The other side of silence

a new opera for synthetic and acoustic voices

by librettists Mark Steidl and Katherine Skovira and composer Robert Whalen

Wednesday, October 16th at 7pm
Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC)
FREE

THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE examines the intersection of art, advocacy, and technology in our lives, memories, and identities, and the role that art plays in promoting equity and agency of those who use alternative means of communication to speak to the world. 

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Opera Saratoga, and the Bergamot Quartet join forces this October to present a workshop performance of THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE by librettists Mark Steidl and Katherine Skovira and composer Robert Whalen.  THE OTHER SIDE OF SILENCE is a new opera for synthetic and acoustic voices written by and for people who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication. The story draws direct inspiration from the life of Mark Steidl, a gender non-binary person who uses an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device to talk with the world.  

A Workshop Performance of Act 1 took place on Wednesday, October 16th at 7pm in the acoustically stunning Concert Hall at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). The performance was free and open to the public. The workshop performance was presented as part of the 2024 International Symposium On Assistive Technology For Music And Art (ISATMA).

Meet the CAST


  • Mark Steidl (they/them/their) is a 29-year-old who has cerebral palsy and lives in Pittsburgh, PA. In 2020, they graduated from Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), majoring in social work foundations. In addition to serving as vice-president of student government at CCAC, Mark participated in the Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA). Mark works part-time in technical support at Tobii Dynavox, a world leader in electronic communication devices. He has taught music appreciation at the Woodlands Foundation, and is the program manager for Self-Advocacy Voices, a public speaking and empowerment program. Mark’s hobbies include going to concerts and musicals, listening to wide variety of music, and traveling to new places. Mark loves to listen to showtunes! “People say don’t judge a book by its cover -- that goes for people too,” Mark says, adding that labels automatically go on everyone but they want to be seen as “more than a person in a wheelchair.”


  • Soprano, Meghan Kasanders has been hailed by Opera News as “a wonderfully promising, rich dramatic soprano”. In the 23/24 season, she debuts with The Dallas Opera in Elektra (Fünfte Magd) and Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln conducted by Fabio Luisi. Meghan will also present a recital produced by Carnegie Hall Citywide in New York City.


    Last season she debuted at Virginia Opera in Die Walküre (Sieglinde). Past engagements include returns to Staatsoper Hannover for Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud), Opera Columbus for Fellow Travelers (Mary Johnson), and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for The Magic Flute (First Lady). On the concert stage she made her debut with the Lubbock Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.

    Meghan made her debut at Opera Columbus in Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) and returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Gianni Schicchi (Nella) and Des Moines Metro Opera as guest soloist in A Concert for Robert.

    She debuted the title role in Anna Bolena with Baltimore Concert Opera and made her European debut in Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud) with Staatsoper Hannover. Meghan made her Carnegie Hall debut singing in Bernstein’s Songfest with the Juilliard Orchestra under the direction of Marin Alsop and debuted at Opera Saratoga in their critically acclaimed production of The Consul (Magda). She also performed Sibelius’ Luonnotar, Barbara Hannigan conducting, in Alice Tully Hall (NYC) and Don Giovanni (Donna Anna) at The Juilliard School. Ms. Kasanders is a 2019 Grand Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and both the First Prize and Audience Choice Winner in Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. She has also been recognized by the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Opera Birmingham Vocal Competition (Second Prize and Audience Choice), and the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition, where she won first prize in 2017 as the youngest competitor. Meghan’s training has included past resident artist apprenticeships with International Meistersinger Akademie (Neumarkt, Germany), Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Ms. Kasanders holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Simpson College, a Master of Music degree from Rice University, and an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from The Juilliard School, where she received The Richard F. Gold Career Grant.

  • Soprano Jennifer Zetlan is internationally recognized for her artistry and captivating stage presence, known for being “persuasive and powerful”, “flawless” (The New York Times), and a “tour de force” (Wall Street Journal). Last season, she was seen as Eurydice in the deaf opera project Orpheus & Erica with Victory Hall Opera and as Trujamán in Manuel de Falla’s El retablo del maese Pedro at the Kennedy Center with PostClassical Ensemble. Additionally, she gave the world premiere of Tribute to the Angels, a piece written for her by Louis Karchin with the Talea Ensemble and appeared at the New Voices Festival with the Brooklyn Art Song Society and the Riverside Orchestra, singing Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. In the upcoming season, Ms. Zeltan joins the American Lyric Theater for their popular InsightALT series as Tzeitl in Tevye’s Daughters and Madame Alice in Working for the Macbeths.

