2024 Vann Vocal Guest Artists
Steven Crawford, Head Vocal Coach
Maestro Steven Crawford has the distinction of serving as one of the original faculty members of the Vann Vocal Institute, appearing each year since its inception. Having completed 9 years on the conducting staff of the Metropolitan Opera, he had embarked on an active conducting career and continues to run one of the most successful vocal coaching studios in New York City. Beginning with Les Contes d’Hoffmann for Prelude to Performance in New York City, he has since conducted Don Giovanni with Dayton Opera, Otello with Vero Beach Opera, The Medium/Pagliacci with Syracuse Opera, the professional premiere of Glory Denied by Tom Cipullo, La Boheme with the Inwood Shakespeare Festival, Otello with Louisville Opera, and Turandot with Dayton opera. He recently conducted Kirke Meecham’s Tartuffe in Portland OR; and earlier La Cenerentola with the Cincinnati Opera, where he had been called “the find of the evening” for stepping in on twelve hours’ notice to conduct Il Barbiere di Siviglia, simultaneously accompanying the recitatives on the fortepiano.
After working as Music Director of the Illinois Opera Theatre, Maestro Crawford was engaged as resident conductor of the Florida Grand Opera for five years. During that time, he conducted fifteen different productions, working with such great artists as Sherill Milnes, Carol Neblett, Justino Diaz, and Barbara Daniels. Maestro Crawford has also conducted productions for Chautauqua Opera, Opera in the Ozarks, Nevada Opera and Opera Northeast.
An excellent symphonic conductor and proponent of contemporary music, he was engaged by the New York Philharmonic as cover conductor for Maestro Kurt Masur for the American premiere of Minoru Miki’s Symphony for Two Worlds.
Maestro Crawford continues to have an active career in accompanying when his conducting schedule permits. He has in the past accompanied Justino Diaz and Pablo Elvira in Puerto Rico, Aprile Millo in Sao Paolo, Richard Cowan on Belle Île en Mer, and Ortrun Wenkel and Håkan Hagegåard in Miami. He was also the recipient of Classical Singer Magazine’s Vocal Coach of the Year award.
Christopher Farley, baritone
Christopher Blake Farley (baritone) is originally from Morris, Alabama. Mr. Farley is the most recent winner of the Vann Vocal Institute’s Grand Prize ($7,500) on the occasion of its 15th Anniversary. He is the first such artist to be invited to participate on the Vann Vocal Institute Celebrity Recital Series. He is also the recipient of an encouragement award from the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition hosted by the Metropolitan Opera. Christopher’s most recent appearances were with Opera Huntsville in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music as Count Carl Magnus Malcolm, and as Guglielmo with Opera NEO in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte in San Diego, California with additional performances in Tijuana, Mexico.
Kelly Cae Hogan, soprano
Kelly Cae Hogan is thrilled to return to Montgomery, having sung with the MSO in 2014 and joining the faculty of the Vann Vocal Institute in 2023. After making her London debut as Brünnhilde she has attracted international attention for her dramatic portrayals in Wagner, Strauss, Verdi, and Puccini. Ms. Hogan sang Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen for Opera North at the Royal Festival Hall in London, as well as on tour in several other UK cities. She completed a spectacular set of performances as the same with Staatstheater Kassel in2022 and 2023.
At the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Ms. Hogan sang in Elektra (Strauss) conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich) conducted by James Conlon, and in the Patrice Chéreau staging of From the House of the Dead (Janáček) conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. She debuted in 2007 at The Met as Gerhilde in Die Walküreandcan be seen in the Grammy Award-winning performance released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2012 on DVD and Blu-ray. Kelly appeared in both the new Robert LePage RING conducted by James Levineand Fabio Luisi, and in the Otto Schenk Die Walküre conducted by Lorin Maazel and Donald Runnicles.
Kelly has been seen in the title roles of Tosca, Turandot, Salome and Norma internationally in Japan, Puerto Rico, and Germany, and with various U.S. companies. Kelly sang her first Lady Macbeth in the Verdi tour de force throughout the UK with Opera North. Additional roles include Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Leonore in Fidelio, Elisabeth in Tannhäuser, Senta in Der fliegende Holländer, Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, Abigaille in Nabucco and Blanche Dubois in Andre Previn’s Streetcar Named Desire.
