Christiana Aloneftis – Musetta (La Bohème)

Twenty-four-year-old Greek-Cypriot Australian Soprano Lirico, Christiana Aloneftis, currently based in Germany, completed a BMus and a DipLang (Adv. Italian) at The University of Melbourne in 2012. In June 2014, she graduated with her Master of Interpreting and Translation degree from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Supported by the Monash University Acclaim Italian Opera Ambassadorial Scholarship (Acclaim Awards 2013/2014), Christiana relocated to Europe (June 2014) where she made her Italian debut at Fondazione Pergolesi-Spontini in the role of Agata (Il Flaminio – Pergolesi). The same programme granted her the opportunity to complete an intensive Bel-Canto course at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, Milan under renowned coloratura soprano, Luciana Serra and Maestro Vincenzo Scalera. As a result, she was selected to perform in Luciana Serra’s master class in Lago Maggiore, a month later, as the youngest participant. Since her time abroad, Christiana has participated in masterclasses and lessons with the following important figures: Lella Cuberli, Biancamaria Casoni, John Apeitos, Aris Christofellis and Julius Kalmar. In August 2015, she made her German debut in the role of Barbarina (The Marriage of Figaro) for The Lyric Opera Studio Weimar and also her Cypriot orchestral debut performing Mozart arias and duets with The Cyprus National Symphony Orchestra. At the end of 2015, Christiana sang in the final rounds of both The Young Singer Project (Salzburger Festpiele) and Fabbrica (Teatro dell’Opera di Roma).

Post-undergraduate studies, Christiana studied under the guidance of dramatic coloratura, Margaret Haggart. The young soprano has appeared as a soloist and interviewee on 3MBS Fine Music Melbourne, SBS Radio Greek/Italian and 3ZZZ Radio Melbourne and Rete Italia in promotion of opera competition finals, achievements and concerts as well as in the press for Neos Kosmos, Il Globo, The Melbourne Observer and even abroad in Germany. Past awards include winner of the Cyprus Vocal Scholarship Competition (2014), finalist in the Australian Music Foundation Awards (AMF) at Wigmore Hall, London (2013) and the Encouragement Award as the youngest finalist in the Acclaim Italian Opera Fellowship Awards held at Iwaki Auditorium, ABC Studios, Melbourne (2012). As an undergraduate student at The University of Melbourne, Christiana was awarded the Lin Martin Global Mobility Scholarship & The Melbourne Languages Mobility Scholarship (Italian) for study abroad program excellence.

Currently, Christiana is following a private study programme supported by a Major Mike Walsh Fellowship (2015) that includes voice technique, repertoire coaching and piano lessons. This has subsequently led to exciting engagements this year including her triple operatic European debut of the following roles: Musetta (La Bohéme), Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Susanna (The Marriage of Figaro) at The 2016 Connecticut Lyric Opera – Greve Opera Academy & Festival, Italy and The 2016 European Music Academy Teplice with The North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Republic. At present, she is preparing her entrance audition for a Master of Music (M. Mus Operngesang) at the Theaterakademie August Everding/Prinzregentheater, Munich.

 

Zachary Brown – Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni) & Marcello (La Bohème) 

Zack Brown, baritone, graduated from Simpson College with a Bachelor of Arts in Music in May 2015. His roles at Simpson College Opera included Frank (Die Fledermaus), Mr. Peachum (The Beggar’s Opera), The Traveller (Curlew River), Frank Maurrant (Street Scene), and Jigger (Carousel).

Brown participated in the Cedar Rapids Opera Theater Young Artist Program in January 2014, June 2014, and January 2015. He performed Poo-Bah (The Mikado) and covered Moralès (Carmen) and Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni). Brown also covered King Melchior for Des Moines Metro Opera’s 2013 production of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

This summer Brown performs the title role in Don Giovanni and Marcello (La Bohème) with the Greve Opera Academy and Leporello (Don Giovanni) with the Franco-American Vocal Academy. His voice teacher is Bruce Brown.

