Recently, August 2007, Dr. Aiken appeared on the Jim Bohannon Show, a nationally syndicated radio program, discussing biologic origins of high risk adolescent behavior and principles of mindfulness in cognitive behavioral therapy in ones everyday milieu.

Dr. Aiken’s wife Mary has sung with the Springfield Regional Opera and performed in a variety of other musical settings. His sons Dashiell and Quinton Aiken both have directed and produced short films that have appeared in film festivals, including at the Moxie Cinema in Springfield. His daughter Dagne Aiken is an apprentice Member of the Springfield Ballet Company and has performed in many of their productions as well as choreographed and performed a dance sequence for the Springfield Regional Opera’s Sleeping Beauty.

Kim Crosby recently appeared on Broadway in The Tenth Anniversary Concert of Into The Woods, reprising her role as Cinderella. She last starred on Broadway as Sarah Brown in the enormously successful revival of Guys and Dolls; earlier, she was a featured vocalist in Jerry's Girls. Audiences may also have seen her either on Broadway or a Great Performances (PBS) broadcast as Cinderella in Into The Woods; she can also be heard on the Grammy Award winning original cast album. Off-Broadway credits include Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard and Jane Seymore in Six Wives, and Marsius in Philamon, both productions at the York Theatre.

Ms. Crosby appeared as Laurey in the National Tour of Oklahoma! opposite John Davidson and Jamie Farr, and she toured for two years with Fred Waring and His Young Pennsylvanians. Regionally, she has sung Maria in West Side Story at The Springfield Little Theatre; Anne in A Little Night Music at the Berkshire Theatre Festival; Cinderella in Into The Woods at The Old Globe Theatre; Hope Langdon in Something's Afoot at the Birmingham Theatre; The Mysteries and What's So Funny at The American Rep.; and Jessie Pullman in Georgia Avenue at The Goodspeed at Chester, Ct. Kim recently appeared Lily Garland in On The Twentieth Century at Barrington Stage, and as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady at the Muni Theatre in St. Louis opposite her real-life husband, actor Robert Westenberg.

A popular Pops performer, Crosby has performed with many orchestras in the U.S. and overseas. Kim takes an interest in the early life of musical theatre pieces, appearing in workshop productions of Six Wives, Fahrenheit 451, Grovers Corners, and Jekyll & Hyde.

Television credits include Jane Porter in Tarzan In Manhattan (CBS); The Cosby Murder Mysteries (NBC); The Guiding Light (CBS); All My Children (ABC); and a long list of commercials. Kim attended Southern Methodist University and The Manhattan School of Music, and is a former America's Junior Miss.

Peter Halverson - Fredrik in A Little Night Music

Peter Halverson has been one of the leading baritones in the upper Midwest for the last twenty years. He has a been a steady presence on Minnesota stages appearing numerous times with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Skylark Opera and the Minnesota Opera with whom he recently sang the role of Pa Joad in the world premier of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath. He has performed at the Kennedy Center Mozart Festival, the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Berkshire Opera, Florentine Opera, Madison Opera, Chattanooga Opera, Tacoma Opera and Peoria Opera. In concert he has sung with the Dallas Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival, New Mexico Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, Santa Rosa Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Fargo/Moorhead Symphony and Huntsville Symphony.

Mr. Halverson’s performing credits include over fifty roles for the stage. He has earned high praise for his work in Mozart (Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Cosi fan tutte), Rossini (Il barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola), the French repertoire (Faust, Romeo & Juliet, Carmen, Les Pecheurs de Perles, Pelléas et Mélisande), as well as for his work in contemporary opera including the title role in Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Aleksis Kivi, Charles Lindbergh in Cary Franklin’s The Loss of Eden, Thomas Jefferson in Glenn Paxton’s Monticello, the Emperor in Robert Moran’s The Towers of the Moon, Luther Dane in Chester Biscardi’s Tightrope and the Celebrant in Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. On the lighter side, he has received critical acclaim for his performances in operetta (The Desert Song, The New Moon, The Merry Widow, The Vagabond King, The Song of Norway, Bittersweet, The Chocolate Soldier, Naughty Marietta, Die Fledermaus) and musical theater (Man Of La Mancha, South Pacific, Passion, Kismet, Phantom).

