Ennio Brugnolo

Language studies

A skilled Italian teacher and coach at the Academy of Vocal Arts with decades of experience on the stage with Bel Canto masters.

Ennio Brugnolo is a native of Rome and teaches in Philadelphia. Mr. Brugnolo studied voice with Maestro Antonio Cappello at the Accademia Vocale Tito Schipa in Rome, and attended a “Corso di Perfezionamento” under the tutelage of Piero Cappuccilli. He started performing in 1960, singing in the Coro Polifonico Romano and in 1962 he started to appear in comprimario roles in various Italian theaters located in Siena, Spoleto, Cosenza, Modena, Bologna, Cagliari and Rome. Mr. Brugnolo has had the opportunity to share the stage with great singers such as; Tebaldi, Scotto, Stella, Freni, Simionato, Nilsson, Moffo, Del Monaco, Di Stefano, Bergonzi, Luchetti, Pavarotti, Corelli, Siepi, Ghiaurov, and many others. He has had the opportunity to sing with conductors such as; Muti, Giulini, Molinari-Pradelli, Savallisch and more recently, Rattle and Dutoit.

After moving to Philadelphia in 1970, he joined the Philadelphia Opera Chorus and pursued a career as a Construction Manager with Temple University. During that period of time he continued to take private vocal coachings with Nicola Moscona at the Academy of Vocal Arts and joined the Philadelphia Singers with Michael Korn in the early 1980’s. In the last few years, he has been teaching Italian language and opera appreciation courses for adults in NJ schools. In January 2014, Mr. Brugnolo joined the faculty of the Academy of Vocal Arts where he teaches Italian language & conversation coaches Italian repertoire.

Mina Kim

Conductor & Vocal Coach

Mina Kim, hailed as a “spirited conductor” by Brooklyn Discovery, is the Music Director of the Purchase Symphony Orchestra (PSO) at Purchase College SUNY, where she has been igniting her community’s passion for the arts, and the Artistic Director of the Woodstock Symphony Orchestra (WSO), serving the Hudson Valley region. Recognized for her expressive interpretations and innovative programming, she is dedicated to expanding her orchestras’ artistic reach and strengthening their connection with the community.

Ms. Kim is a highly versatile musician whose work encompasses a broad spectrum of symphonic, operatic, and contemporary repertoire, leading performances with ensembles across the United States. Recently, she conducted a landmark collaboration between PSO and the Westchester Chamber Soloists (WCS), presenting Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. She also spearheaded a cross-genre project with the School of Film and Media Studies at Purchase College, integrating Philip Glass’s Glassworks into a multimedia exhibition, and led Purchase Soul Voices in their annual Black History Month Celebration. Her artistry has been recognized by world-renowned musicians, including Joshua Bell, who personally invited her to rehearse and refine Thomas de Hartmann’s Violin Concerto No. 66, and GRAMMY-nominated Black Violin, whom she conducted in a symphonic performance at the Performing Arts Center.

Beyond the podium, Ms. Kim is an accomplished concert pianist, vocal coach, and chamber musician. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2007 and has appeared as a soloist with the Savaria Symphony, Shanghai Broadcast Symphony, Busan Chamber Orchestra, and Purchase Symphony Orchestra. Her musical engagements have taken her to renowned festivals such as the Vienna Music Seminar in Austria and the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Maine, and she has served as a faculty member for opera programs including Si Parla, Si Canta and Classic Lyric Arts.

Dedicated to both artistic excellence and education, Ms. Kim holds a B.M. from Busan National University, an M.M., and an Artist Diploma in Piano Performance from Purchase College. She furthered her studies in Vocal Collaborative Piano and Orchestra Conducting through the Professional Studies Diploma program at Mannes School of Music. Ms. Kim also served as Assistant Conductor of the Mannes American Contemporary Ensemble (MACE) and as Chorus Master for The Mannes Opera.

Since 2006, Ms. Kim has been a faculty member at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, where she currently serves as Chair of Classical Studies. Amidst her diverse roles on campus, she enjoys lecturing and is a beloved coach and mentor to many music students.

Daniel Isengart

Resident Stage Director & Performance Coach

A trained dancer, entertainer, director, and performance coach who helps singers to analyze, shape and master the physical aspects of their on-stage expressivity.