 

Stephanie Foster – Zerlina Cover (Don Giovanni)

A rising junior and music major at Connecticut College, Stephanie Foster has been performing musically and theatrically for over a decade. Growing up, she participated regularly in local musical theater productions, concluding her pre-collegiate career as Cinderella in Into the Woods, and was a member of a number of school, district, and state honors choirs. Over the past two years, Stephanie has sung and soloed with the Connecticut College Chamber Choir as well as acted in the theater department musicals, most recently having performed in a production of Roger’s and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Last summer, Stephanie was a student in the Schlern International Music Festival, studying and performing in the South Tyrol region of Italy. In addition to being a vocalist, she has been playing piano since the age of six.

 

Amy Harris – Donna Anna (Don Giovanni)

A native of San Diego, soprano Amy Harris will make her European debut this summer in the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. She has also performed the role of Amica in Amelia al Ballo and Denise in Offenbach’s The Lantern Marriage, and will cover Mimì in La bohème this year. An avid promoter of new works and new music, she has performed chamber music by Daniel Pinkham, Lori Laitman and Thea Musgrave and premiered works by contemporary composers such Peter Evans, Lisa Eleazarian and Richard Chowenhill. An equally strong proponent of Early Music, Ms. Harris has performed as a soloist in Mendelsohn’s Elijah (highlights), Handel’s Dixit Dominus and numerous recitals dedicated to the works Monteverdi. Ms. Harris earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Davis in Music and Comparative Literature and her Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from Longy School of Music. A resident of the Boston area, Amy works as vocalist, voice teacher and yoga instructor.

 

Hartley Horn – Leporello (Don Giovanni) & Schaunard (La Bohème) 

Hartley is excited to be performing with Greve Opera Festival again.  Some favorite roles include Papageno in The Magic Flute, The Count in Marriage of Figaro, Sid in Albert Herring, and Pish-Tush in The Mikado. Thanks to his parents for always supporting his artistic endeavors.

Camille Iorio

Camille Iorio is a first-year student from Connecticut College.  Originally, she is from a small town outside Boston, Massachusetts.  Camille is studying music and theater at Connecticut College and will graduate in 2019.  At Connecticut College, she sang in the advanced choir called “Camelheard” as well as taking both music and piano private lessons and various music and theater courses.  Her favorite past theater credits include playing Susan in Catherine Trieschmann’s play How the World Began at Connecticut College, and in high school she played Abigail Adams in 1776 and Tzietel in Fiddler on the Roof.  She also sang in her high school’s advanced chorus and sung in various regional and statewide choruses.  Camille hopes to pursue classical singing and/or theater as a career, but is very open to see what path life takes her!

 

Christian Kotsis – Masetto (Don Giovanni)

Christian Kotsis was born in 1984 and is currently a voice student of Prof. Bernhard Adler at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and finished his Bachelor of Arts 2014. He made his stage debut in 1994 at the “Theater an der Wien” as the little crown prince Rudolph in the musical “Elisabeth” before joining the Vienna Boys‘ Choir as an alto soloist. During this time he worked with conductors such as Lucio Golino, Agnes, Grossmann and Uwe Christian Harrer and participated in successful national and international tours of Mozart’s musical comedy “Bastien & Bastienne”, in which he performed the role of “Colas”. Especially the alto-solo in Schubert’s Mass No. 5 in A flat major during the 500-year-anniversary of the Vienna Boys’ Choir in the Viennese Music Association performed under Maestro Riccardo Muti was a musical high point of his engagement with the choir.
He also studied organ at the conservatory of church music with Gottfried Zykan and Ludwig Lusser, graduating with a C-Diploma.
From 2007 to 2010 he sang in eight operettas at the “Lehár Festival Bad Ischl”, gaining stage-experience. As an ensemble member of both the Burgtheater and the Akademietheater in Vienna, he was part of the A-Capella-Ensemble in “Brüder Karamasow” and “Faust I”. In 2008, on the occasion of the opening of “Licht ins Dunkel”, he headed the “Viva-Kindertheater”-project in the Federal Chancellery as the choir conductor. During the course of his studies, he has added roles such as “Papageno” (The Magic Flute), “Guglielmo” (Così fan tutte), „Maestto“ (Don Giovanni), „Don Alvaro“ (Il viaggio a Reims) „Kilian“ (Freischütz), „Scolari“ (Il mondo della luna), „Feuerwehrmann“ (Biedermann und die Brandstifter)  and „Dr, Falke“ (Fledermaus)  to his repertoire. Engagements with the Neue Oper Wien, Salzburg Concert Society and the Mörbisch Festival are the most recent addition to his artistic career.

