About

Elizabeth Heuermann joined the New York Lyric Opera Theatre as a performer, as well as volunteer in 2008. She was appointed General/Artistic Director last June. Since then, she has made it her mission to keep opera alive not only in the New York area but on a global level.

With the New York Lyric Opera Theatre, she has produced over 130 performances to sold-out audiences at locations such as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space Theatre on Broadway, NY Arena at Times Square, and The Dimenna Music Center. Operas include:

Cosi Fan Tutte, Alcina, Cendrillon, Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angelica, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, Roméo et Juliette, L’elisir d’amore, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Die Fledermaus, La Clemenza di Tito, Rigoletto, Impresario, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci, La Clemenza di Tito, Die Walküre, and Manon.

She has also produced and stage directed multiple performances of Carmen, Hansel and Gretel, and La Bohème.

She is in the midst of planning for the upcoming season that will include over 35 mainstage shows, an Emerging Artist Program, Concerts, Opera Festivals, and Opera Workshops. Performance locations will include Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, The Dimenna Center, and Dingeldine Musical Arts Center (Illinois). Upcoming: Hansel and Gretel, Il Trittico: Gianni Schicchi/Suor Angelica/Il Tabarro, Cendrillon, La Clemenza di Tito, Dido and Aeneas, Impresario, Le Nozze di Figaro, Roméo et Juliette, Incoronazione di Poppea, Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, Die Walküre, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Die Zauberflöte, Faust, Manon, Die Fledermaus, Alcina, Lucia di Lammermoor, and La Traviata.

In addition to producing, Ms. Heuermann has developed our Annual National Vocal Competition to award excellence in opera, which now includes regional divisions held across America. She has created a Summer Festival in New York and will have NY Lyric’s 1^st Midwest Summer and Winter Festival in Illinois this coming season. She is currently coordinating with regional opera companies & orchestras, high schools & colleges, choruses throughout North America. This is the first phase of our North American tour.

Her plans also include a Summer Festival in Virginia, Florida, and Tuscany (Italy) in 2015.

As a performer, her recent Carnegie Hall credits include Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, the Title Role in Manon, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Contessa Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Gilda (cover) in Rigoletto*.

Other performances: Juliette in Roméo et Juliette (NY Arena in Times Square), Title Role in Manon (NYC’s prestigious 92^nd Street Y), Musetta in La Bohème (Symphony Space on Broadway, Apollo Theatre, Kaliope Opera of Long Island), Gilda in Rigoletto (Austin Lyric Opera, Opera Illinois, Symphony Space, Soprano Soloist in St. John’s Passion (St. Paul’s Orchestra), Norina in Don Pasquale (Milwaukee Opera), Gretel in Hansel and Gretel (Opera Illinois), and Contessa Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Apollo Theatre), and Lucy in The Telephone (St. Martin Chamber Players).

Maestro Keith Chambers was appointed Assistant Conductor of New York City Opera in 2007 and is Music Director of the Emerging Artist Program & Chorus Master for Opera New Jersey. He has conducted Tosca for Amarillo Opera, Roméo et Juliette for Asheville Lyric Opera, The Station for Sugar Land Opera, The Living Opera (Hansel and Gretel, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Pasquale, & The Pirates of Penzance), Halifax Summer Opera (Giulio Cesare), Moores Opera Center (Die Fledermaus & La finta giardiniera), and Opera in the Ozarks (Don Giovanni & L’elisir d’amore). He serves on faculty of the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program and is also a Program Director of the RESONANZ Festival. Maestro Chambers is the past Artistic Director of The Living Opera and Chorus Master/Music Director of Shreveport Opera. Additional appearances include performances with Toledo Opera, Connecticut Opera, American Opera Projects, and American Lyric Theater. He has appeared as concerto soloist with the Delaware Symphony, Clear Lake Symphony, and Naples Philharmonic, and often performs with his wife, dramatic soprano Kirsten Chambers. He begins the 2010-11 season at Toledo Opera with Ariadne auf Naxos and conducts Gianni Schicchi for the Martha Cardona Theater.

Conductor, David Štech is the Associate Conductor of the Astoria Symphony Orchestra in Queens, Music director of St. John's Episcopal Church in Passaic, New Jersey, and faculty vocal coach at the Manhattan School of Music. He recently moved to New York City from Chicago where he was music director of the Sherwood Symphony Orchestra, the North Shore Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Choral Artists, and the American Opera Group where he conducted I Barbieri di Siviglia, La Bohème, La Tragédie de Carmen, Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto, The Threepenny Opera, Così fan Tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Don Giovanni. In 2003, he was invited to conduct at Tanglewood, where he studied with Kurt Mazur, Christoph von Dohnányi, Roger Norrington and Robert Spano. Other teachers include Michael Morgan, Gustav Meier, Otto Werner- Müller, Cliff Colnot, Rossen Milanov and Victor Yampolsky. Mr. Štech has also served on the coaching staff of Roosevelt University, Opera in the Ozarks, and the Opera Theatre of Lucca, Italy. A diction specialist in Czech, Bulgarian and Serbian, He has also speaks French, German and Italian. While in Chicago, he sang with virtually every professional choral ensemble in Chicago, including Bella Voce, the Ferris Chorale and the Chicago Symphony Chorus.

Following his sold-out recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Dr. Michael Fennelly has toured the world from Andorra to Zimbabwe with an array of dynamic programs. He released his debut solo recording, The Legend of Faust, on One Soul Records and is currently recording his new album Bravura with legendary producer Max Wilcox of RCA. This year, he celebrates the Liszt bicentennial with recitals throughout the United States. These programs feature standard works such as the Sonata, Mephisto Waltz, and the Rigoletto paraphrase; rare pieces including the Niobe Fantasy, Tannhäuser Overture, and the complete Paganini Etudes; and Liszt’s extensive song settings in Italian, French, and German. He makes his debut as a conductor, invited to assist in productions of La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, the premiere of John Musto’s The Inspector, The King and I, and La Bohème for Lyric Opera Virginia, Wolftrap Opera, Ashlawn Opera, and the Britten operas with Loren Maazel. Last season, Dr. Fennelly was invited by the U.S. State Department to tour major cities of Japan performing his own transcription of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and other American music. Byron Janis asked him perform in the Chopin Gala in Manhattan, and the Marcella Sembrich Foundation in their Samuel Barber centennial concert. Dr. Fennelly has conducted both Cendrillon and Die Zauberflote with us last fall.

Our mission ... to bring the beauty & passion of opera by offering low priced & free tickets and many opportunities for performers throughout the New York community. We will provide opera productions, concerts for professionals & emerging professionals and competitions to reward excellence in opera. Our educational series includes giving educational performances in public, private & inner city schools, hospitals, & nursing homes, and giving master classes to young and emerging singers. All master classes will be open to the public to educate the community not only about the music but also the history of the composers, what was happening in history, various languages performed, dramatic intention, & the subtle nuances of the music.