David Britton
Email: david.britton@asu.edu
Phone: 480-965-4003
Tenor David Britton lived and worked in New York City for two decades as a professional singer and sang with most of the major symphony orchestras and opera companies in the United States. A frequent guest artist with Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, he was also a long-time tenor soloist with New York's famed Bach Aria Group and was a featured artist with the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, the Waverly Consort and many other chamber, early music and Baroque ensembles.
He's soloed with conductors: Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Antal Dorati, Gerard Schwartz, Raphael Frübeck de Burgos, Sir David Wilcocks and Sir Raymond Leppard and others. His repertoire includes sixty-four opera roles, thirty-four operetta and musical theater roles and hundreds of cantatas, oratorios and orchestra works.
His U. S. orchestra appearances include: The New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Houston Symphony and the St. Paul and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras. David has performed roles with the Juilliard American Opera Center, Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, The San Francisco Opera and the opera companies of Philadelphia, Dallas, New Orleans and and many others.
Abroad, he's had multiple engagements with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Montreal and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, the Mexico City Symphony, the Caracas Opera, Opéra de Lyon, France, in Paris, the French National Orchestra, the Italian Spoleto and Veneto Festivals and the North German Radio Orchestra. He is a recording artist with EMI, Angel and Musical Heritage.
He received his music education at the University of North Texas, the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School.
With his wife, New York Artist and contralto Kathryn Carter, he is parent to seven children internationally adopted from Korea, Russia and the Philippines.
Carole FitzPatrick
Assistant Professor
Phone: 480-965-3383
carole.fitzpatrick@asu.ed
Carole FitzPatrick received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and two Master’s degrees from Yale, and then moved to Europe in 1988. After engagements in Dortmund and Osnabrück, Germany, she joined the ensemble of the State Theater in Nuremberg. Her extensive opera repertoire during her 17 years there includes Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Strauss and Wagner, having sung over 50 major roles in German opera houses, including Hannover, Mannheim, Duesseldorf and Berlin. Her concert work has been extensive as well, including concert tours in France and Spain, and performances in Finland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Luxemburg, and Russia. Since its inception, Ms. FitzPatrick has been a vocal advisor for the Nuremberg State Theater’s Opera Studio for Young Singers, giving both master classes and private voice lessons to the participants. She was selected by the City of Osnabrück as “Citizen of the Year” and was named by the professional magazine OpernWelt as one of its “Singer of the Year” candidates.
Anne Kopta
Associate Professor
480-727-7019
anne.kopta@asu.edu
Anne Elgar Kopta, soprano and associate professor of Music in voice, comes to the ASU Herberger College School of Music with a distinguished record of performing and teaching that spans the world of Broadway and opera, and that of teaching at major universities and at summer music schools both here and abroad.
As a principal artist singing under the stage name of Anne Elgar, she regularly appeared in leading roles with the New York City Opera and the opera companies of San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Wichita.
Her credits include Violetta in La Traviata, Gilda in Rigoletto, Mimi in La Boheme, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Blonde in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Rosina in Barber of Seville, Baby Doe in The Ballad of Baby Doe, Abigail in The Crucible, and Sister Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites, among many others. She created the role of Margaret in the world premier of Lizzie Borden by Jack Beeson, a work commissioned by the New York City Opera. The original cast album released on Desto Records has recently been reissued on CDs by Composers Recordings, Inc./CRI. Miss Anne Elgar has also recorded opera by Rossini and Meyerbeer on the Vanguard (reissued on CDs) and the HRE labels.
As a soloist, she appeared frequently with orchestras such as the Boston Symphony conducted by Eric Leinsdorf, with whom she sang Mahler's Symphony No. 4 and the world premier of Roger Sessions' Psalm 140 in the orchestral setting commissioned by Maestro Leinsdorf. Other major orchestras that engaged her include the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the San Antonio Symphony. Miss Elgar’s international appearances include performing with the Montreal Symphony, the Orchestra of Mexico City, the National Theater of Croatia and the Orchestra of The Hague, Holland.
Under the sponsorship of Columbia Artists' Community Concerts Series, she was a popular recitalist. There were also many guest appearances at Tanglewood, Chautauqua, Caramoor, Newport, Saratoga and other summer music festivals.
At the beginning of her career, she won the Metropolitan Opera Guild Scholarship and sang with the Metropolitan Opera Studio in New York and on national tours. Prior to her operatic career, she was in the original Broadway cast of The Sound of Music.
