CU NOW Biographies

Student Artists and Apprentices

Anthony Dean Griffey, Guest Artist
Two-time Grammy Award Winning American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey has captured critical and popular acclaim on opera, concert and recital stages around the world. The combination of his beautiful and powerful lyric tenor voice, gift of dramatic interpretation and superb musicianship have earned him the highest praise from critics and audiences alike.

He has performed leading roles at the great international opera houses including The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glyndebourne, the Opera National de Paris, and the Teatro Comunale di Firenze to name a a few. He is a regular guest of the world's orchestras just some of which include New York, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto and abroad in London, Paris, Munich, Tokyo, Glasgow, Amsterdam and Melbourne and popular festivals including Tanglewood, Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Saito Kinen and the Proms in London.

Mr. Griffey has collaborated with many of today's pre-eminent conductors, including James Levine, Seiji Ozawa, André Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Andrew Davis, Esa Pekka Salonen, Alan Gilbert, Kurt Masur, Donald Runnicles, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, James Conlon, and Charles Dutoit.

In the 2009-2010 season his concert performances will include the New York Philharmonic in Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex with Valery Gergiev and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with music director Alan Gilbert; highlights from Beethoven's Fidelio and his Symphony No. 9 with the New World Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas; Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the London Symphony Orchestra under Bernard Haitink, with the San Diego Symphony and Jahja Ling and with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland at the Concertgebouw, where he also reprises the Britten War Requiem; and will also perform the Preacher in Ricky Ian Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath with the Collegiate Chorale at Carnegie Hall and the New York City Opera's Opening Gala.

Leigh Holman, Director
Leigh Holman is an established stage director in the fields of Opera and Musical Theatre. As Director of the Opera Colorado Ensemble Artists, she has directed two touring productions per season, concerts and other presentations to promote Opera Colorado and the young artists that are contracted into the program. Holman was previously Chair of the Voice and Opera Studies Area at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She has directed and performed for such companies and opera institutions as Portland Opera, Nashville Opera, National Opera, Wildwood Opera, Opera Theatre of Fort Collins, University of Colorado, University of Arkansas, Eastman Opera Theatre and others. Some of her productions directing and assistant directing include il barbiere di Siviglia, Hansel and Gretel, Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, La Traviata, Falstaff, The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, The Tender Land, Amahl and the Night Visitors, La Cenerentola, The Sound of Music, Trial by Jury, Iolanthe, The Island of Tulipatan, La Curandera, Noye's Fludde, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Side by Side by Sondheim, Red, Hot and Cole and many operatic and musical theatre scenes programs spanning from the Baroque period to Contemporary American works.

Leigh has been a frequent opera lecturer including presentations of the pre-curtain lectures at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House and Opera 101 presentations on KVOD. She holds a graduate Opera Performance degree from the Eastman School of Music and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received her Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Southern California. In addition to directing over 25 professional and academic operatic and musical theatre productions, in the Fall of 2008 she served as assistant director for Ron Daniels (Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in London) in his critically acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly at Opera Colorado. Currently, her productions of Rossini's La Cenerentola and Richard Wargo's The Music Shop tour the state with Opera Colorado's Ensemble Artists.

CU NOW student artists and apprentices

Lukas Graf
Past Roles with CU Opera:
Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni), Voltaire/Pangloss (Candide), Owen Hart (Dead Man Walking)

Past Roles Elsewhere:
Wilhelm (The Tales of Hoffmann) Opera Colorado
Curly (Oklahoma!) Colorado Light Opera
Frank (Die Fledermaus) Intermountain Opera, Bozeman, MT

Awards or honors received:
Adopt-a-student Scholarship, 2007-8
Dennis Jackson Opera Scholarship, 2006-7

Christie Hageman
Past roles with CU Opera: Emily (Our Town), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Musetta (La Boheme)

Future roles:
Clorinda (La Cenerentola) Opera Colorado 2011
Gretel, (Hansel and Gretel), Juliette (Romeo and Juliette) Opera Colorado Outreach 2010-2011

Awards or honors received:
Denver Lyric Opera Guild competition 1st Place Winner 2010
University of Colorado, Boulder Ekstrand Graduate Performance Competition 1st Place 2010
University of Colorado Concerto Competition Winner 2009

John Robert Lindsey
Past roles with CU Opera:
Stage Manager (Our Town),  Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni),  Gastone (La Traviata)

Future Roles:
Soloist with Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra 2011

Awards or honors received:
Denver Lyric Opera Guild competition 3rd Place Winner 2010
Metropolitan National Council Auditions Regional Finalist/ Diamond Wendleboe recipient 2010
Metropolitan National Council Auditions District Finalist/ Encouragement Award recipient 2009

Emily Martin
Past roles with CU Opera: 
Mimi (La Boheme), Violetta (La Traviata)

Past roles elsewhere:
Fiordiligi (Cosi Fan Tutte) Chautauqua Opera
Liu (Turandot) Nevada Opera
Niece (Peter Grimes) Santa Fe Opera

Nicole Vogel
Past roles with CU Opera:
Mrs. Gibbs (Our Town), Florence Pike (Albert Herring), Desiree Armfeldt (A Little Night Music)

Past roles elsewhere:
Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) Martina Arroyo Foundation
Jo March (Little Women) UNCG Opera Theatre
Flora (La Traviata) Opera Carolina 

Awards or honors received:
Finalist, Rocky Mountain Regional Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions
Finalist, 2010 Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition
Recording as Jo March (Little Women) in the G. Schirmer Opera Sampler, released, 2005.

Wei Wu
Past roles with CU Opera:
Dr. Gibbs (Our Town), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Colline (La Boheme)

Past roles elsewhere:
Duke Tom (Un ballo in maschera), Ferrando (Il Trovatore) China National Opera House
LiBai cover (Poet LiBai) Central City Opera

Future roles and concert engagements:
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Summer Choralfest 2010 
Handel's Messiah, Grand Junction Symphony 2010
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Colorado Springs Philharmonic 2011

Awards or honors received:
Denver Lyric Opera Guild competition winner 2009
Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions regional finalist 2009
5th World Chinese Vocal Competition 3rd place 2006

Katherine Donahue
Past roles with CU Opera: 
Sheep (Candide), Girl (Don Giovanni), Featured Dancer (La Traviata)
Props Assistant for La Traviata, Don Giovanni, Our Town

Past roles elsewhere:
Dream Laurey (Oklahoma!), Chastity (Anything Goes) Colorado Light Opera
Liesl (The Sound of Music), Kate (Kiss Me, Kate) Boulder Dinner Theatre

Awards or honors received:
Second Place National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition 2009
Miss Douglas County 2010

Kathryn Satoh
Past roles with CU Opera:
Principal 2nd Violin:  La Boheme
Section Violin:  La Traviata, Don Giovanni
Chorus:  Cunning Little Vixen, Candide

Awards or honors received:
Anderson Competition Finals 2008
Alice Mason Scholarship
Waterman Scholarship