Coffee with the Creatives of The Threepenny Opera

November 13 | Noon | Ohio Theatre, Studio Room 4 | FREE

Join us in-person for a FREE Q&A with the creatives of The Threepenny Opera. They will share all of the backstage "tea" and insider knowledge while we enjoy coffee and sweets.

Director, Austin Regan

Principal Guest Conductor, Dr. Everett McCorvey

Julia Noulin-Mérat, Emcee + General Director + CEO + Set Designer

Michelle Trainor, Mrs. Peachum

About Austin Regan

NYC-based director of opera, theater, and video. His acclaimed stage work has been seen across the United States, including recently: Rigoletto at Minnesota Opera (“. . . a scorching take on politics, patriarchy, and power,” Minneapolis Star Tribune), Don Giovanni at FM Opera (“Great skill and vision . . . superb,” Fargo Forum), and Discount Ghost Stories at Local Theater Co (“Hauntingly beautiful,” Boulder Daily Camera), which won the True West Award for excellence in immersive theater. Regan is also the Tour Director for the Broadway musical A Beautiful Noise, which launches a major national tour in 2024. Other projects and productions include Left and Right (National Sawdust); Out of a Thought (PROTOTYPE Festival); Loose Wet Perforated (Guerilla Opera); The Trojan Women (The Hangar Theatre); Mad Libs (New World Stages); Well Worn Words (Ars Nova); The Blind (The Flea Theater), and video projects for Carnegie Hall (Molly Joyce’s Side By Side) and National Sawdust. As associate director, Regan’s work comprises five Broadway musicals, the Metropolitan Opera, and Off-Broadway’s award-winning hit revival of Little Shop of Horrors. Drama League Directing Fellow, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and former Resident Director at the Flea Theater. www.austinregan.nyc

About Dr. Everett McCorvey

Tenor, is a native of Montgomery, Alabama. He received his degrees from the University of Alabama, including a Doctorate of Musical Arts. He has performed in many cities around the world and theaters across the country, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival, Radio City Music Hall, Birmingham Opera Theater, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, England, as well as performances throughout Spain, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Austria, Japan, China, Brazil, Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Hungary, Mexico, Peru and France. He joined the Tony Award winning Sherwin Goldman Production of PORGY AND BESS at Radio City Music Hall in 1982 and was also part of the Metropolitan Opera’s Debut Production of Porgy and Bess in 1985.

McCorvey’s career has spanned all areas of the performing arts business from performer to musical director, stage director, voice teacher, producer, impresario, orchestra conductor, union representative, administrator, and mentor.

McCorvey recently conducted the World Premiere of Stella Sung’s Opera THE SECRET RIVER with Opera Orlando in December of 2021. The Librettist for the opera was Pulitzer Prize Winner Mark Campbell. He was also featured in Taromina, Sicily conducting the Grand Finale Opera Gala at the Mythos Opera Festival 2018, and in December of 2019, he conducted the Dvořák Symphony #9 in Prague’s Smetana Hall with the North Czech Philharmonic. Upcoming concerts include Musikverein Golden Hall in Vienna conducting the Boshualave Martinu Philharmonic and in Haydn Hall Vienna with the Euro sinfonietta as well as an upcoming Word Premiere with the Santa Fe Opera’s Opera for All Voices in performances of THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE by Chandler Carter with the libretto by Diana Solomon Glover. Later in 2022, McCorvey will serve as Chorus Master with the Santa Fe Opera production THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE and Music Director and Conductor for the Kentucky Opera performances of the same work. McCorvey served as the Music Director and Conductor of the World Premier of BOUNCE, The Basketball Opera, conceived and directed by Gretha Holby with the lead composer Glen Roven and author and librettist Charles R. Smith, Jr. Additional music for BOUNCE was written by Tomas Doncker and West Side Story Film Star Ansel Elgort. https://bouncethebasketballopera.org

This past September 11, 2021, on the 20th Anniversary of the attacks, he conducted the National Chorale and the US Army Field Band in New Jersey’s 9/11 Commemoration at Liberty State Park.

He has also appeared in television movies and feature films including The Long Walk Home. Dr. McCorvey’s operatic roles include Don Jose in Carmen, Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Fenton in Falstaff, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, Puck in La Grande Duchess de Gerolstein, and many others. Orchestra and Oratorio works include the Beethoven Symphony #9, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and the St. Matthew Passion, among others.

