ARTISTIC STAFF
Adrian Sylveen
Mackiewicz (Artistic Director, Conductor): Conductor and virtuoso violinist Adrian Mackiewicz is a graduate of Paderewski Music Academy in Poznan, Poland and of the Yale University School of Music. His awards include First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Lodz, Poland, the President of the Republic of Poland's Award For Outstanding Achievement "Primus Inter Pares" and the Polish Department of Education National Scholarship. Mr. Mackiewicz has performed extensively in Poland, former USSR, Germany, and the United States, where he has resided since 1992. In 1997 Maestro Mackiewicz founded the Connecticut Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, a New Britain based orchestra dedicated to presenting and preserving the traditions of chamber music, both traditional and contemporary, that is also CLO's resident orchestra. In addition to his duties with CLO and the Virtuosi, Mr. Mackiewicz is Artistic Director of the New Britain Chorale and Artistic Director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Yefim Maizel (Stage Director - La Traviata) has directed and assisted throughout the former Soviet Union, Europe, Japan, and the U.S.
Since 1999, Mr. Maizel has been with the Metropolitan Opera, where he directed Madama Butterfly (Puccini), as well as assiting on productions of Mazeppa (Tchaikovsky), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich), Il Trovatore (Verdi), Manon (Massenet), The Gambler (Prokofiev), Idomeneo (Mozart), Don Carlo (Verdi), Elektra (Strauss), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Mozart), Otello (Verdi), The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) and Das Rheingold (Wagner).
From 1993 to 2001, he worked as an assistant stage director for the San Francisco Opera productions of The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Ruslan and Lyudmila (Glinka), Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Faust (Gounod), Rusalka (Dvorak), Prince Igor (Borodin), Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Betrothal in a Monastery (Prokofiev), The Tsar's Bride (Rimsky-Korsakov) and Simon Boccanegra (Verdi). Additionally, Mr. Maizel has directed productions for Opera Santa Barbara, Bay Shore Lyric Opera,West Bay Opera,Opera San José, Berkeley Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, among other companies, and is the CEO and Artistic Director of Opera Academy of California, an organization he founded in 2005.
As of May 2009, he will serve as the Artistic Director for the Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute (BASOTI).
Iosef Yusupov (Set Design - La Traviata) After graduating from the Saint Petersburg Institute of Theater, Music and Cinematography, Iosef Yusupov designed sets all over Russia, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. His first major success came with the production of Oedipus Rex at the Tadzhik Lakhuti Academic Drama Theater, for which he received the prestigious State Prize of the USSR for the Arts. Since moving to the United States, he has designed numerous shows in New York, including plays, operas, and TV productions, and has worked as a scenic artist on major Hollywood motion pictures. He has been involved in all George Tsypin Opera Factory productions since the early 1990s as a collaborator and generator of ideas. Most of the shows of this period would never have happened without his inspiration and energy. He has worked for many years with famous
directors such as Peter Sellars, Julie Taymor, Pierre Audi, Francesca Zambella, Jürgen Flimm and Andrei Kontchalovsky. He also has a special creative relationship with designers George Tsypin, Michael Shemyakin, and Georgi Alexi-Meskheshvili.
Pawel Jura (Chorus Master): Chorus Master Pawel Jura has spent many years working with choral groups in New England as well as participating in many musical capacities with a wide variety of stage productions, from plays to musicals to operas. He also maintains an active concert schedule as a pianist and organist. Mr. Jura has studied at the Hartt School and at the Juilliard School, with degrees in piano, composition, and music theory. In addition, he has extensively studied organ and choral directing. He is currently Chorus Master of the New Britain Chorale and Music Director of the Unitarian Universalist Society: East, in Manchester, Connecticut.
Jaroslaw Strzemien (Stage Director - Eugene Onegin) Stage director, actor and theatre educator, Jaroslaw Strzemien has many years of experience, both, in this country and in Europe. He worked for ten years in various National Theatres in Poland, after graduating from the National School of Theatre. After living in France for three years, where he acted, directed and worked as a broadcaster for the French radio ORTF, he came to this country more than thirty years ago. In the United States, Jaroslaw studied directing at the Yale School of Drama, directed and acted professionally on Broadway, Off Broadway, on television and in the movies. He also taught acting and directing in various colleges and universities, for almost thirty years. His Polish translation of Jerry Sterner's play Other People's Money
was produced by the Polish National Television and has been performed by a number of theatres in Poland
