Festival Directors
Kathryn Hartgrove
Artistic Director
Kathryn Hartgrove has been described as “a mezzo-soprano of precision, range and sheer splendor” and has been heard throughout the United States, South America and Europe. Her many roles include Judith in Bluebeard’s Castle, Suzuki in Madame Butterfly, Thisbe in La Cenerentola, Siebel in Faust, Emilia in Otello, and Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana with such companies as the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera’s National Tour, Chicago Opera Theater, Łodz National Opera of Poland, Chamber Opera of Chicago, Piedmont Opera Theater, and Opera Maine. She has performed as soloist with Istanbul National Symphony, Pesaro Chamber Orchestra in Italy, Grant Park Symphony of Chicago, Hinsdale Chamber Orchestra, Lake Shore Symphony, Millikin-Decatur Symphony, and Beloit-Janesville Symphony. Other concerts include Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire in Germany and at the Dimitria Festival in Greece; Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the Pasqua Festival in Italy; concerts in Poland at the Krakow Opera House; concerts at the Trujillo Bach Festival in Peru; opera galas in Macerata Feltria and Pesaro, Italy; a recital for the Atelier Concert Series in Paris, France; as well as recitals in Bauru, Campinas, and São Paulo, Brazil, Italy, and the United States. She has been heard on radio and television in Brazil, Turkey, and the United States.
Ms. Hartgrove is an active stage director and has staged Dido and Aeneas at the Festival Música das Esferas, Cagnoni’s Don Bucefalo, Il Mondo della Luna, and Rita for Voci nel Montefeltro in Italy. Pizza con Funghi with the Boston Opera Cooperative, Too Many Sopranos and Pizza con Funghi for Milwaukee Opera Theater, and Die Zauberflöte for the University of Campinas in Brazil. In November 2016, she was an artist in residence for Universidade Federal de Uberlândia and Opera MINAZ.
Ms. Hartgrove presented masterclasses in Brazil, Italy, Peru, and Greece, and at the universities of Montana, Utah, Hawaii, and Tennessee, as well as New England Conservatory, Tufts University, Butler University, Southwestern University, Ithaca College, and Drake University.
Ms. Hartgrove is a Professor of Voice at Georgia State University and the Artistic Director of the Festival of International Opera of the Americas.
Adriana Kayama
General Director
Brazilian soprano, Adriana Kayama, has performed throughout Brazil, North America and Europe in La Clemenza di Tito, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Die Zauberflöte and Der Schauspieldirektor. Ms. Kayama has also performed with several orchestras, such as the Campinas Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo State Orchestra, Jazz Symphonic Orchestra, and Bahia Symphony Orchestra, among others. She received the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo Young Soloist Award in 1984 and was semifinalist at the XII International Voice Competition in Rio de Janeiro in 1985. She holds Bachelor’s degree in Music from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) and Master’s and Doctorate (DMA) from the University of Washington. She was the head of the vocal program and voice professor of the Arts Institute at UNICAMP for over 30 years, where she taught voice, diction, vocal pedagogy, and chamber music. Ms. Kayama has dedicated all of her academic career to the research and performance of Brazilian chamber music and opera. She was one of the coordinators of the project that lead to the publication of the Norms for Brazilian Portuguese Lyric Diction (Published in the Journal of Singing in Nov/Dec 2008). From 2003 to 2007, Ms. Kayama was the president of the National Association of Research and Graduate Studies in Music (ANPPOM). She has offered Vocal Master Classes in Brazil and United States. She is presently a collaborative professor in the Graduate Music Program at UNICAMP.
Dr. Joshua May
Associate Artistic Director
Dr. Joshua May, tenor, is an Associate Professor of Voice and the Director of Opera Activities at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University. He has performed and premiered works throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States. He is an avid recitalist and oratorio singer, performing recently as a soloist in Bach’s Magnificat, Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, and Dubois’s Seven Last Words of Christ. He has been a featured performer in recitals across the United States. In the 2024/2025 season, he will premier new vocal works by American composers, Griffin Candey and Traci Mendel. He is also an operatic artist in high demand, performing over thirty operatic roles that range from the Baroque repertoire to premiers of new works. He has performed such recent roles as Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Male Chorus in Britten’s Rape of Lucretia, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Prince Paul in Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, and Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte.
