The Faculty

Tyrone Paterson - OLO Artistic Director

One of Canada's leading opera conductors, Tyrone Paterson has led performances throughout Europe, the United States and Asia and has appeared with numerous companies across Canada. Recent guest conducting appearances include Don Giovanni for Hawaii Opera Theatre; Aïda with Nashville Opera; Medea at Il Teatro Greco in Taormina, Italy; a gala concert for Opera Cracow, Poland; Turandot with both Vancouver Opera and Calgary Opera; and Die Fledermaus with Manitoba Opera where he also serves as Music Advisor and Principal Conductor.

Other notable past engagements include Lucia di Lammermoor featuring Sumi Jo; Borodin's Russian masterpiece Prince Igor for the National Theater of Moravia-Silesia; La Traviata and Rigoletto for Opera Constanta in Romania; Tosca for the Opern Air Festival in Austria; Jenufa at the Hukvaldy Festival; Bartók's Blue Beard's Castle in the Czech Republic; Turandot for the Hawaii Opera Theatre; The Magic Flute in Beijing and concerts with the International Music Festival in Macau.

He has led performances with many of Canada's legendary singers including Judith Forst, Ben Heppner, Richard Margison, Ermanno Mauro, Alan Monk and Louis Quilico. He is an active proponent of music education collaborating with various educational institutions such as the University of Calgary and the University of British Columbia.

www.tyronepaterson.com

Judith Ginsburg - OLO Opera Studio Manager and Principal Repetiteur

Judith Ginsburg is a graduate of the University of Ottawa Faculty of Music where she studied with the internationally acclaimed pianist and pedagogue Jean-Paul Sevilla. She pursued further advanced studies in London, England with the renowned former Glyndebourne Opera Music staff member and BBC staff accompanist Paul Hamburger. Upon her return to Canada Judith completed the Repetiteur Training Program at the University of Toronto Opera Division. While at the Opera Division, Judith participated in extensive accompanying classes and master classes with Martin Isepp and Menahem Pressler. Since 1987 Judith has been Principal Repetiteur of Opera Lyra Ottawa and Principal Pianist with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra. She is often heard on CBC radio and is a frequent performer in Ottawa's hugely successful International Chamber Music Festival, the National Arts Centre's Music for a Sunday Afternoon and the Almonte in Concert Series. Judith has worked for the National Arts Centre's English Theatre, most recently as piano coach for The Unanswered Question.

As an accompanist Judith has collaborated with many of Canada's leading artists, among them Alan Monk, Theodore Baerg, Tracy Dahl, Eilana Lapalainen, and Gerald Danovitch. Judith is presently Opera Studio Manager and Principal Repetiteur for Opera Lyra Ottawa.

Ann Hodges - Guest Stage Director

Ann Hodges is an opera and theatre director who has worked all across Canada at companies including the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Vancouver Opera, Manitoba Opera, Neptune Theatre, Calgary Opera, Shaw Festival, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Persephone Theatre, Pacific Opera, Theatre Projects Manitoba and others. Career highlights include directing over 1,000 performers as Artistic Director of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the North American Indigenous Games, and being invited as one of 10 international directors to participate in a workshop with Peter Brook at the National Theatre in London. Also an accomplished librettist, Ann has written and directed numerous adaptations for Vancouver Opera, including the acclaimed Naomi's Road (composed by Ramona Luengen), which also toured to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Last season, Ann's gold rush adaptation of the Barber of Seville (The Barber of Barkerville) was produced by Vancouver, Calgary and Saskatoon Opera Companies.

