Dr. Linda Di Fiore, mezzo-soprano and Regents Professor, has performed professionally for over thirty years as a soloist in opera, oratorio, recital, and musical theatre. Her career has included guest performances throughout the United States with such groups as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, Bach Aria Festival in New York City, Orlando Opera, Pensacola Oratorio Society, Wichita Opera, Music Theatre of Wichita, Winter Haven Messiah Society, North Florida Arts Opera Series, Longview Opera, Orchestra of New Spain, Arlington Choral Society, Richardson Symphony, San Angelo Symphony and the Da Ponte String Quartet. An active song recitalist, she has performed recitals in Innsbruck, Austria; Rome, Venice, Cremona, Mantua and Castelfrano-Veneto, Italy; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Washington, D.C. In addition, Dr. Di Fiore has toured Scotland and England as an oratorio soloist and has lectured for the Smithsonian Institution in Vienna and Prague for its music festival tour of those two cities.
Dr. Di Fiore joined the faculty of the University of North Texas in 1996. She is in demand as clinician and has presented master classes for the Voice Centre in Toronto; Conservatory of Music in San Juan; Steffani Conservatory in Castelfranco-Veneto, Italy; University of British Columbia in Vancouver; Eastman School of Music, Fort Worth Opera, Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point, Seagle Arts Colony, Kansas City Lyric Opera, Orlando Opera, as well as many other universities and colleges throughout the United States. In the summers, she teaches and performs in the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy. She will once again teach a highly popular master class for Opera in the Ozarks in early June for the 2007 Season.
Erick Wolfe
Erick Wolfe, nationally recognized teacher of stage combat, has been choreographing & performing fights for festivals for the last eleven years. Erick has hosted many workshops at Tulsa University as well as the stage combat courses at Opera in the Ozarks. Erick is also very active in teaching Improvisational acting and Stage Movement classes.
His unique style of stage combat blends historical, eastern, and fantasy to provide a smooth, high-energy fight. He specializes in non-typical weapons such as: axe and shield, mace and shield, war hammers, 2 handed broadswords, case of rapiers (two rapiers), poll arms, cut-and-thrust sword and buckler (small shield), and Eastern weapons.