Vocal Excellence is a hallmark of Dr. McCorvey’s work. As a teacher, he has given masterclasses and vocal workshops throughout the United States, Europe, South America, China, Japan, and Poland. Dr. McCorvey is the founder and Music Director of the American Spiritual Ensemble, www.americanspiritualensemble.com a group of 24 professional singers performing spirituals and other compositions of African-American composers dedicated to keeping the American Negro Spiritual alive. In its 27-year history, the group has presented over 600 concerts including 20 tours of the United States and 17 tours of Spain. Presently the American Spiritual Ensemble is the only professional ensemble of its kind dedicated solely to the American Negro Spiritual. The Ensemble has released twelve CDs: On My Journey Now – The American Spiritual Ensemble on Tour, Ol’ Time Religion, Lily of the Valley, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot; The Spirituals; The Spirit of the Holidays; The Duke Returns; Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts; Mosaic, featuring Metropolitan Opera Star Angela Brown; Stand the Storm, Featuring American Soprano Jeryl Cunningham; Been in the Storm Too Long featuring American Baritone Kenneth Overton as well as two CD’s featuring the music of John Jacob Niles produced by McCorvey featuring American Soprano Hope Koehler. McCorvey recently produced a CD Anchored in the Lord featuring singers from the Bay View Music Festival’s American Negro Spirituals Intensive program, where McCorvey serves as Director.

The US Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) has produced six Documentaries featuring McCorvey’s work, including It’s a Grand Night for Singing: 10th Anniversary (1992); Impresario (2002); A Tribute and a Toast to Opera (2005); The Spirituals (2007); The American Spiritual Ensemble in Concert (2017); and It’s a Grand Night for Singing 25th Anniversary (2017).

Dr. McCorvey is also in his seventh season as the Artistic Director of the National Chorale of New York City www.nationalchorale.org. Celebrating 54 years of great choral singing, the National Chorale is a symphonic choir which performs at Lincoln Center in New York City. The National Chorale is well-known in New York and around the region for its performances of the great choral titans as well as for the popular New York Messiah Sing-In at Lincoln Center! The Sing-In is one of the oldest sing-in’s in the country.

Dr. McCorvey has served on the faculty of the New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, New York where he was Artist-in-Residence and Associate Conductor and is also a frequent advisory panelist and on-site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts Opera/Musical Theatre program in Washington, D.C. He also served on the faculty of the American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. He is on the opera faculty in the summers at the Bay View Music Festival in Petoskey, MI, www.bayviewassociation.org/performingarts/musicfestival, and is co-director of the Bay View Music Festival’s American Negro Spirituals Intensive program, a program dedicated to helping young singers learn about the American Negro Spirituals.

Dr. McCorvey is a teacher and vocal advisor to many singers in the profession. Dr. McCorvey has been the recipient of several awards highlighting his teaching, research, and service. Recent awards include the SEC (South Eastern Conference) Faculty Achievement Award, given to a faculty member from each of the 14 SEC Athletic Conference schools. He was also the recipient of the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement in 2018. This award is one of the UK’s most prestigious awards given to one Kentuckian, it recognizes high intellectual achievement by a Kentuckian who has made a contribution of lasting value to the Commonwealth. The award also promotes education and creative thought. Other awards include the Lexington Music Awards Lifetime Achievement Award (2020); two Regional Emmy Awards for UK Opera Theatre’s summer production of “It’s A Grand Night for Singing” (2018); the Notable African-Americans in Lexington Award given by the Lima drive Seventh-Day Adventist Church (2018); the Central Music Academy Lifetime Achievement Award (2015), the Alabama Governor’s Artists Award, the highest arts award given to an artist from Alabama (2015), the Salvation Army Community Service Award (2014) and the Camp Horsin’ Around Community Service Award (2014). In 1998 he was the Acorn Award Recipient given by the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education. This prestigious Award goes to only one Professor in the state of Kentucky who exemplifies excellence, innovation, and creativity in teaching and research. Dr. McCorvey was also the recipient of an outstanding faculty award from the University of Kentucky Lyman T. Johnson Alumni Association for 1998 and was selected to receive the Outstanding Alumni Award in the Arts from the Society for the Fine Arts at the University of Alabama, his Alma Mater, in February of 1999.

Dr. McCorvey produced only the second full-length recording of The Tender Land by Aaron Copland with the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre recorded in Zlin, Czech Republic, and released in January 2002, featuring singers from the University of Kentucky Opera Program with Kirk Trevor conducting the Boshuslave Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra. Two other CD’s released in 2008, were a world premiere of a new opera, The Hotel Casablanca, by Thomas Pasatieri, produced by Dr. McCorvey and performed by the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre, and a collection of songs by John Jacob Niles, performed by soprano Hope Koehler and produced by McCorvey. Both recordings were released by Albany Records. In the spring of 2010 UK Opera released a new CD of Die Fledermaus with Maestro John Nardolillo conducting and in December of 2010 a World Premiere CD of Thomas Pasatieri’s new opera God Bless Us Everyone which premiered in New York at DiCapo Opera with students from UK Opera and which received a rave New York Times Review.

Dr. McCorvey is of the belief that every citizen in the country should find ways to give back to his or her community, city, or country. He has been very active in his volunteer activities working to keep the arts as a part of the civic conversation and currently serves on many local, regional, and national boards. In his home state of Kentucky, he is Chairman of the Kentucky Arts Council Board and nationally he is on the Sullivan Foundation Board of Trustees, www.sullivanfoundation.org, an organization dedicated to supporting young professional singers with career grants and study awards for continuing development. He holds an Endowed Chair in Opera Studies/Director of Opera and Professor of Voice at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. www.ukoperatheatre.org.

