Jerusalem Lyric Opera Studio

Sofia Mazar

Artistic Director, Vocal Coach, Musicologist

Resume will be provided shortly

Markus Hollop

Casting & Artistic Production Officer, the Grand Théâtre de Genève

The Berlin born bass Markus Hollop studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich in the singing class of Professor Josef Loibl. While still a student, he was a prizewinner of the international Carl Maria von Weber singing competition, the international singing competition of the Münchener Konzert Gesellschaft and received scholarships from the Deutsche Studienstiftung and the Nürnberger Meistersängerwettbewerb.

Very young he started an international career, which took him to the most important opera houses and festivals in Europe, Asia and the USA, examples being the Bavarian State Opera, the Hamburg State Opera, the State Opera and the Komische Oper Berlin, the Opéra National de Paris, the Royal Opera Covent Garden, the Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the opera houses in Turin, Rome, Bologna, Palermo and Naples, the Japanese operas Nomori and Nikikai (Tokyo and Yokohama), the Opera Pacific (Los Angeles) , the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Festival de Radio France and the Ravenna Festival.

He has worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, John Eliot Gardiner, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Kent Nagano, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sebastian Weigle, James Conlon, John Eliot Gardener, Asher Fisch and sang in productions by the directors Andreas Homoki, Robert Carsen, Peter Konwitschny, Peter Stein, Damiano Michieletto, Luc Bondy, Philippe Arlaud and many more.

Focusing mostly on the German romantic repertoire, especially by the composers Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss, another particular concern for him has been contemporary music, since his debut at the 1st Munich Biennale for Modern Music Theater in 1988, aged only 21 years.

For the recording of Busoni`s "Doktor Faust" under the baton of Kent Nagano, he received a 2001 Grammophone Award ("Grammy") in the "Best Opera Recording" category.

Since the 2016/17 season, alongside his work as a singer, Markus Hollop works as “Chargé de production artistique et casting” at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Rolando Garza Rodriguez

Opera Vocal Coach, Pianist, Conductor and Composer, Head of Music and Casting Advisor, Theater Breme

Opera Vocal Coach, Pianist, Conductor and Composer born in Sabinas, Coahuila,Mexico. Head of Music and Casting Advisor at Theater Bremen since 2020. In 2006 he joined the Opéra National du Rhin as Assistant Music Director of “Les jeunes voix du Rhin” and played for several operatic productions for Opèra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, France. In 2008 he took the position of Music Director of OperAvenir, the Young Artist Program at Theater Basel, in Basel, Switzerland, as well as Korrepetitor and Conductor. In 2014 he took the position of Studienleiter and Conductor at Theater Bremen, in Bremen, Germany. He has since worked as Studienleiter at Luzerner Theater in Switzerland and Theater für Niedersachsen in Germany. He is an italian répertoire specialist and has collaborated with artists of international acclaim such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Mirella Freni, Sherrill Milnes, Anna Moffo, Teresa Berganza, Sir Thomas Allen, Licia Albanese and many others. In the past has been part of the music staff of many international summer opera programs in Mexico, Italy, Belgium, Israel, Spain, Switzerland, Uk, Bulgaria, France, Northern Ireland and the Czech Republic. In 2006 he was awarded the Premio Nacional de la Juventud, Mexico ́s prestigious national award for outstanding and accomplished young people. He has represented Mexico at United Nations forums. His compositions have been performed globally. On the 11th of December his “Ave Maria” was nationally televised in Mexico, performed by Tenor Carlos Alberto Velázquez. At age 11 he won his first Composition Competition with his piece “Ballet”. He is often invited to teach in Opera Masterclasses and performs recitals regularly in many of the world stages, most recently in New York, Mexico, Algiers. Since 2024 he is part of the Opera Department at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen.

Patrick Baton

Conductor

Patrick Baton studies at the University of Liege, Belgium (MA and teacher’s degree in Philosophy and Letters), and specializes in Italian language and literature at the University of Siena in Tuscany, Italy.

