THE ADAPTORS OF OFTY’S AWARD-WINNING REPERTOIRE
DIANE GARTON EDIE
Librettist, Artistic Director Emeritus
Diane’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 OFTY’s hailed collection of adaptations have been enjoyed by school and family audiences throughout the upper Midwest since 1994. Diane has adapted/created libretti for The Barber of Seville, Cinderella, The Elixir of Love, The Pirates of Penzance, Orpheus Returns, The Magic Flute, Rusalka, Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, and an original story and libretto for OFTY’s original opera, Super Storm!. The recent publication and rental of these works now makes this uniquely accessible repertoire available to an even wider audience. Diane also oversaw OFTY’s brief summer program, Build Your Own Opera.
Diane 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 1.5 million children were introduced to opera through her work.
SCOTT GENDEL
Composer – Super Storm!
Scott Gendel is a composer, vocal coach, theatrical music director, and pianist living in Madison, WI. Recently, he recorded his piece At Last with soprano Camille Zamora and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, as part of An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing For Hope, a recording released on Naxos Records and GPR, benefiting amFAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research.
As a composer, his music has a wide-ranging scope, but Scott is particularly fond of all things vocal, having written sixteen song cycles, fifteen stand-alone songs and duets, five pieces for voices and orchestra, thirty-six choral works, two full-length musical theatre works, and two operas. Scott is the second prize winner of the 2016 NATS Art Song Composition Award. In 2005, Scott 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. Just after finishing his studies at UW-Madison, Scott served on the faculty for two years, designing and teaching an undergraduate composition curriculum.
As a collaborative pianist, Scott has performed a wide range of repertoire, including performances with the Madison Symphony Orchestra in operatic productions, professional musical theatre performances with the Barter Theatre and others, a featured performance with the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra in Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, and recitals with faculty members at various colleges. He has also been Music Director at Endstation Theatre Company and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Theatre. In addition to coaching many singers around the country, Scott is the official staff pianist/coach for Madison Opera, and has worked in that capacity for Opera North and the UW-Madison Opera program.
Some of Scott’s recent commissions include Seven Princesses and a Bear, a full-length original ballet for children, commissioned by the San Angelo Civic Ballet; Advice to Those Like Me, With Hearts Like Kindling for the Carnegie Hall debut of soprano Melody Moore; It Was My Father’s Custom, commissioned by the Madison Symphony Orchestra and Madison Youth Choirs; and UNEARTHED, a musical in two acts, incorporating Appalachian folk music and operatic style into an American Musical Theatre context, commissioned by the Endstation Theatre Company.
Scott’s music is published by Classical Vocal Reprints, ECS Publishing, and the Tuba/Euphonium Press. His art songs have been recorded on Albany Records, GPR Records, and Naxos. Scott’s composition teachers have included Daron Hagen, Stephen Dembski, and Joan Tower.
DAN KOEHN
Music Adaptor – Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella
Dan Koehn is an opera singer, adaptor, and arts leader based in Madison. He performed with companies including Lyric Opera of Chicago and Opera for the Young before joining OFTY as General Director from 2007–2015. During his tenure, he collaborated with Artistic Director Diane Garton Edie on adaptations of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, both recognized with National Endowment for the Arts project grants. Dan’s creative work continues to shape OFTY’s legacy of imaginative storytelling for young audiences.
Beyond OFTY, Dan’s career reflects a deep commitment to the arts and philanthropy. He has held leadership roles with organizations such as Florida Grand Opera and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, his alma mater, where he now directs fundraising initiatives for Student Affairs. Dan also shares his voice as an arts reviewer for Isthmus newspaper and serves on several local boards, helping to strengthen and sustain Madison’s creative community.
JEFFREY SYKES
Music Adaptor – The Magic Flute, The Barber of Seville, Hansel and Gretel, Rusalka
Jeffrey Sykes was Opera for the Young’s Music Director from 1997–2013. He adapted scores for The Magic Flute, Barber of Seville, Rusalka, and Hansel and Gretel, helping to bring imaginative musical storytelling to young audiences.
Jeffrey teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, and at California State University–East Bay, where he directs the piano accompanying program. He is the founder and artistic co-director of the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society of Wisconsin, a regular guest artist at the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio, and has served as guest artistic director of Music in the Vineyards in Napa Valley. He formed the San Francisco PanoTrio with violinist Axel Strauss and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau in 2009 and has recorded for the Albany, Mandala, Centaur, and Cactus Pear labels.
Jeffrey holds degrees with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Franz-Schubert-Institut in Baden-bei-Wien, Austria, and was a Fulbright scholar at the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is a recipient of the Jacob Javits Fellowship from the US Department of Education.
WILLIAM LUTES
Music Adaptor – Orpheus Returns, The Elixir of Love, The Pirates of Penzance
Bill Lutes is a pianist, vocal coach, and educator based in Madison. He performed and collaborated nationally as a soloist and chamber musician and served as Artist-in-Residence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 2000–2011, coaching the University Opera. Bill performed with Opera for the Young and co-created three OFTY operatic adaptations, bringing music to young audiences through imaginative storytelling.
He frequently collaborates with his pianist and singer wife, Martha Fischer, performing piano duet and two-piano repertoire, and together they are completing a recording of all works for two pianists by Robert Schumann. Their Gilbert and Sullivan revue, Innocent Merriment, has been presented throughout the U.S. and Canada. Bill has performed in and directed most G&S operettas, including numerous productions with Madison Savoyards.
Bill also served as classical music host, producer, and Music Director for Wisconsin Public Radio, where he established award-winning educational programs. He has taught piano and masterclasses at Interlochen Arts Camp and the Selma Levine School, and is a popular lecturer on music, presenting courses for the Smithsonian Institution’s Resident Associates Program and appearing as a panelist on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz. He holds degrees in piano performance from the Universities of Kentucky and Wisconsin–Madison and an Artist’s Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music.