An exceptionally versatile pianist, keyboardist, educator, and sought-after collaborative pianist, Maria Lyapkova has graced international stages in the United States, Europe, and Russia. Her wide-ranging repertoire encompasses five centuries of music, from baroque to contemporary, with a special interest in historical performance.

Maria has collaborated with leading musicians across the globe performing with principals from major orchestras such as the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra and Bolshoi Theatre and vocalists from various Opera houses such as Minnesota and Indianapolis Opera. Before her current appointment as Director of Collaborative Piano at DePauw University, she served as a full-time collaborative pianist at Stephen F. Austin State University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Ever exploring, she has worked with eminent composers Gunther Schulle, Joseph Schwantner, and Lori Laitman, performing a world premier of Laitman’s work Into Eternity with soprano Lyndsay Moy in 2023.

An inspirational pedagogue, Maria’s guest appearances include residencies and masterclasses at music schools across the US including Northern Kentucky University, University of Central Florida, and the University of Tampa. As a vocal coach and collaborative pianist for the Indianapolis Opera, she imbues rising voices with world-class finesse.

With top accolades from a Master’s of Music in Piano and Historical Performance from Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from the University of Texas-Austin, Maria Lyapkova continues to inspire audiences through her musical finesse, technical prowess, and impassioned musical leadership.

Dr. Rhea Olivaccé is a classically trained soprano based in Kalamazoo, MI.  Known for her “vibrant color” and “vivacious abandon”, she is celebrated for her interpretation of lyric soprano roles including Mimi and Musetta from Puccini’s La Bohème, La Contessa from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Tatyana from Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and Suzel in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz.  She has performed with Des Moines Metro Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Western Reserve. Sha has been widely recognized for her performances of the Mozart, Brahms, Fauré, and Rutter Requiem Masses, Bach’s St John Passion and Magnificat, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Handel’s Messiah and Strauss’ Four Last Songs.  She has graced the world-reknowned stages of Carnegie Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Dr. Olivaccé is a frequent masterclass clinician and sought-after recitalist who specializes in African-American Art Songs and Negro Spirituals.  Dr. Olivaccé holds a DMA and MM from University of Michigan Ann Arbor and a BM from Florida International University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Voice at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

Todd Graber is a full Professor of Voice at the State University of New York - Oswego where he has taught since 2002 and served as department chair from 2008 - 2016. Making his European debut in Switzerland, singing the role of Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, he continued to perform throughout the United States and abroad in various operatic productions working with conductors Gustav Meier, Robert Spano, Martin Katz, Grzegorz Nowak, Donald Schleicher, and John Moriarty. His last appearance as Don Ottavio prompted Britain's Opera magazine to proclaim him "...a clear, even, unforced tenor singing as if Mozart sat at his right hand."  Equally at home on the concert stage, Dr. Graber served as tenor soloist in Voices of Light - The Passion of Joan of Arc – featuring the Anonymous 4 and his Severance Hall debut took place in Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel. As recitalist, he frequently collaborated with pianists Russell Miller and Juan La Manna championing the music of Britten, Beethoven, Schumann, Poulenc, Purcell and others. For twenty years he performed as a founding member of the quartet SATB, specializing in classical vocal chamber works and musical theatre. His professional recordings include that repertoire and both of Schubert’s seminal song cycles - Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise.

A BGSU alum, Dr. Graber earned degrees in music education and vocal performance studying with Virginia Starr and Andreas Poulimenos. His doctoral studies took him to the University of MI where he worked with George Shirley. While there he served as tenor soloist for the Christ Church at Grosse Pointe and for the Mariners' Church in downtown Detroit. Besides his principal appointment at SUNY-Oswego, where his duties include applied voice/vocal coordinator – he also teaches voice class, diction, vocal literature, opera, music theory, and Alexander Technique. Dr. Graber has held faculty positions at Baldwin Wallace University (Berea, OH), Nazareth University (Rochester, NY) and Missouri State University. Last summer he joined Interlochen’s Summer Arts Camp as an instructor of the Alexander Technique.

Former students have achieved success on Broadway with lead and supporting roles in Wicked, Hamilton, American Idiot, In the Heights, Pippin, Next to Normal, Altar Boyzand Rock of Ages. Others have gone on to work in national touring shows such as 42^ndStreet, Ragtime, and Porgy and Bess, singing on the operatic stage, or continued their education at schools such as Indiana University, Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory.

Dr.  Marjorie Conrad was born on January 24, 1922, in Philadelphia to Sue and William Conrad. Her mother, a nurse, encouraged her to get the best education possible. Her childhood interest in biology led to a degree in chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1943 and a medical degree in 1946 from what was then Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. She established a practice in Wilmington and worked there almost 20 years. She and Dr. Peatee met at a medical meeting, and she received her Ohio medical license in 1965, according to a state database. The couple married on January 29, 1966, and she moved to Bowling Green, where her husband had a longstanding practice. She opened a family practice with a focus on obstetrics. “She wanted to get back to work,” Mr. Bennett said. “She had a special interest in promoting the well-being of women and children in a family perspective.”  The married doctors also were pilots — she’d learned in Wilmington — and flew to medical meetings together. She was a former president of the Soroptimist Club in Bowling Green and was credited with being the first woman on the boards of the former MidAm Bank and MidAm Inc. in Bowling Green.

She studied voice as a young woman and resumed in retirement, taking lessons with the late Barbara Lockard Zimmerman, who directed vocal studies at Bowling Green State University. Dr. Conrad was a member of Pro Musica, a group that supports the BGSU College of Musical Arts. Her own gift led to the Dr. Marjorie Conrad Art Song Competition, first held in 2000.

The vocal competitors, BGSU students — dressed in formal concert attire, as Dr. Conrad directed — are to show mastery of songs from the classical and romantic periods, from the 20th century, and by a living composer. While vocal students often aspire to be opera singers, “art song is a great way for a singer to learn their trade and learn languages and composers,” said Christopher Scholl, associate professor of voice and competition coordinator. Prize money is split equally between singer and pianist. “They learn to listen to each other, to pay attention and to play off one another,” Mr. Scholl said. Dr. Conrad attended every year until her death in 2014. Early on, she sat through the daylong competition and then returned for the evening concert. “It was almost as though she was singing vicariously through the students as she sat there,” said Myra Merritt, BGSU professor of voice. “She was fascinated by it.” Dr. Conrad endowed a voice scholarship. She also funded BGSU scholarships for undergraduate students in premedicine and in allied health professions.

The College of Musical Arts is forever grateful for Dr. Conrad’s contributions, especially to this special competition designed to encourage students enrolled at BGSU to approach the art song in a serious, intense manner and enhance their learning experience.