heartbeat opera presents:

A brand new 100-minute adaptation, sung in French with new English dialogues.
Music by Charles Gounod
Original Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite

Co-Adapted by Jacob Ashworth and Sara Holdren
Newly Arranged by Francisco Ladrón de Guevara
Directed and with New English dialogues by Sara Holdren
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth

PROGRAM:
WELCOME
𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓
𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃
𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌
𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐅𝐅 & 𝐁𝐎𝐀𝐑𝐃
up next: vanessa
𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓
𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐒

WELCOME

"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow."

—Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

The legend of Faust is an infinite mine of riches and mysteries — it contains so much history and so much living resonance. In Gounod's hands, drawing from Goethe's epic (and epoch-defining) play, it's a heartbreaking romance, a devilish adventure, and an existential examination of our own most sincere and most destructive impulses. Working on it, I've been thinking constantly about an incredible passage from The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, who adored Faust (both Goethe's and Gounod's). Bulgakov's story also features the devil, who says: "What would your good do, if evil did not exist? And what would the earth look like if shadows disappeared from it? After all, shadows are cast by objects and people. There is the shadow of my sword. But there are also shadows of trees and living creatures. Would you strip the earth of all the trees and all the living beings in order to satisfy your fantasy of rejoicing in the naked light?" 

In our Faust, we've been exploring these ideas of shadow and light—of how they produce and necessitate each other—in terms of both the characters' deepest longings and the aesthetic of our stage. Faust's personal tragedy is one of solipsism: It's the tragedy of cynically denying the light — of failing, perhaps even after a lifetime of effort, to keep facing each day with an attempt to see outside the self. In a world that prizes gain and rewards brutality, Faust's eyes turn inward and his soul is hardened around the nub of its heedless desires. In our own world, every day, every news flash, gives us more horrific examples of the destruction wrought by men who look out at their fellow creatures and see only their own reflection. But in contrast to Faust's slide toward the shadows, Goethe and Gounod give us Marguerite, a character whose integrity only shines brighter the more she remains open, loving, and honest, despite the suffering such vulnerability can bring. In a community that we hope feels both familiar and full of surprise—both human and supernatural—Faust, Marguerite, and the hungry demon Mephistopheles dance an urgent dance over the human soul, torn between its capacities for cruelty and transcendance. It's been thrilling to discover what haunting shadows we can cast with Faust, and what new light we can shine on this extraordinary opera. 

- Sara Holdren, Director of FAUST

I never thought I would fall in love with Gounod’s Faust. When I was growing up as a precocious opera nerd, the long reign of Faust as the ubiquitous opera house warhorse was finally waning. The most popular opera at the Met for nearly all of the last century, it opened every season for decades; in this millennium, Faust has only taken the stage there twice. It was the piece for singers to cut their teeth on and either make a career or flop that night. It was the perfect Victorian titillator, a just-decorous-enough veil absolutely riven with salacious bits. Even if tastes change (and sometimes dramatically), anything that popular is bound to still have some secrets up its sleeve. I knew Faust was worth another look. 

The key came when we encountered the multiverse of early versions of the piece that Gounod created. It's not an uncommon phenomenon—all French operas back then were subject to a code-switching style guide that seems preposterous today but which held sway for ages. The trick was to make a piece funny and full of spoken dialogues for the folks at the Opéra Comique, and then across town you had to make the same piece serious and sung-through, but also stuff it full of ballets for the ballerina-ogling gentlemen over at the Opéra de Paris. A similar game played out all across Europe, and Faust’s megapopularity ensured that wildly different versions were popping up in every corner of the opera-making world. But for a company as unfettered in its artistic choices as Heartbeat, that tangle of scholarly threads sparkles like a big box of jewels. And unlike Marguerite, we have no qualms about trying on the bracelet, the necklace, and the tiara, and heading out for a night at the opera.

- Jacob Ashworth, Music Director of FAUST

Although I jumped on this project only recently, filling the big shoes of Heartbeat’s own Dan Schlosberg, this collaboration really began more than twenty years ago, the day Jacob Ashworth and I first met in seventh grade. Over the next decade, our formative musical years were tightly entwined, studying with the same teachers, playing chamber music, geeking out at Tower Records, and me composing for Jacob every chance I could get. Meanwhile, both of us were obsessed with — and adolescently opinionated about — opera. Ever since the dawn of Heartbeat Opera I have been craving this chance to work together again. It has been such a joy.

