Guest Artists & Faculty

Marina Abib Candusso is a dancer and foundress of the Soma Company, São Paulo, Brazil.

In 2017 premiered her first solo piece “The Goat” directed by André Casca in a co-production Brazil-Italy (Casa do Movimento, Teatro C’art and Teatro del Respiro). With this piece she has already performed in Brazil, Italy, Slovenia, England and Portugal.

Since 2016, in addition to working with her own company, she lives between Brazil and Europe and works on different projects: is a collaborator of the C´art Theater (Italy); danced in the production “Raizes” of Untamed Company (Belgium); and debuted in Slovenia her new production “400 Rabbits”, a partnership with the dancer Beno Novak (Slovenia). In Brazil she premiered “Devil Woman and Dr. Strangelove”, a duet with the dancer Diogo Granato.

Alessandra is an opera singer and an art historian. After obtaining her PhD in art history from the University
of Utrecht, The Netherlands Alessandra Baroni—a native of Arezzo, Italy— continued her specialization both
in Italian culture and Opera Music. She began to teach art history in 2001 at the University of Siena, Italy.
2009 Alessandra was a senior Andrew W. Mellon fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
City. In 2011 she began to teach Italian language & culture in several American academic programs in Italy,
Arezzo.

Caroline Boersma was born in Amsterdam and studied cello at the Amsterdam Conservatory, and has lived and worked in Italy since 1981. She has played in various chamber ensembles and orchestras and has an extensive discography, in particular with Tripla Concordia, an ensemble dedicated to  baroque music, that  she co-founded in 1989. She has toured with these ensembles in both Europe and Japan. As a musician and performer she has collaborated with Giovanni Pampiglioni, Pietro Bartolini, Lilo Bauer and recently Kevin Crawford. She has acted as musical  director, arranger and performer for Bartholomew Fair (Muhlenberg College) and Montee (performances in the US, France and Italy) directed by Kevin Crawford. She performed in Charlotte in Berkeley, California and, currently is collaborating as cellist on Zauber a new vision of Mozart’s Magic Flute with performances in Lasalle and at the Roy Hart Centre, France. Caroline teaches regularly for Furman University Study Abroad program (AdA, Arezzo), BECI (California)  and at Teatro Nunc in Castiglion Fiorentino (Italy). Her personal research has led her to investigate the intimate connection between the Cello as a stringed instrument and the human voice.

Photo: Saša Huzjak / SHtudio.eu

Yo-EL Cassell, award winning choreographer, movement specialist and Head of/Assistant Professor at Boston University, has directed movement from the big screen to off-Broadway sensations. Cassell has choreographed and directed movement for Comedy of Errors, All’s Well That Ends Well, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Coriolanus, King Lear, Love Labours Lost, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night and Othello as Resident Choreographer for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC); Lilly’s Revenge for American Repertory Theatre; The Understudy and Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play for Lyric Stage Company of Boston; Sound of Music for Nantucket Dreamland Theatre; Kiss Me, Kate (featuring Kerry O’Malley and Marc Kudisch), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Boys from Syracuse, Symphonic Shakespeare, Footloose and Fancy Free (Movement Director/Curator), and Urban Sprawl for Boston Landmarks Orchestra/CSC; Violet for Suffulk University, Good Breeding for Emerson Stage, Sunlight Interior, Sweet and Sour, and The Distance Between for Walnut Hill School for the Arts; A Little Night Music, Alcina,and Orpheus in the Underworld for Boston Opera Collaborative; Sunlight Interior for San Antonio Repertory Ballet; Full-Noon Trill and Gravitate for Skidmore College; Die Fledermaus for New England Conservatory, and Laughs in Spanish(Intimacy work) for Boston Playwrights Theatre.

His previous teaching experience also includes the NY Acting School for Film and Television, Harvard University Dance Department, New England Conservatory, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Sunshine Cottage School For Deaf Children, Celebrity Series of Boston, Commonwealth Shakespeare Apprentice Academy, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference, Boston Ballet, Dance Complex, and Skidmore College, where he served as a guest teaching artist/choreographer in residence for three years.

In 2017, along with BU School of Theatre Director Jim Petosa, Yo-EL developed InMotion Theatre, an Initiative that highlights storytelling, either via an original work or an adaptation, primarily through the lens of many diverse approaches of movement, including design and music. He is also the artistic director and founder of Ensemble 360, a physical-theatre ensemble comprising male actors, dancers, and musicians whose mission is to highlight the importance of storytelling through movement. Cassell was born with a nerve deafness and discovered at the age of 3 that movement was his organic expressive channel for his personal and creative identity. His mission, as a performer, director, choreographer, movement director, educator, mentor, and human being, is to provide the same accessible physical entry point to other’s inner selves that he supportively received as a child and throughout life. He supports accessibility through movement practice in various communities throughout Boston and has served as Resident Choreographer for The Shadow Box Theater in NYC as well as Student Engagement Manager and creative producer for ArtsEmerson at Emerson College’s Office of the Arts. His teaching for movement practice, through a thoughtful fusion of various movement and theatre approaches, stresses the importance of incorporating personal identity with an integration of a strong technical foundation. Thus, balancing the importance of owning, in equal measure, the ecstatic and informative self in and outside the walls of movement study. Cassell is a member of Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME).

