Kiera Duffy, soprano (Lucia)
Winner of a 2008 Sullivan Foundation grant and a finalist in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, American soprano Kiera Duffy’s 2008-2009 season included her debut with the New York Philharmonic in Pierre Boulez’s Pli selon pli, and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic she sang Aventures Nouvelles Aventures. She debuted with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in Carmina Burana and joined the Pacific Symphony Orchestra as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah, followed by a return engagement with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra for that same work. On the operatic stage, Ms. Duffy was heard as Queen Tye in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten with Atlanta Opera and as Elivra in L’italiana in Algeri with the Opera Company of Philadelphia.

Elizabeth Batton, mezzo-soprano (Lucretia)
Last season Elizabeth Batton performed the role of Sara in Roberto Devereux at Dallas Opera, Charlotte in Werther with Kentucky Opera, Maddalena in Rigoletto with Arizona Opera, and Principessa in Mascagni's Il Piccolo Marat. In 2007 she appeared as Evadne in Troilus and Cressida with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, as Carmen with Indianapolis Opera, and as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly in her Washington Opera debut. Other performances include Olga in Eugene Onegin at Opera Cleveland and the title role of Eva by Josef Foester at the Wexford Festival in Ireland. In recent seasons, Miss Batton has been heard with the American Symphony Orchestra in their recording of Die Agyptische Helena and Bruckner’s Mass in F Minor at Avery Fisher Hall. She has performed with Opera Pacific and Opera North as Olga in productions of Eugene Onegin, and with the National Opera du Rhin in Strasbourg as The Third Lady in The Magic Flute, which was telecast throughout Europe. She earned her Master of Music degree at Manhattan School of Music.

Margaret Lattimore, mezzo-soprano (Female Chorus)
Grammy-nominated mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore has sung with the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Washington Opera, Dallas Opera and Netherlands Opera, among others. She has sung her signature roles of Rosina in The Barber of Seville and the title role in La Cenerentola with 25 companies across North America. Other roles include Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos and Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking. Her Mozart repertoire includes Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan Tutte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and most recently, Tamiri in a production of Il Re Pastore with the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. Ms. Lattimore was recently heard with the New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony in Handel’s Messiah, Juno in Semele with Opera Boston, Mahler’s Second Symphony at the Colorado Music Festival and Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Honolulu Symphony. Toledo Opera audiences will remember her portrayals of The Old Lady in our 50th Anniversary performance of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and Dame Quickly in Falstaff.

Maria Zifchak, mezzo-soprano (Bianca)
Maria Zifchak has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera as Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Magdalene in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Meg Page in Falstaff, Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Suzuki in a new production of Madama Butterfly, Mercedes in Carmen, Wellgunde in Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, Kasturbai in Satyagraha, the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka, the Cook in Le Rossignol, The Second Lady in The Magic Flute, La Bersi in Andrea Chénier, Enrichetta in I Puritani, the Nursing Sister in Suor Angelica, Zulma in L'italiana in Algeri. Other appearances include New York City Opera where she was heard as Vitige in Flavio, Adalgisa in Norma at the Teatro Colon in Bogotá, Dorabella in Così fan Tutte with the opera companies of Seattle and Arizona, Isabella in L'italiana In Algeri with Opera Festival of New Jersey; Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with New Orleans Opera, the Mother and the Witch in Hansel and Gretel with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos with Opera North, and Smeton in Anna Bolena with Pittsburgh Opera.

Steven Sanders, tenor (Male Chorus)
In the spring of 2008 Steven Sanders made his New York City Opera debut in King Arthur and went on to perform with Wolf Trap Opera in the role of Oronte in Alcina. He recently performed the role of Chairman Mao in Nixon In China with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Galileo in Galileo Galilei at Boston University, and Howard Boucher in Dead Man Walking at Austin Lyric Opera. As a concert artist, he has been heard as soloist in Carmina Burana with the Dallas Wind Symphony, Beethoven’s Mass In C Major with Boston's Masterworks Chorale, and in the Mozart Requiem with Ballet Austin. Last season he made his Carnegie Hall debut as the tenor soloist in Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore. A native of Chickasha, Oklahoma, Mr. Sanders holds degrees in Music Education from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from Oklahoma City University, and a Certificate of Performance from Boston University.

Philip Cutlip, baritone (Tarquinius)
Philip Cutlip's appearances last season included the roles of The Count in Utah Opera's The Marriage of Figaro and Nadir in Les Pêcheurs de perles with Opera Columbus. He was soloist with the Phoenix Symphony in Haydn's Creation, the Nashville and Richmond symphonies in Handel’s Messiah, Mendelssohn's Elijah with the Choral Art Society of Portland, Maine, Mozart's Requiem with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Fauré's Requiem with the Charlotte Symphony, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Oregon Symphony. Mr. Cutlip made his debut at Glimmerglass Opera in the title role in Philip Glass's Orphée, returned to Seattle Opera to sing Marcello in La bohème and to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona to sing Mattieux in Andrea Chénier. Other recent appearances include performances at Hawaii Opera Theatre, Austin Lyric Opera, Arizona Opera, and his debut with Houston Grand Opera as Donald in Billy Budd. He has toured internationally with the Hamburg Ballet singing Bernstein's Dances, and has appeared on European and American tours of Philip Glass's Les Enfants terribles, including the world premiere in Switzerland.

