creative team
​

THE LUNCHBOX PROJECT
​A New ROK Commission
​
Composers   Lauren Bernofsky, Malcolm Dalglish, Rosey Lee, Chris Neiner, Yuriria Rodríguez, and Wilson Shitandi
Librettist   Alejandra Martinez
Stage Director   Satsu Holmes
​Stage Manager   Eli Diersing
Costumes and Props   Amber McKoy
Curriculum Guide   Joseph Mace
​

THE WORLD IS ONE
A New ROK Commission
​
Composer   Dominick DiOrio 
Librettist   Terry Pinaud
​Stage Director   Satsu Holmes
​Stage Manager   Eli Diersing
​Costumes and Props   Amber McKoy
Curriculum Guide   Joseph Mace
​
​
ROK Founding Director, Kimberly Carballo

Production Manager, Eddie Mony
Assistant Arts Administrator, Alec Castro
Communications Manager, Satsu Holmes
Social Media and Marketing, Amy Williams
​Videographers, Sara Deboer and Robbie Gonyea

lauren bernofsky, Composer

Lauren Bernofsky's music has been performed across the United States as well as internationally in major venues from Carnegie Hall to Grieg Hall in Bergen, Norway.  Her works are published by The FJH Music Company, Hal Leonard, Grand Mesa, Balquhidder Music, Fatrock Ink, Carl Fischer, Theodore Presser, Alfred Publishing, and Boosey & Hawkes.  She holds degrees from the Hartt School, New England Conservatory, and Boston University, where she earned a doctorate in composition.  Her music can be heard on the Polarfonia, Emeritus, Music to My Ears, MSR Classics, Blue Griffin, Summit, and Albany labels.

Bernofsky has taught at Boston University, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, The Peabody Institute, and Interlochen.  She conducts at regional festivals and serves as a clinician at schools, festivals, and national conferences.  This is Lauren Bernofsky’s third season writing for ROK – her earlier ROK commissions are MOOCH THE MAGNIFICENT and RUFUS AND RITA, both of which are available from Theodore Presser.

www.laurenbernofsky.com

malcolm dalglish, Composer

Malcolm Dalglish is a composer and performer.  His compositions are rooted in folk traditions, with themes often inspired by a sense of place and a celebration of nature.

Malcolm graduated from the National Outdoor Leadership School and was in residence with a new theater troupe at Oberlin College in his teen years, before majoring in Music Education at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.  A founding member of the popular Indiana folk trio Metamora, he has made over 15 group and solo recordings with Windham Hill, Rounder, Times Music of India and other labels.  Three albums, Into the Sky, Pleasure, and Hymnody of Earth, were inspired by the writings of Wendell Berry.  Hymnody of Earth has grown from a song cycle to an ever-expanding body of over 90 commissioned works performed worldwide.  Many of these songs are featured at Ooolation, Malcolm’s off-the-grid outdoor singing camp in the Sierra Mountains.  Malcolm's most recent Headwaters album explores Indian ragas with Sarod masters Ayaan and Amaan Ali Khan, and he is currently recording a solo project entitled Love Songs for a Lasting World. 

Malcolm is an avid nature photographer and enjoys making musical slide shows of his 200-300 mile solo treks in the wilds.  His life long nature-inspired work combines entertainment with mentorship.

dominick diorio, composer

Dominick DiOrio is an innovative young composer and conductor who has won widespread acclaim for his contributions to American music.  He is Associate Professor of Choral Conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he is director of NOTUS, a select chamber choir with a mission to focus on new music.  He has published over 40 original works for voices, including both song cycles and choral music.  This is his third opera.  

