The Program

Resident Teaching Faculty and Master Class Artists

VOICE

Esther Jane Hardenbergh, soprano, Assistant Professor (Voice), has a B.M. degree in music education from the University of Richmond, a M.M. degree in voice and opera performance from Boston University, and a Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University. Hardenbergh enjoys a rich and varied performing career as well as an active teaching career. She has sung extensively in the United States, both in opera and oratorio. Orchestras with whom she has appeared include the Orchestra of St. Luke, Memphis Symphony, Atlanta Baroque Orchestra, Miami Bach Society, Richmond Symphony, Alabama Symphony, and the Boulder Philharmonic. She has performed extensively in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the former Soviet Union. In 1999, she made her Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall debut as the winner of the International Opera Singer Competition and is highly respected as an interpreter of recital repertoire, in particular 19th century German Lieder and 20th Century American Art Song.

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Patricia Wise, Based in Europe for many years, Patricia has performed more than 50 major operatic roles from the lyric and coloratura repertoire. She developed an international career in opera houses including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Vienna, Munich, Berlin, La Scala Milan, London Covent Garden, Paris, and many more. Patricia was a soloist with New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and many others, under von Karajan, Maazel, Mehta, Boehm, Abbado, Giulini, Kleiber, and Sawallisch. She has enjoyed numerous recordings, films, and television appearances. Patricia received the title of Kammersinger from the Austrain government in 1989. A frequent adjudicator in international competitions, she holds yearly master classes at Vienna Conservatory and Salzburg Mozarteum in addition to serving as a master teacher at the Washington National Opera Domingo Young Artist Program. Her students have been young artists at Santa Fe, Brevard, Chataugua, Central City. Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Program, St. Louis Opera, and the Portland Opera.
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David Malis was named assistant professor in the Department of Vocal Performance where he will teach voice and co-direct Opera Theater. Malis is the first American to win the prestigious Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, began his operatic career with the San Francisco Opera as Papageno in Die Zauberflöte. A leading baritone at the Metropolitan Opera for twelve seasons, he has appeared as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Marcello in La Bohème, Papageno, Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Ned Keene in Peter Grimes. The role of Ford in Falstaff has taken him to many of the world’s greatest opera houses, including La Scala, Covent Garden, the Teatro Colòn, the San Francisco Opera, Welsh National Opera, and the Thêàtre des Champs-Elysées. Rossini’s Figaro served as his debut role at the Vienna Staatsoper and the Nederlandse Operastichting. Career highlights include Gellner in La Wally at the Bregenzer Festspiele, Corèbe in Les Troyens in Athens and Toulouse, Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride at the Teatro Colòn and Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at Welsh National Opera, and Marcello at Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal, Teatro Colòn, and Teatro Real in Madrid and Santa Fe. He appears on DVD as Ford in the BBC production of Falstaff and as Figaro in the Dario production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and on CD as Kurwenal in a recent recording of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde for Titanic Records. Mr. Malis has been soloist at Carnegie Hall in Brahms’ Requiem, Vaughan-Williams’ Sea Symphony, and Strauss’ Intermezzo, and as a recitalist in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, Cardiff, Cincinnati and Stockholm. Opera Director of the Crested Butte Music Festival for ten years, and former director of the St. Barts Music Festival, Mr. Malis has produced, directed, cast and sung in La Bohème, Cosi fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Carmen, La Traviata, L’elisir d’amore, Faust, Die Fledermaus, Don Pasquale, The Merry Widow, The Bear, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Rigoletto. He has taught voice at the University of Maryland and at the Opera Theater of Lucca, Italy, and was on the voice faculty of Oberlin in Italy this summer in Urbania. Mr. Malis is a student and protégé of one of the great singing actors of the twentieth century, legendary Italian bass Italo Tajo.

