Stephen Scovasso is a musicologist, conductor, director and author. He has directed operas including, Carmen, Tosca, La Bohème, Don Giovanni, Gianni Schicchi, Cosi fan Tutte as well operetta's such as The Merry Widow and Die Fledermaus. He has also directed American Musical Theater pieces such as Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Bernstein’s Candide. In the dramatic theater, Stephen has directed Garcia Lorca’s La Casa del Bernarda Alba, Oscar Wilde’s Salome.

In conjunction with SAS Performing Arts Company, he has produced and directed 6 full length virtual streams including Dracula: The Radio Play, Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream as well as many virtual concerts and holiday concerts.

Stephen studied Operatic and Symphonic conducting under the tutelage of the late Vincent La Selva. Among the works he has conducted are Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 in D minor, Handel’s Messiah, Puccini’s Tosca, and Mozart's Don Giovanni. 

During his years at Arizona State University,  he taught classes on the Baroque Style, Opera, American Musical Theater, and Stephen Sondheim.
He has authored Puccini's Il Trittico and the end of Italian Opera and The Musical Worlds of Henry Mancini.

Mr. Scovasso currently serves on the Executive Committe of the New York Opera Alliance.

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Paul Ferrara is delighted to volunteer as Italian Language Coach for SAS Performing Arts Concert of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.  Paul earned his Ph.D. in Italian from the University of California, Berkeley.  He lived two years in Florence, Italy, where he sang with the Coro del Quartiere 14.  He also performed with the Madison Opera Chorus (Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci) and served as its Italian Language Coach (Madama Butterfly).  In addition, he has served as Italian Language Coach for numerous productions with Amore Opera (Un ballo in maschera, Il barbiere di Siviglia, La bohème, Tosca, La traviata, La zingara).  Paul holds J.D. and LL.M. (Taxation) degrees from NYU School of Law.  He is a Managing Director/Wealth Strategies Advisor at Bank of America Private Bank.

Maria Giorgio is lead vocalist and song writer of her band MG & the Orbs since 2011. Her musical forte is in the genres of Blues, R&B, Jazz, and the American Songbook all in her own personal style. Her vocal range is 3.5 octaves and she began studying in the classical Bel Canto style.  During the Pandemic, she appeared on Bernie Furshpan's "Live from the Metropolitan Zoom" and has also appeared in 3 concerts with SAS Performing Arts. Maria has also made special appearance in our production of Alice in Wonderland as a very jazzy Cheshire Cat

Eric Malson is an active soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician whose activities have taken him throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. As soloist, he has appeared with the North Carolina Symphony, Columbus (Ohio) Symphony, Manhattan Mozart Orchestra, Orquestra da Fundação Gulbenkian, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa, Oak Ridge Symphony, and Prince William Symphony orchestras. As a collaborating pianist with the Steans Institute for Young Artists, he has appeared frequently at the Ravinia Festival, as well as the Tanglewood, Norfolk (Conn.), Wexford (Ireland), Caramoor (N.Y.), Scotia (Halifax), Chautauqua, Évora (Portugal), Semana Grande de Santander (Spain), and Verso il Millennio (Riva del Garda, Italy), and Mt. Angel (Oregon) Bach festivals.

Mr. Malson works extensively with singers, and has been engaged to prepare over 40 operatic productions in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe. He has appeared in concert with sopranos Deborah Voigt and Eva Urbanová, tenors Thomas Studebaker, Lawrence Brownlee and Charles Reid, basses Alfred Walker and David Pittsinger, and baritones Laurent Naouri and Chistophoren Nomura, among many others. He has recorded for the Sony and Lyrichord labels, where his recording of the Brahms Magelone songs with tenor Paul Mow was released to critical acclaim. He has served on the musical staff of various opera companies, including the Bühnen der Stadt Köln, Teatro Nacional São Carlos (Lisbon), Seattle Opera (Wagner’s Ring cycle), Washington Opera at Kennedy Center, Opera Zuid (Netherlands), Theater der Stadt Heidelberg, The Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Cleveland Opera.

Mr. Malson has served on the opera faculties of the Juilliard School of Music and the Mannes College of Music, as well as the accompanying staff of the Curtis Institute of Music, and the accompanying and chamber music faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has served as official accompanist for various competitions, including the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition, Carnegie Hall International American Music Competition, William Primrose International Viola Competition, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions. He holds degrees from Indiana University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where his teachers included Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, and John Wustman.

