Apprentice Artist Program Staff

Dugg McDonough
Co-Director

Now in his 19th season as Co-Director of the program and his 22nd season with the Company, Dugg is largely responsible for the success of DMMO’s James M. Collier Apprentice Artist Program. Formerly the Producer and Director of Opera Theater at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music in Philadelphia, he has completed his ninth year as Artistic Director of LSU Opera at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. At LSU in 2010-2011, Dugg provided stage direction for Barber’s Vanessa, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Poulenc’s La Voix humaine, and Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, and this spring he continued his “Poulenc year” with a new staging of Les Mamelles de Tirésias for Loyola Opera Theatre in New Orleans. At LSU in 2007, he mounted the first new production in over 20 years of Carlisle Floyd’s Willie Stark, an event that produced the first commercial DVD of any of the composer-librettist’s operas, and in 2010, his video version of David Amram’s Twelfth Night, also for LSU, debuted in New York as part of a documentary celebrating the composer’s 80th birthday. Dugg is active as a professional stage director and has worked with such companies as New York City Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, San Diego Opera, Greater Miami Opera (now Florida Grand Opera), and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In the winter of 2004, Dugg travelled to Sofia, Bulgaria, where he staged a new production of Tristan und Isolde that produced both an acclaimed CD recording and a PBS documentary. Recently, he created new, fully-staged productions of Madama Butterfly and Turandot for the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Gulf Coast Premiere of Gluck’s L’Ile de Merlin ou le Monde Renversé and the world premiere of The Awakening for the New Orleans Opera Association/Music at Madewood. Last summer, Dugg made his DMMO mainstage directing debut with Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, and January of 2011 brought his Pensacola Opera debut with Mark Adamo’s Little Women. Dugg is also a librettist, and his new American opera, Ordinary People, was given its world premiere staged reading at the Maryland Opera Studio in 2008. In the fall of 2006, Dugg became the first recipient of the Mary Barrett Fruehan Professorship in Opera at Louisiana State University.

Lisa Hasson
Co-Director and Chorus Master

Lisa Hasson returns for her seventh season at DMMO where she recently became Co-Director of the James M. Collier Apprentice Artist Program. In great demand as a coach and repetiteur with opera companies throughout the United States, Lisa has worked for the following companies: Opera North, Indianapolis Opera, New Orleans Opera, Kentucky Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Nevada Opera, Knoxville Opera, Berkshire Opera, Opera Birmingham and Utah Festival Opera. From 2001 to 2003, Lisa was the music director for the Artist in Residence Program at Opera Theatre of St. Louis. From 2001-2006 she served on the music staff of Sarasota Opera. She has been a guest artist at Miami University, McGill University, Cincinnati College-Conservatory, University of Kentucky and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Lisa received her Bachelor of Music from McGill University in Montreal. It is there that she also began studying opera coaching and accompanying under Dixie Ross Neill. Further studies have been at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the National Opera Studio in London. Since 2009, she has been Kentucky Opera's principal coach and director of their studio artist program. This season she will be adding chorus master to those duties.

For the last 3 years she has worked closely with Cincinnati Opera to develop and musically direct productions for their education and outreach department. Along with husband Brian Robertson, she has written shortened versions of La Bohème and The Magic Flute.

Octavio Cardenas
Stage Director

Octavio Cardenas received his Bachelor of Music from Centenary College of Louisiana and a Master of Fine Arts in Theater from The School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. After serving as an assistant director for Austin Lyric Opera’s production of The Bat, Octavio Cardenas joined the Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Program in 2008 and has been on the directing staff at Chautauqua Opera since 2008. While working at Minnesota Opera he had the opportunity to direct Andrew Sinclair’s production of Pearl Fishers. Other directing credits include Susannah for Loyola Opera Theater, his production of Plump Jack and Impresario for the Butler Opera Center, Brundibar for Project Opera at Minnesota Opera, and The Elixir of Love for Guadalajara Opera. He currently is an assistant director for the 2010-2011 season at Minnesota Opera.