What struck me immediately about Faust was the simplicity of its French style. I’m a German-Italian opera nut most of the time, where the guts of the drama are in the orchestra at all times. So Gounod’s score at first was quite a challenge to me. But just like Jacob and Sara in their adaptation, I discovered how free I could be with a score so open to interpretation. The chance to write for harmonium — once a ubiquitous household instrument, and used by the great arrangers Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern, in their famous arrangements of Johann Strauss, Debussy, and Mahler — turned out to be incredibly fun and a great way to convey a new and unique idea for the piece. 

Building the soundscape of this particular production, we took a cue from Mephistopheles' book and made every instrument in the band a shapeshifter. The Harmonium can blend with anything — you will swear there's a whole wind section playing but not know where it's coming from — and yet can be startlingly intimate on its own. The trumpet is armed with a quiver of mutes, the cello and saxophone bring the romanticism, a palette of flutes winds around the texture, the occasional flavor of electric bass supercharges certain moments, and even the leading brilliance of the violin gets switched out for a twangy mandolin. The aim is to capture in sound the hand-crafted world of light and shadow that haunts Heartbeat's retelling of this classic tale.

- Francisco Ladrón de Guevara, Music Arranger of FAUST

CAST

Faust // Orson Van Gay II
Marguerite // Rachel Kobernick
Mephistopheles // John Taylor Ward
Siebel // AddieRose Brown
Valentin // Alex DeSocio
Martha // Eliza Bonet
Wagner // Brandon Bell
Puppeteer // Rowan Magee
Puppeteer // Emma Wiseman

BAND

Conductor & Violin/Mandolin // Jacob Ashworth
Flutes // Yoshi Weinberg
Clarinets/Saxophones // Louis Arques
Trumpet // Clyde Daley
Harmonium // Artis Wodehouse
Piano // Ari Livne
Cello // Thapelo Masita 
Bass/Electric Bass // Eleonore Oppenheim

team

Director // Sara Holdren
Music Director // Jacob Ashworth
Co-Scenic Designers // Yichen Zhou & Forest Entsminger
Costume Designer // Elivia Bovenzi Blitz
Lighting Designer // Yichen Zhou
Puppetry Designer // Nick Lehane
Props Designer // Corinne Gologursky
Production Stage Manager // Abril Valbuena
Fight Director // Rick Sordelet
Producer // Jesse Tendler
Production Management // Daria Walcott
Technical Director // Lauren Parrish
Sound Designer // Kodi Lynn Milburn
Associate Director // Nico Krell
Associate Producer // Jasmine Galante
Assistant Stage Manager // Brenna Comeau
Asst Music Director/Orch Manager // Jake Eisner 
Assistant Producer // Kodi Lynn Milburn
Lighting Programmer // Zaid Dawsari
Production Electrician // Jacqueline Scaletta
Copyist & Additional Orchestration // Harry Collins
Supertitles Translator // Samuel Ashworth 
Supertitles Operator // Nicholas Betson
Wardrobe Supervisor // Linnea Soderberg
Repetiteurs // Ari Livne & Po-Wei Ger

Heartbeat staff

Artistic Director // Jacob Ashworth
Executive Director // Christian De Gré Cárdenas
Music Director // Dan Schlosberg
Marketing & Communications Manager // Nicole Cantos
Development Assistant // Nicole Redifer
Administrative Intern // Warren Mullinnix
Publicity // Aleba Gartner
Financial Consultants // Arts FMS

BOARD

Thérèse Esperdy, Chair
Sonja Bergerren
Elizabeth Diamond
Stephen M. Foster
Ethan Heard
Louisa Proske
Robert Fitzpatrick, Chair Emeritus (in memoriam)

season sponsors

Sylvie Fitzpatrick
Natalie Bulgari
Ray and Marie-Monique Steckel
Bernd Schachtsiek
Jaye Chen and Peter Brown
John Kander
Melanie and Joseph Shugart
Gene and Terry Kaufman
Philippe Seeman and May M. Ngai Seeman
Sandra Liotta and Carl Osterman

SPECIAL THANKS!

To everyone who hosted artists from out of town for this production: Stephen Parahus, Sylvia Hughes, Brian Hughes, Mei Su Teng, Susan Kander, Warren Ashworth, Q Hammouri, Elizabeth Cho, and Maryellen Fullerton & Thomas Roberts. And to Suliman Tekalli, Sandbox Percussion, Jersey City Theatre Center, Jamelah Rimawi, Materials for the Arts, our fabulous volunteers, and the wonderful staff and team at Baruch PAC.

up nexT: VANESSA

This summer, we’re headed to the legendary Williamstown Theatre Festival (WTF) in the Berkshires and bringing a bold new adaptation of VANESSA by Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti.

