Apprentice Artist Program Staff

Dugg McDonough
Co-Director

Now in his 20th season as Co-Director of the program and his 23rd season with the company, Dugg is largely responsible for the success of Des Moines Metro Opera’s Apprentice Artist Program.  He has completed his tenth year as Artistic Director of LSU Opera at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.  At LSU in 2011-2012, Dugg provided stage direction for La Bohème, “Strauss Meets Strauss” (a double-bill of the Prologue to Ariadne auf Naxos and Act II of Die Fledermaus), La Cenerentola, and a program of opera and musical theater scenes collectively called “Ladies’ Nights!”.  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 very 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 and Pensacola Opera.  In the winter of 2004, he 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, 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. In 2010, Dugg made his DMMO mainstage directing debut with Susannah, followed by last summer’s acclaimed Dialogues of the Carmelites.

Lisa Hasson
Co-Director and Chorus Master

Lisa Hasson returns for her eighth 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 three 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, in his second season as a member of the directing staff at DMMO, 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 Die Fledermaus, Octavio joined the Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Program in 2008 and has also been on the directing staff at Chautauqua Opera. While working at Minnesota Opera he had the opportunity to direct Andrew Sinclair’s production of The Pearl Fishers and was the assistant director for the world premier of Silent Night. Other directing credits include Susannah for Loyola Opera Theater, productions 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 is currently an assistant director for the Minnesota Opera. He directed the premiere of the children's opera The Giver in April of 2012.

Richard Cordova
Music Coach

Richard Cordova made his professional debut 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 19 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. He was recently appointed Music Director of The Little Opera Theatre of New York, for whom he conducted the New York stage premiere of Mozart's early opera seria Mitridate, re di Ponto in the spring of 2011.

John de los Santos
Stage Director

John de los Santos of San Antonio, TX, is a principal member of the Alamo City Dance Co. After graduating from Texas Christian University, he directed and provided choreography for Carmen and The Mikado at the Fort Worth Opera, Orpheus & Euridice for Voices of Change, Carmina Burana at the Northern Lights Music Festival, Cosi Fan Tutte for The Living Opera and The Music Man for the Utah Festival Opera. His choreography has been seen at the Washington National Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Florida Grand Opera, Dallas Opera and Austin Lyric Opera. He has served on the faculty of the Seagle Music Colony in Scroon Lake, NY, where his directing credits include Anything Goes, Crazy For You, The Medium, La Bohème, and Brigadoon. For Dallas' Uptown Players, he choreographed the regional premiere of Altar Boyz and the American premiere of Closer to Heaven. For Addison's WaterTower Theatre, he choreographed the regional premiere of Spring Awakening. For Fort Worth Opera, he has choreographed Rigoletto, Salome, La Traviata, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and the world premieres of Frau Margot and Before Night Falls.

Tessa Hartle
Music Coach

Tessa Hartle has worked as vocal coach/repetiteur with such companies as Sarasota Opera, Opera North, Aspen Opera Theater Center, UrbanArias, Aurora Opera, Chesapeake Chamber Opera, Opera Camerata, Inscape Opera Theater, and Zarzuela Di Si. She has her Master's degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of Maryland, where she studied with Rita Sloan, and her Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Louis Nagel and Katherine Collier and worked with Martin Katz.

Elden Little
Music Coach

Returning for his seventh 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.

Allen Perriello
Music Coach

Pianist and coach Allen Perriello is a member of the music staff at Seattle Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. A recent graduate of the Adler fellowship at San Francisco Opera, Perriello worked on six company productions over two seasons. Previous engagements include the Merola Opera Program, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Cleveland, Rising Star Opera Theater, and Ash Lawn Opera. This season, Allen joins the faculty of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program for Werther. He also appears in recital with tenor Alek Shrader in Kansas City's Harriman-Jewell Series. Allen returns to Boston Lyric Opera for The Lighthouse and Il barbiere di Siviglia, Seattle Opera for Madama Butterfly. As a collaborative pianist, Allen has been featured in San Francisco Opera's Schwabacher Debut Recital series. He was awarded the Best Collaborative Pianist Prize in the 2008 Lotte Lehmann Foundation Competition. Allen can be heard on the recording "Living American Composers" with baritone Randal Turner. The Gibsonia, PA, native holds a Master's degree in collaborative piano from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor's degree in piano performance and music education from Ithaca College.