Born in Germany and raised in France and Germany, Daniel moved to New York City to become an entertainer. A noted specialist in the Franco-German Chanson repertoire of the early 20th Century, he has brought his multi-lingual one-man shows to Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, the BAM Café at the Brooklyn Academy of Arts, Café Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie Museum, the Neuberger Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Berlin’s Spiegeltent Bar Jeder Vernunft, and SF MOMA. He has hosted and directed numerous cabaret-style variety shows at venues around New York City and beyond, including The Museum of Modern Art, the Gershwin Hotel, the Playboy Casino in Cancun, and the Night Hotel in Times Square, where his weekly, multinational Foreign Affairs cabaret ran for over a year. Working with conductor Edwin Outwater, he has been featured as a solo artist with the concert:nova ensemble, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, and the Sun Valley Music Festival. More recently, Daniel has staged operas with the KWS, directed the 2020 winter concert series at Sun Valley Music Festival, and taught a Masterclass on the art of the Master of Ceremonies at the En Piste Circus School in Montreal. He has taught a course on the history of vaudeville and the cabaret art form at NYU and given Masterclasses at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Bard College, and Wilfrid Laurier University. His ultimate aim is to vitalize the classic recital art form as he coaches singers and performers in stage craft, interpretative skills, body language and mime.

Daniel serves on the advisory board of the award-winning series Living the Classical Life, hosted by Zsolt Bognár.

Glenn Morton

Artistic Director

Glenn Morton, a faculty member at New York’s three music conservatories, is proud to serve as the Artistic Director of all three Classic Lyric Arts Programs.

One of New York City’s most sought-after vocal coaches, he is honored to coach and mentor every singer and pianist attending Classic Lyric Arts workshops.

Mr. Morton currently serves on the faculties of Mannes College the New School for Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School, teaching courses in Italian Diction, French Vocal Literature, and Song Interpretation.

He received a Bachelors degree in piano performance from the Hartt School of Music and a Master of Music degree in collaborative piano from the Manhattan School of Music.

His work includes a wide variety of collaborations with companies such as the Opera Company of Boston, Tulsa Opera, New Orleans Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Santa Fe Opera, and Glimmerglass.

Mr. Morton serves as the founding Artistic Director of Classic Lyric Arts, Inc., a non-profit organization encompassing CLA Italy in Novafeltria, Italy, founded in 2009, and CLA France in the Périgord region of France, founded in 2012, providing advanced training in the techniques and traditions of French and Italian lyric music to emerging opera singers.

John Viscardi

Alumni Advisor

John Viscardi, alumnus of CLA Italy 2009 and CLA France 2014, lives in Philadelphia with his wife Molly and two children, Jack and Noa. Throughout his operatic career, Mr. Viscardi has performed with Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Opera Carolina. After a few years performing the tenor repertoire, Mr. Viscardi realized that his voice possessed a lower range, and he moved into the baritone repertoire, where his credits include the title roles in David DiChiera’s Cyrano at Michigan Opera Theatre and Opera Carolina, Erich in Dear Erich at the New York City Opera, and a forthcoming Pelléas in Pelléas and Mélisande at Opera Southwest. In addition, he has sung Valentin in Faust at Michigan Opera Theatre, and Papageno in The Magic Flute at the Toledo Opera. It was his work as a high baritone that enabled him to free the upper part of his voice, and he is now a Lyric Tenor, studying a variety of roles, among them Don José in Carmen and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.

Mr. Viscardi is featured in collaboration with Glenn Morton on Brilliant Classics’ complete recording of the works of F.P. Tosti – available on Spotify and Apple Music. Mr. Viscardi’s performances with orchestra and in recital includes Carmina Burana with Opera Philadelphia, the Duruflé and Fauré Requiems, and Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs (the latter three in Carnegie Hall), Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center, and a recital of Tosti songs in Tokyo. Mr. Viscardi has appeared in both recital and concert at venues that include Carnegie Hall (New York), Geffen Hall (New York), Tokyo Opera City (Tokyo), Verizon Hall (Philadelphia) and Avery Fisher Hall (New York). Winner of both the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and Concorso Internazionale F.P. Tosti, Mr. Viscardi is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts and New York University.

A multi-faceted artist, Mr. Viscardi is incredibly experienced in running and growing a variety of organizations. He is the co-founder of ArtSmart, a national arts mentoring organization that empowers students in underserved communities to find their path through mentorship with paid professional artists. Additionally Mr. Viscardi is the creator of Heartbridge, an app that explores the dimensions of sight, sound, and touch, and how they coalesce within Live Streamed performances. The app uses the vibrating motor in a cellphone to make it vibrate in time with the artists’ heartbeat so that the audience can feel what the artist is experiencing. Mr. Viscardi also serves as a board member of The Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (PVLA).