Carmen with Placido Domingo. Other roles include Micaela (Carmen) Susannah (Floyd) Violetta (Traviata) Pamina (Magic Flute) Elvira (Don Giovanni) Adele (Die Flatermaus) Zerlina (Don Giovanni) Despina (Cosi fan Tutte) Adina (Elixir) Norina (Don Pasquale) Lucia & Manon.
In addition to her singing career, Ms Uecker is frequently a Master Class teacher, adjudicator, and lecturer with such institutions as the Manhattan School of Music, the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann/ Laffont Competition, Columbia University , Minnesota Opera Summer Program and Queens Summer Vocal Institute. She has been a consultant for Steamboat Opera Young Artist Program. Miss Uecker is on the board of Action for Artists, an organization that helps young professional musicians . She is on the advisory board for the Music Conservatory of Westchester. Summer 2023 Korliss is on faculty at the Collaborative Piano Institute and Music in the Alps in Bad Gastein, Austria.
Ms. Uecker is the Director of Voice at the Music Conservatory of Westchester. MCW Theater Arts is a nonprofit program for economically disadvantaged gifted singers.
Korliss earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School. She continued post graduate studies with the Juilliard Opera Center. She studied at the Steans Institute, apprenticed at the Santa Fe Opera and Tanglewood Festival. She received a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Science from the University of North Dakota and was a registered nurse before she began her singing career. Her husband Jerry Grossman is principal cellist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Voice Teacher
Christine Moore
A native of Sacramento, soprano Christine Moore Vassallo is a versatile performer and sought-after teacher, training numerous competition winners and finalists, including Schmidt Regional and National competitions, YoungArts, Opera Index, NATS-NYC and Eastern Regions, Classical Singer, Dayton Opera, Opera at Florham, among others. She has over 25 years of teaching experience, including both private studio and as faculty for 14 years at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. Since 2019 she has been a mentor/teacher with ArtSmart, a national organization co-founded by tenor Michael Fabiano that provides free lessons and mentorship in underserved schools across the country. Since 2018 Christine been a Teaching Artist with the Lunigiana International Music Festival in Fivizzano, Italy and with American Voices, an American-based international organization that provides workshops and lessons to students in hard-to-reach locations around the world. Christine is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and trained at Santa Fe Opera, Central City Opera, Tanglewood, Chautauqua Institute, and the Mozarteum in Salzburg (under Christa Ludwig). She was a Regional Finalist (Pacific) in the Met Competition and has sung Mimi in La Bohème (with Oper Leipzig where she performed over several years), the title roles in Madama Butterfly, Suor Angelica and Aida, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Micaëla in Carmen, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, among others. She has curated Spanish art song and Arab art song concerts at Lincoln Center and beyond. Recordings include Christine Moore–Arias and the soon-to-be-released From Al Andalus to the Americas–An Odyssey of Spanish Song. She works with composers frequently and has a current project with Patricio Molina on poetry by Arab women in the Al-Andalus period of medieval Spain. Christine speaks five languages fluently. www.christinemooresoprano.com www.christinemoorevoicelessons.com
Voice Teacher
Mary Nessinger
Mary Nessinger has been heard in concert and recital throughout the United States and Europe, and is in demand for her critically acclaimed performances of some of last and this century’s most dynamic works and for her astute interpretations of standard repertoire. Of recent performances, The New York Times has praised her “remarkable fluidity and beauty of tone”, and described her interpretive skills as “a tour de force of characterization”; the New Yorker has heralded her “exacting musicianship and quiet dignity (which) have made her a fixture of the New York scene.” Ms. Nessinger has been heard as a soloist in some of this country’s finest venues, including Carnegie, Alice Tully, Avery Fisher and Merkin Halls, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C.; Jordan Hall and the Gardner Museum in Boston; and she has appeared internationally at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie in Berlin, the Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh, and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
In Ms. Nessinger’s work with orchestra, she has been a soloist with the Baltimore, Grand Rapids, Jacksonville and London Symphonies, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Her collaborative work has found her performing with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New Millennium Ensemble, the Hebrides Ensemble (Scotland), the Brentano, Colorado, Pacifica, and Orion String Quartets, the Endellion String Quartet (London), and as a guest artist at the Tanglewood Music Festival and the Ravinia Festival.
Ms. Nessinger has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Nonesuch, Tzadik, CRI, New World, Naxos, Ondine, Mode, and Koch International labels. She and her two daughters live in New York City.
Voice Teacher
Jamin Kim
Collaborative pianist Jamin Kim is in high demand captivating audiences with her keen ensemble skills at the highest caliber. Her extensive musical versatility ranges from instrumental chamber music to operatic repertoires. Ms. Kim currently serves as a vocal coach and staff pianist at both the college and precollege division at Manhattan School of Music, Barnard College and SUNY Purchase. At SUNY Purchase, she has worked as a music staff for the productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica. As a collaborative pianist, she has played for masterclasses of distinguished artists such as Stephanie Blythe, Anthony Dean Griffey and Matthew Rose.
Ms. Kim is also a strong advocate of new music, and has served as a music coach for Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Opera Ensemble and premiered works by living composers at MSM. She had performed at diverse venues such as Sarasota Opera, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center, and Italy’s Novafeltria Theatre. Recently, Ms. Kim served as the assistant conductor and music coach at Sarasota Opera for the productions of Verdi’s Nabucco and Rigoletto, Puccini’s Turandot and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette. Consequently, Sarasota Opera has awarded Ms. Kim the Gunther and Ilse Kern Grant for her outstanding work for the company. She has also served as an assistant conductor for the production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance at Opera North.
Born in Seoul, Jamin Kim grew up as an accomplished pianist, winning awards from Korean national junior competitions. After her family immigrated to the United States at the age of 14, she continued her piano studies at the precollege division at Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Kim has completed a Professional Studies certificate in vocal accompanying under the tutelage of Kenneth Merrill and has also received Master of Music degree in instrumental accompanying under the tutelage of John Forconi at Manhattan School of Music, where she was a recipient of a scholarship. She has completed Bachelor of Music in piano performance under the tutelage of Magdalena Baczewska at Montclair State University where she was awarded numerous scholarships.
Lorna Courtney
Lorna Courtney (she/her) returns to the title role as ‘Juliet’ on Broadway after drawing rave reviews for her performance in the Toronto production of “& Juliet”. Courtney has now received a TONY Nomination for “Lead Actress in a Musical” and a Clive Barnes Award. She has also earned nominations for a Drama League Award, Broadway.com Audience Choice Award and BroadwayWorld's Theater Fans' Choice Award and Dora Award for her performance. A multidisciplinary artist, and a native New Yorker from Queens, her additional Broadway credits include Dear Evan Hansen and the 2020 revival of West Side Story. On television, she appeared in the CBS series “The Equalizer” opposite Queen Latifah. Lorna received her BFA from the University of Michigan and graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School. @lornaacourtney
Vocal Coach/Pianist
Broadway Singer/Actress (QSVI Alum 2014)
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