Vienna, 1920s

Gabriel von Eisenstein has played a practical joke on his friend Dr. Falke. After a costume ball, Eisenstein left Dr. Falke drunk and asleep on a park bench wearing not much more than a bat mask. The next morning, Dr. Falke awoke to find himself being laughed at by a crowd of onlookers. He was soon to be known as Dr. Fledermaus (Dr. Bat). Now, the moment has come for die Rache der Fledermaus, the revenge of the bat.

Act I. Hotel Lobby

Alfred is serenading Rosalinda in the lobby of the Imperial Hotel. Long before Rosalinda got married to Eisenstein, she and Alfred had an affair while attending music conservatory. Adele, chambermaid in Eisenstein’s house, receives a letter from her sister, Ida, who invites her to come to a party at Prince Orlovsky’s garden that night. To get out of work, she pretends her old aunt is sick. Rosalinda doesn’t believe her story and insists that she stay and work.

Rosalinda is having a hard time resisting Alfred’s advances and his beautiful tenor voice. He suddenly needs to hide when Eisenstein comes home accompanied by his lawyer, Dr. Blind. Eisenstein has been sentenced to eight days in jail for insulting a police officer. After they blame each other for the unfortunate jail sentence, Eisenstein kicks Dr. Blind out.

Dr. Falke arrives and encourages Eisenstein to postpone the start of his prison sentence in order to secretly come to Prince Orlovsky’s party. Falke convinces him to bring his “lady bait” (a charming little watch) to seduce the women and party like the good old days.

Before Dr. Falke leaves, he secretly gives Rosalinda a letter telling her about Eisenstein’s plans and also invites her to attend Prince Orlovsky’s party disguised as a Hungarian countess.

Rosalinda gives Adele the night off, and Eisenstein says goodbye to his wife. In a heart-wrenching farewell, all three have a hard time hiding their excitement for the upcoming events. After Eisenstein and Adele have left, Alfred comes back for a romantic tête-à-tête with Rosalinda. They are interrupted when the hotel manager and head concierge, Frank, comes to escort Mr.Eisenstein to jail. To uphold Rosalinda’s reputation, Alfred pretends to be her husband and is taken to prison in Eisenstein’s place.

Act II. Hotel Ballroom

Dr.Falke is greeting guests at Prince Orlovsky’s party.He has been in charge of planning the event and of entertaining the notoriously bored Russian prince.

Eisenstein arrives and is announced as “Marquis Renard.” Prince Orlovsky encourages him to partake in some Russian national customs. When Eisenstein begins to recognize Adele, she convincingly proves that she could never be a chambermaid.

Hotel manager and head concierge Frank arrives and is announced as “Chevalier Chagrin.” He is introduced to “Marquis Renard” and the two “Frenchmen” quickly become friends.

Dr. Falke now asks the guests for their discretion, as a “Hungarian countess” will join the party but wishes to stay incognito. Eisenstein can’t wait to use his “lady bait” to seduce the mysterious stranger, who is none other than his own wife, Rosalinda. He not only fails to convince her to remove her mask but also loses his “lady bait” watch while trying.

Adele and Eisenstein question if the “countess” is truly Hungarian. Rosalinda dissolves all doubts by singing “music from her homeland.”

After a grand champagne toast, Dr. Falke suggests that all guests pledge eternal brotherhood. When the clock strikes six in the morning, Eisenstein must leave in order to start his jail sentence. Dancing out arm in arm, neither “Marquis Renard” (Eisenstein) nor “Chevalier Chagrin” (hotel manager and head concierge Frank) realizes they will soon meet again at the jailhouse.

Act III. Hotel Security Office

Alfred has been locked up in Eisenstein’s jail cell all night.

Frank arrives, still drunk from the party. Just as he begins to take a nap, Ida and Adele enter and confess to Frank that, although Adele is really Eisenstein’s chambermaid, she wishes to be an actress. Thinking that he is Chevalier Chagrin, they ask for his help in furthering Adele’s career.

Eisenstein arrives and is delighted to learn that his friend Chevalier Chagrin is none other than Frank the hotel manager and head concierge. Frank is confused and doubtful that his friend Marquis Renard is actually Eisenstein, since “Eisenstein” was already arrested last night before the ball!

Rosalinda arrives to try to get Alfred out of jail. When the lawyer that Alfred had summoned enters, they have no idea it is not Dr. Blind but Eisenstein in disguise, having snatched the legal robe and wig earlier. As Rosalinda and Alfred confide their flirtation, Eisenstein removes his disguise and angrily accuses his wife of infidelity.

Rosalinda shows Eisenstein the “lady bait.” Shocked and humiliated, he realizes that the Hungarian countess he had been trying to seduce was in fact his own wife. Dr. Falke arrives with Prince Orlovsky and the party guests and reveals that this entire charade was all his idea. Eisenstein receives his wife’s forgiveness, and Dr. Falke enjoys “the revenge of the bat.”

by Caitlin Brown
Musicology Ph.D. Student

When Johann Strauss II began composing operettas in the early 1870s, he had already earned a formidable reputation as the “Waltz King” for his sizeable body of ballroom music. Strauss’s equally famous father, Johann Strauss I, discouraged all three of his sons from pursuing music. Ultimately, all three did forge careers as musicians, creating considerable familial tension, and Johann the Younger surpassed his father as one of Vienna’s brightest musical stars. Like his father, he found his footing as a composer and conductor in the glittering ballrooms of nineteenth-century Austria. Upon his father’s death, he assumed direction of the family orchestra and earned an appointment as music director of the Royal Court Balls at the cosmopolitan Habsburg Court. A ball was not truly Viennese if Strauss’s music, especially a waltz, was not played. Music critic Eduard Hanslick wrote of Strauss in 1884: “His popularity is virtually immeasurable: in all parts of the world Strauss melodies resound, and in our part of the world, they come from almost every house.” Strauss composed nearly 500 works during his career, many of which are still played today.

