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About the Director
Baritone Krzysztof Biernacki established strong reputation as a powerful performer, versatile stage director and talented teacher. Trained in North America and Europe his professional credits include opera, oratorio, concert, and recital performances on both continents. As a stage director Dr. Biernacki collaborated on a number of university opera productions including The Consul, Dido & Aeneas, Gianni Schicchi, Italian Girl in Algiers, Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus, The Bartered Bride, Magic Flute, Ghost in the Turret, Orpheus in the Underworld, Manon, and Eugene Onegin. Highlights of his operatic engagements include Barber of Seville (Vancouver Opera), Rigoletto (Manitoba Opera), Madama Butterfly (Orchestra London), La Fanciulla del West (Vancouver Opera), Don Pasquale (Calgary Opera), Un Ballo in Maschera (Vancouver Opera), Carmen (Manitoba Opera), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Okanagan Symphony), La Boheme (Orchestra London) and Der Freischütz (Vancouver Opera). Other engagements include Merry Widow, Dido & Aeneas, The Crucible, Die Fledermaus and Gianni Schicchi with various other companies. Recently he has returned from the Czech Republic where he sang the Forester in Cunning Little Vixen and the title role of Eugene Onegin at the City Theaters of Jablonec and Usti and Labem. Dr. Biernacki's commitment to contemporary music is highlighted by world premiere performances heard on CBC Radio and CBC Saturday Afternoon at the Opera including a highly acclaimed production of Filumena co-produced by the Calgary Opera and Banff Centre for Performing Arts. Praised for excellent musicianship and respected as a solo recitalist, Dr. Biernacki frequently performs song recitals ranging in repertoire from Haydn to Szymanowski, Shostakovich, and Britten. His concert and oratorio appearances include the Winnipeg, Vancouver, Okanagan, and Calgary Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Vancouver Bach Choir. Dr. Biernacki holds degrees from University of Manitoba (B. Mus.), University of Western Ontario (M. Mus.), and University of British Columbia (D.M.A). He is the head of the voice department and the director of the Opera Ensemble at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
About the Conductor
New to the Jacksonville community, UNF Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Voice Dr. Cara Suzanne Tasher brings professional experience with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Trinity Choir at Wall Street, and the Conspirare Choir, and has recorded under the batons of Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Daniel Barenboim, Sir George Solti, Claudio Abbado, James Levine and Christoph Eschenbach, among others. In addition, she has performed as a soloist in Chicago's Grant Park, NY's Merkin Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Dublin's National Concert Hall. Most recently, she performed with New York City’s Riverside Choral Society and Orchestra as La récitante in Debussy’s La damoiselle elue. As a conductor, Tasher has conducted throughout Asia, Europe, and the United States, and has conducted reading sessions, workshops, served as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, and prepared masterworks for professional performance organizations including NYSSMA/ACDA, Metropolitan Opera Guild, Netherlands Youth Orchestra, Copland House, Victoria Bach Festival, Atlanta Youth Symphony Chorus, the University of Texas Opera, Kentucky All-Festival Chorus, and the VOCALIZZE Festival of Portugal, among others. She has worked at the high school level in Illinois and Georgia, and with youth ages 8-26 as Associate Conductor and Voice Coach of the world-renowned multicultural Young People's Chorus of New York City for whom she designed two new ensembles and two annual workshops that continue to bloom. She continues her personal development in professional master classes and was invited to conduct in the Chorus America Choral/Orchestral Workshop for Christoph Eschenbach, the Toronto Bach Festival for Helmuth Rilling, and in IFCM's World Symposium of Choral Music for Dan Olaf Stenlund. Tasher created the Xavier University Women's Chorus and served as the conductor of the University of Cincinnati Women's Chorus, winning the 2006 campus-wide Excellence in Teaching award at the University of Cincinnati. In addition, she received the generous Presser Music Award to fund her research at the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris. Dr. Tasher earned her degrees at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the University of Texas at Austin, and Northwestern University.
About Our Répétiteur
Stephen Fennell began piano lessons at the age of 5, and has been playing ever since. He is currently a free-lance musician, performing at multiple venues in and around Jacksonville. He attended FCCJ, JU, and UNF, and was a student of well-known Jacksonville piano instructor, Mary Elizabeth Land. He has accompanied the Jacksonville Masterworks Chorale for the past three years, serves as pianist for The Chapel at Jacksonville, and has played for numerous musical productions around town, including "West Side Story", "Company", and this summer's production of "Guys and Dolls" at Theater Jacksonville. He has recorded 3 solo CDs, the most recent being a collection of Broadway and Hollywood standards entitled "Stage and Screen".
About Set & Lighting Design
More information coming soon!
About Costume Design
The Costume Crew - Dorinda Grogan and Camala Pitts (Costume Designers) are owners of The Costume Crew- a local company specializing in costume design for theatrical productions. This dynamic sister duo have designed theater and dance costumes for a number of local theaters and schools, as well as providing assistance for Broadway touring productions, and the Jacksonville Symphony. Some of their local credits include FCCJ's productions of the award winning House of Blue Leaves, Blood Brothers, Honk!, Laramie Project, and Return to Forbidden Planet. They designed costumes for PBTS productions of A Lion in Winter, Auntie Mame and A Tuna Christmas. For the past three seasons they have been the Resident Costume Designers for FCCJ's Dance Works-providing costumes for modern, hip-hop and ballet. They also enjoyed the opportunity to design for Guys and Dolls as part of The Summer Musical Experience at the Wilson Center for the Performing Arts.
For more information visit www.costumecrew.com
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