Artistic Director

This is LAUREN BUCKLEY’S premiere season as the Artistic Director of the Hollywood Master Chorale.  She hails from New Orleans, LA, where she started her love affair with music by singing in choirs and playing the piano.  She headed north for her collegiate studies receiving a BA in music from Princeton University and was the first undergraduate to pursue a certificate in conducting.  She continued her studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, receiving a Postgraduate Diploma in Choral Conducting.

In 2002, she returned to New Orleans and became the Artistic Director of the Jefferson Performing Arts Society Children’s Chorus, a program offering choral experiences to children ages 3-18.  She was also the Music Director and Conductor of the Orleans Chamber Singers, an adult semi-professional chamber ensemble specializing in Renaissance and other a cappella repertoire.  She moved to Los Angeles in 2006 to pursue her doctorate in Choral Conducting at the USC Thornton School of Music.  In 2010, she was selected as a conducting fellow at the Oregon Bach Festival where she studied with renowned conductor, Helmuth Rilling.  She has guest conducted the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra, the Portland Baroque Orchestra, the Choral Society of Southern California, and the Greater New Orleans Youth Orchestra.

In addition to her work with the Hollywood Master Chorale, Lauren is the conductor of the Ebell Chorale, the assistant conductor of the Pasadena Master Chorale, the vocal coach for the Los Angeles Daiku, and a private voice and piano instructor.  Lauren has also appeared as soprano soloist for the DeAngelis Vocal Ensemble, the Horizon Music Group, the Hollywood Master Chorale, the Choral Society of Southern California, the Zimriyah Chorale and the USC Chamber Singers.

Accompanist

CHIP COLVIN maintains an active musical life as an accompanist, teacher, choral conductor, music director, soloist, and singer. As a soloist, Chip has performed Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Pasadena Pro Musica and Beethoven’s 2^nd Piano Concerto with the Houston Civic Symphony.  As a music director, Chip has led shows such as Bat Boy, Oklahoma!, & Urinetown among others.  Chip has sung lead opera roles in Cosí Fan Tutte, Le Nozze de Figaro, Signor DeLuso, and Gianni Schicchi. Chip is the Music Director at Throop Unitarian Universalist Church in Pasadena and the choral conductor at Temple Beth David in Temple City.  Chip has his B.M. from Houston Baptist University in Piano Performance and his M.M. from University of Southern California in Keyboard Collaborative Arts.

Guest Soloist

Soprano LORI ANN FULLER has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, working with numerous opera companies and symphonies including the Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, L’Opera Piccola (Chicago), Pine Mountain Music Festival, Daytona Beach Symphony Orchestra and Centro Studi Italiani. Her stage credits include Jano/Jenufa (Janacek), Rose/Street Scene (Kurt Weill), Gilda/Rigoletto (Verdi), Zorika/Gypsy Love (Lehar), Lauretta/Gianni Schicchi (Puccini), Angela/Firebrand of Florence (Weill), Adina/L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti), Marian/The Music Man (Willson) and Mabel/The Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert & Sullivan). Ms. Fuller is equally at home on the concert, recital and cabaret stages with memorable performances of Handel’s Messiah, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Fauré’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria and Bach’s Cantatas No. 6 and 51. One of these performances released on CD, Kurt Weill’s Firebrand of Florence, was recorded live with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for Delta Music. During the 2008-2009 season, Ms Fuller will be singing two roles in Puccini’s Il Trittico at the Los Angeles Opera. Ms. Fuller holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from Stetson University and a Master of Music degree from DePaul University.

Guest Soloist

Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “radiant,” American Mezzo DIANA TASH made her Los Angeles debut in 2004 with the Los Angeles Opera as Mercedes in Carmen under the baton of Placido Domingo. Ms. Tash has also performed in the Magic Flute with the San Diego Opera in 2006 and again with Opera Pacific in 2008. She performed her debut recital at Zipper Concert Hall in 2006 with pianist Armen Guzelimian. During 2008, she will make her Weill Recital Hall debut with Armen Guzelimian again as pianist. Ms. Tash will sing with the Achron Ohio Symphony’s performance of Bernstein’s Jeremiah Mass in January of 2009 and will perform in Opera Pacific’s Salome in March of 2009. A popular oratorio singer, Ms. Tash has sung with the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony in Lukas Foss’ Song of Songs, the Aspen Music Festival in Mozart’s Idomeneo and Coronation Mass and the Santa Barbara Chorale Society in Bach’s Magnificat. She was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Western Regional Auditions in addition to numerous other awards. Ms. Tash is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Flora L. Thornton School of Music and holds a Masters Degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

Guest Soloist

Tenor DANIEL MONTENEGRO has traveled the world performing on stages ranging from the Sydney Opera House in Australia to the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Mr. Montenegro’s 2006-2007 season included several roles with the Los Angeles Opera, in addition to his onstage debut with the company, performing the role of Gastone in La Traviata alongside tenor Rolando Villazon and soprano Renée Fleming. Other recent roles with the Los Angeles Opera include Maxamino Mendez in the world premiere of Lee Holdridge’s opera Concierto para Mendez, Liberto in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Anibal in Moreno Torroba’s Luisa Fernanda opposite Placido Domingo. Mr. Montenegro has just returned from the Portland Opera where he sang the role of the Steumann in Wagner’s Der Fliegende Holländer. He has also performed other leading roles with such companies as the Minnesota Opera and Arizona Opera. He is a featured member of The American Tenors who appeared on national PBS in their own special, followed by concert performances throughout the United States and parts of Europe. They have also made a debut CD and DVD recording with Sony. Mr. Montenegro is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Guest Soloist

With over seventy roles to his credit, baritone ROBERTO PERLAS GOMEZ has performed extensively throughout California with the Los Angeles Opera, San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera, and in Michigan with the Michigan Opera. Most recently, Mr. Gomez made his Italian and European debut for the Arena di Verona Foundation, playing the Chinese Prime Minister Chou en-lai in the Italian premiere of John Adam’s Nixon in China. As a member of San Diego Opera’s touring ensemble, Mr. Gomez concurrently performed main stage roles in Rusalka, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Madama Butterfly, Tosca, Carmen and Turandot. He was also the Artist-in-Residence, performing a series of outreach recitals throughout the county. As an Opera San Jose resident artist, Mr. Gomez performed the roles of Escamillo in Carmen, Giorgio Germont in La Traviata, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and created the role of the Drosselmeier in the premiere of The Tale of the Nutcracker. He has performed what has become his signature role of Figaro with the Nevada Opera, Santa Barbara Opera, Accorde Opera in Mexico, Sacramento Opera and Opera Idaho. His next Figaro is scheduled for January 2009 with the Stockton Opera