LEANDRA ACOSTA, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT (she/her), is a graduate of Rider University with degrees in dance performance and arts administration. During her time performing at Rider, she was awarded both the Dance Merit Scholarship and Mildred S. Hawkins Dance Scholarship and helped adopt the Dance Mentorship Program. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many fantastic choreographers during her time performing at Rider including: Kate Ladenheim, Randy James, Angela Cusumano, Merli Guerra, Jennifer Gladney, Robson Alves, Lynn Neuman, and Ryan Davis. She was recently featured as a choreographer for the 2023 Senior Dance Capstone performance, Acknowledgements. In her role as Associate Director, Leandra creates programs for and manages the social media pages for the Department of Performing Arts and Westminster Choir College.
SUSAN SHIPLETT ASHBAKER, MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR. Professor/Director of Westminster Opera Theatre for Westminster Choir College at Rider University and Director for the CoOPERAtive Program at Westminster brings over 40 years of experience in the performing arts. She is in demand as a master class presenter, having taught recently at the Denyce Graves Foundation, Seagle Festival, NATS Eastern Conference, University of Miami, Montclair University, and Rutgers University, among others.
Ms. Ashbaker was affiliated with Tri-Cities Opera for 5 years; 4 as General and Artistic Director, and 1 as Artistic Director, and “transformed the company in every way imaginable,” according to the former Board Chair. Additionally, Ms. Ashbaker served Opera Philadelphia for 16 years, the last 11 as director of artistic and music administration. She led casting practices and reestablished the Company as a pioneer in offering advancements to young singers before they achieved national or international recognition; gave unique opportunities to well-established artists; and supervised all activities of the artistic and music departments. Under her direction, an intern program with the Curtis Institute of Music was established.
Ms. Ashbaker has also worked as assistant conductor/vocal coach with New York City Opera, Theater am Goetheplatz (Bremen, Germany) and Academy of Vocal Arts, and was on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music for nearly 20 years.
A judge for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition since 2000, Ms. Ashbaker has also served as judge for the Jensen Foundation, National Opera Association, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Marian Anderson Emerging Artist Competition and the Richard Tucker Foundation Auditions. She has served as panelist with Opera America, New York State Council on the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. Ms. Ashbaker trained at Southern Illinois University and l’École Normale de Musique de Paris and received a second master’s degree in vocal accompanying and coaching from University of Illinois under the tutelage of John Wustman.
Ms. Ashbaker recently published a book: The Vocal Coach Approach: When Practice Makes Perfect (a guide to help singers of all levels learn to practice - and love it!) available from Inside View Press.
RYLEE BERGER, PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER, Rider University Class of 2024, currently works as the production manager for the American Repertory Ballet. Selected Rider Credits: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (PSM), Enemies: A Love Story (PSM), Suor Angelica/Hermit Songs (PSM), The Children's Hour (PSM, co-scenic designer), and Urinetown (PSM, ATD). Selected professional credits: Ghetto Gods in Divineland (Passage Theater, ASM), Like Father, Like Son (The TANK, scenic/sound designer), The Nutcracker (American Repertory Ballet, TD), and Clean Slate (Passage Theater, ASM). Rylee was the Assistant Technical Director at Berkshire Theatre Group for their 2024 summer season and has also worked with the McCarter Theater, the Hangar Theater, and the State Theatre of New Jersey.
CLARE HANRAHAN, PROPS DESIGNER, is always happy and excited to come back and work for her Alma mater. Her recent work includes The Children’s Hour, Love and Information, and LAST WORDS at Rider University. Clare actively works in the North Jersey and New York City metro area theater scene, where she will join the team at Plays in the Park in Edison, NJ this summer. Clare would like to thank Louise Grafton for sharing her wisdom about the dangers of hot glue guns and for always being her inspiration.
BRYAN HYMEL, ARTIST (Narrator) was praised by The New York Times for his “unflagging stamina and impetuous abandon” during his 2012 Metropolitan Opera debut as Énée in Les Troyens, and went on to be awarded the Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Artist Award for his achievements in the production. Hailed for his “range of expression and vocal power combined with the subtle art of characterization,” he was also the winner of the 2013 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for his trio of performances in Les Troyens, Robert le diable, and Rusalka at London’s Royal Opera House. An exclusive recording artist for Warner Classics, his first solo album Héroïque debuted at number 3 on the Billboard Classical Music chart, and earned Hymel the coveted Georges Thill Prize by the Académie Nationale du Disque Lyrique and the Newcomer of the Year Award from ECHO Klassik.
