San Francisco Cabaret Opera
Cast of Solidarity
Nora Adachi, clarinetist, graduated from UC Berkeley with bachelor’s degrees in Music and German Language. She continued studies at the New England Conservatory and performed in the Boston area for several years, and then returned to the East Bay where she has been teaching for the last 12 years. Her principal teachers have been Jim Russell in Berkeley and Michael Webster in Boston.
Mark Alburger is an award-winning ASCAP composer of postminimal, postpopular,
and postcomedic sensibilities, published by New Music. He is Music Director of
San Francisco Cabaret Opera and San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, Instructor
in Music Theory and Literature at Diablo Valley College and St. Mary's College,
Editor-Publisher of 21st-Century Music Journal, oboist, pianist, vocalist, recording
artist, musicologist, author, and music critic. He began playing the oboe and
composing in association with Dorothy and James Freeman, George Crumb, and Richard
Wernick; and studied with Karl Kohn at Pomona College, Joan Panetti and Gerald
Levinson at Swarthmore College (B.A.), Jules Langert at Dominican
University (M.A.), Roland Jackson at Claremont Graduate University
(Ph.D.), and Terry Riley. Among his 174 opus numbers are 12 concertos,
11 chamber ensemble pieces, 4 masses, 20 operas, 2 piano suites, 11 song
cycles, 9 symphonies, and a five-hour work-in-progress opera-oratorio (The
Bible). Sex and Delila, in preparation for next Spring's
Sex and
the Bible, will receive its premiere this May during SF Cabaret Opera's Fresh Voices
IX Festival. 
John G. Bilotta, Accordion, was born in Waterbury,
Connecticut, but has spent most his life in the San Francisco Bay Area where he
studied composition, theory, and orchestration with Frederick Saunders. His chamber,
orchestral, vocal, and operatic works have been performed around the world, including
Europe and Asia. Since 2006, John has been Music Director of the San Francisco Chamber
Wind Festival, and co-directs with Brian Bice the Festival of Contemporary Music. John
is a member of the Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc., and is editor
of SCION, the organization’s opportunities newsletter. And, finally, in a rare triumph
of parental judgment over pre-adolescent whining, it seems that John’s childhood accordion
lessons have finally paid off. Thanks, Mom & Dad, and Mr. Totzauer!
Texas native Kristen Brown has been acclaimed for her “impressive, ringing soprano” (Marin Independent Journal),
and hailed as “San Francisco’s up-and-coming powerhouse” (Petaluma Argus-Courier, Santa Rosa Press Democrat).
Kristen made her professional debut as Magda Sorel (The Consul) with Cinnabar Opera in 2007. In August 2008, Kristen
created the role of The Mayor in the world premiere of Red Bennett’s opera, What They Seem. Favorite roles include
Agathe (Der Freischütz), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana), the title roles in Arabella,
Vanessa, and Carmen, Mother Marie (Dialogues of the Carmelites), and Mistress Quickly (Falstaff). Kristen has been a
winner of both the Senior Vocal Award in the Pacific Musical Society Competition and the East Bay Opera League Competition.
Kristen has also performed with the Long Island Masterworks Choir and Orchestra as a concert soloist and scholarship winner.
Originally from Abilene, Texas, Ms. Brown holds a Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she participated in Master Classes with Thomas Hampson, Jake Heggie, and Sheri Greenwald. Kristen also holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Performance and Women’s Studies from Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Kappa Lambda and was the recipient of both the William Rosencrans and William Lawrence Memorial Honors Awards, in whose names she has given recitals at Hofstra. Kristen has also been given the honor of singing for former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former President Clinton at Hofstra’s Presidential Conference. Her regular recital appearances have included engagements with the German Consulate in San Francisco, Oakland Lyric Opera, Eglise de Notre Dame des Victoires, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco, and Volti, San Francisco’s professional chamber choir for new music.
Ms. Brown is an enthusiastic and active proponent of new music and choral repertoire, having performed Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, Shulamit Ran’s Apprehensions, and Terry Riley’s In C in recital, as well as world premieres of pieces by Herbert Deutsch, Chandler Carter, and Nicholas Fevola. In 2008, Kristen premiered Mots d’Heures: Gousses, Rames, a song cycle written for her by David Garner, and in 2010, Kristen will premiere Garner’s Medea Alone, a staged a capella work for solo voice. Kristen can also be seen in Fall 2009 in the World Premiere of Jack Dubowski’s Halloween in the Castro, a one-act Horror Opera commissioned by the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco in celebration of its 30th Anniversary Season. Kristen has been the featured soloist in concert performances of John Corigliano’s Fern Hill, Duruflé’s Requiem, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, in addition to her long and happy history as a choral singer. Kristen is a student of Sylvia Anderson.
Eric Carter
Patrick Dailly composer/librettist of Solidarity, lives in The Netherlands. In 2008 he visited our website and was “encouraged by the radical tinge to programming that [he] saw.”
Dailly studied at the Royal Northern College of Music between 1968 and 1972 and was awarded the Edward Hecht Composition Prize, the Leo Grindon Composition Prize and the International Music Publishing Company Prize for composition. On leaving college he toured with various pop and soul bands in the 1970s, notably with Chicago super-smooth soul singer Major Lance – and recorded the album Major Lance at the Playboy Club as part of his 1974 UK tour. Patrick wrote music for many musicals in the 1980s and 1990s at the Cambridge ADC Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, Theatre Royal Wakefield and Pleasance Theatre Edinburgh with librettists/writers Paul Bond and Richard Vergette. His Let’s Get Critical won a prize at Bath Festival 1998 and was performed in Paris by Ensemble Aleph. Patrick has written a great deal of instrumental music for many ensembles and plays with several orchestras and wind ensembles in Holland.
Julia Hathaway
Dalyte Kodzis, mezzo-soprano, received her Bachelor’s of Music in 2006 from UC Santa Cruz.
Recent roles include Georgina in Pocket Opera's The Haunted Manor, Leona in Pocket Opera's La Belle Helene, and
Handmaiden to Ismene in Mark Alburger's Antigone with Goat Hall Productions. She was also featured as a soloist
in Opera in the Park with Trinity Opera. At UC Santa Cruz, she performed the roles of Mrs. Jones in Street Scene,
and Mustardseed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She currently studies voice with Zachary Gordin.Nathan Marken
Justin Farrell Marsh, singing Julian and Tomko, made his debut with
Goat Hall Productions last June as the Valet in No Exit. Mr. Marsh was recently seen
in Pocket Opera’s 2009 season productions of La Belle Helene, La Favorita,
and The Haunted Manor. In November of 2008, Justin sang the role of Ferrando in San Francisco
Parlor Opera’s production of Cosi fan tutte and rejoined the company for their production
of Faust in May of 2009. Justin will return to San Francisco Parlor Opera to sing the role
of Nicias in Thais this November and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni in Spring 2010. In
December of 2008, Mr. Marsh was chosen to perform several songs on ABC Television’s
nationally-aired broadcast of Christmas from the National Shrine of St. Francis of Assisi.
After completing his undergraduate studies at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Marsh went on to earn his Master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has previously performed in opera and musical theatre productions as well as in solo recitals in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. Justin currently studies privately with San Francisco Opera’s mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook.
Roger McCracken
A native of Japan,
Keisuke Nakagoshi began
his piano studies at age ten with Kaori Fujiwara. At age 18 he came to the
U.S. and studied piano with Linda Carroll and composition with Jerry Mueller.
He went on to study composition with David Conte at the San Francisco Conservatory
of Music and in 2003 earned his Bachelor of Music in Composition. Mr. Nakagoshi
studied piano with Paul Hersh at the Conservatory, and earned his Master
of Music in chamber
music in 2006. He won the Concerto Competition and performed Prokofiev's
Piano
Concerto No. 3 with the Conservatory Orchestra conducted by Alasdair Neale. Mr. Nakagoshi has participated in master classes with Gilbert Kalish, Menahem Pressler,
Robert Mann, Norman Fisher, The Peabody Trio and Emanuel Ax. He also became
the principal
pianist for conductor George Daugherty's award-winning Bugs Bunny on Broadway. He
tours with the production, performing with the orchestras of major U.S. cities. As
an active performer, he has performed in venues such as Kennedy Center in Washington
D.C., Hollywood Bowl in L.A, and Carnegie Hall in New York. He is also a member of Adorno Ensemble, a collective of musicians performing chamber music by contemporary
composers.
Eliza O'Malley,
soprano, recently sang the role of Antigone in Mark Alburger’s Antigone
with the San Francisco Cabaret Opera as well as Nedda in Pagliacci with conductor Robert
Ashens and director Ross Halper. A passionate interpreter of new music, she has premiered
works by Mark Alburger, Lisa Scola Prosek, Stephen Clark, Sheli Nan, Allan Crossman and
more while working with Goat Hall Productions/San Francisco Cabaret Opera over the past
couple of years. Through her association with Harvest of Song at the Berkeley Art Center
she has also premiered solo scenes from Peter Josheff and Jaime Robles’ upcoming opera
Inferno, as well as works by Mary Watkins and Alexis Alrich. She has also sung roles with
The Santa Cruz Chamber Orchestra, Oakland Opera Theater, Berkeley Opera, Solo Opera, BASOTI,
Capitol Opera Sacramento, Labor Fest as well as appearing as Emma in a workshop production of
Khovanshchina conducted by Kent Nagano. She also produces and sings in the “Dazzling Divas”
nights of opera arias at the Bateau Ivre. www.elizaomalley.com
Harriet March Page has pursued a life-long
obsession with the arts, as actor, singer, writer, director, producer. Reeling off the decades,
the 1970s was grand opera in and about the San Francisco Bay Area; 1980s, acting in plays and
musicals with the Los Altos Conservatory Theatre; 1990s, writing and performing autobiographical
monologues in San Francisco and producing monthly Sunday Salons; and the 2000s directing and
producing as Artistic Director for San Francisco Cabaret Opera / Goat Hall Productions, whose
mission is presenting contemporary opera in English and premiering new opera theater by Bay Area
composers in a cabaret setting. After five years devoted to new music almost exclusively, March
Page is very excited about entering a new phase with our 2008-2009 season, which includes not
only new music but also Mozart (in Italian!), Purcell, Menotti, and more!
Sarah-Nicole Ruddy,
mezzo-soprano, received her Master’s Degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
in 2008, where she was the recipient of the Dorothy Steinmetz Vocal Scholarship. This past
summer she was a young artist at Utah Festival Opera, covering Mama Lucia in
Cavalleria Rusticana, and singing in the ensembles of Carmen,
Pagliacci, Camelot, and The Mikado. In
November she will perform Berta in The Barber of Seville with Townsend Opera, and in the
spring she will sing the role of Marthe in Faust with Center Stage Opera in Los Angeles.
Recent operatic performances have included Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto with San Francisco
Lyric Opera, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and Mme. Pernelle in
Tartuffe with BASOTI, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with Pacific Union Presents as well as Volupia and 3rd Ore in
Cavalli’s L’Egisto, Second Lady in The Magic Flute, and The Squirrel and White Cat in
L’enfant
et les Sortileges at the Conservatory. SN is a proud student of mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook.
Lithuanian-Canadian soprano, Indre Viskontas, is thrilled to be returning to
San Francisco Cabaret Opera to perform the roles of Irena and Streetsweeper
in the world-premiere of Dailly's Solidarity. Miss Viskontas’s
operatic roles range from The Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di
Figaro to the title role in
Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe. Recent operatic performance highlights include
Aurelia in Purcell's Dioclesian and The Water Nymph in Heuser's
The Golden Ax with
SFCO, Beth in Mark Adamo’s Little Women at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music,
Kate in John Estacio’s Frobisher at the Banff Summer Arts Festival, and Heart's
Desire in Arthur Sullivan's The Rose of Persia with the Lyric Theater of San Jose.
Miss Viskontas is also an avid performer of chamber music and a regular soloist
with The Classical Revolution, performing throughout the Bay Area. Miss Viskontas
holds a Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a
Doctor of Philosophy degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of
California, Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University
of Toronto.