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 is the Director of the Purchase Symphony Orchestra (PSO), and has been hailed as a “spirited conductor” by Brooklyn Discovery. Ms. Kim is also the chair of Classical Instrumental Studies at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY Purchase College where she has been kindling her community’s passion for the arts as a member of the faculty since 2006. Amidst her diverse roles on campus she enjoys lecturing and is a beloved coach and mentor to music students.

Ms. Kim was recently named Music Director of the Woodstock Symphony Orchestra for the 2023-2024 season. As a highly sought after guest conductor, Ms. Kim has accepted invitations from across the state including Westchester Chamber Soloists, Chappaqua Symphony Orchestra and the WSCMA Area All-State Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2023-2024 season Ms. Kim will direct a wide spectrum of symphonic, operatic, and contemporary works. In February the Purchase Soul Voices will join the PSO for its annual Black History Month celebration.  Ms. Kim and the PSO will partner with the School of Film and Media Studies at Purchase College in a cross-genre collaboration to create a new form of exhibition featuring music by Philip Glass.   Other highlights from her conducting career include engaging the unique invitations from Joshua Bell to perfect Thomas de Hartmann’s Violin Concerto, and directing performances of the PSO with Grammy nominated artists Black Violin.   

When she is not wielding the baton Ms. Kim performs as a concert pianist, vocal coach and chamber musician. Her piano highlights include performances with the Savaria Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Busan Philharmonic, and Purchase Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Kim performed her debut recital at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York City as recipient of the Artist International’s ‘Special Presentation Award’. The Vienna Music Seminar in Austria and the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in Maine are a few of the renowned music festivals for which Ms. Kim has performd. She has also been a vocal coach for the opera programs of Si Parla Si Canta in Italy and Classic Lyric Arts in France.

Ms. Kim earned a B.M. at Busan National University in South Korea, an M.M. and Artist Diploma in Piano Performance at Purchase College, and a Professional Studies Diploma in Vocal Collaborative Piano from Mannes School of Music, where she was awarded the Newton Swift Award. Ms. Kim studied Orchestral Conducting with David Hayes as the recipient of the President’s Scholarship Award at the Mannes School of Music. While there, she served as the Assistant Conductor of the Mannes American Contemporary Ensemble and was the Chorus Master of The Mannes Opera.

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).