VOICE AND OPERA FACULTY
Joseph Evans, Voice Area Coordinator

Katherine Ciesinski, mezzo-soprano
Leading roles at Metropolitan, Covent Garden, Paris, San Francisco, Santa Fe and Houston Grand Operas and soloist with Berlin, Vienna, London, Staatskapelle, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras, among many others. Artist-in-residence at major festivals in U.S., France Taiwan, Austria, Finland, and Italy. Director of Close Encounters, the vocal chamber music institute for the Texas Music Festival. Regular clinician at International Symposium on Care of the Professional Voice. Grammy Nominee; recordings on Decca, Erao, BMG, Music Masters, RCA, Columbia, Nonesuch, CRI; TV appearances on PBS Great Performances and ESPN

Cynthia Clayton, soprano
Leading roles with Dallas Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Knoxville Opera, Central City Opera, New York City Opera, Utah Opera, Orlando Opera, Festival Opera, San Diego Opera, Arizona Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Cleveland Opera, and Santa Barbara Grand Opera. Roles include Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Liù in Turandot, Lady Penelope Rich in Britten’s Gloriana, Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly, both Mimì and Musetta in La bohème, the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, the title role in Floyd’s Susannah, Mary Willis in Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree, Micaëla in Carmen, Massenet’s Manon, Violetta in La traviata, Nedda in Pagliacci, and Marguerite in Faust.

Joseph Evans, tenor
Among his appearances as a leading tenor are those for La Scala, Ireland's Wexford Festival, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera de Nantes, Orleans, and Nancy, La Fenice, Theatre de Geneve, New York City Opera, eight seasons, Houston Grand Opera and the companies of San Diego, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Boston and Cleveland; performances with New York Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, orchestras of Cleveland, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and others; recordings, Sony Classics, CBS Masterworks, Cybellia and Gasparo labels

Timothy Jones, bass-baritone

Kay Lowe, soprano (email)
Has distinguished herself as a singer and actress with opera companies and symphonic orchestras throughout the U.S. and Europe, garnering the highest critical accolades throughout her career. Lowe received her Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Florida State University. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts and has studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Italy. Dr. Lowe is an adjunct member of the voice faculty at the University of Miami and has taught on the faculties of Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her teachers have included Metropolitan Opera sopranos Rose Bamptyon, Licia Albanese and Elena Nikolaidi. She currently studies with Shirlee Emmons in New York. Recognized for her performances of contemporary music, Dr. Lowe has sung lead roles in the world premiers of Iain Hamilton's Raleigh's Dream and Kenneth Wright's Lost Eden. Lowe has also commissioned and sung three contemporary song cycles, including composer Richard Bellack's Songs of Yuggoth , premiered at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall; Pulitzer prize winning composer Robert Ward's Seasons of Love, premiered at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall; and Richard Rendleman's Poems of Margaret Proctor Wood . Opera roles she has performed include: Margurite in Faust; Susana in Le Nozze di Figaro; Nedda in Pagliacci; Musetta in La Boheme; Fiordiligi in Cosi fan Tutte ; and Michaela in Carmen. Lowe has been a district winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a finalist in the Merola Opera Competition and has been featured frequently on the UNC Center for Public Television.

ENSEMBLE DIRECTORS

Matthew Dirst, musicology; Director, Collegium Musicum
First American to win major international prizes in both organ and harpsichord; first prize, American Guild of Organists National Young Artist Competition; second prize, Warsaw International Harpsichord Competition; publications include a number of articles on the music of J. S. Bach; author, The Bach project: from Organist to Icon, 1750-1850 to be published by Cambridge University Press

Thom Guthrie, Designer and House Manager, Moores Opera Center

Charles Hausmann, Director, Choral Activities
Director, Houston Symphony Chorus; many appearances as choral clinician and guest conductor; chorus preparation for Robert Shaw, Christoph Eschenbach, Helmuth Rilling, Roger Wagner, Neville Marriner, Edo De Waart and many others; choirs have received acclaim at major American music conventions and at festivals in the United States, Mexico and Europe; co-author of a textbook on choral music and has written articles for several music journals

Peter F. Jacoby, Music Director, Edythe Bates Old Moores Opera Center
Conductor and coach for numerous performances including those at the Moores School, Staatsoper Studio and the Zurich Opera; B.A, in music, University of Wyoming with additional study at Cleveland Institute of Music; graduate diploma, Akademie in Vienna

Buck Ross, Producer/Director, Edythe Bates Old Moores Opera Center
Has staged productions for the Houston Grand Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, the Houston Symphony, San Antonio Opera, Kentucky Opera, El Paso Opera, Utah Opera. For many years he was Director of Dramatic Studies for the Houston Opera Studio and co-director of the apprentice program of the Des Moines Metro Opera. Librettist for opera adaptation of E.M. Forster's A Room With a View with music by Robert Nelson. Author of English singing versions of several operas including Don Pasquale, La Finta Giardiniera, and Orpheus in the Underworld. He holds degrees in music and theatre from Bucknell University, and an MFA in stage direction from the University of Minnesota where he was assistant to H. Wesley Balk

Jessica Smith, Director of Preparatory & Continuing Studies

Betsy Cook Weber, Director of Undergraduate Choral Studies
Director of Moores School Concert Chorale; served for seven years as Assistant/Associate Director of the Houston Symphony Chorus; successful music teacher in the public schools at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels, during which time choirs there won numerous competitions and awards; active at local and national levels as a conductor, presenter, and clinician; several of her editions of choral works are in current publication; degrees from North Texas State University, Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ), and University of Houston.