The GMOF is entering its 5th year and the Emerging Artist Program its 4th. Artistic Director Taras Kulish and Program Director Bruce Stasyna believe in providing talented young singers an opportunity to enhance & perfect their skills by interacting and networking with working professionals.

Singers under the age of 32 are given the opportunity to hone their skills through coachings, master classes, and much needed performance experience. Key factors for success in building an operatic career include a solid set of skills, experience and a good network of contacts! The GMOF training programs offers three weeks of intense work to address all of these parameters.

We offer daily coachings with experienced coaches, master classes with renowned artists, interpretation classes and yoga classes, as well as several performance opportunities along side active professional opera singers. Past faculty included Phyllis Curtin, Sanford Sylvan, Jacques Lacombe, Allison Grant, Ron Luchsinger, Francis Graffeo, Timothy Vernon, Claude Corbeil.

RESIDENT ARTIST PROGRAM (ages 25 - 32)
Candidates should be young professionals who have finished their academic training and who have at least one year of professional experience and may already have management. 

- A stipend of $600 will be paid.
- Housing will be provided but travel & meals are at the expense of the artist.
- Training opportunities include private coaching, master classes, voice lessons and yoga.
- Singers in this program will sing comprimaria roles in the mainstage production of
  Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Other appearances at the Festival will include the opening
  gala, an outdoor Broadway style concert, and possibly other events.

EMERGING ARTIST PROGRAM (ages 21 - 32)
The profile of past participants range from singers participating in their very first program to those who have completed a nine month residency at established opera companies.  The typical candidate will have completed an undergraduate or advanced degree and can demonstrate career potential.

- A stipend of $200 will be paid.
- Housing will be provided but travel & meals are at the expense of the artist.
- Training opportunities include private coaching, master classes, voice lessons and yoga.
- Singers will also be asked to perform a lead role in the EAP production, an appearance at the outdoor
  Broadway concert  and some outreach activity events.
- The EAP production will be Orlando by G.F. Handel, performed in Italian in an abridged version with
  piano accompaniment or chamber ensemble (TBD).

2010 Artistic staff:

Bruce Stasyna - Director of the Emerging Artist Program
For the 2009-2010 season, Bruce Stasyna returns to the Palm Beach Opera for this fourth season as Head Coach and Director of the Resident Artists Program and principal keyboard for the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra. He has prepared over fifty productions for such diverse conductors as Harry Bicket, Marco Guidarini, Antony Walker and Albert Zedda, and worked with international directors Tim Albury, Stephen Lawless, Renata Scotto and Eric Simonson. He has collaborated with notable artists Bruce Ford, Vivaca Genaux, Suzanne Mentzer, James Morris, Sumi Jo and Ruth Anne Swenson.

As Head of Music for the Minnesota Opera from 1999 to 2006, he served as chorus master, assistant conductor, director of the Resident Artists Program, and principal keyboard for the Minnesota Opera Orchestra. Mr. Stasyna has amassed significant experience with the Bel Canto repertoire, preparing I Capuletti ed I Montecchi, Semiramide, chorus mastering Saverio Mercadante's Orzai e Curiazi and Donizetti's rarely performed Lucrezia Borgia and Maria Padilla, and has worked on several ground breaking North Amercian premiers including Paul Rouders' The Handmaid's Tale, and Laurent Petigirard's Joseph Merrick dit "Elephant Man".

Mr. Stasyna has been on staff with the Wolf Trapp Opera as chorus master, notably for the critically acclaimed production of Sweeney Todd and has appeared as guest artist on recital programs The Latest Word and Where the Boys Are featuring Steven Blier. He has conducted at the Des Moines Metro Opera, the Lake George Opera Festival, Opera Roanoke and has enjoyed associations with the American Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, the National Chorale and the Virginia Opera.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Stasyna has performed at the Dallas Art Museum, Avery Fisher Hall, Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, the Victoria International Festival and the St. Lawrence Center for the Arts. In addition to being an artist in residence at the Butler Opera Center at the University of Texas at Austin and an Emory University Coca Cola Artist in Residence, he recently performed on the Southeastern Festival of Song's Secrets of the Sea and Sky and L'Organizacion Para Las Artes Broadway Spectacular in Guatemala. Mr. Stasyna is a consultant to new young artist programs at the Sugar Creek Symphony and Song Festival.


Sanford Sylvan - baritone, voice teacher & stage director
American baritone Sanford Sylvan displays a remarkable range of vocal expression and communicative power. His career spans over 30 years and over many continents. Presently, he is professor of voice at McGill University and has served on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory.