At the Royal Music Conservatory of Liège, he obtains a number of prizes, among which those for piano, harmony writing, harmony practice on keyboard, history of music, and those of choir conductor and orchestra conductor (First prize with a distinction in the Master Class of Roger Rossel, Prize of the Vocation). He is awarded an ‘excellence’ prize for singing -melody and opera- at the Music Academy of Eupen, Belgium, in the class of Walter Meessen. He also attends the course of Lucien Jean-Baptiste at the Conservatory of Toulon, France (Gold medal and, in addition, First Prize in the proficiency level for conductors in the specialization lyrics and opera, together with master classes in interpretation given by the French tenor Jean Giraudeau).

As a choir conductor, he was chosen as assistant by Philippe Herreweghe for the ‘Choeur Philharmonique de Liège’ during two years. He also works on choir direction with Laszlo Heltay (Academy of St Martin in the Fields) and Michel Piquemal, and on the present-day practice with Guy Reibel. As an orchestra conductor, he attends the proficiency courses of René Defossez, Alexandre Myrat, Daniel Gazon. He studies in France and Germany with Sergiu Celibidache. After the Budapest competition, where the Russian conductor Youri Simonov had been impressed by his outstanding performance, the two men worked together in Hungary.

In 1991 Patrick Baton is laureate of the Masterplayers International Conductors Competition in the Schauspielhaus of Berlin, where he conducted the Berliner Sinfonie Orchester. In 1994 he is awarded the St-Petersburg Special Composers’ Prize at the first International Sergei Prokofjev Competition for conductors. This leads him on to regular performances as a conductor in Russia, and he becomes the first guest conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Northern Caucasus in the South of Russia (Kislovodsk). He gives performances in Belgium (Orchestre National de Belgique), France, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Italy, Israel.

Patrick Baton regularly works with the ‘Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège et de la Communauté française de Belgique’: they have now been producing together for six seasons running a cycle of concerts that enjoy a tremendous success under the general title ‘L’Orchestre à la portée des enfants’ (The orchestra at a child’s level) , with the cooperation of the ‘Jeunesses musicales` (Youth Music) and with the participation of the actors Marie Gillain, Benoît Poelvoorde, Bruno Coppens, and of the singer Maurane, and also with the Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie. In 1996, Patrick Baton conducted this orchestra in the finals of the International Adolphe Sax contest organised in Dinant, Belgium, which is the birthplace of Sax. He also performs for the’Festival de Wallonie’ and a number of other festivals: Val-Dieu, Aubel, Roisin...

Since his debut with the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in 1993 (la Traviata), he very often conducts there: Tosca (Puccini) with the Belgian baritone José van Dam (recorded on Philips CDI video), la Traviata once again (in a production of Martha Domingo), Don Pasquale (Donizetti), Stiffelio (Verdi), the ballets Spartacus (Khatchaturian), Casse-Noisette (Tchaikovsky), Coppélia (Delibes). Baton, who is genuinely eclectic, conducts the Viennese operette and the musical with equal success: Hello Dolly! (Hermann), Candide (Bernstein), Fürstin Czardas (Kalmann), L’Homme de la Mancha (Leigh/Wasserman, French adaptation by Jacques Brel) with José Van Dam as Don Quijote (Liege, Brussels; CD audio live, Forlane; transmission by Arte television). He makes his debut with the ‘Opéra d’Avignon et des Pays du Vaucluse’. He joins that opera house again as a guest conductor and conducts the French première of the American musical Titanic (Yeston), which will be remembered as an unqualified success. He conducts the Carmina Burana (Orff) at the Arts Festival of Tel Aviv, a concert that was broadcast by the National Television of Israel.

In concert he accompanies numerous opera singers as Julia Migenes, José Van Dam, Alain Fondary, Jules Bastin ...

As artistic director of the Orchestre Artemis, he is in charge of the Summer Opera Festival (la Traviata) in several prestigious historic sites of Belgium (the castle of La Hulpe, the Palace of Princes-Bishops in Liege, the castle of Ooidonck).

