Voice Faculty
Jeanne Bruggeman-Kurp
M.M., University of Texas-Austin
Adjunct Assistant Professor (soprano)
Jeanne Bruggeman-Kurp Holds a bachelor’s from Ohio Wesleyan and a master’s from the University of Texas at Austin; has returned to Ohio after an extensive solo career in Europe where she sang such roles as Violetta, Lucia di Lammermoor and the Queen of the Night; was also engaged as Carlotta in the Hamburg, Germany, production of Phanton of the Opera.
Kevin Bylsma
Instructor (opera coach)
Kevin Bylsma Accomplished pianist and vocal coach; well known in the Midwest for his work in art song, opera and oratorio; as head of music preparation for Toledo Opera, he had coached productions of Tosca, The Tales of Hoffmann and The Magic Flute; served as music director of the Department of Community Programs for the Michigan Opera Theatre from 1993–97 and was vocal coach, accompanist and chorus master for OPERA!Lenawee from 1992–97; other music directing credits include the Lyric Chamber Ensemble of Detroit and the Papagena Opera Company of Ann Arbor; has appeared throughout the United States, Canada and Europe as an organist, pianist and accompanist; in summer 1996, he toured Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic with tenor Robert Mirshak; most recently he has appeared in master classes and recitals with soprano Diana Soviero and mezzo-soprano Irina Mishura; has served as principal keyboardist with the Adrian and Greater Lansing Symphony Orchestras; winner of a number of competitive awards, including the Robert Glasgow Organ Scholarship from the University of Michigan and the Lucille Mehaffie Young Artist Award; currently serves as assistant organist at the historic Mariners’s Church in Detroit.
Sean Cooper
M.M., University of Memphis
Instructor (baritone)
Sean Cooper bass-baritone; has appeared in over 100 productions of plays, musicals and operas; appeared as Colline in the original Broadway cast of Baz Luhrmann’s La Bohème and has performed various productions of La Bohème in San Francisco, New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Guam; performed such roles as Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos, Il Re in Aida, Betto in Gianni Schicchi, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, Albert in Werther, the Mandarin in Turandot, Pirate King in Pirates of Penzance, Speaker in The Emperor of Atlantis, Sarastro/Sprecher in The Magic Flute, Seneca in L’Incoronazione di Poppea and David in Barber’s A Hand of Bridge; oratorio work includes Paul in Mendelssohn’s St. Paul, Raphael in Haydn’s The Creation, Jesus in Bach’s Passion of St. John, Priest/Angel in Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Schubert’s Mass in C Major, Vaughan Williams’ Hodie, Fauré’s Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, Mass in B Minor and several of the Bach cantatas; has performed with such companies as Opera Carolina, Opera Memphis, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Opera North, Liederkranz Opera, Opera Theatre of Guam, Sacramento Choral Society and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera; worked with such esteemed artists as Baz Luhrmann, Charles Riecker, Paul Gemignani, Julius Rudel, Patti Lupone and Marvin Hamlisch; holds a bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he received the Edward G. Oakley Musical Theater Scholarship, and a master’s degree from the University of Memphis.
Dr. Ann Corrigan
D.M.A., Cincinnati-College Conservatory
Adjunct Assistant Professor (soprano)
Dr. Ann Corrigan Active performer specializing in chamber music, the French mélodie and oratorio; degrees from Indiana University and Bowling Green State University and a doctorate from the University of Cincinnati; coached the mélodies of Les Six with Irène Aitoff and Noël Lee in Paris; is in demand as an oratorio singer and has been the soprano soloist in such works as Brahms’ Requiem, Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s St. Paul; spent two weeks in Hanoi in 2004 singing with the Hanoi Opera Ballet Orchestra and teaching students in the opera chorus; has performed with the Dayton Bach Society and at the Toledo Museum of Art and the Westminster Choir College Summer Music Festival; featured in seven world premieres including a premiere of Greg Sandow’s Shakespeare Songs at the 27th Annual New Music & Art Festival, as well as two recordings of new works on the Access label; has also released a CD of Georges Auric songs; previously artist-in-residence at the University of Dayton.
Myra Merritt
M.M., Catholic University of America
Professor (soprano)
Myra Merritt Received her bachelor’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and master’s degree from the Catholic University of America; made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1982 as the Shepherd Boy in Wagner’s Tannhauser; other roles at the Met include Musetta in La Boheme, Bess in Porgy and Bess and Zerlina in Don Giovanni; featured on the 1983 Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala performance; has performed with the Houston Grand Opera, Summer Opera Theater Company in Washington, D.C., National Opera of Finland, Theatre des Westens in Berlin, Budapest National Opera; has sung in Moscow, Ekaterinburg and Italy; performed at Wolf Trap Farm, Ford’s Theater, the Smithsonian Museum Concert Series; presented her debut recital at the Kennedy Center with the Washington Performing Arts Society; can be heard on the Grammy Award-winning RCA recording of Porgy and Bess and Deutsche Grammaphon’s live from the Metropolitan Opera video recording of Carmen; awards include grants from the National Opera Institute, Sullivan Foundation and the D.C. Commission of the Arts and Humanities; winner in the Beethoven Society Competition for Opera Singers and the Catholic University of America's Alumni Achievement Award in Music; featured in publications such as Glamour Magazine, Washington View Magazine, Famous African American’s Encyclopedia and Metropolitan Opera Encyclopedia.