In the U.S., Ms. Hogan has worked with Washington National Opera, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Portland Opera, Cleveland Opera, Nashville Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Baltimore Opera, Virginia Opera, Utah Opera, Birmingham and Florentine Opera among others. On the concert stage, she has sung with the Dallas Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, South Dakota Symphony, Montgomery Symphony, Anchorage Symphony, Trenton Symphony, Maine Pro Musica Orchestra, Romanian Philharmonic, Orquesta Nacional de Costa Rica and Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice.
Originally from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Kelly began her career in musical theater as Carlotta in the Broadway National Tour of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, as well as in the Broadway revival of The Sound of Music.
Kimberly Jones, lyric soprano
Kimberly Eileen Jones is an alum of the Ryan Opera Center with the prestigious Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her performances there include the slave girl, Margru, in the world premiere of Anthony Davis’ Amistad, which was released nationally on the New World recording label. She also portrayed Olga in Fedora, Princess Xenia in Boris Godunov, and Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte. With the Ryan Opera Center, she portrayed Laetitia in Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief. Additionally, she made her Grant Park Festival debut as Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Adele (Die Fledermaus).
Kimberly performed in Houston Grand Opera’s production of the Magic Flute (Papagena) and reprised her role of Xenia in Boris Godunov. Also with Houston, she participated in their production of Porgy and Bess, as Clara. This tour graced the international stages of La Scala in Milan, the Bastille in Paris, and the Bunkamura in Tokyo, Japan. For her portrayal of Clara, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress by the NAACP Awards.
She was selected by Maestro Bruno Bartoletti, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s former Artistic Director, to appear with the Orchestra della Toscana in Florence, La Spezia and Piombino (Knoxville: Summer of 1915). She was one of four opera center artists showcased at the Chatelet in Paris, France. She captivated audiences in her Alice Tully Hall debut with an evening of Vivaldi arias. She received rave reviews as the Composer in Mozart’s The Jewel Box with the Chicago Opera Theater, as well as Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Madison Symphony. She has also appeared in concert with the Ravinia Festival, Richmond Symphony (Knoxville: Summer of 1915), and with Madison Symphony (Messiah and Christmas Pops).
She was showcased opening weekend of the Jay Pritzker Pavilion of Millennium Park in Chicago. She has performed the Philip Glass Symphony #5 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, and with the Stuttgart and Danish Radio Symphonies in Germany and Copenhagen. She debuted with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in an evening of Porgy and Bess excerpts and spirituals. She is also the founder of the soprano trio group “Tres Belle”. Other engagements included the title role of The Fairy Queen with Chicago Opera Theater, and Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut up in My Bones.
Miss Jones is on the voice faculty at Roosevelt University and DePaul University in Chicago.
Michelle Mariposa, mezzo-soprano
Michelle Mariposa is an award winning Filipino-Chinese mezzo-soprano, praised for her “rich, powerful” voice. This season, Michelle joins the Washington National Opera as a Cafritz Young Artist. She recently made her debut with Opera Theater of Saint Louis, singing Maria Maddalena in Galileo Galilei, and Nirena in Julius Caesar. As a prestigious Gerdine Young Artist with OTSL, Michelle was awarded the Richard Gaddes Career Award in recognition of her extraordinary vocal potential and contribution to the festival season.
In the 2023-2024 season, Michelle made her company debut with Haymarket Opera as Damigella in Caccini’s Alcina. She then joined the Young Artist Program at Chicago Opera Theater where she performed in Shostakovich’s The Nose. With COT, Michelle also premiered Gillian Rae Perry’s new opera, The Weight of Light. Additional engagements this past season include the title role in Carmen and her recital debuts with the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago and Chamber Music at Bethany.
Additionally, Michelle has been a Distinguished Young Artist with the well-regarded Santa Fe Opera as well as Teatro Nuovo. Her other roles include Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, and the title role in Menotti’s The Medium.
