Janet Bookspan is a stage director of opera and music theater, a drama coach, an actress, musician and an educator. She has directed over 40 productions for opera companies in the United States, Europe and Mexico. She is known for re-creating neglected works from the past, as well as staples of the operatic repertoire. Her opera assignments have included productions for the Caramoor Festival, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Cervantino International Music Festival in Mexico, Opera Delaware, Connecticut Grand Opera and Opera Columbus among others.
Ms. Bookspan also directed the American premier of Auber's "Manon Lescaut"; adapted and directed Pergolesi's "The Music Master" for performances in New York and Los Angeles; was drama coach and dialogue director for the Harold Prince production of Kurt Weill's "Silver Lake" for the New York, City Opera; and was the stage director and drama coach for the Metropolitan Opera Finalists concert. Her recent production of Stephen Sondheim's "Passion" was acclaimed by both critics and public.
Ms. Bookspan was formerly Head of the Opera Department at S. U. N.Y. -Purchase and has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute, the Manhattan School of Music, and Mannes College of Music. She was the Brown Professor at Baylor University and a Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music, the North Carolina School of the Arts and Carnegie Mellon University. She has held Master Classes and/or Residencies at Westminster Choir College; New England Conservatory of Music; University of Southern California; Peabody Conservatory; Canadian Opera Company; Brandon University (Canada); Academy of Vocal Arts; AIMS in Graz, Austria; the Israel Vocal Arts Institute; the Cleveland Institute of Music (Encore Program for Strings); and the Music Department of Florida International University. She is Performance/Communication Coach for the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida and the Young Artists Program of Florida Grand Opera. She has performed as Narrator soloist with the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Indianapolis, Dallas and Phoenix Symphony Orchestras, as well as St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the Jupiter Symphony and Pro Musica Columbus among others, She has appeared in the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and was Commentator for the Live From Lincoln Center national telecasts of the "Messe per Rossini" and "Jessye Norman: Eight Heroines." Her commercial recordings include Walton/Sitwell "Facade"; Paulus/Thorne "Voices From the Gallery" (Grammy nomination); Poulenc/Brunhoff "The Story of Babar"; Russell/Noon "The Gift of the Eagle"; and the "Nutcracker" Ballet by Tchaikovsky. Other projects include a second Paulus/Thorne collaboration written for her: "The Six Senses" commissioned by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
Ms.Bookspan's "Dramatic Perspectives of Roles and Arias" has been published in the PST Press Singers Edition.Richard Crittenden has directed operas with regional companies (including the New York City Opera Theatre) and was the principal director for the Washington Civic Opera. He established the Crittenden Opera Studio in 1974 in New York City, which has expanded into opera workshops and Dramatic Coaching classes in New York, Boston and Washington
D.C. Mr. Crittenden has taught and directed at Curtis, the Yale University School of Music, Mannes College of Music and New York University. He directed and gave classes for the Opera Music Theatre International of New Jersey.
Mr. Crittenden has been a Judge for the Liederkranz Vocal Competition since 1992. He has authored the pamphlet "The Career Track, How to Plan for a Professional Operatic Career" and writes a quarterly column on stage directing for the National Opera Association Journal. He gave a Master Class for the 1999 Poulenc International Centennial in New York City.
Now a Teacher of Voice living in New York City, Dramatic Soprano Caroline Murdoch Khella's favorite review was "She is not only a magnificent singer but a great actress a combination one sees too rarely on the operatic stage." These two aspects served to take her passion for the voice as singer, musician and dramatist into teaching not only in the classical arena, but to Broadway and the theater, Cabaret, Jazz, Pop, Rock, and recording studio. "Creating a piece of art is bigger than anyone of us and therein lies the opportunities to keep growing whether the teacher or the student." Ms Khella serves on the board of PWSA as a stand for the organization to expand and include all women who sing. "In my studio all my singers respect and support each other as artists and singers no matter what the form. For me this diversity serves to create and expand the concept of community."
Metropolitan Opera Mezzo-Soprano Jean Kraft has been called an exciting singer of rare warmth whose versatile gifts bring a magnetic presence to the opera and concert stages; truly a consummate singing actress. She has sung with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Dallas Opera, Tulsa, Fort Worth, Boston, as well as over twenty years with both the Santa Fe Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Also, at the Vienna Stattsoper doing Bernstein's Quiet Place with Bernstein conducting and at Florence's Maggio Musicale in the Jean-Pierre Ponnelle production of Peter Grimes. Miss Kraft can be heard on the RCA recordings of Otello, Andrea Chenier and Cavalleria Rusticana conducted by James Levine; on Deutsche Grammophon in A Quiet Place by Bernstein and on Opus I recordings of B. Witkin's Prose Poem and Ivana Themmen's Ode to Akhmatova. Miss Kraft has been seen on eight "Live From the Met telecasts: Otello, Luisa Miller, Cavalleria Rusticana, Bartered Bride, Dialogue of the Carmelites, Ernani, Suor Angelica and the TV Emmy Award of Hansel and Gretel. With the Chicago lyric she did the telecast of Eugene Onegin. She has also sung well over 80 Saturday Texaco "Met" Broadcasts. Miss Kraft now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with her husband, violinist Richard Elias.
Eileen Schauler made her New York City Opera debut in the title role of the American premiere of Shostakovich's Katerina Ismailova and sang 24 leading roles with the New York City Opera for 15 years. Made her Broadway
debut in the title role of My Darlin'Aida. Other credits include Der Rosenkavalier with the Metropolitan Opera. More than 1700 performances of operetta and musical theatre, recitals, radio, and television (PBS's Live From Lincoln Center, Anna Maurrant in Kurt Weill's Street Scene). Member: AEA, AFTRA, AGMA (Vice President for 10 years). Ms. Schauler teaches and coaches voice at The American Musical and Dramatic Academy.
