Kimberly Daniel de Acha
Title: Adjunct Associate Professor of Voice
Office: 232 Memorial Hall
Tel: 513-556-0150
Email: kimberly.deacha@uc.edu
Kimberly Daniel de Acha has performed in opera, concert, oratorio, cabaret, musical theatre, theatre and television. Credits include Yale Repertory Theater, Yale Concerts at Norfolk, Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts, International Bach Society Concerts at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center’s Lunchtime Concert Series, New York Philharmonic, Boston’s Collegium Musicum, Greater Miami Opera, New York Kantorei, National Symphony Orchestra, Sanders Theater and Harvard University Concerts, Northshore Music Theatre, Festival Miami, the Mike Douglas Show, NBC TV special hosted by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, appearances on ABC, CBS and NBC television affiliates, as well as WQXR and WGBH radio.
Operatic repertory encompasses over thirty roles, including Mozart’s rarely heard works—Zaide, Apollo et Hyacynthus and L’Oca del Cairo, Handel’s Imeneo, Menotti’s The Medium with the late Marie Powers, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni directed by the late John Reardon, concert and orchestral works by Brahms, Orff, Purcell, Haydn and Bach, Stephen Paulus’ Voices from the Gallery with Orchestra Miami and with the New Bedford Symphony, and the American premiere of a set of cabaret songs by Eric Satie, discovered and published in l998.
Musical theatre credits include works by Weill, Coward, Gershwin, Sondheim, Rodgers, Loesser, Schmidt, Styne, Strouse, Lane, Bernstein and others. She has been a proud member of AGMA, AFTRA, and AEA.
In l986, with husband Rafael de Acha, she co-founded New Theatre in Coral Gables, recognized by the New York Drama Guild as “One of the 50 Best Theaters in America.” During their 20 seasons, New Theatre produced and staged over 150 productions, of which 55 were world premieres. These included Ana in the Tropics (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2003, Steinberg/ATCA Award for Drama 2003, and Tony nomination for Best New Play, following the Broadway production, 2004). Daniel de Acha performed many roles with the company and in other South Florida theatres, including the world premier of Ladies and Not So Gentle Women, written for her by Alfred Allan Lewis.
For 19 years she was a member of the University of Miami, Frost School of Music voice faculty. She served for five years as Master Teacher for all vocal categories for YoungArts (then called NFAA), appearing in the Oscar-nominated documentary Rehearsing a Dream. Her students have performed for the Metropolitan Opera, the Chicago Lyric Opera, Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, as well the Muny, Paper Mill Playhouse, PCLO, Disney Productions in the US and Tokyo, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and others.
Honors include a National First Place Award, National Federation of Music Clubs; the Ethan Ayer Award; First Place Winner, Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions; A Kathryn Long Fellowship Award, Metropolitan Opera; 2 Carbonell Awards; 4 Carbonell Nominations; Curtains Up Award; Honorary Member for Life, Phi Kappa Phi, “for outstanding contributions to the arts;” Miami-Dade Co. School Board, Artist of Distinction Award; Pi Kappa Lambda, Miami New Times-Best of Miami Editors Choice Award, Best Supporting Actress; Greater Miami Arts and Business Council Arts and Education Impact Award Finalist; Distinguished Ambassador of the Arts Award, City of Coral Gables, Florida. In 2006, with the announcement of their retirement, August 18th was named, “Rafael and Kimberly de Acha Day” in Miami-Dade County, “for trailblazing contributions to the cultural community of South Florida.”
Education
BM, CCM.
MM, New England Conservatory, Boston, MA.
Gwendolyn M. Detwiler
Title: Associate Professor of Voice
Office: 121 Dieterle Vocal Arts Cntr
Tel: 513-556-5381
Email: gwen.detwiler@uc.edu
Gwendolyn Coleman Detwiler, soprano, is a teacher and artist of international reputation. Praised by music critics for possessing a voice of "divine beauty" with "sparkling coloratura" and "impressive high-flying top notes", she has been featured in solo concert work with major American orchestras such as those in New York, San Francisco, San Antonio, Cincinnati, Denver, Portland and Buffalo among others. She made her European debut as the soprano soloist for the Klassiche Musikfest in Austria. Dr. Detwiler has presented solo recital and chamber music at the Château de Vianden in Luxembourg and across the United States in New York, Atlanta, Chicago and Seattle, as well as at prominent festivals such as the Summerfest Chamber Festival in Kansas City, the Chautauqua Music Festival in New York and the Central City Summer Recital Series in Colorado. A great lover of chamber music and song, she was honored to perform a nationally broadcast recital for LIVE from the Gardens Recital Series in St. Louis.
