Diane Garton Edie has worked with OFY since 1992 in various capacities: singer, board member, librettist, stage director, company manager and, since 1996, artistic director.

Ms. Garton Edie's work as director, librettist and primary artistic outreach/ education coordinator has been recognized and supported locally, regionally, and on the national level. Her libretti for OFY's hailed collection of adaptations have been enjoyed by school and family audiences throughout the upper Midwest since 1994. Ms. Garton Edie has adapted/created libretti for The Barber of Seville, The Elixir of Love, The Pirates of Penzance, Orpheus Returns, The Magic Flute, Rusalka, and Hansel and Gretel. Her next creation will be a retelling of Massenet's Cinderella which will make its debut in 2012. The recent publication and rental of these works now makes this uniquely accessible repertoire available to an even wider audience. Ms. Garton Edie also oversees our summer program, Build Your Own Opera.

Ms. Garton Edie has enjoyed a combined career in performance, play writing and directing, and arts administration. With degrees in theatre and drama from Smith College and Indiana University, her special province is out-of-the-mainstream cultural arts programming for participants and audiences from a broad age, geographic and socio-economic range. Previous projects include Creative Arts Over 60, an educational and recreational program for older adults; the International Youth Arts Festival, a performing and visual arts showcase; regional operetta/opera/musical theatre productions; and several original artist-in-residence programs. During her time at Opera for the Young, more than 1 million children have been introduced to opera through her work.

GENERAL DIRECTOR

Dan Plummer joined the Opera for the Young administrative staff in 2007 and holds the position of general director. 

Dr. Plummer's career in opera began on stage. He made his European debut singing at the Silesian Theatre in the Czech Republic at the age of 21. He performed with Opera for the Young in The Magic Flute ('01) and returned for The Barber of Seville ('06). Dr. Plummer was a Metropolitan Opera National Council District Finalist in 2001. He has created roles for several world premieres including Esperanza by David Bishop and Ruth by James Niblock. Other singing highlights include performances with the Pine Mountain Music Festival, Aspen Opera Theater Center, and in the chorus of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. His singing can be heard on the recording Collage (University of Wisconsin Press, 2001).

In 2005, Dr. Plummer's operatic career moved off stage when he joined the administration of the Madison Opera where he was Director of Community Affairs. Joining the Opera for the Young staff in 2007 was a natural next step. As a performer, Dr. Plummer saw the impact OFY's programming had on children in inspiring their love of the arts. Now, as an administrator, he has been a part of the augmenting and expanding that programming with projects like Opera for the Young at Heart, Family Opera Day, and Build Your Own Opera. In addition, he will co-create a new adaptation of Massenet's Cinderella with Diane Garton Edie to be premiered in 2012.

Dr. Plummer holds a Bachelor of Music with Honors and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a Master of Music with Honors from The New England Conservatory of Music. His areas of study were vocal performance and opera production. At UW, Dr. Plummer was both a Bolz and Vilas fellow, and as a teaching assistant he taught private voice and undergraduate diction for the School of Music. In service to the non-profit profession, Dr. Plummer has made presentations on opera outreach at the Opera America conference, as well as on organization transition for the Greater Madison Chapter of the Association for Fundraising Professionals where he is President Elect of the Board of Directors.



OPERATIONS MANAGER

Stephanie Sokolowski joined the OFY team in October 2011. Her background is rooted in both national and local arts and cultural organizations, including: Financial Coordinator for the University of Oregon chapter of Americans for the Arts' Emerging Leaders in the Arts Network, Junior Consultant with the Arts Consulting Group, Assistant Director of Marketing with the Wisconsin Union Directorate Art Committee and Marketing Intern with the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

Stephanie earned a Master of Science degree in Arts Administration from the University of Oregon, where her graduate research focused on creative management and operations strategies. Stephanie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and History with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Jeffrey Sykes, DMA (music director) has been with OFY since 1995. He adapted the scores for OFY's productions of The Magic Flute, Barber of Seville, and Rusalka, A Mermaid's Tale.

Acclaimed by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as "a commanding solo player, the most supportive of accompanists, and a leader in chamber music," pianist Jeffrey Sykes has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Western Europe. The San Francisco Examiner praised his appearance with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players as "a tour-de-force performance [that was] the evening's major delight." The Well-Tempered Ear commented that "Mr. Sykes displayed the ideal Chopin touch and tone. His fleet fingers captured the lightness of the bel canto singing style in Chopin, with its filigree runs and quickly turned ornaments, all making the hard sound effortless and graceful." Recent activities include a Carnegie Hall recital under the auspices of the Pro Musicis Foundation, a live broadcast over WGBH, Boston Public Radio, and a tour of Chile sponsored by the US State Department.