    Ms. Zetlan took part in several pandemic-based projects, including a multi-continent live Zoom production of Noor Inayat Khan’s Aède of the Ocean and Land, presented by the Center for Contemporary Opera, and a phone-opera-for-one production of To My Distant Beloved with On Site Opera. The 2019-2020 season included the reprise of her role as Ellen in Ricky Ian Gordon and Frank Bidart’s Ellen West with the Prototype Festival and a reprise of her role as Ginsburg in Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg with Opera Carolina and Opera Grand Rapids. Other recent season highlights include joining the San Francisco Symphony as Xenia in Boris Godunov with Michael Tilson Thomas, appearing as soprano soloist in Carmina Burana with the Kansas City Symphony, Fauré’s Requiem at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine and Ginsburg in Scalia/Ginsburg with Opera Delaware.

    Ms. Zetlan has performed with The Metropolitan Opera on numerous occasions, having most recently covered the role of Queen Tye in both the 2019 and 2022 productions of Akhnaten and covering Little Stone in the 2021 production of Eurydice. She has also appeared as the 2nd French actress in War and Peace, Xenia in Boris Godunov, a bridesmaid in Le nozze di Figaro, Bloody Child in Macbeth, and Rebecca in the premiere of Nico Muhly’sTwo Boys. She's also been a frequent featured artist at Seattle Opera, performing roles such as Gilda in Rigoletto, Musetta in La bohème, Woglinde in Das Rheingold, and The Forest Bird in Siegfried. Favorite notable roles elsewhere include Pamina in Die Zauberflöte with Charlottesville Opera and Nashville Opera, Sardula in Menotti’s The Last Savage with Santa Fe Opera, Spring in The Fairy Queen with the Staatstheater Stuttgart, Laoula in L’étoile with New York City Opera, and Nannetta in Falstaff at the Juilliard Opera Center, among others.

    Known for her passion for contemporary music, Ms. Zetlan has been featured in numerous American opera premieres. She has originated title roles in Ellen West with Opera Saratoga, Musto and Einhorn’s Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt with On Site Opera, and Louis Karchin’s Jane Eyre with the Center for Contemporary Opera. She has also sung in premieres for works like Rorem’s Our Town with the Aspen Music Festival and Juilliard Opera Center, Aucoin’s Crossing with ART in Boston and BAM in New York, Steven Stucky and Jeremy Denk’s The Classical Style with the Ojai Festival and Carnegie Hall, Gordon’s Morning Star with On Site and Cincinnati Opera, Muhly’s Dark Sisters with Gotham Chamber Opera and Opera Philadelphia, and Daron Hagen’s Amelia with Seattle Opera. She has also appeared on Broadway as Shaindel in Bartlett Sher’s Fiddler on the Roof.

    Ms. Zetlan is a committed performer of orchestral works and song repertoire. On the concert stage, she has performed Kaija Saariaho’s Lonh with the New York Philharmonic at the Park Avenue Armory, Woglinde in Das Rheingold with the New York Philharmonic, soprano soloist in Bruckner’s Te Deum and Mozart’s Mass in c minor with Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall and on tour in Uruguay, and was heard at Carnegie Hall as a celebrated alumna of Mannes College of Music in their Centennial Celebration concert. Recognized as a unique recitalist, Ms. Zetlan was selected as a Marilyn Horne Foundation artist and was chosen to perform in The Juilliard School’s 2012 Vocal Arts Honors Recital in Alice Tully Hall; she’s been heard in recital with her husband, pianist David Shimoni at venues such as Christ and St. Stephen’s Church in New York City, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, Golandsky Institute, Foothills Music Festival, and the Artist Series of Sarasota. Additionally, she has given recitals with pianists Martin Katz and Ricky Ian Gordon and has released her first solo album in collaboration with Mr. Gordon at the piano. Ms. Zetlan is on the voice faculty of the Mannes College of Music.

  • With a voice that the New York Times has described as “burly and resonant,” and the San Francisco Classical Voice has called “commanding and compelling,” American bass Isaiah Musik-Ayala is quickly gaining recognition as a performer to watch in a wide variety of repertoire across the United States.

