Voice
Andrew Whitfield, voice
and co-director
Andrew Whitfield, voiceBaritone Andrew D. Whitfield enjoys a vibrant career as a performer, teacher, and stage director. In addition to appearances with Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Southwest, and Pensacola Opera, Andrew has also been a resident artist with Portland Opera Works. His most recent performance highlights include engagements with the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, and the Peoria Bach Festival. Also, his recording of Brooke Joyce’s Three Iowa Ballads, recently released on the Innova label, has received notable praise.
Originally from Shelbyville, Indiana, Andrew received the Bachelor of Music degree from Butler University, the Master of Music degree from Wichita State University, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Louisiana State University. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Music (voice, opera) at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. During the summer Andrew enjoys teaching and performing at Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival, a four-week residential training program for talented high school musicians.
With his colleague Jessica Paul, Andrew performed Schubert’s Winterreise in Colorado, Iowa, and Wisconsin during February and March of 2011. In April 2011 he was the baritone soloist in the Brahms Requiem at Grinnell College. As part of Luther College's sesquicentennial celebration, Andrew also sang the baritone solos in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, both at Luther and in Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, on April 16 and 17, 2011.
To see and hear excerpts of Andrew's performances, or for further information, please visit his website: andrewdwhitfield.com
Jessica Paul, collaborative piano and vocal coaching
Jessica Paul, collaborative piano and vocal coachingJessica Paul, a native of Chicago, holds a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Northwestern University, where she studied with pianist and vocal coach Laurence Davis. Ms. Paul went on to the University of Illinois as a student of John Wustman, eventually earning the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in vocal coaching and accompanying. She is frequently engaged as a collaborative pianist and guest clinician, and she has worked with such opera companies as the Pittsburgh Opera Theatre, Opera Theatre of Illinois, National Opera Company, Cleveland Opera Theatre, Virginia Opera Association, Lake George Opera Festival, Cedar Rapids Opera, and Pine Mountain Music Festival. She is the former Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Dorian Opera Theatre and is currently Professor of Music at Luther College as vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and teacher of accompanying. On-going research projects include the study of art song of Lithuania and the vocal works of women composers, specifically twentieth century American composers.
Ellen Rissinger, guest pianist and vocal coach
Ellen Rissinger, guest pianist and vocal coachEllen Rissinger came to European attention when she accompanied a performance of Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf during the German orchestra strike in December of 2008. Currently on the music staff of the Semperoper in Dresden, Germany, Ms. Rissinger has enjoyed a career in both Germany and the United States.
Besides her duties at the Semperoper, she also works for the University of Miami's Salzburg Summer Program, where she coaches privately, gives master classes and lectures on auditioning in Europe and America. Prior to her appointment in Dresden, Ms. Rissinger spent several months with Oper Frankfurt, four years on the music staff of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, two years as head coach for the Stadttheater Pforzheim and coached for the Mainfranken Theater in Wurzburg.
Ms. Rissinger has also worked with many opera companies in the United States, including Opera Company of Philadelphia, Glimmerglass Opera, Baltimore Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Kentucky Opera, Knoxville Opera, Utah Festival Opera and Harrisburg Opera, and was Music Director for Opera Iowa and Glimmerglass Opera's 25th Anniversary Tour. She has coached and given Master Classes to students at The Hartt School, Boston Conservatory, Western Connecticut State University, Carnegie Mellon University, the Boston Chapter of NATS, Oklahoma City University and the University of Louisville. She has worked with such conductors as Christian Thielemann, Massimiliano Zanetti, Sebastian Weigle, Roger Norrington, Mariss Jansons, John Mauceri, John Fiore, Marvin Hamlisch, George Manahan, John Demain, Hal France, Stewart Robertson, Ward Holmquist and Joseph Rescigno, and has accompanied Master Classes for Deborah Voigt, Ermanno Mauro, Bernard Uzan, Diana Soviero, Evelyn Lear and Thomas Stewart, Warren Jones, John Wustman and Regine Crespin.
Her operatic repertoire includes all styles from Monteverdi's Orfeo (1605) through to the World Premiere (Dresden version) of Gisela! (2010) by Henze. She has appeared in recital as a collaborative pianist in both the US and Germany with such artists as Jane Henschel, Mirko Roschkowski, Troy Cook and Kenneth Riegel.
Ms. Rissinger earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Piano Performance from Carnegie Mellon University and obtained a Master of Music in Accompanying from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; she also attended the Young Artist Training Programs of Florida Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and Aspen Opera Theater Center.
An avid student of language, Ellen is fluent in English and German, conversant in French, Italian, Spanish and Modern Greek, and continues to work on her conversational ability in Russian. In 2010 she started the podcast The Diction Police, to bring the sounds of foreign languages to voice students and young professionals in the United States.
Ms. Rissinger will be in residence in Duino from June 4-9, 2013.