PRESENTS

Music by Samuel Barber
Libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti
Adapted by Jacob Ashworth
Newly Arranged by Dan Schlosberg

Directed by R.B. Schlather
Music Directed by Jacob Ashworth and Dan Schlosberg

9 PERFORMANCES — JULY 17 - AUGUST 03

Samuel Barber is one of the most celebrated American composers of the twentieth century, and Vanessa was a hit upon arrival at the Metropolitan Opera in 1958 and won the Pulitzer. It could have remained in the canon as one of the great American operas of all time, but its unique brand of gothic creep and fiercely emotional music did not jive with the overly-academic tastes of the time, and over the following decades the piece receded into near-obscurity. Together with director R.B. Schlather, we have planned a reinvention of this classic, stripping away the gewgaws and doilies of its original imaginings, and allowing the riveting extremes of these palpable characters to break through. Heartbeat's version, adapted by Jacob Ashworth, pares the work down to five singers, trapped inside their own circumstances, with a new arrangement by Dan Schlosberg.

𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓

Thank you for joining us at FAUST! Your incredible generosity is what makes our season possible—helping us create magic and shape a bold vision for the future of opera. We couldn’t do it without you, and for that, we’re truly grateful.

If you haven’t donated yet, now’s the perfect time to get involved. Support us by clicking below and enjoy exclusive perks like early access to tickets, behind-the-scenes talkbacks, premier seating, and so much more. Every donation makes a difference in creating a company where exceptional artists can create the kind of work they cannot do anywhere else.

CAST BIOS

Orson Van Gay II (Faust) has captivated audiences in classical and contemporary opera and concert performances with his charisma and “fine heroic tenor” (San Francisco Classical Voice).

In 2024-25, Van Gay makes his debut in the title role of Faust with Heartbeat Opera, performs the role of Rennucio in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Idaho, and makes his Jazz at Lincoln Center debut with MasterVoices in Blind Injustice, reprising the role of Laurese Glover. Van Gay also joins the Virginia Symphony as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah, and the San Bernardino Symphony as the tenor soloist in a program of Carmen and Daughter of the Regiment excerpts in concert.

Van Gay’s recent operatic roles have included Danilo in The Merry Widow, for which he earned Pocket Opera’s inaugural Hurst Artist of the Year Award in 2022; Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice; the title role of Candide with Angels Vocal Art; Orlando in The Industry’s acclaimed site-specific production of Hopscotch; and both The Athlete in I Can’t Breathe and Rodolfo in La Bohème with Pacific Opera Project. In November of 2023, Van Gay released his first solo album, Colors of a Lyric. 

Rachel Kobernick (Marguerite) is a versatile soprano and actress based in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 2025, Rachel looks forward to three exciting role and company debuts singing La Statue Animée in Kentucky Opera’s production of Rameau’s Pygmalion, Marguerite in Heartbeat Opera’s production of Faust, as well as Tzeitel in a new production of Fiddler on the Roof with Cincinnati Opera. She is also a 2025 George and Nora London Foundation Competition Finalist. Last season, Rachel was an apprentice artist with Sarasota Opera, as well as made her role and company debut as Anne in A Little Night Music with Indianapolis Opera. Additionally, she has sung regionally with Opera on the James, Queen City Opera, and the NF Opera Collective, and in concert with Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Song Initiative, and more. In competition, she has been a finalist of the National Opera Association, Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, and Corbett Foundation, and has won multiple awards from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the Kyrenia Opera Competition, and the Three Arts Scholarship Fund. Rachel graduated with a master’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music and a bachelor’s of music from the Eastman School of Music.

