Carla Rae Cook

Carla Rae Cook is “one of the world’s great upcoming Wagnerians.” Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Miss Cook began singing in youth choirs and studying piano at the age of five. She received her Bachelors of Music Education from the University of Utah, Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from Boston University, and postgraduate studies at the Manhattan School of Music. She received full scholarships to study at the Tanglewood Music Center, The Music Academy of the West, and Zurich Opera Studios. 

Miss Cook won the Rotary International Young Artists Vocal Competition in Fresno, California, and the San Francisco Opera Auditions. She participated in the Merola Program and was awarded the second highest award, the Jean Connell Memorial Award, and a debut contract with San Francisco Opera in Die Walküre. She won two other prestigious competitions: the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions and the Munich International Vocal Competition. The Metropolitan Opera presented her in her Carnegie Hall debut with the National Orchestra of New York. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Girl of Mahagonny in Weill’s The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. 

Miss Cook began performing Wagnerian roles with the Metropolitan Opera. She sang Waltraute in Die Walküre while on tour. She began performing leading Wagnerian roles with the Seattle Opera. She created Venus in a new production of Tannhäuser, sung Waltraute, Flosshilde, and Siegrune in Seattle’s Ring Cycles. She made her European opera debut singing Venus in Tannhäuser with the Bremen Opera and created such a sensation that she was hailed to become “one of the world’s leading Wagnerians.” 

Miss Cook has performed many times with the San Francisco Opera as Annina in Der Rosenkavalier, Larina in Eugene Onegin, Flora in La Traviata, Charlotte in La Grande Duchesse, Glasha in Katya Kabanova, Kunstgewerblerin in Lulu, Die Aufseherin in Elektra, and Rossweisse in Die Walküre. She has sung Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle with Kent Nagano conducting the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra. She has performed Waltraute and Zweite Norn in the Arizona Opera Ring Cycles. She sang Marcellina in Le Nozzi di Figaro with the Washington Opera and Die Aufseherin in Elektra with Baltimore Opera. Miss Cook has sung Kundry and worked with the Chicago Lyric Opera in their production of Parsifal, and Waltraute in Die Walküre with the Washington Opera. Recently, she sang seven performances of Azucena with Utah Festival Opera. 

She has also appeared on PBS National Television and radio, performing Oenone in the world premiere of Phaedra with Opera San Jose, opera and concerts with the San Francisco Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. She has been recorded worldwide singing opera, oratorio and song repertoire with major orchestras and conductors. 

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Anton Belov

The voice of Baritone ANTON BELOV has been called rich and mellifluous by the New York Times, while the Philadelphia Inquirer described him as an emerging star.  In 2010 Mr. Belov returned to Anchorage Opera in the title role of Eugene Onegin, after his critically acclaimed performances as Escamillo in Carmen and Count di Luna in Il trovatore.  He made his Commonwealth Opera debut as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and performed the role of Angelotti in Tosca with the Boston Lyric Opera. His recent operatic appearances include roles John Sorel (The Consul) and the Doctor (The Nose) with Opera Boston, Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Don Giovanni and Ping (Turandot) with the Opera New Jersey and the Connecticut Grand Opera, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro) with the Helena Symphony, Malatesta (Don Pasquale) with Opera Providence, and the title role in Delaware Opera’s production of Don Giovanni.  As a soloist Mr. Belov has appeared with numerous orchestras throughout United States including Boston Baroque, the California Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the New England Philharmonic, the Stamford Symphony and Opera Orchestra of New York.  Mr. Belov is the first-place winner of eight vocal competitions including the George London Competition, Licia Albanese—Puccini Foundation International Competition, and Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Eastern Regional Winner).   As the winner of Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Belov has appeared in over forty recitals throughout the United States. A native of Moscow, Anton Belov holds a Doctorate of Music degree from the Boston University, a Bachelor of Music Degree from The New England Conservatory, an Artist’s Diploma and a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School.  A specialist in Russian lyric diction, he is the author of Russian Opera Libretti in Word-to-Word Translation and IPA Transcription  and the Anthology of Russian Arias(Leyerle Publications 2004-06).  

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Arlene Shrut

Arlene Shrut, is a collaborative pianist with a flair for the visionary: combining tradition with transformation.  This two-fold passion guided Arlene to become Founder and Artistic Director of New Triad for Collaborative Arts, a 501C3 non-profit educational and arts service organization dedicated to providing classically-trained musicians with professional presentation skills that lead to more accessible concerts.  New Triad's innovative interdisciplinary training helps artists dramatically increase both the expressiveness and visual impact of their performances.

Dr. Shrut is a Senior Coach at the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts of The Juilliard School as well as a Vocal-Piano Recital Faculty Coach at the Manhattan School of Music.  An admired keyboard performer hailed as a "strong and sensitive pianist" by The New York Times, Arlene has performed in major venues in America, Canada and Europe, and recorded for Dorian, Albany, Summit, Centaur and Orion labels.  Arlene also launched The National Association of Accompanists and Coaches and taught on the faculties of Syracuse University and Mannes College.  During the summer of 2009, her teaching and performing was featured at Vancouver International Song Institute, Operafest on Martha's Vineyard and Resonanz Festival.  In the summer of 2010, she also joined the Atlantic Music Festival faculty and guested at Songfest in Malibu.

