Arnold Alons began his international career as artist manager in Vienna, Austria. From there he was invited to join the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Switzerland as artistic administrator and casting director, responsible for the realization of all opera and ballet productions, concerts, as well as the audio-video registrations. After leaving Genèva in 1996, he has held special positions as casting advisor of the New Israeli Opera, artistic advisor at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile, and personal artistic consultant of Hugues Gall at the National Opera in Paris (Garnier and Bastille). In Paris, Mr. Alons was also responsible, with Janine Reiss and Anna Ringart, for the discovering and selecting of new talent for the Centre Lyrique, the Young Artists Programme of the Paris Opera. He was often invited to sit in the jury of international voice competitions: the Concours de Paris and the Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens, Greece among others. Today, Arnold Alons is Casting Director of the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, France and the Teatro Muncipal de Santiago de Chile.

Born in Crescentino di Vercelli, Italy, Cossotto attended the Turin Academy of Music and graduated at the top of her class with perfect scores after studying with Paola Dellatorre. She went on to participate in masterclasses at the Centro Lirico di Vercelli and won the 1st place in the music competition held by the La Scala in Milan, which presented her with opportunities to appear in the operas staged in the world-class theater. She made her debut as the leading role at La Scala with Leonora in ‘Favorita’, which was a tremendous success leading to castings in roles such as Azucena, another Amneris, Rosina in ‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia’, Eboli in ‘Don Carlo’, Adalgisa in ‘Norma’ and Dalia. Her role as Santuzza, for which Cossotto worked with Maestro Karajan and Strehler, was another huge success, and Cossotto collaborated with Karajan once again in Verdi’s ‘Requiem’. Soon Cossotto could be heard all around the world, including the stages in Spain, Portugal, Paris, London, Chicago, New York, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Berlin and Italy. Cossoto recorded all her repertories with various classical music lables, and appeared on TV shows many times.

Hirano Tadahiko is Professor Emeritus of College of Fine Arts and Music at Tokyo University; and Guest Professor of Graduate School at Seitoku University. He is also serving as the Director of Nikikai Co. Ltd., a respected Japanese opera company; and Chairperson of the board of directors of the Association of Artists Trained Abroad, an affiliation of Japan’s Agency of Cultural Affairs. As an opera singer, Tadahiko’s repertoire includes ‘The Marriage of Figaro’, ‘Tannhaeuser’, and so on, and he has made a specialty of Japanese and German lieder. He played the old soldier in ‘Nina and the 12 Months’, a collaborative musical of Japan, the United States of America, and Soviet Union. He also frequently appeared in the Floor Shows held in various places such as the Tokyo Kaikan. He sang in a series of concerts called ‘Winter Journey’ in January 2007 and starred in the performances of ‘Chanchiki’, an opera written by Japanese composer Ikuma Dan, in Eastern European countries just before the turbulence in 1989. In 1998, Tadahiko played the leading role in an operetta ‘Land of Smiles’ in Hungary, and participated as a soloist in the 1992 ceremony in Beijing to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Japan and People’s Republic of China. Tadahiko also conducted choruses and sang solos in performances in Brazil in 1997.

Baritone Ko Seng Hyoun won a prize in the Dong-A Music Competition in 1982 while studying in College of Music of Seoul National University and followed the courses of the Academia de la Scala in Milan. In 1982 he made his debut in ‘Le nozze di Figaro’ at the Seoul Opera, where he could be heard afterwards in ‘Aida’, ‘Rigoletto’, ‘La forza del destino’, etc. Since 1990, the artist often appears in Italy: Festival Pucciniano Torre del Lago, Verdi Festival Parma, Catania, Teatro Verdi Padova, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (Pagliacci 2009, stage direction F. Zeffirelli). The baritone also performed in Spain, France, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Switzerland, etc. The artist received an enormous success as Amonasro in ‘Aida’(2006), De Luna in ‘Il Trovatore’(2007), Alfio in ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’, and Tonio in ‘Pagliacci’(2009). Some of his future engagements in Europe are: Carlo Gérard in ‘Andrea Chénier’ with Deutsche Oper Berlin (2011) and Opéra de Massy (2012), and Jago in ‘Otello’ with Opéra de Marseille (2013).

Renate Kupfer was born in Germany. She had contract as a singer and ballerina in the Ulm Theatre. In the early 1980s she managed recordings of operas and other vocal works of the Hamburg-based Deutsche Grammophon with conductors as Carlo Mari Giulini, Leopold Hager, Bernhard Klee, Herbert von Karajan, and Giuseppe Sinopoli. Also she was the Director of Artistic Planning and Preparation at the Hamburg State Opera. In the early 1990s she was named Executive Producer responsible for opera and vocal works for Teldec Classics International. Among her recordings were performances with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Jesús López-Cobos, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Kent Nagano, Carlo Ricci, and Giuseppe Sinopoli. She became Director at the Rome Opera in 1999 and Casting Consultant at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo in 2004. Since 1986 Renate Kupfer has frequently been called upon to be a Jury member at international vocal competitions. Actually she is continuing her activity as Jury member of international singing competitions and as Casting Consultant of the Artistic Director of the Festival Puccini Torre del Lago, Italy.

