VOICE, AND OPERA FACULTY
FACULTY BY AREA
Bands
Brass
Choirs
Composition and Technology
Conducting
Jazz Studies
Keyboard
Music Education
Musicology
Orchestras
Percussion
Strings
Theory
Voice, and Opera
Woodwinds
Jennifer Trost, Interim Coordinator Voice Area, Fall 2009
Norman Spivey, Voice
Ted Christopher, Voice and Opera
Richard Kennedy, Voice
Beverly Patton, Musical Theatre Voice and Opera
Raymond Sage, Musical Theatre Voice
Mary Saunders, Musical Theatre Voice
Ted Christopher, baritone, made his professional operatic debut in the role of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro at 19. He has engaged in a wide and diverse career as a singer, actor, director, and teacher. In opera and concert, he has appeared throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. His operatic repertoire spans four centuries, from Monteverdi to Hiram Titus, and includes appearances with such companies as Cleveland Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Vancouver Opera, Anchorage Opera, Skylight Opera Theater, the Ash Lawn/Highland Festival, and Western Opera Theater.
In concert, he has appeared with ensembles such as the Seattle Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic, the Berlin Rundfunksinfonie Orchester, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and the BBC Singers in such venues as the Kennedy Center, the Rudolfinum (Prague), the Schauspielhaus (Berlin), and Carnegie Hall.
His discography consists of recordings with the Albany, Naxos, and Newport Classics labels, including several recordings under the auspices of the critically acclaimed and award winning Milken Archive of American Jewish Music. He has appeared off-Broadway with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, and the New England Lyric Operetta.
Mr. Christopher has been a featured member of the Ohio Light Opera, appearing in and directing over 40 productions of both obscure and standard operetta, including the complete Gilbert and Sullivan canon. Mr. Christopher was named Acting General Director of the Ohio Light Opera for the 2007 Festival Season.
He received Baccalaureate and Masters degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, where his teachers included Mikael Eliasen and Marlena Malas. He supplemented his studies as a member of the Juilliard Opera Center, where he worked with Frank Corsaro, and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, where he coached with renowned soprano Regine Crespin. He is currently a doctoral candidate at The Eastman School of Music.
Mr. Christopher has served on the faculties of The Eastman School of Music and The University of Memphis as Director of Opera. Additionally, he has been an Instructor of Voice at the Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Festival.
Richard Kennedy, tenor, has sung with the Boston Symphony, the American Chamber Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and the Utah, Charlotte, Richmond, Green Bay, La Crosse, and Wheeling symphonies, among others. He has appeared as soloist in New York City with the St. Cecilia Chorus, in Boston with the Masterworks Chorale, the John Oliver Chorale, the Cantata Singers, and the M.I.T. Chorale, in Philadelphia with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and in Washington, D.C. with the Cathedral Choral Society. He has also appeared with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, the Bach Festival Choir in Rochester, New York, the Detroit Oratorio Society, the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte, and with the Los Angeles Master Chorale as aria soloist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion.
Internationally, he has given solo recitals in England, Germany, Austria, Italy and Canada. In the United States, he has appeared as recitalist at Carnegie Recital Hall and the National Arts Club in New York City, at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, at Wynmoor Recital Hall in Florida, at the San Francisco Conservatory, at the San Francisco Community Music Center, and at many colleges and universities throughout the United States. He is often asked to give master classes in conjunction with recitals.
Mr. Kennedy has been a winner of the Franz Schubert Prize for Singers awarded in Austria, a second-place winner of the 1981 National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards, an international finalist in the Opera Company of Philadelphia/Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, and a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council New England Regional Auditions.
He has toured as vocal soloist with the Mantovani Orchestra performing in concerts from coast to coast in the United States, as well as in Canada, Japan, and Taiwan. The concerts of music from Viennese operetta and American musical theatre afforded performances in major performing halls, including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, and Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis, among many others.
Voice study was accomplished at Indiana University, where he earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Music and the Master of Music degree in Vocal Pedagogy, and at Boston University where he earned the Artist Diploma as a student of Phyllis Curtin. Further advanced study was accomplished at the Franz Schubert Institute in Austria where he coached repertoire with Ernst Haefliger, Walter Berry, and Hans Hotter, and at the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada where he coached with Gérard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin. He has also coached with Elly Ameling, Richard Miller, Jörg Demus, Martin Katz, John Wustman, Timothy Cheek, and Kelly Hale, and studied privately with Carol Webber.