Dr. Sykes is the founder and artistic director of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society of Wisconsin, a highly-acclaimed and innovative chamber music festival now in its nineteenth season. He is a regular guest artist in the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio. In 2007, he served as the guest artistic director of Music in the Vineyards, a chamber music festival in Napa Valley, California. In 2009, Sykes joined with violinist Axel Strauss and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau to form the San Francisco Piano Trio. He has recorded for the Albany, Mandala, Centaur, and Cactus Pear record labels.

For the last fourteen years, Dr. Sykes has served as the Music Director of Opera for the Young. He works extensively as a vocal coach throughout the US and teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. He also joined the faculty of California State University-East Bay in the fall of 2008 where he directs the piano accompanying program.

Dr. Sykes holds degrees with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria. He then was a Fulbright scholar at the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. A recipient of the Jacob Javits Fellowship from the US Department of Education, he completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MUSIC DIRECTOR/COMPOSER
BUILD YOUR OWN OPERA

Scott Gendel, DMA (music director/composer for Build Your Own Opera) is a freelance musician whose musical activities include composingand arranging new works on commission, actingas a vocal coach and accompanist for professional opera companies and students, teaching private composition lessons, and acting as Music Director and pianist for theatrical productions. As a collaborative pianist, Dr. Gendel has performed a wide range of repertoire, including performances with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in numerous operatic productions, a benefit concert with Chicago cabaret singer Jennifer Chada, a featured performance with the UW- Madison Symphony Orchestra in Stravinsky's Petrouchka, and two recent performances on the University of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty Concert Series. He is staff accompanist for Madison Opera, and has worked as a rehearsal pianist for Opera North and the UW-Madison Opera program.

As a composer, Dr. Gendel's music has a wide-ranging scope, but he is particularly fond of all things vocal, having written twelve song cycles, thirteen stand-alone songs and duets, three pieces for voices and orchestra, nineteen choral works, and two operas. In 2005, he was awarded first prize in the ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition, a juried national award in its inaugural year. That same year, he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Composition from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a minor in Opera Accompanying and Vocal Coaching. Dr. Gendel is currently Composer-In- Residence with the Madison Festival Choir. His composition teachers have included Stephen Dembski, Daron Hagen, and Joan Tower. Dr. Gendel has received commissions from the Hobart and William Smith Colleges Cantori, soprano Julia Faulkner, New Music New York, and numerous other performers and grant organizations.

STAGE DIRECTOR
BUILD YOUR OWN OPERA

Kelly Bremner, Ph.D. (stage director for Build Your Own Opera) is a freelance director and performer, particularly in opera and devised performance. Dr. Bremner holds advanced degrees in both music and theatre, including a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her performance training mutually includes traditional and experimental theatre techniques. Recent directorial credits include Finn's 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, Sophocles's Electra for Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Space in New York and the world premiere of her very talented husband's opera, Scott Gendel's Iphigenia at Aulis in Madison, WI. She has worked as an Assistant Director at the University Opera in Madison, and at Opera North in New Hampshire. She has often assisted for the Madison Opera as well. Recent devising credits include being a member of Richard Gough's devising team for his performance of The Last Supper with the Arts Institute in Madison, and The Fruit of All Evil for the University Theatre's Open Stage program, and Across A Distance, a new play by Nick Lantz for Deaf actor and soprano. However, her favorite recent project had to be Greek to Me: A Choral Extravaganza of Mythic Proportions for the Madison Youth Choirs, where she staged close to 300 children in a devised performance. Dr. Bremner is currently a professor of Directing at Emory and Henry College in Emory, VA, and mother to two little girls, Lotte and Twyla.


COSTUME DESIGNER

Karen Brown Larimore has been the resident costumer for Opera for the Young since 2008, and is a favorite with Madison Arts organizations including Madison Opera, Madison Ballet, and Madison Savoyards, Madison Repertory Theatre, University Opera, University Theatre, Children's Theatre of Madison. She has created the designs for two world premier operas, Tight Rope and Esperanza. You might even see her work in your home as she is the designer of the original Molly, Samantha, and Kiresten doll clothes for American Girl Collection.

SET/PROP DESIGNER

Tiffany Fier became OFY's Set/Prop Designer in 2008. She is a free-lance set designer, scenic artist, and props artisan. She graduated from Purdue with her MFA in scenic design. Also recently she has designed the set for Iowa State University's production of The Boys Next Door. She has worked with the Madison Repertory Theatre and the Alley Stage. Every summer she returns to her beloved American Players Theatre to work as scenic artist.

Photo of Jeffrey Sykes by Katrin Talbot.

Last Updated: JUNE 16, 2011