Elizabeth Mannion
Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano and Founder of the Institute of Vocal Artistry, a bel canto training center emphasizing delle Sedie techniques, originally at University of California at Santa Barbara, now in Saint Paul, Minnesota, serving both young students and professional signers. Distinguished Professor Emerita UCSB, former professor at Indiana, Florida State and Bowling Green State universities, and the University of Texas at Austin. Performing artist and faculty at Aspen Music Festival and Interlochen. Vocal clinician, master class presenter, and adjudicator throughout Europe, Asia, and U.S.A.
Composer and conductor John Kennedy presently serves as the Artistic Associate to Spoleto Festival USA, in a central role planning and leading many of the Festival’s “highly regarded presentations of music” (The Wall Street Journal, 2007). He is the Artistic Director of Santa Fe New Music, which presents diverse and contextualized programming and serves as a new model for a 21st Century orchestra. As a guest conductor, he has led performances spanning many genres through performances with organizations including the New York City Ballet, the Lincoln Center Festival, and the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Mr. Kennedy has worked with many of the leading composers of out time, and conducted numerous American premieres of leading international work, including the operas Faustus by Pascal Dusapin (2007), and Hans Werner Henze’s Phaedra (2009). As a composer, Kennedy has a distinct compositional voice which has proven extremely appealing to audiences and musicians. His works have been performed worldwide and featured at major festivals including the Paris Festival d’Automne, Aspekte Salzburg, the Zurich June Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall Piano Fest, the Singapore Arts Festival, and the Kanagawa Arts Festival. He has been commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera (the chamber opera Trinity, 2007), Sarasota Opera (The Language of Birds, 2004), the Contemporary Youth Orchestra of Cleveland, Bay Area Pianists, the Walt Whitman Project, and many others. Numerous choreographers have worked with Mr. Kennedy’s music, including Albert Evans in a solo ballet for Peter Boal, and Mr. Boal in a work for Pacific Northwest Ballet.
