UMD Voice Faculty

Soprano Regina Zona is making a name for herself as one of the "important" singers of her generation. Described as the "perfect voice for Strauss," she continues to amaze audiences with her versatility. Whether it is the demanding music of Mozart and Strauss or the artistry and lyricism of Bellini and Verdi, Dr. Zona finds her way comfortably in all styles.

Dr. Zona has had the pleasure of working with some of the world’s best conductors on a variety of repertoire. She has sung Mozart with French conductor, Emmanuel Villaume, Welsh conductor, Grant Llewellyn and American conductors, James Meena and Carol Crawford. Under the baton of Maestra Eve Queler she has performed some of the great bel canto roles including the title role of Norma in concert and Margeurite in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots with the Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico. She also covered that role and the role of Elena in Donizetti’s Marino Faliero with the Opera Orchestra of New York. Dr. Zona performed the music of Richard Strauss in Yokosuka, Japan at a Gala Concert with the Tokyo Symphony under the baton of Austrian conductor, Gustav Kuhn. She sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with the Hawaii Opera Theatre and triumphed with the Sarasota Opera as the flirtatious Musetta in La Bohéme where she “stole the show…with her brilliant soprano and outrageously seductive characterization”. Perhaps her most critically acclaimed role at the beginning of her career was Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte. She sang the Queen in St. Louis, Toledo, Sarasota, Tulsa, and Philadelphia where she has been praised for her “brilliantly ringing sound” and “commanding presence”. Dr. Zona’s New York debut was as the soprano soloist in an Evening of Mozart at Lincoln Center with the National Chorale. In June of 1997, she was a winner of the highly distinguished Neue Stimmen International Vocal Competition in Gütersloh, Germany. Originally from Western New York, Dr. Zona has also taken first place honors in the Mario Lanza Competition, Bel Canto Competition, Liederkranz Competition and was a regional winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Equally comfortable on the concert stage as on the operatic stage, Dr. Zona was embraced by critics and the public on a concert tour with the Sarasota Opera as “nothing short of sensational”. Her extensive oratorio and concert performances include: Beethoven’s Symphony #9, Mahler’s Symphony #8, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, and Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder.

With over 20 years of voice teaching experience, Dr. Zona has held teaching positions at Shorter College in Rome, GA, Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT and The Community Music School in Buffalo, NY and is currently Assistant Professor of Music/Opera Program Director at the University of Minnesota Duluth as the director of Opera and teacher of Voice. As a musical/stage director, Dr. Zona has directed several college and community productions including operas, opera scene programs, musicals and show choir performances. Her most recent directing credits include several University opera scenes programs and Verdi’s Falstaff. In 2010, she will direct the double bill of Suor Angelica and Pagliacci. In addition to teaching opera and classical vocal literature, she is well versed in the musical theatre genre teaching both private students in musical theatre vocal techniques and college level musical theatre literature courses. She is currently writing a college-level textbook called The Music, The Voice and The Theatre: A Comparison, History and Appreciation of Opera and Musical Theatre. Dr. Zona received her Bachelor of Music from Northwestern University, Artist Diploma from the Academy of Vocal Arts and Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

For more information on Dr. Zona’s singing career, please visit her website at www.reginazona.com.

Rachel Inselman, soprano is an Associate Professor of Voice at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Ms. Inselman has performed extensively throughout the United States as well as internationally with symphony orchestras including the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra, Paris Sinfonetta, Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Toledo Symphony, Lincoln Symphony Orchestra, and the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra. Her concert repertoire includes soprano soloist for the Brahm’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasie, Mozart’s Requiem and Exsultate Jubilate, Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Poulenc’s Gloria, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony and Vaughan William’s Sea Symphony.

As a recitalist, Rachel has appeared in Palermo, Italy; San Jose, Costa Rica; Istanbul and Izmir Turkey; Thunderbay and Windsor,Canada; Uvalde, Texas; Stillwater, Oklahoma; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Minneapolis and Duluth, Minnesota; including her 2008 tour of an All American Art Song Recital with her mother and pianist, Elsie Inselman.

Ms. Inselman’s opera roles include Hanna in The Merry Widow, Tatiana in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Micaela in Carmen, Adele in Die Fledermaus, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Marzelline in Fidelio, Despina in Così fan tutte, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, and Miss Silverpeal in The Impresario.

As an opera director, Ms. Inselman has staged Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Cosi fan tutte and Verdi’s La Traviata. She has served as musical director for Le Nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Die Fledermaus, Hansel and Gretel, La Bohème, La Traviata, L’elisir d’amore, and the
musicals Sweeney Todd, Kiss Me Kate, The Baker’s Wife and Chicago, as well as vocal coach for Damn Yankees, Do Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, and Merrily We Roll Along.

Rachel has been a guest master clinician at numerous performing arts high schools, colleges, universities and conservatories both nationwide and abroad, and recently finished her fourth summer as a voice teacher for the Sieur Duluth Summer Opera Festival. As an accomplished pianist, she has played for several musical theatre productions and was invited in 2010 to Istanbul, Turkey to teach the art of accompanying musical theatre in a week long workshop.

Ms. Inselman was named a winner at the 1996 Metropolitan Opera District Auditions for the fourth consecutive year, was a third place finalist at the Met Regional Auditions in 1995 and 1996, and was awarded first prize in the 1996 Schubert Club Scholarship Competition. Rachel completed her Artist Diploma Degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she also received her Master’s Degree, and she earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Oberlin College.

In October of 2010, Rachel and her mother, Elsie will extensively coach with American Art Song composer Richard Hundley to prepare a comprehensive recital of his works that they plan to tour in the 2011-2012 season.