Mario Cassi made his operatic debut in 2001 within “Voci in Musica”, performing Guglielmo (Così Fan Tutte) and Signor Lupo (Henze’s Pollicino) conducted by Claire Gibault and directed by Daniele Abbado. He won several prestigious international competitions: “Toti Dal Monte” in 2002; “Viotti” in 2002 (“Cesare Bardelli” Special Prize); Placido Domingo Operalia in 2003 (Zarzuela Prize) and Spiros Argiris in 2004 (2nd Prize).  He also graduated in Economics at the University in Florence.He has been nominee Cavaliere della Repubblica per Meriti Artistici by Italian President Mattarella 2017.

Mario Cassi has collaborated with such conductors as Riccardo Muti, Daniel Oren, Michele Mariotti, Andris Nelson, Nicholas Carter, Adam Fisher, Omer Wellber, Paolo Carignani, Daniele Rustioni, Giovanni Antonini, Corrado Rovaris, Bruno Campanella, Patrick Fournillier, Donato Renzetti, Christophe Rousset, Daniel Harding, Tugan Sokhiev, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Marco Armiliato, Stefano Montanari and directors as Pier Luigi Pizzi, Stefano Vizioli, Stefano Mazzonis di Palafera, Micha van Hoecke, Irina Brook, Daniele Abbado, Antonio Calenda, David McVicar, Carlos Saura, Davide Livermore, Micha Makeieff, Hugo De Ana, Yannis Kokkos and Damiano Michieletto. His operatic repertoire spans from Mozart to contemporary music, with special attention to the Italian Belcanto works.

During his career he participated in several premières, including: Luca Lombardi’s Palermo e Corona at the Accademia Filarmonica in Rome in 2001; Veiano (music by Matteo D’Amico and text by Sandro Cappelletto) at the Todi Arte Festival; Marchetti’s Romeo e Giulietta at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca; L’Ape Musicale produced by Attilio Cremonesi in Jesi and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (Barone Grog) at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

Mario Cassi is a returning guest in many of Europe’s most prestigious theaters and festivals. Among his successful collaborations: Hansel und Gretel (Father) at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome; Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges (Horloge Comtoise and Le Chat) at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris; Don Pasquale (Dottor Malatesta) in Ravenna, production that was released in DVD and was toured in Moscow, Liège, Cologne and Paris under the baton of Riccardo Muti, he was Malatesta also in Wien (Musikverein and Staatsoper), Saint Petersburg, Rome, Verona, Bari and Naples; La Cenerentola (Dandini) in Treviso, Pisa, Lucca, Livorno and Valencia; Così Fan Tutte in Trieste, Lucca, Milan (at the Piccolo Teatro), Lausanne and also in Bari and Cagliari; Il Signor Bruschino (Bruschino Padre) and La Cambiale di Matrimonio at the Galuppi Festival in Venice; Salieri’s La Grotta di Trofonio (Plistene) conducted by Christophe Rousset in Lausanne, production recorded with Les Talens Lyriques for the label Ambroisie (2005); Faust (Valentin) at the Ravenna Festival under the baton of Patrick Fournillier and in Valencia; Il Turco in Italia (Prosdocimo) in Turin and in Rome; Handel’s Giulio Cesare (Achilla) staged by Irina Brook at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris; L’Italiana in Algeri in Bologna and Pesaro (Rossini Opera Festival); Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro) in Pesaro, Liège, Valencia, Madrid, Buenos Aires, Florence, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Verona and Rome; Il Califfo di Bagdad (Cadi) with Les Talens Lyriques and Chrtistophe Rousset in Granada, Madrid and Barcelona; Maria Stuarda (Lord Guglielmo Cecil) in Macerata and Liége; Un Ballo in Maschera (Silvano) in Florence; Il Matrimonio Segreto (Conte Robinson) in Liège; La Favorita in Bergamo; Il Matrimonio Inaspettato in Ravenna and Piacenza and Iphigenie en Aulide in Rome; La Calisto (Mercurio) in Paris.

Amongst his recent commitments it is worth mentioning: Le nozze di Figaro, L’Italiana in Algeri, La Bohème, Die Zauberfloete, La Favorite, La Traviata, Don Giovanni (title role) in Liège; I Pagliacci (Silvio), La Bohème and Rigoletto at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan; I Due Figaro in Ravenna, Madrid and Salzburg conducted by Riccardo Muti; L’Elisir d’Amore (Belcore) at the Opéra de Paris, in Munich, Vienna, Palermo, Naples and Florence; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Valencia, Madrid, Florence, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Tel Aviv and Naples; Pagliacci in Toulouse and Dresden; La Vedova Allegra in Turin; Il Viaggio a Reims in Amsterdam (Stefano Montanari conducting, Damiano Michieletto directing); Madama Butterlfly at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; Carmina Burana in Parma, Piacenza and Modena and at the Arena in Verona; Lucia di Lammermoor (Lord Enrico Asthon) in Piacenza and Parma; Le Nozze di Figaro (Figaro) in Vienna (Wiener Staatsoper).

Most recently Mr. Cassi was another time in the role of Malatesta for Don Pasquale in Düsseldorf; furthermore he sung Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Trieste and Monte Carlo; Lucia di Lammermoor in Tel Aviv and Cagliari; Così fan tutte in Dresden; L’Elisir d’Amore in Tblisi, Florence and Wien; La Bohème in Naples; Don Giovanni (title role) in Cologne; Le Nozze di Figaro (Conte d’Almaviva) in Liege and Dresden; Il Barbiere di Siviglia as Figaro at the Arena in Verona, at the Teatro Regio in Parma and in Beijing; Il Trovatore (Conte di Luna) and Il Matrimonio Segreto, I Puritani, Madama Butterfly in Liège; La Traviata in Arezzo; Carmina Burana and Aida at the Arena in Verona and Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Filarmonico; La Bohème in Tokyo.

