Eric Taeyang Mun

Music Director

RINALDO

Praised by critics for his “flawless lightness and grace”, Eric Smith has been called “the very model of an elegant cellist” (Dallas Morning News), and his performances of the complete cello suites by J.S. Bach described as "nuanced, thoughtful, and technically sound" (Theater Jones). Eric has concertized throughout the U.S., Mexico, South America, and Europe with some of the nations leading period instrument ensembles, performing on cello and viola da gamba as a soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. In addition to serving as Artistic Director of the American Baroque Opera Co., Eric has collaborated with many ensembles including the Grammy nominated Ars Lyrica Houston, La Follia Austin Baroque, Ensemble VIII, Dallas Chamber Players, Bach Society of Houston, Oklahoma Bach Choir, New York’s Concert Royal, Texas Camerata, and was a guest artist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Rolando Salazar

CONDUCTOR

le nozze di figaro

Prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Rolando served as the Associate Conductor/Chorus Master for his home company, The Atlanta Opera, having previously served for several years as Assistant Chorus Master under longtime Chorus Master Walter Huff. While serving as Chorus Master he was groomed working alongside as well as covering conductors Arthur Fagen, Joseph Colaneri, Joseph Rescigno, Ari Pelto, Joseph Mechavich, David Charles Abell, Dean Williamson, and others.

During this last year Rolando was featured in Love Letters to Atlanta, performing alongside singers Morris Robinson, Jamie Barton, and Kevin Burdette. He also was featured in the digital version of Madison Opera’s Opera in the Park, as well as in an all-Mozart recital with soprano Jasmine Habersham. Other performances included appearances with Cincinnati Song Initiative, MUS/IQUE In a Minute!, as well as returning to the podium to conduct performances of Pagliacci for the Atlanta Opera’s Molly Blank Big Tent Series, and one of the only covid-safe performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Atlanta Concert Opera, an online broadcast viewed all over the world.

Performances prior to the world shutting down included appearances on the podium with the Rome (GA) Symphony Orchestra, The Atlanta Ballet, Johns Creek Symphony Orchestra, the Ozark Family Opera, the Permian Basin Opera, Georgia State University Orchestra, collaborative work with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, as well as serving as the Assistant Conductor and festival pianist at the Bellingham Festival of Music with Maestro Michael Palmer.

Kaley Karis Smith

Stage Director

Le Nozze Di Figaro

Kaley Karis Smith has worked as a director and assistant director with opera companies across the country, including Pittsburgh Opera, Houston Grand Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Delaware, Opera
Omaha, and Virginia Opera.

Recently, she was the assistant stage director for Barrie Kosky’s production of Saul at Houston Grand Opera, the assistant director for Cinderella and stage director for Goldie B. Locks and the Three Singing Bears at Virginia Opera, and was the assistant director for Orpheus and Euridice at West Edge Opera. Other directing credits include: Make a Scene! with Opera Delaware, The Turn of the Screw and The Crucible with Chicago Summer Opera, As One Open Rehearsals Series and The Bremen Town Musicians at The Chautauqua Opera Company, Le Nozze di Figaro at Augusta University, and Petunia and Jack and the Beanstalk with FBN Productions, Inc.

Esme Wong

Collaborative Pianist,
le nozze di figaro

Born and raised on Borneo Island, Esme Wong is a Malaysian classical pianist who marked her solo debut at Trinity College of London Awards and Concert at the age of 12. Since her debut, Esme has performed globally and has accumulated an extensive repertoire, ranging from early music to contemporary. Through her unique educational experience at United World College as a Davis Scholar, she is inspired by global social movements and has participated in community work in Southeast Asia and the Balkans region.

Esme’s passion for music began at the age of 4 under the guidance of her mother, Sabrina Tnay. At the age of 14, Esme was awarded the Diploma Licentiate at Trinity College of London (LTCL). She was the pianist of the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (MPYO) at the age of 16, where she began to develop her love for chamber music. In the following year, she was the only Malaysian to receive the Davis United World College Scholarship to study chamber music with one of the pioneer piano trios, Trio di Trieste, in Italy.

Esme specializes in vocal collaborative works and loves working with living composers. During her fellowships at Colburn Conservatory and the University of North Texas, she was fortunate to work with internationally renowned coaches and living composers, including Graham Johnson, Martin Katz, Margo Garrett, Kayo Iwama, Alan Smith, Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen and Tom Cipullo.

Esme recently participated in Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio program led by Renée Fleming. She also performed at the New York Festival of Song 2021 virtual gala - “How about Those Mezzo” with Raehann Bryce Davis, where they collaborated on new and less-performed works that promote equality and diversity. Furthermore, she performed a recital with Das Blumelein Project for The Elevator Project Season 2021/22 at Hammon Hall, Winspear Opera House. She also joined the Nashville Opera in their 2020 Mary Ragland Emerging Artist Program as the music director of Opera ON TOUR! production and Opera Out Loud Scenes Program.