John Taylor Ward (Mephistopheles) performs with “stylish abandon” (The New Yorker), “intense clarity and color” (New York Times), “finely calibrated precision and heartrending expressivity” (Washington Post). A native of Boone, North Carolina, Taylor grew up in a musical family – mostly bluegrass and Broadway. Before pursuing opera and early music studies at the Eastman and Yale Schools of Music, he spent his early years living a double life as both a sought-after musical theater actor and an Anglican boy treble. Taylor’s “lithe, louche, and admirably game” approach to the repertoire (Opera News) has yielded recent acclaimed debuts at Spoleto USA in the premier of Unholy Wars; Mexico’s Compañía Nacional de Teatro, starring in Iannis Xenakis’ Oresteia; and Vienna’s Musikverein as Jesus in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Notable DVD releases include the role of Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress with Barbara Hannigan, Proteo in Orfeo Chaman with Christina Pluhar and L’Arpeggiata, and an upcoming documentary series on the life and works of Claudio Monteverdi with the Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Taylor is the founding artistic director of the Lakes Area Music Festival of Minnesota, a laureate of the Jardin des voix, and a member of the two-time Grammy winning ensemble, Roomful of Teeth.

Originally drawn to singing by the simplicity and sincerity of Scottish and American folk music, mezzo-soprano AddieRose Brown (Siebel) now imbues operatic and concert stages with the same heartfelt authenticity and creative spirit. Praised for “the loveliness of her velvety lower range” (New York Classical Review) and her riveting sauciness and “well-formed high range” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), AddieRose brings her full range of voice and character to the 24/25 season. She makes a company debut with Cambridge Chamber Ensemble as The Spy in Menotti’s Labyrinth, appears in Madison Sounds Concert Series as Olga in highlights from Eugene Onegin, and as mezzo soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Great Mass in C Minor, and joins the Hudson Valley Singers as mezzo soloist in Corigliano’s Fern Hill. She also returns to the New Philharmonic as Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore, and joins Opera on the James as the Usher in Alec Wilder’s quirky Cinderella story The Opening, and as Hansel in a touring production of Hansel and Gretel. AddieRose is delighted to close out the season as Siebel in Heartbeat Opera’s wild new rendition of Gounod’s Faust. www.addierosebrown.com

This season, Alex DeSocio (Valentin) makes his Florida Grand Opera debut in Die Zauberflöte (Papageno) and his Knoxville Symphony debut in Carmina Burana. He also appears with Opera Fort Collins in Don Pasquale (Malatesta) and Heartbeat Opera in Gounod’s Faust (Valentín). 

In the 2023/24 season, Mr. DeSocio joined Houston Grand Opera in the world premiere of Intelligence, covering the role of Travis; he made his PAC NYC debut in the New York premiere of An American Soldier (Sgt. Aaron Marcum); and performed with Fargo-Moorhead Opera in La bohème (Marcello). In the summer of 2024, Mr. DeSocio joined Central City Opera for Pirates of Penzance (Pirate King); and in the summer of 2023, he debuted with the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago as the baritone soloist in Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht.

Further credits include the title role in Don Giovanni with Wichita Grand Opera; Le nozze di Figaro (Count Almaviva) with Miami Music Festival; Così fan tutte (Guglielmo) with LoftOpera; Pagliacci (Silvio) with Opera Memphis; La bohème (Marcello) and Roméo et Juliette (Mercutio) with Opera Birmingham; L’elisir d’amore (Belcore) with Sarasota Opera; and La Cenerentola (Dandini) with Opera Fort Collins.

Caribbean-American mezzo-soprano Eliza Bonet (Martha) has garnered acclaim for her “sparkling, uninhibited delivery” (SF Classical Music Examiner) and “full, bright, warm sound” (Mercury News). She recently made her Carnegie Hall debut with the Mimesis Ensemble, performing selections from Manos Indocumentados by Jorge Lockward in a program exploring migration journeys.

Ms. Bonet has performed a variety of notable roles, including Carmen in Carmen at Opera Southwest and Frida Kahlo in Frida. She appeared with the San Francisco Symphony as Fyodor in Boris Godunov under Michael Tilson Thomas and was a member of Washington National Opera’s prestigious Cafritz Young Artist Program. At WNO, she made her Kennedy Center debut as Bradamante in Alcina, followed by performances as Paquette in Candide and Nelda in the world premiere of Taking Up Serpents, earning praise for her dramatic intensity.

Her work in contemporary opera includes the world-premiere recording of Three-Way with Nashville Opera and American Opera Projects, in which she starred in two leading roles. Produced by six-time Grammy Award winner Blanton Alspaugh, the recording was met with critical acclaim, with Opera News praising Bonet’s commanding vocal presence, describing her voice as "taut as black leather" and lauding her ability to deliver "triumphant top notes over snaking leitmotifs."

