JOHN LIDAL - As a pianist, chamber musician and vocal coach, John Lidal is a much sought after artist, and has worked throughout the United States and Europe with such artists as Sherrill Milnes, Catherine Malfitano, Mignon Dunn, Tom Krause, Martina Arroyo, Fedora Barbieri, Licia Albanese, Anna Moffo, Håkan Hagegård, Ingrid Bjoner, Sarah Walker, Gabriella Tucci and Marilyn Horne.

Mr. Lidal currently serves on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, New York, the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Chiari, Italy, and the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel.  With an extensive experience as audition pianist (NYIOP) and coach throughout the US and Europe, Mr. Lidal works regularly with established artists from the Metropolitan Opera and other renowned companies, as well as being affiliated with several leading voice teachers.

Mr. Lidal attended his hometown conservatory in Trondheim, Norway, the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo, Norway, and the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in New York.

He was 1st prize winner in 1999 of two International Piano Competitions in London, UK, as well as being recipient of numerous grants, scholarships and awards.  Lidal collaborates regularly with the new generation of the many outstanding singers in Scandinavia, and in the US both in recitals, recording and broadcast.

Current projects include a US song recital series called "A Scandinavian Songbook", as well as a series of public master classes presented with world-renowned American soprano, Catherine Malfitano.  Moreover, Lidal recently undertook an extensive coaching tour of Berlin, Oslo and London, where he was coaching numerous professional vocalists in the operatic repertory.

Additionally, Mr. Lidal created and currently serves as the Artistic Director for the newly formed LidalNorth, which presented its first International Opera Workshop for singers at an advanced level, in June 2006, in Oslo, Norway.

PATRICIA MCCAFFREY - Trish McCaffrey is currently on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, International Institute of Vocal Arts, The VoicExperience at Disney, LidalNorth, National Opera Institute and maintains a private studio in New York City. She has served on the voice faculties of the Hartt School of Music, Arizona State University, University of Michigan and University of Minnesota.

Her students sing regularly in all the major opera houses, festivals and concert houses in the world including The Metropolitan Opera, The Chicago Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, Berlin Staatsoper, La Scala, Paris Bastille and Chatelet, The Salzburg Festival, Bayreuth, Carnegie Hall and the BBC Proms.

They have also distinguished themselves as winners of numerous competitions and awards including the Metropolitan Opera National Council, Tucker Foundation Awards, Pope Foundation Award, George London Competition, Marian Anderson Competition, MacAllister Competition, Aria Awards as well as Grammy Awards and they have recorded with such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, Sony, Harmonia Mundi, Arabesque and EMI.

In addition to teaching a classical music technique for singing, Trish McCaffrey also teaches Broadway and Pop performers who appear on Broadway, in Motion Pictures, Television and Commercials. She has also prepared numerous students who hold voice positions at many colleges and universities in the United States.

Mezzo-Soprano Patricia McCaffrey has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Miami Opera, Zürich Opera, The Wexford Festival, Starlight Musicals and other venues throughout the world. She is most noted for her portrayals of the title role in CARMEN, Eboli in DON CARLO, Brangäne in TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, Santuzza in CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, Octavian in DER ROSENKAVALIER, the Composer in ARIADNE AUF NAXOS, Amneris in AIDA and Charlotte in WERTHER.

JOHN NORRIS - Over the past 20 years John Norris has been involved in training singers and actors the fundamentals of stage communication. Drawing inspiration from acting disciplines of Ute Hagen and Wesley Balk and incorporating them with movement and body awareness techniques of F.M. Alexander, Joseph Pilates, Moshe Feldenkrais and Rudolf Laban, Mr. Norris has developed his own unique method for teaching singers how to access the physical keys to their emotional/psychological connectivity to their character. This helps them find an authentic expression of the music and the text. By revealing triggers that each singer can use as a jumping off point for their comprehension and development of their specific role, John teaches Performers' how to participate in a fully in their performances, finally allowing a cohesive whole to emerge which will be capable of transporting the audience into the world of the piece.

