1979 - Gary Lakes

    Heldentenor Gary was selected and coached by Maestro Henry Holt as an understudy for ‘Froh’ and a candidate for “Siegmund”.    The following year, after winning the San Francisco Opera Auditions, he appeared as ‘Froh’ in the Seattle 1980 Ring.      Mr. Lakes subsequently starred in LA Opera’s “Les Troyen” and sang ‘Siegmund’ with Levine conducting the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.    

1980 - Pamela Porter-Arnold

     Dramatic Soprano Pamela Porter-Arnold understudied the role of “Sieglinde’ during the 1980 ‘Ring’ and then returned to Seattle in September to appear in that season’s opening, “Die Fledermaus”.   She then returned to the Festival again in 1982 as one of the Valkyries.    She assayed the lead in “Ariadne auf Naxos” at NY City Opera and then went on as ‘Guest Artist” at Darmstadt Opera, Germany, for several years. 

1981 - Michael V. Pisani

     Michael already had a distinguished list of accomplishments before winning the Grane Award.   He was Assistant Conductor and Choral Coach at Houston Grand Opera and performed as Accompanist to numerous opera personalities.   Having received his PhD, Dr. Pisani is Professor of Music at Vassar College and author of “Imagining Native America in Music “ (Yale University Press) - an outstanding new look at the musical representations of native America.

1982 - Michael K. Mitchell

     Michael received the Grane Award to complete his draft of “The Shattered Spear” - a study of the tragic elements in Wagner’s ‘’Ring”.    For 15 years, Michael performed as associate conductor, lecturer, educator, writer, workshop leader and preview artist for Seattle Opera.   He was 46 when he succumbed to an AIDS related illness and gave Harry his mostly finished manuscript to complete and edit.

The following composers were requested to attend and write a ten-minute original composition for work-study and performance by the Arditti Quartet on July 10th, 2008 at IMD summer classes.

    Birke Bertelsmeier (Germany)

    Milica Djordjevic (Serbia)

    Patricia Manuela Fernandes Sucena de Almeida (Portugal)

   *Arturo Fuentes (Mexico)

    Kristian Ireland (Australia)

   *Felipe Lara (Brazil)

   *Christopher Trebue Moore (USA)

1. *= indicates composers included for work-stay at EXPERIMENTAL STUDIO (Freiburg).

Trevor Bača (b. 1975, Los Angeles) studied art, music and languages at the University of Texas and broadened his compositional skills studying with Stefano Scodanibbio (Italy) and Julio Estrada (Mexico City).   Trevor works full time in software design and engineering and is the principal author of US patents concerning networks and statistical modeling.  He was invited to IRCAM and HochSchule, Stuttgart, to give lectures on rhythmic possibilities with the computer and is attending Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, in August 2009.  His compositional endeavors have been limited to several hours early each morning; however, that may all change with his having won the Ježek Prize and its attendant performance in New York by the Either/Or Ensemble in March 2010.

additional information:   www.thereddoor.typepad.com