In September of 2010, Dr. McCorvey served as the Executive Producer of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Alltech 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games held in Lexington, Kentucky. The Opening Ceremony was broadcasted on NBC Sports and was viewed by over 500 million people worldwide. The Alltech 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games was the largest equestrian event to ever be held in the United States. He is married to soprano Alicia Helm. They have three children.

About Julia Noulin-Mérat

She has been the General Director + CEO of Opera Columbus for the past 4 seasons. With OC, Noulin-Mérat is redefining the very concept of regional opera, with original productions that celebrate emerging talent, fresh perspectives, and modern technology, engaging a new, diverse audience. Julia was named the “2024 Nonprofit Executive of the Year” at the Medical Mutual Pillar Awards. Previously, Noulin-Mérat was for 8 years the Associate Producer at Boston Lyric Opera and was the co-Artistic Director of Guerilla Opera having begun her tenure as their Producer + Director of Production for 11 years. She is the creative director for Hong Kong-based More Than Musical. In addition, Noulin-Mérat has worked on over 400 opera, theater, and television productions, including 26 new operas, and 22 new plays. Other projects include a TEDx talk on site-specific opera productions, Neverland (China Broadway): a $20 million, 50,000 square immersive theater piece in Beijing, a PPE friendly outdoor Fall Festival (Atlanta Opera), an immersive Pagliacci(Boston Lyric Opera) production complete with fairgrounds inside an ice rink and Playground (Opera Omaha) a National touring operatic sound sculpture. She has served on the panel for OPERA America adjudicating the Tobin Director- Designer showcase and is actively involved in the Women’s Opera Network, first as a mentee (General Director distinction) and now this year as a mentor. Noulin-Mérat is a part of the OA Leadership Intensive cohort and currently serves on the OPERA America Board of Directors. With over 20 years of experience in the performing arts industry and a big advocate for cultural equity in opera, she is a graduate of Boston University with a Masters in Business Arts Administration, an MFA in Set Design, a Diversity Inclusion certificate from ESSEC Business School, a social media marketing specialization from Northwestern University, a Fundraising Development Specialization from UC Davis, a Finance & Leadership certification from Harvard Business School. Her work has been featured in Opera News, LiveDesign, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal to name a few.

About Michelle Trainor

Versatile singing actress Michelle Trainor is known for her “powerful, penetrating soprano” (Wall Street Journal) and as both a “comic genius” and “vocal treat” (Boston Globe). An alumna of the Boston Lyric Opera’s Emerging Artist initiative, Trainor has become “a favorite of the Boston opera scene,” (Schmopera) in productions of contemporary opera including The Handmaid’s Tale, Burke & Hare and Haroun and the Sea of Stories. In standard rep like Macbeth, Barber of Seville and Threepenny Opera, she was described by Berkshire Fine Arts as “an ebullient comedian” who steals “every scene she is in with her pure joie de vivre.”

Ms. Trainor is excited to return to Opera Columbus for the 2024-2025 season. She will be singing the role of Mrs. Peachum in Kurt Weil’s The Threepenny Opera and will be heard as the soprano soloist in Vaughn Williams’ A Sea symphony with Lexington Symphony.

Michelle’s 2023-2024 season brings her back to Boston Lyric Opera where she is covering the role of Tisbe in La Cenerentola. In January she will join Boston Symphony Orchestra in a re-engagement singing Aksinya in the Shostakovich opera, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Her 2022-2023 season includes performances as Clorinda in Opera Columbus’ production of La Cenerentola, and as Lucy in Odyssey Opera’s production of Awakenings that will be recorded by Boson Modern Orchestra Project. In the spring of 2022, Ms. Trainor performed as a soloist in Wozzeck in concert with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall.

In the summer of 2021, she made her Bulgarian debut creating the role of Gertrude in the world premiere and recording of Joseph Summer’s Hamlet in a collaboration between the State Opera Ruse, Parma Recordings and the Shakespeare Concert Series. Engagements canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic included singing Aksinya in Shostakovitch’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall, along with a Deutsche Gramophone recording of the production, and performing the role of Jill-All-Alone in Merrie England with Odyssey Opera.

In the fall of 2021 she will be singing the role of Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with IlluminArts in Miami, FL, with whom she also performed as guest soloist in the online collaboration, “Unmasked” in December 2020. She opens 2022 with a concert at First Church in Nashua, NH entitled, “Diva, Diva, Divo” and later, performs Wozzeckwith the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Hall.

Possessing a unique voice that encompasses soprano, mezzo and character roles across vocal fachs, Ms. Trainor is always up to try any new role, especially if it gives her the chance to hone her fierce comedic instincts as with Berta (Barber of Seville), Marcellina (Marriage of Figaro) or Mrs. Peachum (Threepenny Opera) and dive deep into an interesting character like her “fiery, remorseful” (Arts Fuse) Brangain in The Love Potion.

Coffee with the Creatives is supported by Black Kahawa Coffee and Nothing Bundt Cakes

Coffee art by Mary Cecil.

Host or Publisher Opera Columbus