Brandon Bell (Wagner) is a young baritone making waves in the operatic landscape within North America. This season, he made his role debut as Marcello in La bohème with Borderland Arts Foundation, sang Moralès in Carmen with Virginia Opera, and made a “propitious” role and house debut as the Baker in Into the Woods with Union Avenue Opera (KDHX), which showed Bell’s “strong dramatic baritone” (Broadway World). In concert, Mr. Bell made his Santa Clara Chorale debut as the soloist in Margaret Bond’s Credo and presented Gregory Spears’s Walden with the Cincinnati Song Initiative and Salt Creek Song Festival. Upcoming engagements include Wagner in Faust with Heartbeat Opera, and a performance with Brooklyn Art Song Society of Carlos Simon’s American Sonnets. In the summer of 2025, Mr. Bell will join Marlboro Music Festival as a musician in residence. Next season, he will rejoin Opera Philadelphia as Antonio in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims. Mr. Bell was recently a resident artist with Pittsburgh Opera, and has sung with companies including Santa Fe Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Utah Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, West Bay Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Wolf Trap Opera.

Rowan Magee (Puppeteer) is a puppeteer, designer, and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. He is interested in the expression of natural materials, and the physics of composite bodies. He has performed on international tours with Phantom Limb Company, Robin Frohardt, Nick Lehane, and Dan Hurlin, in New York for Chris Green, Lake Simons, Sachiyo Takahashi, Spencer Lott, at the Metropolitan Opera, BAM Harvey, and on Broadway in Angels in America and Life of Pi. In 2019, Rowan operated the titular reference puppet for the film Clifford the Big Red Dog. He has designed and fabricated puppets for New York Theater Workshop, MCC Theater, The Dalton School, St Mark's School, and Lincoln Center Education. Rowan is a board member for the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York, and the co-founder of the Object Movement Festival, a winter residency and spring showcase of experimental puppet artists in NYC

Emma Wiseman (Puppeteer) specializes in puppetry and object theater. As a performer, puppet designer, and/or puppetry director, she has worked with artists and organizations including New York Theater Workshop, Signature Theatre, Dan Hurlin, Jeanette Yew, Robin Frohardt, Sachiyo Takahashi, Nick Lehane, Derek Fourdjour, Emily Zemba, Josh Rice, Alex Da Corte, Swoon, CO/LAB Theater Group, Geva Theatre, and the Kennedy Center, and toured around the world. Emma’s original work investigates human relationships with spaces and objects, often finding wonder in the mundane. emmawiseman.me

BAND BIOS

Jacob Ashworth (Co-creator & Violist), stepped into the role of Artistic Director for Heartbeat in the summer of 2022, after eight seasons as Co-Music Director. A conductor and violinist, Jacob has also been the “impressive Artistic Director” (New York Times) of Heartbeat's sister company, the baroque and modern “crack ensemble” (New Yorker) Cantata Profana, which he founded in 2012 at the Yale School of Music. As an Artistic Director, Jacob has become increasingly well known as a curator, always telling a new story of the history of music and opera; his vision for crafting rarely-heard masterpieces into theatrical, genre-bending chamber music shows earned Cantata Profana the 2016 CMA/ASCAP National Award for Adventurous Programming. See more here.

Louis Arques (Clarinetist/Saxophones), born in the French Alps, has now been ascending musical heights in New York City for eight years. As a clarinetist, he performs solos with orchestras (B. Marsalis Blues, M. Gorecki Trio Concerto, Mozart Concerto), is a sought-after chamber music partner (Bridget Kibbey Trio, Diálogos Brazilian Duo, Quintet of the Americas) and orchestra principal.

Believing in artistic creation, he commissions and champions new works by European and American composers. He also performs as a saxophonist and singer, and you can hear him with Afro-Cuban and Jazz ensembles across the city.

As an artistic director and orchestral conductor, he created the Avalanche Orchestra to cross musical boundaries and foster education through music and arts. Louis Arques is also co-directs the Brooklyn Orchestra and is an active artistic production consultant. ​Passionate about education, he has taught clarinet at Ithaca College and saxophone at Cornell University and is on faculty at Diller-Quaile School of Music.

Clyde Daley (Trumpeter) is a freelance trumpeter and teacher based in the NYC Metropolitan area. He has played at many of the city's prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Trinity Church Wall Street, and Riverside Church. In addition to playing with orchestras and opera companies, He has held chairs on several Off-Broadway shows and regularly subs on Broadway.

