ROGER MALOUF - conductor 

Roger Malouf is an Assistant Conductor with the Metropolitan Opera, where he has worked on productions led by maestros Levine, Luisi, Gergiev, Rattle, Maazel, Domingo, Nézet-Séguin, Rudel, Armiliato, and Davis, among others. He is Co-Director of the Opera Workshop at Mannes College of Music Extension Division, and has served on the staff of New York City Opera and the Juilliard School. As a vocal coach, he is on the faculty of the Bel Canto Institute in Italy, and has taught at the International Vocal Institute in Croatia, the American Institute for Musical Studies (AIMS) in Austria, and at Portland State University’s Deutsche Sommerschule amPazifik.

Mr. Malouf has served as an accompanist for the Belvedere Competition at the Wiener Kammeroper and for the Jugendfestspieltreffen at the Bayreuth Festival. He has given master classes in opera and art song at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has coached singers in the Young Artist Program at Opera New Jersey. Two innovative summer festivals in the state of New York have invited him to work with their singers: Respiro Opera NYC and RESONANZ in Albany. He is a frequent adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Altamura/Caruso Vocal Competition.

As a conductor, Mr. Malouf has presented opera in concert performances with the West Side Opera (New York) since 1995. He has conducted for the Natchez Opera Festival, the Little Opera Theatre of New York, Brooklyn Repertory Opera, and for the concert series at Trinity Church on Wall Street. In addition to organizing and performing in recitals of the complete songs of Bellini and Verdi for Trinity Church, he has accompanied recitals at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, and has played for master classes given by Martina Arroyo, Anna Moffo, Sherrill Milnes, and Gérard Souzay. Mr. Malouf studied with the distinguished musicians Aube Tzerko, Gwendolyn Koldofsky, David Garvey, and Brooks Smith in California, and with Dieter Weber and Noel Flores in Vienna.

KEITH CHAMBERS, PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR

Keith Chambers has conducted over 100 performances of 40 different operas for companies including The Dallas Opera, Amarillo Opera, Shreveport Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, First Coast Opera, American Lyric Theater, Manhattan Opera Studio, Moores Opera Center, The Living Opera, Martha Cardona Opera, Opera in the Ozarks, and American Opera Projects.  He has served as Cover and/or Assistant Conductor for over 40 different operas and has assisted noted conductors Emmanuel Villaume, Patrick Summers, Willie Anthony Waters, and Riccardo Frizza, among others.  He is currently the Principal Guest Conductor of Manhattan Opera Studio and the Founder & Artistic Director of New Amsterdam Opera.

A strong relationship with The Dallas Opera has provided Mr. Chambers with the opportunity to conduct The Dallas Opera Family Concerts and student performances of The Elixir of Love.  He recently led Un giorno di regno for the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program and has conducted for Amarillo Opera (Tosca), Manhattan Opera Studio (Radamisto, Hänsel & Gretel, Le nozze di Figaro), American Opera Projects (Nora, in the Great Outdoors).

Mr. Chambers has served as Chorus Master for over 30 productions, including Opera New Jersey (La traviata, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, La Cenerentola, The Merry Widow, Lucia di Lammermoor, The Mikado, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Il trovatore, H.M.S. Pinafore, Don Pasquale, Don Giovanni, Faust), Opera Saratoga (L’elisir d’amore, Die Zauberflöte), Moores Opera Center (Casanova’s Homecoming, L’Italiana in Algeri, La bohème, Der Freischütz, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Katya Kabanova), Opera in the Ozarks (L’elisir d’amore, Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte) & Shreveport Opera (Madama Butterfly, Carousel, Carmen).

Mr. Chambers is a former Assistant Conductor of New York City Opera, The Dallas Opera, Seattle Opera, and Toledo Opera. He has served as faculty of the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program, Westchester Summer Vocal Institute, and the RESONANZ Festival and is the previous Artistic Director of The Living Opera, Principal Conductor and Casting Consultant for New York Lyric Opera, and Chorus Master of Shreveport Opera.  He has also adjudicated orchestras for New York Sounds of Spring International Music Festival at Carnegie Hall. 

An accomplished pianist, Mr. Chambers has appeared as concerto soloist with the Delaware Symphony, Clear Lake Symphony, and Naples Philharmonic, with conductors Erich Kunzel and Maurice Peress. A protégé of pianist Ivan Davis, he has been a featured guest artist at the Chopin Festival at the Catholic University in Peru, and the Chopin Foundation of Miami.   He has appeared with soprano Kirsten Chambers in a series of joint solo piano and voice recitals at Lake George Opera and Northwestern State University.  Mr. Chambers has been official pianist for The Dallas Opera Competition, Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year Competition, Amarillo Opera Gala, and the Fort Worth Opera McCammon Competition.

