2012 Coaches

Jeanne-Minette Cilliers started piano lessons at the age of three, and has performed extensively as a soloist in her native country, South Africa, as well as in the United States and Europe, winning several national and international gold medals. Active as both collaborator and soloist, Ms. Cilliers performs across the globe, including festivals and venues such as the Irving S. Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York City. She has collaborated with artists such as Frans Helmerson, Janos Starker, Joyce Castle, Lise Lindstrom, Håkan Hagegård, Lester Lynch, and David Daniels, among others. Currently, Ms. Cilliers is on the faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, while also functioning as music director for American Opera Projects’ Composers and The Voice program. She served as principal coach/pianist at Glimmerglass Opera Festival in 2009 and 2010, and at The Santa Fe Opera in 2011 and 2012.

Nicholas Fox has remained an extremely in-demand accompanist, coach, teacher and conductor in the New York area since his graduation from the Mannes School of Music. Mr. Fox has led several fully staged operatic productions and conducted the Mannes Chorus and Orchestra in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem in Manhattan. He was appointed Assistant Chorus Master at New York City Opera in September 2009 and was also Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master for Prelude to Performance in 2011, a job which he will return to this coming summer.