He conducts at the ‘Opera de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria’ (Rossini’s Cenerentola) and, in Italy the ‘Orchestra Haydn Bolzano-Trento’, the ‘Orchestra della città di Grosseto’, the ‘Orchestra Sinfonica di San Remo’ in a serie of concerts in Liguria, Lombardy and Tuscany. Since 2001, he’s regular guest conductor at the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte-Carlo (2001-2016). During three seasons he was on tour with the World Chamber Choir, at the Opera de Rouen, at the Great Theatre of Luxemburg (Les Mamelles de Tirésias, Francis Poulenc), the Niedersachser Jugendchor Hanover (Brahms "Ein deutsches Requiem"). He has recorded for different producers: Philips, Forlane, Syrinx and Cyprès.

Patrick Baton has been officially in charge at the Liege Royal Conservatory of Music since 1996 at the conductor’s rostrum and as a teacher in the conductors` training course. He’s teaching orchestral conducting at the Conservatoire Régional d’Amiens (France), and at the Ecole Supérieure Danse et Musique-Conservatoire de Lille (France, 2017-2018)

Adina Nitescu

Soprano, Voice teacher

Praised for her intense and moving interpretations of leading Italian lyric-spinto soprano repertoire, Romanian soprano, Adina Nitescu has delighted audiences in most of the world’s opera houses. She has been “celebrated enthusiastically” for her “violet, velvet, full-voiced tone” interpretation of Manon Lescaut as well as such roles as Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Margherita in Boito’s Mefitsofele and Maddalena in Giordano’s Andrea Chenier. After her studies at the George Enescu Music Academy in Bucharest in the class of Prof. Georgeta Stoleriu and winning the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in 1991 and the 1992 Pavarotti International Voice Competition, Ms. Nitescu started very young an international career that brought her to the world’s most prestigious opera houses including the Opéra National de Paris, Milan’s La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera New York, Bregenz Festival, Maggio Musicale Firenze, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Glyndebourne Festival, Vienna and Berlin State Opera, Tokyo New National Theatre and many others. She worked with the world’s finest conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Philippe Jordan, and many others, and directors, including Robert Wilson, Robert Carsen, Andreas Homoki, Renata Scotto, Pier Luigi Pizzi, and David Pountney. Today, Ms. Nitescu is a recognized and very successful voice teacher, her students singing in theatres such as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Real in Madrid, and many others. She teaches in Berlin and Geneva.

Ethan Schmeisser

Conductor

Ethan Schmeisser, conductor and pianist, was born in Israel. He graduated cum laude from the conducting program at the Tel Aviv Music Academy and completed his second degree under the guidance of the late Mendi Rodan. He has received the AICF scholarships. He has conducted the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Israel Camerata Jeruslaem, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra IBA, Barrocade and other orchestras ensembles in Israel. He has conducted at the Perugia Music Festival in Italy, the opera houses of Odessa, Lucca, Shanghai and Fuzhuo in China. He has worked as a harpsichordist and pianist for opera productions and concerts with many local orchestras including the the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He has founded the Bononcini Ensemble and Venice female voice ensemble with whom he performed in many concerts in Israel. He was the Chorus Master and Head of Music at the Israeli Opera. At the Israeli Opera he conducted many productions in the opera house as well as at the Akko Festival and in the Israeli Opera’s community productions throughout Israel. He also performs as pianist and music director for many Israeli Opera productions including Die Zauberflote (Mozart) for the entire family, the Saturday Opera Highlights concert series and more.

Andrei Munteanu

Artistic Director, Yiddish State Theater in Bucharest,Romania

Andrei Munteanu is a Romanian theater director based in Bucharest, linked to the Yiddish State Theater also to Operetta and Musical National Theater. With a passion for storytelling and a deep understanding of the human experience, he brings a unique perspective to the stage due to his unique realistic style and a powerful background at the Arena di Verona where he participated at the revival of Carmen by Zeffirelli and Aida by De Bossio. He directed more than 20 theater performances in Romania, Poland, Spain, Italy. In 2013 the his show Wandering Stars had a tour in New York , in 2015 with a tour for Biblical Song by Dov Seltzer. In 2021 he directed Candide by Leonard Bernstein for International Music Festival George Enescu in Bucharest. Since 2025 Manager of the Yiddish State Theater in Bucharest.

