Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 8 - The Listeners

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 34 KAYE VOYCE COSTUME DESIGNER Lyric debut Designer for the world premiere of The Listeners , Voyce works in theater, opera, dance, and performance. Recent opera credits include Stranger Love (world premiere, LA Philharmonic), Susannah (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis), Bluebeard’s Castle (Des Moines Metro Opera), Faust (Detroit Opera, Opera Omaha), The Merry Widow (Oper Wuppertal), Le Roi Arthus (Bard Summerscape), La fanciulla del West (NCPA Beijing), Angels in America (Salzburger Landestheater), and Ellen West (world premiere, Saratoga Opera and Prototype Festival). Recent theater credits include set and costume design for Waiting for Godot (Geffen Playhouse) and costumes for Uncle Vanya (Broadway). A Wisconsin native, Voyce’s work has been previously seen locally at the Goodman, Steppenwolf, the Court Theatre, and Chicago Opera Theater. Costume Designers are supported by the Richard P. and Susan Kiphart Costume Designer endowment. YI ZHAO LIGHTING DESIGNER Lyric debut Zhao made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2024 with John Adams’s El Niño , and made his Broadway debut in 2022 with The Skin of Our Teeth , for which he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Lighting Design of a Play. He has also received a Vilcek Award for Creative Promise, and a Henry Hewes Design Award. Additional opera credits include the world premiere of The Listeners at Norwegian Opera & Ballet, Dylan Mattingly’s Stranger Love at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Die Tote Stadt at Opera Colorado, Faust at Opera Omaha, Ouroboros Trilogy at ArtsEmerson, and the world premiere of Du Yun’s Angel’s Bone at the Prototype Festival. His designs for theater and dance have been produced at many venues in New York and around the U.S., and at Sasha Waltz & Guests in Berlin, Ballet de Lorraine in Nancy, and Festival d’Automne in Paris. Lighting designers are supported by the Mary-Louise and James S.Aagaard endowment in honor of Duane Schuler. HANNAH WASILESKI PROJECTION DESIGNER Lyric debut Wasileski is a visual artist and projection designer whose work spans theater, opera, music, and installation. Her opera credits include El Niño at the Metropolitan Opera; Stranger Love with the LA Philharmonic; the world premiere of The Listeners at Norwegian Opera & Ballet; Die Zauberflöte at Staatsoper Berlin; Lohengrin at the Bayreuth Festival; Hansel and Gretel (film production) with Houston Grand Opera; and La Voix Humaine at National Sawdust. Her designs for theater include The Lehman Trilogy at Shakespeare Theatre Company DC and the Guthrie Theater; The Skin of Our Teeth and Pipeline at Lincoln Center Theater; Dreaming Zenzile at New York Theatre Workshop; Anatomy of a Suicide at Atlantic Theater Company; Fires in the Mirror at Signature Theatre; Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. at Soho Rep; and Sleep and The World is Round at Brooklyn Academy of Music. She has received Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Henry Hewes, and Obie awards, as well as a Drama Desk Award nomination. CHRIS MARAVICH REVIVAL LIGHTING & PROJECTION DESIGNER Lyric’s lighting director served in the same position from 2006 to 2012 at San Francisco Opera, where he created lighting for many productions including The Gospel of Mary Magdalene , Così fan tutte , Turandot , Cyrano de Bergerac , Il trittico , Tosca , Simon Boccanegra , Don Giovanni , Nixon in China , and Attila . He has collaborated on the lighting designs for Wozzeck (Finnish National Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève), Doktor Faust at Staatsoper Stuttgart, Tannhäuser for Greek National Opera, and La fanciulla del West , The Makropulos Case , The Daughter of the Regiment , Il trovatore , Samson et Dalila , and Macbeth for San Francisco Opera. Maravich has also designed lighting for LA Opera, Opera Colorado, San Diego Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Florida Grand Opera, Madison Opera, Cal Performances, and Opera San José. He currently serves as lighting supervisor for The Joffrey Ballet. Lighting designers are supported by The Mary-Louise and James S. Aagaard Lighting Director Endowed Chair . MICHAEL BLACK CHORUS DIRECTOR The Australian chorus director joined Lyric full time in the 2012/13 Season, after having served as interim director the season before. He was named Head of Music at Lyric, a new position, in the 2023/24 Season. Black was Chorus Director at Opera Australia in Sydney from 2001 to 2013, and has worked in this capacity for such distinguished organizations as the Edinburgh International Festival and Opera Holland Park (London), and, in Australia, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Choir, Motet Choir, the Cantillation chamber choir, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In Chicago, Black became the first chorus director to work with the choruses of Lyric, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Grant Park Music Festival, where he served for six seasons, including preparation of The Damnation of Faust chorus and Haydn’s Creation . He has lectured or given masterclasses at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, and in 2025 will work with the Young Artists at Opera Australia and the apprentice singers at the Santa Fe Opera. Black has served as chorus director for close to 140 different operas on four continents, and his work has been recorded and/or aired on ABC, BBC, PBS, for many HD productions in movie theaters, and on television. Michael Black is supported by the Howard A.Stotler Chorus Director Endowed Chair.