MISSION STATEMENT

The mission of The Opera Institute at California State University, Long Beach is to cultivate operatic singers of professional caliber by recruiting the finest young artists and providing them with full-tuition scholarships; hiring expert, internationally renowned coaches and directors; producing performances of the highest quality; fully funding set, costume, and lighting costs; and building a new opera house and vocal arts building to showcase our extraordinary voice program.

ABOUT THE OPERA INSTITUTE

Brilliant singers have participated in CSULB's voice department for over fifty years. Our alumni include superstars in opera (such as Arlene Auger and Marvellee Cariaga), and young singers currently serving internships at major opera companies nationally.

The CSULB Opera Institute is unique within a major institution because undergraduate students have the opportunity to perform leading roles on stage. It is not uncommon for outstanding singers at other universities to go through four years of college without being cast in a starring role; our smaller size and commitment to young singers prevents this from happening.

CSULB has an internationally recognized voice faculty, many of whom have sung at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Gardens, Paris Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Los Angeles Opera (among many others). Henri Venanzi, principal voice coach at Cincinnati Opera and Opera Pacific, is our artistic director. Our guest artist stage directors are professionals with experience in opera, drama, and musical theater, including most of the major opera houses in the U.S.

In recent years, the CSULB Opera Institute has presented fully staged and orchestrally accompanied performances of works including The Marriage of Figaro, The Medium, Dido and Aeneas, The Impresario, La Calisto, Don Pasquale, Signor Deluso, and Die Fledermaus.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The Choral, Vocal, and Opera Studies program at CSULB has long been recognized for its outstanding performances and the thorough professional preparation of its alumni. CSULB¹s choral ensembles have appeared in Europe, Scandinavia, Australia, China, New Zealand, the Hawaiian Islands, the Pacific Northwest, Florida, and California, and they have been invited to perform for four national conventions of the American Choral Director's Association, as well as for the Music Educator¹s National Convention, and the World Conference on Choral Music in Amsterdam, Holland.

CSULB's strong tradition and reputation for preparing students to enter the vocal music field as performers, conductors, and educators has enabled our graduates to find gainful employment within the field of music, to be admitted to the nation's most prestigious conservatories for graduate work, and to perform in some of the world¹s greatest opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Berlin Opera, and London's Covent Gardens.

The diversity of the voice program is most evident in the wide variety of careers that have begun with a CSULB education. Arleen Auger, international opera star, was an alumna. Dr. Jo-Michael Scheibe, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Miami and widely considered one of the finest Choral Conductors in America, holds his BM and MM from CSULB. The pop duo The Carpenters are alumni, as are hundreds of working professional musicians all over the world.

Future conductors, educators, and performers are prepared for entry into their field through seminars in choral rehearsal techniques, choral conducting, choral repertoire, vocal pedagogy, diction, solfeggio, Kodaly, and Orff. Voice performance students take courses in German, French, English, and Italian Art Song as well as Opera Repertoire.

While part of a large state university, the Music Department at CSULB has a conservatory atmosphere where students are nurtured and encouraged on an individual basis. Each student receives private instruction in his or her primary instrument, in addition to attending class lectures, seminars, ensemble rehearsals and performances, and special master classes offered throughout the academic year.

Undergraduates may choose to pursue either the Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Music, or the more intensive Bachelor of Music degree with an
option in either choral/vocal music education or vocal performance.

Upon achieving junior level classical proficiency, students may opt to enroll in CSULB's Jazz Voice program, which emphasizes Jazz improvisation as well as a variety of popular singing styles.

Graduate students may pursue either a Masters of Arts or Master of Music Degree with a concentration in choral conducting, vocal performance, or opera.

Music scholarships are available to outstanding new and continuing students in both performance and education.

MUSICAL THEATER

The Voice Department at CSULB provides ample opportunity for the devotee of American Musical Theater. Students who major in Vocal Performance, Choral Education, or Theater may audition for shows produced by the Department of Music and the Department of Theatre Arts. The Choral Studies area presents a Musical Theater Coffeehouse Cabaret every semester, and frequent master classes allow the budding musical theater performer the opportunity for mock auditions, feed back from professional musical theater directors, and significant performance experience. CSULB's dance department is ranked in the top ten; voice students are encouraged to develop their dance experience in the nation's most state-of-the-art university dance facility, which is located directly adjacent to the music department.

Recent CSULB full production include Closer Than Ever and Side by Side by Sondheim. Concert performances have included works from Carousel, Rent, Les Miserables, Merrily We Roll Along, Camelot, and Working. In 2003, the department presented the longest running show in off-Broadway history, The Fantistiks.

FACULTY & STAFF

Henri Venanzi (Artistic Director) is in his sixth year as the California State University, Long Beach Opera Institute Artistic Director. In addition to his duties at CSULB, he is in his eleventh season leading the Opera Pacific Chorus, where he also provides artistic leadership to Opera Pacific’s Education and Outreach Program. Mr. Venanzi has prepared choruses for both La Boheme and Madama Butterfly at the Hollywood Bowl, and serves as Chorus Master for the Cincinnati Opera, and is Music Director for the Cincinnati Opera American Artists Program. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, Mr. Venanzi has worked with Michigan Opera Theater, Pittsburgh Opera, Omaha Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, and Fort Worth Opera. In demand as an accompanist and as a vocal coach, he has performed and recorded with Martina Arroyo, and appeared on The Tonight Show with Kathleen Battle. He has also accompanied for Jerry Hadley and for Jennifer Aylmer, winner of the Iturbi Competition, and has performed as accompanist throughout the world, including engagements at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, the Geneva Opera House, the Bermuda Festival, and the Chatelet in Paris. Mr. Venanzi has also served as visiting professor and artist in residence at Xian Conservatory in China.

