Patricia Craig
Renowned operatic soprano Patricia Craig serves on both the faculty of the New England Conservatory and the San Francisco Conservatory. Her performing career spanned three decades in leading opera houses around the world including the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut in 1978 and returned in a variety of leading roles. Craig teaches at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Austria, The Chautauqua Institute, and The Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI). She serves on the board of both Opera Boston and AIMS.
Khori Dastoor
After enjoying a vibrant operatic career as a lyric soprano on stages throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, California native Khori Dastoor returned to the Bay Area to pursue a life in artistic administration. A former Opera San José Principal Artist In Residence, she joined the artistic staff of Opera San José in 2013 as Artistic Advisor to the General Director, and currently serves as the Artistic Planning Director. As such, Khori collaborates with the Music Director and General Director on all casting decisions, oversees the daily functions of the artistic department, and is responsible for artistic development, budgeting, departmental communication strategies, and industry interface. Ms. Dastoor also serves as the Program Officer and Grants Administrator at the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) responsible for initiatives encompassing arts, music, and archaeology. In this capacity she works closely with PHI’s President and various grantee organizations on a wide-range of collaborative projects involving performance, historical conservation, and digital musicology.Khori was recently named the Director of the San Francisco District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She oversees all aspects of SF MONC, including strategic planning, fundraising, administration, marketing, team staffing, volunteer oversight, judge selection, and institutional partnerships. Ms. Dastoor received her Bachelor in Music from New England Conservatory and completed graduate studies at UCLA, where she was the recipient of the Dean’s Award for the School of Arts and Architecture.
Zachary Gordin
Zachary Gordin has been active in many facets of the Classical Music industry, with a career spanning over 26 years as a lead soloist, recording artist, collaborative pianist, conductor, producer, artist manager, mentor, and artistic consultant. His time is divided between an active performance schedule, mentoring and training singers who perform in some of the world's great opera houses and concert halls, and work with young singers in master classes and training programs presented by Universities and opera companies across the US. He serves as Artistic Advisor for Festival Opera, and is the President of Vox International Artists – Classical Artist Management.
Brandon Jovanovich
A native of Billings, MT, Brandon Jovanovich received his training at Northern Arizona University and Manhattan School of Music. He was the recipient of the 2007 Richard Tucker Award and was twice a New York City district winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He was a founding member of the Seattle Young Artists program and was a member of the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice program, where he was given the Anna Case Mackay award Award. He won the Crawley Award from the Young Patronesses of the Opera/Florida Grand Opera Voice Competition and in 2004 he was given the prestigious ARIA Award.
Alex Katsman
An alumnus of the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Mr. Katsman received his M.M. from St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory and his B.M. cum laude from Mussorgsky College of Music in St. Petersburg, Russia. Alexander Katsman is the Artistic and Music Director for Livermore Valley Opera and also serves on the coaching staff at the San Francisco Conservatory. Conducting and coaching credits include over 60 opera, operetta, and musical theater productions in numerous companies such as Opera San Jose, West Bay Opera, Martinez Opera, Bayshore Lyric Opera, Berkeley West Edge Opera, Oakland Lyric Opera, Solo Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, Opera Academy of California, Peninsula Teen Opera, Diablo Light Opera, Town Hall Theater, and also at Cal State University East Bay and Diablo Valley College. Recently Alexander was rehearsal conductor for Castleton Festival’s Berkeley performances of Albert Herring and The Rape of Lucretia. He was also Artistic Director for the Alexander Vocal Series, premier vocal recital series in Piedmont, California.
Michael Morgan
Michael Morgan is music director and conductor of the Oakland East Bay Symphony and serves as artistic director of Oakland Youth Orchestra, conductor emeritus at Sacramento Philharmonic, artistic advisor to the Peoria Symphony and teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. As a guest conductor, Morgan has appeared with most of America's major orchestras as well as the New York City Opera, St. Louis Opera Theater and Washington National Opera. He makes many appearances in schools throughout the year and is highly regarded as a champion of arts education and minority access to the arts.
José Luis Moscovich
José Luis Moscovich is general director of West Bay Opera and previously served as music director of San Francisco Camerata, principal guest conductor of Bay Area Concerto Ensemble, and music director of San Francisco Women's Chorus. He has appeared with Concerto Orchestra, ARTEA Orchestra, Marin Chamber Orchestra, Nova Vista Orchestra, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Idaho, and Teatro El Círculo Opera. He wrote the libretto and conducted the premiere of Corpus Evita by Carlos Franzetti, the recording of which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005.
Carrie Hennessey
Known for her soaring voice and richly nuanced characters, soprano Carrie Hennessey is consistently thrilling audiences and critics in opera and concert appearances around the world. Ms. Hennessey’s much awaited debut in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire “gave us a Blanche that let us burrow into her character’s soul, even into the darkest crevices…Hennessey, using a one-two punch of music and drama, made it resonate in a way that equaled the finest stage performances of the part I’ve seen.” Recent engagements include her debut with the Houston Symphony, NYC debut in Poulenc’s French melodrama La Voix Humane as well as European appearances at Reduta Hall in Bratislava, Rudolfinum Hall in Prague, the International Mahler Festival in Jihlava, Czech Republic, Concertgebouw in Bruges, Ypres, Belgium and at the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Germany.
Baker Peeples
Baker Peeples is Music Director of Lamplighters Music Theatre, where he has sung or conducted hundreds of performances of Gilbert and Sullivan, Offenbach and Viennese operettas, and Broadway musicals. He holds a degree in French from Yale, where he was a member of the renowned Whiffenpoofs. A noted Evangelist in Bach’s Passions, and a finalist in both the Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera auditions, Mr. Peeples has been a frequent vocal soloist in opera, oratorio and ballet around California. He won the Best Male Singer Award in the 1995 and 1997 International Gilbert and Sullivan Festivals in Buxton, England. Active in opera outreach and education, he is Music Director for the Lamplighters/San Francisco Conservatory of Music Gilbert & Sullivan scenes program for young students, the San Francisco Opera Guild’s popular Opera à la Carte program, and has written and narrated 25 opera preview CDs for the SF Opera Guild.
James Toland
JTVA Founder and General Director James Toland has been a private voice teacher for the past thirty years. His students have performed in major opera houses and on concert stages throughout the world. Toland has served in recent years as a master teacher for the prestigious San Francisco Girls Chorus, and has taught for the Piedmont Children's Chorus and Young Women's Choral Projects of San Francisco, as well as the choral music programs of the Acalanes School District. He has been a clinician for multiple choral groups including the Peninsula Women's Chorus, Cantare Con Vivo, the Young Women's Choral Projects of San Francisco, and for the choirs of the University of Tennessee as well as Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.