Andrew Ryker
Stage Director

Andrew Ryker returns for his third season as stage director for the Apprentice Artist Program at Des Moines Metro Opera. His 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

Equally active on the podium and at the keyboard, conductor and pianist Michael Sakir is becoming increasingly recognized as an exciting and versatile musician. In the 2011-12 season, Michael served as associate conductor and pianist for Sarasota Opera's Madama Butterfly, Carmen, and Otello. He has also held associate conductor and coach positions with Des Moines Metro Opera, Pensacola Opera, and Opera Boston. Between 2008 and 2010, Michael received critical acclaim as conductor of the Boston Opera Collaborative’s The Magic Flute, Carmen, and Little Women, for which he was awarded 3rd Place in the 2011 American Prize in Conducting (Opera Division). In 2012, he will return to the Boston Opera Collaborative to conduct Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking. 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 instrumental ensemble dedicated to performing works by composers under 35. 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

On the directing staff of Des Moines Metro Opera since 2006, Christine Seitz has had an extensive career as a dramatic soprano throughout the United States and Europe. Notable roles include Brünnhilde, Lady Billows, Leonore, Helmwige, Madame Lidoine and Ameila. She sang the title role in Faure's Pénélope in the United States stage premiere with Manhattan Opera.  She has also appeared with Madison Opera, Kentucky Opera, Milwaukee Opera, Dallas Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Seattle Opera, and the Central City Opera. European engagements have taken her to the Wuppertaler Bühnen and the Stadttheater Bern.  Christine was the guest soloist in a performance of the Immolation Scene from Wagner's Götterdämmerung with the Waukesha Symphony, where she has also appeared as the soprano soloist in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.  She was the soprano soloist with the Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestra under Gustav Meier, singing Wagner arias and German operetta excerpts.  She has appeared in concert with the Caramoor Festival, the Milwaukee Symphony, and the Cincinnati May Festival as Leonore in Fidelio, James Conlon conducting. Christine Seitz 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  The Magic Flute, Gianni Schicchi, The Merry Widow and La Cenerentola. Previously, she was Director of the UNLV Opera Theatre in Las Vegas, Nevada.  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  the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, WI.  She was the Founding Opera Director at the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where she directed and created supertitles for productions from 1992 through the 2002 season. In 2001, she sang the leading role of Anna Clemenc in the world premiere of The Children of the Keweenaw, by composer Paul Seitz and librettist Kathleen Masterson.

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. Bill 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, Bill 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). Bill has also directed outreach programs for both the Des Moines Metro Opera and Opera Omaha. In the summer of 2011, Bill returned to the Des Moines Metro Opera to direct in the Apprentice Artist Program.

Michael Spassov
Music Coach

Conductor and pianist Michael Spassov is the Principal Coach and Assistant Conductor at The Atlanta Opera.  Michael recently conducted Don Giovanni and Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Pineda Lyric Opera in New Jersey. After several years as an Assistant Conductor at Sarasota Opera, he was hand-picked by Plácido Domingo to work at Washington National Opera as a member of the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program. Michael has assisted conductors such as Philippe Auguin, Plácido Domingo, Julia Jones, Richard Bradshaw, Victor DeRenzi, and Will Crutchfield, and has been a chorus master, cover conductor, and pianist at the Canadian Opera Company, Bel Canto at Caramoor, Des Moines Metro Opera, Washington Concert Opera, and the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera.  Michael 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, and Toronto’s Continuum Ensemble.

Tatiana Vassilieva
Music Coach

A native of St. Petersburg, Russia, pianist and coach Tatiana Vassilieva is a soon-to-be graduate of the Florida Grand Opera’s Young Artist Program.  She has previously worked as coach/répétiteur for Wolf Trap Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, Opera North, Mercury Opera Rochester, Boston University Opera Institute, Florida International University, and Eastman Opera Theatre.  Tatiana spent two summers as a Vocal Piano Fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, and has participated in the Collaborative Piano Program at Music Academy of the West and the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.  She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in piano performance and accompanying from the Eastman School of Music.