Cast of the Feb 22 Concert "Audible Emotions"

David Gordon view bio here

Lucy Faridany has worked as an accompanist for the Carmel Bach Festival, the Monterey Symphony, the Pacific Repertory Theater and the Western Stage. She appeared as concerto soloist in the Monterey Symphony Christmas concert in 2006 and will appear next year as soloist with the Monterey Peninsula College Orchestra. She is organist at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church and accompanist for the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Monterey Peninsula. She teaches piano at Santa Catalina School and has a private teaching studio in Carmel Valley. On a personal note, she and her husband Rob are expecting a baby in June!

Bob Bogardus performs regularly as a local soloist in religious and secular music and sings in the choirs of the First Presbyterian Church of Monterey, the Carmel Bach Festival, and on occasion with I Cantori di Carmel. Bob is a software developer and web site builder by profession (specializing in Java and Oracle database). In the early 80’s, Bob was a staff member of the Monterey Institute for Research in Astronomy (MIRA) – check out his picture in the July 1981 issue of Smithsonian Magazine (yes, he had a lot more hair then… ;-) ).

Michelle Boulware has appeared as soloist and conductor around the world with choirs and orchestras in Germany, Austria, Canada, England, Ireland and Scotland. She has sung three times at Carnegie Hall most recently in November of 2008. Her repertoire includes opera, musical theater and solo recitals, and she has appeared in several local theater productions, including “Evita”, “Kiss Me Kate”, and “Broadway, The Musical”. Michelle has sung backup for Josh Groban, Michael McDonald, Carmen, and Tommy Sims. She loves being mom to her two boys.

Sean Boulware is a popular conductor, adjudicator and clinician throughout the United States and Europe. He made his Carnegie Hall Debut as a Soloist in 1995 and Conductor in 2006. He currently is Director of Worship at Carmel Presbyterian Church. He will be conducting at the Franz Josef Haydn Anniversary in Vienna, Austria this July. He grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and loves to cook. Sean is dedicated to preserving his grandfather’s recipe for Tri-Tip as the best of all time!

Jenny Silber Butah is keeping her day job as a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Soquel. She's been singing most of her life, but became serious 14 years ago when she began lessons with the late Dr Harvery Marshall of Monterey. She's performed with Cabrillo and Bay City Operas in "The Magic Flute", "The Yeoman of the Guard", "L'enfant et les Sortileges", as well as in recitals and at weddings, funerals, and grand openings. Her most challenging role was singing an aria from Carmen while trotting around on her dressage horse, Segovia. Currently, she's thoroughly enjoying being a student of David Gordon's.

Katherine Edison, originally from Chicago, received her training at Northwestern University School of Music and received an MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago where she also taught voice from 1983-1989. In 1990 she moved to Sun Valley, Idaho, continued her career as soprano soloist, and served as president of the Wood River Arts Alliance. From 2000-2006 Katherine was head of the voice department for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony’s college prep music school. Now a Carmel resident, she coaches with David Gordon (who was on the roster at the Lyric Opera of Chicago during the first season she could afford to buy a ticket to the opera ). She also holds a BFA in photography and currently is working as an art consultant here in the mecca of the geat photography icons.

Delmar McComb has performed a wide variety of roles, including Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme, Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata, Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen, and Prince Ramiro in Rossini's La Cenerentola. He was a student of the late Salvatore D'Aura of Palo Alto, and has also studied with Licia Albanese and with William Workman in Hamburg, Germany. He is currently excited to working with Maestro Michel Singher in Wagnerian repertoire. Mr. McComb has two handsome sons with whom he loves to go mountain bike riding, and he is also an organic farmer and garden designer.

Patty Pai holds an M.A. in translation and interpretation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and is a freelance translator and adjunct professor by day. She caught opera fever after taking her first voice lessons in college. Patty has participated in several opera workshops and has studied with various voice teachers in New England, New York City and the S.F. Bay Area. She is now fortunate to be studying with David Gordon. Patty recently learned how to knit, and is looking forward to the day when she will be able to knit things that are not rectangular.

Michael Russell is currently featured with the Camerata Singers, Cantus Chamber Singers of Monterey and the Carmel Bach Festival Chorus. He has also appeared in local stage productions with the Western Stage, Carmel Forest Theater and Ariel Theatrical Children's Theater. Behind the scenes, Mike serves on the Board of Directors for STAR (Support Theater Arts Regionally) and is Past President of the Board of Directors for Camerata Singers. Dr. Russell’s “day job” is as a chiropractor in private practice in Salinas. As a practitioner of the manual therapeutic arts, his only surgical experience is with his chef’s knife in the kitchen.

Michel Singher was born in Paris, educated in the US (Harvard, Indiana University), and did his apprenticeship coaching and conducting in German, Dutch and Belgian opera houses. He has been Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory, and has been on the conducting staff at San Francisco Opera. He remembers calling lighting cues for Wagner’s Siegfried at the Hamburg Opera, from 6:00 to 11:00 for which he was paid 15 German Marks. Birgit Nilsson made her first entrance in that opera at approximately 10:40 and probably made 1000 times that. Worth every Pfennig! Michel is Coordinator of Opera at San Jose State University.

Jeannie Young received her formal training at Penn State University, Temple University, and Duquesne University, where she was a member of the Tamburitzans, an internationally-acclaimed folk arts music group. She has sung in numerous productions in the San Francisco Bay area, including Oakland Opera, West Bay Opera, North Bay Opera, Inverness Music Festival, San Francisco Community Music Center, Musical Club and Bach Choir, Cinnabar Theater, and Sonoma State University. Jeannie is music director at St. Mary's by-the Sea Episcopal Church in Pacific Grove. Her free time is spent working at beautiful Pt. Lobos State Reserve.