MICHAEL WITTENBURG, CONDUCTOR- VOCAL COACH

Hailed as a “real virtuoso” by the late Ruth Laredo, conductor and pianist Michael Shane Wittenburg is in his first season the Music Director and Conductor of the Hudson Valley Chorale, having previously served as assistant conductor and pianist since 2013. He has been an assistant conductor and vocal coach at opera companies in Nashville, Orlando, Sarasota, and New York, While an Assistant Professor of Music at Lee University where he was Music Director for both the Chamber Orchestra and Opera Theatre, he led performances ranging from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, to Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All. He was the interim Conductor of the Chattanooga Symphony Youth Orchestra, and has guest conducted the Ocala (FL) Symphony and the Adelphi Chamber Orchestra (NJ). He has made solo appearances as pianist with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, The Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and the Ocala Symphony. He has been a violinist and Principal Keyboardist with the Brevard (FL) Symphony Orchestra, and was Assistant Principal Second Violin and Keyboardist with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera. He has been a faculty member of the Heifetz International Music Institute as a collaborative pianist and sonata coach, and has appeared in collaborative recital with such artists as Metropolitan Opera soprano Stella Zambalis and concert violinist Livia Sohn.

 A graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy, Mr. Wittenburg’s training includes Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he studied with Fernando Laires and Alan Feinberg, and held a Fellowship in opera coaching, as well as a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. His teachers include Henry Charles Smith, David Effron, Dr. Steven Bird, and, most recently, Michael Jinbo at the renowned Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestral Musicians, where he was awarded the Osher Scholar prize. He was the Mary Ragland Young Artist Pianist at Nashville Opera, where he directed 66 performances of the world premiere children’s opera, The Ugly Duckling.

Kamal Khan - Conductor / coach

Indian-American conductor and pianist Kamal Khan combines an active performing career with a passionate commitment to the globalization of operatic training. Kamal has performed in venues such as The MET, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, Dallas Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colón, Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Teatro Bellas Artes and Festival Cervantino, Mexico, Gran Teatro del Liceu and Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Palacio de las Artes in Valencia, Paris Opera Palais Garnier, Bonn Opera, Suntory Hall, Casals Hall, and Tokyo Opera City, Osaka Festival Hall, Seoul Arts Center and Asian Cultural Center, Korea; Beijing Hall; Jiangsu Center for the Performing Arts, Nanjing, and Suzhou Culture & Arts Center, China, Cape Town Opera, Opera South Africa, and orchestras including the Jerusalem Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Beijing Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, São Paulo Philharmonic, RTVE Symphony, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonic and The Orchestra of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He has shared stages with Marcelo Alvarez, Nadine Benjamin, Harolyn Blackwell, Nico Castel, Justino Diaz, Placido Domingo, Michael Fabiano, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Larisa Martinez, Angela Meade, Sherrill Milnes, Juan Pons, Herman Prey, Renata Scotto, Nadine Sierra, Teresa Stratas, Sir Bryn Terfel, Veronica Villarroel, Pretty Yende and Joshua Bell, among many others.

The Emmy-winning PBS documentary “I Live to sing” is based on his work at the University of Cape Town. 

LISA NAVA - Stage Director

After studying art and music she graduated with a thesis on musical theatre direction at the Milan University of Studies. She studied film direction and began working in the production departments of major Italian movie companies. In those years she shot her first shorts. Since 2002 she has been assistant director in opera productions in prestigious national and international festivals and opera houses. In recent years she held the position of Director and Stage Manager in prestigious Opera Houses in Europe. Her debut as an opera director was in 2006 at the Teatro delle Erbe in Milan with the "Così fan tutte" by W. A. Mozart. In 2009, at the Piccolo Teatro Studio in Milan she directed "Ferrovia Soprelevata" by Dino Buzzati and Luciano Chailly, an Italian experimental musical comedy from the 60s. The following year she worked on "Poème électronique" by Edgard Varèse and Le Corbusier, devising, in collaboration with Walter Prati, the multimedia event "Music is all around you". In the 2013 summer she became a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab in New York City. In December 2013 she was invited at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre Directors Lab in St. Petersburg, to direct The Idiot by F. Dostoievsky. Furthermore she taught at the Marangoni Institute of Fashion and Design in Milan. In the Manhattan Opera Studio, she has assisted Walker Lewis in Le Nozze di Figaro (2015) and she was in charge of the direction of The Magic Flute (Carnegie Hall) and Hansel und Gretel (MOS Summer Festival 2016).