In the academic setting, Professor Kopta, a native of Kansas, brings her knowledge of vocal technique and her performing experience to her studio teaching.
For more than 20 years, she has taught at major universities during the academic year and devoted the other months to summer music schools in Austria, Italy, Israel, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Formerly, Professor Kopta was a regular faculty member of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Currently, she is working with the Tyrolean Opera Program, a summer music program in Maurach, Austria.
Her master classes at Mexico's National Conservatory of Music have become an annual event, and have resulted in special appreciation of ASU’s School of Music among students and faculty there.
Among Professor Kopta’s top priorities today is the career development of her students, as evidenced by the many who have become successful performers in opera and musical theater, dedicated teachers at colleges and conservatories, and creative administrators in arts-related fields.
Some of the opera and musical theater companies, summer festivals, and orchestras with which her former students have performed include: the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, New York; Washington Opera at the Kennedy Center, Washington, DC; the Pittsburgh Opera; the San Diego Opera and the Lyric Opera San Diego; Arizona Opera; Ashville Lyric Opera and South Carolina Opera; Compania Nacional de Opera de Bellas Artes, Mexico City; Compania Nacional de Guadalajara, Mexico; Opernhaus Zürich, Switzerland; Bielefelder Stadttheater, Germany; and Landestheater Linz, Austria.
Musical theater productions include: Mary Poppins, premier of the new Broadway musical Rent, National Touring Company; the Broadway productions of Les Miserables, Grease, and Fiddler on the Roof, Show Boat, Hal Prince’s productions in Los Angeles, Toronto and Vancouver, B.C., Phantom of the Opera, the touring company and the San Francisco production, Annie and Mame, Civic Light Opera, Pittsburgh, and Beauty and the Beast, touring company, Disney Productions.
Summer festivals include: Wolf Trap Company, Vienna, Virginia; Saratoga Performing Arts Festival; Spoletto Festival USA; Steamboat Springs Festival; and Zadar Music Festival, Croatia. Appearances with orchestras include: the Boston Pops, Morgantown Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and at Carnegie Hall, New York. Some of the young artist programs in which her students have participated include those of the Metropolitan Opera, Washington Opera, Los Angeles Opera, St. Louis Opera, Miami Opera, Pittsburgh Opera Center, San Diego Opera, Santa Fe, Central City, Vienna State Opera, Austria, and Zurich Opera, Switzerland.
Yale faculty in 1997.
Judy May
Associate Professor
480-965-3998
may@asu.edu\
A native of Illinois, mezzo-soprano Judy May holds the position of coordinator of the voice faculty in the Herberger College School of Music at Arizona State University. A winner of the Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition, she has performed recitals extensively both in the US and abroad. In addition to her appearance at Carnegie Hall with the Manhattan Philharmonic, she has been featured with the Phoenix Symphony, Sapporo Symphony (Japan), Central Wisconsin Symphony, the Aspen Chamber Symphony with Luciano Berio conducting and at the Grand Teton Music Festival. A versatile interpreter of modern music, she has several world premieres to her credit, including Spiral II by Chinery Ung in Japan and Dream Sequence by Arthur Weisberg. Professor May performed songs by John Duke with Mr. Duke at the piano. Judy May’s first radio performance was a program of songs by Clara Schumann with pianist Judith Aldstadter on New York's WQXR The Listening Room with Robert Sherman in 1977. She has many other radio broadcasts to her credit including WNYC in New York and Live from the Elvehjem on Wisconsin Public Radio.
Before her appointment in 1986 to the voice faculty at Arizona State University, Professor May was on the faculties of Westminster Choir College, the University of Wisconsin/Stevens Point and the University of Southern Mississippi. She has served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Judy May holds degrees from the University of Illinois and The Juilliard School.
Robert Mills
Assistant Clinical Professor
480-727-8797
robert.mills@asu.edu
Dr. Robert Mills is an assistant professor of Music and the vocal coach/accompanist for Arizona State University's Lyric Opera. Mr. Mills holds a BA in Music from the University of Maryland as well as a MM and a DMA in Accompanying from Arizona State University. Additionally, Mr. Mills holds both a Juris Doctor and a Master of Library Science from Brigham Young University.