Dr. Detwiler has won many national competitions and awards, and she is a regional winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Her opera role repertoire includes Gilda in Rigoletto, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, the Governess in Turn of the Screw, Monica in The Medium, and the title role in Cendrillon. She can be heard on the Newport Classic CD recording of Moore's The Ballad of Baby Doe and as the lead role, Suleika, on Centaur Record's world-premiere recording of Schubert's Der Graf von Gleichen. She also recorded Concordia by Randol Alan Bass with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus.
Dr. Detwiler has been recognized as an award-winning teacher of voice and opera. Her students have been invited to study at elite training programs including the San Francisco-Merola Program, Santa Fe Opera Program, the Chautauqua Opera Program, AIMS, SongFest and the Aspen Opera Program. Her students are singing operatic and musical theater repertoire around the world and on Broadway. Prior to her current appointment at CCM, Dr. Detwiler served at the State University of New York at Fredonia. She has also taught at several prominent summer music programs including SongFest at Colburn in Los Angeles, the Vianden International Music Festival in Luxembourg and the CCM Spoleto Festival in Italy. Dr. Detwiler is a frequent master teacher, adjudicator and speaker on issues related to vocal use in a solo context vs. a choral context. She lives in the greater Cincinnati area with her husband and two children.
Education
BA and BM, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
MM and DMA, CCM.
Amy S. Johnson
Title: Assistant Professor of Voice (Soprano)
Office: 207 Dieterle Vocal Arts Cntr
Tel: 513-556-9559
Email: amy.johnson2@uc.edu
For over two decades, critics have recognized soprano Amy Johnson as one of America’s finest singing actresses, and she is garnering comparable acclaim as a voice teacher in both private and academic settings. Her studio has attracted singers from North America, Europe, South America, Australia and Korea. Many have gone on to study at some of the finest music schools both domestically and abroad, have been awarded international continued study grants, have earned places in Young Artists’ Programs at Sarasota, Saint Louis and Saratoga, and have been winners in both the Corbett and Metropolitan Opera competitions. In addition to teaching voice, Ms. Johnson is co-producer of CCM Undergraduate Opera (Opera d'arte), and was recently named Artistic Director of CCM Summer Opera Studio. She is active with the National Opera Association and NATS, was recently published in Classical Singer Magazine, has been both co-principal in a production company and co-founder of a summer opera/language program in Italy, and is in frequent demand for masterclasses and artist-in-residencies.
Ms. Johnson’s repertoire encompasses over two dozen roles ranging from Donna Anna in Don Giovanni to Salome. She has earned special praise for her portrayal of Tosca in over a dozen productions worldwide, notably with New York City Opera on PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center. She has performed alongside major international artists with such companies as Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, Glimmerglass, New York City Opera, Indianapolis, Portland, Spier Festival South Africa, Palm Beach, Michigan, Arizona, Toledo, Orlando, Virginia, Greensboro, Knoxville, Kentucky, Santa Barbara and others.
Recently Ms. Johnson’s acclaimed portrayal of Salome was aired over Iowa Public Television in a vivid new production by Cedar Rapids Opera, and she was invited to return for a recital broadcast over Iowa Public Radio. Other recent activities include concerts with Orquesta Sinfonica de Xalapa (Mexico), Cheyenne Symphony, and Glacier Symphony Montana, opera galas with the Springfield and Kentucky Symphonies and the CCM Philharmonia (featuring excerpts from Die Walküre and Tristan und Isolde), Tosca for the festival Musica e Musica in Italy, Freia in Das Rheingold co-produced by Indianapolis Symphony and Opera, Handel’s Messiah in both Galion (OH) and Carefree, Arizona, and numerous concert and recital dates centered on the works of Wagner, Verdi, Strauss, Charpentier and Korngold. Most recently Ms. Johnson created the role of Finola Daley in Sawyer/Erdman’s The Garden of Martyrs, produced in collaboration with the Springfield (MA) Symphony. Last spring she reprised Jon Chenette’s challenging song cycle Oh Millersville!, based on a series of poems about her native Iowa, at Vassar College. Upcoming activities include directing Donizetti's Maria Stuarda for Opera d'arte and performing Salome with CCM Philharmonia.