In concert, Michelle has performed as a soloist in works such as Berio’s Sinfonia, Handel’s Messiah, Bernstein’s Mass, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and Bach’s Magnificat. As a recitalist, Michelle has enjoyed collaborations with the FilAm Music Foundation NFP, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Michelle has premiered works by notable composers in both the Philippines and the United States, such as Jose Buencamino, Yanni Robiennol, Jai Saldajeño, and Gillian Rae Perry.
Michelle recently won the Lynne Cooper Harvey Foundation Award (top prize) in the Musicians Club of Women 2024 Vocal Competition. She was also named the winner of a Sullivan Award from the Sullivan Foundation, a winner of the Kentucky District round, as well as the winner of an Encouragement Award of the Central Region round of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Michelle is also a winner of the 2019 National Music Competition for Young Artists in her native Philippines.
Franco Pomponi, baritone
Franco Pomponi is critically acclaimed for his rich, expressive, beauty, and powerful virility of voice with a cultivated musical style and unmatched dramatic intensity. These qualities have brought him to the world’s most prestigious opera houses and concert halls. This season he made role debuts to great critical success as Ezio in Attila by Verdi in Chicago and the title role of Gianni Schicchi at Florida Grand Opera. His active concert season heard him in Naples and St. Augustine, Florida, Costa Mesa, California with Pacific Symphony, Chicago in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and a solo recital in New York at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall. This summer he sang the title role of Il Prigioniero opposite tenor David Cangelosi for Opera Festival of Chicago.
A regular at the Metropolitan Opera, he was responsible for the roles of Hamlet, Don Giovanni, Nick Shadow and Eugene Onégin; and performed several roles including Schaunard in La bohème and Count Dominick with Renée Fleming in Arabella.
In Paris, he created a sensation as Pentheus in The Bassarids by Hans Werner Henze at the Théâtre du Châtelet and has returned to the Châtelet in Cyrano alongside Placido Domingo, and in the title role of Sweeney Todd and Richard Nixon in Nixon in China, which is still being televised throughout Europe.
Notable performances included his debut at the Hungarian State Opera as Prospero in a new production of The Tempest by Thomas Adès, Prince Metternich in L’Aiglon for Opéra de Marseille, and Belcore in a new production of L’elisir d’amore in Strasbourg for Opéra National du Rhin.
Recent worldwide successes include Don Giovanni at The Bolshoï in Moscow, Opéra Montpellier and Greek National Opera, Athens; Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress at Teatro Massimo, Palermo; Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande; and the “Four Villains” in Les contes d’Hoffmann for The Netherlands Reisopera. He was also noted as a powerful Zurga in a new production of Les pêcheurs de perles at Théâtre de Genève.
His European debut came as the title role of Hamlet at the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona. He has since performed Hamlet at La Monnaie in Brussels and Opéra de Marseille, winning Opéra Magazine’s choice as “best opera”.
Mr. Pomponi serves as the Artistic Director of Opera Festival of Chicago in addition to being one of its founders.
Kristofer Sanchack, Masterclass Pianist/Guest Vocal Coach
Dr. Kristofer Sanchack serves as Assistant Professor and Director of Choral Activities at Alabama State University. Dr. Sanchack’s wide-ranging musical career began with his study of piano, where he rapidly progressed to study with Curtis Institute of Music mainstay Freda Pastor Berkowitz, whose husband, Ralph Berkowitz, co-founded Tanglewood Music Center. Dr. Sanchack went on to receive a B.M. in Composition with Honors and High Distinction from Pennsylvania State University. He holds an M.M. in Choral Conducting from the University of South Carolina, where he received an assistantship in Accompanying, and a D.M. in Choral Conducting at Indiana University. Dr. Sanchack has served in such capacities as the Keyboard Artist for the nationally renowned Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, and répétiteur for the Anchorage Opera. In addition to accompanying numerous vocal recitals and masterclasses, he has shared the stage with conductors such as Raymond Leppard, Paul Hillier, John Nelson and Nicholas McGeegan and singers including Sherill Milnes, Timothy Noble, Thomas Cooley, as well as Ailyn Perez, Evan Rogister and Lawrence Brownlee (classmates at Indiana University). Dr. Sanchack has appeared with the Asheville Symphony, Greenville Symphony and Indianapolis Symphony orchestras, and continues to be in demand as a soloist and accompanist around the United States, currently serving as accompanist to a statewide chorus in Indiana. As a conductor, Dr. Sanchack gave his Carnegie Hall debut with the Alabama State University Choir in May 2023, to the largest audience in attendance on the concert series. In addition, he is the director of Music at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Montgomery, and of the Prattville, AL Community Chorus.
