learn more

Brad Clark is the founder and inspiring creative force behind Maryland Lyric Opera, where he currently serves as Artistic Director. A native Marylander and current resident of Bethesda, his local philanthropy also includes Food and Friends, Child Justice, Most Valuable Kids, and Washington Waldorf School, among many other groups.

Brad is also an accomplished pianist, having earned a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the University of Maryland and a Master of Music in musicology and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in collaborative piano from the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America. He has performed in recitals and master classes throughout the United States and Europe with some of the brightest stars in classical music, including Birgit Nilsson, Pinchas Zukerman, Richard Stoltzman, Carter Brey, Lynn Harrell, James Galway, and Aprile Millo.

His early experiences as a rehearsal and collaborative pianist inspired him to create the Maryland Lyric Opera Institute, which helps train the next generation of opera stars with intensive coaching and performance opportunities throughout the state.

learn more

William Stone is a North Carolina native whose warm and powerful baritone lends elegance and style to a repertoire ranging from Mozart to Berg, with a special emphasis on the Bel Canto masterworks.  Mr. Stone's engagements at the major opera houses in North America are impressive.  His stage debut at the Metropolitan Opera was as Capulet in Romeo et Juliette, followed by Die Fledermaus (Falke), the new production of Moses und Aaron conducted by James Levine, Lucia di Lammermoor (Enrico), Sharpless in Madama Butterf1y and John Plake in the new production of Sly with Placido Domingo.His long association with the Lyric Opera of Chicago began with his creation of the role of Adam in the world premiere of Penderecki's Paradise Lost and continued with the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Schaunard in La Boheme,and most recently Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.  His appearances at the New York City Opera reflect most of the leading roles in his repertoire (Germont in La traviata, the Count in Le nozze di Figaro [Live from Lincoln Center Telecast], Figaro in Il barbiere di Sivigliaand Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor) and include particularly memorable performances of the title role in new productions of Hindemith's Mathis der Maler, and Busoni's Doktor Faust.   In addition, Mr. Stone has appeared with the opera companies of Atlanta, Austin, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, Seattle, Spoleto-Charleston, and Santa Fe.

William Stone is one of the only American baritones in recent years to have sung extensively in the major opera houses of Italy, and has twice opened the May Festival in Florence: as Wozzeck and as Oreste in Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride, conducted by Riccardo Muti.  At the Rome Opera he sang the title role in Eugene Onegin, Golaud inPelleas et Me1isande and Malatesta in Don Pasquale.  Other Italian opera engagements include Ezio opposite Samuel Ramey in Attila at La Fenice in Venice (telecast throughout Europe), and leading roles at La Scala, the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste, and San Carlo in Naples.  For three summers he also performed at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where he was seen in the world premiere of Napoli Milionaria, directed by Eduardo de Filippo.  His most recent appearance at Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice was the role of Sharpless in a production of Madama Butterf1y, directed by Renata Scotto and conducted by Bruno Bartoletti.

Frequently engaged in Belgium, the baritone made his stage debut as Germont in the highly acclaimed Karl Hermann production of La traviata at the Theatre Royale de la Monnaie in Brussels. He has since been re-engaged by the theater for the title role inSimon Boccanegra, Ford in Falstaff, Alfonso XI in La favorita, Chorebe in Les Troyens, and Renato in Un ballo in maschera.  At De Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp, he gave his first performances of Jack Rance in La fanciulla del West and Michele in Il tabarro as part of Robert Carsen's Puccini celebration.

Mr. Stone performed the Count in Le nozze di Figaro on a Chamber Orchestra of Europe tour conducted by Sir Georg Solti.  In addition to these appearances with Maestro Solti in London, Paris and Cologne, Mr. Stone appeared as Sharpless in a new production of Madama Butterf1y at the Opera Bastille in Paris, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia in Stuttgart, Germont in La traviata in Frankfurt and in Nantes, Ford in Falstaff (telecast from the Aix-en-Provence Festival) and as Rodrigo in Don Carlos at the Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam.

A distinguished concert artist, William Stone is sought after as a baritone soloist by every major orchestra in North America.  He made his debut with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur in performances of Carmina Burana, followed by performances of the Bach B-minor Mass and the St. Matthew Passion, also with Maestro Masur.  His debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa in the North American premiere of Takemitsu's My Way of Life led to his invitation to return to the orchestra the next season for the world premiere of Kirchner's Of Things Exactly As They Are, also with Maestro Ozawa.  His numerous European concert engagements include a command performance for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican.

Among his many recordings with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, William Stone can be heard on two Grammy Award Winning Telarc recordings: Walton's Belshazzar's Feast and Hindemith's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed, and on a solo recording of Arias and Songs by Robert Ward [Bay Cities].  His portrayal of Ford with Jose van Dam from the Aix- en Provence Festival is available on DVD.