Ms. Johnson recorded her first solo CD, Amy Johnson – Red, White and Blue: Arias of the Passionate, Pure and Perverse, with the MAV Symphony of Budapest. As entrepreneur, she collaborated with the Kentucky Symphony in creating Twisted Sisters – an evening of “mad scenes” incorporating interactive projected film images in excerpts from Lucia di Lammermoor, Mefistofele and Salome.
For more complete information and audio, please visit www.amysjohnson.com
Education
BA, Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA.
MM, Manhattan School of Music, New York, NY.
Patricia Linhart - Adjunct Associate Professor
513-556-9537 Patricia.Linhart@UC.edu
BM, St. Norbert College; MM, University of Cincinnati
Biography: Linhart is the co-founding director of Carnegie Opera Theatre and a resident actor with Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton, Ohio. She teaches voice at Cincinnati's School for Creative and Performing Arts, and has also taught at St. Norbert College, College of Mount St. Joseph and CCM's Preparatory Department. She has performed in opera, oratorio, musical theater, dramas and industrial films. She has sung with Cincinnati Symphony, Dayton Symphony, the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops under the direction of Erich Kunzel and Keith Lockhart, and has taped concerts for PBS Broadcast. Her performance credits include the National Opera Company, Duke Opera Festival, Whitewater Opera Company, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Birmingham Theatre, Light Opera of Manhattan and numerous dinner theatres and concert halls. She was a member of the inaugural company of CCM's Hot Summer Nights as well as a member of AEA, AGMA, SAG and NATS.
Coloratura soprano Pamela Fry has been on the San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty since 1989. She served as departmental co-chair from 2001 to 2006 and as chair of the department from 2006 to 2010. Her students have been national finalists in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; they perform with New York City Opera, Portland Opera, Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera, in Europe and on Broadway, as well as numerous apprentice programs. Ms. Fry earned a B.M. from the University of Iowa and an M.M. in opera theater and voice from the Manhattan School of Music. As a soloist she has appeared with the Fremont-Newark Symphony, Artea Symphony and West Bay Opera. Versatile in many idioms, her oratorio repertoire includes Vivaldi’s Gloria, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers and Respighi’s Lauda per la Natività del Signor. Ms. Fry has taught classical and musical theater technique and vocal rehabilitation in the Bay Area for over 30 years.
Karen Lykes - Associate Professor
513-556-9516
Karen.Lykes@UC.edu
BM, University of Maryland; MM, Boston University
Biography: Mezzo-soprano Karen Lykes has performed extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Japan and Central America with orchestras and choral societies such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Handel & Haydn Society, New Japan Philharmonic, Shinsei Nihon Symphony, Baltimore Choral Arts Society and the National Chamber Orchestra Society. She has worked with an array of conductors including Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Petr Altrichter, Luciano Berio, Carl St. Clair, Thomas Dunn, Gustav Meier, Seiji Ozawa and Maxim Shostakovich. Her repertoire spans the Baroque to the Contemporary, including Bach’s Mass in B minor, Mozart’s Grand Mass in C minor, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Berlioz’ L’Enfance du Christ, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, R_ckert Lieder and Symphony No. 4 and Bernstein's Symphony No. 1, “Jeremiah.” Equally at home in musical theatre, she has also performed the works of Gershwin, Kern, Weill/Brecht, Rodgers and Hammerstein and Sondheim in concert.
As a member of the American Vocal Arts Quintet, Lykes won 2nd Prize in the Concert Artists Guild International Competition. She has been a finalist in the New England Regional Metropolitan Opera Auditions, the recipient of a Vocal Fellowship to the Tanglewood Music Center, and the winner of the Franz Schubert Prize for Excellence in Interpretation of the Lied in Austria. An active recitalist, she has most recently presented concerts in Oregon, Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, Arkansas, Costa Rica and Japan, as well as for the Virginia Art Song Society and The American Schubert Institute. Her recordings include the vocal chamber music of Brahms, Massenet, Schumann and Boulanger for Titanic Records with the American VocalArts Quintet, and songs of Charles Ives for Koch International Classics with the Detroit Chamber Winds.