Richard Cordova
Music Coach

Richard Cordova made his professional debut in 1977 conducting the Scandinavian Premiere of Bernstein's Candide in Bergen, Norway, and has subsequently conducted productions for Oper der Stadt Bonn, Opera North (New Hampshire), Sarasota Opera, Opera Company of Boston, Long Beach Opera, Berkshire Opera, Florida Grand Opera and Baltimore Opera.  As an accompanist and coach he has collaborated with such artists as Martina Arroyo, Frederica von Stade, Renato Bruson, Florence Quivar and Julia Migenes, and has worked in this capacity for such organizations as the Istanbul Opera, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Tulsa Opera, New Orleans Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, Chautauqua Opera, the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, and Florida Grand Opera.  Richard has also served on the music staffs of both the Manhattan School of Music and Westminster Choir College.  For the past eighteen years he has toured internationally with various productions of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, conducting the work on four continents.  He continues a ten-year association with the Sarasota Opera, having held various titles with the organization including that of Program and Music Director for the Studio Artists. This upcoming spring, he will serve as conductor for the New York stage premiere of Mozart's early opera seria, Mitridate, re di Ponto with The Little Opera Theatre of New York.

Elden Little
Music Coach

Returning for his sixth summer with Des Moines Metro Opera, pianist Elden Little works for the Austin Lyric Opera as a Pianist/Coach and Music Administrator. Additionally, he has worked as a pianist/coach for Opera Birmingham. His operatic repertoire ranges from baroque operas to contemporary works by composers such as Jonathan Dove, Carlise Floyd, Philip Glass, Jake Heggie, and Andre Previn. As a collaborative pianist he has performed with numerous singers, most notably Donnie Ray Albert, Heather Buck, Gilda Cruz-Romo, Joseph Evans, Brenda Harris, Mary Jane Johnson, Louis Otey, Susanna Phillips, Marie Plette, Cindy Sadler and David Small. With the Austin-based choir Conspirare, he is heard as a featured soloist on their recording "Through the Green Fuse", available on the Clarion label. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in piano performance, and Master's and Doctorate degrees in applied piano from the University of Texas at Austin.

Yasuko Oura
Music Coach

Yasuko Oura has received national recognition as a virtuoso collaborative pianist, with concert appearances in notable venues as Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and Carnegie’s Weill Hall. Also known as a noted vocal coach and repetiteur, she has worked with such distinguished conductors as Harry Bicket, Jane Glover, and John DeMain. Yasuko is the principal production pianist and coach for Florentine Opera and formerly for Fort Worth Opera and Madison Opera. Her 2010-2011 season will include The Rake’s Progress for Toledo Opera, Hansel and Gretel for Santa Fe Concert Association, L’Italiana in Algeri and Dido and Aeneas/Venus and Adonis for Florentine Opera, and Dialogues of the Carmelites and La Bohème for Des Moines Metro Opera. Active as a recitalist, past seasons include performances with singers such as Susanne Mentzer and Susanna Phillips, as well as performances for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, the Bel Canto Foundation, WFMT, and WTTW’s Chicago Tonight. In addition, she is the artistic director of the NSUC Concert Series. She currently resides in Chicago, where she is on the faculty of Roosevelt University as a vocal coach. Locally, she has works with Grant Park Orchestra Chorus, Music of the Baroque, Light Opera Works, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Wisconsin District, and Ars Viva Symphony. Yasuko has received fellowships to San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Opera Theater Center and Music Academy of the West and has performed for numerous masterclasses, including those for José Van Dam, Rudolf Piernay and Marilyn Horne’s Song Continues series. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the Juilliard School, where she was a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow.

A. Scott Parry
Stage Director

Scott returns to DMMO for his fifth season as a stage director within the Apprentice Artist Program and as the stage director for Don Pasquale.  A graduate and former faculty member at Indiana University with degrees in both Vocal Performance and Opera Stage Direction, he most recently directed L'elisir d'amore for New York City Opera and Albert Herring for Ohio State University.  Next season he will direct Philip Glass's Galileo Galilei for Madison Opera, La Bohème for both the Jacksonville and the Pacific Symphonies, and Rigoletto for Pensacola Opera.  Scott has also been engaged by companies such as Chautauqua Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Santa Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, and Boston Lyric Opera to name only a few. As a composer, his theatre song cycle On the Impracticality… was recently premiered in New York City at the Singer’s Forum, and as a librettist, his adaptation of Beaumarchais’ third Figaro play, La mère coupable, is currently being set to music and is awaiting its stage premiere.

