G. Richard Ames

G. Richard Ames is an actor and activist from Burlington. He has appeared most recently as Fred/Petruchio in Kiss Me, Kate, and as Michael Cassio, in Othello both at QuarryWorks, where next summer he will appear as the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz and as Nick in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Rick has also been seen in several productions at Lost Nation Theater, where he emceed their recent Edgar Allan Poe Spooktacular and will be portraying George Bailey in the staged radio show of It's a Wonderful Life. When not onstage, he is a props designer, stage manager, writer of song and lyric poetry, and an activist for human rights, world peace and litter eradication.

Ellen Blachly

Central Vermont actor, singer, dancer and Irish fiddler, Ellie Blanchly recently won acclaim for her performance astray Maria Callas in Lost Nation Theater’s world premiere production of Callas on Callas for WINTERFEST 2007. Previous Lost Nation Theater productions have included The Winter’s Tale and The Cradle Will Rock.

A company member of the Unadilla Theater, she has portrayed virtually all the soprano leads in their ongoing Gilbert & Sullivan productions as well as leading dramatic roles in Art, Death and the Maiden and The Cherry Orchard among many others. She has, also, performed with The Plainfield Little Theater, The Barre Players, Earnest Productions, Celebration Theater and WGDR Radio.

This past season Ellie sang the role of Dona Anna in The Echo Valley Community Arts Production of Don Giovanni. Offstage, Ellie has created a successful business in the arts of costume design and construction and fine upholstery.

Simon Chaussé

French Canadian baritone Simon Chaussé has sung in recital and concert in Europe, Japan, Canada and the USA. In recital he often collaborates with Dalton Baldwin who invited Mr. Chaussé for a concert tour of Japan in November 1999.

Mr. Chaussé has won several prizes in International Art Song Competitions in France, Spain, Canada and USA. He has studied interpretation with such artists as Frederica Von Stade, Jose Van Dam, Gerard Souzay and Elly Ameling. With opera companies in New York and Vermont he has sung the roles of: Papageno, Belcore, Malatesta, Schaunard, Dandini, Silvio, the Father in “Hansel and Gretel” and Sam in Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti” among others.

In 2000 he sang Antoine in the World premiere of “A Fleeting Animal” by Vermont composer Erik Nielsen’s. In 2006 Mr. Chaussé sang in concert the role of Horace Giddens in Marc Blitsztein’s opera “Regina” with the Vermont American Opera Project, Lord Dunmow in Lennox Berkeley “A Dinner Engagement” with the Opera Company of Middlebury under Troy Peters and Fiorello in “Il Barbiere Di Siviglia” with the Green Mountain Opera Festival conducted by Giovanni Reggioli.

This past year Mr. Chaussé sang the tile in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Barre Opera House with Echo Valley Community Arts and Yamadori in the acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly by the Green Mountain Opera Festival also at the Barre Opera House. He also performed the role of Mr. Lindquist with the Opera Company of Middlebury production of “A Little Night Music”and on July 8th he premiered a new song cycle by Vermont composer Erik Nielsen at the Rochester Chamber Music Society in Rochester VT.

Mr. Chaussé currently teaches voice at Monteverdi Music School in Montpelier.

Chris Colt

Chris has performed with Lost Nation in Twain's Murder, Mystery, and Marriage: A Melodrama , Lies and Legend  and Shakespeare’s Henry V. He has written several plays, including The Book Bag which was turned into a feature film. He and his brother, Nick Colt wrote the musical "The Puppet Box" . which was mounted off-off broadway in NYC and is currently being revised for future productions. Chris teaches at Champlain College and Winooski HS.

Paula Ennis, pianist, holds a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University where she was a graduate teaching assistant to Menahem Pressler.

A very active performer in Vermont, she has performed solo and chamber music throughout Europe and the U.S. After study in Köln, Germany, on a Fulbright Grant, she taught on the music faculties of SUNY at Albany, NY; Williams College, MA; Lawrenceville School, NJ; and Johnson State College, VT.

Her recordings of solo and chamber music appear on Grand Prix, Musical Heritage Society, and Coronet Recording labels. The New York Times has characterized her playing as "versatile and highly communicative."

Wendy Hoffman Farrell

Mezzo soprano Wendy Hoffman Farrell began her vocal career with the Essex Children's Choir, and went on to receive both Bachelors and Masters Degrees in vocal performance.

Wendy has performed nationally with Atlanta Opera, The Atlanta Lyric Theatre, and The Peter Harrower Opera Workshop. Regionally, Wendy has been featured with a number of Vermont based ensembles, including the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Vermont Mozart Festival, Vermont Youth Orchestra, f y d o, and Vermont Opera Theater. She will be singing her first Musetta in La Boheme with The Opera Company of Middlebury this coming August.