Notable performances include recitals in England, Germany, Austria, Italy, Canada, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and San Francisco, and appearances as the Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Providence, Rhode Island, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Charlotte, North Carolina. Acclaimed oratorio performances include those of Mendelssohn's Elijah in North Carolina, Bach's Mass in B Minor with the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh, Mozart's Mass in C Minor with the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, and Handel's Messiah with the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, with the Handel Oratorio Society in Rock Island, Illinois, and with the Rochester Oratorio Society in New York.
Professor Kennedy's voice students have been accepted at prestigious institutions for advanced study (The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, University of Michigan, Indiana University, the Manhattan School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The Peabody Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Mannes College of Music, the University of Delaware, McGill University, Ithaca College, Shenandoah Conservatory, Brigham Young University, American Institute of Musical Studies, Chautauqua Music Festival, and Aspen Opera Center, among others). Some have pursued teaching careers (the University of Delaware, Shippensburg University, Messiah College, Lycoming College, Brewton-Parker College, and Seton Hill College), and some are pursuing performing careers (Pittsburgh Opera Center, Washington Opera, Savoy Opera Theatre, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Opera Delaware, Lancaster Opera Company, Junge Kammeroper Köln, Theater Nordhausen, Weston Playhouse, and the Aldeburgh Festival). Still others have been awarded music teaching positions in the public schools throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states at the high school, middle school, and elementary school levels.
Norman Spivey earned a bachelor of music degree in voice performance from Southeastern Louisiana University, a master of music in voice and opera from the University of North Texas, and a doctor of musical arts degree in voice performance from the University of Michigan. A Fulbright grant to Paris, where he worked with renowned baritones Gabriel Bacquier and Gérard Souzay, led to concert and opera engagements throughout France (in such venues as L’Opéra de Nantes, L’Opéra de Nancy, L’Opéra de Lille, La Madeleine, Les Invalides, Salle Rossini, and Salle Gaveau, among others) as well as a tour of France and Canada as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. While in France, he was also awarded the Harriet Hale Wolley award as artist-in-residence at the Fondation des Etats-Unis. He has sung Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and performed the American premiere of Poulenc’s rediscovered Quatre Poèmes de Max Jacob. His most recent performance project, Écoute: pieces of Reynaldo Hahn, is an original one-man show on the life and music of the French composer. Dr. Spivey has received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival and the Institute for Advanced Vocal Studies in Paris; in 2003 he received the prestigious Van L. Lawrence Fellowship awarded jointly by The Voice Foundation and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. He has served as officer on the local, regional, and national level for NATS, and his writings on musical theatre singing have appeared in the NATS Journal of Singing.
He served on the voice faculty at Southeastern Louisiana University before joining the Penn State School of Music faculty in 1992. As associate professor of music, he teaches singing and courses in voice pedagogy. Along with Penn State musical theatre voice colleagues, he is on the faculty of Bel Canto/Can Belto: Learning to teach and sing for musical theatre, and is developing a new graduate program in voice pedagogy for musical theatre.
Click here for more on Norman Spivey.
Jennifer Trost joined the School of Music faculty in 2005 to teach studio voice and courses in vocal literature at both the undergraduate and graduate level. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music education at Albion College in Albion, Michigan; a Master of Music degree in applied voice at Michigan State University; and took advanced courses at the doctoral level at the University of Southern California. Prior to coming to Penn State, Professor Trost taught studio voice for several years at the Richard Strauss Conservatory in Munich, Germany followed by a year as a visiting associate professor of voice and acting head of the voice area at the University of California in Santa Barbara.
Professor Trost is a young-dramatic soprano and had a fifteen-year career as an opera singer. Her first professional engagement was as a resident artist at the Los Angeles Opera from 1989-1991. She was an apprentice artist at the Santa Fe Opera in 1990. From 1991-2004, her career was based in Germany where she spent four years as a soloist at the Wuppertal Opera and nine years at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. She was privileged to work regularly with well-known conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, James Levine, and especially Zubin Mehta, the General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. Trost sang as a guest artist at the Komische Oper in Berlin, the National Theater in Mannheim, the Salzburg Music Festival, the Opera de Paris Garnier, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Italy, the British Broadcasting Corporation (Proms) in London, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, the Munich Radio Orchestra, and the Munich Philharmonic. She sang the role of Magdalena (a role specifically composed for her) in the world-premiere of Aribert Reimann's "Bernarda Albas Haus."
