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P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
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|
November 19 - December 7, 2016
Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Florida Grand
Opera, Madison Opera, Cal Performances,
and Opera San José.
MICHAEL BLACK
(
Chorus Master
)
Previously at Lyric:
Chorus master since
2013-14; interim chorus
master, 2011-12.
Lyric’s chorus master’s
activities this year, following the opera
season, included continuing his association
with the Grant Park Music Festival by
preparing the chorus for Berlioz’s
The
Damnation of Faust.
Chorus master from to
2001 to 2013 at Opera Australia in Sydney,
Black prepared the OA chorus for more
than 90 operas and many concert works.
He has served in the same capacity on four
continents. His work has been recorded and/
or aired on ABC, BBC, PBS, and for many
HD productions in movie theaters as well
as on television. Among the distinguished
organizations with which he has been
associated are the Edinburgh International
Festival, Holland Park Opera (London),
and, in Australia, the Sydney Symphony
Orchestra (including Rachmaninoff’s
The Bells
, led by Vladimir Ashkenazy),
Philharmonia Choir, Motet Choir, and
Cantillation chamber choir. He has been a
lecturer at the Sydney Conservatorium of
Music, of which he is an alumnus. Black
also holds a master’s degree in musicology
from the University of New South Wales.
Michael Black is the
Howard A. Stotler
Chorus Master Endowed Chair
.
AUGUST TYE
(
Choreographer
)
Previously at Lyric:
34 productions since
1993-94 as dancer,
choreographer, or ballet
mistress, most recently
Les Troyens
(2016-17);
Romeo and Juliet
(2015-16);
The Passenger
(2014-15).
The American dancer-choreographer’s
operatic credits include remounting the
choreography of Lyric’s
Iphigénie en Tauride
at San Francisco Opera and the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden. She has
presented a 20-year retrospective of her
work at Chicago’s Vittum Theater and
Ruth Page Dance Center, as well as in
her hometown, Kalamazoo, Michigan. A
graduate of Western Michigan University,
Tye performed with The Kalamazoo Ballet,
dancing leading roles in
Sleeping Beauty,
Cinderella
, and
The Nutcracker
. In Chicago
she continued her training at the Joel Hall
Dance Center. Tye is a past recipient of
Regional Dance America’s Best Young
Choreographer Award (at age 15) and a
two-time recipient of the Monticello Young
Choreographer’s Award; the latter garnered
her invitations to choreograph throughout
America. In addition to Lyric and Joel Hall
Dancers, she has performed in Chicago
with Salt Creek Ballet, Second City Ballet,
and Chicago Folks Operetta. Tye is artistic
director at the Hyde Park School of Dance,
which she founded in 1993. Four years
later she founded Tyego Dance Project,
which has performed at Steppenwolf, the
Athenaeum, and throughout America in a
revival of Spike Jones’s
Nutcracker
.
SARAH HATTEN
(
Wigmaster and
Makeup Designer
)
Lyric’s wigmaster and
makeup designer has
worked in a wide reper-
toire at Des Moines
Metro Opera and Michigan Opera Theatre,
as well as Columbus Opera, Toledo
Opera, the Cabrillo Music Festival, and
the University of Cincinnati College-
Conservatory of Music. She has also worked
at the Glimmerglass Festival and the major
opera companies of Los Angeles, Omaha,
Cleveland, Sarasota, and Central City,
as well as Wisconsin’s American Players
Theatre and, in Los Angeles, the Pantages
Theatre and the Geffen Playhouse. Hatten
earned a B.A. in music at Simpson College.
Sarah Hatten is the
Marlys Beider Wigmaster
and Makeup Designer Endowed Chair
.
CHUCK COYL
(
Fight Director
)
Previously at Lyric:
Six
productions since 2006-
07, most recently
Das
Rheingold
(2016-17);
Tosca
(
2014-15
)
; Porgy and Bess
(
2014-15, 2008-09
).
A professional fight director for more
than 30 years, Coyl is vice president of
the Society of American Fight Directors.
Recent credits include the Broadway
production and national tour of
August:
Osage County, The Crucible
and
Superior
Donuts
at Steppenwolf Theatre Company
,
2666, Another Word for Beauty, The Upstairs
Concierge
at the Goodman Theatre, and
Sucker Punch
at Victory Gardens Theatre.
Coyl is a founding member of the Single
Action Theatre Company, and is on the
faculty of the Actor’s Gymnasium and
Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Supernumeraries
(
Don Quichotte
)
Children
Dane Bialas
Stephen Bialas
Isis Clark
Weston “Bruiser”
Ford*
Ailsa Gallagher
Ainsley Gallagher*
Margaret Tierney
Gallagher
Davu Smith
Kylie Sullivan
Men
Issac Clark
Kenneth
Giambrone*
Richard Manera*
Reuben Rios*
Theo Vlahopoulos
Women
Linda Cunningham*
Michelle Ford
Alicia Hilton
Frances Ramer*
*Regular supernumerary