Mr Cassi future engagements also include L’Amore delle tre melarance at the San Carlo in Naples; Le Nozze di Figaro in Xi’an; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Klagenfurt and Wiesbaden, I Puritani in Minorca, I pagliacci in Arena di Verona

Kevin Crawford is a founding member of the Roy Hart Theatre company. He toured extensively with the company for over twenty years, and acted as a “gerant” of the troupe for a four-year period before moving to Ireland in 1993, where he was a member of faculty at the School of Drama, Trinity College. In Ireland he collaborated with a large number of theatre, dance and musical groups,as well as regularly contributing to programs at University College Dublin and University College Cork. He has been a guest facilitator at the Abbey (National Theatre of Ireland), The International Workshop Festival(London), The Lir, National Academy of Dramatic Art, (Ireland), and CIRA, (Strasbourg). In 2001 he was awarded an MA in Voice Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

On his return to France in 2002 Kevin was appointed Lecturer at the Université d’Artois before joining the Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy as a founding member of faculty. From 2009-2016 he directed the MFA in Physical Theatre at the Accademia. Directorial credits include “Wolf’s Bride “ for Kuopio City Theatre (Finland), “The Bacchae” and “Oedipus” for the Samuel Beckett Centre (Dublin) and “Bartholomew Fair” for the Baker Theatre (Muhlenberg College, United States). He wrote and recently performed “Montee” in collaboration with Caroline Boersma, Cellist, with performances in the US, Italy and France.

Helena Fernandino holds a masters degree in cognitive linguistics. She started her dance training in her home country of Brazil and continued her education in Belo Horizonte and throughout Europe, including Germany, Belgium and Austria. She has been based in Germany since 2003 working as a dancer, teacher and choreographer. As a dancer and choreographer her work includes video dance, site-specific performance and interventions in public spaces. In 2013 she was awarded the graduate scholarship from the State of Saxony for the Artistic Masterclass at Palucca University for Dance Dresden, researching the interface between dance and cognitive linguistics, with a focus on contemporary dance for children and adolescents. In 2014 she began her training as a Somatic Movement Educator – Body Mind Centering – © BMC.

After a Bachelor in Ethno Anthropological Sciences from the University of Bologna, he graduates as Actor in the Lecoq’s Scuola di Teatro di Bologna “Alessandra Galante Garrone” (2012) and as Director in the Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica “Silvio d’Amico” in Rome (2015) where he covered the charge of Board member of the international organization E:UTSA (Europe:Union of Theatre Schools and Academies) for 3 years. Participant since 2012 at the International Summer Program of the Watermill Center, in Long Island, New York, founded by Robert Wilson in 1992, he collaborates with the Texan director in performances (dancer for Dom Perignon at the Palace of Versailles) and Opera: Verdi’s Macbeth in San Paolo (Brasil) and Bologna as movement coach, La Traviata in Linz (Austria) and Perm (Russia) and Le Trouvere in Parma and Bologna, and Turandot in Madrid as assistant director, Hamletmachine as co-director and stage manager in Spoleto (Festival dei 2 Mondi), which toured in Italy during 2017 and 2018 (Piccolo Teatro Milano, Auditorium della Musica di Roma, Teatro della Pergola di Firenze).

In 2016 he started teaching at the Scuola di Teatro di Bologna “Alessandra Galante Garrone” both Acting (with focuses on Mask and Music) and Organization and management.

Is Founder of Officine Montecristo, a company based in Arezzo for organization, production and distribution of Theatre and Music works, with which he toured his shows in Czech Republic, Germany, India and Italy in national and international Festival, like the ITFOK – International Theatre Festival of Kerala, India (2017), UWE, Munich (2015), SETKANI/ENCOUNTER, Brno (2015), Inventaria, Rome (2017), Salviamo i Talenti @ Teatro Vittoria, Rome (2017), Cosa sono le nuvole?, Lucca, (2017).

In 2018 his work LONELY was accepted among the finalists of the Premio Scenario Infanzia. Since May 2019 he is producer of the Arezzo Crowd Festival, the Partecipative Festival for Young Theatre. The Festival counts 40 shows and performances every year and more then 30 partners and focuses on creating an artistic committee of young non professionals that will learn how to create the event throughout the year with the tutoring of a network of companies and professionals.

In 2020 he created Arezzo Crowd Tv, a platform to share cultural meetings, talks, lectures during the pandemic which reached more than 200.000 contacts in the first 4 months of life and hosted more than 90 digital events in one year.

Joe Fitzgerald is a native of Topeka, Kansas who has lived in Oklahoma City since 2015. He received his education at Washburn University in Topeka, KS (BA Music – Organ) and OCU (MM – Vocal Coaching) where he assisted in many opera and musical theatre productions. During his time as an OCU student, he assisted on all three award-winning shows during the record-breaking 2016-2017 season (Jackie O – Assistant Music Director, Don Pasquale – Chorus Master, and Evita – Orchestra.) His past teachers and mentors include Maestro Jan McDaniel, renowned handbell director and organist Jane Anderson, organists Dr. Elisa Williams Bickers & Norma Pettijohn, choir director Steve Eubank, and pianists Dr. Shiao-Li Ding, Dr. Linda Chen, & Jim Rivers.

With more than 30 show credits to his name as diverse as Spamalot and Gianni Schicchi, he is an accomplished répétiteur, vocal coach, chorus master, and music director. He has been Assistant Music Director for Painted Sky Opera in Oklahoma City from its inaugural season in 2016 through the present time, serving as chorus master and répétiteur for such productions that include Tosca, La Traviata, and Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers. His operatic music directing debut was a concert production of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda in 2015.