Esme was the Assistant Conductor of the production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Red River Lyric Opera. Additionally, she was invited to join the faculty of Druid City Opera Workshop at University of Alabama as the music director for opera scenes. Esme has performed as soloist with Fort Dodge Symphony Orchestra and toured with Luther College Symphony Orchestra for a three week residency at Vienna and performed at the prestigious Konzerthaus Vienna.

Esme’s past appearances include a recital with Dallas based soprano, Gabrielle Gilliam in partnership with The Dallas Opera’s “TDO Network”, a performance at Music by Women Festival at Mississippi University for Women, coaching and world premiere performance of Robert Beaser’s choral work and Vit Zuhar’s opera Coronide under UNT Czech Music Festival, vocal piano collaboration with Dallas Puccini Society, Voces Intimae, and SongFest.

Esme is currently a staff pianist of Texas Woman’s University, and holds an M.M. in Collaborative Piano from University of North Texas and a B.A. from Luther College.

Paul Houghtaling

director

Rinaldo

Stage director, choreographer, and bass-baritone Paul Houghtaling has worked extensively on the world’s leading stages, including productions at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Central City Opera, Opera Las Vegas, The Bard Music Festival, The Santa Fe Opera, and The Center for Contemporary Opera in New York.  He returns to Red River Lyric Opera as stage director for Rinaldo after productions of Alcina, H.M.S. Pinafore, and La Cenerentola for the company. He is the Director of Opera at the University of Alabama, and a past president of the National Opera Association.  

Houghtaling made his directorial debut with Opera Mississippi in the Fall of 2018 in a new Gilbert & Sullivan review called The Hilarious World of Gilbert & Sullivan and directed and performed in another opera and musical theater review for the company in 2019. In October of 2018, he created an in-the-round production of West Side Story for the UA Opera Theatre. The 2019-2020 season with UA included two world premieres, produced and directed by Paul: Joseph Landers’ Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, with the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra, and Michael Ching’s RSBE: Remove Shoes Before Entering. The Landers was recorded for Alabama Public Television and was broadcast in September of 2020.  This season, Paul directed Handel’s Alcina and Tobias Picker’s Thérèse Raquin at Alabama, and returned to Mobile Opera to direct Tosca.

Other directing credits include Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica for Opera on the James; Candide for Mobile Opera;The Gondoliers and Così fan tutte for Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre; H.M.S. Pinafore andThe Pirates of Penzance for Natchez Festival of Music, Don Giovanni for Ars Nova in Huntsville, Alabama; and Telemann’sThe Schoolmaster for Anchorage Opera. Additional productions at Alabama have included productions of Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Semele, The Consul, The Merry Widow, Pagliacci, Suor Angelica, The Gondoliers, Patience, Così fan tutte, The Mikado, A Little Night Music, and Street Scene, the last of which was supported by a major grant from the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music.

Marc sanders

Conductor

Sweeney Todd

Marc Sanders serves as the collaborative pianist for Abilene Christian University. He has previously held positions at Hardin-Simmons and McMurry universities. He maintains a prolific performance schedule around the region, including undergraduate, graduate, and faculty recitals, operas, masterclasses, and musicals. In previous years at Red River Lyric Opera, he has collaborated on productions of Hansel and Gretel and Britten's The Turn of the Screw.

Stephen F. Austin

voice

Dr. Austin joined the faculty of the University of North Texas in 2001 after several years of teaching at Louisiana State University. He Austin received a masters degree in vocal performance from UNT and continued his studies at the University of Iowa where he earned the Ph.D. in voice science from the department of communication disorders under the direction of Dr. Ingo Titze.

Elliott Archer

voice

Biography coming soon

Jamie Van Eyck

voice

With polished, elegant vocalism and committed dramatic portrayals on-stage, mezzo-soprano Jamie Van Eyck appeals to audiences and critics alike as a compelling artist in opera and concert.

As a teacher, she works with a variety of singers, from those in the early stages of vocal study, to those in the midst of professional careers.  She aims to help singers release vocal tension and inhibition to find a completely individual and easily produced sound that is capable of power, projection, and broad artistic expression.

