Met Auditions Florida District
Judges and Directors
The MONC Florida District Auditions 2019:
Judges
Ruth Golden, an internationally recognized voice teacher, is a member of the voice faculty at Manhattan School of Music and has served on the faculties of the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA), LIU Post, and Bard College Conservatory Graduate program. As a guest Master Teacher, Ms. Golden has worked with young singers at the Glimmerglass Festival, the Juilliard School, Songfest, North Carolina School for the Arts, the Chautauqua Institution, the University of Southern California, and Eeh Wah University in Seoul. Her students have gone on to perform with the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, New York City Opera, Spoletto Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Santa Fe Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera, among others.
Under the direction of Beverly Sills, Ms. Golden appeared at the New York City Opera as Mimi in La Boheme, Marguerite in Faust, both Pamina and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and numerous operetta heroines in The Student Prince,The Mikado, and The Merry Widow. In addition to appearances on Live from Lincoln Center, Ms. she appeared at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space, and Merkin Concert Hall. Concert engagements included appearances at the Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Music Center, the Ravinia Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Music Academy of the West.
In addition to touring 35 of our 50 states, Ms. Golden appeared with Canadian Opera Company, Orchestra Pasdeloup in Paris, Prague Philharmonic, and the Orchestra Royale in both Madrid and Lisbon. An alumna of the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, she appeared with Marilyn Horne and Martin Katz for the Koldofsky Memorial Scholarship Fund.
Ms. Golden’s discography, originally recorded for Koch International Classics, includes works by Delius, Warlock, Vaughan-Williams, Rodrigo, and Samuel Barber. The Warlock and Barber recordings have been re-released on EMI.
Ms. Golden received the Van Lawrence Fellowship Award from The Voice Foundation, and serves as an active member of the panel of judges for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is one of the select group of voice experts featured in Robin Rice’s book Great Teachers on Great Singing.
Joel Revzen is an award-winning conductor who leads symphony and opera performances throughout North America and Europe. He is Artistic Director and Principal Conductor for Classical Tahoe, and is on the conducting staff of The Metropolitan Opera.
In the 2016/17 season, Maestro Revzen made his Metropolitan Opera conducting debut leading two performances of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin starring Peter Mattei in the title role and Anna Netrebko as Tatiana. In addition, he assisted in productions of L’Italiana in Algieri, Manon Lescaut, I Puritani, Eugene Onegin and Rigoletto. Maestro Revzen also led a sold out 2016 performance with the Russian State Academic Orchestra, and in 2017 returned to Festival Napa Valley to lead an All-American Music program featuring pianist Andre Watts playing the McDowell Second Piano Concerto, and a concert performance of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Additionally, he made his conducting debut with the Hawaii Symphony in repertoire of R. Strauss, De Falla, Chabrier and Bizet, and lead the orchestral programs at Festival Napa Valley with soloists Kathleen Battle and Sarah Chang.
In 2017/18, he returned to the MET to assist in preparing performances of Turandot, Madama Butterfly, Magic Flute, Norma, Cendrillon, and Lucia di Lammermoor. In addition, he returned to Greensboro Opera to lead performances of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.
In 2014-15, Maestro Revzen had his conducting debut with Theater Erfurt, Germany (Carmen) and returned to the Orlando Philharmonic for a production of Puccini’s Tosca as well as a symphonic program with violinist Cho Liang Lin (Shostakovich Violin Concerto). As Guest Conductor, he has appeared with the Prague Symphony, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Janacek Philharmonic, Orchestra National de Lyon, Orchestra Capital de Toulouse, Philharmonique de Radio France, the National Symphony Orchestra, Kennedy Center Chamber Players, Seattle Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Florida Philharmonic, National Arts Center Orchestra (Canada), and the Chamber Orchestra of San Remo (Italy), among others. At the invitation of Maestro Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, (Russia,) Revzen conducted performances of Berlioz’ La Damnation du Faust, Romeo et Juliette, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Rossini’s Il Barbieri di Siviglia, and most recently, a program of the music of Leonard Bernstein for the prestigious White Nights Festival.