A significant factor in Strauss’s success as a composer of popular music was his musical environment. The nineteenth century saw an increasing stratification between popular and elite genres. A booming music publishing industry and a vibrant public concert scene encouraged a multiplicity of entertainments, all aimed at selling sheet music and tickets. This trend was evident throughout Europe by the second half of the nineteenth century, and Viennese theater was no exception. While the serious and lavish operas of the day could be sampled at select opera houses in Vienna, theaters in the suburbs staged the endlessly popular and lighter operettas. But because of the lack of Viennese operetta composers, these theaters relied on a steady influx of imported works from France by composers like Jacques Offenbach. As reactions against serious opera, these works had lighter plots, spoken dialogue, singable melodies, comedic characters, and entertaining dance sequences. While opera appealed to an exclusive audience, operetta was accessible to the masses.

By the time Die Fledermaus premiered at the Theater an der Wien in 1874, Vienna was in the midst of an operetta “Golden Age” and had recently begun staging native Viennese works. Strauss was not the first Viennese composer to attempt writing operetta, but he was the most successful. By economic standards, alone, no other composer came close to rivaling him. Operettas were, after all, judged on their ability to sell tickets, leaving a piece’s success or failure to the whims of the paying public, not the critics. But Strauss managed to please both audiences and critics with Die Fledermaus. While he drew on Offenbach’s satiric, French example, he also chose a libretto with topical and singularly Viennese qualities and easily translated his musical style to the stage.

Strauss enlisted German librettists Karl Haffner and Richard Genée and worked more closely with them than he had with previous librettists. Since the plot was based on a German play and a French vaudeville, the trio updated the content to make itmore Viennese. The operetta opens in a contemporary bourgeois Viennese home, and the plot revolves around the hijinks of an old pair of friends, illicit romance, and a spectacular masked ball at Prince Orlofsky’s country palace, where the characters might forget life’s troubles for one evening. While such a plot accurately depicted the spectacular, cosmopolitan life that the world had come to associate with Vienna, its presence on the stage was surprising to Viennese audiences by 1874. The excessive and champagne-soaked Viennese carousing at the center of the story carried a different social connotation than it would have a few decades before. Vienna had suffered a devastating stock market crash in May 1873, and the revelry of the 1860s gave way to a more austere manner of living. The chance to attend a masked ball satisfied an escapist desire and longing for the past that only seemed appropriate in the new social climate. For the Viennese, Die Fledermaus was laced with a nostalgic self-awareness and a willful forgetting of present difficulties.

Regarding his musical strategy, Strauss wrote: “If an operetta is going to be popular, then everyone must find something in it to suit his tastes....And the people in the gallery must also get something out of it that they can remember; for these people have no money to buy piano reductions, and even less money for a piano, therefore one must present it well so that as soon as they leave the performance something stays in their ear!” As a result, Strauss’s gift for melody and his preference for dance forms, particularly the waltz, translated easily from the ballroom to the theater. The latter is at its finest during Prince Orlofsky’s ball in Act II. New to Strauss’s style, though, was his use of instrumentation to enhance characterization. In the overture, bells interrupt the action near the beginning as a foreshadowing of later events. Strauss uses the full orchestra in scenes from the city to represent the sophisticated, urbane Vienna, while a smaller, more bucolic ensemble is used at Prince Orlofsky’s country palace. It is also hard to miss Strauss’s personal preference for the violin as it dominates most of the operetta’s instrumental melodies or complements the voices. Critics complained that theatergoers danced and sang along from their seats, distracting from performance. The music was so popular, in fact, that Strauss repackaged several of the numbers for concert performance and sheet music publication after the premiere. Orchestras today regularly perform Strauss’s concert arrangement of the operetta’s overture.

Vienna’s “Golden Age” of operetta died away with its Waltz King and his peers by 1900. By then, Die Fledermaus had been performed over 300 times at the Theater an der Wien alone. The work is still performed in opera houses after almost 150 years. One major factor in the work’s continued success is certainly Strauss’s unique and pleasing Viennese musical style. But it is also the intensely relatable themes in the plot that continue to satisfy audiences. The impulse to escape the sobriety of economic crisis by indulging in a nostalgic revelry of the past is certainly one that even modern listeners can comprehend.

Arthur Fagen has been professor of orchestral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 2008, where he is currently chair of the Orchestral Conducting Department. Additionally, he has been music director of the Atlanta Opera since 2010.

Fagen was born in New York, where he began his conducting studies with Laszlo Halasz. Further studies continued at the Curtis Institute, under the guidance of Max Rudolf, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and with Hans Swarowsky. A former assistant of both Christoph von Dohnányi (Frankfurt Opera) and James Levine (Metropolitan Opera), Fagen’s career has been marked by a string of notable appearances. He has conducted opera productions at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Munich State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin, New York City Opera, Theatre Capitole de Toulouse, Bordeaux Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, New Israeli Opera, Baltimore Opera, Edmonton Opera, Spoleto Festival, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, and Stadttheater Bozen. From 1998 to 2001, he was invited regularly as guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera. On the concert podium, Fagen has appeared with internationally known orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, the Czech Philharmonic, Munich Radio Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, RAI Orchestras (Torino, Naples, Milano, Roma), the Bergen Philharmonic, Prague Spring Festival, the Dutch Radio Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Fagen has an opera repertory of more than 75 works. He has served as principal conductor in Kassel and Brunswick, as chief conductor of the Flanders Opera of Antwerp and Ghent, as music director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra, and as a member of the conducting staff of the Chicago Lyric Opera.

