Manetti Shrem Opera Program
Faculty
Festival Napa Valley attracts some of the world’s finest vocalists, who serve as faculty and coaches for the vocal conservatory. Performing with renowned vocalists is a distinctive part of the conservatory experience at Festival Napa Valley.
Pianist, Opera Coach and Producer, Ronny Michael Greenberg is a leading innovator in the world of performing arts. A native of Montreal, he has toured internationally, performing in opera houses and concert halls including the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Carnegie Hall, Montreal’s Place des Arts Theater, and across Italy, New Zealand, and Hawaii.
Stage director Tara Faircloth’s work has been seen in opera houses around the nation. Critics hailed her recent directorial debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago: a “wickedly funny, elegantly sung, cleverly directed production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.” In recent seasons, she created new productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor (Juilliard Opera), Cunning Little Vixen (University of Michigan), The Little Prince (Utah Opera), Ariadne auf Naxos (Wolf Trap Opera), Il re pastore (Merola Opera), Agrippina (Ars Lyrica Houston), and L’incoronazione di Poppea (Boston Baroque).
Pianist and vocal coach Noah Lindquist is assistant conductor at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In his private studio he has coached singers heard on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Oper Frankfurt, and Opernhaus Zürich, among others. Lindquist is also in demand as a guest coach at Young Artist programs and has coached the young artists of the Ryan Opera Center, San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellows, and Hawai’i Opera Theatre’s Orvis Studio.
Pianist and vocal coach Grant Loehnig serves as Head of Music Staff at Opera Philadelphia and is a Master Opera Coach on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music. He works regularly on the music staff of Lyric Opera of Chicago and Aspen Opera Theater. He also frequently serves as a district judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
With a voice described as having a “rich vocal range full of inviting nuance,” Malcolm MacKenzie continues to attract attention in the dramatic baritone repertoire. Opera News recently praised him as a “confident, commanding Count di Luna…of robust tone, ardent address, arching phrases and genuine baritonal squillo.” Of his recent role debut as Baron Scarpia they wrote: "His rich, warm, and dark tone was bolstered by a relentless legato line which amplified the sensuous sleaziness of his Scarpia."
First-generation Romanian-American pianist Irina Meachem regularly accompanies voice recitals and coaches opera singers. Hailed as “a gifted collaborative pianist” (Voce di Meche), Meachem regularly performs with her husband, baritone Lucas Meachem in recitals. They have appeared at the Athanaeum in Romania, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Death of Classical’s Crypt Sessions in New York City, the North Carolina Performing Arts series, and Moore County Arts Council in North Carolina.
American mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer has established herself not only as an international singer but also as a writer, teacher and arts advocate. Susanne continues to perform concert chamber music, most recently commissioning 21 songs from a diverse group of composers for a project called Standing Still: Still Standing, on poems written during the pandemic by her life-partner Reg Huston.