Artis Wodehouse (Harmoniumist/Pianist) is a harmoniumist, pianist. and pianolist specializing in a wide range of antique and vintage keyboard instruments.  She has commissioned new music for her harmoniums and has performed as harmoniumist with the Riverside Symphony, the Princeton Chamber Players, dell' Arte Opera, the Mostly Mozart Orchestra and recorded a full video concert during the Covid lockdown at Old St. Patrick's, sponsored by the Friends of the Erben Organ. 

Ari Livne (Pianist) is a solo pianist, chamber musician, actor, and vocal coach based in New York City. He recently made his theatrical debut as music director and performer in Bedlam’s Women of Will, and is currently developing a performance piece based on the music and letters of Sergei Rachmaninoff. Other highlights of the last season have included a tour of Japan with violinist Sho Omagari, an appearance with the Aurea Ensemble in Providence, RI, recitals with cellist Clare Monfredo at the Kimberton Arts Alliance and the Montauk Club, and numerous house concerts and lecture recitals. Ari was a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Yale and his Master of Music Degree from Juilliard. Contact him at arilivne@gmail.com.

Eleonore Oppenheim (Flutist) is a genre-surfing musical polyglot. Her current projects include big dog little dog (a duo with composer/violinist Jessie Montgomery), an acoustic trio with art-pop auteur Glasser and multi-instrumentalist Robbie Lee, and the avant folk-jazz supergroup the Hands Free (with James Moore, Caroline Shaw, and Nathan Koci), among others. She has a growing repertoire of commissioned solo pieces and has worked with composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Meredith Monk, in ensembles such as Missy Mazzoli’s “all-star, all-female” Victoire and Florent Ghys’ Bonjour, as well as with Bang on a Can All-Stars and artists from the indie rock, jazz, and folk scenes. In addition to composing and arranging, Eleonore is a sought-after chamber musician, soloist, recording artist, and large ensemble player. She has performed in opera and theater, including Daniel Fish’s TONY-winning “Oklahoma!”, Justin Peck’s TONY-winning “Illinoise,” and a chamber version of “The Marriage of Figaro” starring Anthony Roth Costanzo. A dedicated educator, she runs Face the Music, a teen new music program at Kaufman Music Center, directs two ensembles, and works as an administrator at Special Music High School. She is an alumna of the Juilliard School, Yale School of Music, and Stony Brook University.

the 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐒

Sara Holdren (Co-adapter, Director) is a director, writer, and teacher originally from the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia. She is the theater critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, the recipient of the 2016-2017 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, and the co-founder of the theater project Tiltyard. Recent projects include As You Like It (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival), Black Snow (Atlantic Theater School), Cymbeline (NYU Grad Acting), Tiltyard’s MIDSUMMER (which she co-adapted from the plays of Shakespeare) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Three Sisters (Two River Theater), and bicycling 3,900 miles across the country with her partner, Beau, a writer. Sara is a Drama League Fellow, a graduate of the Acting Shakespeare program at RADA, and has been both a lead artist and a mentor at the Mercury Store. She holds a BA in Theater from Yale University and an MFA in Directing from Yale School of Drama. She lives in Jersey City with Beau and their feline friends, Masha and Danny. She agrees with the devil: Рукописи не горят.

Jacob Ashworth (Co-adapter, Music Director, & Heartbeat Opera’s Artistic Director), stepped into the role of Artistic Director for Heartbeat in the summer of 2022, after eight seasons as Co-Music Director. A conductor and violinist, Jacob has also been the “impressive Artistic Director” (New York Times) of Heartbeat's sister company, the baroque and modern “crack ensemble” (New Yorker) Cantata Profana, which he founded in 2012 at the Yale School of Music. As an Artistic Director, Jacob has become increasingly well known as a curator, always telling a new story of the history of music and opera; his vision for crafting rarely-heard masterpieces into theatrical, genre-bending chamber music shows earned Cantata Profana the 2016 CMA/ASCAP National Award for Adventurous Programming. See more here.

Francisco Ladrón de Guevara (Music Arranger) was born in Xalapa, Mexico. At age ten he was the youngest ever to win 1st prize at Kocian International violin competition. At age 12 he emigrated to the US to study at the Juilliard School with Dorothy DeLay. While pursuing his Bachelor’s at Juilliard, Francisco won the concerto competition and performed William Schumann’s violin concerto at Avery Fisher Hall under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. 

While in the US he studied composition at Juilliard with Manuel Sosa, Eric Ewazen and Samuel Adler. Since returning to Mexico in 2011, Francisco has dedicated himself primarily to composition, while performing as a violinist in the Orquestra de Cámara de Belles Artes, for whom he has written numerous new works and orchestral arrangements.