From 2002 to 2007, he was music director of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dortmund Opera. Following his successful concerts with the Dortmund Philharmonic at the Grosse Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Fagen and the Dortmund Philharmonic were invited to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels, and to Salzburg, Beijing, and Shanghai. He conducted in that period, among others, new opera productions of Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, and two Ring Cycles.

Fagen conducted a new production of Turandot at the Atlanta Opera in 2007, opening the season with enormous success and inaugurating the new opera house, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. Soon afterward in Atlanta, he conducted the contemporary opera Cold Sassy Tree by Carlisle Floyd.

He was first-prize winner of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Conductors Competition, as well as a prize winner of the Gino Marinuzzi International Conductors’ Competition in Italy.

Fagen has recorded for BMG, Bayerischer Rundfunk, SFB, and WDR Cologne. He records regularly for Naxos, for which he has completed the six symphonies of Bohuslav Martinů. The recent Naxos recording of Martinů’s piano concertos has been awarded an Editor’s Choice award in the March 2010 issue of Gramophone magazine.

In 2015, Robin Guarino made her critically received stage directing debut at San Francisco Opera during the summer, directing Le Nozze di Figaro in addition to directing productions of Così fan tutte and Hansel and Gretel at University of Cincinnati–College Conservatory of Music (CCM) Opera. She also directed two developmental workshops, focused on Fellow Travelers and Meet John Doe, with Opera Fusion: New Works, a program she co-artistic directs with Cincinnati Opera colleague Marcus Kuchle.

She returned to the Metropolitan Opera to work with James Levine directing Mozart’s Così fan tutte for his return to the Met in a live-for-HD production and directed Der Rosenkavalier, also for HD. Additionally, she directed a new production of Orlando Palladino at Manhattan School of Music, Falstaff at Indiana University Opera Theater, and, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the world premiere of War Stories by composer Lembit Beecher with Gotham Chamber. She made her directing debut with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in a critically received new production of Dialogues of the Carmelites.

In 2016, Guarino makes her stage directing debut at Skylight Opera, directing a new production of Powder Her Face, and makes her debut with the Milwaukee Symphony, directing a new production of Le Nozze di Figaro with Edo De Waart.

In 2017, she makes her debut at Philadelphia Opera, directing a new production of War Stories as well as returning to direct a new production at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

In addition to directing for major opera companies across the United States, Lincoln Center has long been an artistic home for Guarino. She has directed numerous productions at the Metropolitan Opera in addition to directing for the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher and at Alice Tully Hall, and the EOS Orchestra at the Ethical Culture Society.

A champion of new work, she has directed and premiered new works and operas by composers Ricky Ian Gordon, Douglas Cuomo, Jake Heggie, Mark Adamo, Ned Rorem, Deborah Drattell, Jonathan Sheffer, and Libby Larsen, and passionately continues that work with Opera Fusion: New Works.

Dedicated to young singer development and training, Guarino is a returning guest artist on the faculty of the San Francisco Merola Program and of young artist programs and festivals across the country, including Glimmerglass Opera, Wolftrap Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She served as dramatic advisor of the Juilliard Opera from 2004 to 2008 before going to CCM to serve as J. Ralph Corbett Distinguished Chair in Opera.

Allen Moyer’s recent set-design credits include Die Fledermaus (English National Opera), Curlew River (Tanglewood Festival), and the premieres of Dolores Claiborne (San Francisco Opera) and 27 and Champion (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis). Other credits include Orfeo ed Euridice for the Metropolitan Opera, directed by Mark Morris; La fille du regiment, The Last Savage (scenery and costumes), Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and The Tales of Hoffmann for Santa Fe Opera; Emmeline and The Elixir of Love for OperaTheatre of Saint Louis; Virginia (scenery and costumes) and The Ghosts of Versailles for the Wexford Festival (Ireland); and Nixon in China for the Canadian Opera Company. He has also designed for many productions at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Scottish Opera, Washington National Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Welsh National Opera, L’Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), and Seattle Opera as well as several productions for New York City Opera, including Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, Il Trittico, Il Viaggio A Reims, and La Bohème (also broadcast on Live from Lincoln Center). Moyer also designed the premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie’s The Grapes of Wrath for the Minnesota Opera as well as the Delibes ballet Sylvia for San Francisco Ballet and Romeo and Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare for the Mark Morris Dance Group, the latter two choreographed by Morris.

Moyer’s Broadway credits include The Lyons, Lysistrata Jones, the musical Grey Gardens (Tony/Drama Desk/Outer Critic’s Circle nominations and the 2006 Hewes Award from the American Theater Wing), After Miss Julie, Little Dog Laughed, Twelve Angry Men (including the National Tour), and The Constant Wife. Extensive theater credits include productions for Playwright’s Horizons, The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, Second Stage, The Roundabout Theatre, Signature Theatre Company, The Drama Dept., the Guthrie, Manhattan Theater Club, and Lincoln Center Theater Company.

He is the recipient of a 2006 OBIE Award for sustained excellence.

Candice Donnelly previously worked at American Conservatory Theater on Elektra, Endgame, Play, Race, ‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore, The Circle, and Happy End. Other credits include La novicia rebelde (Buenos Aires), Autumn Sonata (Yale Repertory Theatre), Endgame (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Dolley Madison (PBS’s American Experience), The Wiz, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Three Sisters (Center Stage in Baltimore), She Loves Me (Westport Country Playhouse), and Edgardo Mine (Guthrie Theater). She has worked on Broadway productions of Our Country’s Good, Fences, Hughie, Search and Destroy, and Mastergate. Off-Broadway credits include As You Like It and The Skin of Our Teeth (Shakespeare in the Park), Haroun and the Sea of Stories and La finta giardiniera (New York City Opera), Fires in the Mirror and The Skin of Our Teeth (The Public Theater), and No Strings (Encores!). She has also designed shows for Hong Kong Opera, Minnesota Opera, Flemish National Opera, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, American Repertory Theater, and Huntington Theatre Company, among others.

