SUMMER MUSIC INSTITUTE
Voice
The voice program focuses on the singer's diction, body alignment, breathing techniques, and vocal development, as well as musical and stylistic considerations. Vocalists receive four 45-minute private lessons during the two week session. In addition to music theory and solfège classes, they also participate in a chamber choir (made up of only voice students) and in the Institute Singers, which includes all SMI participants. Scott Plate, Assistant Professor of Music Theatre and Department Chair of the Music Theatre Program, will lead a workshop class in music theatre for all voice students.
Artist Faculty
Cynthia O'Connell, Lecturer in Voice. M.M., B.M. West Chester University, Pennsylvania. Member of National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Guild of Musical Artists, Music Teachers National Association, and The California Association of Professional Music Teachers. Ms. O'Connell has performed with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, The Mississippi Opera Festival Apprenticeship program, and The Pennsylvania Opera Theater. She is currently a soprano soloist with Trinity Episcopal Church in Cleveland.
Joanne Uniatowski, Lecturer in Voice, D.M.A., The Cleveland Institute of Music, M.M., The University of Alabama, B.M., University of Akron, Language Diploma from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Dr. Unitowski has studied with George Vassos. She has performed operatic roles with Lyric Opera Cleveland, Cleveland Concert Opera and Opera Circle. Equally at home as a soloist, Dr. Uniatowski has performed with The Cleveland Orchestra Educational Programs, Mansfield Symphony, PAND (Cleveland), Suburban Symphony, The Singer's Club of Cleveland, Choral Arts Society, Heights Chamber Orchestra, University Circle Choral and various local choral organizations including Chagrin Valley Choral Union and Medina County Chorus. In 1996, she sang the premiere performance of First There was Light, a song cycle by Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Dr. Uniatowski is a cantor/soloist at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Uniatowski also taught at Ashland University and The Cleveland Institute of Music. She is Executive Director of the Art Song Festival at Baldwin Wallace University (formerly the Cleveland Institute of Music Art Song Festival).
Marc Weagraff, Lecturer in Voice. D.M.A., The University of Michigan; M.M., B.M., The Cleveland Institute of Music. Dr. Weagraff has studied voice with Lorna Haywood and George Vassos and choral conducting under Theo Morrison. Dr. Weagraff's opera credits include roles with The Utah Opera Company, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Cleveland Concert Opera, Michigan Opera Works, The University of Michigan, The University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society, and the Cleveland Institute of Music as well as numerous performances in musical theater programs. Several of his performances were heard in live broadcast over WCLV (Cleveland) and KBYU (Provo, UT) radio. Equally at home with oratorio repertoire, he has performed as soloist with the internationally renowned University of Michigan Men's Glee Club, the Utah Symphony educational series, The Ashtabula County Choral Society, and the Medina County Choral Union. As a recitalist he has been heard throughout the region including various concert series venues and as a guest artist at Cleveland State University. Until July 2008, Dr. Weagraff was the Director of Music Ministries at St. Noel Church in Willoughby Hills, OH. His choirs have performed in Rome and Assisi, Italy including the world-wide broadcast of the 2007 New Year's Day Papal Mass at which His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, was the presider and in concert at San Ignazio Church. They have also been heard throughout the Cleveland area including at The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist and the regional NPM convention in July 2008. Dr. Weagraff has also become a sought after choral and liturgical clinician. His voice students have been heard on Broadway, network television, national tours, and in major graduate programs. In addition to teaching voice, Dr. Weagraff also teaches opera history, vocal literature and "The Art of Listening to Music," an introductory-level music appreciation course for non-majors.
Joan Ellison, M.M.T., B. Mus. in Voice Performance, Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Member: International Voice Care Network, Actors' Equity Association. Voice study with Leon Thurman (belting technique and pedagogy) and Daune Mahy; piano study with Robert McDonald and Sharyl Smith.
Adam Heffernan is an Assistant Professor of Theatre and teaches Acting, Voice, and Theatre Literature. Originally from New Hampshire, he migrated to Cleveland from Ames, Iowa where he taught at Iowa State University for two years. At BW he has directed Hamlet and the North American premiere of AA Milne's Pride & Prejudice adaptation, Miss Elizabeth Bennet. Next season he will direct Anton Chekhov's The Seagull. Favorite acting roles include Iago in Othello (Theater at Monmouth), Nathan Detroit in Guys & Dolls (Clarence Brown Theatre), the world premiere of Thornton Wilder's Youth (Actors Theatre of Louisville), Irwin in The History Boys (StageWest Des Moines), and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (Tennessee Stage). Notable directing credits include Twelfth Night & Tartuffe (Iowa State University), The Real Thing & The Wizard of Oz (Highlands Playhouse), Voices from the High School (Instant Theatre Company), and Fefu and Her Friends (Drake University). Television appearances include One Tree Hill (CW/WB), Surface (NBC), a year and a half on All My Children (ABC), and numerous commercials. He received his M.F.A. from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, B.A. from The University of New Hampshire, Durham, and apprenticed at Actors Theatre of Louisville. He is a member of Actor's Equity Association, The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and The Screen Actor's Guild. He lives in Berea with his wife, Lizzy and son, Henry.