    In the current season, Isaiah returns to Anchorage Opera for all three productions. He will make his role debut as Haly in L’italiana in Algeri, in a co-production with Houston’s Opera in the Heights. He will also reprise his Bonze in Madama Butterfly and sing a variety of repertoire in the company’s immersive pastiche production of Mozart at the Museum at the Anchorage Museum, developed by Artistic Director Ben Robinson. Highlights of the 2023-2024 season for Isaiah included his début at the Los Angeles Philharmonic as The Groundskeeper in Oliver Leith’s Last Days, a new opera chronicling the life and death of Kurt Cobain, under the baton of Thomas Adès. He also débuted with Anchorage Opera as Baron Douphol in La traviata and returned to Opera San Jose to cover Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

    Isaiah recently performed Banquo in Heartbeat Opera’s innovative Lady M adaptation of Verdi’s Macbeth, in which Loren Lester of Schmopera praised his performance as, “…potent and formidable… a force to be reckoned with, not only as Banquo, but as an ascendant star in the opera world.” Other highlights of recent seasons have included Rocco in Fidelio and the Archbishop in The Maid of Orleans at Opera Company of Middlebury; Jochanaan in Salome, Oroveso in Norma, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Ramfis in Aida with West Bay Opera; Alidoro in La Cenerentola with TriCities Opera; Baron Douphol in La traviata with Savannah Voice Festival, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Hawaii Performing Arts Festival; Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Opera Academy California; Colline in La bohème with New York City Opera, Union Avenue Opera, and Opera San Jose; Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin with Union Avenue Opera; Bonze in Madama Butterfly with North Shore Music Festival, and Escamillo in Carmen with Opera San Luis Obispo. 

    With Opera San Jose, Isaiah has sung several roles including Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Sacristan in Tosca, Frank in Die Fledermaus, Alexei Karenin in Anna Karenina, and Simone in Gianni Schicchi. He has also covered the French General in Silent Night with OSJ, the King in Aida, Colline in La bohème, and Barbarossa in La battaglia di Legnano at Sarasota Opera.

    On the concert platform, Isaiah has sung the bass solos in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Schubert’s Mass No. 6 with Solano Symphony, Haydn’s Nicolai Mass at Montclair Presbyterian Church, and has appeared in recital with The Beverly Hills Recital Series. He was slated to sing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Glacier Symphony before its cancellation due to COVID-19. 

    Isaiah is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied with the late Richard Miller.

  • Theo Hayes (they/them) is a mezzo-soprano in the Graduate Diploma program at The Juilliard School studying under Darrell Babidge. Hayes graduated from University of Connecticut in 2015 with a B.M. in vocal performance, studying under Meredith Ziegler. Hayes won first place in the National NATS competition for Treble Advanced Voice; was a district competitor in the Laffont Competition; and attended the Chautauqua Opera Conservatory (summer of 2023) while studying with Dr. Ho Eui Holly Bewlay in Buffalo, NY. In the Fall of 2023 at the Juilliard School, Theo sang the role Thelma in Later The Same Evening by Musto, and covered Annio in La Clemenza di Tito. In the summer of 2024, Theo sang excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Timothy Muffit. This season at The Juilliard School, Theo will be singing Despina in Così fan tutte; L’enfant in L’enfant et les sortileges; and covering Madame Croissy in Dialogues des Carmélites. Hayes is passionate about trans and non-binary representation in opera and is currently directing and performing in an operatic film project entitled Pants Role Project: Transforming Tradition, which centers the voices of queer and trans opera singers.

Meet the Creative Team & Others


  • Mark Steidl (they/them/their) is a 29-year-old who has cerebral palsy and lives in Pittsburgh, PA. In 2020, they graduated from Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC), majoring in social work foundations. In addition to serving as vice-president of student government at CCAC, Mark participated in the Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA). Mark works part-time in technical support at Tobii Dynavox, a world leader in electronic communication devices. He has taught music appreciation at the Woodlands Foundation, and is the program manager for Self-Advocacy Voices, a public speaking and empowerment program. Mark’s hobbies include going to concerts and musicals, listening to wide variety of music, and traveling to new places. Mark loves to listen to showtunes! “People say don’t judge a book by its cover -- that goes for people too,” Mark says, adding that labels automatically go on everyone but they want to be seen as “more than a person in a wheelchair.”