CopEland Woodruff

Stage Director

Sweeney Todd

Copeland Woodruff is currently the director of opera studies at Lawrence Conservatory of Music. He is thrilled to return for his fifth season with Red River Lyric Opera. He has been on the directing and production staffs of the New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Yale Opera, Atlantic Coast Opera Festival (NJ), and Opera North (Philadelphia and New Hampshire). Mr. Woodruff has been on the faculties of the Oberlin Conservatory, Academy of Vocal Arts, Temple University, Universität Bamberg, the Harrower Opera Workshop, La musica lirica (Italy), Opera Breve, and Festival of International Opera of the Americas (Brazil). He has been a visiting faculty member of The Juilliard School, teaching the acting curriculum and serving as private coach to master’s students in the Vocal Arts Division. He directed Aaron Copland’s The Tender Land for Juilliard’s Focus Festival 2010. Mr. Woodruff is highly sought after as a teacher of the singing actor, and was a resident stage director and the acting coach for the Harrower Summer Opera Workshop at Georgia State University for fifteen years.

Mr. Woodruff has directed more than 90 opera productions, including the 2013 world premiere of Raise the Red Lantern at the Tianqiao Theatre in Beijing.  He recently won the Charles Nelson Reilly Prize for stage directing in The American Prize competition, where his productions of The Beggar’s Opera and Hydrogen Jukebox also tied for first prize in the production competition. His work has garnered reviews such as: “…a brilliant stroke of staging” and “…stunning”; “brilliantly physicalized in this extraordinarily well-acted production” and “a prime and rare example of opera properly compounded with theater”; "“Subversive…Satire…Sassy…Sensual.”; and "…an experience rarely to be had in the environs of, of, of – practically anyplace these days."

Maintaining a long-term connection with Anne Bogart and the SITI Company, Copeland is dedicated to expanding the capacities of the operatic medium in collaborative work. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree and Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of South Carolina and a Master of Science in Opera Stage Direction from Indiana University, as well as Master’s work in Theatrical Design (lighting) at the University of South Carolina. He is a proud member of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) and Actors' Equity Association (AEA).

Chuck Chandler

voice

Award winning teacher and established authority on the integration of fitness training and the singing voice, Dr. Chuck Chandler serves on faculty at the DePaul University School of Music in Chicago, IL. He is a highly sought-after presenter, master clinician, consultant, and published author having presented and published on numerous pedagogical topics at both national and international conferences and in per-reviewed journals. His students have performance credits at The Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Atlanta Opera, and Santa Fe Opera among many others. Chandler has garnered acclaim performing in oratorio, opera, and recitals throughout the U.S. and abroad in venues such as the Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall and Scorca Recital Hall at Opera America. He holds a doctorate from University of Kentucky and certifications in levels I and II Singing Voice Specialist training.

James Rodriguez

Voice

Praised for his “authoritative and rich baritone”, James D. Rodriguez has appeared as Escamillo (Carmen), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Dandini (La Cenerentola), Don Profondo (Il viaggio a Reims), Harlekin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Faninal (Der Rosenkavalier), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Captain Magallanes (Salsipuedes), Dr. Rappaccini (La Hija de Rappaccini), Baron de Gondremarck (La Vie Parisienne), Harašta (The Cunning Little Vixen), Vicar (Albert Herring), Nardo (La finta giardiniera), Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Tonio (Pagliacci) and as the title roles in Don Giovanni and Rigoletto with such companies as Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera IOWA, Opera in the Heights, Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, the Natchez Festival of Music, and the Moores Opera Center.  Concert appearances include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony & Mass in C, Fauré’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Carlisle Floyd’s Pilgrimage, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with the Houston Camerata, Fort Bend Symphony, and San Antonio Symphony, among others.

He has performed recitals with PianoTexas Festival, the Festival of American Song (with composer Libby Larsen), the Phil Kramer Recital Series, Memorial Classic Music Series (Houston), and Austin Chamber Music Center, for which he was awarded an Austin Critics Table Award for his participation in “Black Composers Concert: The Black Female Composer”, with pianist, Dr. Artina McCain.  He was also the first place winner of the Young Texas Artist Vocal Competition in 2012.

An active researcher and clinician, Dr. Rodriguez has presented at various conferences, including the TEXOMA NATS Artist Series, TEXOMA National Opera Association, Texas Music Educators Association, NATS National Conference, the Voice Foundation Symposium, and the Pan American Vocology Association.  His research interests include the works of underrepresented composers, particularly black females (with an article in the NATS Journal of Singing), interdisciplinary studies across genres, and the pedagogy of repertoire assignments as it relates to vocal health.

Rodriguez holds the Doctor of Musical Arts  and Master of Music degrees from the University of Houston, a Bachelor of Music from Southern Methodist University, and is a Certified Vocologist from the National Center for Voice and Speech where he studied under the guidance of Dr. Ingo Titze.  Dr. Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Voice Pedagogy at Texas Christian University, where he teaches applied voice and oversees the graduate pedagogy program.  Before his appointment at TCU, he taught at Galena Park ISD (Houston), Vivaldi Music Academy (Houston), the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, and Interlochen Center for the Arts (Michigan).