​http://www.dominickdiorio.com 

rosey lee, composer

Dr. Rosey Lee was awarded fellowships from the Japan Foundation to research traditional Japanese music, and was a guest research scholar for Japanese traditional music at the Japanese Ethnomusicology Graduate Institution and Research Center, Kyoto City University of Arts, from 2007-08.  She has written several works for concert band and symphony orchestra, as well as solo and chamber works.  Her music has been performed and recorded around the world.  Dr. Lee received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1999 from Boston University and is a professor in the Composition Department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.  Her compositions for piano, Sonata in Three Movements and 24 Solar Terms, were released by Centaur Records in 2008.  She was invited as guest composer to the International Double Reed Convention at Indianapolis in 2006, where her Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano was performed.  On July 10, 2007, the trio was performed at the San Francisco Symphony donor’s concert with Steve Paulson, Principal Bassoonist of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra playing bassoon.

Chris neiner, composer

Chris Neiner (b. 1994) composes music infused with a rich sense of harmony, clarity of ideas, and energy described as engaging, exciting, and fresh.  These qualities originate from his passion to foster collaborative works with instrumentalists.  His latest collaboration is Playtime, a new work for horn, violin, and piano commissioned by a consortium of collegiate horn professors across the United States.  Previous collaborations include New Music for Horns, a multidisciplinary project that facilitated music making between hornists, composers, conductors, and recording artists studying at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. 

His works have appeared on programs by the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Sinfonia, the Copper Street Brass Quintet, the American Modern Ensemble, loadbang, the Red Hedgehog Trio, the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, the Minnesota Symphonic Winds, the Rocky Ridge Music Center, the Cochran Chamber Commissioning Project, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, faculty of the MacPhail Center for Music, and more.

Neiner is currently pursuing a master's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Keith Fitch.  Previously, he studied composition and horn performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with composers Claude Baker, Aaron Travers, P. Q. Phan, Don Freund, and hornist Richard Seraphinoff.  He is an alumnus of the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, RED NOTE New Music Festival, Mostly Modern Festival, and New Music on the Point Festival.

www.chrisneiner.com

yuriria rodriguez, composer

Costa Rican soprano Yuriria Rodríguez holds the rare privilege of being able to sing in both classical and popular styles with great professionalism, expression, and accuracy of style.  Reviews have praised Ms. Rodríguez as a singer “with a beautiful voice which recalls a force of nature” (Herald Times, Bloomington, IN), and as “The real deal” (Fanfare, November 2011, USA).  

​Ms. Rodríguez holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music from Indiana University—Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Teresa Kubiak, Carlos Montané and Mary Ann Hart.  As a member of El Taller, she had the opportunity to share the stage with prominent guest musicians and Jacobs School of Music faculty, such as Grammy Award Winners Pablo Ziegler, Pablo Aslan, Michael Spiro, Gonzalo Grau, and Sylvia McNair, among many others.

Other solo performances include the Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Richard Tang Yuk at Indiana University.  She debuted at the Indiana Opera program as Suor Osmina in the 2011 production of Puccini’s Suor Angelica, and was casted again that summer to sing for the new opera The Tales of Lady Thi Kihn, by P. Q. Phan.  Recently, Yuriria sang the role of Sombra, in the world premiere and 30+ performances of Gabriela Ortiz’s Ana y su Sombra, commissioned by Reimagining Opera for Kids, which Yuriria is proudly part of, and that performs all year round.  

Currently, Yuriria works as Associate Director of Hispanic Music at Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, where she conducts the Coro Latinoamericano and develops a bilingual choral program for early music learners.  Because of her achievements, artistry and work in both Popular and Classical singing in the American Mid-West, last year, the United States granted her the E11 Visa for Individuals of Extraordinary Ability in the Field of the Arts.

