Isabelle Aboulker, France's Greatest Living Song Composer
"I like the theater, the verb, and I also like the sound of the pencil on my music paper, the rustle of the eraser, the little black dots that turn into rhythms and sounds. So, with pleasure and obstinacy - and against all logic - I compose operas." Isabelle Aboulker
Julia Kogan is an international award-winning American-French opera singer, author, and presenter. She has performed at top venues around the world (Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, etc.), released five solo albums and has had her work featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, Opera News, BBC Radio 3 and 4, and many others.
Julia’s BBC Radio 4 documentary, The Lost Songs of Hollywood, was chosen ‘pick of the week’ by the BBC. She is the author of Hipstory, a book of Amit Shimoni’s art with text by Julia, as well as a series of children’s books, essays, and screenplays. For now, she remains the uncredited co-author of feature film Florence Foster Jenkins.
Collaborative pianist Maureen Zoltek enjoys a diverse career working with leading vocalists, instrumentalists, chamber groups, and opera companies across the United States.
Ms. Zoltek currently serves as an Assistant Conductor, Accompanist, and Vocal Coach on the staffs of San Francisco Opera and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. In the 2019-2020 season she returns to SFO for productions of Carmen, Roméo et Juliette, and Hänsel und Gretel, and to the Music Academy of the West for Ellen Reid’s Odysseus Cycle and Philip Glass’ Les Enfants Terribles, which she performed last season as part of Opera Omaha’s ONE Festival. An active proponent of new music, she recently served as Coach and Assistant Conductor for the world premieres of Mark Adamo’s The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber, and John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West, as well as the west coast premiere of Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life.