Damon Nestor Ploumis was educated at Eton College, the University of Cambridge (History), Athens University, the Ecole Biblique Française in Jerusalem (Theology), and the University of East Anglia (Law). Having received a scholarship from the European Community to study under baritone Costas Pascalis in Athens, he completed his formal vocal studies in the United States, graduating from the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where he studied with Louis Quilico, and was also a participant in the Merola Program of the San Francisco Opera.

As a guest artist with the Finnish National Opera, his past appearances have included Don Magnifico (Cenerentola), under Maestro Zedda and Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore). Additionally, he has sung Don Profondo, in Nobel prize winner, Dario Fo’s production of Viaggio a Reims (broadcast live throughout Europe) and Mephistopheles in La Damnation de Faust.

Making his debut at the Greek National Opera as Bartolo, Mr. Ploumis sang Dulcamara at the Swedish Royal Opera, under the stage direction of Jonathan Miller and recently in Stockholm Don Bartolo in il Barbiere di Siviglia. As a member of the German National Theater of Weimar, he has sung most recently Don Pasquale, der Gallwurm and Geronzio ( Der Menschenfeind. In previous seasons he performed , Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Papageno, Colline, the Grand Inquisitor and Giacinto in Galuppi’s, Il Mondo alla roversa. Further roles performed include: Zacaria (Nabucco), Don Alfonso (Cosi Fan Tutte), Kecal (The Bartered Bride), Hortensius (Daughter of the Regiment), Collatinus (Rape of Lucretia), Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro), King Melchior (Amahl and the Night Visitors), Capulet (Romeo et Juliette), Mephistopheles (Faust), Falstaff (Die Lustige Witwe), Ramfis (Aida), Biterolf (Tannhaüser), Andrea Cornaro in Donizetti's last work Caterina Cornaro, Don Geronio (Il Turco in Italia), the title role of Telemann’s Pimpinone, Sam in Trouble in Tahiti, Leporello (Don Giovanni), Warlaam (Boris Godunov) and Gessler (Wilhem Tell) as well as the role of “Wissen” in the world premiere of The Speed of Light, a cross media Opera produced by Phase7 in celebration of Einstein. Appearances have included guest performances in Bremen, Bielefeld, Lubeck, Giessen, Munster, Flensburg, Radebeul, Rostock, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Graz, Heidelberg, Oldenburg, Hof, as well as in Belgium, France, the UK and Greece.

In addition to his busy singing schedule, Damon Nestor Ploumis is the head of the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar (www.lyricoperastudioweimar.com), which recently had sixty–eight students under his tutelage in the summer of 2009. He has also begun to stage direct successfully in both Europe and North America.

Canadian Mezzo Soprano, Natalie Burdeny is a versatile and sought-after performer. Having recently returned to Canada after a year living and working in Germany, she was welcomed home as the Mezzo Soloist in a performance of Verdi's Requiem with the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Neil Weisensel.

Her repertoire includes; Dorabella (Cosi Fan Tutte), Mercedes (Carmen), Hata (Prodaná Nevesta), Zweite Dame (Die Zauberflöte), Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Berta (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), and Mother’s Voice (Les Contes d’Hoffmann). Ms. Burdeny performs frequently in concerts and recitals, including oratorio. She was the mezzo soloist for the Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio with Canadian Memorial Centre for Peace in 2007.

Praised for her "warm mezzo" (Opera Canada – 2006), Natalie is a two time recipient of the Vicky Modeland Ridgewell Memorial Scholarship for Most Outstanding Mezzo Soprano. She has also performed chorus with Vancouver Opera, Banff Opera as Theatre, Pacific Opera Victoria and Burnaby Lyric Opera. She currently studies with International Soprano Heidi Klassen.

A graduate of the Classical & Contemporary Music program at Vancouver Community College, Natalie also holds a multi-disciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Victoria with a focus on Germanic Studies and Music History. In addition to her musical pursuits, Natalie is the Administrator for Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar and continues to have a successful career as an Oracle Application Developer.

Born in Italy, Mr. Amoretti has worked as a coach and accompanist in Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the USA. Having conducted numerous masterclasses at renowned conservatories such as the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Opera Academies in Stockholm and Copenhagen as well as at the Music Conservatory in Bremen, Mr. Amoretti is a specialist in Italian Opera and diction. With Several recordings to his name, such as with the Naxos label, he was the head-coach and assistant to the chief conductor at the Bremen Opera Theater for four years before coming to Weimar in 2008 to assume the position of head coach at the Deutsches National Theater.

