Goldie Locks and the 3 Bears Creative Team
Production Manager, Department of Fine and Performing Arts Chair - The Harrisburg Academy
Michael GamonMichael Gamon currently chairs the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at Harrisburg Academy, serves as professor of viola at Kutztown University, and conducts the Harrisburg Symphony Elementary String Orchestra. He has served on the artistic staff of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, as the conductor for the Baltimore Symphony Youth String Orchestra. In addition, he has served as the conductor for the Greater Baltimore Youth Orchestra’s Sinfonia, Sinfonietta and Bridges Orchestras.
Mr. Gamon is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where he studied viola performance with Victoria Chiang and pedagogy with Rebecca Henry. As an orchestral musician, he has worked with Marin Alsop, David Zinman, Jamie Laredo, George Manahan, and James Conlon among others. He has performed throughout Austria, Italy, and the Czech Republic with notable appearances at the Karlskirche in Salzburg, the Rudolfinum in Prague, and the Sala Dei Priori in Perugia. Performances include the nationally televised 32nd Kennedy Center Honors with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in honor of Leon Fleischer, U.S. President George W. Bush, Baltimore Mayors Sheila Dixon and Staphanie Rawlings-Blake. Additionally, Mr. Gamon has appeared in solo and chamber music recital series throughout the Baltimore and Central Pennsylvania regions.
Mr. Gamon is a scholarship recipient of the Aspen Music Festival and School. He graduated summa cum laude from Lebanon Valley College. While at Lebanon Valley College, he won the concerto-aria competition and soloed with the Lebanon Valley College Symphony Orchestra and received the Carmean Orchestra Award. Mr. Gamon worked closely with collaborative pianist Dr. Karen Savage and violinist Dr. Hannes Dietrich.
Mr. Gamon is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where he studied viola performance with Victoria Chiang and pedagogy with Rebecca Henry. As an orchestral musician, he has worked with Marin Alsop, David Zinman, Jamie Laredo, George Manahan, and James Conlon among others. He has performed throughout Austria, Italy, and the Czech Republic with notable appearances at the Karlskirche in Salzburg, the Rudolfinum in Prague, and the Sala Dei Priori in Perugia. Performances include the nationally televised 32nd Kennedy Center Honors with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in honor of Leon Fleischer, U.S. President George W. Bush, Baltimore Mayors Sheila Dixon and Staphanie Rawlings-Blake. Additionally, Mr. Gamon has appeared in solo and chamber music recital series throughout the Baltimore and Central Pennsylvania regions.
Mr. Gamon is a scholarship recipient of the Aspen Music Festival and School. He graduated summa cum laude from Lebanon Valley College. While at Lebanon Valley College, he won the concerto-aria competition and soloed with the Lebanon Valley College Symphony Orchestra and received the Carmean Orchestra Award. Mr. Gamon worked closely with collaborative pianist Dr. Karen Savage and violinist Dr. Hannes Dietrich.
Music Director, Pianist, Music Faculty - NYU Steinhardt
Elizabeth HastingsElizabeth Hastings has conducted for opera companies around the country, including Sarasota Opera, Toledo Opera, New Rochelle Opera, Opera Northeast, Whitewater Opera and Washington Opera. Favorite conducting experiences include Hansel and Gretel for Opera Theatre of Montclair (NJ) and La Cenerentola and La Bohème for the innovative Union Avenue Opera in St. Louis (MO). She served as both conductor and stage director for Queens College Opera’s productions of Die Fledermaus, Le nozze di Figaro, and The Magic Flute and most recently for Regina Opera’s La Bohème. In addition to opera, she has conducted over 60 productions of musical theatre and operetta in 29 seasons at the College Light Opera Company on Cape Cod. She has performed many times at Carnegie Hall as a continuo player, appearing with MidAmerica Productions as well as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. As an accompanist, she has appeared with soloists and choral groups in Europe and the United States. She is on the faculty of NYU Steinhardt where she is conducting Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica in the spring of 2024. She last appeared with Harrisburg Opera Association as conductor of Madame Butterfly.