This past year, in addition to performances of The Grapes of Wrath with Minnesota Opera and Utah Opera, Mr. Halverson appeared in art song festivals in St. Paul and Boston performing the songs of Edvard Grieg, commemorating the centennial of the Norwegian composer’s death. As winner of the 3rd Yrjö Kilpinen International Art Song Festival, he presented recitals in Jyväskylä, Turku and Helsinki (Finland). Most recently he sang the title role in The Most Happy Fella with VocalEssence in the Twin Cities and a concert with the Operetta Foundation of Los Angeles, with whom he is featured on the following recordings: Marinka by Emmerich Kálmann, Fascinating Night: Rediscovered Gems from The Early Days of Musical Theatre, Vol. I, and City of Dreams: Rediscovered Gems from The Early Days of Musical Theatre, Vol. II. He recently released his first solo CD entitled, American Portrait. Mr. Halverson is an Associate Professor of Voice at Concordia College, Moorhead MN.

Robert Westenberg – A Little Night Music Director

Robert Westenberg may be best remembered for his roles as Cinderella’s Prince and the Wolf in the original Broadway Cast of Into the Woods for which he received a Tony nomination and the Drama Desk Award. He was also in the original cast of Secret Garden, playing Neville Craven opposite Mandy Patinkin, and Sunday in the Park With George, where he subsequently replaced Patinkin in the title role playing opposite Bernadette Peters. He also appeared as Javert in the Broadway cast of Les Misérables in addition to numerous other productions. While know for his work with large Broadway musicals, he has also appeared in numerous comedies, dramas and classic works including many Shakespeare productions at Joseph Papp’s Public Theatre in New York and with regional theaters around the country. He recently completed the national tour of The Full Monty. This past summer he returned for his seventh production at the MUNY Theatre in St. Louis playing Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Westenberg has appeared in film and television and can be heard on a number of original cast recordings.

Michael Casey – A Little Night Music Musical Director

Michael Casey holds degrees from Arkansas Tech University and the University of North Texas. He has served as Musical Director for more than 40 musical theatre projects, including mainstage productions at Missouri State University, Tent Theatre, and the Landers Theatre in Springfield. In addition to serving on the music faculty at Missouri State University, Mr. Casey maintains an active schedule as a conductor, performer, and arranger. Regional credits include conducting engagements with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Springfield Regional Opera, and Springfield Ballet. In Branson he has performed with Shoji Tabuchi, Wayne Newton, Ray Stevens, Kenny Rogers, John Davidson, and Neil Sedaka. He has also served as Musical Contractor for and has performed with the Hammons Hall presentations of Titanic, Diahann Carroll, Marvin Hamlisch, Fiddler on the Roof, and Robert Goulet's Camelot.

April Drewry – Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly

At the age of 16, Soprano April Drewry made her operatic debut in Springfield, Missouri, in Dr. John Prescott’s The Reluctant Dragon. In 1999, she received her Bachelor of Music from Stephen F. Austin State University where she performed Spirit I in Mozart’s Magic Flute, Adele in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Fraulein Vogelsang in Mozart’s The Impresario, and Adina in Donizetti’s The Elixer of Love. She earned her Master of Music degree from Baylor University in 2003 where she sang Blanche in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutti. She won first place in the Graduate Women division of NATS in 2001, and was a finalist in the Dallas Opera Guild Competition in 2002. She was a young artist in the Natchez Opera Festival in 2001 and participated in the opera outreach program. She also studied internationally under Dalton Baldwin at the Music Academy in Nice, France.