Hymel’s career highlights include debuts and return engagements at the world’s most accomplished opera houses and festivals. Hymel made his Covent Garden debut in 2010 as Don José in Carmen and has since returned for performances in Rusalka, Les Troyens, Robert le diable, Les Vêpres siciliennes, Don Carlo, Cavalleria Rusticana/I Pagliacci, and Tosca. Hymel made his widely anticipated debut in 2015 at the Opéra National de Paris for performances of La Damnation de Faust, and returned later in La Traviata. He made his Teatro alla Scala debut as Don José in 2010 (later reprising the role with the Canadian Opera Company and at the Bayerische Staatsoper) and he returned for opening night for performances of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. His Metropolitan Opera debut came in 2012 with Les Troyens, and he returned in subsequent seasons for Madama Butterfly, La Bohème, Guillaume Tell, and La Damnation de Faust. He made his house and role debut as Percy in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s staging of Anna Bolena, as well as his San Francisco Opera debut in his renowned rendition of Énée in Les Troyens and his Washington National Opera debut as Don José in Carmen. Additional appearances include debuts with the Vienna Staatsoper and English National Opera in Madama Butterfly; De Nederlandse Opera in Les Troyens; Deutsche Oper Berlin in Rigoletto; Oper Frankfurt in Edgar; Teatro Municipale di Salerno in Robert le Diable; Oper Desden in Der Rosenkavalier; Houston Grand Opera in La Traviata; Santa Fe Opera as the title role in Faust; and his role debut as Arnold in a new production of Rossini’s Guillaume Tell at the Bayerishe Staatsoper.
After completing his Master’s in Vocal Pedagogy from Westminster Choir College in 2023, he was invited to join their faculty; first as a guest artist, then as a full-time visiting faculty teaching voice.
BUCK LINTON, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT/SCENIC DESIGNER. Earning his MFA in Scenography and Technical Design (Virginia Tech), Buck joined Rider University as its Technical Director in 2012 and became the Director of Production Management in 2022. He professionally produced more than 200 productions with such venues as The Kennedy Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and McCarter Theatre. Selected works include Travesties, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Take Flight, Herringbone, Lookingglass Alice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Falstaff, Die Zauberflöte, Pelléas et Mélisande, Dialogues des Carmélites, La Clemenza di Tito, Oreste, Sunjata Kamalenya, The Odyssey Experience, Die Fledermaus, Rigoletto, Turandot, Chicago, EDDA (Ping Chong & Sequentia Ensemble, international tour). Since 2012, he has produced more than 100 productions for Rider University’s College of Arts and Sciences in the performing arts.
TODD LOYD, LIGHTING DESIGNER is the lighting director for Rider University’s Department of Performing Arts. He supervises the lighting for every performance that the department produces in addition to mentoring several students that assist in designing, hanging, focusing, and programming the lighting for each show. At Rider he has designed over 30 productions including plays, musicals, dance recitals, cabarets, and operas. Some of the highlights include Anything Goes, Radium Girls, Suor Angelica, Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical,Urinetown, Cabaret, Polaroid Stories, Rider Dances: Moving in Our Community, Pippin, Bright Star, Hair, Heathers The Musical, Once On This Island, She Kills Monsters, A Chorus Line and Metamorphoses. Other selected professional projects include Rock of Ages and Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Forestburgh Playhouse), Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical and The Gun Show (Passage Theatre), and Journey to Oz (Children's Theatre of Charlotte and Experiential Theater Company).
UTE MEHNERT, GERMAN LANGUAGE COACH is a historian, journalist, and language instructor who got her PhD at Cologne University and then worked for the international news agency Agence France-Presse in Berlin for many years. Since moving to Princeton with her family in 2006, she has written about the US for German media and publishers; her book USA – ein Länderporträt (Christoph Links Verlag Berlin, 3rd edition 2018), exploring American culture, society, and politics for a German-speaking audience, was adopted in the publication series of Germany’s Federal Agency for Civic Education. She is also a lecturer in European history at Princeton University, and she has been teaching her native German at Westminster Choir College, Rider University, and Princeton Adult School since 2011. In the summer of 2024, she was recruited as German coach for Westminster’s prestigious CoOPERAtive Program.
DONALD NALLY, VISITING PROFESSOR IN CHORAL STUDIES, collaborates with creative artists, leading orchestras, and art museums to make new works for choir that address social and environmental issues. He has commissioned nearly 200 works and, with The Crossing, has produced 34 recordings, with three Grammy Awards and nine nominations. Donald has served as chorus master at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Welsh National Opera, Opera Philadelphia, and the Spoleto Festival in Italy. Recent projects have taken him to Stockholm, Los Angeles, Helsinki, Haarlem, Porto, Riga, Los Angeles, and Houston, and he regularly performs at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York. The 2024-2025 season includes collaborations with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony; performances with The Crossing at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Drake University, McCarter Theater in Princeton, and Abendmusik in Lincoln; guest artist/teacher residencies at Boston University, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and the University of Iowa. He has collaborated with artists Allora & Calzadilla and composer David Lang in Osaka, London, Córdoba, Bilbao, Edmonton, Cleveland, Frankfurt, and Houston. His 72-chapter pandemic-time series Rising w/ The Crossing was featured in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NPR’s Performance Today; it is archived by The Library of Congress as a cultural artifact of our historical record. Donald is a frequent guest artist/teacher at universities, including Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, the University of Chicago, Indiana University, Notre Dame, Duke, Boston University, and Boston Conservatory. Donald is the John W. Beattie Chair of Music Emeritus at Northwestern University.