Website: maestramusic.org/profile/elizabeth-hastings
Website: maestramusic.org/profile/elizabeth-hastings
Composer, Librettist, Jembe, Arts & Education Officer - Harrisburg Opera Association
Adam C J KleinFamiliar to Harrisburg audiences as a frequent performer with Harrisburg Opera Association, as a composer Adam C J Klein completed his first opera in 1992, but his relationship with the art form started in 1970 when he and his brother Moondi were accepted by audition into the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus: the audition number was the Star Spangled Banner. In 1971, Adam became the first boy at the Met to sing Yniold in PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE with Thomas Stewart and Judith Blegen; he also appeared as Zweiter Knabe (DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE) with Stuart Burrows and Theodor Uppman. When his voice changed at age 14 he considered his opera career to be over as he worked toward his first career goal, to be a baseball player - his favorite team were his hometown Mets; his favorite player, right fielder Art Shamsky, was like Adam a Lefty. All this time, Adam composed piano pieces on the instruments owned by his father, Juilliard piano Masters laureate Howard Klein. He also enjoyed Warner Brothers cartoons; one of his favorites was "Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears".
In his late teens, still writing piano music but now also songs to be sung with dulcimer and banjo, Adam changed his career focus to herpetology with an emphasis on amphibians, until an uncaring professor at SUNY Stony Brook soured him to the whole academic experience and pushed him full-time into luthiery and concertizing in the Appalachian music field. This trajectory was halted by his taking voice lessons to improve his high notes in Old-Time songs, because after a few months of training with Suffolk County voice teacher Gloria Hilborn he noticed that the timbre his voice was developing might be more conducive to a lucrative career as a classical singer; besides, being a traditional musician on Long Island in the Age of Disco was not, shall we say, a growth industry. So back into opera he sallied, first doing roles with Hilborn's company and chorus duty with the Nassau Lyric Opera, then apprenticeships at regional companies like Chautauqua Opera in upstate New York - all the while continuing to write songs and instrumental pieces in a vein now called "acoustic", and also beginning work on a grand opera, LEITHIAN, based on a chapter of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, which he expected would take ten years of spare time to complete.
On Gloria's suggestion he underwent the graduate program at I.U. School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana which led to a three-decade lucrative career as an opera soloist - but he also took a minor in composition under the tutelage of Donald Erb, with the notion that once his singing career ended he would be taken more seriously as a composer with this degree to show people. Adam suspended work on LEITHIAN during his I.U. years, wanting his academic composition exercises not to intrude on the style of this piece he'd already begun. But after getting his Masters degree, he worked on it and by the time he wrote publisher Unwin Hyman Ltd in 1990 for the rights to use the story in performances, he had completed half the scenes. By 1992, about a decade after the first note was penned, he reached the end of the final scene and put LEITHIAN aside to concentrate more on a blossoming performing career, which in 1994 took him to Washington, DC for a job covering the lead role in the world premiere of Dominick Argento's THE DREAM OF VALENTINO. During his off-time at this gig, and informed by four years of association with Indianapolis Opera's school outreach program, in a mere four weeks Adam began and finished composition of the libretto and score of GOLDIE LOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS. The story quickly diverged from the pugilistic embarkation point that was that Warner Brothers cartoon to become a semi-autobiographical essay on the harsh realities of one's school years for those who are different - in this telling, being the Smart Kid for one and the Tom-boy in a boys' world for the other. On showing it to several potential producers of GOLDIE whom he'd met at regional opera jobs, he met criticism and resistance which discouraged him from further promotion of the work, though he deemed most of the objections spurious if not downright puzzling. He did, however, complete a demo audio recording of the show in case down the road the climate for this piece would improve. So it is that thirty years later, after decades of Adam performing other composer's music, including fifteen consecutive years as a Met Principal Artist, this little opera about tolerance for being different, having now been presented to people who share the composer's incredulity at those former objections, finally comes to life with Harrisburg Opera Association under Tami Swartz, in association with the Harrisburg Academy with Fine Arts Chair Michael Gamon. A composer's greatest joy occurs when her works are performed; gratitude doesn't begin to cover it.
When asked what style he writes in, Klein generally answers "tonal": we are not yet far removed from what may be called the Ivory Tower age of classical music. His semesters at I.U. listening to recitals of student- and professor-composers' works in every style imaginable taught him that atonality is not, as some have insisted, the logical evolution of classical music from its Renaissance beginnings through the Baroque, Classical and later compositional eras: it's merely one point on a broad spectrum of ways to combine pitches when constructing musical edifices, and atonality's emotional impact has its place, used sparingly, alongside the impacts caused by the music of, say, Bach, Chopin or Springsteen. Thus Adam made a clear, free, conscious decision to write music with an ear to how music affects people emotionally as opposed to how correct or interesting it looks on the page, a decision he shares with Giacomo Puccini, Claude Debussy, Robert Ward and many others who didn't quaff the serial-music koolaid.