Andrew Childs – Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly

Tenor Andrew Childs has presented performances ranging from Gregorian chant to New Music. Guest appearances include those with Seattle Symphony, the AGO national convention, Society of Composers International (SCI), Yale Camerata, Santa Barbara Quire of Voyces, Springfield Symphony, Orchestra Seattle, Missouri Chamber Players, Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, Connecticut Chamber Players, and the American Symphony Orchestra. Andrew has sung over one hundred performances of nearly thirty operatic roles for, among others, Seattle Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Harrisburg Opera, Center for Contemporary Opera, Amato Opera, and various new music workshops. He made his Lincoln Center debut in the workshop performances of Glimmerglass Opera’s commissioned premiere trilogy “Central Park” in 1999. He has premiered works by numerous composers, including Pulitzer Prize winner Yehudi Wyner, and has recorded for the Centaur and Albany labels. Centaur released his premiere recording of Melbinger’s “Some things are Dark” in 2003 and distributed his solo disc of Charles Ives songs in 2006 about which the American Record Guide stated, “…there is no better recording by a tenor.” Dr. Childs serves currently as Professor of Music at St. Mary’s Academy and College, and Assistant Director of Education for the United States District of the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth (SSPX). Previously, he taught at Yale University, Missouri State University, and Connecticut College. He earned his Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of California, Irvine, and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Washington.

Kay Paschal – Madama Butterfly Director

Ms. Paschal has successfully established herself as a popular soprano with opera companies throughout the United States and Europe. She has brought particular distinction to the elegant heroines of Mozart’s operas as Countess Almaviva, Pamina, Donna Elvira, and Donna Anna; revealed a natural flair for comedy in Donizetti and J. Strauss as Adina, Norina, and Rosalinda; and conveyed the depths of passion and despair in Puccini, Verdi, and Leoncavallo as Madama Butterfly, Mimi, Gilda, Violetta, and Nedda. She has graced the stages of Atlanta Opera, Baltimore Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington Opera, Opera Colorado, Charlotte Opera, Mississippi Opera, Connecticut Opera, Mobile Opera, Tulsa Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Baton Rouge Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera Festival of Oklahoma, Birmingham Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Knoxville Opera, Arkansas Opera Theater, Chattanooga Opera, and the National Grand Opera in New York. Ten years ago marked her critically acclaimed European debut as Anna Maurrant in the Berlin Premiere of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene at Theater des Westens, followed by a return to Germany to perform Eva in Die Meistersinger at Volkstheater Rostock. Highlights of Ms. Paschal’s success on the concert stage, have included performances with the Dallas Symphony, Denver Symphony, Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Palm Beach Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Florida Symphony, Sun City Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, Jackson Symphony, Duluth Symphony, Binghamton Symphony, and Oklahoma City Symphony. Ms. Paschal starred in the special Easter Saint Paul Sunday Morning National Public Radio broadcast of Poulenc’s Gloria with the Kansas City Philharmonic. Her latest success was again as Anna Maurrant in the Central City Opera production of Street Scene. Successful in countless competitions and contests, Ms. Paschal was a winner of the prestigious National Institute of Music Theatre award, given by Beverly Sills and Hal Prince at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. For over ten years Ms. Paschal was the voice teacher at Opera in the Ozarks, a popular summer festival. She and her husband, Carroll Freeman, currently live in Knoxville, where she has taught voice at the University Of Tennessee School Of Music. She is currently the voice instructor for the Clarence Brown Theater’s Masters students of the University of Tennessee. She is also the proud mother of an eight-year-old son, Adam.

Dr. Amy Muchnick– Madama Butterfly Conductor

Dr. Amy Muchnick possesses a varied background as violist, conductor and clinician. As a violist, she has appeared throughout the United States and in several European settings as both recitalist and as a member of the Hawthorne String Trio. Born and raised in Connecticut, she began her studies at the Hartt School of Music. After joining the Memphis Symphony, she concurrently earned a Master of Music Degree in viola performance from the University of Memphis. In 1988 she was awarded the prestigious Guarneri String Quartet Fellowship to attend the University of Maryland where she received a Doctoral of Musical Arts Degree. Dr. Muchnick is a winner of numerous competitions such as the Emerson String Quartet Competition, Beethoven Young Artists Competition of Memphis, and the Columbia International Chamber Music Competition. Her innovative children's music programs have gained wide recognition for their creativity and educational originality. Dr. Muchnick is currently Professor of Viola and conductor of the Chamber Orchestra at Missouri State University.