Allen Hahn is associate professor of lighting design at the Indiana University Department of Theatre, Drama, & Contemporary Dance. Internationally, his work includes Giulio Cesare and the world premiere of Kafka’s Trial for the Royal Danish Opera as well as numerous productions for companies and festivals in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K. In New York City, he designed Gotham Chamber Opera’s inaugural production of Il Sogno di Scipione as well as Les Malheurs d’Orphée and Dido and Aeneas, and Arianna in Creta and Rinaldo for City Opera. For Spoleto Festival USA, he designed the U.S.premiere of Emilie last season as well as productions of Il Trittico and Luisa Miller in previous seasons. Other U.S. opera highlights include Mitridate for Santa Fe Opera, Don Giovanni for Glimmerglass, Death in Venice for Chicago Opera Theater, and the world premiere of Miss Lonelyhearts for Juilliard. Several of his designs were selected for the 2007 Prague Quadrennial exhibition, and he served as lighting design curator for the U.S. exhibit at this year’s Quadrennial. He has worked with artist Tony Oursler on installations at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and ARoS Kunstmuseum in Denmark, and on numerous productions with the New York-based cross-media performance company The Builders Association since its inception in 1994.

Julia Hoffmann Lawson earned her B.A. in German from the University of Wisconsin and her M.A. and Ph.D. in German Literature from Indiana University, completing the latter in 1980. She has lived and studied in Germany and Switzerland. She taught German for many years at Indiana University, Northern Virginia Community College, and Georgetown University as well as for private language contractors in the Washington, D.C. metro area. She and her husband returned to Bloomington in 2002. From 2004 until her retirement this year, she worked as a part-time lecturer in the IU Department of Germanic Studies. In April 2010, she received Indiana University’s Distinguished Teaching Award for part-time faculty. She is delighted to have served as German diction coach for IU Opera Theater since Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor in 2008. Since then, she has coached Der Rosenkavalier, for which she also wrote the supertitles, Die lustige Witwe, Die Zauberflöte, and Die Fledermaus.

Along with his responsibilities as professor of choral conducting and faculty director of opera choruses at the Jacobs School of Music, Walter Huff continues his duties as Atlanta Opera chorus master. He has been chorus master for The Atlanta Opera since 1988, preparing the chorus in more than 120 productions and receiving critical acclaim in the United States and abroad. Huff received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and his Master of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory (Johns Hopkins). He studied piano with Sarah Martin, Peter Takács, and Lillian Freundlich, and voice with Flore Wend. After serving as a fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, he received Tanglewood’s C.D. Jackson Master Award for Excellence. Huff served as coach with the Peabody Opera Theatre and Washington Opera, and has been musical director for The Atlanta Opera Studio, Georgia State University Opera, and Actor’s Express (Atlanta, Ga.). He also has worked as chorus master with San Diego Opera. He served on the faculty at Georgia State University for four years as assistant professor, guest lecturer, and conductor for the Georgia State University Choral Society. Recently, he was one of four Atlanta artists chosen for the first Loridans Arts Awards, given to Atlanta artists who have made exceptional contributions to the arts life of Atlanta over a long period of time. While serving as chorus master for The Atlanta Opera, Huff has been the music director for The Atlanta Opera High School Opera Institute, a nine-month training program for talented, classically trained high school singers. He has served as chorus master for the IU Opera Theater productions of Don Giovanni, The Merry Widow, Akhnaten, Le Nozze di Figaro, Lady Thi Kính, H.M.S. Pinafore, La Traviata, The Italian Girl in Algiers, La Bohème, The Last Savage, South Pacific, Die Zauberflöte, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Dead Man Walking. This past June, Huff served as choral instructor and conductor for the Sacred Music Intensive, a workshop inaugurated by the Organ and Choral departments at the Jacobs School. In addition, he maintains a busy vocal coaching studio in Atlanta.

Michael Vernon, artistic director and chair of the Ballet Department, started dancing at the Nesta Brooking School of Ballet in London before going on to study at the Royal Ballet School in London with such legendary teachers as Dame Ninette de Valois and Leonide Massine. He performed with the Royal Ballet, Royal Opera Ballet, and London Festival Ballet before coming to New York in 1976 to join the Eglevsky Ballet as ballet master and resident choreographer. He became artistic director of the Long Island-based company in 1989 and remained in that position until 1996.

Vernon choreographed numerous ballets for the Eglevsky Ballet, in addition to ballets for many other professional companies in the United States and worldwide, such as BalletMet of Columbus, Ohio, and North Carolina Dance Theatre. Mikhail Baryshnikov commissioned him to choreograph the successful pas de deux In a Country Garden for American Ballet Theatre (ABT). His solo S’Wonderful was danced by ABT principal Cynthia Harvey in the presence of President and Mrs. Reagan and shown nationwide on CBS television. He served as the assistant choreographer on Ken Russell’s movie Valentino, starring Rudolph Nureyev and Leslie Caron.

Vernon taught at Steps on Broadway in New York City for many years, working with dancers from New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, and many other high-profile companies. He is an integral part of the Manhattan Dance Project, which brings New York-style master classes to all regions of the United States. He has been involved with the Ballet Program of the Chautauqua Institution since 1996 and is the artistic advisor for the Ballet School of Stamford. He is permanent guest teacher at the Manhattan Youth Ballet and has a long association with Ballet Hawaii.

Vernon has been a company teacher for American Ballet Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Metropolitan Opera Ballet, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. He has guest taught in companies all over the world, including West Australian Ballet, National Ballet of China, Hong Kong Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Berlin Ballet, Royal Swedish Ballet, and Norwegian National Ballet. He has been a guest teacher for The Juilliard School and taught for many years at The Ailey School. He recently joined the panel of judges for the Youth of America Grand Prix regional semi-finals. For the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he is chair of the Ballet Department, Vernon has choreographed Endless Night, Jeux, Spectre de la Rose, and Cathedral, and has staged and provided additional choreography for the full-length classics Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty. He has choreographed for many IU Opera Theater productions, such as Faust and the world premiere of Vincent.

