Pianist JOHN BOYAJY received Bachelor’s and Masters degrees from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied with Mme. Rosina Lhévinne, Mieczyslaw Münz and Katherine Bacon. He has appeared at Avery Fischer Hall in Lincoln Center, and on the Concerts Grand and Dance Palace piano series in Marin County. In February of last year, he appeared at Old First Church in San Francisco, the venue for the Chopin Foundation’s fund­raiser. In addition to his public appearances, John performs at private homes. He has collaborated with the Bay Area’s most esteemed pianist-teachers by serving as a judge in local piano competitions, and has extensive experience as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach. In addition to accompanying the choir and appearing as soloist at All Saints Lutheran Church in Novato, John teaches piano and coaches vocalists at his San Marin studio.

 

 

 

 

 

  

Baritone EUGENE BRANCOVEANU’s robust voice and superior stagecraft have earned him critical acclaim in both North America and Europe. Following recent performances of San Francisco Opera’s The Little Prince, the San Francisco Chronicle lauds the superb cast as being “led by extravagantly gifted baritone Eugene Brancoveanu as the Pilot. With his unforced charisma, vocal clarity, and total heft, Brancoveanu managed the tricky feat of doing most of the show’s heavy lifting…”

 

In 2008-09 Eugene Brancoveanu returns to San Francisco Opera as Belcore in L’elisir d’amore; sings Karnak in Lalo’s Le Roi d’ys with the American Symphony Orchestra; Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Livermore Valley Opera; sings as soloist in Elijah at the Mondavi Center for Performing Arts in California; in Carmina Burana with Peninsula Symphony Orchestra; and, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, continues his performing of Michael Tilson Thomas’ The Tomashevskys, a work which he premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2005-06 and has reprised with the New World Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. In the 2007-08 season he made his New York City Opera debut as Pandolfe in Cendrillon, sang the role of The Pilot in Portman’s The Little Prince for San Francisco Opera, sang as soloist in Brahms’ Requiem with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, and with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Bernstein repertoire.

 

Eugene Brancoveanu made his debut with San Francisco Opera in 2005-06 as Second Prisoner in Fidelio. He held a prestigious appointment as an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera for two seasons, directly following his critically acclaimed summer 2004 performances of Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia with the company’s Merola Opera Program. The San Francisco Chronicle praised his performances of Tarquinius, reporting that “Brancoveanu boasted a phenomenally resonant voice that he managed with wondrous ease and assurance.” Subsequent appearances with San Francisco Opera include Christian in Un ballo in maschera, Marullo in Rigoletto, Moralès in Carmen, Frank in Die Fledermaus, Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and the Innkeeper and the Captain in Manon Lescaut.

 

 

  

In the 2008-2009 season, soprano HEIDI MELTON returned to the San Francisco Opera for her second year in the company’s Adler Young Artists Program. In concert, she made her debut with the Milwaukee Symphony in a New Year’s Eve Gala performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and she also performed the Mahler Fourth Symphony with California’s North State Symphony Orchestra. In the spring, she returned to L’Opera de Bordeaux to sing her role debut of Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. In the 2009-2010 season, she will sing concert performances of Chrysothemis in Strauss’ Elektra with Milwaukee Symphony.

 

In the 2007-2008 Ms. Melton made her debut at L’Opera de Bordeaux in the role of Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. For San Francisco Opera, she performed a number of roles including Mary Todd Lincoln in the world premier of Phillip Glass’ Appomattox, Marianne Leitmetzerin in Der Rosenkavalier, and Dianne in Iphigenie en Tauride. Additionally that season, she performed the role of Gertrude in Hansel and Gretel with Philadelphia Opera Company. In concert, she sang with the Berkeley Symphony in Golijov’s “Night of the Flying Horses” and Shostakovich’s “From Jewish Poetry”. With Napa Valley Symphony, she sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. She was also invited to sing two prestigious recitals: The Schwabacher Debut Recital through the San Francisco Opera, and a recital for the Jussi Bjorling Society in Voxna, Sweden.

 

As a 2006 participant in the Merola Opera Program, she performed Amelia in scenes from Simon Boccanegra at Yerba Buena Gardens. Additionally, she performed the roles of Miss Grose in Turn of the Screw, Ariadne in Ariadne auf Naxos, Alcina in Alcina, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, and Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte all with Curtis Opera Theater.

 

Additional concert performances include the Szymanowski Stabat Mater and Schubert Mass in A with the Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Mass in C with Eastman Summer Sing, Bach Mass in F with Curtis Madrigal Singers and the Philadelphia premiere of Richard Danielpour’s cycle, Sweet Talk.

 

In 2008, Ms. Melton won a Sarah Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, and she won third place in the 27th Annual Belevedere Competition. In 2006 she was a national semi-finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions as well as the winner of the Mario Lanza Competition.

 

   

    

Soprano HEIDI MOSS has performed regularly in the Bay area since her move from New York City in 2003. She has appeared in leading roles with Pocket Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, West Bay Opera, San Francisco Opera Center, Fremont Symphony, and Livermore Opera. In November of 2008 she made her debuts with the Oakland Symphony singing the Faure Requiem and with the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra performing the Lord Nelson Mass for which she received rave reviews. Ms. Moss has also garnered recognition in major vocal competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, (New York District first place winner), the Liederkranz Competition (winner), and the MacAllister Awards. Most recently she was one of three finalists (and the only singer) to perform in the 2008 KDFC Classical Star concert with guest artist Lang Lang.