Incidentally, LEITHIAN was finally presented, in concert form, in separate halves in 2006 and '07, in New York City; after the Part Two concert, though Harper Collins (which bought Unwin Hyman) invited him to apply for further permission to use the story in performances, Klein never received a reply, yea or nay, to his request.
Adam has other operas in various beginning stages, waiting for life to once again award him the luxury of time to compose. In the interim he has written a choral symphony called De Philosophia de Scientia, the demo recording of which similarly awaits the necessary hours for its completion.
Website: www.adamcjklein.us
In his late teens, still writing piano music but now also songs to be sung with dulcimer and banjo, Adam changed his career focus to herpetology with an emphasis on amphibians, until an uncaring professor at SUNY Stony Brook soured him to the whole academic experience and pushed him full-time into luthiery and concertizing in the Appalachian music field. This trajectory was halted by his taking voice lessons to improve his high notes in Old-Time songs, because after a few months of training with Suffolk County voice teacher Gloria Hilborn he noticed that the timbre his voice was developing might be more conducive to a lucrative career as a classical singer; besides, being a traditional musician on Long Island in the Age of Disco was not, shall we say, a growth industry. So back into opera he sallied, first doing roles with Hilborn's company and chorus duty with the Nassau Lyric Opera, then apprenticeships at regional companies like Chautauqua Opera in upstate New York - all the while continuing to write songs and instrumental pieces in a vein now called "acoustic", and also beginning work on a grand opera, LEITHIAN, based on a chapter of The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, which he expected would take ten years of spare time to complete.
On Gloria's suggestion he underwent the graduate program at I.U. School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana which led to a three-decade lucrative career as an opera soloist - but he also took a minor in composition under the tutelage of Donald Erb, with the notion that once his singing career ended he would be taken more seriously as a composer with this degree to show people. Adam suspended work on LEITHIAN during his I.U. years, wanting his academic composition exercises not to intrude on the style of this piece he'd already begun. But after getting his Masters degree, he worked on it and by the time he wrote publisher Unwin Hyman Ltd in 1990 for the rights to use the story in performances, he had completed half the scenes. By 1992, about a decade after the first note was penned, he reached the end of the final scene and put LEITHIAN aside to concentrate more on a blossoming performing career, which in 1994 took him to Washington, DC for a job covering the lead role in the world premiere of Dominick Argento's THE DREAM OF VALENTINO. During his off-time at this gig, and informed by four years of association with Indianapolis Opera's school outreach program, in a mere four weeks Adam began and finished composition of the libretto and score of GOLDIE LOCKS AND THE THREE BEARS. The story quickly diverged from the pugilistic embarkation point that was that Warner Brothers cartoon to become a semi-autobiographical essay on the harsh realities of one's school years for those who are different - in this telling, being the Smart Kid for one and the Tom-boy in a boys' world for the other. On showing it to several potential producers of GOLDIE whom he'd met at regional opera jobs, he met criticism and resistance which discouraged him from further promotion of the work, though he deemed most of the objections spurious if not downright puzzling. He did, however, complete a demo audio recording of the show in case down the road the climate for this piece would improve. So it is that thirty years later, after decades of Adam performing other composer's music, including fifteen consecutive years as a Met Principal Artist, this little opera about tolerance for being different, having now been presented to people who share the composer's incredulity at those former objections, finally comes to life with Harrisburg Opera Association under Tami Swartz, in association with the Harrisburg Academy with Fine Arts Chair Michael Gamon. A composer's greatest joy occurs when her works are performed; gratitude doesn't begin to cover it.