wilson shitandi, composer

Dr. Wilson Shitandi is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean at Kabarak University in the School of Music and Performing Arts, where he teaches courses in ethnomusicology, African dance, traditional instrumental and vocal music, composition, harmony, and counterpoint.  He is a former DAAD Scholar, having undertaken research studies at the universities of Mainz and Hildesheim in Germany.  Dr. Shitandi has earned an international reputation as an expert in classical drumming and Kenyan vocal music.  He is an active choral conductor and is a strong advocate of community-based music making as a vehicle towards social change in Kenya.  To this end, he and other music educators in Kenya and the USA have initiated a project dubbed Tunaweza Kimuziki, a music and cultural exchange project that aims to nurture and promote young music talents through workshops, online learning, seminars, and performances.  Dr. Shitandi was recently appointed Dean, Nairobi Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.  He has published in book chapters and peer reviewed journals with research interest in the areas of African music, ethnomusicology, musicology, hymnology, and choral music.  In addition, Dr. Shitandi sings, composes, and arranges African indigenous and national songs, and Euro-American classical music.  Among his choral compositions are ten masses for mixed chorus in Kiswahili and English.  He is currently director of St. Cecelia Choir (Dandora, Nairobi), a board member of MUZIKI for Africa and the Utafiti Foundation, and a founding/ongoing member of Tunaweza Kimuziki.  He is also a member of the Kenya Choral Directors Association, Pan African Musical Arts Education organization, International Council of Traditional Music, Historische Toenetrager Gesellschaft, and Nairobi Choral Music Society.

alejandra martinez, librettist

Alejandra Martinez, soprano, is a native of Southern California.  Concert credits include performances at the National Council de la Raza, the Cleveland One World Festival, and the world premiere of Juan Orrego-Salas' Ash Wednesday with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra.  In 2017, she was the soprano soloist of Penderecki's St. Luke Passion at Indiana University Musical Arts Center.  Favorite opera roles have been La Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), Salud (La vida breve), and Lady Billows (Albert Herring).  She is a regular performer with Long Beach Opera, with which she has performed inopera such as Frida and The Love Potion.  Ms. Martinez was recently honored with a National Society of Arts and Letters Career Award and regularly performs with Reimagining Opera for Kids in Bloomington, Indiana, where she resides with her husband, baritone Nicholas Farmer.  She is dedicated to furthering opera education, which she does with her podcast, the Opera Avengers, and her work throughout Bloomington with ROK, the Musical Arts Youth Organization, and the BloomingSongs Project.  Next year, she will premiere a brand new opera, La Capitana, a collaboration with composer Germaine Franco and co-librettist Nancy De Los Santos, in Los Angeles.

terry pinaud, librettist

Terry Pinaud is the pen name of Khashayar Tonekaboni, a transplanted Iranian.  Inspired by his love for storytelling, Pinaud wrote his first short story at the age of eleven, and his first novel before he was eighteen.  His stories range from the mysterious and mystical to the historical, through which he hopes to add a voice of equality and tolerance while entertaining his readers.  His works of fiction include: Chaos: Where do you go when you run from yourself  (2012), and The Fixer (2016).

​Khashayar Tonekaboni is an award-winning professor in optometric medicine at Indiana University.

satsu holmes,
​stage director &
Communications Manager

Satsu Holmes is a movement artist and director from Honolulu, now based in New York City.  She is a collaborator and the Managing Assistant for Josh Pacheco Dance Theatre (JPDT), and she has worked with Josh Pacheco since June 2018.  Previous freelance highlights include: helping opera singers dance in South Pacific (IUOT, 2015), advising and rehearsing French students in their annual « Fête du Lycée » (Lycée Albert Châtelet, 2016), and returning to her hometown to assistant direct Gounod's Roméo et Juliette (Hawai`i Opera Theatre, 2018).  

In November 2018, Satsu presented her first showing at The Tank NYC.  Titled “Elements of Space Shaping,” the multidisciplinary draft work allowed Satsu to explore roles as creator, producer, director, and performer.  

Satsu earned degrees in Kinesiology (Dance) and Arts (Theatre and Drama) from Indiana University, and a diploma in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire.  Her process is rooted in connection, collaboration, meditation, and play; and her work seeks to share new perspectives within the themes of impermanence, inertia, balance, and space.