Equally at home as a church organist and vocal coach, Mr. Fitzgerald’s musical career spans back to childhood when he first started playing for church services. His first organist appointment was at the age of 17 at the North Topeka Baptist Church. He served several churches in Northeast Kansas as organist and/or choir director, including First United Methodist Church of Topeka, First Christian Church of Topeka, and Assumption Catholic Church. He is currently organist at Hillcrest Presbyterian Church in Oklahoma City.

He has served as accompanist for a variety of academic and professional ensembles, including several years at Topeka High School as choral accompanist and as a music director for Topeka Civic Theatre & Academy. As pianist at Topeka High School, his audiences included two governors of Kansas, cabinet secretaries, and former First Lady Michelle Obama. For two summer seasons, he was a piano fellow at the Bay View Music Festival, and in 2018 served on the faculty of the Taos Opera Institute. Fitzgerald has also worked on productions at Helen Hocker Theatre, the Metropolitan Ballet of Topeka, the Pollard Theatre, and Poteet Theater and Academy. He has taught piano lessons and accompanied singers and instrumentalists for more than 15 years. Mr. Fitzgerald is currently a vocal coach, diction professor, and accompanist coordinator at the Bass School of Music.

Artur Gaspar was born in Yerevan, Armenia.

Artur unintentionally found himself on a dancer’s path and how his journey started is quite endearing. It all began at the age of 6, when he accompanied his sister to an audition for a dance academy. In a strange twist of fate he was accepted. He had been spotted for his rough talent and suitable physique for ballet.

From early on, he realised that every step in the ballet world to greatness is a challenge. That ballet is not just about grace and form and fame, but also pain, sweat and tears. Regardless, his inexhaustible desire for perfection, love for his work and inner sense of beauty helped to overcome those difficulties. Ultimately being rewarded with recognition from the audience that induces further growth in his technique and became a catalyst for the further development as an artist.

Artur studied at the Yerevan Choreographic Special School, Yerevan, Armenia and the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, St Petersburg, Russia.

From 2003 to 2008 Artur danced at the State Moscow Classical Ballet N. Kasatkina and V. Vasilyov

From 2008 to 2010 he was the soloist at the Taras Shevchenko National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of Ukraine,

In 2010 he was awarded the Order of St. Mesrop Mashtots, awarded by The President of Armenia, for significant achievements in Armenian culture and cultural cooperation with foreign countries.

Gaspar then went on to become one of the creators, key leaders and face of synth pop boy-band Kazaky. Kazaky, or as The New York Times coined them ‘Boys in Heels’, grew to be a phenomenal worldwide success due to the lithe movements that defy gravity in high heels and for confronting gender norms. Their fashionable signature stiletto performances and unique aesthetic quickly went viral on YouTube, being highlighted by numerous magazines around the world.

Artur lives in the Czech Republic, and he is a choreographer, visual artist, and sound producer & engineer.

Jon Kellam’s career spans over 35 years. He has worked throughout the US, Europe and the UK, as a theatre director, teaching artist, acting coach, writer, and performer. Jon developed, Superdrama™, a theatre training, devising, and performance technique. He co-founded and served as artistic director of Bämsemble Company (Italy), and is Co-Artistic Director of Drama and Performance along with Madeleine Dahm, of Blue Box Earth, an innovative transformable sculpture, gallery, and performance space (coming to Amsterdam in 2026).

Jon will be directing a one-act Opera IL PARNASUS CONFUSO (July 2024), composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck for OperaSeme in Arezzo, Italy, and is developing in part through a residency at Accademia Dell’Arte, an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s DIABOLIAD. Most recent work includes NOSFERATU produced by Casa Bit and Parco 5 at Teatro Juvarra in Torino, 2022. And touring in 2024-25. He directed,TOSKA, a work-in-progress/residency, at Teatro Di Villazzano in Trento, and performed at Teatro Vascello for the Roma Fringe Festival, 2021. Jon directed TARTUFO SUPERDRAMA™  for Atelier Teatro Fisico in Turin (September 2020), served as Associate-director for FENG CHA in Dusseldorf Germany (July 2020), co-director KAFKA’S MONKEY (August 2020), Palais Sommer Festival, Dresden Germany, director and co-writer, FATA MORGANA, A Hallucination From The Mad Sensational Life Of Nico, conceived and performed by Margherita Remotti – at the Chapel Playhouse, London, (2020), Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022, Milano, 2023, and Teatro Argot in Rome, 2023. Jon directed and co-created a free adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes classic interlude, El Retablo De Las Maravillas entitled SALT; THE MARVELOUS PUPPET SHOW, for Bämsemble Company, scripted by Francesco Botti. After a residency at Accadmeia Dell’ Arte and Cavellerizza, SALT was presented at Anti-teatro Fabio Chiesa, Viareggio; Spazio Seme, Arezzo; Teatro C’Art, Castel Fiorentino; Cavallerizza Reale, Torino; and Teatro Franco Parenti, Milano (December 2018  and June 2019).

Jon currently teaches acting, and storytelling at Accademia Dello Spettacolo, also at OFM, and teaches annually a Superdrama™ workshop at Atelier Teatro Fisico, in Torino, Italy. In January 2022, Jon served as the lead teacher of the 2021-22 Commedia dell’Arte block at Dell Arte International, in Blue Lake CA. The specific curriculum of the course initiates a symbiosis between SUPERDRAMA™ and COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE, establishing a contemporary approach. Jon frequently teaches independent Superdrama™ workshops, often collaborating with Ginevra Scaglia.