Allen Perriello
Music Coach

Pianist and coach Allen Perriello is a recent graduate of the Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera. This season, Perriello joins the music staff at Boston Lyric Opera for The Emperor of Atlantis and The After-Image, Seattle Opera for Don Quichotte, Opera Santa Barbara to coach the Studio Artists Program, and Des Moines Metro Opera for Don Pasquale. He will also be seen in San Francisco Opera’s Schwabacher Debut Recital Series with mezzo-soprano Daveda Karanas. Previous engagements include the Merola Opera Program, Opera Cleveland, Rising Star Opera Theater, and Ash Lawn Opera. Perriello was awarded the Best Collaborative Pianist Prize in the 2008 Lotte Lehmann Foundation Competition.

Andrew Ryker
Stage Director

Andrew Ryker's productions have been seen with the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, New England Conservatory, Eastern Nazarene College, Millikin University, MetroWest Opera, Intermezzo Chamber Opera and Boston Opera Collaborative.  He previously served on the directing staffs at Opera North and Opera New Jersey in addition to spending several years as a stage director at New England Conservatory and the Artistic Director of Boston Opera Collaborative.  He recently accepted a faculty appointment at Drake University and has previously taught at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and Illinois Central College.  Andrew received a Master's degree from New England Conservatory and was the recipient of the Goldovsky Directing Internship at the Harrower Opera Workshop in Atlanta. He was a participant in the Young Artist program at Opera North.  He has been featured in the Boston Globe, The EDGE and Classical Singer Magazine.  Andrew's production of Benjamin Britten's Curlew River was named Boston's "Best Staged Opera of the Year" by the Boston Phoenix.

Michael Sakir
Music Coach

Twenty-six-year-old conductor Michael Sakir is becoming increasingly recognized as an exciting and versatile musician. He has conducted the Boston Opera Collaborative’s critically-acclaimed productions of Bizet’s Carmen, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and Marc Adamo’s Little Women. Michael served as Music Director for the Des Moines Metro Opera’s 2010 OPERA Iowa Education Tour as well as associate conductor, rehearsal pianist, and apprentice coach for Des Moines Metro Opera’s 38th Festival Season.  In 2011, Michael joined the artistic staff of Pensacola Opera as assistant conductor and rehearsal pianist for mainstage productions and music director for the Artist-in-Residence program.  A passionate advocate for new music, Michael has collaborated with such distinguished living composers as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, John Harbison, and Jonathan Harvey.  From 2008 to 2010, Michael served as Music Director of the Juventas New Music Ensemble, a Boston-based ensemble dedicated to performing works by composers under 35. Previous positions include Founder and Music Director of the Gotham Contemporary Ensemble, Apprentice Conductor of the New York Youth Symphony and Assistant Conductor of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra. Equally active as a collaborative pianist, Michael serves as a vocal coach and accompanist for The Boston Conservatory Opera and Vocal Departments.  A graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Michael received Bachelor of Music degrees in Piano Performance and Music History in June 2006. He received a Master of Music degree in Orchestral Conducting from The Boston Conservatory in May 2009.

Christine Seitz
Stage Director

Christine Seitz was the founding Opera Director for the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan, where she was Stage Director and Production Manager for festival productions from 1992 through 2002.  Christine joined the faculty as Director of MU's Show-Me Opera at the University of Missouri in the fall of 2008, and she has presented productions of Mozart's The Magic Flute and Puccini's Gianni Schicchi in the newly renovated Missouri Theatre in downtown Columbia.  Previously, she was Director of the UNLV Opera Theatre in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she presented productions of Alcina, La bohème, Albert Herring, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, and Die Fledermaus.  She has also directed a student outreach production of Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Florentine Opera, as well as productions for Luther College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre and two productions for the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, WI.  Christine is also an established dramatic soprano, singing operatic roles throughout the United States and in Europe ranging from Brünnhilde to Lady Billows.  She has performed with companies such as the Florentine Opera, Dallas Opera, Madison Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Central City Opera, Wuppertaler Bühnen and Stadttheatre Bern.  She has also created surtitles for productions at the Florentine Opera, University of Wisconsin Opera and the Dubuque Symphony, as well as for her own productions.