Marlen Nahhas is a soprano from Houston, Texas, currently pursuing her performance diploma at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Carol Vaness. She earned her master’s degree from Jacobs and her Bachelor of Music in both vocal performance and musical theatre from Oklahoma City University. This summer, Nahhas was awarded first place and crowd favorite in the Michael Ballam Concorsco Lirico International Opera Competition. She was also a winner of the Schloss Mirabell Voice Competition through the Frost School of Music Summer Program in Salzburg. Last summer, she was a festival artist at the Utah Festival Opera, where she covered the roles of Mimi in Puccini’s La Bohème and Smitty in Loesser’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Past roles include VoMo in the world premiere of P.Q. Phan’s opera The Tale of Lady Thi Kính, Madame Lidoine (Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites), Suor Angelica (Puccini’s Suor Angelica), Antonia (Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Violette (Verdi’s La Traviata) Sandman (Penhorwoods’ Too Many Sopranos), Mrs. Lovett (Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd), and Bloody Mary (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific).

A native of East Lansing, Mich., soprano Ann Marie Theis is making her Indiana University Opera Theater debut as Rosalinde. Theis is an associate instructor of voice pursuing a Master of Music in Voice Performance with Carol Vaness and is mentored by coaches Kevin Murphy and James Davis Hart. At IU, Theis has participated in Carol Vaness’s and Heidi Grant Murphy’s opera workshops. She holds bachelor degrees in music education and vocal performance from Michigan State University, where she studied under the tutelage of Richard Fracker. While at Michigan State, Theis performed in Beijing, China, in collaboration with the Beijing Conservatory. Her undergraduate opera credits include the roles of Ma Joad in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath, Antonia in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, First Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and Arminda in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. She also has appeared as a soprano and mezzo-soprano soloist with the Great Lakes Symphony Orchestra, Michigan State Chorale, Michigan State Symphony Orchestra, Women’s Chamber Ensemble, and Lansing Symphony Orchestra.She was a young artist in the Washington National Opera Institute, where she was selected to perform at a gala concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

Bille Bruley, tenor, is a second-year graduate student at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Carol Vaness. A Montgomery, Texas, native, he completed his undergraduate studies at Baylor University in 2014, where he studied with Robert Best. Most recently, Bruley was an apprentice artist with Central City Opera and performed the roles of The Tempter (Britten’s The Prodigal Son), Gastone (Verdi’s La Traviata), and Sancho (Darion and Leigh’s Man of La Mancha). He has been accepted to many programs, including the Glimmerglass Festival, Central City Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Opera in the Ozarks.Awards include the Central City Opera Iris Henwood Richards Memorial Award, Thomas Stewart Award for Vocal Excellence from the Baylor University School of Music, winner in the 2015 Lois Alba Aria Competition, finalist in the 2014 Dallas Opera Guild Competition, and third-place winner in the Music Teachers National Association National Young Artist Competition. He was also the Houston District first-prize winner and a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2014. Bruley has performed with many orchestras, symphonies, and ensembles across the nation, including the Waco Symphony, Fort Worth Baroque Society, Texas Baroque Ensemble, and South Dakota Chorale. He will also appear as Ferrando in IU Opera Theater’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte in February.

Andrew Marks Maughan, tenor, is from Salt Lake City, Utah. He recently made his Glimmerglass Festival debut singing the role of Cacambo and covering the title role in Francesca Zambello’s production of Candide. In the summers of 2011-14, he joined the Ohio Light Opera and performed the roles of Alfred in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Freddy in Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady, Frederic in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, Sándor Barinkay in Johann Strauss’s The Gypsy Baron, Fritz in Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, and Camille in Lehar’s The Merry Widow, as well as several others. While attending The University of Utah for his master’s and bachelor’s degrees, Maughan had the great pleasure of singing many roles, including Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Sam Polk in Floyd’s Susannah, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Nerone in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Le Chevalier in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. Die Fledermaus is Maughan’s third production with IU Opera Theater, having previously sung the roles of Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème and Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata. He is currently studying voice performance at the Jacobs School of Music as a student of Costanza Cuccaro.

Rebekah Howell is in the first year of her master’s degree at Indiana University, studying with Carol Vaness. This is her IU Opera Theater debut, and she will also appear with IU Opera in 2016 as Ado Annie in Oklahoma! A native of Houston, Texas, she earned her undergraduate degree at Baylor University, where she studied privately with Robert Best. She has performed with SongFest, the studio program at Chautauqua Opera, and with the studio program at Opera in the Ozarks as well as appearing frequently with the Baylor Opera Theater. Recent opera credits include Queen of the Night (Mozart’s The Magic Flute), Samantha (Moore’s The Ballad of Baby Doe), Zerlina (Mozart’s Don Giovanni), Blondchen (Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Olympia (Wainwright’s Prima Donna), Flora (Britten’s The Turn of the Screw), Sister Constance de St. Denis (Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites), Belinda (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas), and Barbarina (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro). In 2015, Howell was the national winner of the Music Teacher’s National Association Young Artists Vocal Competition. She was a frequent finalist in the Texoma Regional National Association of Teachers of Singing Competitions, winning both the Edward Baird Singer of the Year Award in 2014 and the Grady Harlan Award for Most Promising Professional Voice in 2013. In 2014, she was a finalist in the Dallas Opera Guild Competition, and in 2015, she received an Encouragement Award at the New Orleans District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Soprano Natalie Weinberg is in the second year of her master’s degree at Indiana University under the tutelage of Patricia Stiles. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Indiana University with a minor in Italian. Originally from New York, Weinberg has called Atlanta home for the past eight years. With IU Opera Theater, she has sung the role of Elvira in Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers and was featured as a Friend of Thi Mao in the world premiere of P.Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kính. Other IU Opera Theater productions include Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Menotti’s The Last Savage, Verdi’s La Traviata, Glass’s Akhnaten, Puccini’s La Bohème, and Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Weinberg sang the role of Mrs. Keeney in the world premiere of Ezra Donner’s Ile with New Voices Opera. At IU, she has appeared as a soloist in Mozart’s C Minor Mass and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle. She has also sung in a master class with countertenor David Daniels. Additionally, she serves as the artistic director of New Voices Opera, a student-run opera company devoted to the creation and production of new operatic works written and performed by students for the community.