As an opera director, his recent national and international directing credits include productions of Amahl & the Night Visitors, Die Zauberflöte, Rusalka, Don Giovanni, Hansel & Gretel, Falstaff, and Pélleas et Mélisande. His work as a director has been recognized by both the American Prize and the National Opera Association. Dr. May is an active stage director working with universities/colleges, opera companies, and international opera festivals. Dr. May is a current faculty member and stage director at the Festival of International Opera in Urbania, Italy.
He has presented his research on vocal literature, vocal pedagogy, and opera performance practice with the National Opera Association, College Music Society, National Association of Teachers of Singing, New Voice Educators Symposium, Alabama Music Educators Association, Georgia Music Educators Association, Georgia THESCON, the 13th Annual International Conference on Visual and Performing Arts in Athens, Greece, the 15th Annual Prague Quadrennial in the Czech Republic, and the National Lilly Conference.
As a voice educator, he is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. He was selected by the National Association of Teachers of Singing for the NATS Intern Program in 2014. He currently serves on the executive board for Georgia NATS as the Vice-President. In addition, he serves as the Governor for the Southeastern Region and is the Chair for the Student Programming Committee of the National Opera Association. He has served as an active adjudicator, master clinician, guest director for Classical Singer, NATS, NOA, Georgia Literary Competition, Georgia Governor’s Honors Program, MTNA, MSVMA, Kiwanis Club Music Showcase, Great Lakes Male Chorus Association, University/Collegiate programs, and both national and international young artist opera programs.
His voice students have won state, regional, national, and international prizes. They have also been recipients of voice scholarships at the undergraduate and graduate levels in university/collegiate music programs across the nation. Dr. May holds a D.M.A. in Voice Performance from the University of Connecticut, an M.M. in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, an M.M. in Vocal Pedagogy from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a B.M. in Voice Performance from the University of Florida. Dr. May has completed all three certification levels at the LoVetri Institute for Somatic Voicework.
For information on upcoming engagements, please visit his website: www.joshuamaytenor.com.
Benjamin Smolder
Associate General Director
Benjamin Smolder, bass-baritone, is Associate Professor of Voice, Producer/Conductor of Miami University Opera and the National Director for the Schmidt Youth Vocal Competition. He has enjoyed a varied career as a singer, conductor and producer of opera, musical theater and Great American Songbook programs. As a soloist he has performed with such notable organizations as the Spoleto Festival, Festival Internacional de Música Pau Casals, Festival de Mao, Teatro Municipal of San Feliú de Guixols Festival, Almudena Cathedral, Teatre Principal de Mao, Festival de Moiá de Valles, Voces Para la Liturgia, Castell de Belver, and at El Escorial. Smolder has sung principal operatic roles internationally with opera companies in Prague, Vienna, Cairo and Rome. In this country he has performed in concert with the Detroit Symphony, The National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, Cincinnati Symphony, Cincinnati Opera, Nevada Opera, Des Moines Opera, Central City, Columbus Opera, Lexington Philharmonic, with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at the World Equestrian Games, West Virginia Symphony and Dayton Opera. He has also performed at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, in the Detroit Institute of Art Musical Artist Series, with the Cincinnati May Festival and for the National Association of Choral Directors Conference. Smolder can be heard on a number of recordings including The Tenderland with the Bahu-Slav Martinu Orchstra (Albany), American Tapestry with the Vocal Arts Ensemble and in two albums with The American Spiritual Ensemble. He appears in the documentary The Spiritual that has aired on PBS. Smolder was a finalist in the Wurlitzer Competition and winner of the Greenbriar Festival.
As conductor and producer of Miami Opera, Smolder has conducted two operas by Benjamin Britten that have received recognition from the National Opera Association for Outstanding Collegiate Production. During the summers, he serves as a conductor and faculty member for the Festival of International Opera of the Americas in San Paulo Brazil and has acted as vocal coach and accompanist for Downtown Theater Classics, an equity theater based in the Cincinnati Aronoff Center for Arts. He is the co-founder of S&L Productions with a mission to produce professional American-style variety shows with revenue going to non-profit arts organizations. Smolder studied music performance with a cognate in opera directing at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (Doctoral Work), voice performance at the University of Kentucky (masters) and performance and music education at Alderson-Broaddus University. His teachers were Barbara Honn, Steven King, Dale Moore, Ken Shaw and Lillian Long. Before teaching at Miami, Smolder served as a member of the faculty at Dayton University and Northern Kentucky University. Many of his students have performed in young artist programs, such as the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, Des Moines Opera, Seattle Opera, French Academy of Vocal Arts, Cincinnati Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Opera North, San Diego Opera, and in Fest at Oldenburg and Mainz.