Deborah Voigt
Professor of Voice, San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Few can claim greater prominence in the world of opera than Deborah Voigt.
Coming to prominence in the early 90s as a star in the Metropolitan Opera, she became known worldwide for her interpretations of Wagner and Strauss.
An internationally renowned singer, her performing has taken her around the world not only at the Met, but also at the Chicago Lyric Opera, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the San Francisco Opera, among others.
She was even interviewed on Charlie Rose in the late 90s.
After a storied career as an opera performer, Deborah Voigt first took up a teaching position at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in the fall of 2016.
Her hiring signified an important step forward for SFCM, hiring a teacher with a storied career who is able to pass on not just flawless musicianship and technique to her students, but also a business savvy for thriving in the real world of opera.
Joseph Alessi
Professor of Trombone, the Juilliard School
Regarded by many as the greatest trombonist of all time, Joseph Alessi is both Professor of Trombone at Juilliard as well as the Principle Trombone of the New York Philharmonic.
Rising to prominence in the early 90s, Alessi has since become, along with Christian Lindberg, the most in-demand trombone performer worldwide.
Alessi himself is noted for many historically important performances of classical music, including his 1992 premiere of Christopher Rouse’s Pulitzer winning Trombone Concerto, a work dedicated to Leonard Bernstein.
Alessi’s students have won positions worldwide in many of the world’s great symphonic orchestras. At Juilliard, he takes on a small, incredibly selective studio of trombone students who are among the finest young proprietors of the instrument today.
Victoria Bussert
Professor of Theatre, Director of Music Theatre Program, Baldwin-Wallace University
Victoria Bussert is an absolute force in the world of musical theatre.
As a teacher, she has trained students cast in critically acclaimed Broadway shows such as Aladdin, Anastasia, Kinky Boots, and the Book of Mormon.
Additionally, her students regularly win auditions on Broadway, London’s West End, and television worldwide.
In fact, for the past seven years, every senior showcase ends with every graduating student receiving professional agent representation, perhaps the only school in the country able to boast such an outstanding outcome.
The program is unbelievably selective; about 700 students audition each year, yielding a class of 22 students.
This has been the influence of Victoria Bussert on Baldwin-Wallace’s ascension to one of the top musical theatre colleges in the country.
Featured Image of the New York Philharmonic / Avery Fisher Hall by Jun Seita via Wikimedia Commons