  • Robert Whalen (he/him/his) serves as Lecturer of Music and Conducting at Rensselaer, where he directs the Rensselaer Orchestra, Concert Choir, and Wind Symphony.  Whalen has also led orchestras on the faculties of the University of Chicago as Director of the Chamber Orchestra and Lewis and Clark College as Interim Director of Orchestral Activities.  At the University of Chicago, Whalen launched numerous innovative programs and projects, including an “Explore Classical Music!” alliance with the Berlin Philharmonic, a Graduate Student Composer Fellowship, and the Chamber Orchestra’s first-ever participation in the University of Chicago’s Humanities Day Festival. 


    A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Whalen is Co-Founder and Music Director of the Philadelphia-based ensemble SoundLAB.  Of his work with SoundLAB, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “The diabolical enthusiasm of...Robert Whalen left me nearly begging for mercy...the artistic equivalent of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.”


    Whalen founded SoundLAB as the Barnes Ensemble in 2016 at the Barnes Foundation, where Whalen also served as Associate Curator for Music, the first curator of music in the 100-year history of the institution.  The Barnes Ensemble has performed a diverse array of music by living composers and projects at the intersection of the arts, social justice, and technology.  Whalen has collaborated with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the JACK Quartet, the Argus Quartet, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Barnes Foundation, Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and with composers Chaya Czernowin, Zosha Di Castri, Clara Iannotta, Eric Wubbels, and Augusta Read Thomas.  Under Whalen’s direction, SoundLAB was included at the International Contemporary Ensemble’s 2021 Ensemble Evolution Symposium, where industry thought leaders met to discuss and define trends in contemporary performance.


    Access to music education and supporting young composers is core to Whalen’s work as a conductor and ensemble director.  With SoundLAB, engaged over 1,000 students from the City of Philadelphia School District around Ligeti’s Ramifications in the inaugural Barnes Ensemble Festival in 2017.  In the same year, Whalen began a partnership with the Temple University Institute on Disabilities and the Curtis Institute of Music’s Social Entrepreneurship program that cultivated a musical partnership between artists who use Alternative Assistive Communication and students at the Curtis Institute.  This ongoing project has led so far to the premiere of two co-developed song cycles, lost time (2020) and [no words] (2021). 


    Whalen’s conducting has been recognized in the US and internationally.  He was personally selected by Lorin Maazel to serve as his Conducting Fellow at the Castleton Festival and has worked as Assistant Conductor at the WDR in Cologne, Germany.  In addition to his instrumental work, Whalen also has significant experience working with the choirs.  Whalen served as Assistant Chorus Master at Opera Philadelphia beginning in 2019 and has conducted the 64-voice professional chorus in preparations for productions of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges, Handel’s Semele, and Verdi’s Requiem.  During his tenure at the Barnes Foundation, Whalen also served as Director of the Choral Series and Guest Conductor of the Philadelphia Voices in a performance of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Vigilia, which was praised by the Philadelphia Inquirer: “…programs this thoughtfully conceived and confidently executed are always needed in even the richest of musical communities.”  Whalen has also held the Choral Conducting Fellowship at Yale University’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.  


    Whalen earned a BA cum laude from Cornell University, where he studied composition with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky.  Whalen was awarded an MFA in Orchestral Conducting from the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and a DMA from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with Craig Kirchhoff.

  • Katherine Skovira, D.M.A. (she/her) is a nationally recognized contemporary music specialist, educator, researcher, curator, and mezzo-soprano from Philadelphia. Katherine has collaborated on numerous projects with composer/conductor Robert Whalen. Of their work, The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “The diabolical enthusiasm of Robert Whalen and Katherine Skovira left me nearly begging for mercy...the artistic equivalent of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft.”


    Katherine serves as Faculty Fellow in Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY and Co-Artistic Director of SoundLAB contemporary ensemble in Philadelphia and she has performed with Maestro Lorin Maazel, Sir Simon Rattle, and Barbara Hannigan, and has collaborated with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Curtis Institute, Lucerne Festival, JACK Quartet, Institute on Disabilities at Temple, American Philosophical Society, American Composers Forum, University of Pennsylvania, and Alarm Will Sound. Katherine holds degrees in voice, pedagogy, and political science from Cornell University, Westminster Choir College, and the University of Minnesota School of Music.