JOHNATHON PAPE, STAGE DIRECTOR has directed opera, musical theater, and theater throughout the US and abroad. Highlights include the world premiere of Griffelkin by Lukas Foss for New York City Opera; the US premiere of Daniel Catán’s La Hija de Rappaccini for San Diego Opera; Terrence McNally’s Master Class for HaBimah, the National Theater of Israel; Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking and Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen for Tulsa Opera; Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd for The Skylight in Milwaukee; and Janáček’s Jenůfa for Portland Opera. Most recently, he has co-written and directed Carmen Inside Out—a one-woman version of Carmen that he created with mezzo-soprano Kirstin Chávez, which has played in the US, UK, France, and Japan, and is currently being adapted for film. He and Chávez have also written Living the Dream: Building a Sustainable Career in the Performing Arts, published by Routledge. (www.livingthedreamperformingarts.com) Pape was Director of Opera Studies at Boston Conservatory from 2011-2021, where he directed many productions and revised the curriculum to focus on building the skills young artists need to thrive in the industry. He has a special affinity for the Czech repertoire, having received a Fulbright to the Czech Republic. Pape is a long-standing member of SDC—the Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Society—and AGMA—the American Guild of Musical Artists, as well as the Performer Development Network with Opera America. Prior to his appointment at Boston Conservatory, he was on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music. ( www.johnathonpape.com )
BRANDON RUSH, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, is thrilled to take on the role of Technical Director for Rider University’s 2024-25 season! Since his graduation from Rider in 2015, he kept a consistent relationship with Rider’s Theatre Department, where he has worked as overhire carpenter, Sceneshop Supervisor, and most recently as Assistant Technical Director. Rider University Production Credits include: Assistant Technical Director for Radium Girls, Doll’s House, Enemies, and Anything Goes. As a freelance Technical Director, his credits include: Dracula, The Last Five Years, and Emergency at Princeton Summer Theater.
ROBIN I. SHANE, COSTUME DESIGNER Robin is an Associate Professor of Theatre where she teaches classes in Design, Script Analysis, and runs the new Theatre-Making program at Rider University. Some favorite designs at Rider include Enemies:A Love Story, Last Words, Cabaret, Polaroid Stories, Pippin, Kiss Me, Kate, and many Rider Dance concerts. Robin has been a professional costume designer for over 25 years; recent professional credits include The Outsider (Act II Productions,) Children of the Sun (PAC) The Pillowman and In The Next Room, or, The Vibrator Play (Hedgerow Theatre) and OK Trenton (Passage Theatre). Regionally and nationally she has designed at The New Victory Theatre, Berkeley Rep, The Yale Rep, The Hedgerow, Theatre Exile, Philadelphia Artist’s Collective, EgoPo, Passage Theater, Shakespeare Theater of NJ, The National Constitution Center, The Revision Theater, the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theater, Soho Rep and The Harrisburg Opera, as well as for film and television. Robin holds a MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and a BA in Theater and Psychology from Wesleyan University.
SAMUEL STEPHENSON, COORDINATOR OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT (he/him/his), received his Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature and Music from Wabash College, graduating magna cum laude under a full-ride Lilly Scholarship. As a Joseph Flummerfelt Scholar, he received his Master of Music in Choral Conducting with distinction from Westminster Choir College. Samuel has performed with many choirs across the world. He toured with the Wabash College Glee Club internationally to Taiwan and organized and managed the renowned Choral Institute at Oxford, a summer program at the University of Oxford for inspiring conductors to work with leading figures in the choral world. He has performed with The Same Stream, whose recordings can be found on all major music services, and at the Weiwuying National Center for the Arts as part of the opera chorus for Verdi’s La Traviata. Most recently, Samuel conducted Morten Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs with the Westminster Choir in concert at Washington D.C. He currently works as the Performance Management Coordinator at Rider University and Music Director at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church in Warminster, PA.
SYMPHONY IN C began in 1953 as a community orchestra in Haddonfield, New Jersey. In 1959, under the direction of Arthur Cohn, the symphony drew national recognition for its adventuresome programming and promotion of American music and composers. In 1987, the Haddonfield Symphony began providing training and performance opportunities to young professional musicians with the establishment of its Professional Development internship Program. This program grew to encompass all 78 positions within the orchestra, as well as an assistant conductor and composer-in-residence. Today, talented young musicians are selected from prestigious universities and conservatories throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, including The Curtis Institute of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Peabody Conservatory. Alumni of the program now hold positions with major orchestras worldwide including The Philadelphia Orchestra, The New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Symphony in C has also helped launch the careers of talented young conductors, notably Alan Gilbert, Rossen Milanov, and now, Stilian Kirov.