William Shomos
Stage Director

William Shomos is Director of Opera and Professor of Voice at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. There he has staged a wide variety of productions ranging from traditional fare (The Marriage of Figaro, La Bohème) to world premieres and new works (O Pioneers!, Dead Man Walking). His staging of Tyler White's O Pioneers! received regional and national acclaim and was aired on Nebraska Educational Television (NETV). His productions of Dead Man Walking, Così fan tutte and Street Scene won first place in the National Opera Association's Opera Production Competition. Mr. Shomos has staged several works with Pensacola Opera (L'Elisir d'Amore, Le Nozze di Figaro) and Nevada Opera (L'Elisir d'Amore, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberföte, Turandot). Between 2003 and 2005, Shomos spent three seasons with the Des Moines Metro Opera as stage director in the Company's Apprentice Artist Program, while also assistant directing mainstage productions. Between 2006 and 2009, he directed productions with La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy (Il Campanello, Angelica/Gianni Schicchi, Le Nozze di Figaro, Madama Butterfly). Shomos has also directed outreach programs for both the Des Moines Metro Opera and Opera Omaha.

As a singer, he has performed numerous leading baritone roles including Marcello in La Bohème, Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore, and the title role in Sweeney Todd. In 2006, Mr. Shomos appeared as a faculty artist with UNL Opera's production of The Most Happy Fella featured at the Waterford International Festival of Light Opera in Waterford, Ireland, where Shomos was awarded "Best Male Singer" for his portrayal of Tony Esposito. As a recitalist, Mr. Shomos toured throughout the country as a part of internationally renowned accompanist John Wustman's project to present the Complete Songs of Franz Schubert. Most recently, in 2010, he performed Winterreise with Wustman at UNL. In 1999 he sang a performance of the Complete Mörike Songs of Hugo Wolf, which the Omaha World Herald declared to be "a towering accomplishment that will stand as one of the region's musical high points of the year and even the decade." Recent oratorio work has included the baritone roles in Ein deutsches Requiem, Messiah, and Elijah. William Shomos, currently the chair of the UNL School of Music's Voice/Opera area, holds degrees from the University of Illinois (DMA), Northwestern University (MM), and Knox College (BA).

Michael Spassov
Music Coach

Michael Spassov will be joining the music staff of Atlanta Opera for the 2011-2012 season. He has worked at Washington National Opera as a member of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, at the Canadian Opera Company, as a member of the Ensemble Studio, as well as at Bel Canto at Caramoor and Washington Concert Opera. He recently completed the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera. He spent several years on the coaching staff at Sarasota Opera, where he also worked as cover conductor. Also active as a conductor, Michael recently conducted Don Giovanniand Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Pineda Lyric Opera in New Jersey and has pursued conducting studies with Gustav Meier, Carl St. Clair, and Victor DeRenzi, and J. David Jackson. Mr. Spassov holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in composition from the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Samuel Adler and Christopher Rouse. His compositions have been performed by the Juilliard Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird Sextet, and Toronto’s Continuum Ensemble.

Naoko Suga
Music Coach

A native of Southern California, Naoko Suga has spent the past three seasons as the studio artist coach/repetiteur for Kentucky Opera. Ms. Suga received her Master’s degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of Colorado at Boulder under the tutelage of Anne Epperson and Mutsumi Moteki, and a Bachelor’s degree in solo piano from the University of California, Los Angeles.  Participation in summer festivals include the Music Academy of the West, Brevard Music Festival, and the University of Miami School of Music at Salzburg.  This past summer Ms. Suga was on staff at the Opera in the Ozarks.  In her off season, Ms. Suga freelances in Boulder, Colorado, and on occasion travels to Japan as a coach and accompanist. Recently, Naoko served as Music Director for Des Moines Metro Opera’s 2011 OPERA Iowa Education Tour.