Assistant Professor of Voice
850-644-5073 wbrister@fsu.edu
Associate Professor Wanda Brister (Mezzo-soprano) has performed throughout the US and Europe. She has done forty operatic roles and has been soloist with conductors Penderecki, Tilson Thomas, Rutter, Entremont, and Queler. Brister has sung at Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, a solo recital, three oratorios, and three operas at Carnegie Hall, and a recital at Weill Hall. Her recitals are innovative and she has introduced “cital titles” at several universities.
She is on CDs Strauss Waltzes for Singing, with New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, Le premier matin du monde, and Clarikenetics. She will be recording Works of Daniel Baldwin for voice and bassoon in 2010.
Brister studied with Nell Rankin, Beverly Wolff, and Enrico Di Giuseppe, and recently completed a DMA at University of Nevada, Las Vegas where she specialized in research on English composer, Madeleine Dring. Her writings on Dring have been cited in several books.
Brister has taught at FSU since 2003. She has taught at University of Arizona and Baylor University and teaches in the summer in the Greater New York Metropolitan area.
She has been Artist/Faculty at the Schlern International Music Festival in Italy since 2006 and joins the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Germany this summer. This season she sang the Messiah in Pensacola and Connecticut and makes her Pensacola Opera debut as Mamma Lucia in March. Her students have sung with Fort Worth, Houston, English National, Lake George, and Central City Operas and teach in Arizona, Florida, and Alabama.
Chuck Chandler
Assistant Professor of Voice
850-644-3705
Email: chuck.chandler@fsu.edu
Dr. Chuck Chandler, tenor, is Assistant Professor of Voice at Florida State University. His prior teaching experience includes Reinhardt University and Shorter College where he was director of the Guest Artist Series and New Music Series. Dr. Chandler is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, where his students consistently win top awards at both the state and regional levels of the NATS voice competition, as well as the Music Teachers National Association, where his students have won the young artist competition at the state, divisional, and national levels. His students have also been finalists and won awards in competitions including the National Orpheus Vocal Competition and the KY Bach Competition; they find frequent summer stock work, have been nominated for the ACTF Irene Ryan award, and have been accepted into and offered prestigious teaching assistantships at many of the finest graduate programs in the country.
A sought after performer, highlights of his performing career include appearances with the Rome Symphony Orchestra, Kentucky Opera, Seven Hills Opera, Converse Opera Theatre, the Louisville Ballet, and the Louisville Philharmonic Orchestra among others in roles such as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi, King Caspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Goro in Madama Butterfly, and Emperor Altoum in Turandot. In 2012, Chandler was named the winner of the Georgia NATS Artist Award, and he has upcoming engagements around the country as a recitalist and master clinician. His international appearances include concerts in Russia, Vietnam, and a concert tour of Germany and Austria. Chandler’s numerous concert appearances include Elijah, The Creation, Messiah, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, DuBois’ Seven Last Words of Christ, Stainer’s Crucifixion, and two world premiere performances: composer Jocelyn Hagen’s song cycle for tenor and soprano, “The Time of Singing Has Come”, and a concert opera commissioned by the Georgia Music Teachers Association entitled Toowhopera, written by Georgia composer Sorrel Hayes, in which Chandler premiered the role of Spamonti.
Chandler received his undergraduate degree in vocal performance from Florida State University, and his Masters and Doctoral degrees in vocal performance from the University of Kentucky. Chandler holds certificates of completion in Levels I and II Wicklund Singing Voice Specialist coursework which focuses on working with injured voices to improve their singing as part of the recovery process. He is also a co-founder of the SongFinder art song database scheduled to launch in summer 2014.
Associate Professor of Voice
850-644-4090 sclose@fsu.edu
Soprano Shirley Close has been Associate Professor of Voice at The Florida State University since 2006, where she has maintained a full studio of excellent singers of doctoral, masters and undergraduate students. Many of her students have sung leading roles in the FSU Opera and appeared as soloists with the FSU Chamber Choir, University Singers, the Tallahassee Community Chorus and the Tallahassee Symphony. Several have continued their careers in opera and participated in Young Artist Programs in Santa Fe, Sarasota, and the Chicago Lyric while others have pursued advanced degrees at major universities and conservatories across the country.
Prior to joining the FSU faculty, Professor Close maintained a busy performing schedule in opera, oratorio and with symphony orchestras across Europe and America. Among others she has performed at the opera houses of Munich, Cologne, the Bayreuth Festival, Berlin, Salzburg, Mannheim, Strasbourg, Nantes, Nice, the Festival d’Orange, Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, and Glimmerglass. She has sung under many renowned conductors including Ricardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim, Wolfgang Sawallisch, James Conlon, John Nelson, Dennis Russell Davies, Julius Rudel, Michael Gielen, Sir David Willcocks, Louis Langrée and others.
She has sung with the symphony orchestras of Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Buffalo, San Diego, Bonn, Oslo, Stuttgart, Munich. She has performed many times at Carnegie Hall and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
Ms. Close holds a Master of Music degree in Voice from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Olivet Nazarene University.
Evan T. Jones
Assistant Professor of Voice
etjones@fsu.edu
Baritone Evan Thomas Jones has established a reputation of excellence in both performing and teaching.
Mr. Jones enjoys a diverse performing career in concert, opera, and musical theatre. He has performed with Opera Memphis, Opera Naples, Berkshire Opera Company, Compañía Lírica Nacional de Costa Rica, the Rochester and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Memphis and Helena Symphonies. An active performer of new works, he was the soloist on the premiere recording of Randol Bass’ Passage Into Spirit, and for the premiere performance and Naxos label recording of Dohnányi’s Orchesterlieder with the FSU Symphony Orchestra.
In 2014, Mr. Jones won an “Emerging Leader” award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing as one of the nation’s most promising young teachers. His current and former students have won awards at competitions such as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and have performed in major opera houses, on national equity tours and Broadway, and in television and film.
A proud FSU alum, Mr. Jones previously served on the voice faculty of the University of Memphis. He is completing his Doctorate at the Eastman School of Music, where he was rewarded for excellence in both performing and teaching by winning first place in the Friends of Eastman Opera Competition and as the first recipient of the William McIver Memorial Award in teaching. He previously served as a district director for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and is a member of NATS, NAfME, MTNA, and ACDA.
For more information and performance clips: http://www.evanjonesbaritone.com/
Larry Gerber
Professor of Voice
850-644-1245 gerber@fsu.edu
Stephen Totter is one of the Pittsburgh region's most versatile performers.
He has excelled in opera, recital, oratorio, and musical theater. Totter´s operatic credits include the title roles in Puccini´s Gianni Schicci, Mozart´s Le Nozze di Figaro, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte, and Marcello in La boheme.
Musical theater roles include the leads in A Little Night Music, Company, Camelot, and South Pacific. Totter has sung in recitals and appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout the country; he made his recording debut singing the title role in Leonardo Balada´s Torquemada conducted by Robert Page. Totter was appointed Artist Lecturer in Voice at Carnegie Mellon University in 1994 and has served on the faculty of the Pittsburgh CLO Academy of Musical Theater since 1991. Totter is a very active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and was the President of its Tri-State chapter from 1999-2006.
David Okerlund
Assistant Professor of Voice
850-645-6821 dokerlund@fsu.edu
Baritone David Okerlund, Assistant Professor of Voice at Florida State Univeristy, has established himself as a major artist in such critically acclaimed performances as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire with L’Opéra National du Rhin, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the San Diego Opera; Orestes in Elektra and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress with Vancouver Opera; Yeletsky in Pique Dame with Opera Grand Rapids; Germont in La Traviata with Connecticut Opera Theater and Jokanaan in Salome with Hawaii Opera Theater. Other major performances of leading baritone roles include the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro, Sharplessin Madama Butterfly, Dandini in La Cenerentola and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus.
During his multi-year tenure with the San Francisco Opera, Mr. Okerlund essayed the role of Stanley Kowalskiin the world premiere of Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, as well as portrayals of the title role in Don Giovanni, Peter in Hänsel und Gretel, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Escamillo in Carmen, Marcelloin La Bohème and the title role in Eugene Onegin. He was also featured in the company’s world premiere recordings of Harvey Milk and Dead Man Walking.