 

Arelle Oberlander – Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni)

Arelle Oberlander is a lyric soprano based in New York City, New York, where she studies privately with Nikki Li Hartliep, and coaches with Matt Lobaugh. Recent training includes an Operatic Role Preparation class with Martina Arroyo this spring, where she studied the role of Donna Elvira from W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and an Acting for Opera Singers Workshop with Dietlinde Turban Maazel at NYC’s T. Schreiber Studio in November 2015.

In December of 2014, she produced her NYC Recital Debut: An Evening of German Lieder & Cabaret at the DiMenna Center on West 34th Street, accompanied by Edward Bak and Arthur Williford. Inspiration for the Recital Program initiated when Arelle was invited by Ed Bak to participate in the inaugural season of the Sankt Goar International Music Festival & Academy in Germany. She was granted a partial scholarship by co-founder Dr. Emilio Pons, in recognition of her innovative fundraising efforts through the small business she helped launch in April of 2014 – Kimono Couture.

In the summer of 2013, at “Si parla, si canta” in Urbania, Italy, Ms. Oberlander had the honor of working with the founder and Artistic Director of the program, Maestro Benton Hess, as well as Håkan Hagegård, Bob Cowart, and Hugh Murphy. She performed in operatic scenes as Francesca from Francesca da Rimini at the Castello Brancaleoni in Piobbico, Ginevra from Ariodante at the Chiesa San Filippo in Fossombrone, and Elisetta from Il Matrimonio Segreto at the Teatro Bramante in Urbania. At the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, also in 2013, she had the opportunity to coach with Ed Bak, perform in the Bella Italia concert directed by Stephen Marinaro, and sing in the segment of the Legends Master Class led by Michèle Crider.

Before moving to NYC, Arelle completed her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Arts at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Her final semester at USC she had the privilege of singing under the baton of Maestro Brent McMunn as part of the Soprano Chorus in Die Zauberflöte.

 

Haichen Peng – Zerlina (Don Giovanni)

Soprano, Haichen Peng, comes from JiangXi province, China. She will be performing the role of Zerline at Greve Opera Festival’s upcoming production of Don Giovanni.

She has performed opera scene’s roles included Bianca in La Rondine at the Boston Conservatory, Tallulah in The Hotel Casablanca and Mother Gerald in Dialogues des Carmélites at Berklee college of music. She will be singing the role of Oberto in Handel’s Alcina at The Boston Conservatory.

Ms. Haichen earned her Bachelor of Music Education and Master of Fine Arts in Music from JiangXi Normal University and now she is pursuing her Graduate Performance Diploma in Vocal Performance from the Boston Conservatory under the tutelage of Kathryn Wright.

 

Grace Quinsey – Zerlina (Don Giovanni)

Canadian soprano Grace Quinsey is delighted to be playing Zerlina in Don Giovanni this summer. She is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto, specializing in English and Computer Science. Recent roles include Patience in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience, First Spirit in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Josephine in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore. She has also performed scenes as Poppea in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, as well as having previously performed several scenes as Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Grace also has choreographed and managed publicity for the Victoria College Chorus in Toronto, Ontario for the past several years. She has studied vocally under Lindsay Isaac-Lalla, and has been coached by Enza Ferrari and Jonathan Brandini as part of the Accademia Europea Dell’Opera program in Lucca, Italy. She has extensive training in dance and movement, having studied ballet for fifteen years under the tutelage of instructors from the National Ballet of Canada. When not on stage, Grace works as a graphic- and web-designer, enjoys a hearty debate about 18^th century literature, and promises Canada isn’t as cold as they all say.

 

Haley Stoliker

My name is Haley Stoliker, I am currently a music major at University of Connecticut and hope to transfer into there opera studies program for the following semester. I have been classically trained at various performing arts schools such as Booker T. Washington School for the Performing Arts in Dallas Texas and the Regional Center for the Performing Arts in Trumbull Connecticut. I have had a passion for opera for my entire life and It is a great honor and privilage to be participating in the Greve Opera Festival this summer.