Lisa Reagan Love is a native of Oklahoma. She began studying piano with Dr. Clarence Burg at Oklahoma City University’s music preparatory school at the age of 7. She continued her musical training there studying voice with Florence Birdwell at the age of 15. She received her Bachelor of Music in vocal performance and a minor in piano from Oklahoma City University and her Master of Music in opera performance at the University of Maryland’s Opera Studio under the direction of Leon Major.

Lisa continued her musical training in piano with Maria Stoesser in Washington DC and vocal training with Marinana Busching (Peabody Conservatory of Music), Nancy Milnes, and John Fiorito in NYC. Lisa has been a member of AGMA and NATS since 1989.

Lisa performed as a soloist for many special events including the Smithsonian Awards, the Corcoran Concert Series, at the White House, and for Presidents and Heads of State around the world including President Reagan, George Bush, King Hussein of Jordan, Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, and the Premier of China Li Peng amongst others. She became a resident member of the Washington National Opera in 1989 where she performed at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts until 2008. Lisa also performed with the Wolf Trap Opera Company and Catholic University’s Summer Opera programs.

Lisa worked as a professor of voice at Shenandoah Conservatory of Music from 1998 until 2008 when she moved to Oklahoma City to join the Wanda Bass School of Music’s faculty as a professor of voice. Lisa was invited to teach masterclasses in Salzburg, Austria as a part of the Frost School of Music’s summer opera program. Her style of teaching emphasizes the power of communicating the libretto with honesty and commitment. She believes that the classical singer should not only be a great singer but should also be a great actor. Lisa was influenced by her training with Florence Birdwell and opera director Leon Major (The Empty Voice) in a way that puts great importance on being in the moment and completely honest with every sung word.

Since returning to Oklahoma Lisa has had the privilege of performing as a soloist with Canterbury Voices and the Oklahoma Philharmonic at the Civic Center.

Lisa teaches a variety of styles of singing including classical, music theater and pop. She herself began in musical theater at the age of 16 where she played Amy in Where’s Charley? at Oklahoma City’s Lyric Theater. She went on to perform in many musicals including performances at the Lyric Theater, Wichita Music Theater, the Kennedy Center, Signature Theater, Terrace Theater, and the Folger Theater.

Lisa is also a composer and has composed 7 albums of original music. Her music can be found on www.lisareagan.com. Her song A l’infini was featured on Bravo TV’s reality series, Project Runway. She is currently recording a solo album of songs she has composed to some of her favorite poems which will be released in March 2022. Lisa is grateful to be working again with Grammy Nominated and Tony Award winner Jamshied Sharifi, who produced and arranged her last album Shunia, which is an album of chants and meditations.

Luigi Marzola graduated from the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi of Milan in Organ and Organ Composition, Piano, and in Choral Conducting at the Civica Scuola di Musica of Milan. He subsequently attended training courses in Choral Conducting with Peter Erdei and Mark Brown, specializied with Norbert Balatsch at the Accademia Santa Cecilia of Rome. As a choral conductor, his notable collaborations include those with director Peter Stein for the theatrical productions of Heinrich von Kleist Penthesilea and Euripides Medea. Since 1996 he has been director of the Cantemus vocal group of Lugano. He is regularly invited to sit on the jury panel of competitions and called to lead master classes for singers and actors on vocalism and on operatic and song repertoire by a number of organisations.

In 2001 he worked with John Glenn Paton in his ‘Gateway for Italian Diction’ volume published by Alfred Music.

Since 2003 he has been teaching at the Scuola Superiore per Direttori di Coro of the Guido d’Arezzo Foundation. He is full Professor in Collaborative Piano at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi (Milan) and Conductor of Youth Italian Choir of Feniarco (National Federation of the Regional Choral Associations).

She graduated in 2023 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Acting from Adelphi University, NY. While studying at Adelphi, she worked as a Teaching Assistant for several beginning Stanislavski and Scene Study courses, and Assistant Directed a mainstage theatrical production.

In 2022, Kim received the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society Initiative award, through Region II of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

Over the past several years, she has discovered her voice in directing works centered around themes of femininity, social justice, and the use of poetic language. She has specialized in music direction and composition, intimacy choreography, mask-work, and directing across a virtual landscape during the height of the pandemic. She also has a special fondness for physical theatre techniques, and has studied Laban movement analysis, Viewpoints, and devised storytelling methodology.

Kimmarie participated in the Summer 2022 Physical Theatre Intensive at Accademia Dell’Arte, and is thrilled to be returning as ADA’s Artist in Residence for the 2023-2024 year. She will be writing, devising, and performing in a one-woman show during the course of the residency. She hopes to continue developing this solo piece for years to come, and to perform it in many countries around the world.

Visit www.kimmarie-lynn.com to stayed tuned on her upcoming artistic projects and endeavours.

Wagner Moreira was born in Brazil and has been living in Germany since 2003. As a teacher, freelance performer and choreographer, he has worked in various theatres, universities and international projects. In 2011, he was awarded a scholarship for the “International Choreographers Residency” at American Dance Festival at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina-USA. In 2012 he received the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) award in professional choreography for his outstanding social and intercultural commitment. In 2012 he received a Master of Arts in Choreography. For the last six years, Wagner has extended his C.O.R.E project to several mixed-able-bodied projects in Europe.

