Artistic Staff
ASOP's faculty consists of internationally renowned, seasoned professionals. All are dedicated to providing the training, insights and knowledge of professional standards that singers need to take their place in the world of professional opera.
Nancy Stokes Milnes, Founder
Barbara DeMaio Caprilli, Artistic Director
Richard Heard, Director of ASOP, NC
Elena DeAngelis, Operations Assistant
Michael Kamtman, Stage Director for Opera
Valentino Piran, Music Director/Conductor
James Engdahl, Opera History
Carmine Mann, Asst. Music Director/Pianist
Tyson Hankins, Pianist
Eric Waggoner, Pianist
Leda Scearce, Duke Voice Center, Vocal Health presentation
Dr. Byron Jones, Shenandoah Conservatory, French Literature
Nancy Stokes-Milnes, Founder
Soprano Nancy Stokes-Milnes made her debut in Rome at the famed Teatro Eliseo as Mimi in La Bohème and continued to appear in operas and recitals throughout Italy. Upon her return to the U.S., she was chosen to join the Metropolitan Opera National Company for her New York debut in The Marriage of Figaro. Opera appearances have included leading roles in such operas as Don Giovanni, La Traviata, Carmen, I Pagliacci, Turandot, and Un Ballo in Maschera working with important stage directors Jose Quintero and Tito Capobianco among others. She recorded La Traviata with Montserrat Caballe and Carlo Bergonzi for RCA.
Ms. Stokes-Milnes has appeared in many major concert halls in both recital and oratorio. She has sung with The Handel Society at Carnegie Hall, and has been a frequent guest of such orchestras as the Boston Pops, the National Symphony in Washington DC, the Atlanta Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony.
Nancy Stokes-Milnes has given master classes at Drake University, the University of Beijing in China, and the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Miami where she also taught voice. She has also taught voice at the Israeli Vocal Institute in Tel Aviv and is one of the leading voice teachers in New York City where she has taught privately for more than a decade.
A Rockefeller Foundation grant recipient and a Fulbright Scholar in Rome, where she lived for three years, Ms. Stokes-Milnes shares her unique talent by combining the best of American training with Italian traditions.
Barbara DeMaio Caprilli, Artistic Director, ASOP North Carolina
The American Soprano Barbara DeMaio Caprilli, thanks to her gifts of interpretation, precise phrasing and complete conquest of the Italian language, has a deserved international fame. Her vast repertoire includes all the great roles of a Puccini and Verdi soprano; Tosca (Palermo, Torre del Lago Puccini); Lady Macbeth (Firenze); Turandot (Genova, Torre del Lago Puccini, Cagliari, Palma de Mallorca, Roma); Aida (Caracalla, Verona, Taiwan, Avenches, Trapani, Buenos Aires, Roma, Japan); Abigaille in Nabucco (Bern, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Brussels, Torino, Genova, Cagliari, Lubliana, the Speyer Festival, Verona, Prato, Ravenna, Athens) and also Amelia in Un Ballo In Maschera, Elvira in Ernani, Lucrezia in I Due Foscari, Leonora in La Forza del Destino (Cagliari and the Herod Atticus Theater in Athens); Gulnara in Il Corsaro in Trieste and Odabella in La Scala's Attila directed by Riccardo Muti, which have given her great success in recent seasons. Her interpretation of Norma at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova in 1994 consecrated her as irreplaceable interpreter of this important Bellini character, and she then sang the role with immense success in Bologna, Marseille, Ascoli Piceno and several theaters in Germany. She is also known for her modern repertoire, including the production of Il Caso Makropoulos in Bologna and Torino and Fedora in Faenza. In 2007 she sang the Witch in Hansel and Gretel with Greensboro Opera, a role that she also sang in 2009 with Piedmont Opera. In 2008 she debuted the role of Medusa in the opera of the same name by William Bolcom and in 2010 she debuted the role of Julia Child in Bon Appetit!, both with Long Leaf Opera. Barbara DeMaio Caprilli lives in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and is an active recitalist and frequent adjudicator; in 2008 she performed concerts of American music as part of the Armonie della Sera festival in the Marche region of Italy. In 2009 she was certified as a Level III teacher in the LoVetri Somatic Voiceworks(tm) method and is currently a candidate for the DMA in Vocal Pedagogy at Shenandoah Conservatory. In the 2011-12 school year she will be at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, on a 10 month sabbatical replacement appointment as Asst. Prof. of Music in the Department of Music, teaching a full studio as well as Vocal Literature and Vocal Pedagogy.
Richard Heard, Director, ASOP North Carolina
Lyric tenor Richard Heard, 2009 Silver Medal Winner in the American Traditions Voice Competition, is swiftly taking his place in the top ranks among the new, young generation of concert singers. A regional finalist of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, he has received prestigious awards and grants from the National Society of Arts and Letters, Rotary International, the Fuchs Opera Awards and Mu Phi Epsilon. A graduate of Southern Methodist University and University of California, Mr. Heard made his operatic debut at the Aspen Music Festival and has since won praise for his characterizations of leading tenor roles in Italian Bel canto opera and in all of the major Mozart repertoire. His performance of Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore was pronounced “… clear, strong and effortless. He drew the most sustained applause of the evening when he unleashed his full power…” (Press Citizen, Iowa City).
As a concert singer, Mr. Heard has been engaged by orchestras across the western, mid-western, and southern regions of the United States, specializing in the works of Back, Handel, Haydn and Mozart. Mr. Heard has appeared with Carolina Baroque Orchestra, Charlotte Repertory Orchestra, Choral Society of Greensboro, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, Lake Charles Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Mississippi Symphony, Piedmont Chamber Singers, Raleigh Oratorio Society, Roanoke Symphony, Salisbury-Rowan Symphony, Virginia Beach Symphony and Winston Salem Symphony.
Mr. Heard’s recital appearances include Bennett College, Cameron University, Davidson County College, Elizabeth City State University, Fayetteville State University, Gardner-Webb University, High Point University, Grinnell College, Jackson State University, Mississippi College, Morehouse College, North Carolina A&T University, St. Mary’s College of the Plains, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwest Missouri State
Current Board of Directors, North Carolina
Nancy Stokes-Milnes, Founder, ASOP
Barbara DeMaio Caprilli - Artistic Director, ASOP NC
Dr. John Baxley, Treasurer
Prof. Richard Heard, Director, ASOP NC
Angiolo Caprilli, IT Director, Webmaster and SEO Consultant
Rev. Dan Pardue
Emeritus Board of Directors
Victoria Atwater
Elisa Barger
David Bonds
Michele T. Classe
James Engdahl
Dr. Pamela Howland
Roselyn Langley
Judy Miller
William Morfeld
Dr. Wendell Myers
Jennifer Nasser, Ph.D.
Robert Perry, Esquire
Craig B. Schwab (deceased)
Diane Flanery Schwab (deceased)
Christine Valentine
Sandra Van Cleve
Mary Ann Whitesides