Renee Tatum, mezzo-soprano
Noted for her “commanding and dramatic presence” (Opera News), Ms. Tatum continues to garner recognition in the most demanding of operatic repertoire. The 2024 season includes performances as Flosshilde and Waltraute in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in concert with The Dallas Symphony, and Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Last season Ms. Tatum joined the Knoxville Opera as Dame Quickly in Falstaff, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra as the mezzo soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, as well as the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra as Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde.
In the 2022-23 season, she returned to the Metropolitan Opera in their new production of Rigoletto, her company debut as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Palm Beach Opera, debuted her first Verdi Requiem with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra and MIT, as well as Mozart’s Mass in C and Requiem with the Masterworks Chorale. Current and upcoming seasons include additional engagements with the Metropolitan Opera (Rigoletto), Opera’s Greatest Hits with Knoxville Opera, and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with both the Dallas and Nashville Symphony Orchestras.
Ms. Tatum’s relationship with The Met spans 10 years and has included nearly 100 performances including Maddalena in Rigoletto, Fenena in Nabucco, 3rd Lady and 2nd Lady in The Magic Flute, Emilia in Otello, Inez in Il Trovatore, Adonella in Francesca da Rimini, and Waltraute and Flosshilde in Robert LePage’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in addition to the roles of Flosshilde and Grimgerde in San Francisco Opera’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Ms. Tatum also joined an international cast in Japan as Flora in Verdi’s La traviata, sang as the mezzo soloist in Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem with The Eastern Music Festival, and as mezzo soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with The Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
Additional notable performances include Brahm’s Alto Rhapsody with the Cecilia Chorus of NYC at Carnegie Hall, and her debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra as the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Richard Troxell, tenor
Richard Troxell’s beautiful lyric tenor voice has been thrilling audiences in leading roles in opera houses and on concert stages around the world, among them Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Los Angeles Opera, Washington Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Diego Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Australia in Sydney, Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, L’Opéra Comique Paris, Opéra Monte Carlo, Théâtre du Capitôle de Toulouse, Opéra National de Montpellier, Vancouver Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla, Teatro del Lago Chile, National Theater for the Performing Arts Beijing, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Philadelphia , and the Portland Opera.
Mr. Troxell’s star turn as Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton in the award-winning Sony film Madame Buttterfly, presented by Martin Scorcese, received high praise following its premiere in Paris and the U.S. in 1996. Film critics Siskel and Ebert said of Richard’s performance “His voice is splendid, and his manner assured.” The New York Times deemed his performance “the most dramatically satisfying vocal characterization” in the film. His Pinkerton is one of the most viewed performances of this role.
Troxell’s continued success in film is evidenced in two other DVDs: The EMI label of La Rondine from the Washington Opera which was later broadcast on the PBS series Great Performances; and secondly with the Deutsche Grammophon labeled Cyrano de Bergerac in which he portrays the handsome officer Christian opposite the Cyrano of Roberto Alagna.
His Metropolitan Opera debut was as Borsa in Rigoletto. He has subsequently joined the MET for Lulu, Exterminating Angel, Otello and Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Die Fledermaus and Otello. Highlights of the past few seasons include his début in Italy as Don José at the Teatro Petruzzelli under the baton of Maestro Lorin Maazel, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Opera Australia, and Roméo in Roméo et Juliette with Palm Beach Opera. Mr. Troxell also performed Don José in Beijing and in Sydney, La Bohème with Opera Colorado, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Hamilton, and Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon with Calgary Opera.
Mr. Troxell has been seen with the San Francisco Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony in his signature role as Tenor Soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana. Other concert engagements of note include the Title Role in Zemlinsky’s opera Der Zwerg under the baton of Leon Botstein with the American Symphony Orchestra at Avery Fisher Hall.