Jon Audric Nelson is a music director and pianist for musical theatre and opera. Recent career highlights include Music Supervisor for a production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives (which incorporated 1930’s arrangements of contemporary pop tunes), the 11th annual Colorado Theatre Guild HENRY Awards, Leonard Bernstein’s MASS at the Kupferberg Center, and a production of Rigoletto at Lincoln Center. Also a passionate voice coach, Jon dedicates a large portion of his schedule to working with singers of both musical theatre and opera and is one of our most trusted voice teachers/vocal coaches. His clients can be found on Broadway, national tours, and at major regional theaters, in addition to the operatic stages of New York, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Berlin, London, Paris, and Bangkok, to name a few. However, his greatest devotion belongs to his precious French bulldog, appropriately named La Divina.

Mary has been accompanying for 25 years and worked as a vocal coach ,instrumental accompanists and vocal accompanist. After receiving a Master's Degree from the University of Illinois with John Wustman I went on to work for the Lyric Opera of Chicago's apprentice Program and coach and accompany for Opera Omaha, Florentine Opera. Augusta Opera, Chicago Opera Theatre and after leaving Chicago working on staff for the Dallas Opera. While in Chicago I accompanied the Met Regional Auditions and played lessons and Masterclasses for Marlena Malas, Edward Zembara, Margaret Harshaw, and Sherill Milnes. After leaving Dallas I worked for the San Antonio Opera and for the last 9 years have been working in New Jersey and the NYC area on faculty as an adjunct professor at Montclair State University and William Paterson University preparing recitals, opera workshop and doing vocal coachings. Right now as well as working at the college level I have spent the last year working with famed Soprana Deborah Voight working on preparations for the Met's Ring Cycle of last year and am now coaching a few days in NYC.

Nick Stamatakis is a pianist, music director and composer who has worked with professional, educational and community organizations, striving to create collaborative environments that foster the exploration, interpretation and execution of music in theater. Credits include work with Pittsburgh CLO, City Theatre, Quantum Theatre, Pittsburgh Musical Theater, Carnegie Stage, Musical Theatre Artists of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, Arcade Comedy Theater and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Deborah Surdi, soprano, is an experienced singer, voice teacher and coach, as well as an executive and consultant in the music and concert presenting business.  As a singer, she performed for many years in both local and regional opera companies in the Tri-State area. Her roles include Mimi, Musetta, Fiordiligi, Tosca, Rosalinda and Cio-Cio San, to name a few. She has also performed in Cabarets and American Musical Theater shows and worked with the late Barbara Cook on song presentation and style.

 For the bulk of her working career she held various positions at RCA Records/BMG Classics and Sony Classical, with her last position as Vice President of Artists and Repertoire.   Former Executive Director of The Opera Orchestra of New York, Deborah is currently working in executive capacities with the Martina Arroyo Foundation and The Queens Symphony Orchestra.

SAS Performing Arts Concert Opera is honored to welcome KS Tichina Vaughn to  the staff as our Young Artist Advisor,  In that capacity she will give master classes  and advise our young artists with their career development. Grammy Award winning American mezzo soprano Tichina Vaughn has established an important presence among the world’s leading opera houses, concert halls and theaters. In 2023, she began her tenure as a faculty member of the prestigious Indiana University, As an outstanding singing-actress versatile in opera, operetta, musical theater, and jazz, Vaughn continues to gather both popular and critical acclaim. Ms. Vaughn began her operatic career as a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program directly after receiving her bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Ms. Vaughn just completed her debut at the Royal Opera House London as the Witch in their highly acclaimed production of Hansel and Gretel. She returned to the Metropolitan Opera as The Hostess of the Inn in Boris Godunov, Maria in Porgy and Bess, and the first Serving Woman in Elektra. She also debuted with Boston Lyric Opera in Terence Blanchard’s Champion as Emelda Griffith.  In the summer of 2022, she joined the Cincinnati Opera as Amneris in Aida and ended her year in Lyon making her French debut as the Old Lady in Bernstein’s Candide.

On the concert stage she appeared with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester at the Lucerne Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival as Maria in Porgy and Bess, as well as with the Landmarks Orchestra Boston in Beethoven Symphony No. 9; and the world premiere of “Many Mansions” by Diane White-Clayton. Tichina opened the 2022-2023 season with Utah Opera as Mary in Der Fliegende Hollander. Further season highlights included Fort Worth Opera as Amneris in Aida and as Monisha in Joplin’s Treemonisha at Opera Theater St. Louis.

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