He devotes part of his yearly schedule to giving: Private Coaching, Public Masterclasses, Audition Techniques, and Artistic Development. Mr. Norris' most notable professional teaching credits include: The Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Program, Bavarian State Opera Young Artist Program, The Julliard School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, The Mannes College of Music, Hochschule fur Musik- Munich, Nagano Opera Masterclass- Japan, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, American Conservatory Theatre, National Theatre Conservatory, Bavarian Theater Academy. Presently he maintains private studios in both New York City and Berlin.

GAÏT SIRGUEY - The French pianist, Gaït Sirguey, holds diplomas from the Conservatoire National Supérieur du Musique de Paris and New England Conservatory, where she studied with such renowned musicians as Maurice Duruflé, Pierre Sancan, and Allen Rogers. She has performed and recorded extensively both as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Scandinavia, South America, Japan and the United States where the press has acclaimed her "...an outstanding pianist...her interpretation was an engaging truly moving piece of music." and praised her work as an accompanist "...the collaboration of pianist Gait Sirguey was extraordinary in its suppleness and thoughtful mood painting."

Her collaborators include such artists as Simon Estes, Jan DeGaetani, Hugues Cuenod, Jan Opalach and Robert Routch. She has recorded for Radio France, the Swedish, Norwegian, and Canadian Broadcasting Corporations, Italian National Radio, and Télévision de la Suisse Romande. Recognized as one of the leading experts of French repertory, she has prepared the concerts and recordings of Frederica von Stade, Dolora Zajick, Benita Valente, Judith Raskin, Neil Rosenshein, Susan Davenny-Wyner, Faith Esham, Florence Quivar, and Martha Senn. In 1995, Gaït Sirguey programmed, produced, and performed in all the vocal recitals in the Four Centuries of French Music series at Lincoln Center.

She was the principal coach at the Drottningholm Court Theater in Sweden in 1989 for their production of Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide and has coached principal singers for productions at La Scala, Covent Garden, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Chicago Lyric, Geneva, Washington, Houston Grand Opera, Opéra Bastille, Paris-Bercy, Toulouse, Barcelona, Madrid, and La Fenice. She was the musical consultant for the American stage premiers of Darius Milhaud's opera Christophe Colomb and Reynaldo Hahn's Le Marchand de Venise. In 1997 the Bonn Opera invited her to be its principal coach for their productions of Roméo et Juliette (Gounod) and Samson et Dalila.

Renowned for her expert knowledge of the mélodie française, Gaït Sirguey is often invited to give master classes in the great music schools of America, Europe, and Scandinavia and is sought after by singers for her interpretation and creative programming of concerts and recordings. Noteworthy among them is the recent New Albion compact disc "Oiseau Bleu," about which Renaud Marchart, music critic of Le Monde, wrote: "a French label really ought to record a series of melodies of this quality, with as accompanist the artist Gait Sirguey, who works in the United States, and who has a talent sorely lacking in France." Also a performer of contemporary music, she has just recorded with Jan Opalach, the vocal works of the American composer Bruce Hobson for CRI Records.

Gaït Sirguey taught French, German, Italian, and English repertory at the New England Conservatory (Boston), the State University of New York at Purchase, and the Oren Brown Voice Seminar. At the New England Conservatory, two great artists, Jan DeGaetani (contemporary music) and Eleanor Steber (opera), chose her as their associate, teaching with them for several years. She coached the young artists at Le Centre de la Voix in the abbaye of Royaumont, France for 10 years and recently joined the faculty of the Daniel Ferro Seminar in Greve, Italy.

For the last fifteen years Ms. Sirguey has taught the mélodie Française, or French vocal literature course, at Manhattan School of Music. This is the only course of its type in the United States covering the entire spectrum of this subject--its evolution from the Romance to contemporary music, as well as the parallel development of poetic movements. She is also in charge of preparing and coaching graduation recitals and is currently the consultant for a special program on French music within its cultural context.

TORE DINGSTAD - Casting director, Den Norske Opera, the Norwegian Opera