Muriel McBrien Kauffman Residencies

World-renowned baritone, Sherrill Milnes, was named the guest artist for the inaugural year of the Conservatory's Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation Visiting Artist Residency. Internationally-acclaimed tenor and Conservatory alumnus, Vinson Cole, has been named the Kauffman Artist-in-Residence.

The Foundation has underwritten a generous two-pronged Artist in Residence and Visiting Artist series to complement and strengthen the Conservatory?s already well-respected and prestigious Vocal Studies Division.

Sherrill Milnes is internationally recognized as the leading Verdi baritone of his generation. He has performed in the world's major opera houses and concert halls, and has worked with a veritable "who?s who" of singers and conductors from the latter half of the twentieth century, including Dame Joan Sutherland, Renata Tebaldi, Luciano Pavarotti, Marilyn Horne, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, and Sir Georg Solti. Mr. Milnes has worked extensively with young singers throughout his career, and has led masterclasses at the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools, the Mozarteum in Salzburg , and at many other conservatories and music schools around the country.

As part of the Visiting Artist Residency, guest artists will spend two weeks in Kansas City - one in the fall and one in the spring ? during which time the Artist will participate in masterclasses, coachings and lessons, and other activities with Conservatory students, as well as the Young Artists in the UMKC Conservatory/Lyric Opera of Kansas City Young Artist Program.

Ms. Carol Vaness, one of the most famous lirico-spinto sopranos of the last quarter century, has been named the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation Visiting Artist for the 2008-2009 Residency. Ms. Vaness is well-known for her engaging interpretations of Mozart's dramatic heroines including Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Elettra in Idomeneo, and Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito, as well as the title role in Puccini?s Tosca, which she sang to wide acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera in 2004, opposite the late tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, in what was his final operatic performance.

The Kauffman Artist-in-Residence, Mr. Vinson Cole, joined the voice faculty at the Conservatory in the fall of 2007.A Kansas City native, Mr. Cole has sung leading tenor roles in all the major international opera houses including La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, and l?Opéra National de Paris. He is particularly well-known for his command of the French repertory, singing the leading roles in Faust, Werther, Carmen, and Roméo et Juliette, to worldwide critical acclaim. His concert appearances include Mahler's 8^th Symphony with Philadelphia and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Verdi Requiem with the Concertgebeouw in Amsterdam , and Beethoven?s Missa Solemnis with the late Maestro Herbert von Karajan. Mr. Cole also teaches at the New England Conservatory and the summer Aspen Music Festival. He has given masterclasses at Glimmerglass Opera, the University of Michigan School of Music, the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, Opera Australia Young Artist program, and other prestigious university and opera companies around the world.