    Katherine is co-librettist for the new opera, The Other Side of Silence, which workshops with Opera Saratoga in 2024 at EMPAC as part of the International Symposium on Assistive Technology for Music and Art (ISATMA) and Opera Saratoga’s Listen to This: Voice to Heal Our Future Series. Katherine received the 2021 Discovery Grant for Female Composers and additional grants from Opera America’s New Works Forum, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and New Music USA. She has presented at conferences with Opera America, the Voice Foundation in 2023 and 2024, and the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Since 2017 and 2023 respectively, Katherine has worked with innovators in the non-speaking community and people with spinal cord injury in collaborative performances and research/educational initiatives. Katherine has performed over 32 world premieres of new solo vocal and operatic works.

  • Mary Birnbaum has directed opera and music theater around the world, including staging critically acclaimed productions of Rossi’s L’Orfeo, Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, and Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at The Juilliard School and The Classical Style at Carnegie Hall. She was nominated as best newcomer at The European Opera Awards in 2015; in 2019 her production of Puccini’s La bohème opened the Santa Fe Opera season, and her production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas toured to Opera Holland Park and Opéra de Versailles. Birnbaum has also directed productions at Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Bard Music Festival, Virginia Opera, Virginia Arts Festival, Ojai Festival, Montclair Peak Performances, and Boston Baroque in the US, as well as in Taiwan (with the National Symphony Orchestra), Central America (National Theatre of Costa Rica and Guatemala), Australia, and Israel.

    In demand for her skills as a collaborator on new works, Birnbaum has created world premieres of works by contemporary artists including Jeremy Denk, Steven Stucky, Frank London, Elise Thoron, Kristin Kuster, and Megan Levad. She most recently directed the world premiere of In A Grove by Christopher Cerrone and Stephanie Fleischmann at Pittsburgh Opera. 

    As a faculty member of The Juilliard School since 2011, Birnbaum teaches acting to singers and serves as dramatic advisor to the master’s degree candidates. She also coaches acting in the Lindemann Young Artists Program at The Metropolitan Opera. She was named general and artistic director of Opera Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 2023.  A graduate of Harvard College, Mary Birnbaum trained professionally in physical theater at L’École Jacques Lecoq in Paris. 

  • Bergamot Quartet is fueled by a passion for exploring and advocating for the music of living composers, continually expanding the limits of the string quartet’s rich tradition in western classical music. With a priority given to music by women, they aim to place this new, genre-bending music in meaningful dialogue with the histories that precede it with creative programming, community-oriented audience building, and frequent commissioning.

    Bergamot values partnership and collaboration as a vital element of their creative work. Highlights of their 2024-25 season are performances of percussionist Samuel Torres’ “A Dance For Birds” for Bergamot and Latin jazz sextet, which premiered at Lincoln Center in 2023, a collaboration with BalletCollective where Bergamot will become a three-viola, three-cello ensemble for Jonathan Bingham and Houston Thomas’s new work for the collective, the continuation of their monthly series Bergamot Quartet Extended, and appearances on the Tribeca New Music and Washington Square Chamber Music series in NYC. Recent projects include collaborating with The Crossing Choir for a premiere of David T. Little’s SIN-EATER commissioned by Penn Live Arts, a performance of Dan Trueman’s “Songs That Are Hard To Sing” with Sō Percussion at Public Records in Brooklyn, and a collaboration with composer/percussionist Susie Ibarra and her Talking Gong trio.

    Bergamot Quartet is Ledah Finck and Sarah Thomas, violins; Amy Tan, viola; and Irène Han, cello. Founded at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore in 2016, Bergamot Quartet is based in New York City and was the Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the Mannes School of Music for 2020-2022.

  • Yael Erel is an architect, educator and light artist. She interweaves light optics research with academic teaching and practice. Erel is a registered architect in New York and Israel. Graduated with honors from The Cooper Union where she received the Irma Giustino Weiss Prize for creative achievement. As light became the focus of Erel’s work, she pursued her graduate studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to gain deep knowledge of light as material. Her current research studies systems of light sources and reflectors that construct spatial and temporal light-drawings. Her work has been published and exhibited at the miSci Museum, Albany Airport, Cornell University, MIT, RPI, The Krakow Biennial, Queens Theater in the Park, The Public Theater SPF, Pratt Institute and other NYC Galleries. For over a decade Erel has been deeply immersed in architectural education, teaching architecture at the Harvard GSD,The Cooper Union, Columbia University and Pratt Institute. She is currently at Rensselaer School of Architecture, teaching architecture as well as a seminar studying light and projection.