An enthusiast of contemporary music, Wendy has premiered the works of several American composers, including those of Vermont composers Erik Nielsen and Troy Peters. She has been on the applied faculties of St. Lawrence University and Middlebury College. Wendy lives and snowboards in Bolton Valley with her husband Tim and their three children.

Lisa Jablow

Lisa’s checkered career as a performer began at age three, when she played a character named Mrs. Buttonnose in a community theater production in Shrub Oak, NY. Her elementary school debut came at age seven, when she played a library book.

Other roles followed and in junior high school, she entered the preparatory division of the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. She arrived at college as a theater major; but received degrees in choral conducting with a minor in voice. During this time, she performed a great deal of opera and musical theater, mostly on stage, but sometimes conducting in the pit.

After graduate school, Lisa spent nine years at New York City Opera also performing with Opera Orchestra of New York, Skylight Opera, Boise Opera, the Milwaukee Symphony, Long Wharf Theatre and Lost Nation Theater. She also joined the music faculty at Johnson State College where, among other things, Lisa directs the musical theater program.

William Pelton

Bill, a Syracuse University graduate with a degree in Visual and Performing Arts, has worked many times with Montpelier’s Lost Nation Theater in, among others Mother Courage, Othello and the award-winning Stone.

Some favorite shows and roles include Bruce in Beyond Therapy, Constable Dull in Love’s Labors Lost, Antonio, Feste and Andrew Aguecheek in multiple productions of Twelfth Night, and company member in the musicals Sweeny Todd, A Little Night Music, Threepenny Opera, Working, The Cradle Will Rock, Side by Side by Sondheim, Cole and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, as Tyrone in O’Neill’s poignant, A Moon for the Misbegotten, and Escalus in Measure for Measure.

Presently studying with Cameron Thor Studios and auditioning for film, Bill has worked locally on Nora Jacobson’s, Nothing Like Dreaming, and George Woodard’s, The Summer of Walter Hacks presently in post-production.

Mary Jane Austin-Reynolds

Mary Jane Austin-Reynolds earned her bachelor's degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Olga Radosavljevich and Vivian Weilerstein.  She then pursued her graduate studies in vocal coaching and accompanying, studying both art song and opera at Duquesne University with Warren Jones and Claudia Pinza.

In the field of opera, she has worked as an accompanist and coach for six summers at the EPCASO opera program in Oderzo, Italy, where she worked with mezzo soprano Vivica Genaux and baritones Richard Bernstein and Michael Chioldi, among others.  

Closer to home, she co-founded the Sky Meadow Chamber Players in 2003, has worked at the Green Mountain Opera Festival as the pianist for their Young Artist Program, and played with the Mad River Chorale, Onion River Chorus, Vermont Opera Theater and Echo Valley Community Arts.  She has also played for several silent films at the Vergennes Opera House.   She currently teaches private piano lessons at the Monteverdi Music School in Montpelier.

Mary Jane is married to violist Paul Reynolds.  They are the proud parents of their two daughters, Chloe and Mia.

Eliza Thomas

Eliza Thomas studied piano accompaniment with Margo Garrett at the New England Conservatory. Since moving to Montpelier in 2000, she has worked as an accompanist with a number of organizations, including Echo Valley Community Arts, Vermont Opera Theater, the Vermont American Opera Project, and participates regularly in workshops given by Dalton Baldwin and Lorraine Nubar at the annual Fall Foliage Art Song Festival, sponsored by the Vermont Opera Theater.

She teaches piano at the Monteverdi Music School in Montpelier and freelances as a writer and editor.

J.D. Williams

J.D. Williams began piano lesson at the age of six in his home state of West Virginia. He graduated from Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory in 2001 with a Bachelor of Music Performance degree.

He has participated in the Banff, Aspen, Tanglewood and Meadowmount Music Festivals as a chamber musician and soloist, as well as the International Holland Sessions. J.D. lives in Plainfield, VT and has teaching studios at Montpelier’s Monteverdi Music School and in Norwich, VT.

When not performing or teaching, he plies his other trade as a Carpenter.

Arthur Zorn

Arthur Zorn, a native of New York City, attended the Manhattan School of Music and the High School of Music and Art. After graduating with special honors in music education from Lyndon State College in 1972, he began teaching music and was appointed chair of the Fine Arts Department and Director of Choral Activities from 1977 (retiring in June of 2008) at Spaulding High School in Barre, Vermont. 

Arthur is an abstract impressionist visual artist. His premiere art exhibition, Improvisations, opened in July of 2004 at the Bundy gallery in Waitsfield VT. Currently his art work is hanging in the Montpelier Skinny Pancake restaurant, in the Roxbury public library and at the Shops at the Spruce Peak Resort in Stowe.  Arthur is the choir director and organist at Bethany Church, Montpelier.  He is also a composer and a vocal a coach living in Montpelier.