Faculty

Dr. KRISTOF VAN GRYSPERRE
Artistic Director & Conductor

Belgian conductor, pianist and vocal coach, Kristof Van Grysperre, stands as a celebrated figure in the world of classical music, earning accolades and recognition for his exceptional talent and remarkable versatility. As praised by the Orange County Register, Van Grysperre’s performances are marked by an extraordinary blend of skill and artistry, embodying “gifted and stylistically impeccable” qualities, coupled with a unique ability to wield both musical power and sensitivity.

A notable highlight of Van Grysperre’s illustrious career has been his association with the Long Beach Opera, where he has conducted a series of productions that have consistently garnered high acclaim which includes the likes of Frida, Candide, Hydrogen Jukebox, King Gesar, and the world premiere of Fallujah, which was live broadcasted by KCET and which he also conducted in his New York City Opera debut.

Van Grysperre recently graced the stage with his conducting prowess at the Chicago Opera Theater, leading stellar performances of The Consul, starring Patricia Racette and Victoria Livengood. He also made an indelible mark at the iconic Carnegie Hall with An Evening of Opera.

Van Grysperre’s reputation as a conductor is built upon his remarkable proficiency in both traditional and contemporary repertoire. He is widely regarded for his unwavering commitment to precision and clarity, coupled with a profound mastery of detail. His extensive repertoire includes over sixty operas, and he has conducted captivating performances for organizations such as Opera Pacific, Baltimore Opera Studio, Intimate Opera Company, USC Opera, and Cal State Los Angeles.

Inspired by his mentor Carlo Bergonzi, Van Grysperre is deeply committed to nurturing emerging talent in the world of opera. As the Artistic Director of Angels Vocal Art, he has conducted captivating renditions of operas like Tosca, The Consul, Il Trittico, La Traviata, Anya17, Candide, and a resplendent Gran Gala di Verdi at past summer Festivals. Currently, he serves as the Director of Opera and Vocal Studies at Azusa Pacific University, where he continues to shape the future of operatic talent.

Beyond the conductor’s podium, Kristof Van Grysperre is highly sought-after as a coach for both singers and conductors. His expertise has been harnessed by prestigious institutions such as the Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Program, Aspen Opera Center, Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, SongFest, California Conducting Workshop, and the University of Southern California, where he held the position of acting music director for the USC Thornton Opera.

Van Grysperre collaborated with leading instrumentalists and singers, such as Angela Meade, Philip Webb, Juliana Gondek, Maria Newman and Suzan Hanson. He recorded for the René Gailly and Phaedra labels, the Flemish and Suisse Radio and Television and K-Mozart.

Equally at home as a recording engineer, he built a new state-of-the-art coaching and recording studio, complete with acoustic panels and green screen, and produced La Voix Humaine during the Pandemic.

Van Grysperre has been honored with numerous awards and fellowships, including the prestigious Fulbright Grant. At the USC Thornton School of Music, he completed a Doctorate and two Master of Music degrees, all with highest honors, with major fields in keyboard collaborative arts and orchestral conducting.  He also studied at the Conservatories of Liège and Ghent (Belgium) where he obtained Concert Diplomas for both piano and chamber music.  https://www.vangrysperre.com/

VICTORIA LIVENGOOD
Master Classes

GRAMMY Award-winning Metropolitan Opera star Victoria Livengood is a mezzo-soprano that has been hailed as “one of the leading singer-actresses of her generation” and the Italian press proclaimed “the power of her voice could straighten the leaning Tower of Pisa.”

Since her acclaimed Met debut in 1991, the Thomasville, North Carolina native skyrocketed onto the opera scene and has become known for her dynamic portrayals in more than 125 Met performances, including the title role of Carmen opposite Placido Domingo.

She has sung over 100 different roles 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 three decades, having sung leading roles with the companies of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Santa Fe, Washington DC, Seattle, Houston, Boston, Miami, St. Louis, San Diego, Baltimore, Portland, Utah, Fort Worth, Atlanta, Anchorage, 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!

“Miss Vickie” is in demand for her highly acclaimed Master Classes across the globe and maintains a flourishing private voice studio in Concord, NC and in New York City.

MARK LAMANNA
Stage Director

Mark Lamanna is a stage director and teacher. Productions he has staged include L’enfant et les Sortilèges, Dido & Aeneas, Hansel & Gretel, Cendrillon, and Die Fledermaus at the Orange County School of the Arts; La Traviata, The Mikado, La Tragédie de Carmen and Die Fledermaus at the Intimate Opera Company; Lee Hoiby’s This Is The Rill Speaking and She Loves Me at Cal State LA, and a recent concert version of West Side Story at South Coast Symphony. For Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, he contributed direction for a new opera, A New Kind of Fallout and directed Kiss Me Kate. He has staged numerous opera scenes programs including USC, Songfest, Opera New Jersey, and the Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, and twice staged the Opera Showcase of the Desert in Palm Springs featuring Metropolitan Opera competition finalists.