Soprano Lee Kyu Do made her debut in 1962 by winning the Grand Prize of Dong-A Music Competition, one of the most prestigious music competitions in Korea. In 1970, she went to the U.S. to study opera and music at the Julliard School of Music in New York.  While studying to receive her Master’s degree, Lee was selected to join Maria Callas’ masterclasses and received private lessons from her for a year. She was also offered an opportunity to join American Opera Center in New York and played major roles in various operas while in school. Lee made her U.S. debut with Detroit Opera in Puccini’s ‘Madame Butterfly’, after auditioning for and winning the title role. Her successful performance led to a number of contracts and dozens of tours to different cities in the U.S.
Returning to her home country and alma mater, Ewha Women’s University, Lee continued to shine in hundreds of operas, recitals, concerts, and so on, both in Korea and abroad.
Lee has been invited many times to sit on the jury for various national and international competitions including Dong-A Music Competition in Korea; Anjou International Competition in France; Verviers International Singing Competition in Belgium; and the Bilbao International Singing Competition in Spain. Lee is currently serving as Professor Emeritus at Ewha Woman’s University and Chair Professor at Sungshin Women’s University.

Swiss born soprano Edith Mathis started her career in her native country, and soon could be heard in many German operahouses (Cologne, Hamburg State Opera, Berlin Deutsche Oper, and Bavarian State Opera Munich). She also sang at London Covent Garden Opera, Metropolitan Opera New York, Opera de Paris, Salzburg Festival, and Glyndebourne Festival.
Her major roles were: Cherubin/Susanna/Countess(Le Nozze di Figaro), Zerlina(Don Giovanni), Pamina(Die Zauberfloete), Marzelline(Fidelio), Aennchen/Agathe(Der Freischuetz), Sophie/Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), Zdenka(Arabella), etc. Besides operas she was very ambitious in singing lieder and oratorios. Her discography contains all her repertoire.
Since 1991 she has been teaching at Viennese Music University, holding masterclasses and working as a jury-member at international singing competitions.

The Romanian tenor Corneliu Murgu was born in Timisoara, Romania in 1948 and started his musical studies in his native town. Further studies followed in Italy at the Conservatory of Firenze where he was awarded the diploma ‘Maestro di Canto’ in 1976 Murgu then debuted in 1978 at the Vienna State Opera as Turiddu in ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’. This led him to perform practically all the major opera scenes of the world. He appeared more frequently as ‘Otello’, a role that has become one of his hallmarks, and participated in a recording for Koch Scwhann with Renato Bruson, as Iago, in 1992. In 1998, in Parma he was awarded with the Verdi D’Oro prize for his performances as Otello in ‘Venetian Moor.’ In 2000, he became the General Manager of the Timisoara Opera House. In 2002, he received ‘Leteris et Artibus’, the highest Cultural Distinction from the President of Austria for his excellent performance at Staatsoper Vienna during for 25 years. In the same year, he received ‘Cultural Knight’, the highest Romanian Distinction, from the President of Romania. He was invited to participate as member or president of jury in many international song contest: Toulouse – France, Verviers – Belgium, ‘B. Gigli’ from Recanati – Italy, Lugoj, Bucharest – Romania.

Youn Kwangchul is currently one of the most sought-after basses on the opera and concert stages in Europe and overseas. He has been a member of the ensemble of the Berlin State Opera from 1993 to 2004, where his wide repertoire includes roles in ‘Aida’, ‘La Bohéme’, ‘Christoph Kolumbus’, ‘Don Carlo’, ‘Don Giovanni’, etc. Further invitations followed to the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Stateopera Karlsruhe, Leipzig Opera, the Opera National de Paris, the Theatre du Châtelet in Paris, the Vienna State Opera, and festivals like the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, the American Ravinia Festival, the Salzburg Festival, the KlangBogen Wien, and regularly to the Bayreuth Festival. His 2009/10 season starts at the Berliner State Opera with a new production of ‘Simon Boccanegra’, where he gives his role debut as Fiesco. Also, at the Berlin State Opera he sings Heinrich der Vogler in ’Lohengrin’. Further engagement follow as King Marke in ’Tristan und Isolde’ at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Graf Hermann in ’Tannhäuser’ at Teatro Regio in Turin, Ramphis in ’Aida’ at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, and King Philipp in ’Don Carlo’ at Frankfurt Opera.

*updated April 2010