Previously, he was invited by Pinchas Zukerman to serve as Assistant Conductor of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, a post he held for five years, and was a conducting faculty member for nine summers at the Aspen Music Festival. He joined the Arizona Opera in 2003 as Artistic Director/Principal Conductor, and in 2013 was named Conductor Laureate. During his tenure he led 31 opera productions with over 150 performances of a vast variety of operatic repertoire. During his 14 year tenure as Artistic Director/Conductor of the Berkshire Opera, highlights included commissioning and leading the world premiere of Steve Paulus’ opera Summer, serving as conductor for the critically acclaimed recording of Menotti’s The Consul, and leading concert performances of Carmen with Denyce Graves at Ozawa Hall, Tanglewood.
Maestro Revzen’s recordings include two releases with the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as critically acclaimed versions of Haydn’s Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Grammy-award winning The Art of Arleen Auger on which he was both pianist and conductor. Other recordings include the Mendelssohn Double Concerto with the Moscow Symphony, and an all Libby Larsen recording with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and soprano Benita Valente.
Carroll Freeman is a tenor and stage director who was named Classical Singer Magazine’s 2010 Stage Director of the Year. He is the Valerie Adams Distinguished Professor in Opera Studies at Georgia State University School of Music, where he additionally serves as Artistic Director of the Harrower Summer Opera Workshop.
Mr. Freeman made his New York City Opera adult debut as Alfredo in La traviata and his European debut at the Edinburgh Festival in The Postman Always Rings Twice, repeating the success he had enjoyed in its world premiere with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. His performance of Don Ottavio in Peter Sellars’ production of Don Giovanni was seen worldwide and on PBS-TV’s Great Performances, live in New York, Vienna and Paris; and on Deutsche-Grammaphon video, released by Polygram. He also performed at the Nissei Theater in Tokyo in the Japanese premiere of Miki’s Joruri. He was featured on the Pro Arte CD, H.M.S. Gilbert & Sullivan, chosen by CD Review as one of the best classical CDs of 1990.
Mr. Freeman has performed with Houston Grand Opera, Baltimore Opera, San Diego Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Atlanta Opera, New Orleans Opera, Minnesota Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Pacific, Kentucky Opera, and many others. He has appeared with the festivals of Wolf Trap Farm Park, Pepsico Summerfare, Saratoga Springs, Lake George Opera, Chautauqua, Central City Opera, ArtPark and Des Moines Metro Opera. He has soloed with Eduardo Mata and the Dallas Symphony, Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony, Sergiù Comissiona and the Houston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Symphony, National Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and made several appearances at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. Mr. Freeman was a 1980 and 1981 winner of the National Opera Institute Award given at the Kennedy Center by Beverly Sills and Harold Prince.
Mr. Freeman received his BM in vocal performance from the University of Southern Mississippi and his MPA in opera performance from Oklahoma City University. He is past artistic director of Mississippi Opera and Opera in the Ozarks and a past co-director of the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Program. He has stage-directed for Knoxville Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, Nashville Opera, El Paso Opera, Mobile Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Company of Mid-Michigan, Mississippi Opera, Phoenix Metropolitan Opera, Opera Festival of Oklahoma, Opera Aegean (Athens, Greece), Cleveland Institute of Music and Lyric Opera of Dallas. He has directed the Young Artist and Studio programs at La Musica Lirica (Novafeltria, Italy), and has taught at several other international summer programs. Inducted into the Knoxville Opera Hall of Fame, Carroll Freeman has also been honored by the National Federation of Music Clubs with a Presidential Citation.
Pianist
Robin Stamper
Managing Director,
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
Susan Bright
Ethel Danhof
Teresa Eddy
Ann Fox
Dani Janesick
Karen Marks
Carol Meijer
Kathy Miller
Ginny Osborne
Janine Papin
Judith Topper
Trinity Preparatory School Students