Matthew Maness – Piano/Voice/Drums Instructor

Tenor Matthew Maness recently began this season performing with Opera Naples as Pong in Puccini’s Turandot. Maness is currently a member of Opera Naples resident artist program where he will sing Dr. Baglioni in La Hija de Rappaccini and The First man in Armor in The Magic Flute. Mr. Maness has recently been seen returning to perform with the Miami Summer Music Festival singing Quint in The Turn of the Screw conducted by Caren Levine and directed by Alan Hicks to great success. Previously Matthew was seen as the title role in Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten in great company conducted by Steven Gathman and directed by Alan Hicks. Matthew has sung two wonderful seasons with the Opera on the Avalon singing Quint in the Turn of the Screw after his triumph as Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conducted by the Metropolitan Opera’s Vlad Iftinca and directed by Tom Diamond . Mr. Maness has been seen with The Light Opera of New York in the Concert “Operetta on the Silver Screen” with Gerald Martin Moore. Matthew performed with the Florida Grand Opera as a member of their Studio Young Artist Program where his roles included Gastone de letorieres in La Traviata and Monostatos in Die Zauberfloete as well as covering Rodolfo in La Boheme and Alfredo in La Traviata. Aside from performing, Matthew has taught voice, beginning piano, and percussion for over 10 years and enjoys teaching all ages and abilities. Mr. Maness has a Bachelors degree in Music with a focus in Operatic performance, from the New World School of the Arts, The Conservatory of the University of Florida.

Eglise Gutiérrez – Voice Instructor

Born in Holguin, Cuba, soprano, Eglise Gutiérrez, has been named by Opera News as “one of opera’s next wave” . She has sung in some of the most prestigious venues of the world in roles such as Lucia, Gilda, and Elvira in I Puritani, to name a few.

Ms. Gutiérrez appeared in concerts in Prague, Cannes, Finland, and toured all over the United States with tenor Andrea Bocelli at venues and cities such as Madison Square Garden, Hollywood Bowl, Dallas, Chicago, and San Francisco, under Conductors Steven Mercurio and Eugene Kohn.

In 2003 she made her professional debut singing Lucia diLammermoor in Opera de Colombia (Bogota) under the baton of Will Crutchfield. In 2008 Miss Gutierrez sang the title role of La Sonnambula at Carnegie Hall with the Opera Orchestra of New York under the baton of Eve Queller, and made her Seattle Opera debut as Elvira in I Puritani. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in the 2009-2010 season.

A three-time recipient of the Gerda Lissner Foundation Grant and grant recipient of the Singers Development Foundation, Eglise Gutierrez has been busy collecting top prizes including First Prize in the August 2004 International Mirjam Helin Competition in Helsinki, the West Palm Beach Opera Competition, the New Jersey State Opera Competition, and the Connecticut Opera Competition. Miss Gutierrez’s long list of awards and honors also includes Winner of the Montserrat Caballé International Opera Competition, First Place in the Marian Anderson Opera Competition and Second Place in the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Opera Competition in 2002.

Miss Gutierrez made her Carnegie Hall début as soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and John Rutter’s Requiem under the baton of John Rutter in May 2004. After completing her final year at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, she performed several leading roles, among them the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Amina in Bellini’s La sonnambula, Nanetta in Falstaff, and Adina in L’elisir d’amore.