Lee Gregory, baritone (Junius)
Lee Gregory’s 2007-2008 season included his debut with Opera Pacific as Schaunard in La bohème, and the roles of Belcore in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Naples, Escamillo in Carmen with Boston Midsummer Opera and Marcello in La bohème with ProCantus Lyric Opera. Recent career highlights are performances at New York City Opera as Moralès in Carmen, Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Nashville Opera, Mr. Marshall in Regina at Bard’s SummerScape Festival, John Brooke in Little Women with Dayton Opera, and Ping in Turandot with Des Moines Metro Opera. He is a regular performer with American Opera Projects where he has collaborated with new playwrights and composers, performing their works in progress. He is a winner of both the 2006 Joy in Singing Competition and the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition. Mr. Gregory appeared in Toledo Opera’s productions of Roméo et Juliette and Candide.

Matthew Burns, bass-baritone (Collatinus)
In 2008 Matthew Burns joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera, sang the title role in Don Giovanni in his Arizona Opera debut, Leporello in Don Giovanni with Boston Lyric Opera, the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance with Kentucky Opera, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera New Jersey, and Agrippa in Antony and Cleopatra with New York City Opera. In the summer of 2009 he was the soloist at the Aspen Music Festival in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar), and in the 2009-2010 season he performed Leporello with Opera Cleveland. He recently returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to perform the role of Tita in Una Cosa Rara, sang the title role in The Marriage of Figaro at Opera Grand Rapids, Stravinsky's Pulcinella with the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, Grandpa Moss in The Tender Land at the Southeastern Festival of Song with the Charleston Symphony, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Albany Symphony. Mr. Burns is recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant for Singers from the Shoshana Foundation and a 2006 Richard Gold Career Grant from New York City Opera.

Paula Suozzi, stage director
Paula Suozzi’s directorial credits include Eugene Onegin at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Roméo et Juliette at Skylight Opera Theatre and Cincinnati Opera, Macbeth at Florentine Opera, Twelfth Night at Milwaukee Shakespeare, The Bartered Bride at Canadian Opera Company, Lucia di Lammermoor at San Francisco Opera, Eugene Onegin at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Roméo et Juliette with Cincinnati Opera, The Threepenny Opera with Connecticut Grand Opera, The Bartered Bride with Canadian Opera Company, and The Food Chain at Bialystock & Bloom. She is a regular guest coach at Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, and coach and teacher with the Resident Artist Company at Skylight Opera Theatre. Since 1996, she has served as artistic director for Milwaukee Shakespeare, where her responsibilities include selecting directors, designers, casts and understudies. She has been an assistant and associate director at The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and San Diego Opera. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theater Directing from The Catholic University of America.

Thomas Conlin, conductor
Thomas Conlin is a regular guest conductor with symphony orchestras, ballet companies and opera companies on five continents, most recently in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Turkey and throughout the United States. Many of Conlin’s programs feature works by Barber, Bernstein, Copland, Gershwin and other fellow Americans, and he is a champion of music of our time, but his international career includes conducting Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov in Russia, Beethoven and Brahms in Germany, Mozart and Mahler in Austria, Debussy and Ravel in France, Verdi and Puccini in Italy, Grieg in Norway and Sibelius in Finland. In 2006 he led the Eastern European premiere of Bernstein’s West Side Story at the National Opera of Croatia, in Zagreb.  

Maestro Conlin’s recording of George Crumb’s Star-Child, on which he conducts the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. His music video, Symphonic Wonderworks, won the Gold Award (1st Prize) at the 1992 Houston International Film Festival and was nominated for a Telly Award. His CD of Crumb’s A Haunted Landscape was nominated for an Indie Award as Best Orchestral Recording of 2002, and his latest CD on the Bridge label, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Echoes of Time and the River, was released in 2004 to great acclaim. The first in a series of recordings of works by the Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri was released on the Naxos label last year and Volume II will be available in May.

Conlin has collaborated in opera and concert with renowned vocalists Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Robert Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Roberta Peters, Giorgio Tozzi and Frederica von Stade, in ballet with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Edward Villella and Violette Verdi, and with instrumentalists Emanuel Ax, Alicia de Larrocha, James Galway, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern. For Toledo Opera he has conducted recent productions of Romeo and Juliet, Don Pasquale, The Turn of the Screw, La traviata, Sweeney Todd, Don Giovanni, La bohème, The Crucible, The Barber of Seville, Faust, Madama Butterfly, Pagliacci, Cavalleria Rusticana, Il trovatore, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Marriage of Figaro, Tosca, Così fan tutte, Rigoletto, Candide, Salome and Falstaff, and nine of TO’s Opera Galas: Three Tenors! – the Next Generation, A Night in Old Vienna, The Greatest Wagner Concert Ever!, Opera Goes to the Movies, From Russia with Love, Richard Strauss: the Last Great Romantic, From Broadway to the Met, Viva Verdi! and April in Paris.