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| AUDIO FROM THE PREMIERE PRODUCTION |
| SYNOPSIS |
| WHAT THE PERMIERE'S PARTICIPANTS ARE SAYING |
| DYLAN F. THOMAS, LIBRETTIST AND DIRECTOR |
| CAST FOR THE PREMIERE PRODUCTION |
Marie's Orchard
CONDUCTOR
BRIAN ONDERDONK
As Music Director and Conductor for Center Stage Opera during the company's first five seasons, Maestro Brian Onderdonk is extremely pleased to have had the opportunity to develop the organization into one of the premiere regional opera houses in the Los Angeles area. As Music Director, he has led the company in fully staged productions of Puccini's Tosca, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and L'Elisir d'Amore, Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte and Le Nozze di Figaro, Verdi's La Traviata and Rigoletto, Gounod's Romeo et Juliette and Faust, as well as a number of orchestral and choral concerts with the company's resident orchestra, including Bizet's Carmen, and Mozart's Requiem.
Since the founding of the company, Mr. Onderdonk has been particularly dedicated to bringing music of the highest caliber to the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles Area, and looks forward to a bright and prosperous future continuing to achieve this goal with Center Stage Opera.
An enthusiastic conductor of all genres, Mr. Onderdonk has a 
particular passion for opera conducting, sparked by an opportunity to step in for the ailing Music Director of the California State University Northridge Opera Theater and conduct a live performance of Mozart's Cosí Fan Tutte with only a few hours' notice. Since then, he guest conducted performances with the CSUN Opera Theater in a wide range of repertoire, including Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, Britten's Albert Herring, Strauss' Die Fledermaus, and Rogers and Hammerstein's Carousel. Furthermore, in July 2004, he was a guest conductor for performances of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte with the Burgas Opera and Philharmonic Society in Bulgaria.
In addition to his work with Center Stage Opera and CSUN, Mr. Onderdonk was invited to step in as guest Music Director of the UCSB Symphony Orchestra during the Spring 2007 quarter to conduct the ensemble's final concert of the academic year. He has also been a regular participant at a number of national and international orchestral conducting workshops and seminars, including workshops with American Symphony Orchestra League and the South Carolina Conductor's Institute, working with such notable conductors as Carl St. Clair, Alasdair Neal, Donald Portnoy and Paul Vermel. Additionally, for five years he held the Conducting Fellowship position with the nationally acclaimed American Youth Symphony led by Los Angeles Philharmonic Concertmaster Alexander Treger.
Brian Onderdonk in completing his Doctoral Degree (DMA) in Orchestral Conducting at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington in 2013, where he is the Assistant Conductor for the IU Opera Theatre and studies conducting with David Effron and Arthur Fagen. He earned his Master's Degree in Conducting from California State University Northridge in 2005.