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Margaret Astrup is well known for her interpretations of contemporary American music. She has premiered works by Seymour Barab, Otto Luening, Ruth Schonthal, Judith Zaimont, Richard Auldon Clark, David Sampson, Jorge Martin, and numerous other contemporary composers. With the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, she has performed Knoxville, Summer of 1915 by Samuel Barber (also broadcast on WNYC), Collages by Ruth Schonthal , Cosmos Cantata by Seymour Barab and Kurt Vonnegut and songs by Otto Luening, William Grant Still, Seymour Barab and Richard Auldon Clark. In New York she has appeared in many contemporary American operas for which she has received critical acclaim in publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The London Financial Times and the New York Daily News. In addition to contemporary American repertoire, Dr. Astrup has also been featured in Hums and Songs of Winnie-the Pooh, by Oliver Knussen (Manhattan Chamber Orchestra), Schonberg 2nd String Quartet (Manhattan String Quartet) and Kammermusik, by Finn Høffding (Vinland Ensemble) with whom she was awarded an American Scandinavian Foundation Award for the Advancement of Scandinavian Culture in America. Dr. Astrup has also performed opera and operetta standards extensively with regional opera companies throughout the country as well as with several music festivals and educational touring companies. Dr. Astrup has performed solo recitals and solo works with orchestras in most of the New York concert venues and overseas. Her recordings include songs by Otto Luening (Elegy for Lonesome Ones), William Grant Still (An American Scene), and Alec Wilder (Such a Tender Night) with the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra on the Newport Classic label and Cosmos Cantata (Cosmos Cantata) by Seymour Barab for the Kelios/Helicon label and Songs by Ruth Schonthal on Albany Records. Together with violinist Eric Lewis (WCSU string faculty) she is currently recording works for violin and voice, including works by Holst, Vaughan Williams and Rebecca Clarke based on the folk music tradition of the British Isles for Centaur Records. Dr. Astrup earned her ME and Ed.D degrees in vocal pedagogy at Columbia University Teachers College. She also has an MM in vocal performance from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a BM in vocal performance from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN where she also received certification in music education and earned a second major degree in English. Dr. Astrup also did doctoral studies at Indiana University where she taught in the Department of Music Education. She is currently head of the voice and opera programs at Western Connecticut State University. Former president of Connecticut chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), she currently serves the national organization as NATS Connecticut District Governor.

Dr. Frank Wayne Ragsdale was born in Texas and earned his undergraduate and master's degrees in New England. He was awarded his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami, where he was voted outstanding graduate student before joining the voice faculty of the Bass School of Music in 2004. During the summers, he is coach for dramatic interpretation and stage presentation at the University of Miami Frost School of Music at Salzburg.His teaching philosophy states: I believe that teaching is the most important profession one can have. As a professor of voice, it is my main responsibility to teach my students how to become better singers and musicians. But it is my job as an educator to teach my students the process of learning. I believe it is vital that I give each student the tools he or she needs to do the job I ask of her or him, and hopefully, at the same time, what is learned will help in all aspects of life.Singing is an organic process and much of what a student must learn to do is let go and allow the voice to sing instead of trying to make it sing.I also believe that singing is something we do, and not who we are. It helps to make life a wonderful place and brings beauty to us and to all those around us, but it alone does not define who we are as individuals.I teach that the process is just as important as the performance. Singing is a life long pursuit that has no final destination, which if understood, adds to a life of joy and fulfillment for the both the student and the teacher. It was Mark Twain who said:"The work that is really a man's own work is play and not work at all. When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world. The fellows who groan and sweat under the weary load of toil that they bear never can hope to do anything great."Dr. Ragsdale received his Bachelor of Music in voice performance from Atlantic Union College, and his Graduate Diploma and Master of Music degrees in opera from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Mass.He has performed in opera, oratorio, musical theatre, and recitals throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, and Central America where, for three consecutive years, he was invited by the U.S. Embassies of Costa Rica and Honduras to give recital tours and master classes with collaborative artist Thomas Enman.He has performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Cairo Opera House, Mechanics Hall, Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris, San Marco di Venizia, and St. Martin-in-the-Fields. His operatic roles include Rodolfo from La Bohome, Alfredo from La Traviata, Don Ottavio from Don Giovanni, and Tamino from Die Zauberflote. He has performed musical theater roles including Tony from West Side Story, Freddy from My Fair Lady, and Sam from Street Scene.In addition to his experience as a performer, Dr. Ragsdale has directed opera, musical theater, and theater productions. He taught at Thayer Conservatory, Columbia Union College, Plymouth State College, New World School of the Arts, and the University of Miami before making his home at Oklahoma City University. He is a member of The National Association of Teachers of Singing, College Music Society, and Pi Kappa Lambda.