Fall 2014 Directors
Stage Directors
Sarah Cohn is a
senior at Barnard
College majoring in
English. Over the past four years, she has worked in various capacities at Ash Lawn Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival. This past summer, she served as the Assistant Director of the Young Artist Program at the Castleton Festival. On campus, she plays viola in the Columbia University Orchestra and photographs for the Columbia Photography Association. She is thrilled to be working on her second scenes program with the New Opera Workshop.
Sarah
Cohn
Hannah Rose
Gorman is a junior
in Columbia College
studying political science and music. She is excited to be directing again for the Columbia University New Opera Workshop, which she co-founded in 2014. This semester, she will also direct the premiere of Welcome Home by Rae Binstock for NOMADS. Hannah studies voice in the studios of Jean-Ronald LaFond and Harolyn Blackwell, attended SongFest at Colburn this summer, and has performed with Bach Society (Dido and Aeneas, Belinda), the Barnard Theatre Department (Red Ribbon, Bridget), Columbia University Players (Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play, Mary Magdalene), and Columbia Classical Performers. She studied acting, singing, and directing in American Conservatory Theater's Young Conservatory from ages 8 to 18, and was named an ACT Distinguished Young Artist in 2012.
Hannah Rose
Gorman
Isabella Livorni is a
Barnard senior,
majoring in music
and Italian literature.
She studies voice with Professor Josephine Mongiardo. Isabella is active in the musical community on the Columbia University campus, performing with numerous choirs and teaching for Musical Mentors Collaborative. Isabella has been involved with the Columbia University New Opera Workshop since its inception. In NOW's first semester in spring 2013, she directed the Act III quartet from Verdi’s Rigoletto. The next year, she acted as co-artistic director and producer of the New Opera Workshop, and directed the opening scene of Rossini’s La Cenerentola. Isabella is looking forward to once again have the opportunity to direct for NOW in fall 2014, during her final year at Columbia University.
Isabella
Livorni
Music Directors
Coming soon!
Annie
Guo
Yeana
Lee
Yeana Lee is a senior in
Columbia College dou-
ble majoring in music
and political science. In
previous semesters, Yeana has worked as a musical director for the New Opera Workshops (spring 2014) and the Vivace Chamber Singers. This semester she is also music directing Merrily We Roll Along with CMTS. Yeana serves on the executive board of Musical Mentors Collaborative and runs a music appreciation blog in her spare time.
Audrey
Vardanega
18 year-old pianist
and composer
Audrey Vardanega is
from Oakland, CA.
She began studying piano and composing at six. Her first composition, entitled “Beauty of Heart,” dedicated to the victims of 9/11, won the Music Teacher’s Association of California’s Composers Today contest. At eight years old, she won awards from the Yamaha Junior Jamboree for her works Folk Tale (for piano solo) and her Peter Pan Suite (for violin and piano). In 2006, she adapted Hans Christian Andersen’s story, The Emperor’s New Clothes, which premiered at The Crowden School. Since then, she has composed numerous instrumental and vocal pieces, the largest being an eight-movement ballet suite for full orchestra titled “Zingara.” The music for “Zingara" was premiered by the San Francisco Academy Orchestra under the baton of Andrei Gorbatenko in October 2012.