Adina Cocargeanu

Vocal Coach, "Ion Dacian" National Operetta and Musical Theater

Adina Cocargeanu was born in Constanta in 1985 and started studying piano at 7 in her hometown music high school. She continued at the George Enescu Music Highschool in Bucharest where she graduated. She finished her studies at the National University of Music in 2008. Since 2007 she works as a pianist and coach at the National Operetta and Musical Theatre “Ion Dacian” in Bucharest, she is a collaborator at the National Opera Bucharest. She performed solo and chamber music recitals in Romania, Spain, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany, Israel, the United States of America, Turkey, and Finland. She collaborated with The Chicago Lyric Opera, South Bend Lyric Opera in the US, and the Meitar Studio at the Israeli Opera House. She did recitals for several embassies in Romania. She also plays the organ and harpsichord and since 2012 she has been the organist of the Anglican Church in Bucharest.

Larisa Tetuev

Soprano, Voice Teacher

Since arriving in Israel in 1990 from the former Soviet Union, soprano Larissa Tetuev has established herself as the leading Israeli soprano with a formidable international career. Having begun her musical studies as a pianist, Ms. Tetuev participated in the Israel Vocal Arts Institute and was immediately recognized as a promising talent, receiving scholarships for professional study abroad. The soprano-lirico made her debut with the New Israeli Opera in the title role of Marenka in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride and participated that same season in the visiting Kirov production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, conducted by Valery Gergiev. The following season, Ms. Tetuev sang her first Contessa Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, stepping in for an ailing colleague on short notice and emerging with a huge success. Some of her earlier roles, performed in Israel, include Fiordiligi in Cosí fan Tutte, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Micaela Carmen, Violetta in La Traviata, and the title role in Cilea’s Adrianna Lecouvreur.

In the 1997-98 season Ms. Tetuev made her United States debut as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Fort Worth Opera. Such was her success that she was immediately re-engaged by that company and sang there in the tile role of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, and later reprised her Contessa Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. Ms. Tetuev sang her first ever Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello in the autumn of 2000 with the Portland Opera to critical acclaim.

Ms. Tetuev has performed under the baton of leading conductors such as the late Gari Bertini, Asher Fisch, Alexei Gergiev, Yuri Aharonovich, and Zubin Mehta. Her concert-stage repertoire with includes Stabat Mater of Rossini, Pergolesi and Dvorak, C Minor Mass by Mozart, the Faure Requiem, and Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder. The Verdi Requiem and the Beethoven 9th Symphony. In January 2000, she appeared in the New Israeli Opera’s "Viva la Voce" series in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, under the baton of Yuri Aharonovich, to outstanding reviews. In The autumn of the same year, Ms. Tetuev appeared in Leeds, Manchester, and in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall, with the Shostakovich Symphony No. 14. and in 2001 she was invited to Durban for a Verdi gala. Continuing in the same tradition, the reviews were superlative in every case.

Early in her career, Larissa Tetuev had the auspicious honor of being the first-ever non-Czech singer to perform the title role in Dvorak’s Russalka in Prague at the Prague State Theater under the baton of Irje Belohelavek and was invited to repeat her wonderful portrayal of this role when the Prague State Theater travelled to Japan with the production the autumn of 1999. Ms. Tetuev was engaged for another Micaela (Carmen) in Capetown and appeared with the Philharmonic of Luxembourg, under the baton of Yuri Aharonovich, in Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, with whom she traveled to reprise the work in Brussels.

Ms. Tetuev sang her first Liu in Turandot in 2000 at the Roman Amphitheater of Caesarea with the Israel Opera as part of a new "International Operatic Festival". She was engaged to sing Gil Shochat’s Song of Songs, in the framework of the prestigious Israel Festival 2000. The next season she returned to the Israel Opera and the "International Opera Festival" in Caesarea with her Israeli debut of Desdemona in Otello. in 2002, she traveled with the production to the Italian open-air festival "Varese Ligure". Again, she received rave reviews and was invited to return for a production of Le Nozze di Figaro in the summer of 2003.

In January 2002 Ms. Tetuev debuted in the title role in Norma at the Ft. Worth Opera, in a production made for her after the audiences had so adored her previous engagements that the opera offered her to appear in the opera of her choice. She then traveled to New York to appear with the American Symphony Orchestra in a production of Rachmaninov’s Francesca di Rimini. That season she returned to the Israel Opera for Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus.