Elia Moretti develops a research on the performativity of sound in music and performing arts, with a specific focus on the relationship between movement and sound.
He regularly plays in national and international festivals as percussion player or composer. Among others he has composed for or performed with the theatre companies Divadlo Continuo (CZ), Phoebe Zeitgeist (IT), ALDES (IT), Chemicke Divadlo (CZ), Bábkove divadlo na rázcesti (SK).

He directed projects of ethnomusicological research on the concept of imaginary folklore in Moravia (CZ), Maramures (RO), South Bohemia (CZ) and Spiš (SK) with an ecological approach to the perception of sound.
He plays drums and vibraphone in different ensemble units, from solo to orchestra, nevertheless he privileges radical and experimental chamber music. He cooperates with the ensemble of contemporary music New Made Ensemble (Milano, IT) and he’s member of the Prazský Improvizačni Orchestr (Praha, CZ). Sometimes he writes on the magazines Musica Jazz, Cultweek and Quaderni D’Altri Tempi.

He published some of his works on the labels A Simple Lunch, Floating Forest, Kohlhaas, Setola di maiale, Many Feet Under, Poli5 and Dinzu Artefacts.

Beno Novak is a professional contemporary dancer and co-founder of KUD Qulenium Ljubljana. In 2016 he graduated from the Salzburg Dance Academy of Dance (SEAD) in contemporary dance and performance. Due to his success, he was subsequently invited to upgrade his knowledge at the Tisch Dance (New York University) and The Place (London) dance academy.

In 2017 and 2018 he danced at Gary Clark in the performance “Coal”, which received numerous awards.

Since then he has been working with international companies like Jason Mabana, James Wilton, Ricardo Ambrozio,…

For several years he is teaching his own technic “Zero Space” in different institutions and festivals, besides, he is a regular dance professor at the Dance Academy Ljubljana and contemporary dance program Performact Portugal.

In addition to dance, he actively participates in the organization and implementation of the Kalejdoskop festival Kranj and Kalejdoskop festival Ljubljana and the summer-dance festival Summer Intensive Portugal.

Alongside dancing within international dance companies, he has been acting as a creator for many years, mostly within his company Qulenium.

Greg Pierotti is an assistant professor of dramaturgy and collaborative playmaking at the University of Arizona. He has taught theatrical devising for twenty years and is also a certified assistant teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework™. He is co-writer of the plays The Laramie Project, Laramie:10 Years later, and The People’s Temple and the HBO teleplay The Laramie Project. For these works received the Bay Area Theater Critics Award, a Will Glickman Award, and the Humanitas Prize, and received NY Drama Desk, Alpert and Emmy award nominations.

As an actor he has performed at Lincoln Center Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, La Jolla Playhouse, The Union Square Theater, to name a few. His current academic research explores the cross-pollination of theatrical devising practices and affect theory.

Harvey Sachs, writer and music historian, has published eleven books, of which there are now more than seventy editions in seventeen languages. The eleventh book, TEN MASTERPIECES OF MUSIC, was published in October 2021. Its predecessor, TOSCANINI: MUSICIAN OF CONSCIENCE – which replaced his 1978 biography of the famed Italian conductor – was published in 2017. His recently completed book on Arnold SCHOENBERG is tentatively scheduled for publicatio in 2023. Book Number Nine was THE NINTH: BEETHOVEN AND THE WORLD IN 1824, published in 2010. Other books include the standard biography of Arthur Rubinstein (Rubinstein: A Life, 1995); a history (Music in Fascist Italy, 1988); two collections of essays on musical subjects (Virtuoso, 1982, and Reflections on Toscanini, 1991); The Letters of Arturo Toscanini (2002), which he compiled, translated, and edited; and, as co-author, the memoirs of Plácido Domingo (My First Forty Years, 1983) and Sir Georg Solti (Memoirs [UK title: Solti on Solti] 1997). Sachs has written for the New Yorker, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times Literary Supplement (London), La Stampa, Il Sole 24 Ore, and dozens of other newspapers, magazines, literary journals, and record companies (his published items number over 700), as well as for the BBC, Arte, PBS, CBC (Canada), RAI (Italy), RSI (Switzerland), and other radio and television networks. He is a frequent contributor to the Sunday cultural supplement of Il Sole-24 Ore, one of Italy’s most important national newspapers.

Sachs is on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He has held fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he was the New York Philharmonic’s Leonard Bernstein Scholar-in-Residence from 2011 to 2013. He has lectured at many North American and European universities and cultural institutions, including Harvard University, Columbia University, New York University, the University of Chicago, the University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Southern California, Boston University, Loyola University in Baltimore, the Juilliard School, the Colburn School, McGill University, the University of Toronto, Freie Universität Berlin, the University of Warsaw, l’Università di Siena, l’Université de Fribourg, the Smithsonian Institution, the British Institute of Recorded Sound, the Aldeburgh Festival, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Italian Cultural Institutes of New York, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, London, Budapest, Warsaw, Copenhagen, and Tel Aviv. In 2019 he gave lectures as part of Riccardo Muti’s Opera Academy in Tokyo and the Tokyo Spring Festival.

Harvey Sachs was born on June 8, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio. He received much of his musical training in his home town and he holds an honorary doctorate from the Cleveland Institute of Music, but he has lived all of his adult life elsewhere, including substantial periods in Toronto, London, Milan, Tuscany, Lugano, and New York (his home since 2006). He was active as a conductor, mainly in Canada, from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, but he gave up conducting to devote himself to writing, teaching, and lecturing. From 2004 to 2006 he was Artistic Director of Italy’s most prestigious concert organization, the Società del Quartetto di Milano. In 1994, in Loro Ciuffenna (Arezzo), Italy, he founded the annual Festival del Quartetto, which was then the only festival in Italy dedicated to the string quartet, and which still exists.