Amit Peled - Cellist

Recently hailed by the American Record Guide as “having the flair of the young Rostropovich” Israeli cellist Amit Peled is forging an international career of the highest caliber both as a soloist, chamber musician and an enthusiastic teacher.

Mr. Peled has been featured guest artist in some of the world's major concert halls such as: Wigmore Hall, London, Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall, NY City, Salle Gaveau, Paris, National Auditorium in Barcelona, Konzerthaus, Berlin and Tel Aviv's Man Auditorium. Among the orchestras that he has collaborated with are the European Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio Symphony Orchestra Saarbrucken, Orquestra Sinfonica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, London Soloists, Jerusalem Symphony, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Tel Aviv Soloists, Haifa Symphony, Musica Vitae Chamber Orchestra, Velcea Philharmonic, Hartford Symphony, Nashua Symphony, String Orchestra of the Rockies to name few.

Highlights of the 2007/08 season include solo appearances with more than twenty different orchestras exploring the majority of the cello concerto repertoire. Moreover, Peled will record a CD with the String Orchestra of the Rockies titled "The Jewish Soul" which will be released in April of 2008, and will continue his Beethoven Sonata Cycle with pianist Alon Goldstein in Israel, USA, Spain and Germany. As an advocate of Israeli music, Mr. Peled has just released the Cello Concerto by Mark Kopytman with the Tel Aviv Soloists under the JMC label and premiered a concerto dedicated to him by Israeli composer Erel Paz with conductor Ilan Volkov.

Being one of the youngest cello professors in the United States, Peled joined the distinguished faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in September 2003. He was recently the featured Artist on the prestigious Internet Cello Society website, and this summer he will conduct intensive master classes at the Euro Arts Festival, Germany, the Heifetz Institute in the US, in Toledo Spain and at the Gotland Festival in Sweden.

Peled is a frequent participant at prestigious festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Schleswig – Holstein Festival, Seattle Music Festival, Cape Cod Festival, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Moselfestwochen, Strings in the Mountains, Four Seasons, Båstad, Prussia Cove, Millstatt Musikwochen and Kfar Blum.

Amit's many recordings can be heard frequently on the Israeli National Classical Music Radio & TV, NPR, WGBH Boston, WFMT Chicago, WQXR NY, Saarlandischer Rundfunk, Deutschland Radio Berlin, Hessischer Rundfunk, Radio France and Swedish National Radio & TV.

Amit is playing a rare Andrea Guarneri Cello ca. 1689. For more information: www.amitpeled.com

Artist Profiles of "The Three Phantoms"

CRIS GROENENDAAL
After originating the role of André in the Broadway production of The Phantom Of The Opera, Cris went on to play the role of the Phantom some 860 performances with the New York, Toronto and Canadian National companies. Other Broadway credits include Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd, the roles of George, the Soldier and Louis the Baker in Sunday In The Park With George (both shows were recreated for PBS), Major Rizzolli in Passion and Miles Gloriosus in the 1996 revival of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. He originated the role of 'Father' in the National Tour of Ragtime and most recently portrayed Jules in the Kennedy Center revival of Sunday In The Park With George. With the New York City, Cleveland, Portland, Tulsa and Syracuse Opera Companies he has played such roles as Count Danilo in The Merry Widow, the title role in Candide, Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore, the Caliph in Kismet, and Ravenal in Show Boat.

Mr. Groenendaal's solo Broadway/cabaret show has been featured with the symphony orchestras of Phoenix, AZ; Erie, PA; Wheeling, WV; Southwest Florida (Ft. Myers) and Rochester, MN, and has been performed in recital for voice and piano at the Performing Arts Centers in Anchorage, AK, Nantucket, MA and Hilton Head, SC; for Fairbanks Light Opera, Alaska and at the Hawaii Theater Center. Other concert performances include a Carnegie Hall debut (1994); a televised Boston Pops, the Montreal Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic; the Moscow Radio and TV Orchestra and the Russian Philharmonic. Presently, he regularly appears with symphony orchestras in the Three Phantoms In Concert program.