Francisco’s works have been performed throughout Mexico, from chamber music to symphonies to operas. In 2023, he was invited as part of a composer-librettist team to the Banff Center for their “Opera 2023” program. Writing for Heartbeat Opera is something of a homecoming for Francisco, who has written many works specifically for Jacob Ashworth over the years, including a virtuosic set of solo variations that Jacob performed in a Master’s recital at Yale School of Music, and music for the film, The Convalescent. Francisco currently resides in Mexico City.

Yichen Zhou (Lighting & Co-Scenic Designer) is a theatre designer working mostly with lighting and scenic. Recent credits include: Invasive Species(Vineyard Theatre); Vile Isle (The Tank); The Return of Benjamin Lay (The Sheen Center), Kin (Chain Theatre); The Woman in Black (Weston Theatre Company); The Far Country (Yale Rep); The Rasa Project (National Sawdust); The Life and Death of King John (Juilliard School); National Playwrights Conference (The O'Neill). Website: www.zhouyichen.design

Forest Entsminger (Co-Scenic Designer) is a scenic designer and visual artist based in Brooklyn. Some of Forest’s scenic credits include Not Not Not Not Not Enough Oxygen (Torn Page); Meow (Loading Dock Theatre); Please Do Not Touch the Indians (Theater Row); The Threepenny Opera (Lenfest Center), The Salvagers (Yale Repertory Theatre), Marys Seacole, Hamlet Princesa de Dinamarca (DGSD); U Are The Dream, Horsefacts.gov/, Babies on the Street, The Dastardly Thornes v. The Town of Goldhaven, Sleeping Car Porters (The Brick); Tulsa Swinton Variety Hour (Flux Factory). Forest holds a B.A. from Trinity University San Antonio and M.F.A. from David Geffen School of Drama at Yale. Website: bentscenic.com

Corinne Gologursky (Props Designer) is thrilled to be back with Heartbeat Opera for Faust! They are a props artist with a passion for making the wildest dreams come to life on stage. Past Heartbeat productions include: Der Freischütz, Fidelio, Don Giovanni, Dragus Maximus, Hot Mama, Slaylem. Select Off-Broadway: Hamlet, As You Like It (Delacorte Theater); Suffs, cullud wattah, Aint No Mo’, Sea Wall/A Life (The Public Theater); Sandra (The Vineyard), The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (The Shed). Regional: Once (Bucks County Playhouse); Singin’ in the Rain, Beauty and the Beast, Saturday Night Fever (Maine State Music Theatre).

Jesse R. Tendler (Producer) is an actor, director, curator, producer, and educator. Jesse directs and produces a diverse range of projects, including short & feature length narrative fiction films, episodic projects, theatrical works, music videos, commercials, documentaries, and educational content. Past films have won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Audience Choice awards at numerous film festivals, including qualifying for the 2016 Oscars. Jesse has produced and/or directed multiple plays for FringeNYC and the Edinburgh Fringe. Jesse is a Clio award-winning professional actor and former child star with 3+ decades of experience in film & TV. Jesse is the Episodic Programming Director for the Lighthouse Int’l Film Festival, an indie TV pilots screener for SXSW, and Senior Programming Director for the Climate Film Festival. He is also a freelance script doctor, professional photographer/videographer, and avid ping pong player. A graduate of UPenn’s Management & Technology Program, Jesse earned dual B.S.E. degrees in Entrepreneurial Management & Marketing (Wharton) and in Materials Science & Engineering. He is the NYC Chairperson of Penntertainment and Co-Chair of the Wharton Media & Entertainment Group. Jesse teaches for Pratt Institute’s Science & Technology Entry Program and the Pratt Young Scholars program. He is passionate about the arts, clean energy technology, education, the environment, social justice, and human rights. IMDb.me/Jesse-R-Tendler

Daria Walcott (Production Manager) is a producer & production manager for theater and events, and is also a licensed NYC tour guide. When not inside of a performance venue, she can be found lifting weights, watching documentaries, or walking her adorable dog Bentley who is afraid of small children, large children, dogs held aloft by their owners ("sky dogs"), the sound of his leash tags clinking against his water bowl, street sweepers, and people who are backlit. For less dog-centric information on Daria, visit www.glitterponyproductions.com

Nico Krell (Associate Director) is an Uruguayan-American director of plays, operas, musicals, performance art, and, once, a gastrotheatical adaptation of Medea. He is a lecturer and consultant at Princeton University, where he led a restructuring of the program towards a more holistic theater training. Recent directing work includes: the North American stage premiere of Joseph Haydn’s contraband L’anima del filosofo (U Toronto/McGill), the Drag Opera Extravaganzas Slaylem and The Golden Cock (Heartbeat Opera), Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days (wild project), Freeman & Bjarke’s Tomorrow (NYPL/Lincoln Center), Martha Epstein’s The Things She Held (The Chain), Paula Vogel’s The Baltimore Waltz, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (Princeton Summer Theater), and the new musicals Gaucho and Water Play (Princeton University).

