Master of Music in Performance, Vocal Concentration, Performance and Pedagogy Track

Beth Roberts has been a dedicated and accomplished voice teacher and music educator for over 25 years. Ms Roberts is pleased to join the Full Time Faculty at Montclair State University. Previously she was on the faculty of Mannes College The New School for Music since 1996 and served as Coordinator of the Vocal Department since 2001. Her voice studio has produced principal artists in many national and international professional venues, including the Metropolitan Opera, Munich Opera, Zurich Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Saint Louis Opera, Covent Garden and La Scala. Students of Ms. Roberts have been finalists and winners of such major vocal competitions as the Metropolitan Opera National Finals, the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, the Giuseppe di Stefano Competition, the Jenny Lind Competition, the Gerda Lissner Competition, the Giulio Gari Competition and the Joy of Singing Competition. Others have entered young artist programs at Merola, Wolf Trap, Glimmerglass, Santa Fe, Tanglewood and Chautauqua. Ms. Roberts has been a vocal instructor for the Washington National Opera Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program, the Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca (with the University of Cincinnati), a guest lecturer at the Classical Singer Convention, and an adjunct faculty member at the Westminster Choir College. She has served as an adjudicator for numerous competitions, including the Schmidt Vocal Competition, Fulbright Scholarship and the Finals of the Concours de Musique du Canada. She is a current faculty member of Voice Experience with the Savannah Voice Festival. A lyric soprano, Ms. Roberts has sung with many opera companies throughout the United States, including the Santa Fe Opera and the Washington Opera, and performed numerous concerts at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall. She was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Regional Winner and a Liederkranz Foundation Competition Winner. She has also recorded for radio and television. Ms. Roberts earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music and a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. She is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Screen Actors Guild.

Soprano and pedagogue Dr. Lori McCann holds a DMA and Artist Diploma in Opera from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She has performed extensively in Europe and the United States appearing in opera, oratorio and concert performances. Roles include: Mozart’s Pamina, Countess, Fiordiligi and Second Lady, Mimi, The Governess (Turn of the Screw, Britten), Fulvia (Ezio, Händel), The Fox (The Cunning Little Vixen, Janáček), Giulia (La scala di seta, Rossini), Iphigénie (Iphigénie en Tauride, , Gluck), and Mary Warren (The Crucible, Ward). Orchestral repertoire includes Brahms, Mozart, Händel, Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Mahler, Canteloube, Monteverdi, Bernstein, and Zarzuela repertoire. Ms. McCann has received many awards and prizes for her singing including National Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Dr. Lori McCann has been a vocal pedagogue for over 30 years. Academically she teaches the lyric diction sequence, various performance classes and applied voice to freshman through Artist’s Diploma candidates in the Cali School, and all levels of student in the highly competitive BFA Musical Theater Program. She has also maintained private voice studios in New York City, Berlin, Mannheim, Cincinnati, San Diego, and Montclair, NJ. She has been Faculty Artist at the prestigious American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS), in Graz, Austria for more than a decade and is in demand as a mentor teacher, masterclass clinician and adjudicator. Dr. McCann’s research interests include lyric diction, developmental pedagogy, zarzuela and university voice and choral faculty collaboration. In conjunction with co-author Elizabeth Brodovitch, Lori McCann recently published Chant’s d’Auvergne, A Singer’s Guide to Auvergnat Pronunciation, Bailero Publishing, Vancouver, BC, 2022. Dr. McCann has presented her research at national and international conferences, including the International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT) the International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference, The Voice Foundation, National Collegiate Choral Organization (NCCO), and the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Conferences and Workshops. In addition to these presentations, Dr. McCann is quite active in leadership roles locally, regionally, and nationally with the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the primary professional organization for voice teachers in the country. She served 2 terms as the NATS Eastern Region Governor, 2 terms as New York City Chapter President, is a member of New Jersey NATS and is currently serving as past president and board member of the NYC chapter. Dr. McCann is especially active in Mentor Teacher programs both in the NYC Chapter and as a NATS National Mentor.

Tenor Dr. Darian Clonts, a native of Atlanta, Ga., joined the Voice faculty at Montclair State University in the Fall of 2021. He has been seen performing with companies across the U.S. such as Cincinnati Opera, The Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater, The Princeton Festival, and The Atlanta Opera. Some of his operatic roles include The Witch (Hansel and Gretel), Mingo (Porgy and Bess), Hérrison (L’Étoile), Goro (Madama Butterfly), and El Remendado (Carmen). He holds a B.A. in Music from Morehouse College, where was a member of and an accompanist for the world-renowned Morehouse College Glee Club. Dr. Clonts holds both an M.M. and D.M. in Voice from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He holds a certificate in Vocology, which is the science and practice of voice habilitation and, if necessary, rehabilitation. He is currently on the Voice faculty at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ and the University of Evansville in Evansville, IN. The main focus of his musical research includes opera and African American music, and he has lectured on his research at schools and institutions across the United States.

Dr. Rachel B. Goldenberg is a recognized expert in the intersection of singing and respiratory health. Her doctoral research explored singing as an airway clearance technique for cystic fibrosis, and her widely cited article, “Singing for Respiratory Health,” was published in the Journal of Voice. She has presented her work internationally and currently leads the “Breathe, Sing, Move!” and “Breathe, Speak, Pace” programs supporting individuals with lung disease and long-COVID.

Dr. Goldenberg holds a DMA in vocal pedagogy from Shenandoah University and a Master of Clinical Sciences in speech-language pathology from Western University. She has taught voice, speech, and pedagogy at Ambrose University and continues to consult on vocal health while maintaining a private practice in Montclair, NJ.

An experienced performer and award-winning singer, Dr. Goldenberg has sung with top ensembles and opera companies, including the New York Philharmonic and Banff Summer Arts Festival. She is Past President of NATS Southern Alberta and a PAVA-Recognized Vocologist, with a clinical and academic focus on vocal health, voice science, and singing physiology.

Ereni Sevasti is a singer, actor, musician and singing teacher whose performance highlights include The Visitor with Mandy Patinkin (Public Theater); The Bacchae(Shakespeare in the Park); Lili in Carnival! (Kennedy Center); The Sound of Music(Papermill Playhouse); Zorba the Greek (staged reading) with Antonio Banderas and Chita Rivera; Joan Baez in Search: Paul Clayton (Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse). Variety calls Sevasti “a real catch” who “never stops charming the audience,” while Broadwayworld writes that she grips you with her “strong belt and expressive phrasing.” Ereni holds the Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University where she studied with Christopher Arneson and Taina Kataja. She has studied with Broadway veteran and musical theater singing specialist Adrienne Angel. She is a student of singing teacher and voice researcher, Richard Lissemore, and has provided pedagogical demonstrations for his presentations for NATS, the Voice Foundation and the Singing Voice Science Workshop. She has completed the two-year Meisner Training program with William Esper. In addition to her busy performance schedule, Ereni also teaches piano and guitar.