In 2007, Classical Singer Magazine named him Stage Director of the Year. In New York City, he trained as a singer with long-term voice teachers James Carson and Lynne Vardaman, trained as an actor at the T. Schreiber Studio and HB Studios, and danced on scholarship at the Joffrey Ballet School and Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. His work deepened through two decades of private and group living-in-process training. He currently teaches process acting privately and in groups at his home.

Dr. LINDA ZOOLALIAN
Pianist & Vocal Coach

Dr. Linda Zoolalian enjoys an active career as a pianist, teacher, and coach. She is on the faculties of Pasadena City College and Glendale College as well as preparing and cueing the supertitles for LA Opera. Previously she worked ten summers for Operafestival di Roma in Italy, where she served as music director, coach, pianist, prompter, and teacher of accompanying. She has been hired to play for the LA Phil, LA Master Chorale, LA Opera, Long Beach Opera, Opera Pacific, and the LA Chamber Orchestra. In the past, Linda held positions at Cal Arts, Pomona College of the Claremont Colleges, Cal State Long Beach’s Opera Institute, AIMS in Austria, Operaworks, Songfest, and Idyllwild Arts. She received her Bachelor’s in Piano Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and her Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Keyboard Collaborative Arts from the University of Southern California.

Dr. KEVIN ST. CLAIR
Program Director

Tenor Kevin St. Clair pursued musical studies at Chapman University, Yale University and the University of Southern California, where he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree. He began his professional opera career as Nemorino in The Elixir of Love with the Los Angeles Guild Opera and has since performed with Santa Fe Opera, Washington Opera,  Opera Pacific and other companies nationwide in a wide variety of roles.  In concert, Dr. St. Clair has been a featured soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, and Long Beach Symphony and has performed as a soloist under the direction of Pierre Boulez and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Onstage, Dr. St. Clair appeared in acclaimed film director Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, for which he won an Ovation Award.  Onscreen, St. Clair was featured on the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother and appears in the Robin Williams feature film License to Wed.  He had the honor of singing at the 2009 commencement ceremonies for UC Merced for First Lady Michelle Obama.

Since 2015, Dr. St. Clair has served as Program Director for the Angels Vocal Art Summer Opera Intensive training program for young singers.  He is the founder and director of the Charles Dickens Carolers and has been a guest clinician and voice instructor for the All-American Boys Chorus.  Long active in opera education, he has served as Associate Director of Education and Engagement for Long Beach Opera and continues to develop and produce educational programming through South Coast Opera, where he serves as Artistic Director, and for the Long Beach Camerata Singers.  He currently serves on the voice faculty at Cal State Dominguez Hills and Long Beach City College and is in demand as an adjudicator, clinician, and private voice instructor.

Dr. SUSAN MOHINI KANE
Professor of 21st Century Singer & Self-Care for Artists Courses

Soprano Susan Mohini Kane’s “crystal-clear voice and impeccable technique” (LA Culture Spot Magazine) has captured audiences in performances of opera, oratorio, art song, and classical cabaret. A full professor at California State University, Los Angeles, Kane teaches voice, vocal pedagogy, song literature and directs the opera. Dr. Kane is the author of The 21st Century Singer – Making The Leap From The University Into The World (Oxford University Press, 2015). Her solo CD recording entitled A Moment of Joy inspired these reviews: “Kane’s recent CD, A Moment of Joy, provides far more than a moment, this series of art songs and arias brings phrase after phrase of artful music” (McKinney). Music Web International hails Kane’s CD as “a truly inspirational disc.”

ANNE MARIE KETCHUM
Stage Director

Anne Marie Ketchum, singer, conductor, stage director and voice teacher has served on the faculty of Pasadena City College since 1981 directing an opera workshop and a full opera production each spring. For five years Ms. Ketchum served as stage director for the Opera Showcase of the Desert in Palm Springs creating shows featuring finalists from the Western Regional Met Auditions.

As a soprano, she has appeared internationally and is known for her performances of contemporary music, chamber music and opera. She has sung numerous recordings and premieres by many composers, including her husband, Cuban/American composer, Aurelio de la Vega. Among her creative activities is This and my Heart: a portrait of Emily Dickenson–a concert/theater piece which she co-wrote and performs with actress Linda Kelsey and pianist Victoria Kirsch.