Her students have performed with New York City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Essen Opera, Pacific Opera, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Sarasota Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Glimmerglass Opera, Merola Opera, Dallas Opera, Portland Opera, Eugene Opera, Los Angeles Opera and the Metropolitan Opera; as well as in numerous regional theaters and national tours. Her students include nominees for the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Performance, Tony Award for Outstanding Actor and Actress in a Musical, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Awards and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway. Lykes has served on the voice faculties of the University of Michigan, New York University and Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute in Oregon. She has served as a Vocal Consultant to the Young American Artist Program at Glimmerglass Opera since 2007.
William McGraw - Professor
513-556-9513 William.Mcgraw@UC.edu
BM, Baylor University; MM, Performer's Certificate, Indiana University
Biography: McGraw has performed opera, oratorio and various concert works as well as recitals and master classes, both nationally and internationally. His operatic roles include Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Marcello in La Bohéme, title role in Rigoletto, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, John Proctor in The Crucible and many more. McGraw has performed with such companies as the now Florida Grand Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Maracaibo Venezuela Opera, Shreveport Opera, Dayton Opera and Boston Opera on tour. He has performed such concert works as Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem and Orff's Carmina Burana with such symphony orchestras as Seattle, Indianapolis, Memphis, New Jersey and Cincinnati. He performed as soloist under the baton of Margaret Hillis at Carnegie Hall and appeared as featured recitalist on the J. Paul Getty Museum Concert Series. He has been named an Omicron Delta Kappa Man of Merit by Baylor University in recognition of outstanding accomplishments. Recently he performed with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as Manuel in Falla's La Vida Breve, in Liszt’s oratorio St. Stanislaus (both recorded by Telarc) and as a soloist in Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite with the late Werner Klemperer as narrator. Most recently, McGraw performed Vaughan-Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and Five Mystical Songs with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Robert Porco conducting. He also performed as Melot in Act II of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde featuring Deborah Voigt and Ben Heppner with the May Festival under the baton of James Conlon. McGraw is proud to have students teaching and performing nationally and internationally.
Ruby Pleasure earned a B.A. from Fisk University and a M.A. from Stanford University. She studied early music with George Houle and Imogene Horsley, theory with Arthur Crowley and Leonard Ratner, and voice with James Van Lowe, Phillip Jones, Marie Gibson, Elizabeth Appling and Hermann le Roux. She serves as choir director and organist for St. Edward’s Episcopal Church in Pacifica.
Kenneth Shaw - Associate Professor
513-556-9561 Kenneth.Shaw@UC.edu
BS, Jacksonville State University; MM, Louisiana State University
Biography: Kenneth Shaw is the former assistant professor of voice and opera at Converse College, South Carolina and was the former artistic director of Converse Opera Theater. He has performed with New York City Opera in eleven leading roles such as Marcello in La Boheme, the title role in Don Giovanni, among many others. He has also had leading roles with Glimmerglass, Wolftrap, Artpark, and Chautauqua Opera. Shaw has performed frequently with Atlanta Opera, Opera Memphis, Dayton Opera, Greater Miami Opera, Opera Columbus, Indianapolis Opera, Kentucky Opera, Nashville Opera, Cincinnati Opera and New Orleans Opera. His world premiere performances include leading roles in Hoiby’s The Tempest and Fink’s Chinchilla, as well as Dutton’s The Stone Man. His orchestral engagements include performances with Greenville Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Memphis Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic. Recorded live with Opera Orchestra of New York in Janecek’s Jenufa, as well as with Atlanta Opera Orchestra as bass soloist in Mozart’s Requiem. Shaw received the New York City Opera Debut Artist of the Year Award in 1987. He received first prize in the New York Opera Index Competition (1987) and is the winner of the Liederkranz Wagner Competition (1998). Students and former students have participated in apprentice programs with Seattle, Central City, Aspen, Brevard, Nashville, Utah Festival Opera, Wolf Trap and Glimmerglass, and are engaged in opera houses in Zurich, Paris and New York City Opera, as well as in leading roles on Broadway. Shaw has taught in Lucca, Italy and in master classes nationally.