Eli diersing, stage manager

Eli Diersing is a Bloomington native.  Growing up, he studied and performed both competitive and concert dance, and attended summer programs at Interlochen Center for the Arts, Indiana Ballet Conservatory, and Grand Rapids Ballet.  In addition to dance, Eli has performed in a variety of other capacities, including musical theater, theater, and choir.

Eli is currently in his second, and final, year at Interlochen Arts Academy, as a dance major.  At Interlochen, he has had the opportunity to perform roles in both classical ballets and contemporary pieces, as well as to create his own work.  After graduating, Eli hopes to join a professional ballet company. 

joseph mace, curriculum guide

New York City based singer, actor and music educator Joseph Mace happily returns to ROK!  An emerging crossover artist, Joseph performs a diverse repertoire, spanning from oratorio and opera to contemporary song, jazz and musical theatre.

Having made his Off-Broadway debut in the Drama Desk Award nominated, The Golden Bride, he also appeared in Off-Broadway and international workshops of Goldfaden’s Yiddish operetta, The Sorceress, bringing the work back to its native Romania in the fall of 2017.
Recent seasons took Joseph to Notre Dame University where he worked with their Children’s Choir singing the title role in Noah's Flood, Les Misérables with Summer Lyric Theatre and the critically acclaimed Sunday in the Park with George with the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre and his first appearance with the Metropolitan Opera in Meistersinger von Nürnberg. 

In demand as a concert artist, solo engagements include appearances with the Indianapolis, Billings, Monterey and Carmel Symphonies, the San Jose Symphonic Choir as well as with the Fort-Wayne Bach Collegium and Indiana University New Music Ensemble.  A seasoned choral artist, Joseph has performed with the Metropolitan, New Orleans and San Francisco Operas, and appeared frequently with the Philharmonia Baroque Chorale in the Bay Area. 

Joseph holds a Doctor of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Master of Music Degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  He attended Tulane University for undergraduate studies in Music Performance and French.  He is an active member of Actors Equity Association and the American Guild of Musical Artists.

Joseph is a dedicated teacher. In addition to his private studio, he is a member of the Vocal Technique and Coaching staff with the Broadway Artists Alliance.

​www.josephmace.com

KIMBERLY CARBALLO, founding DIRECTOR

Founder and director of Reimagining Opera for Kids (ROK), Kimberly is Coordinating Opera Coach for Indiana University’s (IU) Opera and Ballet Theater, and an active international performer and educator.  She has previously worked as the mainstage and young artists’ program coach for the Compañía Lírica Nacional de Costa Rica, and music theory instructor and vocal coach at the Conservatorio Musical de Alajuela, the Escuela de Artes Musicales de la Universidad de Costa Rica, and the Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica.  In addition to her duties at IU, she maintains a private studio as a freelance coach, collaborator, and piano teacher.  Kimberly also forms part of the inaugural and ongoing team for Tunaweza Kimuziki (Through Music All is Possible), a project promoting exchange among music educators, scholars, and performers in Kenya and the USA.

​Actualmente Kimberly Carballo es pianista de ópera en la Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater de Indiana University, profesora en el departamento de Música de Cámera y Piano Colaborativo, ejecutante, y educadora con trayectoria internacional.  Ha trabajado como pianista y coach para la Compañía Lírica Nacional de Costa Rica, profesora de teoría y pianista en la Universidad de Costa Rica, el Conservatorio Musical de Alajuela, y la Universidad Nacional.  Además de estas actividades profesionales, en el taller Tunaweza Kimuziki forma parte del equipo inaugural que ha seguido hasta hoy en día; el taller, cuyo nombre significa “A través de la música, todo se puede hacer,” provee oportunidades de interacción e intercambio cultural para músicos y educadores de música, con bases en los EEUU y en Kenya.