Ms. Ketchum is the Artistic Director of The Verdi Chorus, a non-profit organization devoted to performing opera chorus repertoire in concert.

NOAM AVIEL
Assistant Conductor

Noam Aviel has recently graduated with a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Illinois State University where she served as Assistant Director of Orchestras. Noam has two Bachelor of Music degrees in Voice Performance and Orchestral Conducting from Tel- Aviv University, Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, Israel. Noam served as Music Director of the opera A Dinner Engagement by Lennox Berkeley as part of the Illinois Festival Opera, and performed as assistant conductor in the ISU production of Street Scene by Kurt Weill. She participated as a conducting fellow at the 2015 Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, where she worked with Maestro Gerard Schwarz, Maestro Grant Cooper, and Maestro Eric Garcia. She also participated in the Conducting Concerti Workshop with Maestro David Itkin through the Conductors Guild organization. Noam’s performing experience includes singing as a choir member in various programs with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Dr. SOO-YEON PARK
Pianist & Vocal Coach

Pianist Soo-Yeon Park is an accomplished musician with extensive experience as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach. She has collaborated with Long Beach Opera, Opera Pacific, Intimate Opera, USC Thornton Opera, Classical Singers Association, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, California Conducting Institute, and Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra. Her summer festival appearances include the London Piano Festival, Korean Chamber Orchestra Summer Music Festival, Algonquin International Music Festival in Canada, SongFest, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, and Bowdoin International Music Festival. She received a B.M. degree in Piano Performance from Seoul National University and an M.M. from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. She earned her Doctorate in Keyboard Collaborative Arts from the University of Southern California. She is currently a full-time faculty member at California State University, Bakersfield, where she serves as coordinator of Piano Studies, co-directs the chamber music program, and directs the opera program.

CARSON GILMORE
Assistant Director

Carson Gilmore is a professional stage director, opera producer and dramatic coach, a co-founder of Hawkmore Lyric and Mission Opera Companies. He is employed regularly as Assistant Director for his fifth production with POP. In 2018, he participated served as Assistant Director and Stage Manager for The Merry Widow at Opera NEO, and this is second year as Assistant Director at Pacific Opera Project, with POP’s 2019 La bohème marking his tenth show with the company. Recent among his directorial accomplishments are Così fan tutte, at Mission Opera, and I Capuleti e i Montecchi, for Hawkmore Lyric Opera. Other credits include Le nozze di Figaro, for Celestial Opera Company, Verdi’s Otello Vineyard Touring Opera Company, La traviata, The Queen of Spades and Werther for Independent Opera Company, Die Zauberflöte, Aida, and Lucia di Lammermoor for the Casa Italiana Opera Company, followed by L’elisir d’amore, and I puritani for Orphée Arts. His is also an accomplished professional baritone.

SOPHIE GOLDSTEIN
Acting Teacher

Sophie Goldstein is an LA native who graduated from Cal State LA with a B.A. in Theatre Arts and Dance, followed by a MFA in Physical Theatre from Accademia Dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. While there she had the opportunity to perform with several professional theatre companies including Familie Floz (Berlin, Germany), FLIC Scuola Di Circo (Torino, Italy) and Divadlo Continuo (Malovice, Czech Republic). She also performed with the Red Dot Theatre in We Are Thy Labyrinth that won the Jury’s Choice Award at an international theatre festival in Ankara, Turkey. In Arezzo, she helped organize the annual Crisis Arts Festival which focused on bridging the gap between art and social justice. She taught several movement workshops for the festival and performed in an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage. Previously she has assisted Tanya Kane-Parry as a stage manager/assistant director on productions of Don Giovanni, and Il Barbiere Di Siviglia with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, and La Traviata and  Anya 17 with Angels Vocal Art productions. Locally she has performed in Pinata Dreams at Casa 0101, Lucia Di Lammermoor at  LA Opera, The Wall: A Musical Misdeed at Cal State LA and is a member for the site-specific theatre company, Opera Del Espacio (www.operadelespacio.org), performing on the LA Metro (Meet Me@Metro), the World Dance Association festival in Hawaii, Highways Performance Space, Frogtown Artwalk, Downtown Artwalk, The Series at The Standard, Bell Community Garden and more. She recently produced her own work with the MicroTheatre Experience in Venice, CA that focused on site-specific performances. She has taught classes in Commedia Dell’Arte, Voice,Viewpoints and Dance at Plaza De La Raza, Imagine Arts, ArtWorx LA, A Noise Within and Cal State LA.