Nicola Bowie (Guest Artist/Stage Director - Le fille du Regiment) has trained at the Legat School of Russian Balllet and the Royal Ballet Upper School. She danced professionally with English National Ballet, formally London Festival Ballet. She joined English National Opera in 1976 and was appointed Head of Movement in 1988, a post she held until 2001. In this capacity she worked on over 60 productions choreographing most notably, Die Fledermaus, Princess Ida, Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro, Die Soldaten, Mary Stuart, The Damnation of Faust, The Pearl Fishers, The Flying Dutchman, Eugene Onegin, Wozzeck and Khovanschina. She has choreographed Salome for Scottish Opera but also in Bonn, Dresden, Munich, San Diego, Boston and at Glimmerglass Opera. She choreographed Jenufa and Nozze for Cincinnati Opera whilst in residence as the Young Artists' Drama and Movement Director in 1998 and 2002. For the past four summers whe has been invitied to Glimmerglass Opera to work with the Young American Artists' Program in addition to her work for the main stage productions.

She directed The Abduction from the Seraglio at NYCO and Il Trovatore for Dayton Opera.  She has directed the English National Opera/Opera North production of The Love for Three Oranges for the Teatro Nacional de Sao Carlos in Lisbon, the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv and Opera Zuid in Maastricht and most recently for Portland Opera USA where she also directed The Mikado. She also co-directed the ENO production of Figaro's Wedding for the Madrid Mozart Festival and co-directed Rigoletto for Scottish Opera. In 2001 she directed The Dialogues of the Carmelites for the University of Southern California, choreographed Street Scene for the Lyric Opera of Chicago and revived Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and The Mikado for ENO. Most recently she choreographed Vanessa for Washington Opera starring Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and directed Le Nozze di Figaro for Florida Grand Opera.

Linda Zoolalian (Pianist/Opera Coach) works as a vocal coach and opera pianist for the California State University, Long Beach Opera Institute. She also is a member of the Pasadena City College piano faculty where she teaches several classes as well as accompanies the College’s Chamber Singers. Awarded a Bachelor of Music from the New England of Conservatory in Boston in Piano Performance, Dr. Zoolalian pursued a Master’s and Doctorate in Accompanying from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, where she studied with Dr. Alan Smith and graduated with honors. She also is proud to be one of the first graduates of the Los Angeles County High School of the Arts. She has participated in several prestigious music festivals as well, including two summers at the Academy of the West and the Aspen Music Festival. Dr. Zoolalian has appeared in Japan, Europe, and throughout the United States, and has performed for such eminent musicians as Thomas Hampson, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Martin Katz. This past summer Dr. Zoolalian coached singers in Italy at the Operafestival di Roma, where she has been invited back for next summer, and also returned to Austria to work as a vocal pianist for the American Institute of Musical Studies. Currently, she divides her time between her university responsibilities and freelancing throughout the Los Angeles area for such companies as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Pacific Symphony.

Jonathan Talberg (Producing Director) serves as Director of Choral, Vocal, and Opera Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He is music director of the University Choir and the Chamber Singers. He also teaches Conducting, Choral Literature, and Art Song Literature and he organizes the choral/vocal master-class series. Before coming to CSULB, Talberg served as assistant to the Cincinnati Symphony and the Cincinnati Pops. He has been an orchestra manager at the Aspen School of Music and he has sung with the Roger Wagner Chorale, the William Hall Master Chorale, the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, and the resident vocal ensemble of the Hebrew Union College. Professor Talberg has been seen in shows such as Man of La Mancha, Oliver, The Fantastiks, West Side Story, and Pirates of Penzance in theaters throughout the greater Los Angeles area. In addition to his responsibilities at CSULB, he also serves as principal choral conductor at Arrowbear Music Camp, and he is a much sought clinician and adjudicator. He holds conducting degrees from Chapman University and the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music and he maintains membership in the American Choral Director’’s Association, Chorus America, and the Southern California Vocal Association.

Christopher Johnstone (Company Manager)

VOLUNTEER STAFF

Tamerra Lewis Teti (Site Manager)  Tamerra recently completed coursework for the Master of Music degree in Opera Performance at CSULB, where she served as the Opera Department's first-ever Company Manager.  After performing her Thesis project, Before Breakfast by Thomas Pasatieri (a one-act, one-woman opera), she is now working on her written project.  She now administers other sites, including her own musically themed virtual tearoom TheSingingKettle.com, that features gourmet loose leaf teas named after famous songs, opera characters, and composers, as well as music and tea themed gifts and gift baskets.

OTHER VOCAL FACULTY:

Leland Vail
49er Chorus Director

John Byun
Women's Chorus Director

Scott Melvin
Men's Chorus Director

Junko Ueno
Choral Pianist

Christine Helferich
Vocal Jazz

Voice Teachers:
Marian Bodnar
Robin Buck
Fred Carama
Marvellee Cariaga
Kathleen Martin
Shigemi Matsumoto
Marjorie McMillin
Betty Olsson
Arpine Pehlivanian
Elisabeth Pehlivanian
Katharin Rundus

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Professor Jonathan Talberg:
(562) 985-5112 or JTalberg@csulb.edu

Opera Institute Photos by Keith Polakoff