When asked what style he writes in, Klein generally answers "tonal": we are not yet far removed from what may be called the Ivory Tower age of classical music. His semesters at I.U. listening to recitals of student- and professor-composers' works in every style imaginable taught him that atonality is not, as some have insisted, the logical evolution of classical music from its Renaissance beginnings through the Baroque, Classical and later compositional eras: it's merely one point on a broad spectrum of ways to combine pitches when constructing musical edifices, and atonality's emotional impact has its place, used sparingly, alongside the impacts caused by the music of, say, Bach, Chopin or Springsteen. Thus Adam made a clear, free, conscious decision to write music with an ear to how music affects people emotionally as opposed to how correct or interesting it looks on the page, a decision he shares with Giacomo Puccini, Claude Debussy, Robert Ward and many others who didn't quaff the serial-music koolaid.
Incidentally, LEITHIAN was finally presented, in concert form, in separate halves in 2006 and '07, in New York City; after the Part Two concert, though Harper Collins (which bought Unwin Hyman) invited him to apply for further permission to use the story in performances, Klein never received a reply, yea or nay, to his request.
Adam has other operas in various beginning stages, waiting for life to once again award him the luxury of time to compose. In the interim he has written a choral symphony called De Philosophia de Scientia, the demo recording of which similarly awaits the necessary hours for its completion.
Website: www.adamcjklein.us
Stage Director, Artistic & Executive Director - Harrisburg Opera Association
Tami SwartzTami Swartz has been performing on the stage in multiple, artistic genres ranging from theater, musical theater and jazz, opera, television and film. She began honing her directing skills from age 12 at various theater apprenticeship programs including Hampton Playhouse and at Northwestern University. Praised by The Washington Post as "A lithe soprano...especially clean and well modulated”, Ms. Swartz is also a singing actor with a diverse career in opera, theater, television and film, new music, and jazz.
Serving as Artistic Director and Executive Director of Harrisburg Opera Association since 2018, her directing credits include Artistic Director for Harrisburg Opera Association's annual educational outreach concert series "Opera in the Park" from 1995-2000 and 2018 to present. Additional Harrisburg Opera producing/directing credits include: Goldie Locks and the Three Bears an Opera for Children by Adam C J Klein, “An Artist’s Journey” a two act evening with the work Still Breathing by Adam C J Klein and Mixed Impressions by Ms. Swartz where both works explore the artists life and experiences of otherness, "Paris 1959" an original crossover program that Ms. Swartz conceived combining Puccini’s Il tabarro with jazz quartet, Puccini’s An Historically Accurate Madama Butterfly with Adam C J Klein co-director and a re-imagined version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Adam C J Klein librettist and co-director. Additional producing/directing credits include Charleston Chamber Opera's inaugural production Pilot Season - a program Ms. Swartz conceived, along with long-time collaborator Timothy Lafontaine, for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival weaving four one act operas into a script showcasing them as ideas for a major network's pilot season. Additional stage directing credits include Nest Egg Productions, The Hellenic Music Foundation, The Co-OPERAtive Opera Company, NY, NY and The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra Children's Concert Series.
Opera performing credits include Heloise in the American premiere of Offenbach's Bluebeard with Connecticut, Connecticut Grand, Fort Lauderdale and Long Beach opera companies, Cho-Cho-san in Madama Butterfly with Metro Lyric Opera and Harrisburg Opera Association, Lúthien in the world premiere of Adam C J Klein's opera Leithian based on the story "Beren and Lúthien" from J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarilion at the Liederkranz in New York, Musetta in La Bohème with Late Evening Productions / Dallas Opera, Elizabeth Tilton in the world premiere of Mrs. President with The Center for Contemporary Opera in New York City, Gilda in Rigoletto with Harrisburg Opera Association and Anna and Jessie in The Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel with Liederkranz Opera Theatre.
Theater performing credits include Lady Thiang in The King and I with Dallas Summer Musicals, Sacramento Music Circus and Music Theatre of Wichita, Tuptim in The King and I with Allenberry Playhouse, Sharon in Master Class with Caldwell Theatre Company and ZACH Theatre, Mrs. Corn in Gary Adler's musical romp Thanks! at Bucks County Playhouse and as Polly Peachum in Duke Ellington's Beggar's Holiday on Off Broadway with The York Theatre Company. Workshops / Presentations include the role of Hanako in the final version of the Broadway musical Allegiance starring George Takei, including the Talks at Google broadcast series.
Film and television performing credits include the role of The Woman in the short film The Owner is In (winner of best short film at the 2019 Williamsburg Independent Film Festival) with co-star Nimo Gandhi, Tammy (Helen's Attorney) in the feature film Is It a Crime starring Cameron Giles (Cam'ron) and as a Forensics Officer in the feature film Equal Standard co-produced and starring Ice-T.
