In order of performance
Carol Rausch
Music Administrator, Coach/Accompanist
Since 1995 Carol has served as Music Administrator/Chorus Master for the Chautauqua Opera, overseeing the musical components of the summer season and the young artist program. Carol is also the Music Administrator/Chorus Master for the New Orleans Opera Association (NOOA). During this past year she served as music director and pianist for the company’s popular outdoor concerts at various sites in the metro area. She has won awards for both choral direction and for NOOA’s success in arts education throughout Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Carol has previously worked for Virginia Opera, Greater Miami Opera (now Florida Grand Opera), Ohio Light Opera and Opera Columbus. She has taught at The Ohio State University and has served on the staffs of Kenyon College and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Carol is currently head of the opera department at Loyola University New Orleans, where she has musically prepared and conducted numerous performances. In January 2018 the city of New Orleans hosted the National Opera Association conference, for which Loyola produced Tom Cipullo’s award-winning chamber opera After Life. Carol holds degrees from Indiana University and The Ohio State University, and she pursued a year of study at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels, Belgium, as a Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellow. Her piano teachers have included Jorge Bolet, Earl Wild, Richard Tetley- Kardos and Sonja Anschütz.
Rick Hoffenberg
Company Scheduler, Coach/Accompanist, COVID Supervisor
In 2007, Rick Hoffenberg joined the faculty of Marywood University, where he is currently Associate Professor, Director of Choral Activities, and Co-Chair of the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance. He has also been Music Director of the Wyoming Seminary Civic Orchestra since 2013. He previously held conducting positions at the University of Northern Iowa and Williams College. Dr. Hoffenberg has directed a dozen choral tours throughout the United States; he has also conducted high school festival concerts and workshops in the Eastern and Midwestern United States. He has spent the past 22 summers at Chautauqua Opera, where he is a coach and scheduler. He also worked in various capacities for New York City Opera, BMG Classics/RCA Victor Red Seal, Columbia Artists Management, the Milken Archive, and Spoleto Festival USA. As a pianist, he has performed at Orchestra Hall in Chicago, the Music Institute of Chicago, Rockefeller Chapel in New York City, and Richardson Auditorium in Princeton, New Jersey. He was the state winner, division winner, and national finalist in the 1994 MTNA Wurlitzer Piano Competition. He holds degrees from Princeton University, Yale University, and Westminster Choir College, where his conducting teachers included Andrew Megill and the late Joseph Flummerfelt.
Emily Jarrell Urbanek
Coach/Accompanist
Emily Jarrell Urbanek is currently Director of Music Preparation for Opera Carolina in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is also an extra keyboardist with the Charlotte Symphony. In March 2020 she conducted Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg for Opera Carolina and Opera Grand Rapids. Emily frequently performs chamber music in the Charlotte area and has participated in premieres of new works by Kevin Krumenauer, David Noon, John Allemeier, Sean Neukom, and Mary Armistead-Jones. For several years, Emily has been on the musical staff of the Fort Worth Opera Festival and Chautauqua Opera. Recent repetiteur engagements include San Diego Opera (Nixon in China, 2015; Samson et Dalila, 2013), New Orleans Opera (Dead Man Walking, 2016; Cendrillon, 2014), and Kentucky Opera (Carmen, 2019; Dead Man Walking, 2017). Emily holds degrees from Furman University, the University of Michigan, and the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Allison Voth
Coach/Accompanist, Diction, Supertitles
Allison Voth is the principal coach and an associate professor at Boston University’s Opera Institute. As répétiteur and diction coach, she has worked with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Opera Providence, Opera Aperta, Verismo Opera of New Jersey, Boston Baroque, and Opera North. Festivals at which she has worked include Opera Unlimited, the Florence Vocal Seminar, and the Athens Music Festival. Ms. Voth, also in demand for her authoritative and eloquent supertitles, has developed titles for Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Washington National Opera, Barbican Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Emmanuel Music, Boston Baroque, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Palm Beach Opera. She also holds the post of Music Director for the Cantata Singers Chamber Recital Series. Ms. Voth joined Chautauqua Opera as a coach and pianist in 1996. Since 2001, she has also served as the company’s diction instructor and supertitle creator/operator since 2010.