In 2007, the Haddonfield Symphony changed its name to Symphony in C and its principal performance venue to the Walter K. Gordon Theater at Rutgers Camden Center for the Arts. The Symphony has used its presence in the City of Camden to provide extensive music education and outreach opportunities for the children and youth in that city and its surrounding communities. Symphony in C’s programs include Classroom Symphony, Symphony Summer Camp, Concerts for Young People, Master Classes, and the Camden Catholic Schools Partnership. In 2014, the Symphony in C Youth Orchestra was founded. Now in its 8th season, the youth orchestra rehearses weekly in Haddonfield and its members are from throughout the Southern New Jersey region. Combined, these programs serve over 5,000 students annually.
Symphony in C has received numerous awards, including the national MetLife Award for Community Engagement presented by the American Symphony Orchestra League in recognition of its educational outreach programs serving people with special needs. Symphony in C has been designated a Major Arts Institution by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Continues to provide artistic excellence and cultural impact on a regional, national, and global scale.
NIKOLAY VEREVKIN, REHEARSAL AND PERFORMANCE PIANIST and vocal coach, joined the Curtis Institute of Music as an instructor, Russian diction coach, and staff pianist in 2021 and has been a faculty coach and recital pianist with the Ravinia Festival's Steans Music Institute Program for Singers since 2016. From 2022 he has been a music coach and a performance pianist at Westminster Opera Theater at Rider University, and in 2024 he was on faculty at the CoOPERAtive Program. Nikolay has accompanied numerous vocal and chamber music concerts to great acclaim at venues around the country, including Carnegie Hall's New York Citywide Program, New York Festival of Song, InSeries Opera Company of Washington D.C., and The Bohemians Club of NYC.
His opera coaching and staff pianist engagements also include productions at Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, The Juilliard School, Indiana University Opera Theater, Ball State University Opera Theater, and St. Petersburg State Conservatory Theater of Opera and Ballet. As a sought-after collaborative pianist Mr. Verevkin was invited to participate in a co-production performance of Ellen West by Beth Morrison Projects and Saratoga Opera under the baton of Lydia Yankovskaya at The New School in 2019.
Previously Nikolay has been on staff at The Juilliard School in the Ellen and James S. Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts where his duties encompassed music preparation for opera productions and opera scenes, accompanying industry auditions and voice lessons, acting and lyric diction coaching. During his appointment as Visiting Assistant Professor and Post-Doctoral Scholar at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Mr. Verevkin taught graduate and undergraduate courses in vocal literature, individual voice and collaborative piano coaching class, and had music directed multimedia creative projects and themed recitals involving IU faculty, students and guest artists. On the West Coast, he was consequently invited to coach Russian lyric diction and song interpretation at SongFest's Art Song Institute in Los Angeles and Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.
Nikolay Verevkin holds a Doctor of Arts degree in Solo Piano and Chamber Music and an Artist Diploma from Ball State University, IN, and Master of Music degree in Solo and Collaborative Piano in Voice from Saint-Petersburgh State Conservatory. In North America, he received additional training in collaborative piano and voice at the Music Academy of the West and Toronto Summer Music Academy.
TYLER WEAKLAND, CHORUS MASTER, praised for his ‘verve and adroit collaborative piano playing’ by the Charleston City Paper, is a pianist, organist, conductor, composer, arranger/orchestrator, producer, and vocal coach. He is the Associate Conductor of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, preparing singers in major choral works and opera choruses for performances with professional orchestras. As a vocal coach he has worked with students at Mannes, TCNJ, and WCC, coaching art song, opera, and musical theater. Mr. Weakland is the Co-Music Director of the Princeton Boychoir at Westrick Music Academy and conductor of the Young Men’s Ensemble. He has appeared as continuo organist with the Orchestra of Luke’s NYC in a performance of El Mesìas, Handel’s Messiah for a New World. Mr. Weakland was head of production for the 30th Anniversary Celebration of Westminster Choir College’s An Evening of Readings & Carols that was recorded live and broadcast on PBS, in which he also conducted. He has contracted, arranged, and conducted a handbell ensemble for a Hulu series pilot in NYC’s Gotham Hall. As a composer, his portfolio includes art songs, hymn arrangements, brass arrangements, handbell music, and choral works. He currently serves as Associate Music Director, Organ Scholar, & Handbell Choir Director at Christ Church United Methodist on 60th and Park Avenue in NYC. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Sacred Music with concentrations in piano, voice, and organ from Westminster Choir College.