New music/jazz performing credits include soloist in "Round for a Plague Year" by Ted Rosenthal with the BMI New York Jazz Orchestra at Merkin Hall. Additionally, she was featured soloist with Randy Sandke and The Bern Festival All Stars in a tribute to Duke Ellington at the Bern Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland with arrangements by Scott Robinson. She holds Masters and Bachelors degrees from The Juilliard School and Northwestern University respectively and currently resides in New York City.
Websites: www.tamiswartz.com, www.harrisburg-opera.org
Facebook: @tamiswartzpage Instagram: @tamiswartz1
Serving as Artistic Director and Executive Director of Harrisburg Opera Association since 2018, her directing credits include Artistic Director for Harrisburg Opera Association's annual educational outreach concert series "Opera in the Park" from 1995-2000 and 2018 to present. Additional Harrisburg Opera producing/directing credits include: Goldie Locks and the Three Bears an Opera for Children by Adam C J Klein, “An Artist’s Journey” a two act evening with the work Still Breathing by Adam C J Klein and Mixed Impressions by Ms. Swartz where both works explore the artists life and experiences of otherness, "Paris 1959" an original crossover program that Ms. Swartz conceived combining Puccini’s Il tabarro with jazz quartet, Puccini’s An Historically Accurate Madama Butterfly with Adam C J Klein co-director and a re-imagined version of Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Adam C J Klein librettist and co-director. Additional producing/directing credits include Charleston Chamber Opera's inaugural production Pilot Season - a program Ms. Swartz conceived, along with long-time collaborator Timothy Lafontaine, for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival weaving four one act operas into a script showcasing them as ideas for a major network's pilot season. Additional stage directing credits include Nest Egg Productions, The Hellenic Music Foundation, The Co-OPERAtive Opera Company, NY, NY and The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra Children's Concert Series.
Opera performing credits include Heloise in the American premiere of Offenbach's Bluebeard with Connecticut, Connecticut Grand, Fort Lauderdale and Long Beach opera companies, Cho-Cho-san in Madama Butterfly with Metro Lyric Opera and Harrisburg Opera Association, Lúthien in the world premiere of Adam C J Klein's opera Leithian based on the story "Beren and Lúthien" from J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarilion at the Liederkranz in New York, Musetta in La Bohème with Late Evening Productions / Dallas Opera, Elizabeth Tilton in the world premiere of Mrs. President with The Center for Contemporary Opera in New York City, Gilda in Rigoletto with Harrisburg Opera Association and Anna and Jessie in The Seven Deadly Sins and Mahagonny Songspiel with Liederkranz Opera Theatre.
Theater performing credits include Lady Thiang in The King and I with Dallas Summer Musicals, Sacramento Music Circus and Music Theatre of Wichita, Tuptim in The King and I with Allenberry Playhouse, Sharon in Master Class with Caldwell Theatre Company and ZACH Theatre, Mrs. Corn in Gary Adler's musical romp Thanks! at Bucks County Playhouse and as Polly Peachum in Duke Ellington's Beggar's Holiday on Off Broadway with The York Theatre Company. Workshops / Presentations include the role of Hanako in the final version of the Broadway musical Allegiance starring George Takei, including the Talks at Google broadcast series.
Film and television performing credits include the role of The Woman in the short film The Owner is In (winner of best short film at the 2019 Williamsburg Independent Film Festival) with co-star Nimo Gandhi, Tammy (Helen's Attorney) in the feature film Is It a Crime starring Cameron Giles (Cam'ron) and as a Forensics Officer in the feature film Equal Standard co-produced and starring Ice-T.
New music/jazz performing credits include soloist in "Round for a Plague Year" by Ted Rosenthal with the BMI New York Jazz Orchestra at Merkin Hall. Additionally, she was featured soloist with Randy Sandke and The Bern Festival All Stars in a tribute to Duke Ellington at the Bern Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland with arrangements by Scott Robinson. She holds Masters and Bachelors degrees from The Juilliard School and Northwestern University respectively and currently resides in New York City.
Websites: www.tamiswartz.com, www.harrisburg-opera.org
Facebook: @tamiswartzpage Instagram: @tamiswartz1