For the past three years Mr. Stone, Professor Emeritus of Voice and Opera at Temple University, has been a voice teacher for the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program with Washington National Opera, and The Curtis Institute of Music. He currently is teaching on the Voice Faculty at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, and is the voice teacher for the Maryland Lyric Opera, and maintains a private studio in Philadelphia.

learn more

Joan Sullivan-Genthe has designed lighting in major theaters throughout the United States and in Europe. As a specialist in opera design she has regularly collaborated with many of the world’s foremost opera directors and designers. Her North American credits include lighting for San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, Dallas Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Portland Opera, Cleveland Opera, Tulsa Opera and Chicago Opera Theater, in addition to her work as resident lighting designer for Washington National Opera, in Washington, DC.

European credits include the Zeffirelli production of Pagliacci for Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Turandot for Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza and Finnish National Opera/Helsinki (Frisell/Ponnelle); Il Trovatore in Göteborg, Sweden (Lawless/Dugardyn); Dialogues des Carmélites for the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Rochaix/Dahlstrom); The Medium/The Telephone double bill, directed by composer Gian Carlo Menotti, at the Spoleto Festival; and the Carl Sternheim play Bürger Schippel, seen at Den Nationale Scene in Bergen, Norway. Several of her Washington National Opera designs have been seen on tour in Japan; and productions televised nationally by PBS have included Pagliacci, Le Cid, and the world premiere of Menotti’s Goya, all with Placido Domingo; La Rondine, and Die Fledermaus.
Ms. Sullivan-Genthe joined Washington National Opera (then known as The Washington Opera) in 1984. Her work for that company included designing more than 125 productions produced at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. These have included high profile world premieres of Menotti’s Goya and Argento’s The Dream of Valentino as well as the U.S. premieres of Wolf-Ferrari’s Sly with José Carreras, Krasa’s Betrothal in a Dream, and Chinese composer Jin’s Savage Land. During her time in Washington, she presented numerous lectures and demonstrations about stage lighting both for the Opera and the Kennedy Center Education Department; lit educational programs presented by the Opera for elementary and high school students; and worked with college student interns interested in getting practical experience in opera.
After discovering opera at Indiana University School of Music, Ms. Sullivan-Genthe began her professional career at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she assisted lighting designers Gil Wechsler, Duane Schuler, Gilbert Hemsley and Ken Billington and designed for the Opera’s young artists program and ballet school. During her tenure in Chicago she realized the original lighting design of the premiere production of Penderecki’s Paradise Lost for Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
A three-year stint as Associate Lighting Designer at San Francisco Opera followed, during which she originated the lighting for the US version of the John Cox/David Hockney production of Stravinsky’s Rake’s Progress and a new production of Le nozze di Figaro (Frisell/Brown).
She began her full-time design career in 1984 dividing the majority of her time between Washington, DC and the Seattle Opera where she created over forty production in the ensuing eleven years. Notable productions in Seattle include two versions of the Wagner’s Ring Cycle — the final iteration of the original Seattle production and the initial Ring of the Speight Jenkins administration. Designed by Robert Israel with director, François Rochaix, the production became so successful it was produced four times in ten years.
Ballet credits include the original works Age of Anxiety (Bernstein) by choreographer John Neumaier for BalletWest in Salt Lake City and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; as well as Neumaier’s Now and Then (Ravel) for the National Ballet of Canada in Toronto. She designed lighting for numerous productions of the Ballet School of the Lyric Opera of Chicago when that company was headed by former prima ballerina Maria Tallchief.
Ms. Sullivan-Genthe’s work has been featured in Theatre Crafts and Lighting Dimensions magazines as well as in J. Michael Gillette’s classic textbook Designing with Light.

learn more

Ms. Husan Park has collaborated as assistant conductor and continuo-player for over twenty years at theaters such as Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, Music Festival in Perpignan, Festspiele Erl in Tirol in Austria, Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Theater an der Wien in Austria, Performing Art Center in Nanjing, Music festival in Shanghai, Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, Festival de Ópera Alfredo Kraus in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Teatro Principal Palma de Mallorca, Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofía, and Palau de la Música in Valencia, Spain. 

Ms. Park has worked with conductors Jesús López Cobos, Riccardo Frizza, Speranza Scappucci,  Corrado Rovaris, Andrea Licata, Sachio Fujioka, Ramón Tebar, David Giménez, and Leonardo García-Alarcón, among others; and with stage directors such as Emilio Sagi,  Guy Joosten, Giancarlo del Monaco, Joan Anton Rechi, Gustavo Tambascio, Davide Livermore, and Carlos Wagner. 

She collaborated with international opera singers including José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, Jaime Aragall, Isabel Rey, José Bros, Cristina Gallardo-Domás, Ángeles Blancas, Juan Diego Flórez, Aquiles Machado, David Menéndez, Ana Ibarra, Sabina Puértolas, Davinia Rodríguez, Giovanna Casolla, Bruno de Simone, Giacomo Prestia, Gloria Scalcchi, Franco Farina, Pietro Spagnoli, Norah Amsellen, Carlo Colombara, Luciana D’Intino, Daniella Barcellona, Fabio Sartori, Elena Prokina, KS Peter Weber, KS Edith Lienbacher, and Anton Scharinger. 

In 2014, she collaborated at the world première of "El Juez", an opera composed by Christian Kolonovits for the tenor José Carreras, under the direction of Emilio Sagi and David Giménez. During her career Ms. Husan Park has given recitals as soloist and as collaborative pianist at Musikverein Wien and Konzerthaus Wien in Austria, Teatro Real de Madrid, Palau de Les Arts, Palau de la Música de Valencia in Spain and at theaters in Germany, Italy, France, Finland, El Salvador, and in South Korea. 

As vocal coach and assistant, Ms. Park has collaborated at masterclasses with Plácido Domingo, KS Walter Berry, KS Hilde Zadek, KS Hilde Rössel-Majdan, KS Edith Lienbacher, Paul Hamburger, Margit Fleischmann, Maggie Zimmermann, Ana Luisa Chova, and David Menéndez. Her extensive repertoire spans operas from Monteverdi to Adès, and from different epochs and styles (including Operettes and Zarzuelas) in Italian, German, French, English, Spanish and Russian. 

She majored in Piano at Konservatorium der Stadt Wien; Vocal Coaching (Liedbegleitung) and Opera Coaching (Opernkorrepetition) at Hochschule f. Musik u. darst. Kunst in Wien, Austria. At the same city in 2001 she became an Austrian citizen. As vocal coach and professor she taught at the Universität f. Musik u. darst. Kunst in Vienna, Austria, and in Conservatorio Superior de Música de Valencia Joaquín Rodrigo, Spain.

Currently, Ms. Park combines work as vocal coach at the Centre de Perfeccionament Plácido Domingo at the Palau de Les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain with opera productions throughout Europe.

learn more

Yi Li is Associate Professor of voice at Sichuan conservatory and has taught masterclasses Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Sichuan Conservatory of Music, Shandong University of Art, Shandong Norman University, Minzu University of China, Nanchang University, and Jiangxi Norman University. 

Proving himself a formidable talent and a rising star to watch in the opera world, Tenor Yi Li is quickly gaining attention in the lyric tenor repertoire.  This season, Li performs the role of Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles with Toledo Opera, sings Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Canterbury Chorale at Carnegie Hall, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Bob Jones University, and returns to The Metropolitan Opera for Roméo et Juliette. Additionally, he will reprise his role in Huang Ruo’s Paradise Interrupted, an innovative contemporary opera that the Wall Street Journal hailed “a mesmerizing new work that is part opera, part dynamic art installation,” in Los Angeles this spring; last season, he performed this opera with Lincoln Center Festival, Singapore International Festival of the Arts, and Lincoln Center 2nd Annual Global Exchange.

Some highlights from Mr. Li’s recent seasons include the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Intermountain Opera Bozeman, Nashville Opera, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Malcom in Macbeth with Middlebury Opera Company; Cassio in Otello at The National Center Performing Arts in Beijing; the role of Alfredo in La traviata with Finger Lakes Opera; and concert engagements with Indianapolis Opera’s Opera’s Rising Stars Concert and a Chinese New Year Concert with Shenzen Symphony Orchestra at The Kennedy Center. Additionally, he joined the esteemed roster of The Metropolitan Opera for productions of Manon Lescaut, Roméo et Juliette, and Der fliegende Holländer.

Mr. Li recently graduated from Washington National Opera’s revered Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program where his assignments included Rodolfo in La bohème and productions of Die Zauberflöte and Dialogues des Carmélites. At San Francisco Opera’s world-renowned Merola Program, assignments included Belfiore in La finta giardiniera, Smith in Bizet’s La jolie fille de Perth, and Lionel in Martha.

Mr. Li’s training includes an Artist Diploma in Voice from University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music (CCM), where he performed Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, and Ruggero in La rondine. During his time there, he also performed The Duke in Rigoletto at Cincinnati Opera and Don José in Carmen at CCM Spoleto Festival. He also holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Sichuan Conservatory in China, where performances include Alfredo in La traviata, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Rodolfo in La bohème, and Cavradossi in Tosca.

Finding success on the emerging artist competition circuit, Yi Li’s talent has been recognized by several elite foundations and organizations. Mr. Li was a Grand Final Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a finalist at Operalia: The World Opera Competition, Winner of the Sullivan Musical Foundation Award, China’s representative at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, 3rd Prize at the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, Finalist in the 49th International Singing Competition of Toulouse, and won the Grand Prize in Opera Columbus Irma M. Cooper Vocal Competition and CCM’s Corbett Scholarship Competition. He also received a grant from Giulio Gari Foundation and performed at their annual gala.