Stephen Scovasso is a musicologist, conductor, director and author. He has directed Carmen, Tosca, La Bohème, Don Giovanni, Il Trittico, Cosi fan Tutte,The Merry Widow, Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods and Bernstein’s Candide.

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

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

Stephen has authored Puccini's Il Trittico and the Enigmatic end of Italian Opera, and will be reading his essay The Musical Worlds of Henry Mancini at the conference of Music and The Moving Image in May at New York University.

Benjamin Spierman began his professional life working for the Bronx Council on the Arts as their Grants Coordinator and as the Founding Director of their Business Center for the Arts. Opera called, however, and he began working across the country as a Stage Manager and Assistant Director. In those capacities, he worked for Central City Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Light Opera Oklahoma, Mississippi Opera, Mobile Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Palm Beach Opera, Rogue Valley (OR) Opera and Virginia Opera. Most notably, he was the Assistant on the Saint Louis’s Lewis and Clark Bicentennial premiere production of Dream of the Pacific and on Central City’s American premiere production of Britten’s Gloriana (where he also directed opera scenes and Central City’s annual production of Henry Mollicone’s The Face on the Barroom Floor).

As a director, his work includes critically acclaimed productions of both familiar and unfamiliar pieces. The former are represented by productions of Madama Butterfly, The Merry Widow, Le nozze di Figaro, and La fille du regiment (Indianapolis Opera); Turandot and Don Giovanni (Dayton Opera), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Opera Company of the Highlands – Newburgh, NY) and Tosca and The Pirates of Penzance (Imperial Symphony Orchestra, Lakeland, FL).

Also a sought-after dramatic coach, he has worked with singers at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College (CUNY), Westchester Summer Vocal Institute (NY), the Buck Hill-Skytop Music Festival (PA) and the Opera Breve Vocal Intensive (TX), in addition to coaching privately. He is a native and resident of The Bronx, New York, where he lives with his wife and frequent artistic collaborator, soprano Hannah Spierman.

Deborah Surdi is an experienced executive in the music and concert presenting business. For the bulk of her career she held various positions at BMG Classics and Sony Classical (currently Sony Music Entertainment), where she  displayed strengths in recording project planning, supervision and logistics, artist signings and negotiations, marketing and product management. Her last position there was Vice President of Artists and Repertoire.   While there, she worked closely with some of the world’s greatest artists, performers and arts organizations in the classical, musical theater and cross-over genres.  As Executive Director of The Opera Orchestra of New York she presented rarely performed operas in concert at Carnegie and Avery Fisher Hall, with both world-renowned opera singers and newly discovered talent who participate in their Young Artists Program.  Deborah was honored to work with Barbara Cook as her Production and Business Manager. She has also worked as fundraising and administrative consultant for the Martina Arroyo Foundation, Encompass New Opera Theatre, Teatro Nuovo, among others.  Additionally, Deborah is a professionally trained soprano and has been involved in opera, cabaret and regional theatre as a performer, director, voice teacher and coach.

Renowned for her captivating performance and exquisite vocal range, Monica Camafreita is a highly acclaimed Cuban American soprano, who has graced stages across the globe. ​Born and raised in a musically inclined family, Ms. Camafreita discovered her passion for singing at a young age while studying with Oscar Diaz, Jr. with whom she still studies today. Her innate talent and dedication led her to pursue formal vocal training, at Manhattan School of Music, where she honed her skills under the guidance of esteemed coaches and mentors such as Mignon Dunn and Neil Rosenshein. Throughout her career, Ms. Camafreita has garnered numerous accolades and recognition for her exceptional performances. Her ability to convey deep emotions through her voice, combined with her impeccable technique, has captivated audiences and critics alike.

​​Most recently, Ms. Camafreita had the privilege of portraying Mother Marie in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites  with Opera for Earth under the baton of Maestro Gregory Buchalter and debuting the role of Miss Pinkerton in an SAS Performing Arts  production of Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief. Some of her favorite roles performed include Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), Mother (Amahl and the Night VIsitors), and Mrs. Gobineau (The Medium). Upcoming performances include Waltraute in Wagner's Götterdämmerung with Trilogy:aoc and as Kayla Witting in the premiere of Orlando Diaz' new opera Adventure Gospel.

​​Beyond her recent success, Ms. Camafreita is also a passionate advocate for the arts and believes in the transformative power of music. She actively participates in charity concerts and outreach programs, using her talent to bring joy and inspiration to those in need and is an Executive Committee member of the New York Opera Alliance (NYOA) and, also,  on the Board of  Directors of Opera for Earth; an arts non-profit.​

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Dr. Jeff S. Dailey is a scholar with interest in many areas of the performing arts. His published works include studies of medieval theatre, Christopher Marlowe, Leo Delibes, Gaetano Donizetti, Eugene O’Neill, Beowulf, and Arthur Sullivan.

He founded the ensemble Collectio Musicorum 10 years ago to explore the performance practice of neglected music, especially that of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. He was also the founder of the Long Island Student Shakespeare Festival.

FORMER PRESIDENT

Marianna Mott Newirth is a New York City librettist, playwright and creative producer who hails from an eclectic background of dance, theatre and bookbinding. Her numerous short operatic works, performed from Toronto to Munich, include: Blue Hum, Where is the Stillness and other works with composer Mike von der Nahmer; Transmission II with composer Rabbi Bronwen Mullin, Transportation Transformation a pastiche created with Richard Pearson Thomas for the New York Opera Alliance and WQXR radio; and Trudi’s World with composer Calvin Hitchcock. She wrote and produced a short experimental modern Baroque puppet opera, When Falling…Dive. Over the darkest days of Covid, she developed her first full-length opera touch with colibrettist/ composer Carla Lucero, commissioned by Opera Birmingham for a 2024 premiere.
Photo: Scott Newirth Photography

OPERA America Liaison

Vincent Covatto is the Senior Manager, Organizational Membership at OPERA America where he has been a main point of contact for 600 professional opera companies, associate organizations, universities, and related businesses for the last five years. He provides support to member companies, welcomes new organizations into the membership community, serves as advertising manager for the Opera America Magazine, secures sponsorship for OPERA America’s annual Opera Conference, and advises the executive committee of the New York Opera Alliance (NYOA). Vincent started working for OPERA America in 2015 in the National Opera Center. Prior to this, Vincent worked for the Houston Museum of Natural Science and at Houston Grand Opera in the organization’s community engagement arm, HGOco. Vincent earned a Bachelor’s of Music in Music Business from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.