 
In 2017, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, honored Harvey Sachs with the title of Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy), for his contributions to Italian culture.

Michele Segreto is an Italian author and director, founder of servomutoTeatro a theatre company based in Milan. He graduated in Theatre History and Dramaturgy at Cattolica University, and studied in ERT – Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondation, under the direction of Claudio Longhi and also studied with Giovanni Guerrieri (I Sacchi di Sabbia), Silvio Castiglioni, Giorgia Penzo, Mariano Dammacco, Maurizio Camilli e Michela Lucenti (Ballettocivile), Marina Rossi, Giovanni Calcagno, Elena Bucci e Marco Sgrosso (Le Belle Bandiere), Mark Ravenhill, Mike Bernardin, Wiebke Nonne, Grażyna Dyląg (Schaubühne)

In 2015 with the play Polvere won the Petroni Prize, and the following year with the same play is also awarded the Tagad’Off Prize, Giovani Realtà del Teatro Prize and then the play is chosen to open the XX edition of Inequilibrio Festival in Castiglioncello. In 2016 he won the Scintille Prize with the play PhoebusKartell and Teatri del Sacro with the playwriting of Non un’Opera Buona. In 2018 PhoebusKartell is in the final selection of In-Box – Rete di Sostegno del Teatro Emergente Italiano and is awarded NEXT Prize by Regione Lombardia.

Still in 2018, with Amore oppure Amore Michele Segreto won the Audience Prize, Student Prize and Critic Prize at Fantasio – International Festival of Theatre Direction. In 2020 he is in artistic residency in Corte Ospitale and Kilowatt. Michele Segreto also teaches Theatre History, Drammaturgy and Theatre Antropology.

Dory Rebekah Sibley is the Undergraduate Programs Associate and the professor of Voice and Ensemble Performance at the Accademia dell’Arte. She is the Co-Founder of the NYC based physical theatre company Tut’Zanni Theatre Company. Already in their sixth year, Tut’Zanni has performed and taught all over the world. She is also a founding member of the all-woman clown troupe Women From Mars and recently toured their ‘clown-noir’ cabaret SILENT REFLECTIONS through Italy and parts of the USA. Dory is one of the pioneer teachers of Voice in the Mask work and currently teaches and develops new projects in collaboration with colleague Torbjörn Alström, Head of Puppetry, Masks and Animation at the Frölunda Kulturhus in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Dory is a certified teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework® and has over ten years of experience in various voice and bodywork fields including Roy Hart Experimental Voice, classical voice and opera theatre, Alexander and Feldenkrais techniques. She completed her teaching certification in the Elemental Body Alignment System (EBAS) in 2013. She was an ArezzoFestival organizer for over 4 years, was the CrisisART Festival Collective Facilitator from 2012 – 2014 and serves as President of the ADA Alumni Association. As a freelance artist, she continues to perform her original devised work in the USA and Europe. Learn more about Dory’s ongoing projects and pedagogy on her website: www.doryrebekah.com

The Slovak theatre director Marika Smreková graduated from the Directing and Dramaturgy Studio at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Czech Republic. During the last five years her main interest finds expression in her artistic research on performative theatre as a chance for intercultural dialog. Se has been working on cultural traditions of the Carpathian region and contemporary performative folklore, always bringing performers and the audience collective to an interactive and immersive experience. Her wish is to fight against racism and climatic crimes through intercultural dialog and community art. Together with the important Slovak choreographer Jaro Viňarský and the students of Physical Theatre Atelier in Janáček Academy, she created the choreography L ́Amour: Experiment (2015-2018). At the moment she is curating the ninth edition of UM UM Festival and she is working on the new environmental art project called eKo(laboratorium) which brings professional artists to confrontation with local communities.

Ivan Truol is an actor, dancer, choreographer and teacher. He studied at the  Escuela de Teatro de la Universidad de Chile. He worked with  Sosta Palmizi, Corte Sconta, Adriana Borriello, Marco Baliani, Gigi Dall’Aglio, Giorgio Barberio Corsetti. He performed in Chile, Brasil, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, England, United States and Canada.  

In1997 he founded the Atacama company with Patrizia Cavola and they performed in theatres and international festivals in Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium, France, Brazil and Poland. 

In 2009 he became artistic director of the La Scatola Dell’Arte in Rome. 

In 2010 he taught at the Instituto de Estudios Secundarios de la Universidad de Chile, in Santiago del Chile, Chile. 

In 2014 he was a member of the jury of the Premio MarteLive Danza.

In 2015 he worked in the movie, Per Amor Vostro directed by Giuseppe Gaudino and presented at the 72 Venice Film Festival. 

In Rome he taught at the Duncan 3.0, La Scatola dell’Arte, Accademia Internazionale di Arte Drammatica Teatro Quirino Vittorio Gassman, Q Academy Nuova Accademia Internazionale Arte Drammatica Teatro Quirinetta, and Accademia Arte Drammatica Cassiopea. 

He teaches courses, seminars and masterclasses in dance academies and theatres in Italy and abroad.

Konstantin Tsakalidis is a Greek/German dancer, choreographer, dance pedagogue and publisher. He studied acting, dance, and choreography in Stuttgart, Zürich and London. He started his performing career in 1992.

Konstantin has been working as a dancer  for many national theatres, like the Staatsschauspiel Theater in Dresden, and in several film-productions and TV shows. He also choreographed for free lance based ensembles and created solo performances.