  • Camilla Tassi is a NYC-based projection designer from Florence, Italy. Design credits include Falling Out of Time (Carnegie Hall), King Arthur (Lincoln Center, Juilliard415), SEACHANGE (Miami City Ballet), The Extinctionist (Heartbeat Opera), Adoration (BMP & PROTOTYPE), SANDRA (TheaterWorks Hartford), Elijah Reimagined (Kennedy Center), Alcina (Yale Opera), Iphigénie en Tauride (Boston Baroque), La Boheme (Music Academy of the West), Anne Frank (Indiana University Opera), Fun Home (Yale School of Drama), and Malhaar (Walt Disney Concert Hall). Broadway: Illinoise, Associate. She has sung in the NY Phil chorus and with the Yale Schola Cantorum. Tassi holds degrees in computer science, music, and projection design. Burry Fredrik design award and Robert L. Tobin Director-Designer opera prize recipient. Yale, MFA. IG: camtassi  http://camillatassi.com

  • Carla Leitão is an architect, writer, and professor at RPI's School of Architecture. Co-Founder of AUM Studio and Spec.AE. Practice,  research and academic endeavors explore the intersection of  architecture materials and practices and media concepts and processes.  Lead Faculty research at RPI's immersive space, the CRAIVE Lab, and Faculty at RPI's CASE center.

    Practice includes built Architectural design, curation, theory,  speculative design & interactive multimedia installations.  Publications include essays and articles on the relationships between  architecture, advanced materials and media technologies.

  • Amanda Robie comes to Opera Saratoga from Boston Lyric Opera, where she held the position of Production Operations Manager. Amanda grew up in New Hampshire, studied Music Education in undergrad at Bucknell University, and received her Master of Music in Voice Performance from The Boston Conservatory. While living in Boston, she was one of the early members of Boston Opera Collaborative, a company run by singers to help provide performance opportunities to young singers in the Boston area. After receiving her Master of Music, Amanda worked at The Boston Conservatory for three years as the Assistant Registrar while pursuing her singing career. In 2011, she had the opportunity to join the Young Artist Program at Fort Worth Opera and was their resident mezzo-soprano for two years. She then spent the summer of 2013 as an Apprentice Artist at Opera Saratoga, performing the role of Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore. The following year, she transitioned into arts administration and started working at Fort Worth Opera as Company Manager. Over the next three years on the Fort Worth Opera staff, Amanda worked her way up to become the Director of Apprentice Artists & Education and then the Director of Artistic Operations, prior to her appointment at Boston Lyric Opera. Amanda currently serves as Opera Saratoga’s Managing Director.

  • Laurie Rogers has been Director of the Festival Artist Program and Head of Music Staff for Opera Saratoga since 2011, and also holds the position of Music Director of Opera at the Peabody Institute.  Recently she conducted Le nozze di Figaro at Knoxville Opera; Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni and La scala di seta at Peabody; Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at Opera Saratoga; and Adriana Lecouvreur and Menotti’s The Consul at Opera Baltimore; in addition she teaches the graduate conducting unit in opera at Peabody.  She has served as Associate Conductor at LA Opera, and prepared productions for San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, North Carolina Opera, American Lyric Theater, Wolf Trap Opera, Utah Opera, Arizona Opera, and Washington National Opera, among many others, and served as assistant conductor and in artistic administration for the Opera Company of Philadelphia for thirteen seasons. She was integrally involved in the creation of numerous world premieres, including Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, Ricky Ian Gordon's A Coffin in Egypt and Ellen West, Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner, Dominick Argento’s Dream of Valentino, David Carlson’s Midnight Angel and Dreamkeepers, and David DiChiera’s Cyrano.  Ms. Rogers gives master classes throughout the country, judges for the Met National Council Auditions, and has been published in “Classical Singer” magazine.  She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University.

Generous support for this project is provided by: