Faculty guests from previous years
Benedicte Jourdois
Pianist, Vocal Coach, French diction and vocal literature
A graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera, Bénédicte Jourdois is currently on music staff at the Metropolitan Opera and on faculty at the Juilliard School. Ms. Jourdois has also been on music staff at the Chautauqua Opera Voice Program since 2007.
Ms Jourdois has performed in numerous venues in Europe and in the United States, including Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington and has worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Lyric Ryan Opera Center, Opera Saratoga, Pittsburgh Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, the Castleton Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA. She was a faculty member at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2016.
Born in Paris, Ms Jourdois holds degrees from the Conservatoire National de Region de Saint-Maur, the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Lyon, Mannes College, and the Juilliard School.
Isabel Rey
Soprano
Born in Valencia, Spain, soprano Isabel Rey is internationally known for her exquisite expressivity, vocal technique and her outstanding acting skills. During her distinguished career she has performed in the most important musical capitals of the world such as Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Zurich, London, Edinburgh, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Paris, Los Angeles, Washington, Stockholm, Athens, New York, Brussels, Moscow, Tokyo, Rome, Venice, and Amsterdam.
With an extensive repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to Stravinsky, this very versatile singer has performed in more than 65 different operas over the course of her career to date, notably Le Nozze di Figaro, Lucia di Lammermoor, Così fan tutte, Alcina, Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte, Rigoletto, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, Carmen, Don Pasquale, L'elisir d'amore, Idomeneo, Don Giovanni, Falstaff, Der Rosenkavalier, La Boheme, La Fille du Regiment, Dialogues des Carmelites, Pélleas et Mélisande, Faust, Les Contes de Hoffmann, Die Königskinder, Otello, Simone Boccanegra and The Rake's Progress, always working with great conductors such as Harnoncourt, Noseda, Santi, Lopez Cobos, Welser-Möst, Koopman, Chichon, Tebar, Frühbeck de Burgos, Plasson, Viotti, Fischer, Marriner, Lombard, Zedda, Hager, Corboz, Christie, Minkowski, Biondi, Luisi and Maazel.
Isabel Rey has many DVD’s in the market in which she performs some of her most successful roles such as Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, La Finta Giardiniera, King Arthur and Semele under the baton of Harnoncourt, Don Pasquale with Juan Diego Florez and Nello Santi conducting, and Pélleas et Mélisande with Welser Möst. Her varied discography includes a recital with guitarist Ichiro Suzuki, Canciones para la Navidad (Songs for Christmas) with Alejandro Zabala at the piano and The Passion of Spain, a collection of zarzuela arias and duets with José Carreras. Her latest CD with pianist Alejandro Zabala is titled "Mi corazon con alas" and features some of the most important and well-known songs of the classical Spanish repertoire.
Over the past several years, she has made a significant change of repertoire as her voice has grown and matured, adding roles such as Tosca, Butterfly, Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera) and the title character of Florencia en el Amazonas among others. In addition to her many accomplishments as a singer, Isabel is a published poet. Her first book of poetry was released with the title "Del amor y de la vida."
Pianist Damien Francoeur-Krzyzek holds faculty positions at the New England Conservatory (NEC) and the Boston Conservatory. As a member of NEC’s collaborative piano department, he educates young pianists in the art of playing operatic literature and coaching singers. He has served on the music staff at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis since 2008, and can be heard alongside members of the Saint Louis Symphony in the 2014 world premiere recording of Ricky Ian Gordon’s "27", starring Stephanie Blythe and conducted by Michael Christie. An avid linguist, Damien has studied and coached more than a dozen languages, and frequently coaches singers and pianists in Russian and Czech song repertoire for NEC’s Liederabend series.
A passionate devotee of instrumental and vocal chamber music, Damien has performed at the Tanglewood Music Festival with members of the Boston Symphony, and made his German debut alongside saxophonist Kenneth Radnofsky and violinist Elmira Darvarova in a program of David Amram’s chamber music at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie in Karlsruhe. He can be heard in collaboration with Radnofsky, trumpeter Seelan Manickam, soprano Margot Rood and composer Heather Gilligan on the 2017 Albany Records release Living in Light
Emily Pulley, Soprano
A frequent presence at the Metropolitan Opera, Emily Pulley’s roles in the legendary house include Marguerite in Faust, Nedda in I Pagliacci, Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Musetta in La Bohème, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Thérèse in Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and First Lady in a new production of Die Zauberflöte directed by Julie Taymor. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Mimi in La Bohème.
Ms. Pulley has delighted audiences across the country on the stages of New York City Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Dallas Opera, Minnesota Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Colorado, and Central City Opera in such roles as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan Tutte, Minnie in La Fanciulla del West, and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus. A champion of new repertoire, she created the role of Lysia in the world premiere of Mark Adamo’s new opera, Lysistrata, in her Houston Grand Opera debut, which she then reprised for New York City Opera. She made her New York City Opera debut as Lavinia Mannon in Mourning Becomes Electra for which she won the New York City Opera Richard F. Gold Debut Artist Award.
Most recent career highlights include performances as the Governess in The Turn of the Screw with Boston Lyric Opera, Agathe in Der Freischütz with Opera Boston, the title role of Susannah at the Wexford Festival in Ireland, Carmina Burana and Nedda in I Pagliacci with Atlanta Opera, Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites with Austin Lyric Opera, Marguerite in Faust with New Orleans Opera, Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites with Kentucky Opera, Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore with Anchorage Opera, and Sarah in Jake Heggie’s The End of the Affair for Lyric Opera of Kansas City. She also returned to Central City Opera in the title role of Vanessa, the title role in Susannah and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni.
A native of Texas, Ms. Pulley received the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from Central City Opera and the Jacobson Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. She is the 2006 recipient of New York City Opera’s Christopher Keene Award, recognizing an artist’s performance in new or unusual repertoire.