Met Auditions Florida District
Judges and Directors
The MONC Florida District Auditions 2018:
Judges
Dona D. Vaughn, Artistic Director of Opera at Manhattan School of Music, also serves as Artistic Director of Opera Maine, a summer festival in Portland, Maine. From 1998 to 2010 she was Stage Director/Acting Coach for The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. A graduate of Brevard College (voice) where she currently serves on the board of trustees, she received her BA in music (vocal performance) from Wesleyan (Outstanding Alumni Award), an MA in theater (directing) from Hunter College, and an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Southern Maine. In 2015, she was awarded the President’s Medal for Distinguished Faculty Service by Manhattan School of Music. After studying acting with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen, and dance with Martha Graham, she began her career as a performer in the original Broadway productions of Company, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Seesaw. She was Assistant to Producer Kermit Bloomgarden for the Broadway productions of Equus and Hot l Baltimore, Associate Producer for Pavel Kohout’s Poor Murderer and ABC Television’s All My Children, Dramaturge for the O’Neill Conference on Opera and Musical Theater, HB Playwright’s Unit, and the University of Kansas New Play Season, and Assistant Director for the original production of Tennessee Williams’s Red Devil Battery Sign.
Directing credits include New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Wolf Trap, Palm Beach Opera, Ensemble Studio Theater, Lincoln Center Playwrights’ Festival, New York Repertory Company, Kennedy Center, Minerva Productions, Peterloon Festival, Heritage Theater (Calgary, Canada), DiVivreVoix (Vivonne, France), Florida Arts Festival, and many colleges and universities across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. She directed the premieres of Roberto Hazon’s L’Agenzia Matrimoniale, Robert Sirota’s Holy Women, Francis Thorne’s Mario and the Magician, Ray Luc’s Drowne’s Wooden Image and The Bullfrog, New York premieres of Milton Granger’s Talk Opera and The Proposal, the off-Broadway production of Murphy Guyer’s World of Mirth, and the European premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s The Flower and the Hawk.
Formerly a member of the voice faculties at SUNY-Plattsburgh and Marymount Manhattan College, she often conducts master classes across the U.S., Asia, and Europe, and serves as an adjudicator for vocal competitions including The Metropolitan Opera National Council, The Richard Tucker Foundation, Denver Lyric Opera, The Jenson Foundation, The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis Artist-in-Training Program, and Premio Spiros Argiris International Competition (Italy). She has written for Opera News and Italy’s Musical! and serves on the board of OPERA America and the Jensen Foundation.
Paul Kilmer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from the University of Missouri at St. Louis and pursued graduate studies in Historical Theology at the Divinity School of St. Louis University. He studied voice with Gertrude Ribla, Nicholas DiVirgilio, and Edward Zambara, and was a 1982 Finalist in the Midwest Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 1984, Mr. Kilmer joined the administrative staff of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis assuming the duties of Artistic Coordinator. In the fall of that year, he was named Artistic Administrator of the company. Now in his 37th season with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, he holds the title of Director of Artistic Administration. Mr. Kilmer is a frequent MONC auditions judge.
Grammy Award winner and Metropolitan Opera star Victoria Livengood has been hailed as “one of the leading singer-actresses of her generation.” Victoria skyrocketed onto the opera scene as a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions, going on to make her acclaimed Met debut with James Levine in 1991. The North Carolina native has become known for her dynamic portrayals in more than 125 Met performances, including the title role of Carmen opposite Placido Domingo.
he 2016-17 Season marked her 100th role in the operatic repertoire, having sung with opera companies throughout Europe, South America, Canada and Asia, including Barcelona, Madrid, Salzburg, Buenos Aires, Taipei, Las Palmas, Monte Carlo, Nice, Santiago, Cologne, Vancouver, Montreal and at Italy’s Spoleto Festival, where she closely collaborated with composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Nevertheless, it is in America that this Dixie Diva has primarily based her career that spans over 30 years, having sung leading roles with the companies of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angelas, Santa Fe, Washington DC, Seattle, Houston, Boston, Miami, St. Louis, San Diego, Kansas City, Baltimore, Portland, Utah, Atlanta, Hawaii and with the New York City Opera. Victoria has performed at Carnegie Hall on ten separate occasions including as soloist in Verdi’s Requiem and in A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Renee Fleming.
Her upcoming engagements include debuts with Long Beach Opera and Chicago Opera Theater as the Mother in Menotti’s The Consul. She returns to New Orleans Opera to sing the title role in The Medium and adds the role of the Old Lady in Candide to her vast repertoire, performing it with Anchorage Opera and with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in Korea.
Dr. Livengood has been named Alumni of the year by both alma maters, UNC-Chapel Hill and the Boston Conservatory of Music and holds an honorary doctorate from Jacksonville University. She is also an inductee into the North Carolina Musicians Hall of Fame.
“Miss Vickie” is in demand for her highly acclaimed Master Classes across the globe, has a private voice studio in North Carolina and New York and has served on the voice faculty at the Buck Hill-Skytop Music Festival, the National University in Bogota, Colombia and at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy. Her extensive discography, including her Grammy winning performance with the LA Opera, can be viewed on her official web site at www.victorialivengood.com.
Pianist
Robin Stamper,
General Manager,
Opera Tampa
Directors
Swantje Knye-Levin, District Director
Joan Travis, Auditions Manager
Auditions Volunteers
Rita Wilkes, Stage Manager
Fran Falcone, Stage Manager
Bea Hancock, House Manager
Juliet Burry
Ethel Danhof
Teresa Eddy
Ann Fox
Karen Marks
Carol Meijer
Kathy Miller
Ginny Osborne
Janine Papin
Julia Foster Rottmayer
Judith Topper
Trinity Preparatory School Students