The artist’s 2002-2003 season included debut performances in Peter Grimes, and Simon Boccanegra, both to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike, and a reprise of Eugene Onegin. She re-created the role of Madame Butterfly at the NIO in a production chosen especially for her and appeared with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in Rossini’s Stabat Mater in the prestigious Liturgica Festival. This was only after being invited to appear in Budapest at a gala diplomatic function where she sang arias from La Wally, Tosca, and Madame Butterfly. In a combined JSO/NIO production, Ms. Tetuev completed the 2002-2003 season with another Benjamin Britten work, this time the War Requiem followed immediately by Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and finally concluded the season with her first Verdi Requiem.

In 2003-2004 Ms. Tetuev began the season with the opening concert of the Dvorak Requiem in a September 11th Tribute in Jerusalem with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Leon Botstein. The season followed with numerous concerts, in Israel and abroad, continuing her acclaim-winning portrayals of Verdi and Puccini repertoire. She début Odabella in Attila and the title role in Tosca. She returned to the Israel Opera-Tel Aviv to reprise Russalka, one of her signature pieces,

The 2004-2005 season included a reprise of Tosca in the U.S., a Zefirelli-directed production of Pagliacci at the Israel Opera (for which she also received rave reviews from the maestro himself for her Nedda) the newly commissioned Journey to the End of the Millenium by Israeli composer Bardanasvhilli and a reprise of Elvira in Don Giovanni with the New Haifa Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Noam Sheriff.

During the 2005-2006 season Ms. Tetuev debuted the title role in Manon Lescaut, made a reprise of Beethoven`s 9th Symphony, and appeared as Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera. Franco Zeffirelli asked her to step into the La Traviata production that he directed at the Israel Opera in light of their past collaboration. Ms. Tetuev concluded the season with a Rachmaninoff recital as part of the prestigious Israel Festival and was invited to a gala performance with the London Royal Philharmonic, Michael Hankinson conducting. Larissa Tetuev, in addition to being Israel’s leading diva, is also invited to sit on juries of vocal competitions and to give master classes for the Israel Vocal Arts Institute.

The 2007-2008 season included a return to the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra for its opening season, this time for the Shostakovich From Jewish Folk Poetry, and later in 2007 roles at the Israel Opera Tel Aviv-Yafo included Leonora in Il Trovatore, Antonia in Les Contes Hoffman, and Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, which was directed by the world-renowned Gian Carlo Del Monaco

As the leading soprano at the Israel Opera for thirteen years and with a list of roles exceeding 30 operas, the 2008-2009 season included appearances in Boito’s Mephistopheles and another Bardanashvilli’s Journey to the End of the Millennium in Rome. She also toured Los Angeles with concert repertoire. The 2009-2010 season includes the World Premiere of Gil Shohat`s A Child Dreams, and Tchaikovsky`s Pique Dame. In 2010-2011 she performed Shostakovich’s, Lady Macbeth. She also performed in Italy and the USA on recital tours.

Ms. Tetuev’s teaching credits include master classes for Ms. Trish McCaffrey’s studio at the Manhattan College of Music, the Israel Opera Studio in Tel Aviv, and winter sessions at the Israel Vocal Arts Institute.

Marina Levitt

Soprano, Voice Teacher

Marina Levite immigrated to Israel from Lviv in Ukraine at the end of 1978. She completed her studies at the Tel Aviv Music Academy and her master`s degree at the University of Indiana at Bloomington. Marina Levitt has performed in Israel, the US, France, Mexico, and Ireland. She performed with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, with the Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra, and with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and appears in prestigious Festivals like the Mozart Festival in France and the Wexford Festival in Ireland.

She sang in the Czar`s bride (Rimsky Korsakov) with the New York Opera Orchestra, the First Lady in the Magic Flute with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the button of maestro Zubin Mehta. At the Israeli Opera, she has performed Magenka in the Addicted bride, Mimi in La Boheme, Marguerite in Faust, Nedda in Pagliacci, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Antonia in Les Contes Hoffman, and others.

Her repertoire also includes chamber music and baroque music. In addition to her soloist career, Prof. Levitt is a part of the teacher staff of the vocal department at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance