Portland SummerFest
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Portland SummerFest Presents Opera in the Park 2011
Artistic Director
Ruth Dobson
Ruth Dobson received the 2007
Governor’s Arts Award
from Governor Kulongoski for her work in the field of opera and opera education. She is currently the Artistic Director of Portland SummerFest and Director of the Apprentice Program at the
Astoria Music Festival
. Nationally, she is on the board of directors of the
National Opera Association
. For ten years, she was a Founder and the Artistic Director of
Bel Canto Northwest Vocal Institute
in Portland. She joined the voice faculty at the
University of Oregon
in 2006 after retiring from Portland State University where for 28 years she was professor of music and Director of
PSU Opera
. Under her direction, PSU Opera productions of
Le nozze di Figaro
in 2000 and
Don Giovanni
in 2003 were awarded first place in the opera production competition of the National Opera Association. Her many current and former voice students are singing professionally throughout the United States and Europe. She has been a frequent soprano soloist with most of the major performing arts organizations in the Northwest, including the
Oregon Symphony
,
Portland Opera
,
Portland Youth Philharmonic
,
Abbey Bach Festival
,
Britt Festivals
, Astoria Music Festival, and the Festival of New Music at both the University of Oregon and in Seattle. She received her Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from the
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
, where she held a graduate fellowship as an opera coach/accompanist. She returned to the University of Cincinnati to give master classes in vocal chamber music as part of their
Grandin Festival
.
Conductor
Keith Clark
Keith Clark is Principal Guest Conductor of the Siberian Chamber Orchestra in Omsk, Russia, Conductor of the Amadeus Opera Ensemble in Salzburg, and Founding Conductor Laureate of the
Pacific Symphony
in Southern California. He is Founding Music Director & Conductor of the
Astoria Music Festival
, which recently completed its sixth season of presenting opera, orchestra, and chamber music at the historic Liberty Theater in Astoria. In 2007, he directed the U.S. State Department’s American Music Festival in Chisinau, Moldova, conducted
The Marriage of Figaro
in Salzburg and
Rigoletto
for Portland SummerFest; and in the fall of 2007 led a highly-acclaimed first Russian production of
West Side Story
at the famed Globus Theater in Novosibirsk. He is featured on over thirty recordings with the
London Philharmonic
,
Vienna Chamber Orchestra
, Slovak State Philharmonic, Les Concerts du Monde Baroque Orchestra, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra. His CD’s have received Grammy nominations, “Record of the Year” and “Classical Hall of Fame” awards, and Billboard Bestseller listings. A resident of Vienna and London for a decade, he appeared in Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, Royal Philharmonic Hall and other historic sites and concertized with leading soloists, among them violinists Menuhin, Szeryng, Milstein and Ricci, pianists Arrau, Gutierrez, and Browning, cellists Starter, Rose and Harrell, and singers Thomas Hampson, Anna Moffo, Roberta Peters, Dorothy Kirsten, and Hans Hotter. He founded Southern California’s Pacific Symphony Orchestra and built it into the nation’s fastest growing professional orchestra, bringing it to international attention through recordings, broadcasts, and appearances on BBC and American television.
SummerFest Board of Directors
Jocelyn Bates,
President
Steve Bachelder,
V. President
Ann C. Carter,
V. President
Laurie Hungerford Flint,
V. President
William J. Friesen,
V. President
Gail Jubitz,
V. President
Scott Wyse,
V. President
Darlyn Jablonski,
Recording Secretary
Elizabeth S. Duffett,
Secretary for Correspondence and Development
Sherry Olson,
Treasurer