​kimcarballo.com

eddie mony, production manager

Eddie Mony, "The Kenyan Crooner,” is a tenor studying under Andreas Poulimenos at the Jacobs School of Music.  He has performed as a soloist for the Kenyatta University Choir, the Nairobi Music Society, and the Kenya Conservatoire of Music.  Eddie has engaged audiences in solo concerts under Kenya’s OPERAtion classics, an organization that raises funds to support education through opera productions in exclusive venues.  His international presence is flourishing, with appearances in the United Kingdom under the Martyn Donaldson Music Trust; as well as in Finland, Canada, and the United States, including the historic Tivoli Theater in Spencer, Indiana.  Recently, Eddie sang the role of Father Grenville in the Jacobs School of Music production of Jake Heggie’s opera, Dead Man Walking, and sang a charity concert for Habitat for Humanity, Monroe County at the Buskirk-Chumley Theatre, Bloomington.  In addition to classical music, he performs Kenyan folk music with a group called Voice Tatu.

alec castro,
​assistant arts administrator

Alec Castro is a MA in Arts Administration Candidate at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.  He is an active member in the Bloomington arts community, having worked with nonprofits such as the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Jacobs School of Music, Cardinal Stage Company, and Lotus Education and Arts Foundation.  He holds a BM in Vocal Performance from East Tennessee State University, where he studied under Dr. Sun-Joo Oh.
 
During the past two summers, he has served as an Arts Administration Fellow at the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival and Academy and, most recently, finished the 2018 Wolf Trap Opera season as their Artistic Administration Apprentice. 
 
He is thrilled to be part of the ROK team and is excited to bring the joy and fun of opera to Southern Indiana children and communities. 

amy williams, social media & Marketing

Amy Williams​ holds a BFA with a focus in Vocal Performance from the University of Central Arkansas, where she studied with Robert Holden, and an MM Vocal Performance from Winthrop University, where she studied with John Fowler. 
 
Amy had the pleasure of spending the summer interning at Music in the Mountains in Durango Colorado.  Amy has enjoyed singing the roles of the 2nd Lady in Mozart’s ​Die Zauberflöte at Winthrop University, Gertrude in Humperdink’s ​Hansel and Gretel at Central Piedmont, Musetta in Puccini’s ​La Bohème with Opera Experience Southeast, and Apollonia in Hadyn’s La Canterina with Mosaic Arts.  In the summer of 2013, Amy participated in Opera Experience Southeast’s Summer Emerging Artist Program where she worked with Arlene Shrut, sang in a recital, and sang the role of Lauretta in Puccini’s​ Gianni Schicchi.  Amy attended the Franco-American Vocal Academy’s summer program in Perigueux, France in 2011.  She participated in Master Classes with composer Isabella Aboulker and Prof. Frederick Burchinal, sang in recitals around France, and performed the role of Amelie in Offenbach’s ​Le Grande Duchess de Gerolstein.  

Amy has had the privilege of singing the soprano soloist in Rutter’s Requiem and ​Mass of the Children with Winthrop University’s University Chorus and Orchestra, and in Dubois’ ​Seven Last Words of Christ and Vivaldi’s ​Gloria with Quail Hollow Presbyterian Choir.  

Amy is a third year vocal performance doctoral student at the Jacobs School of Music, studying with Alice Hopper.  This is her third year with ROK.

Sara deboer, Videographer

Sara Deboer is an aspiring film director and cinema studies major, in her senior year at Bloomington High School North.  She has played the violin for nine years and is also a young stained glass artist.  Sara has worked alongside Middle Coast Film Festival and production companies since 2016 and hopes to continue assisting at the film festival in Chicago.  She has taken leadership roles at her high school, namely Lead Director in Film Club, Organizer in Video Club, Activities Director in International Club, President of Vegetarian/Vegan Club, and Business Coordinator for Project Middle Way.  This will be Sara’s second year with ROK as videographer, and she hopes to use her experiences for college and her career.