Highly regarded for concert and oratorio appearances, Mr. Okerlund’s repertoire includes: Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Haydn’s Creation, Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem,Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem and Britten’s War Requiem. He has been a soloist with the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San José Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, San Francisco Chorale Society, Napa Valley Symphony and the Masterworks Chorale.
Recent engagements have included: Mozart Requiem with the Toledo Symphony, Faure’s Requiem in Pittsburgh, Henry in the world premiere workshop of Jake Heggie’s End of The Affair at Bucknell University and Personaje Mysterioso in the world premiere recording of Leonardo Balada’s La Muerte de Colon for the Naxos label. Mr. Okerlund has also given masterclasses at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, University of Nebraska, University of Memphis and the Queen Elizabeth School of Music in Brandon, Manatoba.
Future engagements include the title role in Elijah with the Greater Anderson Musical Arts Consortium and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with the Hyogo Cultural Center in Kobe, Japan.
Before joining the College of Music faculty at Florida State University, Mr. Okerlund was Assistant Professor of Voice at Bowling Green State University and Artist Lecturer of Voice at Carnegie Mellon University.
Marcía Porter
Associate Professor of Voice
850-644-0412 mporter@fsu.edu
Award-winning soprano Marcía Porter is equally at home on the concert, recital and opera stages. The soprano made her New York solo recital debut in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2005. Porter has been a soloist with numerous organizations including the Beijing International Symphony Orchestra (China), Camerata filharmonica Bohemia (Czech Republic), and the San Antonio Symphony. Ms. Porter has also performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Chautauqua Opera, Pensacola Opera, Dayton Opera, and Chicago Opera Theatre. Recital performances have taken her to Brazil, Italy, the Czech Republic and numerous venues across the United States. She has presented premier performances of Elegy for a Great Person (European premier) for soprano and harp and of the operas Paul Laurence Dunbar: Common Ground (Dayton Opera) and The Widow’s Lantern (Pensacola Opera). Additionally, she recorded works for soprano and orchestra by Antonio Rosetti for the German record label Classic Produktion Osnabrück (cpo). The recording is scheduled for release in 2010.
Porter, a Rotary International Cultural Ambassadorial Scholar, has won numerous awards and honors including first place in the NATS Artist Award Competition (2004), which is the highest honor the National Association of Teachers of Singing awards to a performer and is given biennially.
Dr. Porter (Associate Professor of Voice) earned B.M. and M.M degrees in voice performance from Northwestern University and a D.M.A in performance from The University of Michigan. Porter’s teachers include Shirley Verrett, Margaret Harshaw, Carmen Mehta, and Kathleen Kaun.
Valerie M. Trujillo
Associate Professor of Vocal Coaching and Accompanying; Coordinator of Voice and Opera
Phone: 850-644-8348
Email: vtrujillo@fsu.edu
Valerie M. Trujillo’s experiences in song literature and opera make her a much sought after accompanist, coach, and teacher of masterclasses. Formerly Co-Director of the Young American Artists Program at Glimmerglass Opera, she has been associated with many opera companies including Santa Fe Opera, Wexford Festival Opera (Ireland), Connecticut Opera, Shreveport Opera, Mississippi Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Theatre at Wildwood, Augusta Opera, Ohio Light Opera and Opera in the Ozarks. Ms. Trujillo has served as artist faculty at the Tanglewood Music Center, Ars Vocalis México (Zamora, México), the Taos Opera Institute, The Lake Placid Institute, and Intermezzo Program for Young Artists as well as the academic faculty at the Hartt School, Middle Tennessee State University, Yale University and Central Connecticut State University. She made her Weill Recital Hall debut in 2006 and her compact disc, Thou didst delight my Ears, featuring tenor, Ian Partridge, was recently released on the Mark Records label. Ms. Trujillo can also be heard on the Grammy-nominated Chandos release of Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur, as well as with fellow Florida State University faculty members Deborah Bish and Christopher Moore on the Mark Records label. A native of Santa Fe, N.M., she received her musical training from Eastern New Mexico University and the University of Illinois, where she studied with John Wustman. She taught at The Florida State University from 1990-1996 and rejoined the faculty in 2002, where she is now Associate Professor of Vocal Coaching and Accompanying.
For more information about Vocal Coaching and Accompanying at FSU, please visit the Accompanying page.