Praised by both Opera News and the Washington Post for his “powerful, rich warm baritone,” Elias Mokole is equally at home in recital, musical theatre and orchestral concerts, as well as opera. Since 2005, he premiered three major Verdi roles, Nabucco in concert at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Amonasro in concert performances of Aida at Radio France, and as Rigoletto with Fargo–Morehead Opera. During the 2008-09 season, Mokole appeared as soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Society and the Oregon State University Chorus, as Raphael in Haydn’s Creation with the University of Nebraska-Omaha chorus and orchestra, and in recital with the Oregon Coast Music Association, and in recitals at the Britzer Gemeindesaal in Berlin and Paris. Upcoming engagements include soloist for Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs for the Saint Cecilia Day Concert in Omaha, NE and Handel’s Messiah for the Briar Cliff's 2010 "Christmas at the Orpheum" in Sioux City, IA.

Performance highlights include: Germont in La Traviata and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor for Dayton Opera, Sharpless in Algiers [Africa], with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and for Minnesota Opera, Scarpia in Chattanooga Symphony and Opera’s production of Tosca, Ford in Falstaff with Greensboro Opera, Elijah with the Walla Walla Symphony, and as the title role in Gianni Schicchi in Des Moines. Internationally, the artist recently was the soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium in Japan [Osaka, Tokyo], as Valentin in Faust and the Mozart Requiem [Paris], as Agamemnon in Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène at UNESCO [Paris], in Lyon with L'Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain as soloist in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 and with the Dayton Philharmonic as soloist for the Brahms Requiem.

Mokole received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has participated in several international competitions winning the following awards: the Maryland Prize in the Baltimore Opera International Voice Competition, the Union League Prize for Arts in Chicago, and top prizes in the MacAllister International Voice Competition. His training continued at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia [artist diploma]; concentrating on study of style, language, and stage experience. Mr. Mokole was then selected for the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Artist in Residence Program [LOCAA], where he had the opportunity to perform principle roles with the Opera Center as well as singing minor roles in Lyric’s mainstage productions.
In contemporary works, Mr. Mokole had the rare opportunity to work with composer Patrick Lama on the role of Ba’al in his opera KAN'AAN; for orchestra, choir, and four soloists on ancient ugaritic poems. Additionally, he sang the Paris premier of Lama’s Le lit de l’étrangère, a cantata for soprano, baritone soloists and orchestra; based on the poems of Mahmoud Darwich sung in Arabic. Additionally, Mr. Mokole has appeared as a singer in two independent films. The Lost Door was filmed in Paris and released in Italy and Germany in spring of 2005. The second film, For Me, directed by Yann Kilbourne, features Mokole singing the famous Charles Aznavour tune in a unique setting. This film was recently selected for the 8th annual Festival des Très Courts and was presented in a program called “Around Musique” in May 2006 at Le Grand Rex Cinéma in Paris, France.

From 2000-05, at the Paris American Academy, Mokole conducted intensive courses in French language, diction, voice, as well as leading classes exploring the medium of opera through text, vocal color, and its evolution from past to present. In June 2004 at the American Embassy in Paris, sponsored by the French American Foundation, he presented a recital themed “Americans in Paris” featuring the music of Ives, Copland, and Barber as well as excerpts from the Jardins de Paris by French composer Marc Berthomieu. Mr. Mokole has additionally performed his “Americans in Paris” recital in Iowa, Nevada, and South Dakota.
In addition to performing, Elias Mokole is committed to the education of the next generation of singers. He has served on the faculties of the American Academy in Paris, France, and Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, and University of Nebraska Omaha. Mokole is the Artistic Director of the Festival of Song and Arts Academy [songfestival.org], in addition to lecturing and conducting master classes throughout the United States, as well as abroad.

Tina Thielen-Gaffey is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota-Duluth and has recently completed her doctoral coursework in the Choral Conducting program at the University of Iowa. At UMD, she conducts Concert Chorale, two Vocal Jazz Ensembles (Lake Effect and Chill Factor), teaches elementary music, aural skills, and applied voice. A mezzo-soprano, she completed the M.M. degree in Choral Conducting at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI and her B.M. in music education at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Prior to her studies in Michigan, the Wisconsin native taught for eight years in the public schools of her home state, where she was responsible for choral ensembles, band ensembles, vocal jazz and show choirs, musicals, madrigals and madrigal feasts, festivals, and touring. At WMU, Ms.Thielen-Gaffey soloed with the Treble Chorus, University Chorale, Opera Workshop, and the award winning vocal jazz ensemble, Gold Company. Ms. Thielen-Gaffey is a past president of WMU's student chapter of the American Choral Directors Association. At the 2003 and 1999 national conventions of that organization, she was a national finalist in the graduate student conducting competition.

Stanley R. Wold is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he has taught choral conducting, voice, and vocal music education since 1984. He has earned degrees from Concordia College (Moorhead, MN), the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) and the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Active on an international level, Dr. Wold studied choral music in Hungary in April of 1995, conducting the choir of the Esterházy Károly Teachers' Training College in Eger (near Budapest). He was also an invited clinician and conductor for the Chamber Choir of the Karelian Center for Performance and Art in Petrozavodsk, Russia. In August of 1993 and 1996, Dr. Wold was a U.S. delegate to the World Symposium of the International Federation for Choral Music in Vancouver and Sydney, respectively.

Dr. Wold has been Artistic Director and Conductor of the Arrowhead Chorale (an auditioned civic chamber choir in the Twin Ports) since 1990. He has also served as Chorus Director for the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra since 1991. He taught secondary vocal music in Minnesota and Iowa public schools for six years. Presently Senior Choir Director at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Duluth, he is also an active adjudicator and clinician in the Arrowhead Region.