Florida Grand Opera (FGO) has announced the promotion and addition of new members to its music staff.
Katherine Kozak, continuing in the position of chorus master at Florida Grand Opera and celebrating 20 years in the opera industry, will be promoted to also serve as head coach of the company’s Young Artist Program. Howard Lubin will serve as senior coach, and Paul Schwartz and Paul Kovacovic will fill the roles of staff accompanists.
“This new set of music staff is a real coup for us,” said Philip Pierce, director of Artistic Administration at FGO. “We are excited to welcome them to the team as we begin our 2016-17 season.”
Katherine Kozak
Pianist/coach Katherine Kozak began her professional life at Florida Grand Opera in 1996 as a member of its Young Artist Program. Since that time, she has musically prepared over 60 operas throughout her career, making her upcoming appointment as head coach a befitting homecoming.
Most recently, Kozak led a successful 2015-16 season as chorus master at FGO, for which she and the chorus garnered critical acclaim. She also returns from a fifth summer season as principal coach/accompanist at The Glimmerglass Festival, where she musically prepared The Crucible, starring Jamie Barton, Brian Mulligan and Jay Hunter Morris (Francesca Zambello, director; Nicole Paiement, conductor).
Kozak has functioned as rehearsal pianist, assistant conductor, coach, recital partner, chorus master, supertitle caller, recitative accompanist, and administrator, and her wide range of abilities has brought her to numerous music staffs, including Dallas Opera, Opera Colorado, Central City Opera and Santa Fe Opera. She has assisted notable conductors Richard, Bonynge, Joseph Colaneri, John Demain, Stephen Lord and Gary Wedow, among others.
In addition to her involvement in Young Artist programs, she has helped develop singers at the university level. Appointments have included associate coach at the Julliard School, visiting assistant professor at the University of Miami, and coach at Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio).
Kozak holds an MM in Vocal Coaching and Accompanying from the University of Illinois, where she was a student of John Wustman. She has enjoyed collaborating with singers since the young age of 11, when she began accompanying and touring with the Singing Angels, based in her hometown of Cleveland, OH.
Howard Lubin
Pianist Howard Lubin graduated from the Oberlin College and the Juilliard School with degrees in German literature and piano performance. By the age of 17 he had won three awards for composition from BMI and went on to win numerous prizes as a pianist, making his debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony at age 23.
Soon thereafter he taught at the Juilliard School where he served as vocal coach and member of the lyric diction faculty. As a faculty member of the American Opera Center and pianist for the Metropolitan Opera’s Young Artist Development Program he helped train some of America’s most accomplished singers.
After moving to Europe, Lubin was engaged as head of the music staff at the Cologne Opera and worked as assistant to James Conlon, Philippe Auguin and Rico Saccani. He also worked as guest vocal coach for the Bregenz and Spoleto Festivals. After his return to the United States he held teaching positions at the University of Oklahoma and Oberlin College Conservatory.
Lubin has collaborated with top prize winners at international music competitions and appeared extensively in chamber music and song recitals.
Of his solo performances the Washington Post wrote, “An overwhelming performance of Liszt’s herculean B minor Sonata. Few major artists now before the public could handle the work with such technical and stylistic command.”
Paul Schwartz
Pianist Paul Schwartz has performed more than 800 recitals in the United States, Canada, and South America. Schwartz has worked at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music for the past 10 years and in addition to teaching, accompanying, and sight-reading, has accompanied three choral ensembles and a variety of performance classes. He is in demand as a collaborative artist for both faculty and students.
While in Miami his collaborators have included Helmuth Rilling; Michael Tilson Thomas; Robert Porco; John Corigliano; Joe Alessi of the NY Philharmonic; Seraphic Fire; Richard King and Massimo LaRosa, both members of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra; Richard Todd; Trudy Kane, and Craig Morris, among others.
Schwartz previously resided in New York City for 16 years, during which time he coached singers and instrumentalists, performed and played masterclasses with such luminaries as Luciano Pavarotti, Alex Klein, Gail Williams, Patrick Sheridan, Burt Lucarelli, Fred Mills, Janet Bookspan, Brad Garner, and Joseph Seiger. He also served as a rehearsal pianist for the Mostly Mozart Festival for two seasons under the batons of Sir Colin Davis, Gerard Schwartz, and Vladimir Spivakov, and worked with artists including Steven Isserlis, Sheri Greenawald, Bo Skovhus, Angelika Kirchschlager, and Mark Oswald. In response to a Cala Records recording with Thomas Stacy, former English hornist of the New York Philharmonic, the American Record Guide described Mr. Schwartz’s playing as “immaculate.”
Schwartz specializes in the instruction of professional artists and prepares them for the concert stage, drawing upon his extensive knowledge in transpersonal psychology, among other modalities that aid in human development, spiritual growth, and freedom of expression. He graduated with both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music.
Paul Kovakovic
Paul Kovacovic enjoys a career that spans both classical and popular styles. He has been a guest soloist with several orchestras as well as the accompanist for artists such as singer-songwriter Ann Reed and Las Vegas entertainer and television host Tony Sandler. Kovacovic has concertized across the United States and Czech Republic, and has won first prizes in the Thursday Musical, Schubert Club, and Indiana University Piano Concerto competitions.
Kovacovic has taught at Central College in Pella, IA; Macalester College and Concordia University in St. Paul, and the University of Minnesota. He also has worked with several theater companies, including the Minnesota Opera, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, and Chanhassen Dinner Theatres.
In 2003, Kovacovic began composing and won the Eric Stokes Song Contest. His composition Variations Catastrophiques was performed by the new music ensemble Zeitgeist. Other performed works include Legend (violin concerto), Through the Darkness (piano concerto), To Earth and Back (symphony), and Our Voice of Truth (chorus), as well as ¡The Guaracha Gotcha!, a piece inspired by Afro-Cuban rhythms written for sixth-grade string orchestra at Ramsey International Fine Arts Center in Minneapolis.
Kovacovic studied piano at Indiana University with Edward Auer and at the University of Minnesota with Alexander Braginsky. He also studied composition at the European American Musical Alliance in Paris with students of legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, and at film scoring workshops in New York and Los Angeles.
FGO currently is accepting subscription renewals, new subscriptions, and single ticket orders online or at FGO’s offices. FGO’s Box Office is located at the Doral Center on 8390 NW 25 St., Miami, FL 33122, and is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday during the season. Tickets may be purchased by phone at 1-800-741-1010 or online at tickets.fgo.org.