Mr. Groenendaal and his wife, Sue Anderson, have produced two solo albums: Always and A Christmas Wish. Other recordings include the role of Billy Crocker on EMI's Anything Goes, RCA's A Stephen Sondheim Evening and Book-of-the-Month Records' Songs of New York and Sondheim albums.

MARK JACOBY
Mark Jacoby is currently starring in the Broadway Revival of Sweeney Todd. Previously, he portrayed the Padre in the Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha. Mark originated the role of Father in the Broadway production of Ragtime, a portrayal called "perfection” by the New Your Post's Clive Barnes. He earned Tony, Outer Critics' and Joseph Jefferson Award nominations for his performance as Gaylord Ravenal in Showboat, directed by Harold Prince, and he is a Theatre World Award recipient for his Broadway debut as Vittorio Vidal in Sweet Charity, directed by Bob Fosse.

For two and-a-half years Mark played the title role in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, a role he had created to critical acclaim in the American National tour. Mr. Jacoby received a 2001 Drama Desk nomination for his performance Off-Broadway as the Playwright in Enter the Guardsman, a performance heralded by The New York Times as "Just right in every way." He also appeared as Baron von Gaigern in Grand Hotel on Broadway, Oscar Jaffee in the Goodspeed Opera revival of On The Twentieth Century (Connecticut Drama Critics' Award: Best Actor in a Musical), Guido Contini in the Chicago premiere of Nine (Joseph Jefferson Award: Best Actor in a musical), Robert in Robert and Elisabeth (the inaugural production of the Paper Mill Playhouse), and John Jasper in the First National Tour of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Television audiences have seen and heard Mark on such broadcasts as Larry King Weekend, Smithsonian Salutes Disney for the Disney Channel, Sondheim: A Celebration at Carnegie Hall (PBS) and Hammerstein the 100th Anniversary (PBS). He as appeared as a soloist with The New York Philharmonic, the Detroit, Dallas, San Diego, Portland and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, the Greg Smith Singers, The Norman Luboff Choir, and can be heard on a variety of recordings, including cast recordings of his Broadway shows.

CRAIG SCHULMAN
Invited to represent the U.S. at the 10th Anniversary of Les Misérables in London, Craig Schulman is the only actor in the United States to have portrayed three of the greatest musical theatre roles: the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd-Webber's The Phantom Of The Opera; Jean Valjean in Les Misérables; and the title roles in Jekyll & Hyde. He has portrayed Jean Valjean in four different companies in three countries for a total of over 1,900 performances. Widely recognized from the PBS broadcast of The 10th Anniversary: Les Misérables In Concert; he has also played Che in Evita, Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof, and Archibald in The Secret Garden.

Schulman moves freely between the worlds of Broadway, opera and symphonic pops programs. He has appeared with many opera companies around the U.S., singing leading tenor roles in The Tales of Hoffmann, Tosca, Madame Butterfly, Carmen, Die Fledermaus, La Bohéme, La Traviata, The Crucible, and Manon.

As a Pops artist, he is the creator and producer of the BROADWAY NIGHTS™ concert series. Craig has appeared in all six of the BROADWAY NIGHTS™ programs with symphonies and at corporate events around the country, and individually with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Philadelphia Pops with Skitch Henderson. He sang for the 40th Anniversary Gala for Opera Memphis. In September, 2000, he debuted his new solo symphony concert entitled, "Heroes, Monsters & Madmen™".

Craig recorded his debut CD called Craig Schulman On Broadway in January at Abbey Road Studios, with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London. It is now available on the Broadway Gems Records label at www.BroadwayGemsRecords.com.

Television credits include The Guiding Light, All My Children, One Life To Live and most recently, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, and NBC's Weekend Today. He can be heard as the voices of both "Luciano Pavarotti" and "Placido Domingo" on MTV's Claymation Celebrity Death Match.

Craig is married to prominent New York voice teacher Monica Robinson, and they are the proud parents of two sons and a daughter. He dedicates his performance to the memory of his daughter Jenna.
Craig's fans can learn more about his career at www.CraigSchulman.com.