In 2004 Mr. Fisher will serve as Director for GGO's production of Hansel and Gretel. He served as director of three of GGO's productions in 2001 and is 5-time winner of the Bay Area Theatre Critics' Circle Award. Mr. Fisher holds a Ph.D. in Dramatic Art from the University of California, Berkeley and has written and directed several plays. In addition, he teaches Playwriting at UC Extension and at UC Berkeley where he has been a recipient of the Townsend, Regents, and Wheeler Fellowships, the Teaching Effectiveness Award and the Eisner Prize. In New York John directed the operas La Boheme and Gianni Schicchi and served as Assistant Director for the American premiere of Robert Schumann's only opera, Genoveva.

Svetlana Gorzhevskaya is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory. She has performed as a concert pianist in the former Soviet Union and nationally in the USA. Since 1983 she has worked as a coach and an accompanist at the San Francisco Opera. Ms. Gorzhevskaya has served as Music Director to many of Golden Gate Opera's productions including Sin and Sizzle of Opera, Carmen, the North Beach Festival, and Opera Recital at Yerba Buena Gardens.

Mr. Erbelding will serve as Conductor of GGO's 2004 production of Hansel and Gretel as he has since 1997. Having toured Europe and the Middle East as a concert pianist, Mr. Erbelding became a coach and conductor at the Heidelberg, Hof and Regensburg opera houses, served as acting music director at the Mannheim National Theatre and conducted extensively throughout Europe. He has taught opera and Lieder classes at Mannheim Musikhochschule, Academia della Musica in San Cristobal, Venezuela, University of California, Santa Cruz and Musashino University in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Erbelding came to California as chorus director of the San Francisco Opera. He has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Crestmont Conservatory and currently teaches voice in his private studio in Hayward. He is the director of the Pacific Singing Society and directs five German choruses in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Mr. Gallegos will serve as Conductor for GGO's Gianni Schicchi and The Telephone in 2004. A San Francisco native, Mr. Gallegos studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory School and San Francisco State University, completing, with honors, a Bachelor of Music degree in Instrumental Education and Conducting. Advanced studies in orchestral and operatic conducting continued at the University of Iowa School of Music, where he received a Master of Arts degree with High Distinction and served as Conductor of the University Chamber Orchestra. Four times he has been awarded fellowships to the prestigious Conductors Institute. Mr. Gallegos has also been an active participant in many American Symphony Orchestra League and Conductors Guild workshops and master classes. In 1991 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Concerto Orchestra. During his tenure with the SFCO, he has conducted several local, American and world premieres. He currently continues his long standing relationship with the SFCO as Principal Guest Conductor. Additional guest conducting has taken Mr. Gallegos throughout the United States and Europe including appearances with the Budapest Philharmonic and members of the Hungarian State Opera.

In the spring of 2005 Mr. Mazzola will conduct GGO's Madama Butterfly. He has studied violin, composition, choir and orchestra conducting in many Italian conservatories and cities (Mantova, Milan, Parma). Among his teachers were Maestri Fabrizio Fanticini, Giovanni Barzaghi, Pier Paolo Scattolin, Emilio Pomarico, Stefano Rabaglia, Paolo Arrivabeni, Ervin Acel, Lajos Vasady, Georg Tintner and Larry Newland. His conducting activities began in 1986 in choirs in Mantova. He currently conducts three choirs in and around Mantova. Mr. Mazzola also teaches piano, music theory and application and singing in some of the biggest schools of Mantua and the area. He was selected for two consecutive International Opera Workshops by Symphonic Workshop Ltd. which were held in Czech Republic and in Slovakia. Since 1999 he regularly conducts opera workshops for the State Conservatory in Mantova (Opere Buffe by Galuppi, Paisiello, Salieri) and conducts with Golden Gate Opera in San Francisco (Verdi's Ballo in Maschera, Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and Puccini's Madama Butterfly). His recordings include for the State TV a public performance with international clarinet soloist Giora Feidman, a concert broadcast in Italy Easter Day, 2002.

Mr. Halper will serve as Director of GGO's Gianni Schicchi in 2004. With a repertoire of 175 roles, he has sung under solo contracts with San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Symphony, San Jose Symphony, Long Beach Opera, San Jose Opera, Carmel Bach Festival, Eugene Opera, Festival Opera, Sacramento Opera, and Berkeley Symphony. Having sung virtually all the standard character roles and many unusual ones, he has summed up these experiences in a unique staged recital, Gods and Goblins, recently presented by Columbia Artists' Community Concerts.

Ms. Holder will serve as Director for GGO's The Telephone in 2004. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Quisque pharetra facilisis purus. Phasellus non tortor vel metus bibendum bibendum. Integer accumsan velit quis magna. Praesent eget tellus a felis vulputate auctor. Aenean sapien eros, lobortis quis, gravida id, commodo eu, metus. Donec dignissim erat eget pede. Etiam quis orci vitae arcu euismod suscipit. Sed lobortis nonummy lacus. Aliquam enim augue, eleifend faucibus, molestie vel, viverra a, quam. Nam placerat sodales sem.

Ms. Garabedian, will serve as Director for GGO's April 2005 production of Madama Butterfly. She has performed as opera singer to critical and popular acclaim in the United States and throughout Europe. Some of the companies she has sung leading roles with include: Munich Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Kassel Opera, Nurnberg Opera, Hannover Opera, the Spoleto Festival, Staatsoper Bonn, New York City Opera, San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Music Center Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Houston Opera, San Diego Opera, Baltimore Opera, Kansas City Lyric Opera and Portland Opera. She has numerous awards to her credit including the Tchaikowsky Competition in Moscow (1970), Baltimore Opera Auditions, Metropolitan Opera. Ms. Garabedian is founder of the Fresno International Grand Opera and California Opera Association and currently CEO/Artistic Director of California Opera Association in Fresno. She has taugt at the International Music Institute of Sao Paulo, Brazil, has been Chairman of Voice and Opera at the University of Connecticut and University of the Pacific, and served as Professor of Voice on faculty of Northern Illinois University, California State University at Fresno, American University and San Francisco University.