About
 PRESS
RELEASE:
New York Lyric Opera Theatre
announces the appointment of Elizabeth
Heuermann as General/Artistic Director
for 2011 through 2013.
Ms.
Heuermann joined the New York Lyric
Opera Theatre as a performer, as well as
volunteer in 2008. Working with
not-for-profits is nothing new to Ms.
Heuermann.
She learned at a very young age
the importance of giving back to
community, volunteering as a child for
the Salvation Army, Peoria Historical
Society and Easter Seals.
At the age of 16, she personally
raised money for the Youth Division of
the Peoria Symphony. During college years, she was a weekly volunteer for the
Salvation Army’s Day Care.
In Washington D.C., she
volunteered to work in a homeless
shelter and with an Inner City day care,
where most of the young children were
born addicted to drugs. In Chicago, she
was a member of the Lyric Opera of
Chicago and the Chicago Historical
Society, where she was a volunteer
Docent. Ms. Heuermann became an
associate board member of Opera Illinois
and Peoria’s Lakeview Museum.
She also continued to volunteer
for the Salvation Army and Easter Seals.
She was and is currently a member of the
Junior League as well as the music
fraternity, Sigma Alpha Iota in New
York.
After
graduating from prestigious Indiana
University’s School of Music with
degrees in both Voice and Public
Relations, she moved to Chicago, first
working as a temp (secretary/book
keeper), and then as a full time
employee with a top corporate training
firm, The Forum.
After one year in Chicago, she
returned to her hometown of Peoria,
Illinois.
She became a licensed Realtor and
began designing, building, and selling
speculative homes. Her real estate profession offered her the flexibility
she needed to continue her busy operatic
career throughout the United States and
Europe.
She performed with
venues/companies such as: Carnegie Hall
(Stern and Weill), New York’s Arena in
Times Square, NYC’s prestigious 92nd Street Y, Symphony Space on Broadway,
Long Island’s Kaliope Opera, Austin
Lyric Opera, Opera Illinois, Milwaukee
Opera, Bach Society of St. Paul with the
St. Paul Orchestra, and AIMS Festival in
Austria.
Roles include: Title Role (Manon),
Gilda (Rigoletto), Juliette (Romeo
et Juliette), Pamina (The Magic
Flute), Norina (Don Pasquale),
and Contessa Almaviva (Le Nozze di
Figaro), Musetta (La Bohème), and
Gretel (Hansel and Gretel).
She was also the recipient of
a scholarship at the University of Siena
in Italy.
Many of her performances took her
to the City and she eventually made the
decision to make New York City her home
base.
While
in New York, she was given the
opportunity of creating an opera
division for a chamber orchestra and
produced three fully staged operas to
sold-out audiences.
During her years with New York
Lyric Opera Theatre, she has produced
over 100 performances and developed the
Vocal Competition to award excellence in
opera, which now is an annual event.
As
General/Artistic Director, Ms. Heuermann
will endeavor to keep the culture of
opera alive.
She intends to continue producing
operas and vocal competitions.
At this time she is in the
process of expanding the annual vocal
competition to include regional
divisions across the United States. She
is currently expanding the outreach
studio opera, where the company brings
opera to public/inner city schools,
nursing homes and public events.
She is currently in the process
of developing collaborative performances
with both young and adult choruses and
has plans to add competitions for middle
school and high school singers as well
as a competition for composers.
Her vision includes the addition
of musical theatre, oratorio, and New
Opera to New York Lyric Opera
Theatre’s list of performances. At this time, she is developing regional divisions for the
annual vocal competition that will take
place throughout the United States. She
is also expanding the upcoming North American
and European tour.
Because of her diverse experience in music,
volunteerism and business, she promises
to be a great asset to the New York
Lyric Opera Theatre as General/Artistic
Director.
MUSICAL
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
 KEITH
CHAMBERS (Mainstage Division)
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.
LEESA
DAHL (Mainstage/Artist-in-Residence
Division)
Described
by the San Francisco Chronicle as
"...an exceptional pianist"
and called "a musician to
watch" by San Francisco Classical
Voice, Leesa Dahl is enjoying a busy career as a collaborative artist to
the emerging stars of her generation. In
recent seasons she has played for the
New York Philharmonic, New York City
Ballet, and enjoys a relationship with
the Mark Morris Dance Group. Ms. Dahl
has performed and coached at the
Juilliard School, Manhattan School of
Music, Mannes College, and the Opera
Studio at Yale. She has worked with
Gotham Chamber Opera, American Lyric
Theater, Fort Worth Opera, and
Glimmerglass Opera. In past summers, she
has been a coach for the Aspen Opera
Theater Center, Boston University
Tanglewood Institute, and BASOTI. During
the summers of 2001 and 2004, she was an
Apprentice Coach in the prestigious
Merola Opera Program. She subsequently
appeared as harpsichordist in the
nationwide tour of Cosi fan tutte
with Western Opera Theater, and as an
artist with San Francisco Opera Center.
In the Bay Area, Ms. Dahl was recognized
for her dedication to performances of
new music, and premiered works by
composers such as Heggie, Imbrie, Conte,
Perle, and Lou Harrison. She is also a
member of our casting committee.
TONY
BELLOMY (Artist-in-Residence
Division)
Tony Bellomy studied piano with Vengerova prodigy, Judit Jaimes, and
holds degrees in both piano performance
and vocal accompanying/opera coaching.
He has coached and played for the
Florentine Opera and the Skylight Opera
Theatre, both of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
From 2002 to 2006, he was also a
visiting faculty member of the Black
Hills Summer Institute of the Arts in
Spearfish, South Dakota, with soprano
Johanna Meier and tenor and conductor,
John Stewart. Since moving to New York
in 2005, he has coached and assisted for
the Little Opera Theatre of New York,
New Jersey Verrismo Opera, Encompass New
Opera Theatre and dell’Arte Opera
Ensemble. As a recitalist, Maestro
Bellomy has appeared widely throughout
the US with such singers as Kurt Ollmann,
Darryl Taylor and Kitt Reuter Foss. He
also has a great love of choral music.
He has worked under such great choral
conductors as Sir David Willcocks and
Helmuth Rilling and since 2008 has been
the Associate Conductor for the Grace
Choral Society of New York.
CASTING
COMMITTEE (in alphabetical
order)
Tony
Bellomy
Leesa
Dahl
Keith
Chambers
Elizabeth
Heuermann
MISSION
STATEMENT
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.
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