Baritone Zachary Coates earned his master’s degree from Indiana University and is currently in the second year of his doctoral studies here. He has appeared with IU Opera Theater as the Count in Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni, Sid in Albert Herring, and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. Last year, he was a young artist with Michigan Opera Theater singing small roles in its productions of Elektra, Madama Butterfly, Frida, The Merry Widow, and Faust. As a concert soloist, he has performed in Handel’s Messiah with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War with the American Classical Orchestra, and multiple works with ensembles at the Jacobs School of Music. This past summer, Coates won third place at the Meistersinger Competition in Graz, Austria.He is a student of Andreas Poulimenos.

Ross Coughanour is a baritone from Santaquin, Utah. He graduated with a B.A. in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2013. While at BYU, he performed such roles as Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Ben in Menotti’s The Telephone, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Dr. Stone in Menotti’s Help, Help, The Globolinks!, Somarone and Leonato in Berlioz’s Beatrice et Benedict, and the Duke of Plazatoro in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers. Outside of school, Coughanour played the Marquiz in Verdi’s La Traviata with the Utah Lyric Opera, Uncle Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Utah Lyric Opera, and Edwin in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury with Snow College Opera. Currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Jacobs School of Music, he has been featured as Mang Ong in the world premiere of P.Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kinh, Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème, Melisso in Handel’s Alcina, and the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance. In 2016, he will perform Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen.

Edward E. Graves, a baritone from Oxon Hill, Md., is pursuing his Master of Music in Voice Performance at the Jacobs School of Music with Patricia Havranek. He earned his Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Towson University, where he studied with Aaron Sheehan. While at Towson, he performed the roles of Calandrino in Mozart’s The Goose of Cairo, Cinderella’s Father in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Dudley in Davies’ Little Red’s Most Unusual Day, and Gabriel von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. Additionally, he sang in master classes for Theodora Hanslowe and François Loup and performed the role of Count Almaviva in a scene from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. He also participated in the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in 2011, where he performed scenes from Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Kern and Hammerstein’s Showboat, and Blitzstein’s Regina. Previous IU Opera Theater appearances include Haly in Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers, The Doctor/ensemble in Menotti’s The Last Savage, ensemble in Verdi’s La Traviata, and Brühlmann in Massenet’s Werther. He has been the bass soloist in Mozart’s Missa Brevis in B-Flat, Schubert’s Mass in G, D.167, and Mozart’s Missa Brevis in D. Other performances at IU include singing in a François LeRoux master class, the title role Gianni Schicchi in Carol Vaness’s Opera Workshop, and baritone solos in Lourenço’s oratorio From the Ashes, Raymond Wise’s Afro-American Suite: A Song of Freedom, and H. Leslie Adams’ Hymn to Freedom. Upcoming performances include Belcore in a scene from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore in Heidi Grant Murphy’s Opera Workshop.

Brazilian baritone Bruno Sandes is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance as a former student of Robert Harrison and a current student of Carol Vaness. He is a recipient of the Barbara and David Jacobs Scholarship. Sandes earned a degree in interior design at the Federal Institute of Alagoas, Brazil, before relocating to Bloomington, Ind. His recent roles with IU Opera Theater include Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, Taddeo in Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers, Le Surintendant des Plaisirs in Massenet’s Cendrillon, and Sùng Ông in the world premiere of P.Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kính. Sandes also performed the roles of Steward in Ezra Donner’s Ile, Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Joly in Schönberg’s Les Misérables. He has sung on tours through Austria, Italy, and Germany. He won first place in the XI Maracanto International Voice Competition and was one of the winners of the 2013 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Competition. He was a semifinalist in the IX Maria Callas International Voice Competition and selected as one of six singers from around the world in the 42nd International Winter Festival of Campos do Jordão. In addition, he was chosen in 2010 as the best classical singer of northeast Brazil by the Art and Culture Critics Association and as a grand winner of the 2014 IU Latin American Music Center Recording Competition. Later this season, he will be singing the role of Ali Hakim in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! with IU Opera Theater.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Tislam Swift has performed in a wide array of theaters, opera houses, and other venues. In 2007, he was a background vocalist for Elton John’s sixtieth-birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden. A graduate of Morehouse College, Swift was a frequent soloist with the world-renowned Morehouse College Glee Club, with which he toured both nationally and internationally. He was also a member of the 2013-14 season of the Atlanta Opera chorus, under the direction of Walter Huff. In 2014, Swift participated in the Princeton Opera Festival’s production of Porgy and Bess.Currently, he is a second-year master’s student at the Jacobs School of Music, where he has made IU Opera Theater appearances in La Bohème, South Pacific, and The Barber of Seville. Last spring, he performed the tenor role in the New Voices Opera production of Thump. This summer, he covered the role of Coridon in Handel’s Acis and Galatea with the Indiana University Summer Chorus. Swift is a student of Brian Horne.