Mary Henderson Stucky - Professor
513-556-9562 Mary.Henderson-Stucky@UC.edu
BM, MM, Perf. Certificate, Eastman School of Music
Biography: Stucky studied with Julius Huehn and Helen Boatwright and she coached with Elly Ameling and Hugues Cuenod. She received the University of Rochester/University of Cologne Exchange Fellowship and a Fulbright Travel Grant in 1972. Her European recital debut was at Bordeaux, France in 1973. She sang over 30 operatic roles at Rochester's 'Opera Under the Stars,' Chautauqua, Opera South, Hagen and Oldenburg (Germany), Bern (Switzerland), Ghent (Belgium). She recorded songs for Deutshlandfunk, Hessische Rundfunk, S.C. ETV and Centaur Records. As a soloist she performed at Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, St. Louis New Music Circle, St. Louis Symphony's 'On Stage Series,' and the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago. From 1982-1990 she was the artist-in-residence in voice at Washington University in St. Louis. She taught voice at the St. Louis Conservatory of Music from 1985-1990 and was an instructor at Syracuse University and L'École Hindemith in Switzerland. Since 1990 she has been the associate director of the Institute for Advanced Vocal Studies in France.
Daniel Weeks
Title: Associate Professor of Voice
Office: 119 Dieterle Vocal Arts Cntr
Tel: 513-556-6830
Email: paul.weeks@uc.edu
Praised for his Italianate timbre and sensitive musicianship, Daniel Weeks maintains an active performing schedule including opera, oratorio and recitals. As a concert artist, Weeks has sung with the Houston Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Columbus Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Louisville Orchestra, the Huntsville Symphony, the Oratorio Society of New York, the Winter Park Bach Festival, the Bozeman Symphony, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the National Symphony of Mexico, the National Symphony of Costa Rica, the Xalapa Symphony (Mexico) and the National Youth Orchestra of Caracas (Venezuela). On the operatic stage, he has performed with the Florentine Opera, Kentucky Opera, Mercury Opera, Nevada Opera and in 2001 toured the US in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theater.
Conductors with whom he has performed include Steuart Bedford, Christoph Campestrini, Hal France, Stefan Lano, Jane Glover, Christopher Larken, Hans Graf, Gustav Meier, Junkchi Hirokami, Vladimir Spivakov, Alessandro Siciliani, John Keenan, John Rutter, Jorge Mester, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Eduardo Müller, Gregory Vajda, Stefan Sanderling, Ari Pelto, Lyndon Woodside, Uriel Segal, Robin Stamper, Mark Gibson and Joe Mechavich. Stage directors with whom he has worked include Linda Brovsky, Michael Cavanaugh, Leonard Foglia, David Gately, Casey Stangl, Nicholas Muni, Donald Westwood and John Davies. In 2009, Weeks was honored by his alma mater, Belmont University in Nashville, TN, with their Second Annual “Encore Alumni Award” for excellence in the field of classical music.
A passionate advocate for Art Song recitals, Weeks taught the Vocal Literature seminars at the University of Louisville after joining the voice faculty in 1998. In 1999, he was a National Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera’s National Council Auditions and was also named Young Artist by the National Federation of Music Clubs. In October 1999, he made his New York recital debut with CCM Accompanist-in-Residence Donna Loewy on the Judith Raskin Memorial Concert Series. In February 2000, Weeks was the “On Wings of Song” recitalist with Loewy under the auspices of the Marilyn Horne Foundation. For the next three years, he and Loewy presented recitals and school presentations for the Horne Foundation across the country.
Additionally, Weeks has collaborated with such notable pianists as Timothy Cheek, Valerie Trujillo and Douglas Fisher. Additionally, he and pianist, Naomi Oliphant have given over 150 performances throughout the US, Canada and Europe since 2002. These performances include recitals in Katowice, Poland, Brno, CZ and an appearance in Toronto, Canada, at the 2007 Collaborative Conference hosted jointly by the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Association, the Music Teachers National Association and the Royal Conservatory of Music.
In 2009, Weeks and Naomi Oliphant released their album Women of Firsts: A Recording of Art Songs by Lili Boulanger, Amy Beach, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Vítězslava Kaprálová on the Centaur Records label. Critically acclaimed in the US and Europe, this recording showcases art songs by women who were the first in their respective countries to achieve national and international recognition for composition. He and Dr. Oliphant recorded their second album entitled The Lieder of Franz Liszt, which is scheduled for release with Centaur Records in 2015.