As dance Pedagogue Konstantin has been teaching choreography and composition for many Dance educational Institutions all over Europe.  2014 he decided to establish his own educational dance Center in Leipzig -Germany “The Tanzzentrale”,  offering one of the most successful certified formation program in Dance Pedagogy.

Konstantin Tsakalidis published several specific books about how to conceive Solo and group choreography. His work “Choreography, craft and vision” has been recently translated and published also in English.

Silvia Vajente was born in Arezzo (Italy). She (soprano) graduated in opera singing at the Conservatorio Martini of  Bologna where she studied with Mrs D. Debolini. Afterwards, she attended several lyrical and chamber  musical theatre courses, and also some masterclasses with L. Serra, C. Desderi and J. Savall. Particularly  interested in ancient and baroque music, she continued studying with Jill Feldman and Gloria Banditelli.  

She won the I Concorso internazionale di canto barocco F. Provenzale, Napoli 2004 (she won the second  prize, the first one was not assigned); the Premio Bonporti, the IX edition of the Chamber Music International  competition on Period Instruments, Rovereto 2006, with the harpsichord player G. Barchiesi (she won the third  prize of the international jury and the special prize of the public). 

She sang as soloist in Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Finland,  Brazil, Cile, Argentina, USA, Canada collaborating particularly with several groups specialized in the baroque  repertoire (as the Bozen Baroque Orchestra, Modo antique, L’arte dell’arco, Il canto di Orfeo, La Sfera  Armoniosa, La Venexiana, Orchestra barocca di Bologna, Il Rossignolo, Epoca Barocca,Cantar Lontano, L’Aura Soave, Cappella Artemisia, Athestis Chorus, Ensemble Homme Armè of Firenze, Concerto Palatino) and singing at important Festivals like the Festival Monteverdi of Cremona (where she sang as other soloist  soprano with Emma Kirkby), Folle Journée-Harmonie des Nations, Festival Fränkischer Sommer, Festival  internazionale “Da Bach a Bartok” of Imola, Pergolesi Spontini Festival of Jesi, Festival Opera Barga,  AltstadtherbstFestival of Dusseldorf, Settembre Musica of Teatro della Pergola in Firenze, Festival Musica  Antiga al Palau de L’Abat of Valencia (Spain), BolognaFestival, Stagione della Scuola Normale di Pisa, Festival S. Maurizio Musica e Poesia (Milan), Festival Potsdam-Sanssouci (Germany), Festival  Contemporaneamente Barocco of Siena, Settimane Musicali dell’Olimpico of Vicenza, Festival Barocco di  Viterbo, Sagra Musicale Umbra, Musik Festival of Brema, Festival Galuppi of Venezia, Festival Barocco of  Rome, Osterfestival of Hall in Tirol (Austria). 

She sang in operas and oratorios by Rossi, Cavalli, Haendel, Pergolesi, Piccinni, Scarlatti, Vivaldi, Galuppi,  Rossini, Ravel, Britten, represented in various theatres all over Italy and foreign theatres.  She also sings contemporary music. In 2010 she sang Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg at Cantiere Internazionale  d’arte of Montepulciano. 

She also graduated in oboe and worked as a professional oboe-player until 2000 playing with Orchestra  Regionale Toscana, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Orchestra Sinfonica Toscanini, Orchestra sinfonica of  Savona, Teatro lirico di Cagliari, Orchestra Verdi of Milan, conducted by great conductor as Sawallish, Metha,  Webb, Tate. Cd recordings were made with the Ensemble italiano fiati for Tactus, with the I virtuosi Italiani for the Chandos. 

She graduated in musicology at the Scuola di Paleografia e Filologia Musicale of Cremona (University of  Pavia) with a dissertation on the oratorio “La Resurrezione” by G. F. Haendel. 

Silvia Vajente graduated in Choral Conducting (3 years degree course) at the Fondazione Guido d’Arezzo. She studied with internationally renowned maestros such as Gary Graden, Ragnar Rasmussen, Lorenzo Donati, Carlo Pavese, Xavier Busto, Stojan Kuret, and Basilio Astulez.

She was a keynote speaker at the third national conference ‘Lo strumento coro, dirigere e cantare’ (Choir as an instrument, Conducting and Singing).

She taught singing at Istituto di Musica of Montepulciano (SI) for ten years and at the  moment she is teaching lyrical singing at the triennio of Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (CaMu) and  vocal technique at the High School for choir conductors of the Guido dʻArezzo Foundation. 

She is  also the founder and conductor of Viscantus vocal ensemble of Arezzo. She conducted I Cantori del Borgo of Sansepolcro and she is the creator of Recicanto, an experimental workshop to raise  awareness of opera for children and adults together. 

She is currently teaching Vocal Theory at the Fondazione Guido d’Arezzo. She is also a member of the judging panel of the Conducting department.

Roman Zotov-Mikshin was born in Tula, Russia. From his 17 he is based in Prague, Czech Republic. During his studies in Duncan centre dance conservatory he was learning contemporary dance, modern techniques as Graham, Limon and Cunningham, martial arts, street dance and performed in numerous local and international dance pieces. From 2015 he mostly lives his life between rehearsal spaces and the stage. He artistically collaborated with Nadar Rosano, Maxim Didenko, Lenka Flory, Michal Záhora, Mirka Eliášova, Jana Bitterova and many other artists from the field of contemporary dance, physical and experimental theatre. Roman is a member of Spitfire Company – an artistic company that includes works of physical, visual and dance theatre. From 2018 he teaches composition, improvisation, contemporary dance and martial art in Duncan centre.