Dr. Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers
D.M.A., University of Michigan
Associate Professor (soprano)
Dr. Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers Holds bachelor’s degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Michigan; recent performances, recordings and stage directing work in the US and Europe include American Composers’ Alliance American Music Festival (NYC), Moravian Philharmonic (Czech Republic), National Polish Radio Symphony, The Society for New Music, MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, Toledo Symphony, Toledo Opera, Kerrytown Concert House (Ann Arbor), Pro-Musica of Detroit, Camphill Village of Copake (NY), Toledo Museum of Art and other organizations and venues in New York, Michigan, Ohio and Ontario; past operatic work includes appearances with Ohio Light Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Toledo Opera, Michigan Lyric Opera, Ann Arbor Comic Opera Guild, University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society and others in Michigan, Ohio and New York; formerly on the faculties of Grand Valley State University, University of Michigan, University of Toledo, Adrian College, Albion College and Spring Arbor College; co-director of the Ann Arbor Festival of Song; member of the professional choir at the historic Mariners’ Church of Detroit.
Christopher Scholl
M.M., Eastman School of Music
Associate Professor (tenor)
Christopher Scholl Coordinator of voice faculty; returned to the United States in 1997 after 20 years in Europe, where he enjoyed a highly successful career in opera, oratorio and recitals; bachelor’s degree from Ithaca College and master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music; additional study at the Conservatory of Music in Luebeck, Germany; has performed throughout Europe in cities such as Munich, Mannheim, Kiel, Rostock, Paris, Marseilles and Trieste; collaborated with conductors such as Jiri Kout, Klauspeter Siebel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Gerard Oskamp and Carlos Kleiber, as well as working with stage directors Klaus von Wangelin, Uwe Schwarz and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle; operatic repertoire embraces music from the baroque to the 20th century and broadway; roles include Anastasio in Vivaldi’s Guistino, Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Frank in the world premiere of Bialas’s Auf der Matrazen Gruft (On the Grave of Mattresses), an opera about the life of the German poet Heinrich Heine; in operetta he has portrayed such characters as Barenky in Johann Strauss’s Der Ziegeunerbaron and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus; has also performed numerous oratorios and song recitals throughout Germany and Europe; performed Haydn’s Maria Theresa Mass at Bluffton College as well as Handel’s Messiah with the Toledo Choral Society and with the Mennonite Choral Society in Bern, Indiana.
Ellen Scholl
M.M., DePaul University
Adjunct Assistant Professor (mezzo-soprano)
Ellen Scholl Sang professionally for 15 years in Europe, where she presented recitals and performed extensively in operas and oratorios; holds a bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois University and a master’s degree from De Paul University; sang in Munich with the Bavarian State Opera; opera roles include Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and Conception in L’Heure Espagnol; oratorio roles include Attalia, Messiah, Samson and Elijah; has been featured on German television and radio, singing with the North German Radio, Bavarian Radio and ZDF (Central German Television); has sung under the direction of conductors Klaus Peter Seibel, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sir Colin Davis, Michael Tilson thomas, Zubin Metha, Josef Leitner, Michael Halasz, Martin Fischer-Dieskau and recently Don Neuen of the Crystal Cathedral; formerly a member of the voice faculty at the Christian Albrecht Universitaet in Kiel, Germany; two-time winner of the Metropolitan Opera district competition.
Dr. Geoffrey Stephenson
Ph.D., Bowling Green State University
Adjunct Assistant Professor (tenor)
Dr. Geoffrey Stephenson Holds a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University, a master’s in music education from BGSU and a doctorate in theatre from BGSU; has been active in Huron Playhouse productions for the last three decades, now serving in his 13th consecutive season; previously the interim director of music theatre performance at Western Michigan University; he has taught vocal music in the Huron City Schools and Ottawa Hills Local Schools; received regional and national recognition by being awarded the Mark Twain Comedy Award by the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in the spring 2000; has worked in virtually every aspect of the theatre and has performed many roles with companies in New York City, Chicago, Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska and Ohio; roles include John Adams in 1776, John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet, Tito Mirelli in Lend Me a Tenor and Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden.
Douglas Wayland
M.M., Bowling Green State University
Adjunct Assistant Professor (baritone)
Douglas Wayland Veteran of over 40 major opera roles (including Don Giovanni, both Figaros, Sharpless, Gianni Schicchi, Escamillo, Marcelo) in repertoire from the Baroque to the 20th-century (Britten, Pasatieri, Walton, Ward, Stravinsky, Ravel, Barber, Floyd as well as roles in operettas by Strauss and Gilbert & Sullivan and in musicals (Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha) in the U.S. and Germany; engagements in recitals and as soloist in oratorios and choral works (Brahms Requiem, Carmina Burana) in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Russia have included repertoire in over 25 languages; has been diction coach to major artists in the U.S. and Europe in German, French, Italian, Russian and Czech, and received a distinguished thesis award from BGSU’s Graduate College for A Singer’s Guide to the Pronunciation of Old Provençal, Old French and Middle High German as it Applies to the Compositions of Troubadours, Trouvères and Minnesinger; other awards include a Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst (DAAD) scholarship for a year’s study in Germany, a Richard Wagner Stipendien Stiftung Award for study at Bayreuth and a Minnesota Opera scholarship for work with Wesley Balk; an avid traveler, he has lectured on music, opera, history and culture for the Metropolitan Opera Association, Harvard, Yale, Stanford Alumni, Audubon Society, Denver Museum of Art, NY Natural History Museum and many other museums on trips to music festivals and archeological sites in 95 countries on all seven continents, including Antarctica.