Max Zander, tenor, is a second-year master’s student studying vocal performance at the Jacobs School of Music, where he also earned his Bachelor of Music degree with a minor in conducting. This performance marks his fourteenth production with IU Opera Theater, previously appearing as Basilio (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro), Bardolfo (Verdi’s Falstaff), Njegus (Lehár’s The Merry Widow), Rabbi (Menotti’s The Last Savage), Modiste/Liveryman (Massenet’s Cendrillon), and various characters in Bernstein’s Candide. He performed in the choruses of IU Opera Theater’s productions of Rand’s Vincent, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Puccini’s La Bohème, Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. With IU’s Summer Opera Workshop, he has performed in scenes as Prunier (La Rondine), Candide (Candide), Basilio and Don Curzio (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Jaquino (Beethoven’s Fidelio). He has performed in IU’s Undergraduate Opera Workshop as Robert (Sondheim’s Company), Anthony (Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd), Henrik (Sondheim’s A Little Night Music), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), and Mylio (Lalo’s Le roi d’Ys). He was also seen as Tolloller in the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s inaugural production of Iolanthe. Other operatic credits include Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore (Montefeltro Festival in Italy), Flute in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Monostatos in The Magic Flute (Halifax Summer Opera Festival), and Borsa in Rigoletto (North Shore Music Festival). He is a native of Great Neck, N.Y., and is currently a student of Patricia Stiles.

Andres Acosta, tenor, is a first-year master’s student at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Carlos Montane.The Miami, Fla., native earned his undergraduate degree from Florida State University as a member of David Okerlund’s studio. Most recently, Acosta was seen as Ferrando in the Janiec Opera Company’s production of Così fan tutte. He will appear again with IU Opera Theater this spring, as Le Dancaïre in Carmen. He was the recipient of the Judy George Junior Young Artist First Prize Award in the 2015 Young Patronesses of the Opera competition. He was nominated as 2014 Humanitarian of the Year at Florida State University and is recognized as a Brautlecht Estate Endowed and Music Guild Scholar.

Tenor Michael Day is a first-year graduate student at the Jacobs School of Music, where he earned undergraduate degrees in music education and voice. Die Fledermaus marks his third appearance on the IU Opera Theater stage, having sung the roles of Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Schmidt in Massenet’s Werther. He has performed the roles of Ruggero (Puccini’s La Rondine) in Carol Vaness’s opera workshop and Padre (Darion and Leigh’s Man of La Mancha) with Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, where he was a festival artist last summer. Day has performed as a concert soloist in works such as Mozart’s Requiem with St. Paul’s Episcopal Choir and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Bloomington Chamber Singers. He is a student of Andreas Poulimenos.

Kaitlyn McMonigle, mezzo-soprano, is a second-year master’s student in voice performance at the Jacobs School of Music, where she studies with Carol Vaness. She made her IU Opera Theater role debut last season as Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina. This past summer, she was a studio artist at Wolf Trap Opera, where she performed the role of La Madre in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly alongside the National Symphony Orchestra and appeared in the chorus of Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. In 2013, she participated in the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy and the Chautauqua Music Festival Vocal Program, where she played Sister Mathilde in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and worked with American composer Ben Moore as a soloist in a concert of his works. Other roles she has performed include Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Despina in Così fan tutte, Rosina in The Barber of Seville (Central Florida Lyric Opera), and the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas (Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre in Cambridge, N.Y.). McMonigle grew up in Ocala, Fla., and earned her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at Florida State University in 2014. She is a two-time first-place winner of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Southeast Regional Auditions and an alumna of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Voice Program.

Amanda Perera, mezzo-soprano, is a first-year master’s student at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Timothy Noble. This spring, she earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance degree from Western University (UWO) in her hometown of London, Ontario. During her time at Western, she performed with UWOpera as Maman and La Chatte in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, DoDo in Lehár’s The Merry Widow, and Tisbe in Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Other credits include Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen (Opera NUOVA) and Countess Charlotte in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (Halifax Summer Opera Workshop). In recent years, Perera was the recipient of the James A. Harris Memorial Award and winner of the Open Voice Competition at the Kiwanis Music Festival of London, silver medalist and provincial finalist in the Ontario Music Festival Association’s Open Voice Competition, second-award winner at the NATS Competition, and semi-finalist at the National Classical Singer Competition. In concert, she has appeared as a soloist with Kawartha Concerts, St. Andrews Arts Council, Opera NUOVA, Western University Singers, St. Paul’s Cathedral’s organ recital series, McGill University’s Cappella Antica and early music ensembles, Hubbard Hall Opera Theater, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Her role as Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus marks her IU Opera Theater debut.

Synthia Steiman, soprano, is pursuing a master’s degree in voice performance at the Jacobs School of Music. Most recently, she was seen as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Last summer, she attended the Miami Summer Music Festival and sang the Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel and covered La Fee in Cendrillon.Steiman is an active member of Reimagining Opera for Kids and NOTUS: Contemporary Vocal Ensemble. Later this season, she will perform Blöndchen from Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Heidi Grant Murphy’s Opera Workshop. Originally from Carmel, Ind., Steiman earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from IU last spring. She studied for two summers in Austria during her undergrad. She also performed the role of Jou-Jou in The Merry Widow with IU Opera Theater. Partial roles include Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute), Mlle Silberklang (Der Schauspieldirektor), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Norina (Don Pasquale), and Nannetta (Falstaff). Steiman is a student of Patricia Stiles.

Soprano Joelle Tucker, a native of the Greater Cincinnati area, is in the first year of her master’s degree at the Jacobs School of Music, where she recently earned her bachelor’s degree in vocal performance with an outside field in arts administration. This is Tucker’s second role with IU Opera Theater, following her role as Third Spirit in the 2015 production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. As a chorus member for IU Opera Theater, she has performed in Puccini’s La Bohème (2011 and 2014 productions), Bernstein’s Candide, Lehár’s The Merry Widow, and Verdi’s La Traviata. She has also performed scenes from Sondheim’s A Little Night Music (Anne Egerman), Company (Jenny), and Sweeney Todd (Mrs. Lovett) in Sylvia McNair’s Vocal Performance Workshop Class. Tucker is a student of Andreas Poulimenos.