In the realm of opera, Mr. Sylvan is an acclaimed Mozartean. His portrayals of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte have been seen internationally, including PBS "Great Performances". He has been much acclaimed for the role of Leporello in Don Giovanni at the Glyndebourne Festival and with New York City Opera where he has performed in The Magic Flute, Ariodante, The Rape of Lucretia and most recently Handel's Semele. Sanford has become closely associated with the productions of renowned directors: Peter Sellars and Robert Wilson. Major composers have written for him: John Adams' Nixon In China (Chou En-Lai), the title role of The Death of Klinghoffer and The Wound Dresser; and numerous works of John Harbison. He was in the US premiere of The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies, the world premiere of Philip Glass' The Juniper Tree, and sang Sir Michael Tippett's The Ice Break at the BBC Proms, recorded for Virgin Classics. In 2004 he sang his first Wotan in Wagner's Die Walküre and sang the title role in the film of John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer which received numerous international awards including a Grammy nomination. In 2005 he made an acclaimed Glimmerglass Opera debut as Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte.

Sanford Sylvan has performed with many of the leading orchestras of the world including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Royal Concertgebouw Orkest, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, Academy of Ancient Music, Melbourne Symphony, and Australian Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated with such conductors as Simon Rattle, James Levine, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Herbert Blomstedt, Christopher Hogwood, Kent Nagano, Helmuth Rilling, Bruno Weil, Roger Norrington, and Edo De Waart. The Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned Steven Stucky's American Muse for him, conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen. With Maestro Salonen and the LA Philharmonic he sang Haydn's Creation in their new Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2004. Recent performances include Schoenberg's Moses und Aron with the Boston Symphony under James Levine and Handel's Messiah with the Pittsburgh Symphony. In 2007 he sang the world premiere of Christopher Rouse's Requiem with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, which was recorded for Telarc.

Sanford Sylvan's recordings are known throughout the world and appear on the Nonesuch, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Musicmasters, Bridge, Koch, Virgin Classics, New World and CRI labels. A Grammy and Emmy Award winner for his role in John Adams' Nixon In China, he has received Grammy nominations for his recording with David Breitman, L'Horizon Chimérique which features chanson of Gabriel Fauré, Beloved That Pilgrimage, a program of American songs with music by Barber, Copland and Chanler, and for John Adams' The Wound Dresser. A new recording of Bach with the Sarasa Ensemble was released in spring 2006.
 

Taras Kulish - Bass & Artistic Director
Mr Kulish has been singing internationally for 14 years with opera companies such as the Montreal Opera, Aspen Opera Theatre, Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera, Edmonton and Calgary Operas, Manitoba Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Opera Saskatchewan, Orchestra London, Montreal Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, in the Czech Republic as well as touring France and Belgium. In France and Belgium, he sang the title role of Don Giovanni, directed by the famous film director Gérard Corbiau (FARINELLI). This production was subsequently broadcast worldwide on TV5 every year since 2003.

Taras' vast repertoire includes roles such as Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Leporello and the Don (Don Giovanni), Don Magnifico (Cenerentola), The King (Aida), Colline (La Bohème), Ferrando (Trovatore), Basilio (Barber of Seville), Sparafucile (Rigoletto) and many others. Mr Kulish is also a busy concert singer throughout North America in the oratorio and recital repertoire. American Festival performances include Ravinia’s Steans Institute, the Aspen Opera Theatre, and the Tanglewood Music Festival where Taras sang in the anniversary production of Peter Grimes under maestro Seiji Ozawa.

Having studied economics before pursuing his music studies, Mr. Kulish has a strong passion for the administrative side of the arts. He is founding artistic director of the Green Mountain Opera Festival and is extremely proud of it. For more information on Mr. Kulish's career please visit his personal website: www.TarasKulish.com

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2009 Emerging Artists:
Sharin Apostolou - soprano
Meagan Brus - soprano
Dustin Scott - tenor
Yoon Sang Lee - baritone
Brian Wehrle - bass

2008 Emerging Artists:
Julia Ebner - soprano
Erica Miller - soprano
Sarah Kraus - mezzo
Monique Pelletier - mezzo
David Menzies - tenor
Gary Kubert - baritone
Brian Wehrle - bass

2007 Emerging Artists:
Marc Antoine D'aragon - baritone
Rachel Helgeson - mezzo soprano
Krista Kiefski - soprano
Allison Leahey - soprano