Stephan Fillare, Conductor - Concertmaster

Stephan Fillare made his New York City conducting debut with the world premiere of Bruce Saylor’s Adagio for Orchestra. Mr. Fillare continues to make a career for himself in New York City. His highlights include collaborating with New Camerata Opera on their double bill production of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, and Gustav Holst’s Sāvitri, productions of Don Giovanni, Dido & Aeneas the Marriage of Figaro, Die Zauberflöte as well as the premiere of Fiora, a modern opera by Britlin Losee. Under the guidance of Maurice Peress, Mr. Fillare  assisted the first fully staged production of Bernstein’s MASS in Queens, NY. This summer, Stephan returned to Manhattan Opera Studio as guest conductor for Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and served as cover conductor for Wagner’s Die Walküre. Currently, Stephan is Assistant Conductor and Concertmaster of the New York Repertory Orchestra. 

Mr.Fillare keeps an active career in New York City as a violinist. He can be seen as concertmaster with the New Amsterdam Opera Company, New York Repertory Orchestra, Manhattan Opera Studio and Livingston Symphony. This past winter he was Concertmaster for New York Concert Opera’s inaugural performance of Puccini’s La Boheme.

 Stephan received his Master of Arts in Instrumental Conducting from the Aaron Copland School of Music in 2014, where he studied with Maurice Peress. Stephan has also studied conducting with Anthony Hose. He received his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Stetson University in 2012, studying violin with Routa Kroumovitch-Gomez.  

This season highlights include a debut concert with the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, conducting the New York Repertory Orchestra in Debussy’s Petite Suite and assisting Composer Joel Mandelbaum in preparations for new recordings of his opera The Village.

Katerina Kakantoussis - operations and tALENT manager

Nina is responsible for the operations and logistics of the Manhattan Opera Studio. She has been part of MOS since 2013.

She holds a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance and attended Manhattan School of Music, the National Conservatory of Greece, and The American College of Greece, where she obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Musicology.

She has studied at the prestigious Centro Universale del Bel Canto in Italy and  Mozarteum University in Salzburg. In addition, she has participated in many masterclasses and concerts throughout Europe and the U.S. and has worked with teachers such as Mirella Freni, and  Marjana Lipovsek, Mark Oswald and Mignon Dunn.

Nina has been involved in the musical field from the age of six studying violin and piano at the Peabody Conservatory.

In addition to her role at MOS Nina is an active singer and voice teacher.

Sarah Beckham-Turner - Stage Director

Sarah Beckham-Turner is a multi-talented artist with a passion for creating and participating in musical art. As a soprano, she has received critical acclaim for her soulful and affecting performances, earning praise from the New York Times, Opera News, Wall Street Journal, and The Observer. Last season Beckham-Turner sang in the world premiere of “Letters That You Will Not Get”, with the American Opera Projects in New York City, Alice in Verdi’s Falstaff with Raylynmor Opera, and Hänsel in Amarillo Opera’s production of Hänsel und Gretel. As a director, she works with young artists and has directed and produced productions such as The Magic Flute, Postcard from Morocco, and Our Town. Beckham-Turner is also a member of Opera Cowgirls, an all-female performing group that brings opera to new audiences. She currently resides in Amarillo, Texas where she is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera at West Texas A&M University.

CARLOS Federico TAGLE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Carlos Federico Tagle has been the Artistic Director of the Manhattan Opera Studio since 2013. Under his direction, the main goal of the Opera Studio has been to create an intensive and practice-oriented artistic experience and a bridge to the professional opera world. This strategy helped establish MOS as one of the world's most prestigious young artist programs.

Mr. Tagle has established strategic alliances with other prestigious organizations overseas such as The Paris Opera Competition and the Fundacion Ibanez-Atkinson, participating as an active jury in international competitions and becoming an artistic advisor. 

During his tenure as Artistic Director, the MOS has produced more than 30 operas and has become an ever-improving organization, recruiting and preparing singers that have continued their careers in some of the leading opera houses in the world, including The Metropolitan Opera House and Teatro alla Scala di Milano among many others.

LEWIS EHLERS, Agent - Lombardo associates

Mr. Ehlers is one of the top agents for opera singers in New York City. His company represents world-class singers and artists such as Renata Scotto, Rod Gilfry, Vladimir Chernov, and Fabio Armiliato. Lewis Ehlers is a big supporter of the new operatic talent. He will be part of the 2023 MOS Summer Festival, giving artistic and professional advice to our artists.