César Ulloa
chair
After an international opera and concert career of more than fifteen years, César Ulloa devotes his time to the development of opera singers around the world. He has served on the voice faculties of Palm Beach Atlantic University and visiting professor of Montreal University, as well as young artist programs in Israel, Puerto Rico, Italy, China, Mexico and Canada. He is presently on the staff of San Francisco Opera Adler Program and the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program. His students regularly perform at major opera houses and concert halls around the world and are winners in countless international vocal competitions. With more than fifty opera roles in his repertoire, César Ulloa's singing career brought him to the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Washington Opera, Canadian Opera, Dallas Opera, L'Opéra de Monte-Carlo, among many others. As a concert artist, he has performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony and Cleveland Symphony. He was First Prize Winner of the American Opera Auditions.Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson
Sylvia Anderson, mezzo and dramatic soprano, was trained at the Eastman School and received a Fulbright Stipend to Germany. She spent 28 years abroad singing in major houses in Europe, South America and the U.S. She received an Honorary Doctorate for spanning three continents during her career, and was one of few Americans invited to sing behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. She sang Elizabeth in Russia, Salome in Warsaw and Brangaene in Teheran. She appeared as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier with New York City Opera in the new Kennedy Center in Washington and was the only American to sing Carl Orff's Antigone at the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, and his de temporum at the Salzburg Festival under Herbert von Karajan. She has sung 15 Wagnerian roles at Bayreuth Festival, San Francisco Opera, Frankfurt, Berlin, Barcelona and Rome Operas, and has sung Salome, Octavian, Marschallin, Tosca and Carmen over 100 times each. On the faculty of the Conservatory of Music since 1990, Miss Anderson founded the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI) in 1992.
Catherine Cook
American mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook has excelled in a wide range of roles with leading companies throughout the United States, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. Ms. Cook was a former Merola participant and Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera, where she continues to be a frequent presence. She has performed more than 45 roles to date with the company, including Suzuki in Madame Butterfly, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro and La Frugola in Il tabarro. Ms. Cook is a graduate of the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she won the Norman Triegle Award in opera and the same year was a Metropolitan National Council Winner. Ms. Cook’s students have been winners in many vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and are chosen to participate in many apprentice programs throughout the country. In addition to maintaining a full voice studio, she holds annual audition workshops in the Bay Area and teaches Audition Workshop for Singers at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Patricia Craig
Renowned American operatic soprano Patricia Craig made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1978 as Marenka in The Bartered Bride with James Levine conducting, and has performed leading roles in Madame Butterfly, Dialogues of the Carmelites, La Bohème and Mahagonny. Her performing career spans over three decades of major roles in the world’s leading opera houses, specializing in Puccini and Verdi heroines. Credits include performances with the New York City Opera; Teatro la Fenice in Venice, Italy; the Festival of Two Worlds in both Spoleto, Italy and Charleston, South Carolina; L’Opera de Marseilles; Frankfurt Opera, Frankfurt, Germany; and the companies of Cincinnati, Miami, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. A faculty member of the New England Conservatory from 1990 to 2010, Ms. Craig also teaches at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria and the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute. She received her B.S. degree from Ithaca College, pursued postgraduate studies in opera at the Manhattan School of Music and gained her first critical acclaim as a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Pamela Fry
415.503.6353
pfry@sfcm.edu.
Coloratura soprano Pamela Fry has been on the San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty since 1989. She served as departmental co-chair from 2001 to 2006 and as chair of the department from 2006 to 2010. Her students have been national finalists in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; they perform with New York City Opera, Portland Opera, Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera, in Europe and on Broadway, as well as numerous apprentice programs. Ms. Fry earned a B.M. from the University of Iowa and an M.M. in opera theater and voice from the Manhattan School of Music. As a soloist she has appeared with the Fremont-Newark Symphony, Artea Symphony and West Bay Opera. Versatile in many idioms, her oratorio repertoire includes Vivaldi’s Gloria, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers and Respighi’s Lauda per la Natività del Signor. Ms. Fry has taught classical and musical theater technique and vocal rehabilitation in the Bay Area for over 30 years.
Leroy Kromm
415.503.6222
lkromm@aol.com.
Leroy Kromm specializes in oratorios of all eras, having performed most bass and baritone oratorio roles in concert throughout the United States and Europe. A strong advocate for new music as well, he has worked closely with some of the most prominent composers of our day including George Crumb, Lou Harrison, Jake Heggie, Kirke Mechem, Henry Mollicone and Ned Rorem. Kromm has been a devoted advocate of singing "Nature's Way" as taught by his teacher and mentor of thirty years, William H. Miller, from the University of Illinois. He has performed with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Anchorage Festival of Music, Carmel Bach Festival, and Midsummer Mozart under Maestro George Cleve. Among his numerous opera roles are the title roles in Tartuffe by Kirk Mechem and Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as musical theater and one-act contemporary operas produced for PBS television. Mr. Kromm has recorded on various labels including Harmonia Mundi and Musical Heritage Society and he continues to serve as a clinician and consultant nationally in academia as well as the film industry in Hollywood.
Ruby Pleasure
415.503.6228
rap@sfcm.edu.
Ruby Pleasure earned a B.A. from Fisk University and a M.A. from Stanford University. She studied early music with George Houle and Imogene Horsley, theory with Arthur Crowley and Leonard Ratner, and voice with James Van Lowe, Phillip Jones, Marie Gibson, Elizabeth Appling and Hermann le Roux. She serves as choir director and organist for St. Edward’s Episcopal Church in Pacifica.
Jane Randolph
415.503.6200 x6519
msjanerand@aol.com.
Jane Randolph's 25 years of experience teaching voice to students has led her across North America: from L'Atelier de L'Opéra de Montréal and L'Université de Montréal to establishing private studios in San Diego, San Francisco and New York. Her students have sung in major national and international opera companies and have been winners of countless prestigious competitions, such as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the San Francisco Opera Auditions and the Operalia-Domingo Competition.
After completing her studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of California at Los Angeles and the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg, Germany, Ms. Randolph spent four seasons as a coloratura soprano at the Staatstheater in Luzern, Switzerland. She subsequently enjoyed an extensive career in opera, recital and oratorio in the United States, Europe and Australia. Ms. Randolph is renowned for her commitment to her students as well as her passion for the art of singing.
