Italian pianist Anna Toccafondi and Italian tenor Leonardo De Lisi of the Conservatory Luigi Cherubini in Florence, Italy will lead a master class on Italian songs and arias in a variety of styles, performed by SMTD voice students. Free and open to the public.

ABOUT THE GUEST ARTISTS

LEONARDO DE LISI has been active in both concert and opera repertoire in Italy and throughout Europe during a forty-years career, which began after winning several prestigious competitions, including the Grand Prize for Lied at the ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. His numerous CDs include the complete Respighi art songs, the leading tenor roles in Gasparini’s Bajazet, Vivaldi’s Il Giustino, and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. In 2009, EMI included a Vivaldi aria performed by De Lisi in the box set 100 Best Tenor Voices. He has been teaching at the Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, Italy, since 1998.

ANNA TOCCAFONDI, pianist and vocal coach, is Professor of Collaborative Piano at the Florence Cherubini Conservatory. She performs at major festivals and theaters in Italy, Europe, and Japan with celebrated singers (such as Alessandro Corbelli and Barbara DeMaio). She taught annual master classes on Italian vocal repertoire at the University of Michigan’s former spring program in Sesto Fiorentino, Italy, and recently in South Korea. Committed to unpublished compositions of the Italian vocal repertoire, Toccafondi has done research, transcriptions, revisions, and recordings of important composers. She is the co-author, with Timothy Cheek, of Perfect Italian Diction for Singers: An Authoritative Guide.