STAGE DIRECTORS

Patricia-Maria Weinmann (Bon Appetit Director) is an active freelance director and a highly respected teacher.  She has worked for many national opera companies and festivals including Utah Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Boston, Ashlawn-Highland Festival, and the Tanglewood Institute.  In the past four seasons, Ms. Weinmann has directed H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, and The Gondoliers for the Deer Valley Music Festival in Park City, Utah. In 2006, Ms. Weinmann directed New England Conservatory's production of Cosi fan tutte, the Seagle Music Colony’s The Barber of Seville, and the New Gallery Concert Series’ Naomi in the Living Room by Jonathan Holland.  Most recently, she directed a double bill of Dido and Aeneas and Les Malheurs d'Orphee at NEC.  She will direct Utah Opera's regular season offering of La Cenerentola in February, 2008.

Peter Sampieri (The Italian Lesson Director)’s professional directing credits include (Off-Broadway) the world premiere of On The Line at Cherry Lane Theatre; (Regional) The Taming of the Shrew, Wit, and A Christmas Carol at Trinity Rep; Yemaya’s Belly at Portland Stage; Radio Free Emerson, Crime and Punishment, and Red Noses at the Gamm Theatre; and A Bright Room Called Day, Elemental Theatre. His new play workshops in NYC include Vendetta Chrome at the Dramatist’s Guild and The 3 Same Guys at The Public.  As a student of the Trinity Rep MFA Directing Program, he directed The Lesson, Oh Dad, Poor Dad…, Awake and Sing!, Marat/Sade, and The Cherry Orchard, and Wit on the Trinity Mainstage.  Peter is a guest faculty member in Directing at The Brown/Trinity Consortium and NYU, an adjunct professor of Acting/Theatre History at RIC and URI, and a resident director at the Gamm.

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Timothy Steele (Music Director) is in his 16th year on the opera faculty at the New England Conservatory.  He conducts outreach performances with Opera New England and has served as assistant conductor/pianist for over 90 productions with 20 companies, including Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Wolf Trap Opera, Portland Opera Repertory Theatre, Teatro Lirico Europa, and Central City Opera.  In Boston he performs regularly with Emmanuel Music and has worked with the Handel and Haydn Society and Auros Group for New Music.  From Des Moines, IA he graduated from Drake University and the University of Southern California, where he studied accompanying with Gwendolyn Koldofsky.