NOA Lifetime Achievement Award

Joan Dornemann was honored with NOA's highest award, a Lifetime Achievement Award, at the closing banquet on Saturday, Jan. 8.

Joan Dornemann, Co-Founder, Artistic Director of The International Vocal Arts Institute and Assistant Conductor, is one of the most highly respected opera coaches in the world today. In her position as Assistant Conductor with the Metropolitan Opera, she has prepared the most prominent international artists for their performances at the Met. She has worked with such singers as Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, José Carreras, Sherrill Milnes, Kiri Te Kanawa, Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Neil Shicoff, Juan Diego Flórez, and Anna Netrebko, among others. She has also collaborated with outstanding opera singers as an accompanist for many solo performances. Ms. Dornemann has been associated with the Gran Liceo in Barcelona, the Spoleto Festival, and the New York City Opera. At the Met she worked with such conductors as James Levine, James Conlon, and Carlos Kleiber. She prepared singers from the Kirov Opera for a recording of La Forza del destino and performances of Carmen and Aida under the baton of Valery Gergiev, and she was in charge of musical preparation for La Bohème and La Cenerentola at the Opéra de Paris. Ms. Dornemann was awarded an Emmy for her contribution to the highly acclaimed “Live from the Met” telecast of La Bohème with Luciano Pavarotti and Renata Scotto. She also teaches master classes throughout the world and is the author of Complete Preparation: A Guide to Auditioning for the Opera. She was honored by the city of Tel Aviv, which issued a commemorative stamp bearing her picture, and she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Montreal.

"Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award

Barbara Hill Moore is this year's recipient of the "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award, given at the closing banquet on Saturday, Jan. 8.

Barbara Hill Moore is Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Meadows Foundation Distinguished Professor of Voice at SMU Meadows School of the Arts. She began teaching at Meadows in 1974 and served as chair of the voice department from 1977 through 1992. Professor Hill Moore has performed with orchestras throughout the United States and Europe. She was a frequent performer in Western Europe, especially Germany, where she sang in opera, concert and recital, premiering the works of many American composers. She sang in Theater Des Westens in Berlin, was a guest with the Nürnberg and Kiel symphony orchestras and sang concerts of American music annually from 1983 through 2009. She was invited on many occasions to sing in the summer music festivals in Germany, including the Zelt Music Festival in Freiburg, where she premiered songs written for her by American composer Simon Sargon. It was following a concert of American art songs in Freiburg that Justis Franz invited her to sing a recital for the guest of honor, Leonard Bernstein, in a weekend celebration of his 70th birthday during the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival. Opera lovers in Berlin know Professor Hill Moore for her interpretation of Jenny in Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera, which she sang in more than 50 performances in Berlin and Cologne, repeating the role with the Pittsburgh Opera in Philadelphia. She sang the role of Serena in the 50th anniversary performances of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in Charleston, South Carolina. Afterwards, she sang the role of Bess with the Florentine Opera, in opera productions and in concerts throughout Europe and North America. Other roles include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Houston Ebony Opera and the title roles in Dido and Aeneas and Aida. Most recent performances include Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the SMU Meadows Symphony Orchestra, Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’Eté with the Sherman Symphony, Porgy and Bess with the Victoria Symphony and solo recitals in Nürnberg, Hannover, Hameln, Heilbronn and Weilheim, Germany, and Numana and Ancona, Italy. In October 2017 she was invited to sing a concert of American music in the 7th International Festival of Strings in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Her recent focus has been in serving as master teacher, mentor and advisor to aspiring young vocal artists in classes, private lessons and advisory sessions throughout the U.S. and South Africa. She has worked with singers in master classes throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. In 2000, Professor Hill Moore began a long relationship with the University of South Africa in Johannesburg, Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, the University of Cape Town, the University of Western Cape near Cape Town, University of the North-west in Potchefstroom, Nelson Mandela University (previously known as the University of Port Elizabeth), the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Stellenbosch University (near Cape Town) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. 

Keynote Address

The inspiring conference Keynote Address was given by Dr. Todd Queen at the opening luncheon on Thursday, Jan. 6.

Dr. Todd Queen was recently appointed as Dean of the College of Music at Florida State University. Queen came to Florida State from the LSU College of Music & Dramatic Arts, where he served as Dean and Penniman Family Professor of Music, a position he held from 2014 - 2021. His unique combination of teaching, directing, and performing experience has allowed him to travel the world as an educator, stage director, singer, and arts leader. 

During his time at LSU, Queen worked with the faculty to modernize the undergraduate curriculum to meet the needs of the 21st century artist. New courses included instruction in technology, marketing, entrepreneurship, and arts leadership. An avid fundraiser, Queen led the college in a $60 million fundraising campaign, which included a $4M gift in 2018, the largest gift in the college’s history. Additional significant gifts included two new endowed chairs, the lead gift for a recital hall renovation, and the naming of the John G. Turner and Jerry G. Fischer Center for Opera. Queen is also a strong advocate for international study and has traveled to Asia on multiple occasions to forge a partnership with East China Normal University in Shanghai, where he was named Visiting Professor. He has spent over a dozen summers in Italy, working with Opera Orvieto and Operafestival di Roma, where he currently serves as Executive Director.

Prior to his appointment at LSU, he served as Professor of Voice and Chair of the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance in the College of Liberal Arts at Colorado State University. In 2012, Queen was the catalyst for the formation of the LEAP (Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Arts Advocacy and the Public) Institute for the Arts at Colorado State, an interdisciplinary academic unit that houses both an undergraduate minor and graduate program in Arts Leadership and Administration. During his time at CSU, Queen established ten new endowed scholarships for the department and formed the Charles and Reta Ralph Opera Center at CSU, one of a handful of named opera programs in the United States. Queen joined the CSU voice faculty in 2001 as Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of Colorado State Opera Theatre.