JOHN STEPHENS, Stage Director and The Pirate King. John Stephens, Bass, is a native of St. Louis. He holds a DMA degree from the University of Illinois, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Hamburg, Germany. He is the director of the voice program at the University of Kansas, where he has taught voice and directed operas for the past 26 years. He began his singing career with the Lake George Opera Festival and has sung with opera companies and symphonies for over 30 years, appearing with such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Glimmerglass Opera, Cleveland Opera, Boston Lyric, Kansas City Lyric, Wichita Grand Opera, and many others.

In addition he has sung with the St. Louis Symphony, Orlando Symphony, Washington National Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, the Boston Philharmonic and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and has recorded for Columbia and Newport Classic records, and the Musical Heritage Society. His upcoming singing engagements include The Dialogues of the Carmelites with Kentucky Opera, John Brown with the Kansas City Lyric, The Pirates of Penzance with the Wichita Grand Opera, and Billy Budd with the Santa Fe Opera.

MYRNA PARIS, Ruth.  Rarely does an artist combine both high-quality vocalism and an acute stage presence, in both dramatic and comic roles, as Myrna Paris does. Ms. Paris is a regular member of New York City Opera, appearing in the spring of 2004 as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd. Last season, she had a personal triumph in the American premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Flight with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and in 2005, she will create a leading role in Adamo’s Lysistrata with Houston Grand Opera. Ms. Paris is equally well-suited to the major orchestral/choral concert repertoire.