We hope you will join us for this special panel discussion, lasting 45-60 minutes and moderated by Master Class co-dramaturg Lucas Garcia. The discussion will feature these special guest panelists:

Alicia Berneche has been celebrated throughout her career as a singer who brings new compositions to life with a unique sound, technical acuity, and acting ability, while bringing a sublime bel canto style and fresh interpretation. She came to fame replacing Dawn Upshaw in The Great Gatsby for Lyric Opera of Chicago, which then took her to the Metropolitan Opera. She also has performed at the Goodman Theatre, BAM, London’s Barbican, and Skylight Opera Theatre, among numerous other venues around the United States. Recent productions include Agnes Gooch in Mame with Light Opera Works, a company for which Ms. Berneche has performed 10 leading roles, and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus. She also had the World Premiere of her opera Thank You, Next! at Milwaukee Opera Theatre. Berneche is often called upon to perform extremely difficult works and was featured numerous times with the CUBE ensemble presenting many world premieres. She and CUBE often collaborate on Chicago’s WFMT radio, pushing the boundaries of the human voice in their repertoire choices. On a whim, she started taking voice lessons her senior year of high school, majored in Vocal Performance at DePauw University, and attended graduate school at Peabody Conservatory.

Cynthia Clarey is a member of Chicago Cabaret Professionals and sits on the Board of Directors at Chicago Opera Theater. She is graduate of Howard University and The Juilliard School and was an opera singer for more than 35 years. Her reputation as a consummate singing actress led to engagements throughout the world. Recordings include John Duffy’s A Time for Remembrance, Berg’s Lulu, Tippett’s The Icebreak and A Child of Our Time, Weill’s Lost in the Stars, and the Grammy Award-nominated Porgy and Bess conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. Clarey made her theater debut two years ago in Porchlight Theater’s Jeff Award-winning show, Scottsboro Boys. Her new show, Bridge Over Muddied Waters, premiered at Davenport’s Cabaret and was later seen at Roosevelt University. Most recently, she performed the role of the Reverend Witherspoon in Porchlight’s revisit of 1776. Clarey regularly performs with Acts of Kindness Cabaret to help organizations raise money for their projects.

Catherine O’Shaughnessy is the music director of Chicago Fringe Opera, principal conductor of the Floating Opera Company, and the founder and artistic director of Windy City Opera. In the past year, O’Shaughnessy has served as music director and conductor for Song from the Uproar and In the Penal Colony (Chicago Fringe Opera), Don Pasquale (Windy City Opera), and Don Giovanni (Floating Opera Company and 42nd Parallel). A semi-finalist in the 2016 Spazio Musica International Conducting Competition, she is a rising orchestral and opera conductor with numerous credits in the United States and abroad. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral and opera conducting from Arizona State University. She also earned a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from Bowling Green State University and a Bachelor of Music in music theory from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. O’Shaughnessy has been fortunate to participate in masterclasses and workshops with Gustav Meier, Maurizio Arena, Yuri Simonov, Colin Metters, Johannes Schlaefli, Kenneth Woods, and Donato Renzetti.

This Sunday Scholars discussion is FREE and open to the public. If you would like to attend but are not attending the show that day, please arrive by 4pm and you can enter the theatre once the performance concludes. Questions? Call the Box Office at 773.281.8463 x6.