Wei-En Hsu, Music Director
 
A recent graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Wei-En Hsu, pianist, organist, conductor, répétiteur and composer, has a busy performing career throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. A native of Taiwan, he received his Bachelor’s degree in piano from Taipei National University of the Arts, and was the only candidate at Juilliard selected to attend the Royal Academy of Music (London) as an exchange student. In London he studied with Malcolm Martineau and Aaron Shorr. At Juilliard, he was a student of Jonathan Feldman and Margo Garrett. An active solo pianist and chamber musician, Mr. Hsu has performed throughout the US, Germany, Australia, China, South Korea, England, Turkey, Israel, Romania, France and Taiwan. In the summer of 2004 Mr. Hsu was pleased to attend Music Academy of the West under the instruction of Warren Jones. Mr. Hsu has worked as a répétiteur for One World Symphony, British Youth Opera, Opera Company of Brooklyn and Aspen Opera Theatre Center. He coaches in Italian, German, French, English, Latin, Russian, Korean, Mandarin and Taiwanese. He wrote the Taiwanese libretto for an opera project at Manhattan School of Music. His choral composition have been premiered in Germany. In 2006, he was invited to the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in Aldeburgh for the Russian Song Masterclass with Sergei Leiferkus and Semion Skigin. Mr. Hsu is currently in the DMA program at Rutgers University, under the instruction of Prof. Barbara González-Palmer. In the fall of 2008 Mr. Hsu joined the opera coaching staff (Artist Diploma) at College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. Mr. Hsu has won many awards including the Scott Huxley Piano Accompaniment Prize, Major Van Someren-Godfery Prize Accompaniment Award (2004), the Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Prize Accompaniment Award, Sir Arthur Bliss Prize (2005), as well as a Distinction Performance Award from RAM. He made his debut recital at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall last March, and as well as debut performances in de Singel, Belgium last February. Mr. Hsu made his conducting debut at CCM in Ariadne auf Naxos in March 2008.  His latest engagements include a chamber concert at Weill Hall in May 2009, and recitals in Taiwan.For more information please visit Wei-En Hsu

 

 

Jimmy Smith, Artistic Director

Praised for his “wicked sense of humor” by the San Francisco Classical Voice and branded a “bad-boy imp” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Jimmy Smith has been gaining momentum as an inventive new stage director.  Throughout the United States, his work in opera, theatre and site-specific modern dance has carved a unique place for him among the next generation of imaginative theatrical artists.

 

Opera Directing: Pagliacci (Pocket Opera NY),  La bohème (West Bay Opera), The Gift of the Magi [West Coast Premiere] by David Conte and Nicholas Giardini and Amahl and the Night Visitors (Trinity Lyric Opera, Oakland, CA), L'Enfant et les sortilèges (Opera North, N.H.), Brundibár (Commonwealth Opera, MA), Trouble in Tahiti(Manhattan Opera Theatre), Le Docteur miracle (French Institute), Merola Grand Finale – Opera Scenes (Merola Opera Program, CA).  New York Theatre: The Maids by Jean Genet, The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesco, Laughing Wild by Christopher Durang (Green Sea Theatre, N.Y.), Before Breakfast (O'Neill Festival NY), Naomi in the Living Room (Open Circle N.Y.).  Choreography:  The Gondoliers (Opera North), Peter Pan (Abilene Opera, TX),  Jacque Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Commonwealth Opera), Any Closer (Associate Choreographer with Abigail Levine and Dancers, Dancehere Festival N.Y.). 

 

He has worked as an Associate and Assistant Director on many operatic productions for companies such as Portland Opera, Opera Colorado, The Santa Fe Opera, and The Opera Theatre of St. Louis.   Directors he has worked with include John Copley, Laurent Pelly, James Robinson, Peter Kazaras, Roy Rallo, Isabel Milenski and Peter Rothstein. 

 

He holds degrees in music from Bucknell University where he studied piano, cello and composition and from Wesleyan University where he studied Ethnomusicology.  During this time he traveled extensively throughout Java and Bali performing, studying and researching Indonesian music.  He also received traditional theatrical training from master teachers from the Drama Centre in London and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.  He recently served as the Dramaturg on a new production of Le nozze di Figaro for Juilliard Opera Theater.

 

Having completed the highly coveted Merola Opera Program at the San Francisco Opera as the Apprentice Stage Director in 2008, Jimmy is at work developing several projects with Director / Designer Doug Fitch including Le Grand Macabre (May 2010) and the Cunning Little Vixen (June 2011).  This summer he will direct Hansel and Gretel for Emerald City Opera in Steamboat Springs.