 

Her passion for lieder and art song has precipitated several recitals, including participation in the Paul Sperry’s Joy in Singing master classes, a solo concert sponsored by the Liederkranz Foundation, and a solo concert launching the anniversary season for the Trinity Noonday Recital Series in New York City. She initiated a collaboration with celebrated Slovene classical guitarist, Tomaz Rajteric, and achieved great success from their fall 2003 concert in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

 

In January of 2009 she was invited to record the role of Madeline in Gordon Getty’s new opera, “Usher House” with the San Francisco Opera orchestra conducted by Ian Robertson. In March 2009 they traveled to Florida to perform another reading of the opera with the Russian National Orchestra.

 

In addition to an active musical life, Ms. Moss graduated with a dual biology/music degree from Oberlin and spent many years as a published scientific researcher at Rockefeller University. She was also a featured soprano for Nobel laureate Dr. Jim Watson, of double-helix fame, at his numerous events at Cold Spring Harbor.

 

In 2007 she came down with a rare version of Bell’s Palsy which left half of her face permanently paralyzed. Despite her handicap, she is grateful to be singing again and for the support the community has shown. She is the proud mother of two toddler girls, Ava and Hana, and the wife of biophysicist Andrej Sali.

 

 

   

Pianist, JOHN PARR is San Francisco Opera’s Head of Music Staff. A native of Birmingham, UK, Parr studied piano at the Royal Northern College of Music with Sulamita Aronovsky and musicology at Manchester University. He worked for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden from 1985–88, touring with the company to Japan and Korea in 1986. He was engaged at Scottish Opera from 1988-90. In 1991 joined the Lower Saxony State Opera in Hannover, Germany, where he was Head of Music Staff and Musical Assistant to Music directors George Alexander Albrecht, Christof Perick and Andreas Delfs, specializing in the Wagner and Strauss operas. During this time he developed an extensive series of Lieder Recitals and Chamber Music Programs for the Opera, and also broadcast on SFB Radio Berlin and on NDR Television. With San Francisco Opera, Parr has developed and performed in numerous recital programs. Since 2002 he has worked as a coach at the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth in the summer, and has also given recitals in the Wagner Museum there.

 

 

 

   

A native of Piedras Negras, Mexico, tenor ELEAZAR RODRIGUEZ is a recipient of the Placido Domingo voice scholarship given by SIVAM (Sociedad Internacional de Valores de Arte Mexicano), Mexico’s most renowned young artist program and is a top prize winner in the Carlo Morelli National Competition in Mexico City.  He was chosen by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to perform in June of 2009 at a Gala concert honoring Gordon Getty, where he will perform with Frederica Von Stade.  He joins the illustrious Merola Opera Program in 2009. 

 

In 2008 he appeared in recital at the Kennedy Center, as part of the Center’s conservatory project series and performed Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Fremont Opera, and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with the IVAI in Tel Aviv, Israel.  He received the “Outstanding Achievement Award” in opera from the San Francisco Conservatory in 2007 and was chosen to perform a solo recital for conductor Donald Runnicles’ farewell concert from the San Francisco Opera Guild.  In the 2006-2007 seasons, he sang the leading role of Salvador Dali in David Conte’s opera, Famous, Lara in America Tropical, also by David Conte, and created the title role of Caesar in the San Francisco world premier of Young Caesar by Lou Harrison.  He has also been heard in concerts and recitals throughout Mexico, including the Teatro del Palacio de Bellas Artes.

 

His operatic repertoire includes the leading tenor roles in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cosi Fan Tutte, Die Zauberflöte, L’Egisto, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and L’Elisir D’amore.  His concert repertoire includes the tenor solos for Coronation Mass and Requiem Mass by W.A. Mozart, Petite Messe Solennelle by G. Rossini and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

 

Mr. Rodriguez earned a Music Diploma from the Escuela Superior de Musica de la Universidad Autonoma de Coahuila in 2003.  He has worked with such distinguished musical authorities as Joan Dornemann, Denise Massé, Sherril Milnes, Justino Diaz, Diana Soviero, Paul Nadler, David Rosenmeyer, David Sloss, Christopher Larkin and Tito Capobianco.  For the past seven years he has been under the tutelage of César Ulloa, and is presently a junior voice major at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

 

 

  

Mezzo-soprano KINDRA SCHARICH has been praised for her “rich lyric voice, and agile, expressive acting,” and continues to delight audiences with her portrayals of the lovable characters  in the lyric mezzo repertoire.  Her roles include Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Rosina (Il barbiere di siviglia) and Perichole (La Perichole).

 

As a great lover of the song repertoire, Ms Scharich regularly appears in bay area recitals and in concert with the Athena Trio.   Ms. Scharich has been chosen to sing in many master classes with world renowned artists such as Elly Ameling, Grace Bumbry and Sherrill Milnes, to name a few.  Originally from Michigan, Ms. Scharich holds a BM and MM in vocal performance from the University of Michigan, and attended the Eastman School of Music and received a post graduate degree in voice from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.