Trost is a frequent recitalist and has collaborated regularly with Arlene Shrut. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the National Opera Association. She is a member of the Artist Faculty at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.
Click here for more on Jennifer Trost's recordings
Beverly Patton joined the School of Music in 2006 from the Penn State School of Theatre where she spent the previous eight years as Coordinator of Musical Direction for the BFA Musical Theatre program. She now serves as Musical Director/Conductor for the Penn State Opera Theatre and as Musical Theatre Voice Specialist. Dr. Patton received the BM in Music Education and MA in Vocal Performance from California State University, Chico, and the DMA in Choral Conducting from the University of Southern California. She received an Instrumental Conducting Fellowship to The Aspen Music School where she studied with Rodney Eichenberger and Murray Sidlin. Formerly Director of Opera and Musical Theatre at Ithaca College, Dr. Patton has also taught at the University of California, Irvine and Irvine Valley College. She is a veteran conductor of musical theatre and opera productions including Gianni Schicchi, The Bartered Bride, Ragtime, Into the Woods, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. She has been Artist-in-Residence at the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Summer Arts Camp. With Mary Saunders she presented the workshop "Bel Canto or Can Belto" at the Internationaler und Interdisziplinarer Kongress und Festival: BROADWAY AN DER RUHR in Dortmund, Germany, and with Norman Spivey she was Co-Director of the NATS Winter Workshop "Musical Theatre and the Belt Voice: Part II" in New York. She has presented her workshop, “New Century Sounds” in Essen, Berlin and Hamburg, Germany. Dr. Patton is a member of the National Opera Association (having formerly served as Regional Governor of the NOA Northeast Division) and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
Click here for more on Beverly Patton's publications
Raymond Sage received a bachelor's degree in vocal performance from Baylor University and a master's degree in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), followed by doctoral and post-graduate work also at CCM. Before joining the musical theatre voice faculty at Penn State, Sage was on the voice and musical theatre faculties of Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts' prestigious musical theatre conservatory, Collaborative Arts Project 21, Inc. (CAP 21). He remains on the voice faculty of the CAP 21 Professional Musical Theatre Summer Institute. His students have been seen in many Broadway productions, such as Follies, Titanic, Beauty and the Beast, Steel Pier, High Society, Cats, Scarlet Pimpernel, and many more.
As a performer, Sage appeared in the Broadway and national touring productions of Camelot, Beauty and the Beast, and Titanic, as well as in regional theatres across the country, such as Paper Mill Playhouse, Sacramento Theatre Company, and Dallas Summer Musicals. He has made television appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, The Howie Mandel Show, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Sage is also a founding member of Monday Off, a jazz vocal quartet specializing in vocal jazz with a Broadway flair. Monday Off often appears at Carnegie Hall with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops Orchestra and at many other concert halls and jazz clubs across the United States.
Mary Saunders, Cum Laude/Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a Master’s degree from Middlebury College, and the Sorbonne, Paris, studied with Pierre Bernac at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Musique. Associate Professor of Music, Head of Voice Instruction for the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre at Penn State University. Previously on the BFA Musical Theatre faculty at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. An active performer with Broadway, off-Broadway, film and television credits, Ms. Saunders has recently concentrated on the creation and performance of one-woman cabaret shows, the first of which, Stop, Time played to sell-out houses in New York City. In addition to her university teaching, she maintains a studio in Manhattan for professional singers. In this and recent seasons her students could be seen on Broadway in The Drowsy Chaperone, Wicked, Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown, Hairspray, The Producers, Kiss Me Kate, Seussical, The Musical, Cabaret, Follies, 42nd Street, Rent, and Boys From Syracuse. She is frequently invited to present her workshop/seminar "Bel Canto/Can Belto: Training Musical Theatre Singers For The New Millennium" for convocations of singers and teachers of singing in the U.S. and Europe. She was a featured clinician at the NATS Winter Workshop 2001: Music Theatre and the Belt Voice-Part II in New York City.