Alia Federico was born in Boynton Beach, Fla., and moved to Swarthmore, Pa., where she started her ballet training at the age of three. She studied at the Swarthmore Ballet Theatre with Lori Ardis and Amber Flynn until she was 16. During that time, she attended the Kirov Academy of Ballet Summer Intensive and the Harid Conservatory Summer Program. In January 2014, she began dancing at the School of Pennsylvania Ballet under the direction of William DeGregory and Arantxa Ochoa. She attended the Miami City Ballet Summer Intensive in the summer of 2014. In the fall of 2015, Federico became a student at the Jacobs School of Music, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an undetermined outside field.

Scout Inghilterra is currently a sophomore at the Jacobs School of Music. She began her ballet training at age 10 in New York City, where she trained at Ballet Hispanico for two years. She continued her training at Studio Maestro, which was recently renamed Manhattan Youth Ballet, for six years with Deborah Wingert, Marina Stavitskaya, Brian Reeder, and Daniel Ulbricht. With Manhattan Youth Ballet, she performed numerous roles, including Russian Girl in Balanchine’s Serenade, Balanchine’sEmeralds Pas De Trois, “Embraceable You” in Balanchine’s Who Cares?, original work choreographed by Brian Reeder, and Clara, Butterfly, and Museum in Nutcracker: The Knickerbocker Suite, along with other repertoire. She has attended Boston Ballet’s summer intensive, Vail International Dance Festival summer intensive, and Pennsylvania Ballet’s summer program. During her first year at Jacobs, she performed roles in Balanchine’s Emeralds and Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker, and in Balanchine’s Swan Lake (Act II). She is a Hutton Honors Scholar and a recipient of a Young Artist Award.

Camille Kellems was born and raised in Newport Beach, Calif. She started ballet at age three, studying at various studios in Orange County. She trained under Charles Maple at the Maple Conservatory of Dance from the day the studio opened in 2011 until her senior year in high school. She has attended summer programs including San Francisco Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, School of American Ballet, and Boston Ballet.

Abigail Kulwicki grew up in Hudson, Ohio, and began her ballet training under the instruction of Mia Klinger in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. As a member of the Cuyahoga Valley Youth Ballet, she performed lead and featured roles in original ballets choreographed by Francis Patrelle, Tom Gold, Laszlo Berdo, and other well-known choreographers. At 15, she moved to Winston-Salem, N.C., to continue her training and complete her high school studies at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA). At UNCSA, Kulwicki was featured in Polovtsian Dances, an original piece choreographed by Susan Jaffe. She has attended summer intensives since the age of nine, including Boston Ballet, Carolina Ballet, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, Gelsey Kirkland Academy, and Washington Ballet. During her freshman year at the Jacobs School of Music, she performed in Emeralds, The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake (Act II). She is a sophomore pursing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Elementary Education.

Lauren Lane is a sophomore ballet major at the Jacobs School of Music pursuing an outside field in kinesiology and a pre-physical therapy track. She grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where she trained with New Albany Ballet Company under the direction of Christine Mangia and Amy Tremante. While there, she performed many roles, including Sugar Plum Fairy, Arabian Pas de Deux, and Dream Clara in The Nutcracker. Last year, she performed in George Balanchine’s Swan Lake (Act II) and Michael Vernon’s The Nutcracker. She has attended summer intensive programs with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (three years), American Ballet Theatre, Jacobs School of Music, Ballet West, and Ballet Chicago.

Ginabel Peterson Padilla grew up in Philadelphia, Pa. She began her ballet training at age six at Wissahickon Dance Academy, a local studio. She later attended The Kirov Academy of Ballet of Washington, D.C., and Miami City Ballet School. She has also attended summer intensives at the aforementioned schools and at San Francisco Ballet School. She has performed in La Bayadere, The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle, La Sylphide, Luna del Mar, and Western Symphony.

Ali Willson was born and raised in Newport Beach, Calif. She trained at the Maple Conservatory of Dance for seven years under the instruction of Charles Maple, Tong Wang, Kristin Hakala, Patrick Franz, and Steven Inskeep. She also spent time training with Tanya Durbin. Willson has attended summer courses at the School of American Ballet and Boston Ballet. She played leading roles at the Maple Conservatory, including Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow Queen and Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, and the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland.

Gillian Worek is currently a sophomore at the Jacobs School of Music pursuing a degree in ballet performance. She most recently performed in Indiana University Ballet Theater’s The Nutcracker and George Balanchine’s Swan Lake Act (II). She has taken ballet lessons for 15 years and has trained under Julie Caprio of Hamilton Ballet Theater. She has attended New York City’s Joffrey Ballet, The Rock School for Dance Education, Koltun Ballet Academy, and Chicago Ballet’s summer intensives.

Sarah Young was born in Bloomington, Ind., where she studied ballet with the IU Pre-College ballet program until she was a senior in high school. She moved to Seattle, Wash., for her senior year of high school, where she was a part of the professional division with Pacific Northwest Ballet for two years. Young has attended numerous summer intensives, including American Ballet Theatre, School of American Ballet, Houston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet.

Cecilia Zanone is a freshman from Kansas City, where she trained with the Kansas City Ballet School and was a member of the Kansas City Youth Ballet. She has attended summer intensives at the Boston Ballet School, The Rock School for Dance Education, and Ballet Austin. She has performed as Cupid in Don Quixote and Woodland Glade Fairy in The Sleeping Beauty, and in Flower Festival. She is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Ballet Performance with an Outside Field in Business at the Jacobs School of Music.