Jake Eisner ( Asstistant Music Director / Orchestra Manager) is a musician and theatre artist from New York City. He’s thrilled to return to Heartbeat Opera for Salome and Faust after working on Eugene Oneginand The Extinctionist in the spring. Other production music credits include Yemandja with Angélique Kidjo, Kinky Boots at Bucks County Playhouse, and nellie/nelliewith Antigravity Performance Project.

Jake’s work has also been featured around the country and abroad as a sound designer. Recent credits include The Misanthrope (HERE Arts Center), Insertion (The Connelly), and Cringe (Edinburgh Fringe, 59E59). Assistant and associate sound credits include Do Eye Know You? (Brown Arts Institute), The Reservoir (Denver Center/Alliance/Geffen, upcoming), and A Christmas Carol (Alabama Shakespeare Festival). He holds a B.A. in Music from Williams College.

Kodi Lynn Milburn (Sound Designer & Assistant Producer), dubbed as the "Swiss Army Knife of Theater," embodies a fusion of creativity and activism. As a mixed indigenous neurodivergent queer, Kodi’s artistry resonates with a commitment to justice, harmony with nature, amplifying lost voices, and reflecting contemporary issues, echoing the ethos of the Jester's Privilege. Kodi’s work has been described as “inspired” (Alix Cohen, Women Around Town), “amazing” (Travelanche), “lush compositions and evocative soundscapes…a fantastic collaborator: creative, proactive, generous, organized, versatile, and indispensable” (Nathan Davis, Drama Desk Nominated Sound Designer)

Cross-discipline credits include: Sylvia Milo’s The Other Mozart (Hong Kong, Players Theatre NYC, U.S. Tour), Treaty (The Foundry), Funny Guy (59e59, London, Edinburgh Fringe), Talking With Angels (TheaterLab), Faust (Baruch Performing Arts), Salome (Irondale Theater), AMP (HERE), Tussaud/Antoinette (IRT), Big Wave (TaDa!), My Onliness (The New Ohio), Chess (American Theater for Actors), Uta Hagen Centennial Salon (Lincoln Center), Heart Strings (Atlantic Theater Co), 7 Magdalenes (Baryshnikov Arts Center, TheaterLab, HERE), Sparkle Spa (BMI), Ewalt & Walker (54 Below), Mary & Max (Bobby Cronin & Crystal Skillman), Voyage en Chanson (National Sawdust), L’autre Mozart (Fringe North, Halifax Fringe), Rhinoceros (Atlantic Acting School) and more. Kodi is a New York Foundation for the Arts Music Fellow. kodilynnmilburn.com | @heythereitskodi

Po-Wei Ger (Repetiteur), born on December 6, 1995, pianist Po-Wei Ger graduated with a Master of Musical Artsdegree from the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Dr. Melvin Chen in 2021. In 2022, he entered the Manhattan School of Music, pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with Dr. Solomon Mikowsky. He currently studies with Dr. Jiayin Li.

Po-Wei began studying piano with Ms. Jia-li Shu at the age of seven. At ten, he continued his studies with Dr. Ming-Hui Lin. He has collaborated with orchestras such as the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra, and the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra. Po-Wei was a prizewinner in the Panama International Piano Competition and won the 2nd Prize, the Chamber Music Prize, and the Audience Prize at the Premio Jaén competition in Spain.

An avid chamber musician, Po-Wei, along with Chao-Chih Chen and Tzu-Wei Huang, formed the clarinet trio Trio Astralis and won the Youth Chamber Music Program at Eslite Bookstore, the leading bookstore chain in Taiwan. He has performed at chamber music festivals such as Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, and Yellow Barn Music Festival. He currently teaches at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music.

sponsors

Heartbeat Opera’s FAUST is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Heartbeat Opera is also proud to be supported by the Howard Gilman Foundation.