In addition to directing, Ann has served as a guest director and on faculty at various young artist programs, including the National Theatre School, Calgary Opera Emerging Artists, Victoria Conservatory's Summer Vocal Academy, the University of Manitoba's Contemporary Opera Lab, and various university theatre programs. Ann is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

Alix Sideris - Acting Consultant

Alix Sideris is a professional actor who hails from Montreal and has been living in Ottawa for the past 14 years. Ottawa audiences most recently saw Alix in the National Arts Centre in The Changeling. Most recent theatre credits include The Changeling, The Ark III, recovery, The Odyssey, The Winter's Tale (National Arts Centre), Mambo Italiano, It's All True (Great Canadian Theatre Company), The Empire Builders (nominated for best actor Rideau Awrard), Betrayal (nominated best actor Rideau Award)(Third Wall Theatre), Medea (Magnetic North/Fringe), As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival), A Curious Mishap, Bungsu and the Big Snake (nominated for a CCC Best Actor Award,), Scapin, The Wedding, The Illusion, and The Raven (Odyssey Theatre). Alix was the Artistic Director of Odyssey's sister company Lazzi Lazzi for 7 years - an live animation troupe, which has, under it's wing, some of Ottawa's most talented physical actors.

Alix has taught movement and acting in various theatre environments in Montreal, Toronto, Vermont, Windsor, Brockville, and Ottawa for the last 20 years. She has been a contracted movement instructor at the National Arts Centre, Opera Lyra, St. Lawrence College, Algonquin College, University of Ottawa, University of Windsor, and Concordia University, to name a few, not to mention that she is a proud memberof the creative team of Guerilla Heart Juice (a physical theatre lab intensive). Alix is also a resident artist with MASC and teaches mask and movement through them as well as with other private contractors.

Upcoming productions: The Taming of the Shrew, Meausure for Measure (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. Alix is also creating two original shows in various stages of development: The Well (a collective work), and M (a solo show).

John Koensgen - Fight and Combat Instructor

John lives in Ottawa and works here frequently as an actor, director and educator. His directorial credits include Disaster for New Theatre of Ottawa, Miss Witherspoon for Vision Theatre, Brecht on Brecht and The Golden Age for the University of Ottawa's Drama Guild, the hit Blood on the Moon for Sleeping Dog Productions, As You Like It for A Company of Fools, American Buffalo for Actors' Co-op Theatre, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, Criminal Genius and Home Sweet Home for the Great Canadian Theatre Company.

In the late 1970s, he was a member of the National Arts Centre's resident acting company, where he performed in Hamlet, Savages, Don Juan, Equus, Mother Courage; and Henry V. Recent appearances at the NAC include: Buried Child, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night, All's Well that Ends Well, Hard Times, The Odyssey and The Secret Garden. Mr. Koensgen has also performed in more than 40 plays at the Great Canadian Theatre Company, including most recently, Plan B, Inexpressible Island, Feelgood, A Doll House, It's All True, Art, Bea's Niece, The Forest, Patience, Bonjour là, Bonjour, Pauline and Turgenev, and Glenn. He also toured in another production of Glenn for Toronto's Necessary Angel Theatre Company.

Productions for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival include Pentecost, Of Mice and Men and Othello. Selected productions for New Theatre of Ottawa are St Nicholas, Brothers of the Brush, 7 Stories, and Judgement. His most recent film and television credits include; I'm Not There, The Aviator, The Reagans (a mini-series), External Affairs and The Girl Next Door.

Although most people know John as an actor and director and teacher, he has another life as a fight director. He studied with the Society of American Fight Directors and then apprenticed with Stratford's renowned Maître d'Armes, Mr. Patrick Crean which lead to teaching positions at The National Theatre School and Dawson College. He has choreographed well over 100 productions for l'Opèra de Montrèal, Le Théâtre de Nouveau Monde, The Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Centaur Theatre, Le Théâtre du Trident, Sayde Bronfman Centre, GCTC, NAC and many other theatres.

John teaches acting classes in the Algonquin College Theatre Program and at St. Lawrence College's Musical Theatre Performance program in Brockville.

He will soon be seen in The Net at GCTC, followed by Bison Mystique for Théâtre de la Catapulte and then Measure for Measure and The Taming of the Shrew for the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival.

John was given the 2001 Ottawa Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement Award for Contribution to the Theatre and the 2008 Golden Cherry Arts Award for Best Actor.