Erin Wood, Guest Soloist
Guest soloist for Opera Gala 2006 will be the gifted young soprano, Erin Wood. A graduate of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Center for American Artists and winner of the George London Foundation’s Kirsten Flagstad Award, she is a young vocalist to watch.

This year, Ms. Wood will perform First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Opera Pacific. Recent engagements include the roles of both Gutrune and the third Norn in Götterdämmerung, a reprisal of her role as Ortlinde in Die Walküre, Mrs. Gleaton in Susannah, the First Nursemaid in Weill’s Street Scene, and the mother in Hänsel und Gretel with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lady Billows in Albert Herring as guest soloist at Music Academy of the West, and the role of Sieglinde in Die Walküre. Ms. Wood has also sung Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and Verdi’s Requiem with the Angeles Chorale and the American Youth Symphony.

Ms. Wood made her New York recital debut presented by the Marilyn Horne Foundation’s “On Wings of Song” series. She also received third place in the 2001 Metropolitan Central Region Finals and was a national finalist in the 1998 Loren L. Zachary Society Auditions.

Thomas Conlin, Conductor
Thomas Conlin’s performances in America and abroad have generated great enthusiasm. The New York Times calls his leadership “brilliant” and Opera News “passionate,” also reporting that he “conducted the complex work [Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia] with a beat so clear that he must have brought joy and confidence to his singers and instrumentalists.”

Thomas Conlin conducts the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Chorus and soloists in George Crumb’s Star-Child on a CD which won the 2001 Grammy Award for “Best Contemporary Classical Composition.” Even before the Grammy finalists were selected, Conlin’s recording (Bridge 9095) had received highest recommendations from virtually every music publication in the world, including Billboard, Classic CD, Klassik Heute, Gramophone (“monumental”), Amazon.com (Editor’s Choice), and ClassicsToday.com: “This miraculous disc represents the fulfillment of a dream for all those music lovers who find themselves captivated by Crumb’s haunting, evocative and passionate musical landscapes.” His recording of Crumb’s A Haunted Landscape (Bridge 9113), also with the Warsaw Philharmonic, was nominated for an Indie Award in the category “Best Orchestral Recording.” The third CD in the series, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Echoes of Time and the River was released in October, and Crumb’s Variazioni will be recorded later in 2004. For Naxos, Conlin is recording the six piano concertos by Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri with the Warsaw Philharmonic and pianist Max Barros.

Thomas Conlin is a frequent guest conductor with opera companies, ballet companies and symphony orchestras on five continents, while serving as  Principal Conductor of  Toledo Opera. Recent seasons have included performances in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey and throughout the United States. He founded the Snowshoe Music Festival in the Appalachian mountains and frequently conducts at music festivals in Europe, Japan and America. His repertoire includes compositions of all styles and periods, with an emphasis on music of our time. Conlin has presented numerous world and national premieres of works by American composers.

Maestro Conlin has collaborated with many of the world’s greatest singers, including Kathleen Battle, Maureen Forrester, Marilyn Horne, Cornell MacNeil, Robert Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Roberta Peters, Giorgio Tozzi and Frederica von Stade. He has served as vocal coach for many artists currently on the rosters of San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera and other major companies. He is a distinguished teacher of the art of conducting, having served in that capacity for the American Symphony Orchestra League, Queens College of the City University of New York, the Conductors’ Institute at the University of South Carolina and elsewhere. Articles by or about Thomas Conlin have appeared in numerous international publications, and he has lectured widely on opera and other musical subjects.

While a student at Peabody Conservatory of Music (Johns Hopkins University), Conlin made operatic history with the Chamber Opera Society of Baltimore through his innovative use of projected English translations (Supertitles). As the society’s Artistic Director, he prepared and presented the American premiere – and first staged performance in modern times – of Mozart’s early masterpiece, Lucio Silla. His performing edition has been heard at San Francisco Opera and New York’s Mostly Mozart festival. The conservatory awarded him the Bach-Horstmeier Prize for performance of works by J.S. Bach and the Zaidee Thomas Prize in composition. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Charleston (Doctor of Music) and West Virginia Wesleyan College (Doctor of Humane Letters).