Renowned pianist and opera coach Erkki Korhonen studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki Finland before going on to the Zurich Opera as a coach. As a professor at the Sibelius academy for piano accompaniment, Mr. Korhonen went on to become the head of the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera and subsequently the General Director of the Finnish National Opera. Sitting on the panel of many significant vocal competitions, Mr. Korhonen has an unparalleled expertise in the young voice and what companies and competition judges listen for in a singer.

Olaf Storbeck began his musical career in Piano Studies with Paul Buck in Stuttgart. In 1995, after finishing his studies in Piano and Orchestra/Choral Direction, Maestro Storbeck debuted as Conductor in a production of Britten's Albert Herring at the Rokoko-Theater Schwetzingen.

His chosen career path has lead to positions at Theater Heidelberg and the German National Theater Weimar as 1. Kapellmeister and Assistant Musical Director at Oldenburgische Staatstheater.

Maestro Storbeck has conducted over 40 works in all styles. The main body of these works has included Tannhäuser, Butterfly, Boheme, Wozzeck, Trovatore, Barbiere and all the standard Mozart Operas. While continuing to specialize in Baroque Opera he has had particularly great success with Vivaldi's Il Giustino.

As a Guest Conductor he has worked with orchestras in Dessau, Regensburg, Osnabrück, Bonn, Mannheim, Dortmund and Karlsruhe. Since 2007 he has been engaged as Professor of Opera Studies at the Musikhochschule Zürich.

Studying stage directing at the Hamburg Conservatory, Michael Dißmeier began his career as dramaturge and stage director at the Hans-Otto Theater in Potsdam, he went on to the theater in Lubeck and the German National Theater in Weimar. Renowned for his stagings of Baroque Operas, he has also directed many larger works such as The Bartered Bride, Trovatore and Ariodante. From 2007 he was appointed the head of opera dramaturgy at the German National Theater.

Mr. Luke Housner has maintained a balanced schedule with a combination of vocal coaching, extensive performing, opera assembling, choral preparation and musical direction.

Recent engagements for Mr. Housner include:

In the summer of 2008, Mr Housner was principal coach and performance pianist for Astoria Music Festival in Oregon and then went on to coach and musically direct a production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte at Lyric Opera Studio of Weimar in Weimar, Germany. He will be returning to both programs for the summer of 2009. In February 2008, Mr. Housner served as music director, principal coach and performance pianist for a conductor-less, fully staged production of Janácek's Kát’a Kabanová as part of the Academy of Vocal Arts 2007-2008 season.

In previous seasons at AVA, he has done the same with Barber’s Vanessa, Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Strauss’ Elektra.

For the summer of 2006, Mr. Housner was a guest vocal coach at the Central City Opera Festival in Central City, Colorado. He coached, concertized and played harpsichord for Mozart's Don Giovanni.

In January 2006, Mr. Housner was a guest vocal coach at Portland Opera for their Young Artist Studio and concertized on the Oregon coast. He returned to Portland for two months of residency in the spring of 2006 for a Young Artist Studio recital, as well as serving as a coach, continuo player and chorus master for a mainstage production of Mozart's Don Giovanni. In March 2006, Mr Housner was a guest vocal coach at Hong Kong's Academy of Performing Arts.

Mr. Housner was principal vocal coach for a production of Puccini’s Turandot in the summer of 2005 at the Utah Opera Festival in Logan. In February, 2005, Mr. Housner served as Assistant Musical Director for Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at AVA.

Over the past eleven years with the Philadelphia Singers, Resident Chorale of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Housner has performed on various subscription series concerts as pianist, organist and harpsichordist, served as rehearsal pianist and vocal coach for soloists and has played under the batons of Christoph Eshenbach, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Simon Rattle, Andrew Davis, Charles Dutoit and Kurt Masur. Mr. Housner joined the Academy of Vocal Arts music faculty and the Curtis Institute of Music opera department in 1996.

Native of Western Massachusetts, Mr. Housner earned a Master’s Degree of Music in Vocal Accompanying and Coaching from University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana with instruction from internationally acclaimed vocal coach John Wustman. Previously, he received a Bachelor’s Degreeof Music, with a double major in Piano Performance and Vocal Accompanying from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

Tenor Carlos Montané received his B.A. in vocal studies and studied in Cuba, the United States, and Italy. He has performed as leading tenor with the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera and in Philadelphia, Houston, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Budapest, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Zagreb, Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, and Singapore. He has made appearances with orchestras in London, Paris, Cincinnati, Bologna, and Milan. Professor Montané performed in the U.S. premiere of Verdi's first opera, Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio, with the San Diego Opera, and is founder of the "Goodwill Concert Tour" with appearances in Pakistan, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, and Hong Kong. He is artistic director and founder of the "Summer Program for Opera Singers" in the city of Piobbico-Urbania in Italy.

