Candi Burrows
Mezzo-Soprano Dr. Candice Burrows, co-chair of the vocal area at High Point University, is known for commanding a wide variety of musical styles. Initially a jazz singer, Burrows switched to the classical genre furthering her vocal studies and culminating in numerous vocal awards: a winner in the Oralia Dominguez International Opera competition in Mexico, a finalist in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera competition where she was also voted the “Outstanding Future Artist” award, the Oregon Governor’s Arts Award recipient and the Outstanding Achievement award at USC in Los Angeles. She has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Santa Fe Orchestra, Boston Pops and Symphony, Tanglewood Orchestra, Eugene Symphony, Phoenix Chamber Orchestra and Pops, New Jersey Symphony, June Opera Festival of New Jersey, Eugene Opera, New York Repertory Theater, Pasadena Chamber Orchestra, Schleswig-Holstein Orchestra, Oxford Symphony Orchestra and Oregon Bach Festival. Her many symphonic works have been under the batons of maestros Seiji Ozawa, Helmuth Rilling, Marin Alsop, John Williams, Gunther Schuller and her dear friend, the late, great Leonard Bernstein.
Active in opera, some of her more notable roles include; Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Dorabella (Cosi fan Tutte), Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Cenerentola, Nancy (Albert Herring), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Sesto, Baba (The Medium) and Helen Potts (Picnic/World Premier 2009). Reviews of Dr. Burrows include; “hauntingly beautiful voice” (Eugene Register Guard), “Praiseworthy vocalism…” (New York Times), “the next Janet Baker” (Albuquerque Journal).and referring to her opera performance of Rossini’s Cenerentola, “the role is hers forever!” (New Jersey Star Ledger).
Burrows received her B.M. from the University of Oregon after studying abroad at the Guildhall School of Music in London. She was a student of mentor, Arleen Augér and coached exclusively with Gwen Koldofsky at the University of Southern California where she pursued her M.M. In 2006, Burrows returned to academia and received her DMA at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. In addition to teaching at High Point University, Dr. Burrows is a performing artist and member of the voice faculty at SongFest International Music Festival in Los Angeles. Many of her students have won voice competitions at the state, regional and national levels.
Kathryn Cathcart
Kathryn Cathcart, opera conductor, coach/accompanist and professor, holds degrees from St. Olaf College and Northwestern University. After several years working in New York on Boris Goldovsky's staff she was engaged by the Cologne Opera in Germany for several years as coach and conductor. Moving back to the USA she became a member of the San Francisco Opera music staff, also as coach and conductor, gradually moving into the extensive training programs of the company as Director of Musical Studies of the San Francisco Opera Center, including the Merola Opera Program, the Adler fellowships, Western Opera Theater tours and more.
After having simultaneously working at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as music director of the Opera Program, she retired from the Opera Center in order to become full-time professor at the Conservatory, retaining only her work with the Merola Program in the summers. All in all, she spent (in tandem) 30 years at the SF Opera and 27 at the Conservatory of Music, retiring in 2011.
Ms. Cathcart has, in addition, taught and/or created private opera workshops throughout her career, conducted opera on three continents, appeared many times as recital accompanist in song recitals and served often as judge for vocal competitions.
Michael Nutter
Michael Nutter made his directing debut with Eugene Opera on a semi-staged production of Cavalleria Rusticana. Since then he has directed over 40 operas including The Crucible, Meanwhile, Back at Cinderella’s, Wuthering Heights, The Old Maid and the Thief, The Saint of Bleecker Street, Susannah, Così fan tutte, The Medium, Andre Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, PDQ Bach’s A Little Nightmare Music, The Stoned Guest, Jake Heggie’s At the Statue of Venus, Dido & Æneas, Don Pasquale, Mozart’s The Impresario, Riders to the Sea, Kirke Mechem's Tartuffe, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Puccini’s Il Trittico, La Bohème, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd; The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Merry Widow, The Abduction from the Seraglio, and the world premiere of Curtis Bryant’s, The Secret Agent, and most recently directed Gianni Schicchi for Eugene Opera’s Artist Mentor Program. In 2012, he directed for the Atlanta Opera’s 24-Hour Project where his team won both audience and judges’ favorite for the farcical 10-minute opera Krispy Kremes and Butter Queens, composed by Jennifer Jolley. He has also directed Two From Seuss for the Oregon Bach Festival, a production of The Telephone in Binghamton, N.Y., and the world premiere of Where Music Comes From in Eugene. Michael has worked in opera, classical music and theatre professionally for 30 years, including staff positions for The Atlanta Opera, Tri-Cities Opera in Binghamton, NY, Central City Opera in Colorado, Eugene Opera, Theatrical Outfit in Atlanta, and served for 15 seasons as Technical Director for the Grammy®-award-winning Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, Oregon. He works full-time in the Human Resource department at the law firm of Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta and is the Artistic Director and Stage Director for the Capitol City Opera Company in Atlanta, Georgia.
James Toland
JTVA Founder and General Director James Toland has been a private voice teacher for the past thirty years. His students have performed in major opera houses and on concert stages throughout the world. Toland has served in recent years as a master teacher for the prestigious San Francisco Girls Chorus, and has taught for the Piedmont Children's Chorus and Young Women's Choral Projects of San Francisco, as well as the choral music programs of the Acalanes School District. He has been a clinician for multiple choral groups including the Peninsula Women's Chorus, Cantare Con Vivo, the Young Women's Choral Projects of San Francisco, and for the choirs of the University of Tennessee as well as Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota.
César Ulloa
Internationally acclaimed vocal teacher César Ulloa is Chair of the Voice Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he was recently awarded the Sarlo Family Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is also a master teacher for San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellows and the Merola Opera Program since 2016. Mr. Ulloa’s students appear on major opera and concert stages throughout the world and have been First Prize winners at numerous major competitions and appear virtually every major young artist programs in the US and Europe. Mr. Ulloa has given master classes in China, Israel, Italy, Canada and New Zealand. His career as professional tenor for over fifteen years encompassed more than fifty roles with major opera companies and orchestras including, NY City Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Canadian Opera, L’Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Israel Philharmonic, Cleveland Symphony, among numerous others. A native of Cuba, he studied at Southern Methodist University, and in NY City with Franco Corelli, and earned his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Tampa, Florida.