For nearly three years, Mr. Mills served as an assistant vocal coach and accompanist for the Opera Institute at Boston University. Recently, he has joined the American Institute of Musical Studies Summer Program in Graz, Austria as a repetitor/coach. Prior to joining ASU's faculty, he was the coordinator of piano accompanying at Mesa Community College. Mr. Mills has collaborated with vocal artists and technicians such as Ingo Titze, Phyllis Curtain, Andrea Lechner and Patricia Craig in concert, workshop and master class settings. Mr. Mills performs frequently with the Mesa Symphony as well as the Phoenix Bach Choir and the Three Tenors of Mexico.
Amanda DeMaris
Clinical Assistant Professor
Phone: 480.727.3483
E-mail: amandademaris@asu.edu
Bio:
Amanda DeMaris, soprano, has been heard on opera, recital, and concert stages singing such repertoire as Lucy in The Telephone, Papagena in The Magic Flute, and soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah and Mozart’s Vesperae. She holds the degree BM in vocal performance from Ithaca College, MM in vocal performance from New England Conservatory, and EdD from Columbia University’s Teachers College.
DeMaris has taught at Cornell University as a visiting lecturer, Ithaca College as a lecturer and assistant professor, and at Columbia University and the New England Conservatory as a teaching assistant. Her students have gone on to perform with Forbidden Broadway, Vocal Essence Ensemble Singers, cruise ships, and numerous summer stock companies. In 2015, she joins the faculty of Arizona State University as Clinical Assistant Professor of Voice.
DeMaris is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, New York Singing Teachers Association, and Pi Kappa Lambda. Her conference presentations have included the Voice Foundation’s 38th Annual Symposium, and ISME’s World Conference in Bologna, Italy. Her research interests include musicianship for singing, and self-directed learning in the applied voice studio. Her work has been published in the Journal of Singing.
Gordon Hawkins
Assistant Professor
E-mail: gordon.hawkins@asu.edu
Bio:
Gordon Hawkins is critically acclaimed throughout the world for his in-depth interpretations and luxuriant baritone voice. Most recent engagements include Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen at the San Francisco Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville; Kaspar in Der Freischütz at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville; Telramund in Lohengrin at Deutsche Oper Berlin; Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera at the New Orleans Opera; Crown in Porgy and Bess at Cincinnati Opera; Scarpia in Tosca with Arizona Opera; and Amonasro in Aida at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Cincinnati Opera, and Michigan Opera Theatre.
This season, he will perform the title role in Rigoletto with Opera Colorado; Scarpia in Tosca with Vancouver Opera; a return to Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville for Alberich in Götterdämmerung; the title role in Porgy and Bess with the Colorado Symphony and Syracuse Opera; Amonasro in Aida with the Atlanta Symphony; and in future seasons, returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Florida Grand Opera and Washington National Opera.
Over the past few seasons, noted engagements have included Thoas in Iphigénie en Tauride at the Metropolitan Opera; Alberich in Siegfried, the title role in Rigoletto, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana, Alberich in Das Rheingold, and Alberich in Götterdämmerung (in concert) with the Washington National Opera; the title role in Macbeth, Tonio in I Pagliacci, and Count di Luna in Il Trovatore with the Seattle Opera; Alberich in Das Rheingold with the Los Angeles Opera; Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera with L’Opera de Montreal; Tonio in I Pagliacci with Atlanta Opera and Manitoba Opera; Rigoletto with Arizona Opera; Amonasro in Aida with Houston Grand Opera and Cincinnati Opera; the Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffman in Tokyo; and Porgy in Porgy and Bess with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Dallas Opera, and San Francisco Symphony.
In concert, Mr. Hawkins orchestral engagements include Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with The Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center; the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s A Great Hope Fell with the EOS Orchestra of New York; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Atlanta Symphony and the St. Louis Symphony; concert selections from American musicals with Welle WDR 4 in Cologne, Germany, and additional engagements with the Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, The Cincinnati Orchestra, the National Theatre Orchestra of Prague, and the Vienna Symphony. He also performed a gala concert for the Supreme Court Justices in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Hawkins has been heard on the Live BBC Radio broadcast as Alberich in Götterdämmerung with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, and Live from the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts earlier in his career as Marcello in La Bohème with Placido Domingo and Mirella Freni, and Silvano in Un Ballo in Maschera with Luciano Pavarotti and Aprile Millo. He can be heard as George Milton on the first recording of Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men with the Houston Grand Opera on Albany Records, and on the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts’ recording of Simon Boccanegra in the title role.
Mr. Hawkins was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition, and was awarded the Washington National Opera’s 2006 “Artist of the Year” award.