Singer, Speaker and Diction Coach Frederik Beyer (Bass) studied voice, speech sciences and vocal pedagogy at the Liszt School of Music, Weimar and at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. As a freelance opera singer he has sung the roles of Lord Syndham, Pater Heilmann, Don Simone, and Colas, and has participated in master classes with Peter Konwitschny, Marc Tucker, Hartmut Höll, Roberta Cunningham and Ferenc Rados. Since 2004 Frederik has performed in a set of plays and musical dramas at the Theatre in the Vaults in Weimar (www.theater-im-gewoelbe.de), including Aus den verschollenen Tagebüchern des Friedrich Schiller and Der Goethe&Schiller-Pakt.

In addition to his singing career, Frederik works as a professional newsreader on the MDR radio and has narrated many documentaries for German television. His voice is well-known in German media.

In 2008 he was awarded with the third prize at the International Zdenek Fibich Melodrama Competition in Prague, and in 2010 he got the Richard Wagner Scholarship.

Since 2008 Frederik has worked as voice instructor at the Erfurt University. He is teacher at the Jena Music School and he works as a sessional lecturer at the Schule des Sprechens in Vienna, Austria.

Matthew Ferraro trained in ballet in New York City with David Howard and Willy Bermann. As a dancer, Mr. Ferraro performed as a soloist with Ballet Theater of Boston, the Metropolitan Opera, and New York City Opera. As a choreographer, Mr. Ferraro created movement and dances for The Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, and The Early Music Festival in Innsbruck. He has served as assistant stage director to Stephen Lawless, Jim Robinson, Sean Curran, and Kevin Newbury, and has worked in that capacity at Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, and in Innsbruck. He also recently directed Un Ballo in Maschera at Opera in the Heights in Houston, Texas. Upcoming projects include Faust at Santa Fe Opera for Stephen Lawless and Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at Boston Lyric Opera, where he will be assisting Tazwell Thompson. Mr. Ferraro is a graduate of Princeton University.

Canadian Stage Director Joel Ivany has directed for Opera Nuova, The Centre for Opera Studies, The U of T Faculty of Music, The University of Western Ontario, Wilfred Laurier University and The New Ideas Festival. He most recently assisted at the Canadian Opera Company on their production of La Bohème. Prior to that he apprenticed under Tim Albery at the COC for their acclaimed production of War and Peace and apprenticed with Paul Curran on his production of Peter Grimes with Washington National Opera.

Directing credits this past season included new work, knotty together in Dublin, Ireland, Hänsel und Gretel in Edmonton, Alberta and Haydn's La Canterina in Sulmona, Italy. His directing credits include such productions as: Copland's The Tender Land, Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and Associate Stage Director for the Opera School's production of Handel's Ariodante.

He is a recipient of numerous scholarships and grants through such funding bodies as the Canada Arts Council and Theatre Ontario. He has worked with directors such as Michael Patrick Albano, Jennifer Tarver and Joshua Major. He holds a music degree from the University of Western Ontario and an artist diploma in Opera Directing from the University of Toronto's Opera School. Upcoming projects include the world premiere of Dean Burry's The Secret World of Og with The Canadian Children's Opera Company in May 2010.

Tero Valtonen studied at Sibelius-Academy (Finland) under the guidance of professors Liisa Pohjola and Matti Raekallio. In 1994, he completed his Diploma A in Solo Piano and graduated with a Masters of Music. Mr. Valtonen has also studied opera repetition and conducting with pianist, conductor, intendant Erkki Korhonen and others. Tero Valtonen gave his debut piano recital in 1997 from which he had very positive reviews in The Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's biggest daily paper. He has worked as repetiteur and audition pianist for Finnish regional opera companies as well as appointed accompanist at singing competitions.

German born Ursula Taylor worked as a freelance opera singer in several opera houses, where she sang roles such as Carmen amongst others. She also was one of the Mme Girys in Phantom of the Opera in Hamburg for two seasons. Ursula is a graduate Musicologist (MA), and has worked for the German national TV and Radio station in Berlin (SFB), as a journalist. She managed the Sharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and was junior agent in a large Opera agency. Ursula founded Vivace Arts in 2003. The services offered include career consultation for opera singers; graduates as well as established singers, conductors and stage directors. Ursula creates websites for clients, holds audition coachings and audition workshops, (www.auditioningineurope.com) and creates artists's biographies, setcards and application papers. She provides information about European opera agents and crucial insights into the German speaking opera market.

Ursula is married to English singer Gavin Taylor (http://www.gavintaylor.de), who successfully sings in German opera houses, as well as in Britain. They live near Berlin, German, and have one daughter, aged 7.