Arlene's ongoing activities in the operatic realm include serving as official pianist for international competitions sponsored by The Loren Zachary Society, The Gerda Lissner Foundation, The Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation and the Giulio Gari Foundation. She was coach/pianist for Arizona Opera's last complete Ring cycle and has performed in many gala concerts sponsored by the America Wagner Society. Arlene was a member of the coaching staff at the Aspen Opera Theater Center for fourteen summers, where she taught seminars on Mozart and German opera. Arlene was honored in 2003 as inaugural "Coach of the Year" by Classical Singer Magazine.

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Jerrold Pope

BM, New England Conservatory; MM, Yale University; DMA, Rutgers University: Jerrold Pope gained critical acclaim appearing as an ECCO Artist with the Cincinnati Opera Company. His credits went on to include Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; Glyndebourne and Buxton Opera; London Proms with conductor Leonard Bernstein; Schleswig-Holstein Musikfest and Tanglewood Music Festivals with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa; Netherlands Opera Forum in Amsterdam; Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, and Kiel Oper in Germany, as well as performances with the opera companies of Pittsburgh, Santa Fe, Central City, Boston, Tulsa, Orlando, Grand Rapids, Hawaii, and Anchorage.

He has appeared in concert at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Brooklyn Academy of Music with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and New York’s Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony. Additionally, he has performed with the Rotterdam Philharmonic with conductor James Conlon, the City of Birmingham Symphony with conductor Simon Rattle, and the Pittsburgh, Charleston, St. Louis, Vancouver and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras as well as being a seven-year regular soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra with conductor Keith Lockhart.

Mr. Pope performed the American premiere of Ernst von Dohnányi’s symphonic cantata, Cantus vitae, Op.38 conducted by Dohnányi specialist, Maestro Matthias Bamert at the 2002 International Ernst von Dohnányi Festival. With Boston Musica Viva he sang in the American premiere of Dutch composer Theo Loevendie’s chamber opera, Gassir the Hero. He premiered the chamber work In Night, written for him by Czech composer, Ladislav Kubik and recorded for the Col Legno label. Mr. Pope has also performed several world premieres of American composer Timothy Hoekman’s including the vocal chamber work, Then Swims Up the Great Round Moon and more recently Suite Italiana, for baritone and harpsichord, written for him and published in 2010.

Mr. Pope previously served on the voice faculty at the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria, and held a tenured position on the faculty of the Florida State University’s College of Music, where he received a 2004 Developing Scholar Award, which led to the publication of selected Lieder of Robert Fuchs. Mr. Pope was a 2003 NATS Master Teacher for the Summer Intern Workshop. Besides giving master classes at various institutions across the country, he has taught recurring master classes at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Sydney Opera House for their Moffatt Oxenbould Young Artist Program, and various MENC and NATS regional conferences. Mr. Pope has been an adjudicator for the Julian Gayarre International Singing Competition, the International Francesco Paolo Tosti Singing Competition, the Benton-Schmidt Vocal Competition, and the NATSSA Competition. He is currently co-director of the Barga Opera Festival in Barga, Italy, and now serves as Chair of the voice department at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts, School of Music.

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Lawrence Vincent

Stage Director

Born in the state of Utah and raised in Colorado, Lawrence Vincent received his undergraduate degree in Music education at Brigham Young University and his Master of Music at Northern Arizona University.  In 1982 he completed his doctorate studies at the University of Michigan.

His professional opera career began in New York City with the Boris Goldovsky Opera Co. and later at the Michigan Opera Theater.  Before moving to Europe in 1982 where he was engaged as lyric tenor in Trier Germany, he and his wife wrote, produced and performed programs with the Colorado public school introducing young audiences to opera.  In 1987 he was offered a contract with the Vienna “Volksoper” singing leading roles in opera as well as operetta.  From 1991 to 1996, he was a member of the Vienna State Opera solo ensemble singing such roles as “Tamino” in Die Zauberflöte, “Narraboth” in Salome and “The Singer” in Rosenkavalier.

As a result of his “extraordinary contribution to the arts in the field of music”, Dr. Vincent was awarded Austrian citizenship in 1994.

His solo concert tours have taken him to virtually all the European countries, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Australia and the United States.  As a guest soloist, he has sung leading roles in numerous opera and operetta productions in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Denmark, Japan, Hungary, the Czech Republic and the United States.

Dr. Vincent’s repertoire includes major roles in over 45 different operas and operettas with more than 1200 stage appearances to his credit. 

Dr. Vincent is presently a professor of music and member of the voice faculty as well as the director of opera at the School of Music at Brigham Young University where he has produced and/or directed Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow, Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Die Zauberflöte, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, Jacque Ibert’s Angelique, Offenbach’s Les countes d’Hoffmann, Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata , Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe, Pucinni’s Gianni Schicchi, and  La bohème,  Bizet’s Carmen, the world premiers of Murray Boren’s The Book of Gold and M. Ryan Taylor’s Abinadi, Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, Trial by Jury and The Gondoliers; The Fowl Opera Trilogy by Tom Benjamin, The Wolf and the Lamb by David Chevez, Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Telephone, Help, Help the Globolinks and Amahl and the Night Visitors and Johann Strauss Jr.’s  Die Fledermaus

He has also as a guest director for the Richard Crittenden Workshop in Washington DC since 2005.

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